D R A K E U N I V E R S I T Y
Minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting November 16, 2005
The regular meeting of the 2005-2006 Faculty Senate was called to order at 3:30 p.m. by President Matt Esposito. The following senators were present for all or part of the meeting. Alexander, Cairns, Courard-Hauri, Dore, Esposito, Freeman-Miller, Gilbert, Gillespie, Lyons, Martin, Morrow, Nelson, Pandit, Reed, Reincke, Sanders, Simpson, Wade
Absent: Bartschat, Larson, Tice,
The October 2005 minutes were accepted.
President Maxwell’s Report
--President Maxwell indicated that no questions had been sent to him.
--Recently, Drake received, from the Des Moines Branch of the NAACP, the President’s Award for Outstanding Community Service by a Community Organization. President Maxwell accepted the award on behalf of the institution and cited this as a wonderful achievement and recognition “that we get the need for diversity”. He continued that Drake aspires toward a lofty set of goals in this area that have not been fully met and we are all in this together.
--For the January 2006 Board of Trustee meeting, there will hopefully be a set of draft plans being presented concerning enrollment issues. Several sub-committees are meeting.
Senator Reincke asked if Drake has an official agreement with Kaplan as she has noticed many postings from this company. The reply was that there is not an official relationship, nor an existing policy in place to use to charge them for use of classroom space.
Provost Troyer’s Report
--Provost Troyer reminded the body that last year there was talk about decline in students from other countries studying in U.S. Drake is consistent with the national trend. At Drake, 197 students from 59 countries were here in 2004. The 2005 number is 187 from 54 countries. The international student base enriches our campus and there is a need to keep this set of students apart of Drake’s community.
--Institutional exchange programs are being developed in two new locations, Italy and Austria. He indicated that more information will come later.
--He announced that Sue Wright, Associate Provost, has developed and placed on-the-web various data about Drake. He encouraged individuals and offices to use this source. He will supply the URL in his next Monday’s announcements.
Senator Freeman-Miller asked to what majors are the international students most attracted. The reply was the Business unit’s offerings.
Senator Reincke asked for an update on student registration processing and how many class seats are being taken by students ‘holding’ seats for each other. Wanda Everage, Vice Provost, responded that CAAD (Council of Academic and Administrative Departments) is aware of the issue and is looking at a possible cap on credit hours which any one student could enroll.
President Esposito’s Report
-- President Esposito referred positively to the upcoming National Alumni Scholar events being planned for February 2006. He encouraged faculty to engage in this opportunity which brings to campus some outstanding potential students.
-- He asked that faculty planning to attend the December 1st Campus Advancement group meeting please email him. This is a student lead effort to increase the interaction between students and faculty.
-- He thanked all who participated in the end of term experience survey. He hoped this will advance their work on the issue. He may ask for an update at the December or January meeting from that Task Force.
Old Business: none presented
New Business:
The discussion of the Faculty Manual Sections IV and V opened with President Esposito encouraging anyone to email him or Senate Executive Committee members with any concerns they have about a specific policy or procedure which is in the Faculty Manual. Senator Reincke asked what happened to the Split Sabbatical policy language for tenured faculty. Provost Troyer replied that the Senate accepted the report which included a recommendation about this issue and that he is still looking at ways to implement the recommendation. He is seeking to do this without major policy language changes.
Senator Reincke moved and Simpson seconded motion 06-04:
To approve the Faculty Manual
The motion passed on a voice vote.
Provost Troyer hoped the body would look at any and all policies carefully as there may be those which need to be updated.
Senator Wade opened the discussion concerning the current descriptors for the letter grades A-F as outlined in the Faculty Manual Section 2.132 (excluding Law). President Esposito presented some language from a few other institutions. Some grade descriptors used were similar to Drake’s but not necessarily the same.
A. Letter grades are awarded at the completion of the course. "Plus" and "Minus"
grades are not recorded except for the Law School. The letter grade carries a meaning
and a point evaluation that, along with the number of credit hours involved, determines
a student's academic grade point average. In this point system:
A (Excellent)= 4 Points CR (Credit) (Pass)
B (Good)= 3 Points NC (No Credit) (No Pass)
C (Fair)= 2 Points W (Withdrawal)
D (Poor)= 1 Point AU (Audit) - no academic credit desired
F (Failure)= 0 Points I (Incomplete)
IP (In Progress)
There were some Senators present who felt that the descriptive words (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor and Failure) were fine. Senator Pandit reminded the body that the grade is ultimately up to the instructor and she was not sure what value would come out of any change here. The Senate did not see value in sending the issue to a committee nor sending a faculty survey.
It was noted that today’s discussion did not included plus/minus grading, although some present desired that policy to be reviewed.
President Esposito polled the group and the discussion ended with no change being desired to the grade descriptors.
Senator Simpson moved and Reincke seconded motion 06-05:
Move to establish a Task Force to consider the possibility of an All-University Senate comprised of faculty, staff, students and administrators. Members of this special committee could included four faculty appointed by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, four students appointed by the Student Senate Executive Committee, and one two staff members appointed by the All-Staff Council.
An amendment was made, seconded (Gilbert/Alexander) and passed without discussion to change the one to two in the last sentence concerning the All Staff Council representation.
Senator Simpson indicated that she thought it was time for an exploration of the former governance structure and whether or not it would be a good change for Drake now. Senator Martin noted that there were some good reasons for the split at the time it was made including that students now have their own representative governing body.
Senator Gilbert raised an issue about whether the April 2006 proposed ending time for the Task Force would be realistic. Senator Simpson shared his concern, but her desire was to give some time frame to the proposed discussion.
The motion passed on a voice vote.
The body adjourned at 4:25 p.m. Secretary, Nancy Geiger