Academic Senate
2006/2007 Academic Senate
MINUTES
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I. |
The meeting was called to order at |
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Ex Officio: Present:
Gorman, Lessow-Hurley, Van Selst, Sabalius,
Kassing, Veregge, Gutierrez Administrative
Representatives: Present: Sigler, Najjar, Phillips Absent: Lee Deans: Present: Merdinger, Hegstrom,
Stacks Absent: Wei Students: Present: Dresher,
Henderson, Reyes,
Patel Absent: Antazo, Bridgeman Alumni Representative: Present:
Lewis for Thompson Emeritus Representative: Present: Savage for Buzanski Honorary
Senators (Non-Voting): Absent:
Norton General Unit
Representatives: Present: |
CASA Representatives: Present: Perry,
Hooper, Fee, Canham COB
Representatives: Present: Campsey Absent: Gehrt, Jiang ED Represent: Present: Rickford,
Maldonado-Colon, Parsons ENG Representatives: Present:
Backer, Meldal Absent: Gao H&A
Representatives: Present: Desalvo, Leddy,
Van Hooff, Belet, Harris, Absent: Vanniarajan SCI Representatives: Present: McClory,
Kaufman, Bros, Hilliard, Hamill SOS
Representatives: Present:
Peter, Hebert, Von Till |
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II. |
Approval of
Academic Senate Minutes – Minutes of |
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III. |
Communications and
Questions – A. From the Chair of the Senate – Chair
Lessow-Hurley made the following announcements. Dr. Wayne Savage
has been designated to replace Senator Buzanski by the Emeritus Association
at today's meeting. Congratulations to
Eva Joice, the Senate Administrator, who has made President's Scholar yet
again. Eva has been working on her
degree part-time, and she has a very demanding job and a family with a young
daughter at home. The May 4, 2007,
150th Anniversary event was well organized and wonderful. Congratulations to University Advancement. The Access to
Excellence summit was held on B. From the
President of the University- President Kassing
made the following announcements: President Kassing
and VP Phillips have asked Colleen Brown to take a careful look at what we do
as far as loan providers are concerned.
We look fine in our Financial Aid office. We have received an open records request
from the Attorney General for records from our Alumni Association. We use a company called Nelnet. Nelnet is a national company out of The President and
VPs have teams that will be looking at our procedures as related to the
Virginia Tech shootings over the next five to eight weeks from how we handle
students with mental illness to the communication techniques we use on
campus. There has been an
argument surfacing with the California Faculty Association (CFA) over $1.2
billion of balances in the CSU. There
are $1.2 billion of balances in the CSU, but this is not state money. We have balances in the housing funds,
student union, the parking fund, International and Extended Education
funds. Those funds are related to
bonds and cannot be used for faculty salaries. Rona Halualani
will be leading our Strategic Planning for the next year starting President Kassing
congratulated VP Najjar on the Lurie gift, and thanked him for all the The San Jose
Mercury News coverage has been fantastic. Questions: Senator Peter
asked about the Athletic scholarship losses discussed in the San Jose Mercury
News. Senator Peter said, "The
news pointed out that we are one of two universities in the nation that have lost
so many scholarships in so many sports.
This doesn't seem in accord with the optimistic report we had a year
ago." President Kassing said,
"The APR is an NCAA measure of progress towards degree. It is an accumulative average. In 2003/2004 our average APR for all the
teams was 874, in 2004/2005 it was 901, and in 2005/2006 it was 915, and the
target is 925. We are 10 off the
target APR. The 925 is equivalent to a
60% graduation rate. The APR for the
first class that Dick Tomey brought in is 937. Dick Tomey is suffering for what wasn't
done before. The GPA for the football
team went from 2.1 to 2.5 under Tomey."
Senator Campsey said, "We had two teams that were in the top ten
[990-1000]. We did have some students
leave that didn't like our emphasis on both academics and Athletics. Also, over the last year students that were
below a 2.0 GPA were reduced by 30%."
President Kassing said, "Tom Bowen also told me Saturday that the
article is inaccurate. We didn't loose
seven scholarships, we lost three."
