Minutes

of

the Purdue University Calumet

Senate Meeting

of  February 5, 2003

Alumni Hall – 3rd Floor SFLC

 

PRESENT: Senators D. Barbour, C. Boiarsky, M. Cahn, Y. Choi V. Damusis, M 
        Darayseh, H. Daubek, L. Hopp,  (Presiding Officer); K. Jordan, M. Joyce, M.
        Longas, J. Lu, L. Mura,  D. Niedner, B. Robinson, S. Scachitti, C. Shinn, D.
        Underwood Gregg , E.Vockell, Chancellor Cohen; Interim Vice Chancellor
        for Academic Affairs M. Gealt; Vice Chancellor for Student Services L.
        Bryant, Parliamentarian R. Stankowski, SGA President S. Ruiz and
        Secretary A.Agosto-Severa.

 

ABSENT:  R. Bennett, K. Corey, O. Farook
                   

GUESTS:  L. Herr, J. Burdan, S. Lerner, R. Riddering, D. Korchek

 

 

I.          Call to Order.

Chair L. Hopp called the Senate meeting to order at 3:40 pm.

 

 

II.        Approval of the Agenda.

Motion to approve agenda.  Professor Mura made a motion to amend the Agenda to include under “Special Business of the Day” the addition to the curriculum report of curriculum documents CC 01, 02, 03 and 04.  These documents were on hold pending the results of the ad-hoc committee.  The issues have been resolved and the documents are now being included in the Curriculum and Education Policy report for action.  Second Professor Niedner.
The agenda was amended and approved.

 

III.       Approval of the Minutes
           
The Chair called for the approval of the December 4, 2002 and January 15, 2003
             minutes.
             Professor Robinson called for clarification of the minutes of the January 15
             meeting.  The minutes should be corrected to read “a motion to move the
             document to action was made and seconded.  Motion passed.  The original
             motion was then brought to action and that motion was passed.

 

IV.       Chancellor’s Report

Chancellor Cohen made the following report:

 

         The Chancellor distributed a compensation report that identifies Purdue Calumet in relation to our benchmark universities and provides a six year salary and compensation table by rank.  It also provides comparative data for administrative staff and non-exempt employees.  We are in the middle to low middle of our peer group.
We are committed to raise our compensation in our peer group.  We want to improve retention and graduation rates.

         The budget request made for the next biennium included funding for additional faculty and compensation adjustments.  It is unlikely that we will see the funding in the 2003-04 budget.  We do have access to tuition but we have tried to keep the increases at a reasonable level.  There will be a need to be even more careful this year because there are discussions that the state may want to look at capping tuition.  This is probably not the year that we are going to make great gains on our position with respect to our benchmark universities on salary and compensation.

Vice Chancellor Bryant – No report

Interim Vice Chancellor Gealt – No report

 

V.        Report of the Chair of the Senate

         Professor Hopp expressed her appreciation to Senators Tazbir and Daubek for the great job they did in organizing the silent auction for the Winter Festival celebration held on January 31, 2003 at The Center.  The committee raised $1500.00 from the silent auction.  The activity was very well received and a fun celebration for the 120 Purdue Calumet members attending the event.

         The chair thanked the Chancellor for his support of this celebration.

         Chair Hopp introduced Leticia Herr as the Senate web developer.  She will be responsible for the creation of the governance web site.  The goal for the website is to provide easier access to information, and to strengthen the Senate presence on the web. The chair encouraged the Senators to forward any additional ideas they may have for the website.

         The Chair reported on the change in parking fees for staff and students.  The parking will be taken out of pre-taxed dollars.  There will be an incremental increase over the next several rates.  The out of pocket cost for staff will increase to $66.00.  The student increase will be charged at an incremental increase for students as well.

         The Chair will be attending the February 14, 2003 Board of Trustees meeting.

V.        Special Business of the Day

Professor Robinson presented the Promotion and Tenure Status Notification Policy documents.                                                                   For Information
The Chancellor is seeking the advice and consent of the Senate on the two policy documents.  The important issue related to this process is that the university must be not just be in full compliance with expectations, but that there are also legal expectations with regard to notification to the candidates of their status in regard to the various procedures regulating tenure and promotions.  The university must exceed the expectations imposed by several entities such as the AAUP, the Purdue University system, and other cases that have worked their way through the legal system.
Professor Robinson was asked by the Faculty Affairs committee to review the documents and ensure that the wording was compatible with the language used in the Promotion and Tenure process.  The intent of the documents is to ensure that no reasonable step is overlooked in the process, and that the candidates have full and sufficient feedback in every step of the procedure relative to promotion and or tenure. 
There was discussion regarding the posting of documents to the "official personnel file".

The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs will maintain tenure and promotion files.

Chair of tenure and promotion committee responsibilities for reporting could create a possible redundancy between Department Head responsibilities and Committee Chair responsibilities where this could be the same person.

 A question was raised concerning time limit and Professor Boiarsky commented that it could be ten years.

The nature of "criteria" referred to:

Criteria are not established in document, merely procedures.

Criteria are established and evaluated by departments.

Professor Robinson proposed reviewing specific issues with the Chancellor for clarification and determination. 

 

Senate Chair Hopp introduced D. Korchek and Mr. Riddering, Chair and Co-Chair of the New Student Orientation committee.

 

The Freshman Seminar Experience Template presented by Dean Korchek and Rick Riddering elaborated on the activities of the New Student Conferences.

