MINUTES OF MEETING NUMBER 134
OF The
Senate OF mICHIGAN tECHNOLOGical university
8 February 1984
(Senate Minute pages: 2302-2305)
President Nelson called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m., February 8, 1984 in the Ballroom of the Memorial Union.
Roll: Twenty six members/alternates were present. Absent were: Roy D. Adams, Ralph E. Asplund, Linda S. Belote, Richard E. Elrite, Robert A. Janke, and Dale F. Stein. Two visitors were present: Duane Abata and Dick Crowther.
Minutes of Meeting No. 133:
The Minutes of Meeting 133 were approved with no corrections.
President's Report: (Appendix A - Available by Request from the Senate Office)
President Nelson clarified the Senate policy in regard to sending a representative to MTU Board of Control meetings: the Senate will continue to send a representative to each meeting, but the representative will not necessarily file a written report on each meeting, because this practice has proved somewhat redundant in the past. Dick Crowther suggested that the Senate representative file a report on any Board of Control discussions which are of interest to the faculty but are not reported adequately in the news media.
Committee Reports
A. Instructional Policy
Senator Baltensperger reported that a proposal has been received from students to go to a +/- grading system at MTU.
B. Institutional Evaluation.
Senator Beske-Diehl discussed the history of Proposal 2-84, Departmental Governance. (This proposal was discussed and voted on under New Business).
C. Fringe Benefits
Senator Francis requested input from senators on fringe benefits.
D. Retrenchment Planning
Minor changes in the retrenchment document have been required by the lawyers. The committee will reconvene during Spring Quarter and intends to bring the revised document to the Senate during Spring Quarter.
E. Teaching Effectiveness
As the committee chairman was not present, a preliminary report was given by President Nelson: the charge to the committee is very broad: i.e., to improve and reward teaching at MTU. The committee has been meeting weekly and has gathered a great deal of reading material from peer universities.
New Business
A. Proposal 2-84, Departmental Governance
Proposal 2-84 was presented for adoption by the Institutional Evaluation Committee. A discussion followed. V.P. Whitten suggested that the proposed document could have the effect of constraining the actions of faculty members, but several senators presented examples of recent difficult departmental situations in which such a document would have been most helpful. President Nelson pointed out that there are real problems on the MTU campus, and that in many instances one source of frustration to faculty members is the lack of recourse.
One editorial change was made, in section D, paragraph 3, sentence 2. This sentence now reads, "The document may be reviewed at any time, but must be reviewed at least every three years."
Proposal 2-84 was approved by a vote of 20 in favor, 3 opposed.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Paul A. Nelson
Senate Secretary