Senator Peter said, "Perhaps you could check to be sure that is the
number we have lost. If the article is
correct, then we are losing more scholarships despite our progress. We have lost more scholarships this year
than last year." Senator Campsey
said, "I will check and let you know for sure." |
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IV. |
Executive Committee Report – A.
Executive Committee Minutes – None B. Consent Calendar – None |
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C. Executive Committee Action Items: None |
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V. |
Unfinished
Business - None |
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VI. VII. VIII. |
Special
Committee Reports - None New
Business - A. Campus Security Update by Chief Andre
Barnes and Captain William Coker. Chief Barnes said, "I am very pleased
to be here and share with you what the campus is doing about safety and the changes we are
making. Our role will stay pretty much
the same. Although things are more heightened since the Virginia Tech
incident, our procedures haven't changed.
We would still respond the same.
A week prior to the Virginia Tech incident, I met with my colleagues
in the Santa Clara County Police Chiefs' Association. We had just reviewed and revised our active
shooter protocol prior to the Virginia Tech incident. We have an understanding that we will
assist each other. Certainly because
of the Virginia Tech incident we are taking a second look at our
procedures. Two other groups I work
closely with regarding this type of issue are the CSU Police Chiefs which
meet annually, as well as an International Association of Campus Law
Enforcement group that meets next month. We have had quite a few classroom incidents
this year. If there is a classroom
incident we do want to know about it.
If there is a threat we will respond and talk with the student, and
take appropriate action. I do not
believe officers belong in the classroom.
If there is a classroom incident, we want to meet with the student
away from the classroom. We do not
want to put other students at risk. We
talk with students either at our office or at the Judicial Affairs
office. We do not want to get to the
point that we think all of our students are a threat to us. We do not want to turn this into a police
state on campus. However, do not think
we are not concerned with your safety." Captain Coker said, "We would like you
to report anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. We will make an assessment as to what we
think needs to be done in the situation.
Sometimes that is not as obvious as it may seem. We have sent our officers out in plain
clothes to intercept a student and talk with them in the past so as not to be
so disruptive to a class. Too much of
a police presence can have a chilling effect on the educational process, or
freedom to speak. We also sometimes
use other methods of dealing with a situation. Sometimes we have our officers do patrol
checks in the classroom areas in plain clothes just to be sure there isn't a
problem. Active shooter is a concept that came about
after Columbine. The traditional
police response didn't work when there was a shooter that was actively
involved in randomly shooting people.
This is not a targeted threat, or a hostage situation. This is someone actively involved in using
violence and the violence is continuing.
In a typical hostage situation, the first objective is to secure the
area and attempt to communicate with the hostage taker. That doesn't work in an active shooter
situation. In a typical hostage-taking
situation, time usually works against the hostage taker. Slowing things down can lead to a better
resolution than trying to rush in and take action. This is just the opposite in an active
shooter situation. In Columbine, this was a very large high
school setting. The initial response
was to establish a perimeter, gather some intelligence, and establish a
plan. In an active shooter situation
there is no time, it requires a rapid response. Following Columbine, and an incident at De
Anza College in which a student planned a massive attack that was foiled,
police in the county got together and came up with a county-wide protocol on
how police should respond in an active shooter situation. All the police departments in the county
respond the same. If the San Jose
Police came here to assist us they have the same response protocol as we have. What we deal with a lot on our end is being
prepared for that response phase, and what happens when it becomes
manifest. There is certainly an
element on the proactive side which includes recognizing behavior that causes
concern, and doing something about it.
We need to work a little harder on a multidisciplinary approach. Our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is
focused on dealing with a variety of issues.
It is comprised of people across campus in many different areas that
have expertise in dealing with all different emergencies. We need to focus on how the EOC can be used
to respond in a large scale event such as what occurred at Virginia Tech. Our role as first responders is to deal
with the immediate tactical response of trying to isolate and neutralize that
threat. I think we have the basis for
dealing with those big picture issues through our emergency management
team. Now we need to work on scenarios
that envision other than earthquakes or fires. This year our EOC drill was a terrorist
scenario. We have started to involve
other scenarios.” Chief Barnes said, “We have convened a
committee recently that VP Rose Lee is Chairing. We are starting to look at the
infrastructure and what equipment we either have or don’t have. One of the issues at Virginia Tech was
should people have been evacuated and how the information should have reached
them. We are missing some of the key communication
components we should have in this area.