Following completion of Strategic Plan committees were formed to address access and student success.  The Committee on New Student Orientation and Freshman Experience developed the new student orientation process and recommendations for the development of the Freshman Experience course.  The copies of the proposal will be shared with the various governance groups including the University Senate.  The Senate will review the template as an action item in so far as Freshman Experience course will require Senate approval.  The team provided handouts that included data assembled out of general research and benchmark institution information.  New Student Conference (NSC) is to be articulated around initial registration as only certain point of contact with new students.  Social aspects are desirable and food is a plus.   The New Student conference’s are to be conducted by majors/departments with a certain amount of flexibility.  Mr. Riddering provided a sample of the NSC prototype schedule.

Questions from Senators:

When will New Student Conference’s be held?
The committee anticipates they will be held from April through first week of class, and will include early admits to those admitted during week before classes.

The conferences will be administered through Center for Career and Leadership Development with a hands-on leader. 
Do students all know their majors before they arrive at Purdue Calumet?

GNS students already have a mandatory orientation process.  For others who arrive without a major we intend to help them designate an intended major early in the process.
It is expected that current programs, like counseling center assessment services continue in place.

The biggest hurdle will be getting faculty to show up.  This was a challenge this summer but feedback from faculty indicated, once they attended, they actually thought it was excellent.

It has been observed that we don't want to refer to this as a "mandatory" process; rather, it is simply to be considered a part of the registration process.  Students will be encouraged to meet with their advisor at designated time and place and be able to process a registration.

Is this program always entirely appropriate for older, non-traditional students?

We have anticipated that, to a certain extent, with a 60 credit hour limit on the "required" part of the program.  Proven successful students would not be required to participate. 

Where does placement testing fit in to this structure?

Students would have to complete placement testing before registration and would be ready to be advised.
Where do student mentors fit in?

That may be a second phase component of the program.

The second charge to the committee was to develop a Freshman Experience

Course (FEC) to develop connection between the student and the institution and between the student and their major.  For that reason we recommend that the FEC also be tied to the separate departments and schools.  We are asking for a mandate for departments to establish these courses.  In some cases they exist already.  This curriculum document is intended to give some form to these courses.  One option is to alter the General Education Requirements to include this course.  Existing courses can be modified to fulfill then intent of the FEC or an existing course could be replaced with the FEC.  Attachment includes recommended content and a bibliography.

Readings and some writing experience should be included.  That would help incorporate the course into the department offerings.

Accreditation is an issue at some level. Some of the existing courses (GNS 103) require research and writing assignments.

When we met with the chancellor he indicated that debate on these issues should be conducted here as well as other governance groups.  Obviously the curriculum issues belong here.  We look forward to your advice.

There are many interdepartmental things at this university.  Would these classes be limited to the specific department?

As far as the committee is concerned, the intent is that the courses be discipline-specific.  If there are interdisciplinary programs, the FEC could be interdisciplinary.

 

The Agenda Committee will look into this and next month we will continue the discussion on the Freshman Experience courses.

 

Report of the Curriculum and Education Policy Committee:

The following documents were submitted for Senate approval.

EMS 03-06

Revision of Environmental Science Minor curriculum to combine two separate study plans, and to expand elective courses

 

EMS03-04

Creation of BIOL 200 Field Biology

EMS03-05

New course BIOL 428 Biology Seminar

Nursing Revision

Change current “guided science” to “nursing/science elective”

 

Motion to approve was made by M. Darayseh.  Seconded by M. Mojtahed.

Report passed.

We also have documents from Management and the  ISCP objections, which were sent to an ad hoc committee. Professor thanked the committee members.  They recommended approval, with a 5 to 1 vote, of Management CC 2-01 which is the creation of Management 102, the course that was objected to by the ISCP Department and, per our bylaws, when that committee makes that decision, the issue is resolved.  The other two documents were not contentious but their approval depended upon approval of 102.  I am reporting, at this time, that CEP and the ad hoc committee have approved these three documents.

Motion to approve documents was made by M. Mojtahed.  Seconded by M. Darayseh.

Documents passed.

 

VI.       Unfinished Business.

Senator Barbour reported that Teacher Education Advisory Committee forwarded a proposal for a committee of six members.  When the proposal arrived at Academic Affairs they did not want to restrict the body that would do the review.  The referenced document is SD 01-09-R.  Professor Barbour challenged the Senate to review this document again to ensure that, for those people who will be in this review process, it may not be a sufficient guarantee of uniformity in the reviews. It will be necessary to redirect the Faculty Affairs Committee to restudy and consider the meaning of "proportionate".

 

VII.     Reports of the Committees.

Agenda Committee.

Professor Niedner reported that the committee met and approved today’s agenda

Academic Support Services Committee.

Professor Corey – Not present

Curriculum & Educational Policy Committee.
Professor Mura reported that there are 1206 documents to consider and they have been posted.  There were 396 deletions posted last week in one category.  The remaining categories involve description changes and prerequisite changes.  The deletions and description changes are posted.  The CEP will be considering them at the February 19, 2003 meeting.  If you have any concerns contact Professor Mura or the responsible department head.  If you would like a course to be held we will be happy to pull it from the list of deletions.  The list has been approved by cognizant faculty, department heads and deans and this is essentially "house-cleaning" and auditing of the university master course file.

 

                Faculty Affairs Committee.
           
M. Cahn – Reported that the committee has not met.

 

Nominating Committee.
Professor Niedner requested volunteers to serve on the Traffic Appeals Committee to finish out the remainder of her term. 

The Grievance Committee names can be pulled from preference survey from last year.

Student Affairs Committee.
No report.

Student Government.

S. Ruiz – No report

 

IX.       Other New Business.

Announcement regarding the Commencement date is Monday, May 12, 2003. 

 

X.        Adjournment.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm.