George Mason University
Continuation of the Faculty Senate Meeting
May 9, 2001
Senators Present: K. Avruch, W. M. Black, E. Blaisten-Barojas,
D. Boileau, L. Bowen, B. Brown, L. Brown, P. Buchanan, R. Coffinberger, R. Conti,
S. deMonsabert, M. DeNys, R. Diecchio, R. Ehrlich, E. Elstun, P. Feerick, D.
Gantz, H. Gortner, M. Holt, A. Kolker, D. Kuebrich, C. Mattusch, J. Moore, R.
Nadeau, E. Price, L. Rockwood, J. Sanford, J. Scimecca, A. Sofer, P. Story,
C. Sutton, C. Thomas, S. Zoltek, P. Stearns
Senators Absent: K. Alligood, R. Carty, J. Censer, S. Cheldelin,
T. Domzal, J. Flinn, M. Ford, T. Fresz, K. Gaffney, M. Grady, L. Griffiths,
E. Gunn, G. Hanweck, K. Haynes, R.C. Jones, M. Krauss, L. Lederman, A. Merten,
L. Rigsby, L. Rickard, R. Rubenstein, S. Ruth, L. Seligmann, P. So, D. Struppa,
P. Wilkie, J. Zenelis, S. Sanchez
Guests Present: Jessica Gammon, Sheryl Beach, Robin Herron,
Mary Lee Vance
I. Call to Order
D. Boileau called the continued meeting to order at 3:00 pm.
II. New Business
General Education Committee
Peter Sterns withdrew the General Education motion which he presented
at the May 1 meeting. After meeting with a group of Senators on May 8 th , he
agreed that flexibility is needed in dealing with transfer students. Jim Sanford
subsequently withdrew his motion, which he had presented at the May 1 meeting,
representing the Academic Policies Committee. The implementation of the new
General Education program is a work in progress and, at this point affects students
enrolling in the year 2001/2002.
Faculty Matters Committee
Summer School Teaching Motion 1
Rationale: Although there is no “right” or “guarantee”
to a second course, if a second course is available in the summer and the full-time
faculty member has the expertise to teach this course and no other full-time
faculty also wishes to teach it, the full-time faculty member should be given
preference over a part-timer. This we believe is in compliance with the paragraph
in the MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING which states: “Every full-time member
of the faculty who wishes to teach shall be afforded an opportunity to teach
one course before any member of the faculty shall be afforded an opportunity
to teach a second course.” Some administrators have arbitrarily, or under
the guise of a nonexistent financial insolvency problem, limitedfull-time faculty
to one course, when the Summer School is expected to again generate the $3 million
to $5 million surplus (depending upon which accounting scheme is used), as has
been the case for at least the past five years.
Joe Scimecca moved for the Committee that:
Motion: The Faculty Matters Committee MOVES
the following:
Moved that full-time faculty members who desire to teach a
second course in the summer shall not be precluded from doing so because administrators
desire to save money by hiring adjuncts.
The motion passed.
Dr. Stearns commented there is a need for new negotiations in the way Summer
School is administered, and this matter cannot be worked out in a single meeting
of the Senate. The first two motions are not a viable framework in themselves.
A new round of discussion is needed.
Summer School Teaching Motion 2:
Rationale: This enables the LAU administer to exercise judgment within
the LAU if he or she has concerns over the appropriateness of the faculty member
desiring to teach a second summer school course.
The Faculty Matters Committee MOVES the following:
Moved that if the person administering the summer session for
the LAU has other than financial considerations for wanting to limit a full-time
faculty member who wishes to teach a second course, it shall be incumbent upon
the administrator to make these concerns known to the faculty member and said
faculty member shall have the right to bring this matter to the Chair of the
Faculty Senate and the Provost.
The motion passed.
Summer School Teaching Motion 3:
Rationale: Given that the actual full-time to part-time teaching
ratio for the last five summers has ranged from a low of 50% to a high of 58%
in the university, the financial solvency of the Summer Session is clearly not
threatened. By imposing a 70% - 30% full-time to part-time teaching ratio
(when there is no evidence of any financial insolvency at the university level),
administrators do not treat the Summer School as a university phenomenon. Instead,
in order to save money (which they do not have to return to Central Administration),
faculty are being asked to make financial sacrifices to build up Dean’s
and Director’s discretionary funds.
The Faculty Matters Committee MOVES the following:
Moved that the 70% to 30% full-time to part-time summer teaching
ratio which was informally “approved in 1995 for the university as a whole
as a fair and equitable target to insure the financial solvency of the Summer
Session, “shall not be imposed
on LAUs, department, or small programs.
The motion passed.
Summer School Teaching Motion 4:
Rationale: The MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING speaks only of payment of
ten percent for three credit courses.
Don Gantz read a friendly amendment to the motion, and introduced the motion
as amended below:
Moved that other than 3-credit courses shall be compensated
proportionate to the number of contact hours. Non-lab courses over 3-credits
will be paid at 12 l/2% for a 4-credit course and 15% for a 5-credit class.
The motion passed.
Summer School Teaching Motion 5:
Rationale: At present there is no uniform policy regarding summer school
compensation for laboratory courses.
An alternative motion presented by Larry Rockwood:
Moved that in the case of courses which carry noncredit laboratories,
since there is no uniform, university-wide summer compensation policy, until
such a policy is negotiated, those full time faculty teaching laboratory sections
in the summer of
2001 will be paid at the rate of 10%.
The motion passed.
Academic Policies Committee
Roberta Conti introduced a motion from the Academic Policies
Committee.
Motion: Moves to institute an 11-member Task Force on Teacher/Course
Evaluations, charged to review current GMU practices and their effects. The
Academic Policies Committee will exercise oversight of the Task Force and work
with it to establish the dates of interim reports to the Senate in the fall
and spring semesters of the academic year 2001-2002. A modest budget will be
requested by this Task Force.
The Senate Nominations Committee is instructed to prepare a slate of 9 nominees,
one each from the College of Arts & Sciences; the College of Nursing &
Health Sciences, the Graduate School of Education; the School of Information
Technology & Engineering; the School of Law, the School of Management, the
College of Visual & Performing Arts, the School of Computational Sciences,
the School of Public Policy. The Nominations Committee is further instructed
to ask the Provost to appoint two professional staff members with expertise
in evaluation processes to fill the remaining two positions on the
Task Force. The slate of nominees is to be presented to the Senate at its September
2001 meeting.
The motion passed.
Dean Jeffrey Gorrell was introduced as the new Dean of the Graduate School of
Education.
Elections were held for the Chair, Faculty Senate with Don Boileau being reelected
to serve another year. His 3-year limit will end next year.
Motion: Esther Elstun and Ariela Sofer moved The Faculty Senate
of George Mason University expresses its appreciation to Professor Donald Gantz
for his fifteen years of dedicated service. We thank him for his service as
Chair, as Recording Secretary, and as a member of the Senate’s Executive
Committee. His thoughtful contributions and wise counsel will be missed.
The motion passed by acclamation.
The meeting adjourned at 4:15 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Lorraine Brown
Secretary, Faculty Senate