GEORGE MASON
UNIVERSITY
APPROVED
MINUTES OF THE FACULTY SENATE
SEPTEMBER 16,
1998
Senators Present: K. Alligood, A. Berry, E. Blaisten-Barojas, L.
Bowen, T. Brawley, L. Brown, J. Censer, S. deMonsabert, M. Deshmukh, R. Ehrlich, J. Flinn, E. Elstun, K. Gaffney,
D. Gantz, H. Gortner, E. Gunn, J. Hale, M. Holt, D. Kuebrich, L. Lederman, C.
Lont, J. Metcalf, L. Miller, S. Muir, J. O’Connor, A. Palkovich, D. Potter, J.
Reid, L. Rigsby, D. Rine, L. Rockwood, R. Ruhling, J. Sanford, J. Scimecca, A.
Sofer, C. Sutton, A. Taylor, E. Thorp, S. Weinberger, H. Williams, J. Zenelis,
S. Zoltek
Senators Absent: D. Boileau, R. Carty, K. Clements, R. Coffinberger,
J. Crockett, T. Domzal, G. Galluzzo, M. Grady, L. Griffiths, M. LeBaron, K.
McCrohan, A. Merten, E. O’Hara, D. Struppa, H. Tongren, T. Travis, K. Vaughn,
P. Wilkie, S. Zaccaro
Guests Present: J. Bullock (Student Senate), K. Cheney (Inst.
Research & Reporting), K. Graffius (Student Senate), S. Jones (Registrar),
B. Manchester (Communication), M. Rose (Student Senate), J. Wood (Provost’s
Office)
I. Call to Order
Chair
Esther Elstun called the meeting to order at 3:02 PM.
II. Approval of Minutes
The
Minutes of the May 6, 1998 Faculty Senate Meeting (continued on May 13, 1998)
were approved as distributed.
III. Announcements
E.
Elstun announced that seating for Senators is located in the center section
and the section to her right and that seating for guests is in the section
to her left. Additionally, E. Elstun announced that there is an attendance sheet
for Senators which would be distributed and should be initialed; there is
also a sign-in sheet for guests which would be distributed.
E.
Elstun announced the appointed officers of the Faculty Senate for the 1998-1999
academic year and asked that they stand to be recognized by the Senate.
The appointed officers are:
Chair
pro tem: Star Muir
Parliamentarian: Anita Taylor (Fall semester)
Don Boileau (Spring semester)
Sergeant
at Arms: James
Metcalf
Liaisons
to the Board of Visitors: Ariela Sofer
Hale Tongren
E.
Elstun offered her warm thanks for the willingness of these officers to serve
in their positions.
E.
Elstun announced the names of those Senators newly elected to the 1998-1999
Faculty Senate. The new Senators are:
Next,
E. Elstun announced that Governor Gilmore’s Committee on Higher Education
met for the first time in August, and that their next meeting will be in late
October at GMU. Keith Graffius, from the Student Senate, prepared
an informative report on Committee membership which was distributed and copies
are available in the Faculty Senate Office.
The
Faculty Senate roster was distributed and E. Elstun asked that each Senator
check the roster to verify the accuracy of contact information.
All modifications should be reported to the Faculty Senate Office. Rosters will be mailed to those Senators unable
to attend this meeting, and additional copies of the roster are available
in the Senate Office.
E.
Elstun then requested a reordering of the Agenda, to move the report of the
Nominations Committee to the top of new business with the rationale that the
elections must be completed at this first meeting.
There was no objection from the floor and the other items on the Agenda
will follow accordingly.
IV. Unfinished Business
E.
Elstun announced that a report of business carried over by the Senate Committees
from the last academic year was being distributed.
Additional copies of this report are available in the Faculty Senate
Office.
V. New Business
A. Committee Reports
5. Nominations Committee
Anita
Taylor reported that this was her last time reporting as the Chair of the
Nominations Committee since she will not be here all year.