We have some very new buildings that should work well, but we also
have some very old buildings that don’t work well. We are looking at public address systems,
how we get into classrooms, text messages, email, etc. Everyday since Virginia Tech I get about 20
emails from companies wanting to sell us equipment. We just had our first committee meeting
last weekend.” Questions: Senator Sabalius wanted to know how much of
a burden the enforcement of rules, such as no smoking, put on the University
Police Department (UPD). Chief Barnes
indicated that issues such as skateboarding are reviewed to see if they are
workable. Senator Van Hooff said that the lighting in
Clark Hall dims to the point of being dangerous at night, and that there are
a number of elderly faculty in the building in the evenings. Senator Van Hooff is concerned about their
safety, and asked if the escort service could still be called to walk them to
their cars. Chief Barnes said, “Yes.” Chief
Barnes said, “We do send out patrols to do crime prevention checks also.” Senator Van Hooff asked, “What is the
number to call for an escort?” Chief
Barnes said, “x42222.” Captain Coker
asked, “Are we talking about the lighting inside Clark Hall or outside?” Senator Van Hooff said, “Inside on the
fourth floor.” Captain Coker said, “We
will contact the Facilities Development Office (FDO) and have them look into
this.” Chair Lessow-Hurley said, “It might be
helpful to have these emergency numbers available for everyone and other
information including building evacuation routes.” Chief Barnes said, “This information is
available on our website, and we send out our crime report every year
campus-wide.” President Kassing said, “Everyone on campus
should be doing everything they can to make sure their people are aware of
the emergency procedures. Our police
department has limited resources, only 34 officers total to cover 24/7
shifts.” Senator Maldonado-Colon said, “I’m concerned
that we have no drills during the evening hours and we have a lot of part-time
faculty that work evenings that aren’t aware of the procedures.” Chief Barnes said, “As soon as we conduct a
drill, I get horrible phone calls from faculty. We are going to be looking at that and how
to address what to do when we have visitors on campus.” Senator Henderson asked, “What new safety
procedures have we implemented since the Virginia Tech incident?” Chief Barnes said, “At this point
none. We feel what we have in place is
adequate, and we are covered in terms of training and protocol. What we want to add new is a public address
system and those types of things.
We’re also working on being ready to respond. I don’t think we are going to change any of
our procedures at this point.” Senator Phillips said, “We have begun some
discussions in the Student Affairs Division about some publicity campaigns
that will begin in the fall to make known rape crisis centers, and a variety
of resources. It may or may not be
accompanied with an outside organization known as mysafecampus.com. Another project we will start this summer
is to pull together a group of people that will assess problematic behavior
to determine whether or not we need to take action. That is a very difficult sort of thing to
do. It is difficult because you walk
the line between a free society and safety.
Safety does need to prevail.
This summer we will bring together people to develop a protocol for
dealing with this behavior.” Senator Rickford said, “I always felt very
safe on campus. However, I have become
increasingly uncomfortable since Columbine and Virginia Tech. I would encourage you to continue to have
those drills, and not be discouraged by the faculty that don’t like
them. Also, I’d encourage you to look
into getting the equipment we need.” B. Faculty Diversity
Report by AVP Joan Merdinger, Faculty Affairs - AVP Merdinger said, “I would like to thank
Chair Lessow-Hurley, President Kassing, Provost Sigler, VP’s Lee and Najjar,
Senators, and members of the SJSU community for the opportunity to address
the Senate today. The Office of
Faculty Affairs was asked to provide an update on faculty hiring and
retention. Particularly with regard to
the commitment of the university to recruit and maintain a diverse community
of faculty members. Our focus today is
on recent hiring and retention data for tenure-track faculty. As you know, significant resources are
expended to find, hire, and maintain faculty who are likely to spend a
lifetime on our campus, which could mean as many as 50 or 55 years. As contacts for my report, it is important
to be aware that we follow federal affirmative action guidelines. We do that by our significant outreach
efforts during all faculty searches.
