Meeting Minutes
ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
September 8, 2014
Call to Order
The regular meeting of the Academic Senate, held on September 8, 2014, was called to order at 3:03 p.m. by Steve Alder, Senate President. The meeting was held in WEB L105.
Present: David Ailion, Peter Alfeld, Chrisoula Andreou, A.K. Balaji, Karin Baumgartner, Kelly Bricker, Alicia Brillon, Nilufer Cagatay, Kate Canas, Cindy Chen, John Conboy, Michael Cottle, Thomas Cova, Robin Craig, Mollie Cummins, Justin Diggle, Maria Dobozy, Randy Dryer, Nadja Durbach, Anna Ferguson, Ole Fischer, Frances Friedrich, Caren Frost, Disa Gambera, Jennifer Garvin, Camille George, Jordan Gerton, Mary Elizabeth Hartnett, Leanne Hawken, David Hill, Michelle Hofmann, Lynn Hollister, Avery Holton, Anne Jamison, Brandon Jennings, Peter Jensen, Christian Johnson, Katherine Kendall, Eric Leishman, Melissa Lewis, Xiaoyue Liu, John (Jack) Longino, Joe Marotta, Julie Metos, Meredith Metzger, Joel Miller, Anthony Minjarez, Alfred Mowdood, Maureen A. Murtaugh, Yongmei Ni, Anthony Oyler, Adrian Palmer, Les Podlog, Christy Porucznik, Matthew Potolsky, M. Pollie Price, Ravi Ranjan, Reva Rauk, Lorie Gage Richards, Stephanie Richardson, Steve Roens, Michael Shapiro, Debra Simmons, John Paul Soares, Justin Spangler, John Sperry, Robert A. Stephenson, Lina Svedin, David Temme, Andrejs Treibergs, Edward M. Trujillo, Raymond Tymas-Jones, Norman Waitzman, Ming Wen, Rachel Wootton, Joanne Yaffe, Taryn Young, Jingyi Zhu
Absent: Orly Alter, Ana Christine Bentz, Lyda Bigelow, Joan Brenner-Coltrain, Demi Brog, Thomas Cheatham, Ryann Cooley, Devin Daniels, Xiao Fang, Stephen Goldsmith, Michael Hawkins, Nisha Kavalam, Jindrich Kopecek, John T. Langell, Maritza Lara, Uri Loewenstein, William Lowrance, Laura Madsen, Sandra McIntyre, Himanshu Mishra, Jill Moriearty, Ingrid E. Nygaard, Patrick Panos, Janiece Pompa, Gerald Root, Jody Rosenblatt, Lauryn Roth, Paul J. Shami, Lien Fan Shen, David Stevenson, Satin Tashnizi
Ex-officio: Steve Alder, Carrie Byington, Robert Flores, William Johnson, Paul Mogren, Allyson Mower, Ruth Watkins, Amy Wildermuth
Excused with Proxy: Robert Hitchcock (Robert Bowles), Paul Jewell (John R. Bowman), Xan Johnson (Julie Rada), Lori Kowaleski-Jones (Barbara Brown), Richard Paine (Brian Codding)
Excused: Robert Fujinami, Vivian Lee, David Pershing
Others: Andrea Brown, Jeff Herring, Ann Johnson, Dean McGovern, Wendy Poppleton, John Stillman, Jason Taylor
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the Academic Senate meeting on May 5, 2014, received no objections.
Request for New Business
No new business
Consent Calendar
The resignations, retirements, and faculty and administrator appointments dated September 8, 2014, received no objections and will be forwarded to the Board of Trustees.
Executive Committee Report
William Johnson, Academic Senate President-elect, provided a summary of the Executive Committee meetings held June 16, 2014 and August 18, 2014.
Report from Administration
Ruth Watkins, Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs welcomed new and returning senators. The U welcomed several new Deans this year including Henry White – College of Science, Cynthia Berg – College of Social and Behavioral Science, Keith Diaz Moore – College of Architecture + Planning, David Perrin – College of Health, and Robert Adler – College of Law. We will also be starting dean searches for the College of Pharmacy, College of Social Work and College of Humanities. There are two new parking structures being built on campus; the Business loop garage north of the University Services Building and the North West garage that will be located next to the Sutton Building. The Business loop garage will add 555 parking stalls and the North West garage will add 235 stalls. Other parking projects include the Law School parking lot and the Huntsman east parking lot. The campus shuttles have expanded their service to help with the impact of the parking.
Report from ASUU
Justin Spangler, ASUU President, introduced the student senators for this year. The ASUU is working with Career services to help provide more support to students and to help them select the correct major for their career. Homecoming will be held on September 22-27th. It will include community service projects, 5K, golf tournament, student dance, and Songfest.
