2009-2010 University Senate
Monday, December 14, 2009
3:30 pm, Campus Center Assembly Hall
Michael Range, Chair
Minutes
Present:
J. Philippe Abraham, Heidi Andrade, Hassaram Bakhru, Brea Barthel, Tom Bessette, R. Scott Birge,
Lance Bosart, Daryl Bullis, Brian Butcher, James Castracane, Richard Collier, John Delano, James
Dias, Jane Domaracki, Sue Faerman, Nicholas Fahrenkopf, Susanna Fessler, Elizabeth Gaffney,
Robert Gibson, Eric Hardiman, Kristen Hessler, Allen Israel, Donald Keenan, John Kimball, Ryan
King, Laurence Kranich, Winifred Kutchukian, William Lanford, Hamilton Lankford, Heather
Larkin, Fernando Leiva, Cristian Lenart, Eric Lifshin, Candace Merbler,
John Monfasani, Dale Morse, Robert Nakamura, Nancy Newman, Julie Novkov, Susan Phillips,
John Pipkin, Marjorie Pryse, R. Michael Range, Carlos Rodriguez, Joan Savitt, Benjamin Shaw,
Hany Shawky, Daniel Smith, Lawrence Snyder, Kabel Nathan Stanwicks, Eszter Szalczer, Daniel
White, Gary Yukl
Guests:
Jonathan Bartow, Peter Bloniarz, Sheila Mahan, Greg Pogarsky, Christine Wagner,
Edelgard Wulfert
The meeting convened at 3:35
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of November 16th were approved.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT & PROVOST’S REPORT – SUSAN PHILLIPS
Provost Phillips delivered President Philip’s report in his absence.
The President sent his thanks to all who participated in the Winter Commencement ceremony. There were 536
bachelor’s degrees awarded, 364 master’s degrees and 120 doctoral degrees. Former US Congressman Michael
McNulty delivered an inspiring speech to the graduates.
Budget:
SUNY’s share of the mid-year reduction will be $90 million. SUNY has provided a one-time buffer in the amount
of $20 million, allowing UAlbany’s share to be reduced to an amount just under $5 million. The latest mid-year
reduction was anticipated and the University was able to absorb most of the cut through its fiscal discipline. The
announcement from the Governor’s office yesterday to withhold $750 million in aid will not affect SUNY.
The SUNY Board of Trustees has approved SUNY’s 2010-11 State Budget Request based on Chancellor
Zimpher’s recommendation. The Chancellor has drawn heavily on input from all campuses and from the Budget
Taskforce. The budget requests funds to cover negotiated collective bargaining agreements, cost of living and state
mandated costs as well as the state’s commitment to return a portion of this year’s tuition increase to SUNY. The
budget follows the rational tuition policy to increase tuition according to the Higher Education pricing index. The
budget will also continue the multi-year capital construction request to cover critical maintenance.
The Board of Trustees is seeking legislative approval for the SUNY Flex Legislation. The legislation would allow
the trustees to set tuition without legislative authority and allow them to implement differential tuition rates at the
four university centers and two medical centers. The legislation would allow the University to lease land and
provide greater efficiency in procurement. SUNY Flex also has the potential for a greater faculty student ratio of 1
to 18 which would put UAlbany close to that of its national peers.
Strategic Planning Committee:
The initiative was launched on December 1 and the Committee began its work on December 4. The UAlbany
community can view the work through postings to the wiki.
Middle States:
Middle States representative, Dr. Donald Langenberg made a preliminary visit to the campus on November 20. He
was very impressed with the draft of the self-study and also impressed with the campus’s accomplishments of the
last ten years. The Self-study will be sent to Middle States in January, and the evaluation team will visit the
campus in March. The President sent his thanks to all of the committee chairs for their input.
Energy Conservation:
The energy conservation period will begin on December 18 and will end on January 14. Last year the campus
saved over $250,000. The Provost urged people to speak out if they find they are unable to accomplish work as
usual during this period and efforts will be made to resolve these issues. The Provost concluded the President’s
report by conveying his best wishes to all for the holidays.