We use print, web, and discipline-specific outreach efforts to create
as large a pool as possible for each of the faculty searches. When the final date for the search is
reached, each applicant in the pool has an equal opportunity to be selected
as a finalist to be brought to campus for the final round of interviews. We also follow Executive Order 883, the
Chancellor’s Directive on Guidelines for Non-Discrimination and Affirmative
Action Programs in employment. Our
campus-specific policies that guide affirmative action and equal opportunity
are S89-15, S98-8, and S01-13. During 2005/2006, we conducted the searches
that resulted in the 39 tenure-track hires for 2006/2007. We had 60 searches and 39 hires, which is a
success rate of 65%. This year is
2006/2007, we are conducting 75 searches.
In September 2007, we will have the final numbers on our 2007/2008
tenure-track hires. My report today
focuses on our tenure-track faculty that began in the fall of 2006. We followed the same practice that I will
now describe for the last two recruitment cycles. Departments submitted five-year recruitment
plans to their college planning councils or other such committees, with the
Dean indicating that sufficient funds were available to hire new tenure-track
faculty members. No positions are
rolled from previous years. National
searches for temporary faculty are examined on a case-by-case basis. Appropriate paperwork needs to be filed
with our office in order for searches to proceed. As many of you know, each year we have a
discussion about the importance of beginning these searches early in order to
recruit the best candidates. These
people are also the most competitive in the job market. The budget in the state of Now to take a look at the three tables I
passed out. We have been tracking
tenure-track hiring for a number of years. Table 1 focuses on the newly hired
tenure-track faculty. You can see that in 2006/2007, we hired 39
total faculty members. We hired 5.1%
African-American, 0% American-Indian, 38.8% Asian and Asian-American, 5.1%
Hispanic/Latino, 15.5% unknown, and 43.5% white faculty. The most recent data of Fall 2005 indicates
that we are doing as well if not better than the CSU in hiring
African-American and Asian/Asian-American faculty. We are doing less well in hiring
Hispanic/Latino faculty. Throughout
the CSU system Hispanic/Latino hiring was about 7.6%, and you can see we are
at 5.1%. Gender is also reported. Our new tenure-track faculty were 59% male,
and 41% female. If we go back further
to 1991/1992, the best year we ever had for hiring, we hired 79 faculty
members. You can see we haven’t done
that since, but we’ve gotten close. To
bring in about 70 faculty members, we have to do about 100 searches. Now if you take a look at Table 2 in 2006/2007,
it includes tenure and tenure-track faculty.
Sixty-five percent of our tenure and tenure-track faculty are white,
and 30.9 are minority faculty members.
If you go back ten years ago, you can see there is about a 9% change
in this 14 year period of time. In
1992/1993, the faculty was 78.4% white, and 21.6% minority faculty
members. In the whole CSU system,
73.5% of all faculty are white, and 26.5% minorities. Gender at SJSU is changing more rapidly than
ethnicity and race. In 2006/2007,
57.5% of our faculty were male, and 42.5% were female compared to 70.2% male
and 29.8% female in 1992/1993. This is
a 13% change in 14 years. Table 3 indicates retention rates. All of the tenure-track faculty members
were retained from that particular review cycle. What was asked for, but that I need to
report to you, is that since 1993/1994, we have lost 144 tenure and
tenure-track faculty members. We lost
an additional 32 in the summer 2004 due to the most recent Golden Handshake. Another important data point to report is
that 45% of our faculty are eligible for FERP. We have a disproportionate number of
retirement age faculty. This makes it
even more imperative that we hire more tenure and tenure-track faculty. This is the Baby Boomer generation. In summary, at SJSU we are making slow
progress towards more gender, ethnic, and racial diversity. Our progress is more visible with respect
to gender. Our efforts have been
impeded however, by the boom and bust state of economy, mandates from federal
and state governments that are not synchronized, and a national pool of
doctoral students that are not yet as diverse as our own student population
is. The 1996-2000 doctoral pool
included 5.2% African-Americans, .7% American-Indian, 9.4% Asian-American, 5%
Hispanic/Latino, and 79.7% white students.
Although we have more work to do, we do have programs that can be
helpful to hiring minorities. Our
Undergraduate and Graduate programs give us access to the next generation of
teachers and scholars. That is really
significant. We also have temporary
faculty that are interested and qualified for tenure-track positions.