Notice of Intent
The Proposal for revisions of Policies 6-317 and 6-405 (Academic Visitors) was presented by David Kieda. The revisions include slight changes of the phrasing of the intended to clarify that academic visitors are not employees and so not entitled to University-financed benefits such as health care. Also the existing requirement of consultation with faculty of the academic unit for approval of a visitor appointment is retained but is rephrased to allow flexibility of the method for consultation (a unit’s faculty may choose to delegate such approval to a committee, or continue to require a vote of the full faculty for each case). The motion to move the item to debate was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Randy Dryer. Motion passed and moved to Debate calendar. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Jo Yaffe and seconded by Jennifer Garvin. Motion passed unanimously.
Debate Calendar
The proposal for a new Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Sustainability was presented by Brenda Bowen. This certificate will be administered and granted by the Global Change and Sustainability Center (GCSC) of the University of Utah, effective upon approval. This Certificate program addresses the need for a collaborative, interdisciplinary program that will give students grounding in the overlap between science, society and policy that will prepare them to address global change and sustainability issues. In recent years the word sustainability has taken on a variety of meanings as it is applied across a broad range of contexts by people working from multiple perspectives. The Certificate will train students learning the mechanics of academic research to link and collaborate across broad disciplinary boundaries. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Randy Dryer. Motion passed unanimously.
John Stillman presented the proposal for Revision 1 of Policy 7-100. The contents of this Policy, which describe various research-related committees, were first moved from Policy 6-300 to Policy 7-100 last year, with notice that the contents would need to be updated this year. The current proposal is to update the contents of the description of one such committee–the Institutional Review Board. The changes will bring the Policy description of the IRB into line with changed federal regulations and existing practices at the University The proposed changes do not affect any current practices for IRB management, IRB composition, or the IRB submission and review process. Language will be updated to accurately reflect the federal requirements for IRB membership and how members are appointed. Other minor corrections for organization and grammar are made. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Caren Frost and seconded by Joanne Yaffe. Motion passed unanimously.
The proposal for multiple Human Resources Regulations revisions was presented by Jeff Herring, Andrea Brown & Wendy Poppleton. This includes changes to: Policy 5-001 Employee Definitions; Rule 5-001A Personnel Categories; Policy 5-300 Holidays and Holiday Premium Pay; Rule 5-300A Scope, Eligibility, and Limitations for Holidays – University Employees (Other than UUHC Staff); Policy 5-301 Vacation Leave Policy; Rule 5-301A Scope, Eligibility, and Limitations for Vacation Leave – University Employees (Other than UUHC Staff); Guideline 5-301A Vacation Leave Job Categories; Guideline 5-301B Vacation Leave Other Administrative Officers; and Rule 5-200B Paid Time Off (PTO), Holidays, and Other Paid Leave for University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics Staff Members. In Policy and Rule 5-001 the definition of Faculty Member has been changed to reflect the faculty category nomenclature changes passed in spring 2013 (tenure-line, career-line, etc). Other administrative clarifications, formatting changes, and grammatical revisions for greater clarity and consistency have been included in the proposed drafts of the policies, rules, and guidelines. None of these additional clarifications or changes alters the intent of the policies further. There was some discussion on the eligibility of faculty members for accruing annual vacation leave (Rule 5-301A), and it was explained that the proposed revisions merely clarify and do not change existing eligibility provisions for faculty. The motion to approve and forward to the Board of Trustees was made by Joanne Yaffe and seconded by Raymond Tymas-Jones. Motion passed with one abstention.
Information Calendar
The following items were presented for the information and recommendations of the Academic Senate:
- Update on SAFE Campaign (safe practices for pedestrians, bicyclists, and skateboarders on campus)
- Parking Permit Update (switching to use of electronic permits read by computerized scanning of license –plates of all parked vehicles, rather than manual viewing of printed tags.)
- College of Fine Arts College Council Charter revisions (as finally approved by Executive Committee
- Campus Sexual Misconduct Prevention
- The Policy Institute (Introduction regarding provisionally approved unit, with permanent approval to be proposed soon. It replaces existing Bureau of Economic and Business Research, and Center for Public Policy Administration, and is being established in conjunction with a major financial donation, including a donated downtown building location for the Institute),
- Student Learning Outcome Assessment policy project (in conjunction with upcoming Northwest Accreditation review of University, ad hoc Senate committee established in spring 2014 is developing proposal for a new policy on University-wide requirement of assessment methods)
- Graduate Council Review Department of Chemistry
- Graduate Council Review Department of Physical Therapy
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Shawnee Worsley