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS REPORT
Provost Phillips discussed the status of the Senate bill approved in 2007 to establish an undergraduate ombudsman
office. The President has expressed his concern about how to best accomplish this and has asked the Provost to
proceed with the task.
The CLUE initiative for teaching faculty has formed three groups to address the issues of faculty retention, quality
of life and promotion and tenure. The chairs for each group are David Strait, Retention; Quality of Life, Carol Lee
Anderson; and Promotion and Tenure, Mary Gallant.
The series of informal conversations with the President and Provost have been very helpful. As part of the
communications initiative, the conversations will continue during the spring semester.
The search for the new Criminal Justice dean is underway.
Notes from Campus:
The University Library has extended its hours during final exams and the Provost thanked them for this
effort.
Melinda Larsen in Biology has received a $600,000 NIH grant.
The History Department held its 12th annual conference, Researching New York. It was the largest
gathering to date of historians, researchers and people interested in New York State history.
Professors Kehe Zhu and Michael Stessin from Mathematics & Statistics have been awarded a $25,000
grant from the National Science Foundation.
The Princeton Review MBA rankings have placed UAlbany #4 in terms of providing the greatest
opportunities for women.
Professor George Berg in Computer Science headed an effort for obtaining a grant from the National
Science Foundation.
The School of Criminal Justice moot court team advanced to the national finals.
Professor Frankie Bailey won the 2009 Macavity Award for Best Nonfiction.
School of Education Professor Kristen Campbell Wilcox and Distinguished Professor Arthur Applebee
were recently in the news for their findings related to the Just for the Kids-NY Project.
In the School of Public Health, Edward Fitzgerald has received an award from the National Institute on
Aging to study the effects of PFC’s on the nervous system.
Victor Asal and Karl Rethemeyer from Rockefeller College received $800,000 in grants from the Office of
Naval Research.
SENATE CHAIR’S REPORT – MICHAEL RANGE
Graduate Student Support (GSS) Report: On November 10, 2009, the Chair received a question from GAC Chair Larry Kranich
regarding procedures for reviewing the GSS report. The Chair referred the matter to the Governance Council. GOV examined the
question, and on November 17 submitted a detailed report to the Chair, which was copied to Graduate Studies Dean Pryse and to the GAC
Chair. Unfortunately, some individuals misunderstood GOV’s report to the effect that GOV was calling for another review of all the GSS
data, thereby potentially questioning the validity of the GSS panel reports and furthermore delaying transmittal of the panel reports to the
individual departments. However, the question addressed by GOV involved GAC’s (and also UPPC’s) review of the GSS Final Report
and Recommendations (to be forthcoming), and whether the individual panel reports should be available to GAC at that time. The matter
was discussed extensively with Provost Phillips and Dean Pryse at the Nov. 30 SEC meeting. It was emphasized that there was no intent
to second-guess the GSS panels, but that in order to review any recommendations, especially in light of potential major impact on
doctoral programs, the relevant data and reports which form the basis for such recommendations must be available. GAC and UPPC
members involved in such review would have to maintain confidentiality. The Provost and the Dean made clear that no recommendations
regarding program terminations or restructuring are considered at this time.
Definition of Diversity: President Philip had asked the University Community to review the draft of a revised definition of diversity and
a new vision for diversity for UAlbany, and he had asked for feedback and suggestions. Both CAFFECoR and ULC have discussed the
draft document. Because Tamra Minor, Assistant VP and Director of Diversity and Affirmative Action, was not able to join the SEC on
Nov. 30, a discussion of this item has been rescheduled for the first SEC meeting in January. President Philip agreed to extend the period
for feedback to that time.
Chair Range referred to the report from the Governance Council and noted that it had extensive detail concerning the GSS
review.
OTHER REPORTS
UFS (University Faculty Senator’s Report) – William Lanford & Daniel D. White, SUNY Senators
Nothing to report.
GSO (Graduate Student Organization) – Melanie Breganza, GSO President
Nicholas Fahrenkopf reported that one of their senators recently graduated and there is an opening on GSO.