We need to recruit students for our McNair Scholars program.” Questions: Chair Lessow-Hurley asked, "Do you do
exit interviews to find out why faculty are leaving?" Senator Merdinger said, "We just had
an exit interview survey approved by human subjects, so we can begin doing
that. We have not done that in the
past." Senator Phillips asked, "Is the 144
the number of departures from SJSU, or the net loss?" Senator Merdinger said, "It is just on
the table, in other words we had x number of people at this time and now all
these years later we have this many fewer.
It is the result of many things." Senator Sigler said, "I was just going
to point out that if you look at Table 2, tenure and tenure-track faculty, in
1992 there were 849. In 2006, the
total number of faculty is 742. That
is a difference of 107." Senator
Merdinger said, "My numbers are off." Senator Van Selst said, "I know at the
Chancellor's office we were asking about the exit interview from people that
are not formal resignations, but got a better job somewhere else. The other question is, looking at the
impact of equity increases, I know that in my department one of discussions
we are having is that we are looking for three new hires but six new hires
would give us 80/20 again. We can
maybe afford three unless we do a lot of equity changes that come out of
department money, and then we could actually only hire two." Senator Merdinger said, "The good news
is there is more than $7 million in equity adjustments throughout the
system. We are waiting to see if that
will be ratified this weekend.
However, how that is going to work, I can't tell. The campus is not in charge of it. It sounds like it is an across the system
look at who is inequitable and who might be brought up. My understanding is that there is a
committee that will be formed and looking at the procedure for that." Senator Thames asked, "Senator
Merdinger looking at the hiring of personnel, have you gathered any data on why
it is hard to hire?" Senator
Merdinger said, "I think there are a number of factors. There are some disciplines that are extremely
difficult to hire in, because there is a very small pool. There is also a common theme of this being a
high cost of living area, and this is very discouraging for people that come
from outside this area." Senator Canham asked, "I wonder if you
have any numbers on the retention of tenure-track faculty?" Senator Merdinger said, "We do have
that, it is in that report that is on the Chancellor's Office website. I don't have those numbers right now." Senator Rickford said, "Some of these
numbers are weak, and I think that we shouldn't be complacent. I know that it is true that our percentages
are compared to the CSU, but I think that the stronger goal is for faculty of
ethnicity to compare with the percentage in the general population. In terms of that goal, I think we are
failing. Also, I am little discouraged
because you said that we have a lot of potential on campus in terms of
encouraging our own graduates, but there is a small number of American-Indian
and African-American students on campus.
I am wondering if there is in fact affirmative action actually enforced,
and whether there is any data about the number of African-American,
Hispanic-Mexican, American-Indian faculty that actually do apply and what are
the outcomes. Do we track that?" Senator Merdinger said, "You are
asking good hard questions. When we
look at how we are doing with regard to hiring of faculty, we actually have
to look at a national level. In terms
of affirmative action, that is federal law and we follow that. We actually
have reports from our Office of Faculty and Diversity that would tell us who
is in the pool, but because of a recent ruling that applies to the CSU system
we are no longer able to use certain kind of methods. One of them, a very important one, was
halting a search because the pool wasn't diverse enough. What we do do as a result of additional
money the UPC gave us, is target our advertisements to specific readers that
are more likely to provide a more diverse applicant pool. The best way to make the pool as diverse as
possible is to do as much outreach as possible." Senator Gorman said, "I am intrigued
by the number of faculty that are eligible to FERP. Do you have any idea how that compares to
other campuses in the CSU? Do we have
older faculty here as compared to the rest of the CSU?" Senator Merdinger said, "I actually
don't know the answer to your question."
Senator Gorman said, "Also, was there any attempt to breakdown
the comparison to show the differences in CSU campuses based on the cost of
living in the area? My guess would be
that campuses in high cost of living areas are having the same problems we
have. As for workload, we've had
people walk away from the table due to the workload. My final observation is that this report
ignores the whole dimension of gay faculty when looking at the issue of diversity." Senator Peter said, "First, thank you
and the Provost for getting those searches out. It is a huge process. My experience with the graduate pools has
been that many of them were hired before we even got our searches
underway. By getting the searches
going earlier it gives us a fighting chance.