A. Taylor stated that the Senate may nominate from the floor for all
vacancies. Additionally, there were several corrections
to the slate of nominees distributed as Attachment B to the Agenda. They are as follows:
Effective Teaching Committee - delete nominee Steven
Weinberger, replace with Elizabeth Gunn (Senator, NCC).
Grievance Committee - nominees were miscounted.
Add Kathy Gaffney (Senator, CNHS) as a nominee, and Committee has one vacancy to fill in the future.
Minority & Diversity
Issues Committee - delete nominee Herma Williams (Senator, GSE). Add nominees: Jen Eng Lin (CAS), Sylvia Sanchez (GSE), and Rose Cherubin (CAS).
Salary Study Committee - add David Wong (CAS).
Organization &
Operations Committee - add Kathleen Alligood (CAS) and Clifton Sutton (SITE).
The
Nominations Committee was also asked to find two Senators for the Dean
of Admissions Search Committee. Nominees
for this Committee are Bob Ehrlich (CAS) and Herma Williams (GSE).
Following
the report of the corrections to the slate of nominees, faculty committee
elections were held. The following
faculty and Senators were elected:
University Faculty Standing
Committees:
Academic
Appeals Committee:
Admissions
Committee:
Athletic
Council:
Effective
Teaching Committee:
Faculty
Senate of Virginia:
Grievance
Committee:
Library
Committee:
Minority
and Diversity Issues Committee:
Non-Traditional,
Interdisciplinary, and Adult Learning Committee:
Resource
Allocation Task Force:
Salary
Study Committee:
Writing
Across the Curriculum Committee:
Senate Committees:
Academic
Policies Committee:
Faculty
Matters Committee:
Facilities
and Support Services Committee:
Organization
and Operations Committee:
Nominations
Committee:
Other Positions and Committee
Vacancies:
Senate
Secretary:
Dean
of Admissions Search Committee:
Following
these elections, E. Elstun asked if the business of the Senate Meeting Schedule
could be addressed next, before returning to the Agenda as distributed.
There were no objections.
VI. Other New Business
A. Approval of the Senate Meeting Schedule
E.
Elstun identified that the proposed schedule as distributed with the September
Agenda listed the March meeting date as occurring during the Spring Recess. The motion was made to
accept a revised meeting date of March 10, with agenda item due date of March
1, and passed by voice vote. It was then moved to adopt the schedule of Senate meetings as revised and amended
and this motion passed.
Following
the approval of the Senate meeting schedule for the 1998-1999 academic year,
the Chair returned the Senate to business as outlined in the Agenda.
V. New Business
A. Committee Reports
1. Executive Committee
E.
Elstun reported that returning Senators may recall several motions passed
last year regarding the discontinuation of programs and the Senate’s role
in this matter. The last two motions which passed call on the
President and the Provost to collaborate with the Senate in devising a process
to review the university-wide impact of discontinuing
academic
programs. The Senate Executive
Committee and the Provost to define a definitive interpretation of Section
1.3.2 of the Faculty Handbook. D. Gantz
and D. Boileau met further with Provost Potter over the Summer and a draft is
now in place which will be ready for Senate reactions and approval at the
October meeting.
D.
Gantz introduced a motion regarding teacher/course evaluations as distributed
in Attachment A of the September Agenda.
D. Gantz stated that there were complaints of the electronic reports
being inaccurate and that the motion doesn’t prohibit the use of the Spring
evaluations, but only the use of the electronic reports.
A friendly amendment was made to change “the electronic reports” to
“these electronic reports” and was accepted by the Committee.
There was further discussion of the motion; a summary of that discussion
follows.
J.
Wood, representing the Office of the Provost, spoke against the motion.
