THE
university SENATE OF
MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Minutes of Meeting 447
17 January 2007
Synopsis:
The Senate
(1) heard that Senate Proposals 10-07 (Mid-term Grade Proposal), 11-07 (Revision of Proposal 14-97 to Reflect Semester Conversion), Proposal 13-07 (MS in Applied Natural Resource Economics Name Change for the MS in Mineral Economics Degree), Proposal 14-07 (Health and PE Major) have been approved by the Administration.
(2) heard that the Provost has asked the chairs and deans to provide classification, by 1 April, of their current lecturers according to the new ranks.
(3) passed Proposal 16-07, an edited version of the proposal on transfer of tenure and rank between academic units.
(4) introduced Proposals 15-07 (Minor in Diversity studies), 17-07 (Amendment to Proposal 12-01, Search Procedures for Dean of the Graduate School), 18-07 (Departmental Name Change from Department of Education to Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences), 19-07 (Amendment to Proposal 19-01, Search Procedures for College Deans), and 20-07 (Amendment to Senate Bylaws, Senate Standing Committees – Organization).
(5) heard that Senators in the College of Sciences and Arts need to conduct an election in their units for a person to represent them on the search committee for a new Dean for the college.
1. CALL TO
ORDER AND ROLL CALL
President Sloan called the University Senate Meeting 447 to order at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, 17 January 2007, in Room B45 EERC.
Secretary Glime called roll. Absent were representatives from Education and Academic Services A. The only liaison in attendance was Nick Nanninga (GSC). Academic Services C, Advancement, and Auxiliaries currently have no elected representatives.
2. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
Guests included Jackie Huntoon (Graduate School), Max Seel (Sciences & Arts), Dave Reed (Provost), and Brad Baltensperger (Education).
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Pollins MOVED and Velat seconded the motion to approve the agenda as presented. 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 446
Helminen MOVED and Turnquist seconded the motion to approve the minutes of Meeting 446 as presented. The motion PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.
5. President’s Report
President Sloan
reported events since the last Senate meeting.
Senate assistant: Former Senate assistant Paige Hackney has been helping us until we hire a new assistant. The position was posted last week and the Senate officers hope to review applications and interview candidates by our next meeting.
Proposals: The administration has approved:
Proposal 10-07: Mid Term Grade Proposal
Proposal 11-07: Revision of Proposal 14-97 to Reflect Semester Conversion
Proposal 13-07: MS in Applied Natural Resource Economics Name Change for the MS in Mineral Economics Degree
Proposal 14-07: Health and PE Major
Legal review of two Senate proposals has resulted in minor changes in wording which we will deal with today and in two weeks.
The provost has met with chairs and deans to classify current lecturers according to the new lecturer ranks. Initial classifications, due by 1 April, will undergo EEO analysis.
Dean of Engineering Search: Many of you know about the enthusiastic attendance at the first open forum for dean of engineering candidates. Two rooms—a regular and an overflow room—were nearly filled. There will be four more such forums and I encourage your participation.
Provost Search: The Provost search is proceeding, with campus
interviews planned for March and April.
We hope that attendance will be as good as it was for the first Dean of
Engineering search presentation.
Dean of Sciences and Arts Search: A search for the next dean of sciences and arts is starting. Senators of each department in S & A play key roles. Each department in the college must elect one departmental representative to the Search Committee. The representative must be a member of the tenured or tenure-track faculty of the department, and may be the department Chair. The departmental Senator and a person appointed by the department Chair will conduct the election. The Senator will report the name of the departmental representative to the provost, who will select his appointees after all departmental representatives are known. and to the President of the University Senate, who will announce the membership of the Committee at the next meeting of the Senate. I hope to hear from you soon.
Dean of School of Business Search: The business school is also preparing for a dean’s search. They are currently revising their charter, starting with search procedures.
Ombuds Officer: The ombuds officer search committee reports that it has received two applications for the ombuds officer. The committee hopes to interview both soon.
Student Issues: USG president Liz Van Heusden called me this morning to discuss several issues. USG is working with the Senate Instructional Policy Committee on the calendar. Students plan a survey on 14 weeks vs. 15 weeks and they have ideas concerning K-Day and Career Fairs. They will be discussing the instructional rating system with Bill Kennedy and they would like the final exam policy modified to limit exams to three in 24 hours, rather than three in a day.
6. OLD Business
A. Proposal 16-07, Transfer of Tenure and Rank between Academic Units
Ex Senate Assistant Paige Hackney distributed a revised version of Proposal 16-07 [Appendix B]. Item 1 under the Policy Proposal now reads "Faculty tenure and rank are based in the university and not in a particular academic unit. A faculty member may not be asked to give up tenure or rank before moving to another academic unit or administrative assignment."
Bruch MOVED and Waddell seconded the motion to approve Proposal 16-07.
President Sloan explained that there was a wording change to item A based on suggestions from University Counsel. She ruled the change to be editorial. No one contested the ruling.
The motion PASSED on voice vote with no dissent.
7. nEW bUSINESS
Senator Gorman (Curricular Policy Committee) introduced the proposal [Appendix C]. He noted that the curricular policy committee had asked the developers of the proposal to eliminate material from the "catalog description" section as that description went beyond the courses included in the minor. Gorman said the committee probably should have asked that some of this material be moved to the section describing potential new courses--and suggested that Senator Waddell might want to mention those courses.
Senator
Waddell said that the original proposal included new courses, but that faculty
had decided that it was best to develop these courses in separate
proposals. Planned new courses include Introduction to Diversity Studies;
African American Literature and Experience; American Indian Literature and
Experience; Hispanic American Literature and Experience; Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, and Transsexual Literature and Experience; and Post-Colonial
Literature and Experience.
