(1) heard that Proposal 16-99, Development Leave for Professional Staff, was sent to the Professional Staff Policy Committee for review of suggested amendments proposed by the administration.

(2) heard a report on University research from the Research Policy Committee.

(3) defeated a motion to conduct a referendum proposed by the MTU Chapter, AAUP.

(4) referred Proposal 14-99, Proposal to Institute Double Majors, to the Curricular Policy Committee for further review.

(5) approved an amended Proposal 6-99, University Web Page Policy.

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1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
President Seely called University Senate Meeting 326 to order at 5:32 p.m. on Wednesday, 26 January 2000, in Room B45 EERC.

Secretary Reed called roll. Absent were At-large Senator Kunz and representatives from Civil and Environmental Engineering, Education, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Mining Engineering, Institute of Materials Processing, and Auxiliary Enterprises. Liaisons in attendance were Anthony Moretti (USG) and Ted Soldan (Staff Council).

2. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
Guests included Mike Mullins (Chemical Engineering), John Gagnon (University Relations), David Landon (Social Sciences/Graduate Council), and Marcia Goodrich (Tech Topics).

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Seely proposed adding an item, C. University Web Page Policy, to new business. Blanning MOVED and Drummer seconded the motion to approve the agenda as amended. The motion to approve PASSED on voice vote with no dissent. [Appendix A. NOTE: Only official Senate and Library archival copies of the minutes will contain a full complement of appendices.]

4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MEETING 325
Gary Neumann, Enrollment Management, offered additional comments to the following discussion as reported in the minutes.

Senator D. Reed asked about the relationship between the enrollment goals being pursued by Enrollment Management and the enrollment goals in the existing strategic plans and the new plans being developed by departments. Neumann noted that there were no connections at this point in time, but that this is being examined in the current strategic planning process.

His additional comments are in Appendix B.

Nordberg MOVED and Davis seconded the motion to approve the minutes of meeting 325 as presented. The motion PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.

5. REPORT FROM SENATE PRESIDENT
Proposals 5-00, Changes to University Sabbatical Leave Policy and 6-00, Supplemental Sabbatical Leave Funds have been transmitted to the administration for approval. [Appendix C]

Proposal 16-99, Development Leave for Professional Staff, has been returned to the Senate with suggested amendments from the administration. Seely referred the matter to the Professional Staff Policy Committee for review. [Appendix D]

The Senate Executive Committee met on January 17 to review committee activities, discuss the Enrollment Management presentation, and the request from the MTU Chapter, AAUP. The Committee agreed upon two primary issues of focus for the immediate future: responses to the presentation and Sung Lee's action plan on Carnegie Classification. The Executive Committee is preparing a response to the Enrollment Management report and the Research Policy Committee is preparing a response to the action plan on Carnegie Classification.

The Budget Liaison group met on January 19 to review preliminary information about variances from the budget model. The Senate can expect an early budget presentation from Vice President McGarry.

The Senate Officers met with Board of Control members Jim Mitchell and Claude Verbal. Their discussions centered around the campus climate, University budget, and the strategic plan.

The Board had little business for formal approval. The Board heard informational reports on the USG proposal to purchase the UPPCO building as a home for the engineering enterprises effort, Carnegie Classification, and enrollment management.

Seely noted that long-time faculty members, Robert Mount, Physics, and Narasipur Suryanarayana, ME-EM, retired.

Seely met with the Provost on January 19 to discuss Senate proposals pending administrative approval including the sabbatical leave and separation proposals. The Instructional Policy Committee, Bill Kennedy, Luke Trier (USG) and Seely met to discuss teaching evaluations. USG would like to find a mechanism to release some of the information from the evaluations.

The health care liaison group (Tony Rogers, Bruce Seely, Larry Davis, Debbie Lassila, Mike Hendricks, Ingrid Cheney, and Ellen Horsch) will meet to review general issues and specifically the virtues of individual versus an aggregate stop loss policy. Currently, MTU has an aggregate stop loss coverage on the medical and hospitalization elements of University health coverage.

