President D. Abata called the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m., December 15, 1982 in the Ballroom of the Memorial Union.

Roll: Twenty five members/alternates were present. Absent were: Asplund (AROTC); Beske-Diehl (Geol); Janke (BI); Schwartz (EE); Whitten (VP-AA); Kaufman (Student Council); and Sathyanarayanan (Grad. Student Council).

Recognition of Visitors: Harold Nufer (SS) was recognized

Minutes of Previous Meeting - The Senate Secretary apologized for not having minutes available for the October 26, 1982 Special Meeting and Meeting 126.

President's Report:

The following items were included in the written report which is appended (page 2180 - Available by Request from the Senate Office).

1. Modified Harrington Seminar with Board of Control
2. Faculty Handbook update
3. New curricula
4. Chairman for Faculty Fringe Benefits Committee
5. Veto of Proposal 5-82
6. Miscellaneous discussion

In reference to item v. President Stein vetoed Proposal 5-82 which had proposed that the color blue be used for Ph.D. recipients. He noted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy traditionally referred to a broad understanding or awareness of knowledge in all fields of academia; this has changed in modern times to reflect a high level of expertise in a specific area. The wording of the diploma Doctor of Philosophy has been retained for tradition, but this is simply a title of a degree and does not reflect a specific expertise in the field of Philosophy. It is therefore acceptable to use an alternate color other than blue to reflect the field of expertise of the graduate.

Vice President's Reports

Written reports for two meetings are included with these minutes (page 2181-2184 - Available by Request from the Senate Office). Notable items at the November 19, 1982 Board of Control Meeting were:

1. Approval of new tenure policy
2. Election of new officers for Board of Control
3. Approval of tuition rates
4. Approval of budget requests
5. Miscellaneous items

There were two major items at the December 7, 1982 Academic Council meeting:

1. Report from Ad Hoc Committee on Statistics
2. Presentation on interaction between library and academic departments

Remarks were made about the increased costs for the library; many professional societies are passing increased costs onto libraries so that they do not have to raise individual member subscriptions. A comment was made concerning the legality of having faculty members subscribe to professional journals which are then delivered to the library.

New Business

Presentation on Committee E

This report was moved in front of the Committee Reports, old business and other new business. President Abata introduced Harold Nufer, Chairman of Committee E who reviewed the work of that committee. Nufer indicated that most of the work was currently being done at the subcommittee level. Four subcommittees have been set up with the following charges:

1. Review Committee C plan and its implementation possibilities
2. Receive input from faculty, students and the community on realistic goals to pursue by 1985
3. Review long-range plans of departments, schools and support services
4. Review literature on role of universities in the 1980's

Subcommittee two is approaching the community first and is conducting ten in-depth interviews with community leaders. The student council has a draft survey to determine how students feel regarding a number of topics and the faculty will be surveyed in the future. Subcommittee three also has a survey planned for various organizations, departments and services at Michigan Tech. Subcommittee four has been actively generating much reading material. Committee E will produce a progress report in the spring.

Committee Reports

B. Instructional Policy

Senator Hutzler reported that the committee has considered four items. They have reviewed the charge for this committee. Primary responsibility deals with problems of instruction, class size and teaching aids. In addition the committee deals with evaluation of students including grading schemes and scheduling of exams.

The committee has reviewed operating procedures and suggests that proposals submitted should have sufficient background material and should be channeled to the committee through the Senate President. On receipt of proposal the committee will determine if the matter can be resolved by some other means. If not, and sufficient background material accompanies the proposal, then it will be submitted to the Senate President for consideration by the Senate. In cases where there is insufficient background material or the committee feels the proposal has no merit, it will be returned with appropriate recommendations.

Proposal 1-83 has been submitted to the committee and will be considered under New Business.

As requested by the Faculty Handbook Committee (page 2172) the committee has considered textbook acquisition procedures. There is some concern that statements in the procedures manual interfere with academic freedom; specifically, the statement that no individual has the authority to negotiate with suppliers other than the bookstore.

It was pointed out that in many instances, reference materials can be obtained from professional societies at a substantial discount which can be passed on to the student. The bookstore is not able to do this. It was also noted that when student societies sell books to raise money, this may be in conflict with the policy.

G. Faculty Handbook