MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF THE FACULTY
SENATE
MONDAY, OCTOBER
23, 2006
Mason Hall, room
D3 A&B; 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Present: Jim Bennett, Phil Buchanan, Kelly Dunne, Jim Sanford, Suzanne Slayden, Cliff Sutton
Absent: Peter Stearns, Susan Trencher
Admissions Procedural Questions: Chair Suzanne Slayden invited Kelly Dunne, Chair of the Admissions Committee to attend today’s meeting, prior to her meeting Wednesday, October 25th with Andrew Flagel, Dean of Admissions, and Eddie Tallent, Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions, and ex-officio member of the Admissions Committee. Please send Kelly any concerns you may have.
· Announcement of change in admissions policy in late May without consultation with faculty; concern primarily with process, not decision itself. Recollections differ between Dean Flagel and the current and former Faculty Senate chairs and Admissions Committee members as to whether this information was discussed prior to its announcement in late May, 2006. In his presentation to the Faculty Senate at its final meeting May 3, 2006, Dean Flagel did not mention this proposed change.
· Who has the authority to approve or implement such a change?
· New SAT Score Optional Policy available on Admissions Office website at http://admissions.gmu.edu/scoreoptional/ .
· Need to strengthen charge of the Admissions Committee, which will work with Organization and Operations Committee to implement.
· SAT scores do not apply to transfer students, or to those applicants with 120 credits who apply to take pre-professional courses for admission to medical school, etc.
Review
of proposed agenda for November 1, 2006 meeting:
·
Executive
Committee – no items
·
Academic
Policies – progress report
·
Budget and
Resources – no action items; to look into out-of-cycle raises; information
requested from David Rossell via Donna Kidd.
·
Faculty
Matters – no report.
·
Nominations
– Peter Pober as Faculty representative to Parking Services Advisory Committee
Also Nominations
Committee Report: “Trials and
Tribulations of University Service” to be included in agenda for
discussion. Service not accorded any
real value, not recognized by colleges/departments. Tend to go back to the same people, limits input of ideas. The report will also be distributed to the Faculty
Handbook Revision Committee.
Present Handbook does not distinguish between university and
local service.
·
Organization
and Operations – Suzanne to send memo with four items to work on; allocation
for 06-07; importance of monitoring allocation data because of FTE allocation
between instructional faculty, research faculty and administrative
faculty. Years ago O&O also did a
survey to get a sense of workload of various university standing committees:
wide variance – some met one time, others met a lot. Also dependent on committee charge – some will be proactive if so
charged, also key whether chair is an activist.
·
Discussion
whether Admissions Committee should report to the Academic Policies Committee –
need to strengthen (charge) of Admissions Committee, as the Academic Policies
Committee has other responsibilities.
Salary Task Force: Rick Coffinberger will send to President Merten and the Board of Visitors the motions passed at the Faculty Senate meeting October 18, 2006 regarding salary issues.
Task
Force on Use of Public Space: Need for additional faculty
representatives – any members of the Executive Committee who wish to volunteer
should contact Dave Kuebrich. Why do
University Police wear sidearms? Also
encourage faculty with expertise in this area to volunteer.
9
month Instructional Faculty Workload/Compensation for work performed over the
summer: Need to include stipends for faculty who
work beyond 9 months; required to be available for advising, etc. Grievance committee addresses workload
disputes.
Respectfully
submitted,
Meg
Caniano
Clerk,
Faculty Senate