THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN HUNTSVILLE

JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY SENATE

VOLUME XXV

MINUTES OF MEETING #471 3 NOVEMBER, 2005,

APPROVED JANUARY 19, 2006

PRESENT:

ADSC: Gramm

LBAR: Ferris, Pritchard, Bollinger, Meister, Heikes, Reeves, Marcus,

ENG: Banish, Joiner, Kulick, Tippett, Karr, Frendi, Lin

LIB: Vaughan

NUR: Lawson, Newman, Foote, Busby

SCI: Mecikalski, Boyd, Wiemer, Paddison, Cox, Delugach, Ravindran, Miller

ABSENT WITH PROXY:

ADSC: Schnell, Tseng

ENGR: Gaede

LBAR: Martin, Moore, Coward, Neuschatz, Colclough

NUR: McClellan

ABSENT WITHOUT PROXY:

ADSC: Patnayakuni

LBAR: Jones

ENGR: Anderson, Frederick

SCI: Bishop, Oluseyi

0. President Andrée Reeves called the meeting to order at 12:46 p.m.

1. Draft Minutes of Meeting Number 470 were approved with changes. Motion by Ms. Lawson, seconded by Dr. Frendi.

2. Senate Executive Committee Reports accepted. Motion by Dr. Delugach, seconded by Ms. Lawson.

3. President Franz’s Report.

Dr. Franz talked briefly about the Knight vs. Alabama case.

Dr. Franz talked about the increases in the health care cost now in effect and how much the increases are. He stated he would share a copy of the information shared with the PRAC Committee with the Faculty Senate. He discussed some of the new ideas that were presented for the future. He was asked about the possibility of a cafeteria plan. There is one change being implemented for this year but the other ideas have to wait until the future.

4. Dr. Radonovich’s Report.

Dr. Radonovich reported he provided funds for Testing Services to order new software for the Scantron to deal with the problems that had been occurring. Melinda Lyles made a request that the Scantron be used for major testing only. There have been several requests for short quizzes in small numbers and this is expensive and time consuming.

Dr. Radonovich reported the REU Program has been approved. He met with J. Gregory and G. Karr and is waiting for the Senate Executive Committee to get back to him on a couple of matters.

5. A. Senate Committee Reports:

1. Executive: The report was distributed with the minutes. The report was approved.

2. Faculty and Student Development: No Report.

4. Governance and Operations:

Dr. Tippett reported the Faculty Appeals Committee elections are going on and he is still accepting ballots until 5:00 p.m. Friday.

5. Personnel: Dr. Boyd reported the OSP surveys were sent out and she encouraged the faculty members who received it to fill it out and encourage their colleagues to do so as well. Dr. Reeves and Dr. Snider sent an email out yesterday to encourage individuals to complete the form and return it.

6. Undergraduate Curriculum: No Report.

7. Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs: The Committee will meet next Thursday to talk about the Internet TOEFL. The Committee met with the Graduate Council to discuss this matter. They are gathering information and will talk about it next week. They will discuss whether to raise the expectations for the TOEFL and how to handle the Internet TOEFL.

8. Finance and Resources: No Report.

B. University Committees:

C. Officer Reports:

Parliamentarian: No Report.

Ombudsperson: No Report.

President-Elect: No Report

President: No Report

6. Quality Enhancement Plan (Dr. Jack Fix)

Dr. Fix talked about what the QEP is and presented information on a PowerPoint presentation. He talked about the Committee and its composition. The Committee took the theme of research-based decision-making. They gathered data. They sent out a survey to faculty teaching freshmen and freshmen students. There were 121 faculty surveys sent and 100 returned, which was 83%. There were 1400 student surveys sent and about 185 returned, which was about 13%. The Committee reviewed the responses and identified some factors that were very important to freshmen success.

Dr. Fix presented some questions and some areas to think about and asked the faculty for responses to these. Faculty members gave their ideas of things that might be considered as solutions to enhance freshmen success.

Students mentor students—those that are good mentor those who are having trouble.

Study groups. Study groups are affected by how assignments are made. Examples of successful study groups were given. The study groups have to be structured and managed.

Time management. Students and faculty have to know the culture of it being ok that if a student is working a large number of hours it is ok not to be a full time student.

Class size is important. Larger classes are more difficult.

There is a general misunderstanding of what it means to be in college.

Involve Student Affairs.

Making students aware of what is available and how to use it.

Dr. Fix pointed out the scope must be narrow and we have to make it a manageable program.

Expand Orientation. Mandate University 101.

Give a packet of information to students from the faculty at the beginning of the semester.

Make sure the faculty and students are aware of what is available to them.

Use the Residence Halls and put people together to force them to study together.

Enable people.

Indoctrination into the program by department.

Something like Orientation or 101.

Something like RELACS across campus.

Limit GTAs and Part-Timers in freshmen classes.

Make it known that teaching is an important aspect of faculty evaluations.

Have workshops and video-tape lectures.

Send faculty to workshops and conferences.

Evaluation will be an issue to deal with.

Cannot separate student learning and faculty skills and focus. Time management and what faculty do.

Connectivity to UAH –faculty are a part of this.

Strategic is the expectation of the student and the faculty.

7. Development and Fund Raising (Dr. Derald Morgan and Cindy Branham)

Dr. Morgan stated they want to support the passion of the Faculty. We have proceedings and policies in place to follow. Please work with Advancement and they will help you achieve your goal. Check with Advancement first and they will work with you and help you. Cindy stated she would love to work with the faculty. She stated she does discussion groups and would come and talk to faculty in meetings, etc. She stated they have a large database and will work with the faculty for finding funding sources. Dr. Morgan and Cindy distributed a summary sheet of the offices under Advancement and their functions.

8. Dr. Reeves adjourned the meeting at 2:00 p.m. after a motion by Melinda Lawson, seconded by Lynn Boyd.