George Mason University
Approved Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting
April 2, 2003
Present: J. Bennett, L. Brown, P. Buchanan, R. Coffinberger,
M. De Nys, E. Elstun, D. Kuebrich, P. Stearns
Chair Jim Bennett opened the meeting at 12:00 noon.
I. Approval of Minutes
The Minutes of the March 19, 2003 Executive Committee meeting were approved
as distributed.
II. Announcements
The Chair announced that the Faculty Senate has a very full agenda for the April
9, 2003 meeting. At that meeting, the Chair will ask the Secretary to send a
letter of support and well wishes to Senator Bruce Manchester, who is currently
undergoing cancer treatment, on behalf of the Faculty Senate.
It was also noted that the one of the new CAS Senator, Esperanza Roman-Mendoza,
will not be able to attend Senate meetings this semester due to her teaching
schedule.
The Clerk announced that the Faculty Evaluations of the Administration were
sent out yesterday to all full-time instructional faculty.
III. Old Business
There was no old business.
IV. Reports from Senate Standing Committee Chairs
A. Academic Policies
The Committee is meeting this afternoon and will have an action item for the
May agenda.
B. Facilities & Support Services & Library
The Committee will meet this afternoon to finalize the “Resolution on
Library Administration” before it is submitted to the Faculty Senate next
week.
C. Faculty Matters
The Committee has reviewed the four Honor System/Academic Standards Task Forces’
recommendations it received from O&O, and has determined that these recommendations
need to be addressed by LAUs, not the Faculty Senate. The
Faculty Matters Chair report this at next week’s meeting.
The Committee will meet on Friday to discuss a proposed motion concerning compensation
for teaching summer school labs.
D. Nominations
The Committee will have the final slate of nominees for the Task Force on Reporting
Satisfactory Academic Standards and, if needed, a slate for the Task Force to
Review Midterm Grading.
E. Organization & Operations
The correction of the allocation seats for AY2003-2004 will be an announcement,
not a motion. Per the new allocation, CAS will have 25 seats and ICAR &
SCS will share two seats (one each). It has been determined that University
Life is
ineligible for Senate representation and the Krasnow Institute doesn’t
meet the FTE threshold.
It was determined that the motion submitted by four Senators concerning allocation
constitutes a change in the Faculty Senate Charter and is, therefore, out of
order. Charter amendments must go through the O&O Committee, and then be
brought before the Faculty Senate and the General Faculty.
The O&O Committee is in agreement, however, that the section of the Charter
concerning allocation is badly worded and contains internal inconsistencies
and problems. The Committee will work on a proposed amendment to fix these problems
before the AY2004-2005 allocation process. It was also noted that the IRR faculty
database is not up to date and inaccurate in a number of areas. The Provost
was asked for his help in asking the Associate Provost for Personnel and Budget
for a review of this database.
V. New Business
The Provost asked that the Faculty Matters Committee finish their review of
the Term Faculty policies as soon as possible since the issue needs to be settled
before the new academic year begins.
VI. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 12:45 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Debi Siler
Clerk, Faculty Senate