ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES

October 5, 2015

The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on October 5, 2015, was called to order at 3:03 p.m. by Bill Johnson, Senate President. The meeting was held in CTIHB 109.

Present: Ole Fischer, Sarah Hinners, Jeff Nielsen, Olga Baker, Leticia Alvarez, Janiece Pompa, Orly Alter, A.K. Balaji, Sudeep Kanugo, Xiaoyue Liu, Denny Berry, Ning Lu, Joe Marotta, Steve Roens, Lien Fan Shen, Kelly Bricker, Stacy Manwaring, Julie Metos, Les Podlog, Lorie Gage Richards, James Anderson, Karin Baumgartner, Maria Dobozy, Nadja Durbach, Disa Gambera, Anne Jamison, Lex Newman, Robin Craig, David Hill, Terry Kogan, John Bramble, Alicia Brillon, Luke Leither, Jill Moriearty, Jennifer Garvin, Michelle Hofmann, Katherine Kendall, Nicole Mihalopoulos, Maureen A. Murtaugh, Christy Porucznik, Ravi Ranjan, Debra Simmons, Robert A. Stephenson, Frederick Strathmann, Marjorie Chan, David Dinter, Paul Jewell, Margaret Clayton, Mollie Cummins, Lynn Hollister, Linda Tyler, Randy Dryer, Peter Alfeld, Yekaterina Epshteyn, David Goldenberg, Thomas Richmond, Michael Shapiro, John Sperry, David Temme, Andrejs Treibergs, Nilufer Cagatay, Thomas Cova, Frances Friedrich, Lori Kowaleski-Jones, Duncan Metcalfe, Lina Svedin, Norman Waitzman, Jason Castillo, Patrick Panos, Daniel Barber, Chris Bell, Cindy Chen, Aubrey Keaney, John Muhs, John Peterson, Hannah Stinson, Gaby Zumaeta

Absent: Lyda Bigelow, Jeff Coles, Melissa Lewis, Todd Zenger, Gary Lowder, Yongmei Ni, Meredith Metzger, Edward M. Trujillo, Michael Cottle, Avery Holton, Adrian Palmer, John T. Langell, Antoinette Laskey, William Lowrance, Jody Rosenblatt, Scott T. Youngquist, Andrea Bild, Jindrich Kopecek, Jordan Gerton, Joel Miller, Dmytro Pesin, Joan Brenner-Coltrain, Baodong Liu, Marley Arango, Devin Daniels, Conrad Dean, Jaycee Lynn Christensen, Andy Moyle, Julie Olaf, Ashlee Ruff, Amy Simonsen

Ex-Officio: Stephen Alder, Carrie Byington, Robert Flores, Harriet Hopf, William Johnson, Paul A. Mogren, Xan Johnson, David W. Pershing, Ruth V. Watkins, Amy Wildermuth

Excused with Proxy: Joanna Ganning for Brenda Scheer, Christine Jones for Chrisoula Andreou, Anthony Oyler for Ambra Jackson, Norma Harris for Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, Misha Bradford for Reva Rauk, Chuck Alan Dorral for Robert Hitchcock, Daniel Sloan for Christina Ripley

Excused: Vivian S. Lee

Others: David Kieda, Nona Richardson, Dan Bowden, Kiston Finney, Kevin Perry, Matt Lopez

Request for New Business

No new business

Report from Administration

President David Pershing and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Ruth Watkins gave an update on the administration’s activities. ESPN College Game Day will be on campus reporting on the Utah v. Cal game on Saturday, October 10. They will be set up in President’s Circle where students have the opportunity to camp out on campus to attend ESPN’s early show. Ruth Watkins mentioned that there will be an accreditation site team visit very soon. All faculty are welcome and encouraged to attend a meeting with the site team on Wednesday, October 28 from 3:00pm to 3:45pm in the Gould Auditorium. Students are welcome to attend a meeting immediately after from 4pm to 5pm in the same location. Ruth also discussed ongoing college visits where Amy Wildermuth and Kathryn Stockton hold open forums for students and faculty to express their concerns in their respective college in order to prepare for the accreditation visit. Ruth also highlighted the four big goals of the University: to promote student success to transform lives, to develop and transfer new knowledge, to engage communities to improve health and quality of life, and to ensure long-term viability of the University.

President Pershing discussed new facilities on campus. He stated that there have been five ribbon-cuttings in the past week including the Sill Center, the Huntsman Basketball Facility, and Kennecott Mechanical Engineering Building. In addition, OSH will be renamed the Gardner Building.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the Academic Senate on August 31, 2015 were approved without objection.

Consent Calendar

The resignations, retirements, and faculty and administrator appointments dated October 5, 2015 received approval to forward to the Board of Trustees with a motion from Maureen Murtaugh, and a second by Jill Moriearty. Motion passed unanimously.

