Approved 3

Approved 3-8-07

Thursday
February 22, 2007
2:00 p.m.
MA 211K

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

PRESENT
Shannon Butler, Tamara Chase, Dave Ferro, Bruce Handley, Ron Holt, Wade Kotter, Jack Mayhew, Ann Millner, Gene Sessions, Mike Vaughan, Jim Wilson – Kay Brown Secretary

MINUTES
Gene Sessions: Moved to approve the minutes from the February 8, 2007 meeting
Second: Dave Ferro
Outcome: The minutes were approved.

GENERAL EDUCATION
General Education Improvement & Assessment Committee – Dan Bedford, Chair

"Proposed requirements for Bachelor of Science degree, to replace SI requirements:"

"All students must take a minimum of 12 credit hours of science courses (including Physical & Life Science General Education courses). Six (6) of these credits must come from the College of Science. Any courses from the Department of Mathematics counting towards these requirements must be MATH 1210 or require MATH 1210 as a pre-requisite."

Math 1210 is Calculus. The Gen Ed Committee is still working on the language for the math courses, and they are still discussing the minimum number of science credit hours required. COAST would like to see 11 credit hours instead of 12 credit course of science courses.

The College of Health Professions is concerned about their students being required to take an additional 6 hours of science courses. It was mentioned that there are departments not in the College of Science that teach science courses. Currently there is no definition for a bachelor or science degree, and the Board of Regents have not defined a set of courses for a BA or a BS degree.

Mike Vaughan would like to see the Gen Ed Committee review the Diversity requirement, make recommendations, and bring both the SI and the Diversity requirement proposals together to the Faculty Senate for discussion.

The moratorium on breadth general education courses expires in April.

ADMINISTRATIVE CMTE MEMBERS
The guidelines for administrative members on Faculty Senate committees stated in PPM 1-13 Article B-V, Section 3 was discussed.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The policy guideline in PPM 1-13 Article B-IV, Section 2, Vacancies on the Executive Committee was reviewed and discussed in anticipation of Wade Kotter being on sabbatical Fall semester.

ASSA Admissions, Standards & Student Affairs Committee – Molly Smith, Chair

The Executive Committee was updated on the work of the ASSA Committee in completing the charges given them.

PPM 6-13 Student Employment has been referred to Norm Tarbox and Ben Read.
Wild Card Usage - Bill Fruth, Director of the Student Union, and Monica Rodie, Associate Director of the Student Union, do not see a need for any changes in the PPM regarding the Wildcard. John Allred was also contacted. The Registrar’s Office does not want Wildcards to be deactivated. Any student having ever paid for and taken a class at Weber State remains active as a student in the Registrar’s Office.

"Defining what a student’s status is relative to Wildcard privileges seems to be a business procedure. The ASSA Committee will discuss PPM 6-9 with Bill Fruth and suggest new language to clarify current procedures."

Molly Smith will discuss Wildcard privileges with Norm Tarbox.

Mandatory Assessment and Placement - Results from Accuplacer collected from 10-2-05 to 9-20-06 show 40% of students tested into a math course higher than Math 0950 and 28% of the students placed into English 1010.

"The ASSA Committee recommends that the Executive Committee request that the Associate Provost for Enrollment Services report the results of the longitudinal study on MAPP after it has collected data for a year."

Time Line for Entering Grades - The Director of Financial Aid can provide details regarding the time table and repercussions that develop when grades for students on financial aid are delayed. When financial aid is awarded prior to checking good academic standing, students who do not qualify must pay it back. In Fall 2005, $100,000 was spent collecting money from students receiving financial aid when they did not qualify for funding.

The Provost and Bruce Bowen are looking into changing beginning and ending dates for Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. Currently we have 71 instruction days Fall and Spring semesters. They are looking at cutting instruction days to 70 and creating a trimester system. Faculty would gain two additional days to turn in grades. Moving from a Tuesday deadline to a midnight Thursday deadline. Under consideration is a Fall Break the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Spring Break at Easter time.

Maximum Number of 5000 Level Courses in a Master’s Program - "The ASSA Committee recommends that there be no central university policy. Departments should establish their own requirements. . . " Statement from Curriculum Committee PPM Section 9 "The committee recommends that no more than 25% of the total master degree credit hour requirements be from any combination of 3000, 4000, and 5000 level courses."

Waiver of Requirements - "An Exception to University Policy Form does exist. The waiver process has been housed in the Registrar’s Office, yet 85% of waivers are financial aid in nature and only 15% are academic in nature. The waiver process will move to the Financial Aid Office . . ."
Catalog Requirements - The ASSA Committee is drafting language to clarify the policy in PPM 4-2 and hope to bring it to the Executive Committee in March. Students will be able to choose a catalog for general education requirements, and, if desired, a different catalog for their major and minor.

FACULTY GOVERNANCE AWARD

The deadline for nominations for the Faculty Governance Award is Friday, March 9. Information will be sent to all faculty outlining the criteria.

Criteria: Members of the Faculty Senate will nominate current faculty for the Faculty Governance Award. Faculty can work through their Faculty Senate member. Nominations should include a written statement indicating:

the committees that the nominee has worked on,

accomplishments that the committees have made during the nominee’s tenure on the committee,

the role that the nominee played in those accomplishments, and their service to the committee and the university,

membership on standing committees and the role played on those committees, and

other information that is pertinent to the nominee’s service to faculty.

Nominees will be reviewed and the awardee selected by Executive Committee members that are not nominated.

SALALRY NEGOTIATION TEAM
The Provost suggested finalizing the Salary Negotiation Team and putting together two or three dates the second week in March to discuss salary issues with the President and Provost. Bruce Handley will contact Craig Oberg.

MANDATORY PLACEMENT
As a result of mandatory placement testing hundreds of students (about 400) are being placed in math and English courses above the developmental level. Pass rates in both math and English courses are either unchanged or higher. The Math Department is discussing and circulating among Math Department faculty a proposal to administer their own placement exam to students the first week of class. If students don’t perform at levels established by the Math Department, they would be removed from the class. If approved by the Math Department, the proposal would go to the ASSA Committee for discussion and their recommendation before going to the Faculty Senate.

SENATE MEETINGS
The Executive Committee discussed the location of Faculty Senate meetings. The Executive Committee decided to continue meeting in the Smith Lecture Hall for the remainder of this year. Some of the classrooms on the lower level of the Wattis Business Building will be undergoing renovations and be unavailable.

Those speaking against meeting in the Smith Lecture Hall felt the structure of the room did not allow faculty to make eye contact with each other; some of the intimacy was lost.

ADJOURN
The meeting adjourned at 3:35 p.m.