Meeting Minutes
ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
October 7, 2013
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on October 7, 2013, was called to order at 3:01 p.m. by Allyson Mower, Senate President. The meeting was held in room 110 Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building.
Present: David Ailion, Peter Alfeld, Orly Alter, Chrisoula Andreou, A.K. Balaji, Keith Bartholomew, Tim Benvegnu, Michael Blomgren, Nilufer Cagatay, Tully Cathey, Marjorie Chan, Thomas Cheatham, Marcus Chen, Mary Ann Christison, Robin Craig, Alison Denyer, Justin Diggle, Maria Dobozy, Megan Dolle, Florence Fernandez, Ole Fischer, Francis Friedrich, Sabine Fuhrmann, Jennifer Garvin, William Gershan, Jordan Gerton, Franz Goller, Thad Hall, Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, Leanne Hawken, Jared Hurdman, Thunder Jalili, Anne Jamison, Christian Johnson, William Johnson, Bradley Katz, Evert Lawton, Uri Loewenstein, John Longino, William Lowrance, Raina Mahanes, Erminia Martinez, Theresa Martinez, Jannah Mather, Jannah Mather, Ashley McMullin, Heather Melton, Duncan Metcalfe, Meredith Metzger, Joel Miller, Jill Moriearty, Alfred Mowdood, A. Chris Nelson, Ingrid Nygaard, Sam Ortiz, Patrick Panos, Christina Porucznik, Matthew Potolsky, M. Pollie Price, Mariana Ramiro, Lorie Richards, Stephanie Richardson, Steve Roens, Gerald Root, Jody Rosenblatt, Paul Shami, Clough Shelton, Debra Simmons, Gregory Smoak, David Stevenson, Taylor Thurman, Li Wang, Rachel Wootton, Joanne Yaffe
Excused with Proxy: Joan Gregory (Jeanne Leber), Tom Henderson (Chuck Hansen), Xan Johnson (Robert Nelson), Patricia Murphy (Lynn Hollister)
Absent: McKay Allred, Lyda Bigelow, Kelly Bricker, John Conboy, William Crowley, Sierra Debenham, Kevin DeLuca, Xiao Fang, Gary Grikscheit, Michael Harris, Michael Hawkins, Rachel Hayes-Harb, Robert Hitchcock, Amy Johnas, Lori Kowaleski-Jones,
Ross Marabella, Dragan Milicic, Harvey Miller, Wanda Pillow, Marlene Plumlee, Gary Rose, John Paul Soares, Jingyi Zhu
Excused: Vivian Lee
Ex-officio: Steve Alder, Robert Flores, Robert Fujinami, Harriet Hopf, Paul Mogren, Allyson Mower, David Pershing, Ruth Watkins, Amy Wildermuth, Shawnee Worsley
Others: Ed Barbanell, Mariana Ramiro Gomez, Michael Harris, Lindsey Whitehurst
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting on September 9, 2013 were approved.
Request for New Business
No new business to address
Consent Calendar
The resignations retirements, and faculty and administrator appointments dated September 9, 2013, received approval to forward to the Board of Trustees.
Report from Administration
President David Pershing updated the Academic Senate on the State Board of Regents meeting that was held on September 12 & 13 at Utah State University. The Board of Regents agreed to the Presidents Council recommendation for the request for a 3% increase of salaries for the faculty and staff at the legislative session. Items approved for funding at the meeting included Crocker Science Center (George Thomas Building Renovation, Addition and Seismic Upgrade), Distinctive mission, Utility Distribution Infrastructure Replacement Phase II and Library consortium. Non-state funded items approved include Alumni House Expansion and Renovation and Lassonde Living Learning Center.
A workshop for the Deans, Department Chairs and Directors was held on Thursday, October 3 by President Pershing and Ruth Watkins. The workshop focused on missions and goal setting.
Overall undergraduate enrollment is down by 1%. This decrease shows mostly in the freshman class and almost directly related to the LDS missionary age change. This year 500 students were admitted but deferred enrollment.
The College of Law celebrated its one-hundredth birthday with a Centennial Gala and Symposium on September 20th. The keynote address was given by Former Utah Law Professor and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Michael McConnell. The College of Fine Arts held it’s Distinguished Alumni Awards on October 3th at Kingsbury Hall. Honorees were presented with a bronze medal designed by faculty from the Art & Art History Department. During their return to campus, the alumni shared their talents and expertise teaching master class and lectures in their former departments. President Pershing recommended that other colleges consider implementing such alumni awards programs. The Block U party will be held Saturday, October 12 on the Plaza from 1pm to 4 pm.
Executive Committee Report
Steve Alder, Executive Committee Secretary, provided a summary of the Executive Committee meeting held September 16, 2013.