SA (Student Association) – Josh Sussman, SA President
Nothing to report.
MSCHE Steering Committee Report – Reed Hoyt, University Senate Representative
Nothing to report.
CAA (Council on Academic Assessment) – Heidi Andrade, Chair
The Council on Academic Assessment met on November 16 to discuss incentives for high quality assessment and to share comments on
chapters five, nine and ten of the draft Middle States report. Questions about and comments on the Middle States report were discussed.
Council members agreed to post fine-grained, text-level suggestions for revision to the report on the website; broad stroke comments were
summarized in a memo and sent to the MSCHE Self-Study Co-Chairs on December 7. A brainstormed list of incentives for assessment
was generated and revisited at the meeting on December 8. The Council also reviewed a draft of a revised form used in the General
Education assessment process to be piloted by the GEAC in spring, and received updates on the work of the General Education
Assessment Committee and the Program Review Committee.
CAFFECoR (Committee on Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, and Community Responsibility) –
Susanna Fessler, Chair
CAFFECoR met on November 9th to discuss revision of the Community Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) document. At this point we
have a compiled version of the CRR with member suggestions and await final member approval before it is forwarded to Student Success
and Conflict Resolution for their review. Of note is that, in the course of inputting suggested changes, the chair of CAFFECoR has noted
sections which are pertinent to ULC and LISC also. For example, if the CAFFECoR changes take effect, one part of the policy on
computer usage (LISC’s purview) would also have to be changed. The electronic version of the revised CRR draft has been circulated to
SEC members, but the chair of CAFFECoR would like to emphasize that this draft has not yet been finalized by CAFFECoR.
Constructive criticism is welcome. CAFFECoR will meet one last time this semester on Monday, December 14th to finish reviewing
changes to the CRR.
Chair Fessler reported that CAFFECoR met earlier today and finalized revisions to the Community Rights and
Responsibilities document. The document will be forwarded to Student Success next week.
CERS (Committee on Ethics in Research and Scholarship) – John Monfasani, Chair
The Joint CERS-GOV committee has completed an initial draft of the CERS policy document and has begun scheduling meetings with
concerned faculty and the administration concerning it.
COR (Council on Research) – James Castracane, Chair
The Council will meet on Wednesday to evaluate research proposals.
CPCA (Council on Promotions and Continuing Appointments) – Carlos Rodriguez, Chair
The Council has held its final meeting for the semester and will have over forty cases to review next semester.
GAC (Graduate Academic Council) – Laurence Kranich, Chair
The GAC approved a proposal to establish an Advanced (Graduate) Certificate Program in Professional Science Management (PSM). The
proposal is on today’s Senate agenda.
GOV (Governance Council) – Eric Lifshin, Chair
Strategic Planning Committee: At its November 20th meeting, GOV identified individuals it felt would be important to include on the
SPC group, representing large academic areas or populations not represented thus far on the group. Chair Lifshin has transmitted this list
to the Provost.
Excellence Awards Committees: In accordance with SUNY and SUNY Senate Awards Committee requirements for campus excellence
awards committees in order for local recipients to be eligible for the Chancellor’s Excellence Awards, GOV approved and transmitted to
the President membership for this year’s committees, other than the student representatives, the one member to be designated by the
President, and the one member to be designated by the Senate Chair. GOV also suggested that the President’s nominee convene the first
meeting of each committee and preside over the election of their chair, noting that both the President’s and the Senate Chair’s designees
are voting members of the committee and could be elected chair of the given committee. The committees are for the President’s Awards
for Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Professional Service, Excellence in Librarianship, Excellence in Support (“Classified”) Service,
Excellence in Academic (“Faculty”) Service, and Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. GOV noted that the last award has
two distinct sets of criteria, one for “Scholarship” (formerly the “Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research”) and “Creative
Activities.” The UA Senate Charter designates the responsibility for the “Research” award to the Council on Research, but does not
address “Creative Activities.” [The criteria, requisite forms, and the allocation of awards to UA can be found on the following SUNY
sites: http://www.suny.edu/provost/facultyAwards.cfm?navLevel=5 and http://www.suny.edu/provost/faculty_awards_files/CEA
%202009-2011%20policies%20and%20procedures.pdf. Consequently, the membership for “Scholarship and Creative Activities”
expressly avoided the research component and included membership suggested by Provost’s Office concerned with “creative activities.”