Report from ASUU

Anthony Oyler, ASUU Vice President, filling in for ASUU President Ambra Jackson, gave an update on ASUU’s activities. He discussed ongoing activities of Homecoming Week including the selection of five Homecoming royalty. ASUU has also redesigned their logo and intend to use it in all future communications. They are also undertaking a new marketing campaign to highlight the senators and assembly representatives in each college. Anthony also encouraged senators to tell their students of Sheryl WuDunn’s visit to campus on October 27 from 6pm to 7pm. Sheryl WuDunn is an American business executive, writer, lecturer, and Pulitzer Prize winner.

Notice of Intent

Dan Bowden, Chief Information Security Officer, presented Policy 4-004 and its accompanying rules regarding Information Technology security. The policy and rules came to the Senate last spring, where they were all approved but with a proviso that the rules would not become enforceable until April 2016, and meanwhile would be studied and further revised and brought back to the Senate. Dan and his team have since worked extensively with the Faculty IT Ad hoc Committee on two of the rules– the Acceptable Use and Data Classification Rules. These two Rules will be on next month’s Debate Calendar for approval, with proviso that further small revisions to them may be proposed when other Rules are brought to the Senate, before the overall project is completed by April. Dan mentioned that prior to the November vote for approval there will be two town hall sessions which faculty members can attend to address any issues or concerns, and senators are encouraged to invite their constituents to attend those sessions to provide input, or to contact Dan’s office at any time to provide input. Information for those town hall sessions will be sent at a later date. [Update: the sessions were scheduled for October 20 and 21.]

Debate Calendar

Bill Johnson discussed the Senate special/ad hoc Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee. This Committee was first created as a special/ ad hoc Senate committee for 2014-2015, and completed the first phase of work on the subject. It is now proposed to reauthorize and reconstitute the Committee for 2015-2016, with a new chair and new membership, to carry out a second phase of work on the subject. The Executive Committee has recommended that the Senate approve this proposal today.. Motion made by Randy Dryer to ratify and approve the proposal for this special/ad hoc committee, with the designated chair, membership, and charge. Motion was seconded by Patrick Panos. Motion passed unanimously.

Information and Recommendations Calendar

The following items were presented for the information and recommendations of the Academic Senate:

Academics and Athletics – Nona Richardson, the Senior Woman Administrator in the Athletics Department, gave an update on academics and athletics. She mentioned that of the 404 student athletes on campus one-fourth of them are on the Dean’s List. In the past academic year, the fall student athlete GPA was 3.062 and the spring GPA was 3.081. The skiing and gymnastics teams have the highest GPA for fall and spring semester respectively. The lowest GPA for both semesters is that of the football team at about 2.54-2.59. Nona mentioned that the football GPA is lower than the Athletics Department would like it to be and that it is currently one of their biggest concerns. There was extensive discussion, with questions and answers, about various issues regarding student athletes, including problems and possible solutions for scheduling conflicts of athletics practices and classes.
Credits and Admissions Committee – Kevin Perry and Matt Lopez gave an update on the Credits and Admissions Committee and recent developments with undergraduate admissions. Bob Flores provided background information about the relationship of the Committee and the Senate as prescribed in Policy 6-404, including the requirements that the Committee submit proposed admissions standards for prior discussion with the Senate, and that the Committee annually report to the Senate. The Committee has not yet fulfilled those requirements since they were adopted in February 2013, as it has been quite busy implementing the significant changes in the admissions process—and so today’s presentation is a belated beginning on carrying out those requirements. Kevin Perry, as Chair of the Committee stated that the committee came to the Executive Committee and the full Senate three years ago with a proposal for holistic admissions. The Senate, at the time, approved the proposal, a revision of Policy 6-404, and it adjusted the admissions standards so that 70% of the process depends on academics including GPA, ACT/SAT score, and course rigor; the other 30% depends on leadership, extracurricular activities, and unusual circumstances. Kevin mentioned that these were changes to Policy 6-404, and the changes also included adjustments including an admissions deferment process, a leave of absence policy, and setting of English language proficiency– TOEFL test requirements, among other changes. The Committee recently reviewed a proposal to change standards applicable for students in the Asia campus but ultimately rejected it. Matt Lopez, the Director of the Office of Admissions, stated that the U lost 500 students due to a change in LDS mission standards, but we have since regained those students. There was extensive discussion about various aspects of undergraduate admissions. For the future, the Committee and Admissions Office will further consider and consult regarding appropriate English language proficiency requirements for international students (including for the U’s recently established Korea-Asia campus), and will be following through on the Policy 6-404 requirements of (i) presenting for advance consultation with the Senate all specific standards for admissions criteria, and (ii) annually reporting to the Senate.
Presidential Professor Recommendation

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 4:22 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Wogai Mohmand