GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF THE FACULTY
SENATE
APRIL 25, 2005
Members Present: Jim Bennett, Lorraine Brown, Rick Coffinberger, Esther Elstun, Michael Ferri, Dave Kuebrich, Jim Sanford, Peter Stearns, Cliff Sutton
I. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 9:02 a.m.
II. Approval of Minutes: The minutes of April 4, 2005 were approved as distributed.
III.
Old Business:
Reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of
Computational Sciences
Provost Stearns thanked the Executive Committee for its joint sponsorship of the Town Hall meeting held last week (April 20, 2005) to discuss the proposed reorganization of CAS and SCS. He felt that the participants were reasonably well disposed to the proposal and noted that the SCS faculty voted its approval of the proposed reorganization at its faculty meeting. Jim Bennett stated that some of the concerns expressed at last week’s meeting such as funding for travel, etc. are of long standing. Other concerns regarding process, (such as the recent proposal (later nullified) to establish a GMU campus at the Arab American Institute in Syria), brought forth concerns from numerous faculty members regarding openness as well as information available about the process. The Provost made a distinction between a broad open-ended process versus a proposal of interest to only a handful of faculty. A formal vote of the Faculty Senate on the proposal to reorganize CAS and SCS will be taken at the next Faculty Senate meeting, May 4, 2005.
A. Academic Policies – Cliff Sutton
Two brief motions will be presented. Both motions address changes in General Education requirements. The first motion would remove HIST 120 (US History); the second motion would expand the stand-alone requirement of HIST 100 (History of Western Civilization) to give students the choice of taking either HIST 100 or HIST 125 (Introduction to World History).
B. Budget
and Resources – Rick Coffinberger
Rick distributed copies of a motion for review in which the Provost’s Office would be asked to prepare and distribute at the December 2005 Faculty Senate meeting a report on equity based salary adjustments awarded during the Fall 2005 salary adjustment period. Rick also noted that the release of additional dollars available for summer teaching has had a positive effect.
C. Faculty
Matters – Jim Sanford
The annual report will be submitted.
D.
Nominations –
Lorraine Brown
The committee has no agenda items for the next meeting. Lorraine polled the Committees early in the
spring term to see whether they had sufficient people to perform their
charges. The poll results were
positive. The level of committee
activity may depend on the chairperson’s initiative – noting also that
occasionally members may be away on leave.
In response to a question raised, Lorraine noted that the interview has
not been part of the college admissions process for the past five years.
E. Organization and Operations – Michael Ferri
The committee discussed a request by student government to start the academic calendar a week earlier in the spring term in order to address a lack of uniformity of reading days. Intersession classes in Nursing and in another area may take place. Martin Luther King Day may also occasionally fall within this time frame.
V. New Business
Provost Stearns announced information about the many international outreach activities at the University level will be posted on the website this fall. Some recent examples include negotiations by Dean Reeder of the College of Visual and Performing Arts to enroll students from Inchon, Korea at GMU; exchange students from Turkey; as well as a group of visiting students from Vietnam who are on campus today.
The Budget Planning Committee awaits more statistical information to determine the statistical variance between genders to determine whether there have been changes since the initial report.
VI. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 9:35 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Meg Caniano
Clerk, Faculty Senate