Synopsis: The Senate

(1) elected John Williams to the Dean of Engineering Review Committee.

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1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
President Keen called University Senate Meeting 347 to order at 5:37 p.m. on Wednesday, 14 March 2001, in Room B45 EERC.

Secretary Pickens called roll. Absent were representatives from the School of Business and Economics, Computer Science, Materials Science and Engineering, Mining and Materials Processing Engineering, Keweenaw Research Center, and Student Affairs and Educational Opportunity. Liaisons in attendance were Anup Bandivadekar (GSC), Josh Bennett (USG), and Becky Christianson (Staff Council).

2. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
Visitors included Kent Wray (Provost) and Marcia Goodrich (Tech Topics).

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Keen proposed adding a new item, New Business, Proposal 11-01, Amendment to Requirements for Graduation, to the agenda. There were no objections to the addition. [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 MEETINGS 345 and 346
President Keen asked for corrections to the minutes of Meeting 345. There were none and the minutes were declared approved.

President Keen asked for corrections to the minutes of Meeting 346. There were none and the minutes were declared approved.

5. PRESIDENT'S REPORT
Proposal 9-01, Amendments to Interim Conflict of Interest Procedures, was transmitted to the administration for approval. [Appendix B]

Proposal 5-01, MS Program in Applied Science Education, has been approved by the administration. [Appendix C]

Proposal 12-01, Search Procedures for Dean of the Graduate School, will be mailed to Senators and will be eligible for approval at the March 28 meeting.

The Space Committee met on February 16.

The Budget Advisory Group (BAG) met on February 22.

The Fringe Benefits Liaison Group met on February 27 with representatives from AON. The primary topic of discussion concerned health care costs that seem to be high compared with other Michigan Universities. Payments for facilities, primarily hospitals, and professional services, primarily physicians, were much higher than other Michigan universities. AON is helping the BLG determine the reasons for these higher costs.

The Vice President for Research Search Committee met on March 12. Advertisements have been published, and President Keen asked Senators to help recruit candidates for the position.

The Provost and Senate Officers met on March 12. Topics of discussion included financial management and the promotion and tenure proposal.

President Keen met with Provost Wray on March 13. A concern with reporting requirements has been identified in the sabbatical leave policy. The promotion and tenure policy was discussed.

A draft policy on early-term class surveys is under review by the Instructional Policy Committee. This issue was identified by the Teaching Standards Committee of the Undergraduate Student Government.

The Senate recently elected Charlie Kerfoot and Pat Martin to the Dean of the Graduate School Search Committee.

Keen announced that Anne Warrington, School of Business and Economics, will serve as Senator At-large for the remainder of the academic year.

6. COMMITTEE BUSINESS/REPORTS
A. Election of Committee Member for the Dean of Engineering Review
Keen announced that John Williams (Chemistry) has agreed to be nominated to serve on the Committee. The floor was open for additional nominees. There were none. Hodek MOVED and Lutzke seconded the motion to elect Williams by acclamation. Motion PASSED with no dissent.

B. Board of Control Relations Committee
President Keen met with the Board of Control (BOC) at the strategic planning workshop on Thursday, March 8.

President Keen reported to the BOC during their regular meeting, with the report focusing on Senate proposals they should anticipate considering soon. Specific items were the promotion and tenure policy and the separation policy. He notified them that the Senate intends to poll Senate constituents concerning their attitudes about the Michigan Tech Enterprise Park (MTEP).

The BOC met with the Chairs and Deans on Friday, March 9. This meeting had been requested by the Senate officers as part of the implementation of Senate Proposal 21-00, Referendum on Presidential Performance. Issues discussed included the timeliness of searches for major university officers and concerns about annual vitae update timing.

C. Executive Committee
The Executive Committee has met twice since our last meeting. The major topic of the first meeting was to urge the chairs of committees to move proposals forward as soon as possible to avoid the usual year-end rush to finish all Senate business.

Concerns about the MSX contract for distance education collaboration were discussed. The concerns expressed were about the assurance of suitable academic standards with the MSX contract.

MTEP was discussed, with the possibility of formulating a Senate proposal to document Senate concerns being the focus of discussions. As the proposal was drafted and comments were received it became clear that no consensus was likely, and in fact that there was a very broad range of opinions concerning MTU's participation in MTEP. It was decided that we need to determine what the constituency thinks about MTEP, and it was decided to conduct a survey of the constituents. A web site is being developed which will have links to information about MTEP and other similar initiatives at other universities. Administration representatives are invited to provide information for the web page.

The Executive Committee also discussed the recent lack of a quorum. President Keen is drafting a memo to several of the senators, alternates, and unit chairs and leaders for units with persistent absences from meetings this year.

President Keen also stressed the importance of Senators communicating with their constituents about Senate business and, especially, soliciting input from constituents.

7. NEW BUSINESS
Proposal 11-01, Amendment to Requirements For Graduation [Appendix D]
The proposal was introduced and will be eligible for approval at the March 28 meeting.

The proposal was transmitted to the Senate by the Curricular Policy Committee. Senator Snyder presented the Committee's rationale for the proposed changes. This proposal would revise the residency requirement for receiving an MTU degree. Existing policy requires that students attend two semesters at MTU, but sets no limit on courses taken or credits earned. This policy would make MTU's requirements more consistent with other state universities. The proposal is on the web at http://www.sas.it.mtu.edu/usenate/propose/01/11-01.htm.

Senator Ouillette asked about the possibility of setting graduate residency requirements within the same policy. Senator Snyder responded that undergraduate and graduate residency requirements were generally addressed separately at the many institutions he investigated while developing the proposal. The reason for this is that the critical issues are so different for undergraduate and graduate education.

8. ADJOURNMENT
Ftaclas MOVED and Williams seconded the motion to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 6:12 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by James B. Pickens
Secretary of the University Senate