Bill Hedberg responded that the membership was acceptable for all except the “Scholarship and Creative Activities” committee, but he is
passing on to COR the list of members. He also provided the names of the President’s designee for each committee and, in most cases, the
name of a support staff person. Senate Chair Range provided GOV a tentative list of his designees (not all of whom as yet had agreed to
serve on the committees.) GOV expressed concern that UA faculty who seem to meet the “Creative Activities” criteria may not be (and
may not have been) given appropriate consideration for that award. There is no question about COR continuing its appropriate role in
selecting a committee to nominate faculty it deems worthy for the President’s Award for Research (and thereby the Chancellor’s Award
for “Scholarship”) but it may be desirable in the future to have a separate committee concerned with a President’s (and Chancellor’s)
Award for Excellence in Creative Activities.
GAC inquiry regarding reports from the Graduate Student Support (GSS) panels: Senate Chair Range asked GOV to provide an
interpretation of the Senate Charter in response to a request from GAC Chair Kranich. Specifically, Kranich noted that in response to the
GAC request to Graduate Dean Pryse for information on the GSS deliberations, “The Dean told the Council that GAC will receive a copy
of the final report of the GSS review but not the individual program assessments. She assured the Council that the GSS report will not
include proposals for continuing or discontinuing programs nor will it contain any funding recommendations. Therefore, it was her
interpretation that since the GSS reports will not recommend the discontinuation of graduate programs, GAC does not need to see the
specific GSS recommendations.
At a special meeting of GOV on November 17th, the council strongly disagreed with that interpretation. However, recognizing the critical
importance that the GSS findings not be made public, it suggested GAC (and as necessary UPPC) members made privy to those findings
take a confidentiality oath. This response was sent to Chair Range with cc’s to Pryse, Kranich and UPPC Chair Delano and has been
distributed to SEC members. It was subsequently noted that this document was cited as a reason for not informing program directors of
the panels’ findings—nothing of that sort is stated in the document nor was this the intention of GOV. The council was also informed that
some GSS panel members felt they were being “second-guessed.”
At its December 11th meeting, GOV again discussed these issues and agreed that it did not intend that GAC should receive the “raw data”
that GSS panels had received and did not expect that GAC would “second guess” the GSS panels’ consensus about the ratings assigned to
the academic strength and quality of our doctoral programs. The reason for GAC’s receipt of assessment information about graduate
programs (and UAC’s for undergraduate programs) is to allow those councils to fulfill their charge of working with programs when
problems or weaknesses are identified. If such efforts fail, GAC (like UAC) might itself recommend that a program be discontinued,
suspended or restructured or may need to consider such a recommendation it received from the program's home college/school. The
GAC's deliberations and those of UPPC and the Senate must take into holistic consideration other concerns than the given program's
current academic strengths and quality, the appropriately narrowed focus of the GSS panels.
Also at its December 11th meeting the Governance Council responded to problems it found in the draft of Chapter 4 "Leadership,
Governance and Administration" of the Self-Study document and provided data on progress in strengthening University governance
accomplished during the past decade that was not recorded in the draft. This information is being sent to the chairs of the Self-Study
Steering Committee with a copy to SEC members.
A question was raised concerning the information that GAC would receive as a result of the GSS review and it was clarified
that they would only receive the panel reports and summary assessments but not the data. Chair Range informed the Senate
that the members of both GOV and GAC involved in the review will be held to strict confidentiality.
LISC (Council on Libraries, Information Systems, and Computing) – Gwen Moore, Chair
IT Committee chair Larry Raffalovich reported that the IT Committee met and discussed privacy and security concerns, as well as how
much is being monitored, and does the University have the authority to monitor content and usage. University Counsel John Reilly was
invited to attend the November 23 meeting of the IT Committee to discuss privacy policy.
