UNL ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING MINUTES
Clifford Hardin Nebraska Center, East Campus
January 16, 1996
President H. Douglas Jose Presiding
1.0 Call to Order
* President Jose called the meeting to order at 2:35 pm.2.0 Announcements
2.1 President Jose reported that the proposed Institute of Engineering, Information Science and Technology document was reviewed by the Executive Committee with one minor suggestion in wording. Copies of the document are available in the Academic Senate Office.2.2 Jose stated that the Executive Committee participated in the interview process for the two candidates for the Affirmative Action & Diversity Director.
2.3 Jose announced the death of Ernest Boyer in December.
2.4 Jose reported on the 1/6/96 Board of Regents meeting. Don Blank was elected chair and Charles Hassebrock vice chair. The Executive Committee sent a letter of congratulations to Blank as well as a letter of thanks to Nancy O'Brien for her service as past chair. Don Blank has been invited to attend the February Senate meeting. The Academic Affairs Committee met prior to the Board of Regents meeting to discuss student writing proficiency. The Business Affairs Committee met and discussed consulting and study development leaves for faculty.
2.5 President Jose, on behalf of the faculty senate, recognized Chancellor Leitzel for her service as Interim Chancellor of UNL. He presented her with a basketball autographed by Coaches Danny Nee and Angela Beck as a momento of her participation in "Midnight Madness."
3.0 Interim Chancellor Leitzel
3.1 Chancellor Leitzel reported on status of the university budget. Last year, the legislature appropriated 4% for university faculty/staff salaries which was subsequently reduced by Governor Nelson to a 3% increase. The legislature restored 1%, but only for one year. Thus, the university needs an additional 1% to augment salaries for the second year. The 1% was not included in Nelson's budget.3.2 Chancellor Leitzel updated the Senate on the Discrimination and Harassment document. Dick Wood, UNL attorney, will review the document and return it to Leitzel by January 26. She will then bring it to the senate for endorsement.
3.3 Two candidates for the Affirmative Action & Diversity Director were interviewed. Leitzel urged faculty to submit their evaluation forms to the chancellor's office.
3.4 Leitzel announced that UNL and Grambling State (LA) have entered an agreement to provide for mutual faculty/student exchanges, programs for faculty development, and combined research and technology transfer.
3.5 Strategic Planning hearings will begin in early February.
3.6 Leitzel announced plans to reschedule the workshop originally planned with Ernest Boyer. Peter Magrath (NASULGC) will be the resource person and the session is tentatively planned for sometime this spring.
4.0 Approval of 12/05/95 Minutes (Secretary Japp)
Miles Bryant moved for approval of the 12/05/95 minutes. Seconded by Pat Kennedy. All in favor.5.0 Committee Reports
5.1 Teaching Council. Sean Courtney, chair, reported on activities of the Teaching Council. Members are developing criteria for a new teaching award ($3000), discussing technology in the classroom, and portfolio development. They have conducted an informal student survey to determine students' perceptions of teaching at UNL. Members are also establishing a framework to set priorities for the council.5.2 Academic Planning Committee. Robert Diffendal, chair, thanked John Benson, Director of Institutional Research and Planning, for his assistance with the Academic Planning Committee. This committee is currently reviewing the standards for integrated studies.
5.3 Intercollegiate Athletics Committee. Steve Sommer, chair, stated that his committee's goal is to ensure a supportive relationship between athletics and the academic community. Sommer also noted that the Big Eight Conference is the only conference with a missed-class disciplinary policy in place. This policy was requested by the faculty senate to be applied across all intercollegiate activities. To date, only the Athletics Department has complied with this request.
6.0 Academic Senate President-Elect Election
6.1 President Jose acknowledged the contributions of Rusty White during his tenure as President-Elect of the Academic Senate.6.2 Fred Choobineh, chair of the nominating committee announced two candidates--Peter Bleed, Anthropology, and Leo Sartori, Physics and Astronomy. 6.3 President Jose opened the floor for additional nominations. Hearing none, the nomination process was closed. Peter Bleed was elected and will serve as the new President-Elect for 1996 and President for 1997.
6.7 Leo Chouinard, senate parliamentarian, announced that, with the addition of Bleed to the Executive Committee, we will have five representatives from the College of Arts & Sciences. According to the university bylaws, only four may come from one college. If no member of the Executive Committee voluntarily resigns, a second election will occur during the February meeting.
7.0 Graduate College Restructuring Resolution
7.1 Leo Sartori presented the following resolution on behalf of the Executive Committee:" The UNL Academic Senate is opposed to the proposal to restructure the UN Graduate School and urges all graduate faculty to vote against the proposal for the following reasons:
1) It is not in the interest of UNL to change the proportion of representation.
2) It is possible to change the size and functions of the Executive Committee without changing the basic structure of the Graduate School.
3) Given the differences between roles of the various campuses recently reaffirmed in the Regents' Policy Statement on Teaching, Research, and Service, the possibility for differences in graduate standards among the campuses should not be encouraged unless separate graduate degrees are issued by the campuses.
4) The ballot contains only supporting arguments for the change, and unfairly omits opposing views.
For all the above reasons, the Academic Senate asks Executive Vice President Lee Jones to invalidate the election." Sartori reported that the restructuring will result in only a 25% UNL representation, which is disproportionate to the size of UNL's graduate research programs. Sartori moved that this resolution be acted upon and Roysircar-Sodowsky seconded.
7.2 Discussion: Merlin Lawson, Dean of the Graduate College, responded to questions put forth by Darryll Pederson, Jay Corzine and Gargi Roysicar-Sodowsky. Lawson stated that there was unanimous support to decentralize the campus graduate councils for greater autonomy. He stated he is committed to returning authority back to the UNL graduate council; not decreasing it. Corzine questioned Lawson about proportional representation as an alternative restructuring goal. Lawson stated that they were attempting to minimize the size of the Executive Graduate Council. The proportional representation issue had been introduced during past meetings but was not supported by the other campuses. Roysircar-Sodowsky expressed concern that decentralizing the councils would be problematic for the current attempts by the university system to increase communication and interaction among campuses. Julie Johnson, Family & Consumer Science, stated that all this has been discussed at length by the Executive Graduate Council and called for trust in faculty representatives who serve on the council.
7.3 Due to the time constraint, President Jose declared it an emergency resolution and called for a vote. The resolution passed.
8.0 Commencement Procedures Resolution
* Sartori introduced a resolution as follows:"The Senate directs its Commencement Committee to revise the guidelines for participation in commencement exercises and submit the revised guidelines in time for consideration at the April Senate meeting."
The revised guidelines should encompass the following policy:
Any student who, two weeks prior to commencement day, is registered for sufficient courses to satisfy graduation requirements will be permitted to take part in the commencement ceremony. It shall be made clear that the diploma will not be awarded until all graduation requirements have actually been satisfied.
Once the new policy has gone into effect, the requirement that instructors submit final grades for graduating seniors by 4:00 p.m. on the day before commencement should be dropped." Sartori explained this resolution is in responce to problems encountered with the very short time allowed for submitting grades for graduating seniors. The resolution will allow students to participate in the ceremony and later receive their actual diploma when all graduation requirements have been fulfilled. This resolution will be discussed at the February meeting.