I wanted to ask you about the trend in the hiring of women over the last
few years. I didn't know if there was
a trend or not. In 2003, 67% of our
hires were women, in 2004 only 57.9% were women, and more recently only 41%
were women. Do you have any
explanation for why we aren't doing as well as we were years ago?" Senator Merdinger said, "This can
change with just a couple of hires, because the numbers are so small. I think we need to see it for a couple more
years before we can say it is really a significant trend. One of the things to look at and compare is
areas where women have traditionally been under-represented. I think that 39 is a 65% success rate that
is not bad." Senator Van Hooff said, "Since we have
a large number of faculty that are foreign-born, what is the process? I am always uneasy about what the hiring
rules are." Senator Merdinger
said, "We do not know if the person is foreign-born until the job offer. There are a number of regulations that tell
us we can't question people about this until the offer is made. Then we can question them about their right
to work in the Policy Committee and University Library Board Action
Items. In rotation. A. Organization and Government Committee
(O&G): Senator Hebert presented AS
1353, Policy Recommendation, Senate Vacancies, Amendment to Bylaw 1.6 (Final Senator Hebert presented AS
1357, Policy Recommendation, Academic Assessment Committee (Final Senator Hebert presented AS
1361, Policy Recommendation, Amendment of Bylaw 10 (Special Agencies)
Responsibility to Stagger Faculty-at-Large Terms (First Questions: Chair Lessow-Hurley asked, “Is appointive” an actual English word? Perhaps the committee could clarify this in
the 2nd and 3rd whereas clauses.” Senator Hebert said, “Bill Gates thought it
was.” Senator Van Selst said, “My concern would be that the appointments are
done after the elections and not before.”
Senator Hebert said, “Special agency seats aren’t really filled by an
election, it’s more a selection by the Executive Committee.” Senator Backer said, “Ideally, once you’ve
fixed the terms, they should stay fixed.
You shouldn’t have to re-stagger them.” Senator Van Selst said, “So, the flexibility of the Associate Vice
Chair (AVC) to stagger and re-stagger the terms for the faculty is only for
the policy committees, and not the operating committees and special
agencies?” Senator Hebert said,
“Faculty are elected to one year terms on the policy committees, there is no
staggering of terms.” [Clarification
by Senate Administrator – Faculty are appointed to one year terms on the
policy committees by the AVC based on submission of committee preference
forms, and seat availability. All
Senators serve on a policy committee for a one year term.] Senator Hebert said, “As for operating
committees there is some interest here.” Senator Sabalius said, “Would it help to explain about how our Senate
body already staggered the terms for the CSU Statewide Senators because we
were un-staggered?” Eva Joice [Senate
Administrator] said, “What happened with the staggering of the Senate seats
is that when James Brent took over as Senate Chair we had trouble filling
senate seats, so he had me appoint everyone for three year terms. James was new and I was new and neither of
use knew any better. By the time
Annette Nellen took over as Chair of the Senate, the seats were out of
alignment. We need to have no more
than one third of the seats go vacant each year. Chair Nellen had the AVC [Senator Thames]
come up with a plan to get the seats back in alignment. It took three years to do this. However, this problem arises with all the
committees. The seats don’t stay
staggered. Over time as people leave
and new people are appointed, the terms get out of alignment and need to be
re-staggered. I feel it is very
important that the AVC maintain the authority to stagger and re-stagger the
seats on the Senate, and all the Senate’s committees whenever necessary. Leaving the staggering of terms up to the
committees themselves could cause significant recordkeeping problems for the
AVC and Senate Office.” B. Instruction and Student Affairs Committee
(I&SA): Senator Meldal presented AS
1360, Policy Recommendation, Student Fairness Dispute Resolution (First Questions: Senator Van Selst said, “In a case of a grade dispute and the grade
gets changed against the faculty member’s wishes, does the faculty member’s
name still appear as signing off on that grade?” Senator Meldal said, “I don’t know. The policy change does not address that
issue at all. The actual grade change
is made by the Registrar’s office if the faculty member does not wish to
change it himself/herself.” Senator Veregge said, “If the faculty member refuses to change the
grade, then does it automatically go to the Registrar and the Registrar
changes the grade, or is there another level of appeal?” Senator Meldal said, “The level of appeal for
the faculty member is the Board of Academic Freedom and Professional
Responsibility. The ad hoc college
committee has been substituted with the Board of Academic Freedom and
Professional Responsibility.” Senator Peter said, “How many appeals currently take place from the
Student Fairness Committee, and has the committee voted as to it’s
willingness to take on this new task?”
