MINUTES OF MEETING NUMBER 165
OF The
Senate OF mICHIGAN tECHNOLOGical university

7 December 1988

(Senate Minute pages: 2877 -2890)

President Janners called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. on December 7, 1988 in Room 101 of Fisher Hall.

Roll: Twenty one members/alternates were present. A quorum was not present. Absent were: Ralph Hodek, Bruce Pletka, Martin Jurgensen, Willie Melton, Paul Sundeen, Patrick Martin, Charles Joyner, Allan Hambley, Glen Simula, and Dale Stein.

Visitors: Gloria Melton, Minority Student Services Coordinator.

Minutes of Meeting No. 164 could not be approved sine a quorum was not present; however, there were several corrections noted.

President's Report

President Janners had no report but made several announcements:

  1. Senator Shapton is now the Chair of the Instructional Policy Committee
  2. A preliminary report from the Long-Range Planning Committee will be ready soon.
  3. President Janners will be resigning as President effective with the next meeting.

Vice President's Report

Vice President Tampas provided a report on the meeting of the Academic Council on November 8 (Appendix A - Available by Request from the Senate Office). He also reported on the meeting of the Board of Control on November 18 (Appendix B - Available by Request from the Senate Office).

Provost Whitten reported on the problems of evening exams, that there have been a large number of evening exams with few given at the allotted time of 6 - 7pm. This appears to be a university-wide problem. The complaints he has received have been associated with students having a conflicting class and the professor not accommodating the student, or threatening to give a more difficult exam, which should not be the case.

Other comments and questions pertained to the reasons for giving evening exams.

Senator Young commented on foreign language courses being available on campus. He asked what procedure is to be followed to institute a particular program. Vice President Tampas commented on the programs discussed by S. Lee, S. Loughrin-Sacco and J. Rallo. Senator Young was appointed by President Janners as a member of an ad hoc committee to investigate the institution of programs in foreign languages and related courses.

Senator Predebon commented that the Long-Range Planning Committee will recommend some programs which will take advantage of the cross-cultural opportunities available on campus.

Informational Report by Gloria Melton, Minority Student Services Coordinator (Appendix C - Available by Request from the Senate Office).

Ms. Melton discussed the enrollment demographics of the three major minority groups (Black, Hispanic and Native American) in Michigan which have low enrollment histories. She also outlined the several programs presently active for minority students at MTU.

Standing Committee Reports

A. Budget Liaison Officer

Senator Predebon gave a verbal report (Appendix D - Available by Request from the Senate Office).

B. Elections

Senator Tampas reported that Terry Reynolds has been selected as a member of the Ombudsman Selection Committee, and Don Mikkola has been appointed by President Stein.

C. Curricular Policy - No report.

D. Faculty Fringe Benefits

Senator DePuydt provided a brief report (Appendix D - Available by Request from the Senate Office).

E. Faculty Handbook - No report.

F. Institutional Evaluation - No report.

G. Instructional Policy - No report.

 

University Committees

A. Quality of University Life Task Force - No report.

B. University Committee on Campus-Wide Computer Strategy - Senator Francioni provided a report (Appendix F - Available by Request from the Senate Office).

C. University General Education

The committee had no report but Senator Sewell noted that the committee is investigating ways to develop more innovative thematic clusters.

D. University Planning - No report.

E. Ombudsman Selection

The committee had no report but Senator Shapton encouraged the university committee to submit names of possible candidates to the committee.

 

Old Business - Since a quorum was not present, no business could be conducted.

New Business - Since a quorum was not present, no business could be conducted.