Senator
Waddell stated that while Michigan Tech is suffering from the lack of diversity,
a January 15
Senator Velat asked about the possibility of meeting degree requirements with languages other than those listed in the proposal (Spanish, French, and Less Commonly Taught Languages). Waddell explained that Spanish and French are taught regularly in the department, and that the less commonly taught languages include Japanese and Ojibwe. Senator Flynn added that a student could petition to substitute other languages.
Senator Luck asked if there was
evidence to support the statement in the
Rationale section that "Such a minor could help to improve the
climate for underrepresented groups on campus and, thus, could help with recruiting
and retaining underrepresented students, faculty, and staff." Waddell said that
evidence could probably be found, but since none was provided, that claim was
introduced with "could" rather than "will." He said
that, for example, if Michigan Tech were to advertise for a position that
involved teaching African American Literature and Experience, we would probably
attract more African American applicants than if we simply advertised for a
position teaching American Literature. He said that he had shared a draft of the proposal with members of the
Black Students Association and with members of other underrepresented groups on
campus, who had responded favorably to the proposal. Some companies, such as Dow and Kimberly
Clark, have stopped recruiting at Michigan Tech because of the campus’s lack of
diversity. He said that a minor in
diversity studies could add value to other degrees because it could help to
demonstrate to prospective employers a student’s commitment to diversity.
Senator Flynn added that the University had expressed a desire to improve diversity for a long time, but there was no curricular component. She said that the minor in diversity studies has been in development for 3-4 years. Originally, some of the faculty developing this proposal wanted all departments to participate, but one college said it could not imagine any way it could contribute, while others suggested that the Departments of Humanities and Social Sciences were best suited to this task.
B. Proposal 17-07, Amendment to Proposal 12-01, Search Procedures for Dean of the Graduate School
This proposal was
developed to address the confidentiality of references, to be consistent with
the changes made recently to other administrative search procedures. The Ex Senate Assistant distributed a
revision to this proposal [Appendix D]
that added the
Jackie Huntoon, Dean of the Graduate School, stated that she supported the additional representative from the School of Technology. The department has a number of faculty on the graduate faculty and hopes to develop a graduate program.
Provost Reed added that the change to remove accessibility of references to the campus at large was consistent with the recent changes made by the Senate in other administrative search procedures.
C. Proposal 18-07, Departmental Name Change from
Department of Education to Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
[Appendix E]
Brad Baltensperger (Department of Education) explained that the Department of Education included psychology. This is an uncommon combination. Furthermore, there are no education majors (they are housed in other departments); all majors in the department are in psychology. Outside the university, everyone assumes that the psychology program is restricted to educational psychology, whereas the courses actually primarily support the psychology major and distribution courses.
The department considered many names but finally agreed on Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences. The cognitive portion includes linguistics, neuroscience, computer science, psychology, and philosophy. The learning portion includes some of these but is primarily the education part. Indiana University has two departments – Cognitive Psychology and Learning Psychology. The new name will be recognized by persons outside the university, whereas the present department name is misunderstood.
Senator Janners asked how the program would be advertised/presented in a way that students would recognize it. Baltensperger responded that the programs would be divided into a division of education and a division of psychology. Students usually search for a word like psychology, not for a particular department.
Senator Jambekar asked about the education and psychology combination. Baltensperger stated that there is only one department of education and psychology in the country. The usual assumption regarding that combination is that it represents only educational psychology. Our faculty work in many areas of cognitive psychology and interact with faculty in other departments, including Exercise Science, Biological Sciences, Civil Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering.
Flynn asked if any of our faculty do psychology in areas other than cognitive. Baltensperger responded that all are within the cognitive science area; none do clinical or social psychology, although there is a social psychologist in the Department of Social Sciences.
D. Proposal 19-07, Amendment to Proposal 19-01,
Search Procedures for College Deans
This proposal [Appendix F] is designed to bring the reference procedure in line with the other administrative procedures recently modified by the Senate. It also provides the possibility to waive the technical presentation in the department where a candidate might be tenured, particularly for internal candidates who already have tenure in a department.
Senator Wood inquired who decides to waive the presentation. President Sloan responded that we would need to clarify that before the next meeting. Provost Reed stated that it makes sense for the search committee to make that decision.
Senator Veurink stated that in section 2 it states that the departmental representative must be a member of the tenured or tenure track faculty. However, her department (Engineering Fundamentals) has no tenure track positions. She is currently the department's representative to the Dean of Engineering Search Committee. Sloan responded that the intent would need clarification in the proposal.
Senator Luck asked if Senators should wait to be notified before holding the election of a representative for an upcoming search committee. President Sloan stated that Senators should consider themselves notified regarding the Dean of Sciences and Arts Search Committee.
E. Proposal 20-07, Amendment to Bylaws, Senate
Standing Committees – Organization [Appendix G]
Senator Janners (Instructional Policy Committee) stated that the Instructional Policy Committee and the Curricular Policy Committee always work closely with personnel in the Registrar's Office. The registrar can point out when the Committees present proposals that are in conflict with existing University policy and procedure and/or the law. Sharron Paris has suggested that to ensure the continued participation of that office, the Bylaws should be modified to include the Registrar or a representative of the Registrar as an ex officio member of these two committees. Senator Gorman (Curricular Policy Committee) stated that the Curricular Policy Committee agreed with this modification.
Senator Gorman asked how we would know, when looking at an old proposal on the website, that a proposal has been amended. President Sloan responded that this is a proposed Bylaws amendment, so the change would replace the current wording once it has been approved. [We still need to look at how we indicate that a proposal has been modified.]
[After the meeting, Gorman pointed out that the voting status of the ex officio member needs to be clarified in the proposal.]
8. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 6:25 pm.
Respectfully Submitted by Janice M. Glime
Secretary of the University Senate