In addition to Barry Kunz, Larry Sutter has agreed to represent the Senate on the Corporate Services liaison group. Seely repeated his request that a representative from the professional staff group also serve. Intellectual properties issues related to student projects especially the engineering enterprises project will be their initial focus.

Seely announced a special Senate meeting for Wednesday, February 16, for the purpose of providing an opportunity for faculty and staff to give feedback on the draft strategic plan to the Strategic Planning Working group.

6. COMMITTEE BUSINESS/REPORTS
Research Policy Committee [Appendix E]
Senator Williams reviewed the report submitted by the Research Policy Committee in the fall concerning changes in research activity at MTU over the last 30 years. In summary, faculty teaching loads have been approximately constant over this time, but research activity has increased 3-5 fold. He reviewed the major and minor committee recommendations, identified in bold in the report.

Williams noted that the Carnegie Action Plan proposal has had little faculty input. The Research Policy Committee is preparing a response to this plan indicating such. D. Landon noted that the Graduate Council is also preparing a response noting that the action plan is driven by increasing funding for graduate students as a way of increasing PhD production. The Graduate Council is in favor of attaining the highest Carnegie status, but the question is how to make it sustainable. The major constraint on research growth and PhD production is growth in faculty lines, and faculty time for mentoring students.

NEW BUSINESS
A. Request from MTU Chapter, AAUP
Barna MOVED and Williams seconded the motion for the Senate to conduct a referendum using the ballot presented.

Senator Barna reviewed the AAUP Chapter request to conduct a straw poll on unionization of faculty and professional staff. Senators Drummer and Pennington noted that the Senate conduct of a poll would give the impression that it was a Senate initiative, rather than the initiative of a third party. Barna and MacLennan noted the credibility associated with Senate ballots and the mechanism for conducting such votes; Vilmann noted that a impartial group such as the Senate may give more substance to the results. Senator Williams asked whether the formal Senate process for conducting a referendum could be followed; could AAUP submit a request to the Senate, have a Senate Committee review the request and prepare the ballot language, and then have the full Senate approve or disapprove the ballot? Mullins replied that this would be possible, but AAUP would have to discuss.

The motion FAILED by secret ballot with 21 no and 11 yes votes.

B. Proposal 14-99, Proposal to Institute Double Majors [Appendix F]
The administration returned this proposal to the Senate with several proposed amendments, including the suggestion that students who complete a double major would have only one indicated on their diploma. Senator Snyder noted that if a student completes all the requirements for two majors, then there is no reason not to indicate such on the diploma itself. Seely noted that Civil and Environmental Engineering had raised questions in the Academic Forum regarding whether ABET would consider this a new degree, and if this would cause accreditation problems. Snyder read the RPI policy on double majors, which does allow such a listing. If RPI can do it within ABET guidelines, why can't MTU?

Nordberg questioned the impact of this on certification programs, and Ouillette indicated that there should be no impact.

Pennington questioned whether the Senate could pass this as a stopgap measure and approach ABET for formal input? Seely indicated that this is possible. Seidel had noted that the administration's language about department's advising students against pursuing a double major was a bigger problem.

At this point, Seely questioned whether this should be referred to the Curricular Policy Committee for consideration.

Ftaclas MOVED and Nordberg seconded the motion to refer the proposal to the Curricular Policy Committee for further review. The motion PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.

C. Proposal 6-99, University Web Page Policy [Appendix G]
The administration also returned this proposal with suggested amendments. These changes were generally to insure that the MTU Web Policy complied with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The changes emphasize that electronic communication is subject to existing University policies (harassment, discrimination, etc.) and the use of the University name and logos on different pages by individuals and organizations. Senator Nordberg noted that the Act requires MTU, as an Internet provider, to provide certain safeguards against abuse by users. Senator D. Reed questioned whether the term 'repeat infringer' in section 3 was defined in the Act itself, and Nordberg indicated his belief that it was.

Vilmann MOVED and Blanning seconded the motion to approve the amendments to the proposal as presented. The motion to amend PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.

9. ADJOURNMENT
Ouellette MOVED and Davis seconded the motion to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted by David D. Reed
Secretary of the University Senate