J. Wood stated that there were problems and actions taken to correct
some of these, which included: 1)
the scanner misread the forms which were improperly completed; 2) the machine
jammed; 3) some evaluations were not analyzed and have been analyzed since;
4) some evaluations have been re-tabulated by hand. J. Wood stressed that the norms of this Spring’s results don’t vary
from those of past Spring’s. He also
pointed out that some academic units have already determined how the forms
are to be used.
D.
Gantz responded by saying that the words of the motion were chosen carefully
to identify the electronic reports and database.
He stressed that bad data is bad data.
Other Senators spoke in favor of the motion:
reinforcing the ideas that bad data is bad data, and that while the
errors are random, the results cannot be trusted. Finally, D. Gantz clarified that the motion only seeks to prohibit
the use of the electronic data. The
motion was voted on and passed as amended. The final version of this motion is attached
to these minutes as Attachment A.
2. Academic Policies Committee
M.
Deshmukh stated that there was nothing to report at this time.
3. Facilities & Support Services Committee
S.
Zoltek reported that there were several items which the Committee was continuing
to attend to over the Summer and will address in the current year.
4. Faculty Matters Committee
J.
Scimecca stated that there was nothing to report at this time.
6. Organization & Operations Committee
E.
Blaisten-Barojas reported that the Committee has already referred nine items
to committees and that five additional items are waiting to go forward to
committees. The business was being held pending the election
of Senators to fill the committees. Items
of business for the Academic Policies Committee include: 1) ROTC classes for credit; 2) catalog corrections
during the Fall semester; 3) quality of education at GMU as reported in exit
interviews; 4) review of grades, such as incomplete, academic failure, and
withdrawal. Items of business for
the Faculty Matters Committee include an item dealing with plagiarism and
four items related to part-time faculty issues.
7. Senate Liaisons to the Board of Visitors
The
BOV held its annual meeting on the evening of September 9.
The leaving rector Visitor Murray welcomed the Board, and introduced
Visitor Hazel who has been re-appointed to the Board, and Visitors LaRose,
Miller, and Pomata, who are new appointees.
Murray then introduced the Senate Liaisons to the BOV
(Senate Chair Esther Elstun and Senators Sofer and Tongren), and expressed his hope that the Senate is moving
quickly to change the Bylaws regarding
membership in the Senate. Lastly,
Murray introduced the Leaders of the Student Government.
A
major agenda item for the meeting was
the election of officers. The Board
voted unanimously to elect Edwin Meese III as the rector of George Mason University.
With the gavel now in the hands of Rector Meese, the Board proceeded to elect
Scott McGeary as the vice-rector, Horace Cooper as the Board Secretary. The Board also elected Joann DeGennaro and
Edwin Fuelner as executive committee members-at-large.
Following
that President Merten gave his report on the "State of the University
and Initiatives for 1998-1999." In this report the
President outlined a number of major initiatives and areas of activity
for the coming year. These are:
A. Action on
the strategic plan, and in particular, examination of what it means for each
unit in terms of time and money.
B.
Inauguration of the GMU learning initiative
C.
Definition of what is a GMU-education, in terms of general education,
communication and analytical skills, and technology across the curriculum
D.
Streamlining of academic and administrative units
E.
Strengthening the financial base of the university, including obtaining
increased funding from the Commonwealth, and work toward the GMU capital
campaign.
F.
Strengthening of activities as a single university with three campuses
G. Focus on
university life
H.
Implementation of a culture of expanded accountability, between academic
units and support services, within units, and between the university and
external communities.
In
response to a question by Visitor Fink, the President identified activities
C, E, and G as areas where he will be seeking the highest level of
input and attention from the BOV.
8. Representatives of the Faculty Senate of Virginia
There
is no report at this time.
VII. Adjournment
The
meeting was adjourned at 4:17 PM.
“Because
of widespread errors in the electronically generated portions of the teacher/course
evaluations for the Spring semester 1998, the Faculty Senate recommends to
the Provost that these electronic reports not be used in faculty personnel
actions, and that they be excluded from historical data bases.”