Report from ASUU
ASUU President, Sam Ortiz gave an update of ASUU events. The PAC 12 Leaders’ Summit has been moved to January. The “Paint-the-Campus-Purple event will be held October 9th 11 am to 2 pm at the Library Plaza. The Block U party will be held on Saturday with music, kid zones, lots of food and MUSS tailgate.
Special Order
A special online election will be held to fill a vacancy on the Faculty Budget and Planning Advisory Committee.
Notice of Intent
The proposed Revision to University Policy 6-101-III-H-2 “Department and College Admission Criteria” was presented by Ed Barbanell. Previously, a major revision was completed to Policy 6-404 Undergraduate Admission, and during this revision it was determined that the one paragraph section of 6-404 covering department and college admission criteria did not belong in the Undergraduate Admission Policy and should be moved to the appropriate policy location. In order to expedite the revisions to the Policy 6-404 it was decided that the paragraph in question should be moved to Policy 6-101, and any substantive revising should be dealt with as a later project. Now the passage has been reviewed and changes are recommended. Perhaps the most significant change is to eliminate the requirement that special criteria for admission to undergraduate majors and minors be subject to Senate “approval”— and instead merely require that they be “reported to” the Senate. The proposal was reviewed by Student Affairs, Undergraduate Studies, General Counsel’s office, and Credits & Admissions Committee. The motion to move this item to the Debate Calendar was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Jill Moriearty. Motion passed unanimously. The motion to approve a friendly amendment to change wording in second to last sentence to “All such criteria must be approved in advance by the appropriate college council and shall be reported to the Academic Senate for its information” was made by Joanne Yaffe. This motion was seconded by Maria Dobozy. Motion passed. The motion to approve the proposal as amended and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Maria Dobozy. Motion passed.
Debate Calendar
The proposed name change from the Division of Cardiology to the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine was presented by Dr. James Fang. This name change is to align the name of the Division with the name of its Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship and with national norms consistent with the nomenclature now being used within the profession. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Mary Hartnett and seconded by Jill Moriearty. Motion passed unanimously.
The proposed discontinuation of the Revitalization of Endangered Languages Certificate was presented to the Academic Senate. The Department of Linguistics is no longer able to offer the courses required for the certificate due to recent changes in the faculty. Because the courses are no longer offered, students are unable to pursue this certificate. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Bill Johnson and seconded by Brad Katz. Motion passed unanimously.
Brenda Peterson and Valerio Pascucci presented the proposal for an undergraduate Data Center Engineering Certificate. This certificate would prepare students to deal with the specific needs and challenges of the complex environment of modern data centers in government, industry, and academia. The certificate will require students to complete 27 credit hours. The interdisciplinary combination of classes addresses the specific need of this industry sector for a skilled workforce with knowledge in power and thermal energy, computer science, general management, and best practices for managing large scale facilities. There was discussion about the adequacy of inclusion within the required courses of treatment of ethical issues associated with operating such large data centers, and the presenters pointed out that one of the required courses will cover that topic. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Leanne Hawken. Motion passed with two abstentions.
Bob Flores presented the proposed Senate Career-line elections exception. This special exception is for the limited purposed of the elections occurring from now through spring 2015, for a Career-line representative to the Senate elected from certain areas. The ordinary requirement of Policy 6-002 limiting eligibility to “members of the faculty who, continuously for the three years preceding the date their term of Senate membership would begin, have had career-line faculty appointments of at least 75 percent Full-Time-Equivalent within a single area of representation” shall be modified to require only one year rather than three years with such an appointment. This exception is needed because the affected programs are only recently created and so will not initially have sufficient candidates meeting the three-year eligibility requirement. In addition to debate about the appropriateness of having this special exception, there was discussion of various topics not directly related to the proposal. The proposal originally contemplated applying the special exception for two areas–the Qualified Interdisciplinary Teaching Programs, and the new Dentistry college, and a motion to amend the proposal to include a third area—the college of Architecture + Planning, was made by Chris Nelson. The motion was seconded by Keith Bartholomew. Motion passed with one abstention. The motion to approve as amended and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Bill Johnson. Motion passed. It was explained that the document describing the proposal also included a preview list of some the various Regulations that will be proposed for revision during this year as part of the second phase of the projects begun in spring 2013 to change nomenclature used for faculty and to integrate career-line faculty into the Senate and into various committees.
Information Calendar
The proposed Procurement Policy 3-100 Revisions were described by Associate V.P. Jeff West. After brief discussion and clarification of certain points, discussion concluded with no recommendations for changes made.
New Business
Senate President Mower explained that information about meetings and decisions of the Senate will now be reported in the “FYI-Newsletter” that is circulated on-line to faculty and staff.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Shawnee Worsley