Minutes of the
Faculty Senate
May
7, 2002
MCV Alumni House,
Room 114, MCV Campus
Present:
Abubaker,
Adler, Alder, Andrews, Bigbee, Bilyeu, Briceland, Burton, Cash, Certosimo,
Coffman, Crouch, Dewey, Diegelman, Fauri, Garcia, Guidarelli, Harvie, Hindle
(for Delafuente), Heldberg, Henry, Heuback (for McCay), Heuman, Hodges,
Holmes, Jeter, Johnson, Kirkpatrick, Koerin, Konechne, Lamb, Lewis, Little,
Lloyd, McKelvey, Mikkelsen, Moon, Nadder, Otto (for Kennamer), Philipsen,
Poynor, Ream, Seago, Selinger, Simons, Spindle (for Pitts), Turner, Walsh,
Ward, Weaver, Whitehead, Wood
Absent:
Boothby,
Bowlin, Costanzo, Davey, Dilworth, Hague, Kester, Kuemmerle, Leone, McCreary,
Nicholson, Ottenbrite, Reynolds, Rife, Tepper
The last Faculty
Senate meeting of the 2001-2002 academic year was called to order at 4:10
PM by President Bob Andrews. The motion to approve minutes of April meeting
passed unanimously.
Vice President
Christina Turner announced
that she had circulated a list of standing committees. She asked Senators
who were completing their three-year term to cross their names off the
current committee list.She requested
that those who wanted to change committee assignments and those who were
interested in serving as a committee chair or co-chair please indicate
those desires on the list.
President's Report
President Bob
Andrews asked for a volunteer
to represent the faculty on a VCU Dining Services committee. The volunteer
would need to be available for vendor presentations the first week in August.
Dr. Andrews announced
that the Leadership Group, composed of Committee Chairs and the elected
Executive Committee meet monthly throughout the academic year. He encouraged
those Senators with an interest in serving on this Leadership Group to
contact him about leadership opportunities for 2002-2003.
Proposed Changes
to the University Council By-laws
Dr. Alan Briceland
shared that there were 3 issues in regard to proposed changes to the by-laws
of the University Council. The consensus document, term limits and the
composition of the Academic Affairs Committee. The consensus document included
language changes that would permit the Academic Affairs Committee to turn
down a recommendation and still allow it to be brought forward to University
Council with a "negative recommendation." Another proposed change was to
reduce the number of faculty representatives on the Academic Affairs Committee
from 6 to 4 and to add the Vice President of Health Sciences and a representative
from the Staff Senate.
Dr. Briceland expressed
his feelings that faculty should be an absolute majority on the Academic
Affairs Committee. Dr. Briceland explained that unless a 2/3 vote for the
by-law change was achieved that the composition of the Academic Affairs
Committee would remain its current composition of: 6 faculty, 1 senior
administrator, 2 deans, and 2 students.
Discussion of these
proposed by-law changes included acknowledgement that most academic concerns
such as program and course changes are reviewed by the Undergraduate Curriculum
Committee, the Graduate Curriculum Committee, or the Professional Program
Committee. However, because there are no other committees of University
Council that meet on a regular basis, the Academic Affairs Committee has
become the committee that is used to review other items business prior
to being brought to University Council. Policies such as the University
Alcohol and Drug Policy, the Research Data Policy, and the formation of
the Professional Programs Committee have been introduced for the first
time at the level of the Academic Affairs Committee.
Senators were encouraged
to contact elected faculty representatives from their school to University
Council to express their concern about a loss of faculty majority on the
Academic Affairs Committee if this proposed by-law change were to be passed.
There was a general
consensus of opinion expressed that steps should be taken to insure that
faculty have the major say in all issues related to academics.
Dr. Wes Poynor stated
that the Faculty Senate should take a stand to oppose term limits.
He stated his opinion that "the Senate should be at liberty to send who
they want to represent them."
Dr. Judy Lewis stated
that the issue regarding the composition of the Academic Affairs Committee
was "an issue of principle." Faculty should be in control of academic decisions.
Three votes were
held providing Faculty Senate opinion in regard to these bylaw changes
to the Faculty Senates' representatives to University Council. The first
vote dealt with the issue of adding a section that changed the language
of "approval" to "recommend." The Senate indicated with a vote of 13 For,
28 Against that they were opposed to voting in favor of the consensus document.
The second vote dealt
with Term Limits. With a vote of 26 For and 12 Against, the Senate indicated
that they favored term limits of 4 years. The final vote, which was unanimous,
indicated that the Senate opposed any change in the composition of the
Academic Affairs Committee that would alter the faculty majority membership.
President Andrews indicated that the voice of the senate had been heard
by those who represented them on University Council.
Research Data
Policy
Dr.
Andrews announced that the Academic and Research Committee co-chairs Joyce
Lloyd and Bob Lamb were in the process of arranging a meeting with Dr.
Chermside, and Mr. Dick Franson and their committee, consisting of Wes
Poynor, Bob Andrews, Blue Wooldridge, Kathryn Murphy-Judy, Allan Lee, Jim
McMillan, Frank Macrina, and Margo Garcia. This group may meet during the
summer.
Action Items
A motion was made, sponsored by the Faculty Caucus of University Council, to request that the President of Faculty Senate assemble a committee to study the Faculty Grievance and Appeal Procedure Document. Dr. Alan Briceland commented that some years ago that Retired Faculty Senator Lucy Harvey chaired a Committee to revise the Faculty Grievance Document and that she might be willing to serve on whatever committee was assembled.
Dr. Michael Smith,
Chair of the Grievance Panel, has recommended that a number of other changes
need to be made to the document. A new Chair of Faculty Grievance Procedure
will be elected in the fall. The motion passed.
Dr. Andrews also
announced that the chair of next year's Credentials and Rules Committee,
Dr. Dianne Simons, would put together a committee to review the Faculty
Senate Bylaws.
Classroom Survey
West Campus Representative
Dan Ream announced the results
of the Classroom Survey report. Although the number of responses was not
as high as the committee would have liked, there were 429 responses. Jimmy
Gaffery from VCU Libraries provided programming assistance. According to
Senator Ream, the results of the survey will help the Senate Academic Support
Service Committee to help the Administration spend any money designated
for classrooms "a little more intelligently." Senator Margo Garcia commended
the work that the Senate had accomplished in this area over the last 3
years bringing the attention of the administration to this issue. She stated
"In rooms that I’ve been teaching in, improvements have been made."
New Business Item
Phyllis Self announced
that “Dolly” Pakurar and John W. Bigbee had been selected for this year's
award for Academic Technology Innovation for their “Digital Histology CD.”
Final Comments
Prior to closing
Vice President Christina Turner recognized Bob Andrews for his service
over the previous year as Faculty Senate President. She emphasized that
he should be commended for his grace in "walking a fine line" in representing
the interests of the faculty with the administration. Not always an easy
task.
The meeting adjourned
at 5:55 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Dianne F. Simons,
Ph.D., OTR/L
Faculty
Senate Secretary-Treasurer