Other issues raised were concern with the embedded links that accompany emails and the caution that should be taken when opening
these links. A discussion followed regarding the lack of subject lines in blast emails and some of the electronic classrooms being non-
conducive to teaching. A suggestion to revisit “email as an official means of communication” by the Committee was made.
LISC members are asked to review and comment on the Middle States Self-Study Report, especially Chapter 3.
At its December 7th meeting, LISC members discussed the draft Self-Study. Comments were submitted to the Self-Study committee. At a
meeting of the Libraries Committee, members decided to focus on two issues this year: open-access publishing and the University’s
development of a digital file repository with images from the art museum, Writers’ Institute events, and other university items. This
repository will be available to the university community soon. A wider institutional repository would be more expensive and time
consuming but possibilities for developing one will be investigated by the Libraries Committee. Members of the IT Committee met with
University Counsel John Reilly recently to discuss legal issues and University policies relating to IT privacy. Apparently, some
regulations are written but many are not.
UAC (Undergraduate Academic Council) – Joan Savitt, Chair
UAC approved a CAS course for training tutors under a grant.
UAC learned that the number of students electing S/U grading has greatly increased now that the last date to do so has been moved to
later in the semester (877 in Fall 09 with a later deadline compared to 396 in Fall 08 with Sept. 22nd deadline). It remains to be seen if the
number of appeals will go down! (Students who elect S/U grading must obtain a C or better to pass.)
UAC discussed the concept of granting blanket Gen Ed approval for topics courses. No vote was taken. The sense of the group was that
each course, or in this case, group of courses, should be reviewed on its own merits, and that a general topics course in an area that fell
under a particular gen ed could be approved if set up to clearly show those objectives would be met in all topics.
UAC began a discussion about determining whether a student who missed more than 2 weeks of classes due to illness or any "allowable"
reason should always be allowed back in class at the request of the Dean, as is the case for shorter absences of similar nature.
The new date and time for UAC meetings in the spring 2010 semester has been set for Wednesdays from 9:30-10:30am.
The UAC reviewed Chapter 9 of the Middle State Self-Study draft report and submitted comments as requested.
The UAC proposes a revision in the General Education Foreign Language requirement. [bill is on the Senate agenda] The proposal
has been distributed to SEC members and is on today’s agenda.
The UAC approved the retention standards proposed by the Governing Board of the Honors College. The proposed “Grade Point
Requirements for Continuing in the Honors College” bill is on the Senate’s agenda.
After continuing discussion of the progress being made to reinvigorate the majors in Global Studies [on Senate agenda], UAC voted to
recommend that no student be permitted to declare either of the Global majors during the spring semester. In order to keep the PeopleSoft
records of students currently in the major functioning normally, this policy will be administered by the staff of the Registrar's Office and
the Advisement Services Center. All students who are known to be considering this major will receive advisement from ASC about their
options, which include waiting to declare or switching to another major instead. Of the current students interested in this major but not yet
declared, only one is a junior. The others are frosh or sophomores, so this issue should resolve itself shortly. However, should a new
structure not be defined during the spring, UAC will consider further action with regard to the majors.
With regards to revisions to the Music minor [bill on the Senate agenda], we note that these are revisions to revisions made last year and
approved by the Senate. The Bulletin copy for 09-10 reflects changes that were approved last year. The new changes further clarify the
minor and would go into effect after approval by the Senate.
UAC approved some revisions to the applications for student-initiated majors and minors, so that the sponsoring faculty will now be in
academic departments from which coursework is drawn, and so that each proposal will include learning objectives and outcomes for the
proposed majors and minors. By previous legislation, faculty sponsors must be members of the tenure-track teaching faculty. This has also
been clarified on the forms.
