Synopsis: The Senate

(1) approved the slate for the Faculty Review Committee ballot.

(2) approved Proposal 10-02, Amendments to Proposal 16-00, Certificate in Design Engineering.

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1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
President Bob Keen called University Senate Meeting 361 to order at 5:33 p.m. on Wednesday, 28 November 2001, in Room B45 EERC.

Secretary Craig Waddell called roll. Absent were At-large Senator Lee Oberto and representatives from Fine Arts, ME-EM, Mining and Materials Processing Engineering, Library, Keweenaw Research Center, and Student Affairs and Educational Opportunity. Liaisons in attendance were Dennis Taylor (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 presented the agenda and asked for amendments. There were no amendments or objections to the agenda as presented. [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 359 AND 360
Keen presented the minutes from meeting 359 and asked for corrections or amendments. Minor corrections were noted. There were no further corrections and no objections to the minutes as corrected. The minutes were declared approved as corrected.

Keen presented the minutes from meeting 360 and asked for corrections or amendments. Minor corrections were noted. There were no further corrections and no objections to the minutes as corrected. The minutes were declared approved as corrected.

5. PRESIDENT'S REPORT
Keen said that after the senate's November 14 meeting, he had transmitted to Provost Wray Proposals 3-02, 4-02, 6-02, 7-02, and 8-02: the proposals on forest technology degrees, the minerals process engineering, the elimination of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and its merger with the Department of Chemical Engineering, the elimination of the department of Mining and Materials Processing, and the elimination of the men's and women's varsity tennis programs. [Appendices B-F]

Keen said that he had not yet received an official reply from the provost, but that he had learned that the tennis teams would not be eliminated and that alternative sources of funding for these teams will be sought.

Keen received a memo from the provost thanking the senate for its expeditious processing of the budget-cutting proposals. [Appendix G]

The Strategic Planning Working Group met on November 26 and further discussed how to process final proposals for the Michigan Tech Vision Fund.

Senate officers met with the provost on November 27 and discussed the following: (1) the Conflict of Interest Policy may need further revision by the senate; (2) the Separation Policy proposals have been reviewed by the university's counselor; these proposals should soon be submitted to the senate; (3) the provost has already taken money for the proposed budget cuts away from the deans; hence, the deans are searching for ways to live within their reduced budgets; (4) the senate needs to develop a policy on romantic relationships between faculty and students as well as between any MTU supervisors and their subordinates.

Keen read the following charge to the Senate Tenure Task Force: [Appendix H]

The University Senate at its meeting of November 14, 2001, approved your appointment to a Task Force to Revise Tenure Policy and Procedures. Your specific charge is to draft a revision of the current tenure policy of the Board of Control, and to draft a revision of Proposal 7-00, Tenure, Promotion, and Reappointment Procedures. These revisions should be done following the guidelines of the extensive and detailed memo written by your chair, Tom Snyder. You will have several difficult problems to solve.

You should try to have the drafts prepared if possible by the middle of January 2002.

Keen urged senators to seek nominees for the Sabbatical Leave Committee. The senate must forward names of three nominees to President Tompkins. The president will select one of these nominees to serve on the committee.

Keen said that the Curricular Policy Committee is discussing a proposal to allow students to take a minor in their major department.

The Curricular Policy Committee will soon submit to the senate three proposals involving minors. The senate will vote on these proposals on December 12.

6. COMMITTEE BUSINESS/REPORTS
University committee elections
Keen said that there were seven candidates for the Faculty Review Committee, which reviews grievances filed by faculty but not resolved at the departmental level. The committee has three members and one alternate member. The senate approves a list of nominees and conducts the election, but the entire faculty votes on the candidates. Candidates thus far are Susan Amato-Henderson (Education), Sandra Boschetto-Sandoval (Humanities), Debra Bruch (Fine Arts), Carl Dassbach (Social Sciences), Janice Glime (Biology), Kim Hoagland (Social Sciences), and Martha Sloan (Electrical Engineering).

Keen opened the floor to further nominations. Waddell said that he had received a self-nomination from Barry Pegg (Humanities). There were no further nominations. Keen said that the list of nominees would be submitted to the faculty at large for a vote.

Keen said that ordinarily, the faculty elect only one new member to the Faculty Review Committee each year. This year, however, the committee is completely vacant. Hence, the three nominees receiving the largest number of votes will join the committee. The senate can either decide or let the committee decide who will be considered junior and senior members of the committee.

Senator Don Beck said that the committee should decide. There were no objections to this suggestion.

Senator Kelly Strong said that two of the nominees were from the same department; hence, the election would have to go to the candidates receiving the largest number of votes from each of the top three departments.

Keen agreed.

7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Proposal 10-02, Amendments to Proposal 16-00, Certificate in Design Engineering [See minutes, page 9403, for a copy of this proposal.]
Keen asked for a motion to approve Proposal 10-02. Strong MOVED and Senator Dana Johnson seconded the motion. Keen said that the purpose of the proposal was to make the standards for the Certificate in Design Engineering no more rigorous than those required for Michigan Tech degrees.

Keen called for discussion. There was none. Keen called for a vote. The motion PASSED by unanimous voice vote of the academic departments.

8. ADJOURNMENT
Pollins MOVED and Pickens seconded the motion to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Craig Waddell
Secretary of the University Senate