MINUTES OF MEETING NUMBER 66
OF The
sENATE OF mICHIGAN tECHNOLOGical university

15 November 1972

(Senate Minute pages: 792-802)

Meeting No. 66 was called to order on Wednesday, November 15, 1972 at 7:04 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge by President A.S. Weaver.

The roll was called by the Secretary pro tem. Twenty-five members or alternates were present. Absent were: Barstow (AL), DelliQuadri (AL), Farrell (PE), Smith, and Vandette (SS).

The Minutes of Meeting No. 65 were corrected as follows: Page 781, starting at the sixth line, replace the sentence "Thayer responded that . . . were qualified." by the sentence "Thayer responded that the committee had planned a slate." The minutes were approved with no further corrections.



Senate President's Report is included here as Appendix A (Available by Request from the Senate Office).

 


Report on Meetings of the Academic Council and Board of Control

  1. Hodek's report on the meetings of the Academic Council is included here as Appendix B (Available by Request from the Senate Office).

  2. In the absence of Farrell, Weaver read his report on the meeting of the Board of Control, which is included here as Appendix C (Available by Request from the Senate Office).


Committee Reports

A. Sick Leave

At Keeling's request President Weaver took his report first out of the scheduled order. Keeling stated that the committee had been informed of the new sick leave plan prior to its recent announcement but had taken no action on it. The administration decided to go ahead and implement the program. He then asked that the committee be discharged.

In the discussion of several questions from the floor the following points were brought out:

The term exempt refers to the labor law classification of an employee. If an employee is paid for overtime, he is non-exempt; if he is not paid for overtime, he is exempt. Romig answered a question concerning GTA's by saying that he did not believe they were covered but that he was not positive. New hires automatically get ten days sick leave.

Following the discussion President Weaver stated that there was no action the Senate could take or had been asked to take at this time. He asked Keeling to submit a report in order to clarify the events. He then discharged the committee.

B. Curricular Policy

Spain reported on several meetings of the committee concerning the procedure for course changes and approval and the future role of the two-year programs at Michigan Tech. The committee is recommending a Computer Science program in the Mathematics Department and a change in the General Education requirements in the Humanities Department. These programs will be formally proposed to the Senate at the next meeting. Copies of the Computer Science Program were distributed to those present. Interested faculty members should consult their Senators for details concerning the program. The list of proposed changes in the Humanities Department requirement is included here as Appendix D (Available by Request from the Senate Office).

Spain also mentioned his intent to propose an amendment to the course change and approval mechanism at the next Senate meeting.

C. Election Procedure - No Report.

D. Instructional Evaluation - Johnson reported on a new teacher evaluation form under consideration by a student group.

E. Instructional Policy - No Report.

F. Joint Faculty Association - No Report.

G. New Program Study

President Weaver reported that the committee is in abeyance at the present time awaiting the appointment of a Senator to act as chairman.

 

Old Business

Thayer stated that in light of the discussion at the last meeting there should be firm rules for nomination and election procedure. President Weaver said he felt this should be one of the items of business of the Elections Procedure Committee.

 

New Business and Voluntary Remarks

Halkola moved the appointment of a Promotional Policy Review Committee to inquire into the implementation of the new Promotion Policy all the way down the line to see what progress is being made in the appointment of committees, formulation of procedures, etc. The motion passed.

Lind pointed out that Proposal 3-72, Academic Credit for ROTC (page 707), was being interpreted in several different ways by different groups on campus. He requested the Senate to issue some sort of clarification of the proposal. Following a lengthy discussion the following statement was agreed upon to be the intent of the first sentence of Proposal 3-72: "Each department must specify at least six credit hours of AFROTC or AROTC course work which may be applied by the student toward a baccalaureate degree."

President Weaver ruled that this was a statement of intent to clarify Proposal 3-72; no further formal action was necessary.

Several problems arising from the academic calendar change were then discussed. Johnson mentioned a complaint voiced to the Student Council that the shortening of next year's summer quarter could cost a student $400 or $500 in wages. He asked whether there was some way to ease the financial strain in such a case.

Crowther: On the same subject I've been approached by some of the members of my faculty (and I would like to have it noted that my comments are recorded in the minutes and that I am speaking on behalf of other people, not myself) regarding an apparent unfairness resulting in the fact that nine-month employees are paid on a twelve-month basis. With this particular situation of the early beginning of the fall quarter, we will theoretically be receiving the last installment of our previous year's pay while we are in fact working on the new school year. In other words, we'll be working double that month. It's been suggested that the Senate might choose to appoint an individual to investigate this matter and attempt to arrive at some equitable solution whereby the faculty member will not be penalized one month's pay in this process."

Doane (following a comment on interest): I would also suggest that we investigate this business of the State keeping your salary for three months and using it. That interest should be just as good to you as it is to the State.

Other comments were made suggesting a possible loan program to last only one year and help tide over any student facing this problem. The problem of summer research was also mentioned.

Romig stated that some adjustment was being planned to account for the discrepancy in staff pay. Some of the other questions also merit consideration.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:22 p.m.

 

Ralph S. Horvath
Secretary