UAC approved changing the deadlines for submission of UUNI390 (University-wide Internship) applications so that they are more
realistic for students. The deadline to apply for credit for an internship to be undertaken in the subsequent spring semester has been
changed from December 1st to December 15th. The deadline to apply for credit for an internship to be undertaken in the subsequent fall
semester has been changed from May 1st to August 1st.
A small working group formed of UAC members will work during the month of January to try to make some progress on UAC's work
this fall to identify what might be a satisfactory set of graduation requirements should minors themselves be made optional. UAC will
then continue on that project and see where it leads.
Also planned for the spring is a review of restricted majors. One concern is that there are students who have not been allowed to declare a
restricted major who have nevertheless been allowed to complete all the coursework for it. However, they still cannot graduate, because
they cannot declare. UAC will be deciding early in the spring semester what data we wish to gather.
ULC (University Life Council) – Daniel R. Smith, Chair
ULC met to discuss the Middle States Self-Study draft; its comments on chapters 10 and 7 follow:
Chapter 10 typos: Page 8, course prefix is ‘RSSW’. Page 8 is missing a link. Page 18 ‘Capitol’ should be spelled ‘Capital’. Page 12
number of veterans is now 221 as of fall 2009.
Chapter 10 comments: Page 3, reference to a “dip to 72.4% [retention] after eight semesters”, it is unclear whether this is correct.
Shouldn’t retention dip to zero given graduation after eight semesters for EOP students, especially in light of the fact that in the very next
sentence Institutional Research has calculated the graduation rate at 60%?
Chapter 7 typos: Page 9, third paragraph: acronym “LGBTQ” should be “LGBTQQA” (Questioning, Allied). And, last sentence, same
paragraph is a fragment “In and examine…faculty and staff.”
Chapter 7 comments:
1.
Student Services for Graduate Students needs to be explicated. Notation that 30% of the crime on campus is “theft”--what is the
other 70%? Is it more serious crime? Needs explanation and data.
2.
Perceptions of safety? Where are the stats that demonstrate that UA is more safe than the general Albany community? There is
one chart (Appendix 7.2) with ‘Students as Crime Victims OFF CAMPUS”, how about stats on students as crime victims on campus?
3.
Appendices 7.1- 7.5, charts or appendices entitled “Cultural Leaders Avg. GPA “, “Prevention Program Attendance”, and
“Residence Hall Programming “ are not referred to in the body of the chapter.
ULC continues to ask for three undergraduate student members for the University Life Council, one of whom must be a Senator
Chair Smith reported that two student members have been added to ULC and the Council is now fully constituted. One of the
students is a senator.
UPPC (University Planning and Policy Council) – John Delano, Chair
The UPPC met on November 19 and December 3 to review a 15-page Letter of Intent (LoI) from Rockefeller College for the creation of a
Masters in Global Affairs program. Provost Phillips and the Office of Graduate Studies had referred the LoI to the UPPC for its
perspectives, as per the review procedures (step 4) described at: http://www.albany.edu/gradstudies/gradprogdevguide.shtml. The UPPC
reviewed the LoI for its strategic and budgetary implications (according to Senate Charter X.2.4), and compliance of the LoI with the
informational requirements listed in 'Guidelines for the Submission of Graduate Academic Program Proposals' (November 2005 version)
that is available by clicking on the 'SUNY Guidelines' link at the URL listed in the previous sentence.
On November 19, the UPPC met with Dean Jeffrey Straussman and Prof. Rey Koslowski. Following that 90-minute discussion,
comments and suggestions by the UPPC were forwarded Dean Straussman and Prof. Koslowski for revisions to the LoI. On December 3,
the UPPC met again with Prof. Koslowski to review and discuss the revised LoI that contained more detailed budgetary and resource
information. The revised version of the LoI was accepted by a formal UPPC vote. If the LoI has continuing administrative support (refer
to URL above), the LoI is prepared for transmittal by either Provost Phillips or President Philip to the SUNY System Provost for step 5 in
the 18-step review process.
At its meeting on December 3, the UPPC also discussed two chapters in the current draft of the Middle States Self-Study (i.e., Mission
and Goals; and Institutional Resources). Comments and suggestions for revision of those chapters were sent to the Co-Chairs of the
Middle States Self-Study, Vice Provost Sue Faerman and Prof. Steven Messner.