Senator Meldal said, “I’m glad you asked that question. It is actually shocking to me to see how
few cases there are. In 2005/2006
there were a total of 388 cases out of which two went to the Student Fairness
Committee. One was resolved in favor
of the student, and the other was in favor of the faculty member. That pattern is consistent throughout the
years. In appeals, we had one in
2003/2004, and none in 2005/2006. The
numbers are very small and the committee has been consulted and has no
objections.” Senator Thames said, “I’m on the Board of Academic Freedom and
Professional Responsibility. The board
felt this was a better way to go than to each time have to form a college
committee.” C. University Library Board (ULB) – Senator Peter said, “Just a brief report. We have concluded our meetings for the
year. We have no action items, but we
have been working on research on possibly establishing an information
repository here. It turns out the CSU
as a system is already preparing an information repository for which SJSU is
certainly eligible to partake. The
board has decided to explore the possibility beginning with our master’s
thesis. Under the able leadership of
Celia Bakke, they have been negotiating and talking about what procedures and
policies would have to be in adopted for our master’s thesis to come in
electronic format and be placed in a digital medium to be more widely
accessible. We may have more news on
this in the fall. The good news is we
were visited by a representative of the CSU Long Beach who said the hardware
is already coming along. The expense
to the campus would be for converting documents into digital form, but the
storage, retrieval, and backing up of materials would be at no cost to the
campus. The second half of the
committee has been working on information competency. In particular, we tried to get our hands
around what information competency means.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved a study, and we are
going to asking a number of you to be involved in the study to help us
determine which direction we should be going regarding information competency.” Questions: Senator Sabalius said, “You are talking about the CSU Digital
Repository of works by professors and students?” Senator Peter said, “Yes.” Senator Sabalius said, “This came across
our desk in the CSU Statewide Senate.
To my surprise there was incredible resistance to this. Faculty have worries about property and
copyright issues, and whether this would be voluntary or they would be
required to contribute. Have these
worries come to the ULB?” Senator
Peter said, “Yes, but we were satisfied with the answers. We never contemplated requiring
anything. With regard to the thesis,
students already sign waivers.” D. Professional Standards Committee (PS) – Senator Bros said, “Professional Standards has been working on Peer
Review of Teaching. We are making good
progress in this area and should have a policy in the fall.” E. Curriculum and Research Committee (C&R)
– No Report. |
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IX. State of the University Announcements.
Questions. In rotation.
A.
Vice President for Student Affairs –
VP Phillips announced that Marshall Rose
would be accepting a position as Special Assistant to the VP of Student Affairs
starting
Senators Sabalius and Peter asked the
following questions. Why wasn't the
Student Center Facility Project put to a vote by the entire student body? How did the consultation process work?
VP Phillips stated that there was
overwhelming support in favor of the fee increase, and putting it to a vote by
the entire student body would delay the process.
B.
Associated Students President (AS) -
AS President Gutierrez announced that
Benjamin Henderson had been elected as the AS President for next year. Senator Reyes was also elected as the
Director of Students Rights and Responsibilities. AS President Gutierrez thanked the Senate for
its support over the last two years.
C.
VP
Najjar announced that he had some 150th Anniversary lapel pins if anyone wanted
one. VP Najjar thanked everyone for
their support during Founders week. VP
Najjar announced that they had recently received a $5 million gift for the
D. CSU Statewide Senators - No report
E. Provost
-
Provost Sigler thanked everyone that attended
the Honors Convocation and Founder's week.
Provost Sigler announced that Dean Magid was resigning. We will be launching a national search for a
replacement. Provost Sigler will be
making an announcement shortly about the Interim Dean of CASA.
F. Vice
President for Administration and Finance - No report
X. Adjournment –