NEW BUSINESS
Bill 0910-02 PSM Advanced Graduate Certificates – GAC:
GAC Chair Laurence Kranich provided background on the proposal which comes from the Department of
Biological Sciences and the Department of Computer Science, in conjunction with the School of Business. The
proposal is part of a national effort by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, with
grant support from the National Science Foundation, intended for those individuals who wish to pursue non
research careers in science. The model for the proposal is structured after the program at SUNY Buffalo. The
certificate will supplement existing master’s programs with 18 credits, six of which will be for graduate level
courses in science and/or technology; nine from PLUS courses in business, communications, law, public
administration or public policy; and three from an internship or other appropriate project. While the current
proposal involves three master’s programs in Biology and Computer Science, it is designed to easily incorporate
other programs in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.
Senate Secretary Richard Collier inquired whether there are specific plans for extending the program to include
other departments. Dean of Graduate Studies Marjorie Pryse responded that about three years ago some other
programs had expressed an interest, but to her knowledge no other programs are planning to offer a PSM
Certificate at present.
Professor Donald Orokos from Biology responded to a question concerning the valued added to current MS
programs. He indicated that there is an existing job market for this type of concentration.
UPPC Chair John Delano referred to the section under Resources, in particular the efforts that faculty would be
encouraged to make for obtaining additional funding. He asked whether or not the program would be jeopardized
in case such funds could not be secured. Professor Orokos replied that the program would not be jeopardized nor
would the schools or departments become responsible for resources due to protections provided by agreements that
are in place.
Professor Orokos responded to an inquiry concerning how internships would differ from existing MS internships.
He stated that Computer Science does not officially have an internship and this would be value added since most of
the experience would be industrial. Students in the program are not necessarily destined to go into management or
sales, but the internship would give them the ability to do so.
Chair Range asked for a motion for approval of the bill. A motion was made and seconded and the bill passed.
Bill 0910-03 Foreign Language Gen Ed Revision -- UAC:
UAC Chair Savitt introduced the bill and indicated that fulfilling the language requirement overseas is different
than learning the language on campus. Students who have exposure to foreign language on sight can achieve a
higher level of proficiency than they would obtain on their home campus. UPPC Chair Delano inquired about the
effects this could have on language program enrollments. Chair Savitt responded that it could increase enrollments
and motivate students to achieve a higher level of proficiency.
Chair Range asked for a motion to approve the bill. A motion was made and seconded, and the bill passed.
Bill 0910-04 Honors College Retention Standards – UAC:
The Governing Board of the Honors College has requested creation of retention standards and the Board is in
agreement with this proposal. The standards rise after the first semester, allowing students to adjust during their
first semester. There is no appeals process if students fall below the acceptable levels but they will receive support
from the Honors College.
There was an ensuing discussion concerning the language in the bill that references semester and yearly grade
point average (GPA) but does not include language referring to a cumulative GPA. Members of the Senate felt the
proposal should include additional language to include a cumulative GPA. A motion was made to return the bill to
UAC for clarification.
Bill 0910-05 Revision of the Music minor – UAC:
Chair Savitt indicated that discrepancies had been found between the printed version and the online version. Those
discrepancies have been resolved. The bill is being withdrawn and does not need additional action.
Globalization Studies Major:
UAC Chair Savitt informed the Senate that this item is not being introduced as a bill at this time. The original
intent was to deactivate the major, but this was deemed unfavorable since a substantial number of students are
currently in the program. Instead, the major will be restructured with the hopes of making the major clearer to
students and to reduce the individual advisement that is currently involved. CAS Dean Edelgard Wulfert said this
was viewed as a positive step and is what she had initially proposed. She was concerned about deactivating the
major but looks forward to having a specific restructuring proposal in place that can be voted on before the end of
the spring semester.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 4:49 pm.
Respectfully submitted by,
Gail Cameron, Recorder
