THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN HUNTSVILLE

JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY SENATE

VOLUME XXV

MINUTES OF MEETING #485, 24 JANUARY 2008,

APPROVED FEBRUARY 21, 2008

PRESENT:

ADSC: Wilhite, Schnell

LBAR: J. Johnson, Rountree, Neff, Gyasi, M. Johnson, Ragsdale, Jones, Reeves, Neuschatz, Sitaraman

ENG: Banish, Gaede, Jovanov, Gholston,Wessling, Lin

LIB: Vaughan

NUR: Lawson, O’Keefe, Linsky, George

SCI: Boyd, Bishop, Magnuson, Scholz, Etzkorn, Aygun, Ravindran, Miller, Elsamadicy

ABSENT WITH PROXY:

ADSC: Burnett, Bao

LBAR: Bollinger, Heikes

ENGR: Anderson, Kulick, Karr

SCI: Edmondson

ABSENT WITHOUT PROXY:

LBAR: Pritchard, Moore

ENGR: Frendi

NUR: Thompson

SCI: Mecikalski, Ai

0. Senate President Lynn Boyd called the meeting to order at 12:50 p.m.

1. Draft Minutes of Meeting Number 484 were approved. Motion by Carmen Scholz, seconded by Andrée Reeves.

2. Senate Executive Committee Report accepted. Motion by Jack Schnell seconded by Shari George. One abstention.

3. President Williams’ Report.

Dr. Williams reported we are in the later stages of hiring the VP for Advancement. We are conducting second interviews in the next couple of weeks.

The Provost Search is ongoing. The Committee is currently looking at names.

Rick Barth and Sandra Patterson are on campus now. There was a presentation in the Council of Deans this morning. There is more involvement for yourselves in this. We have an opportunity to grow enrollment. We can fill needs of the community. Meet Rick and Sandra and work with them. Faculty participation is critical. You are in contact with students and prospects and can help with retention.

The building continues on campus. They are making great progress on the parking facility. We are going to the Board with information regarding the renovation of Wilson Hall. We will look at Madison Hall as well. We are well aware of the needs in Morton and Roberts Hall. We are looking at the needs and the financial situation in the State. We will be looking at the budget next year. We will be making a contingency plan for what to do depending on what the Legislature presents. We will focus on bringing in more money instead of looking at what we cannot do.

4. Dr. Radonovich’s Report.

Dr. Radonovich reported the Inauguration will occur at the same time as the Board Meeting here on campus in April. The schedule for this will be out soon. We can discuss details at the next meeting. It is a full week of activities. Classes are cancelled from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. on Friday April 11. Thursday will be a full day symposium on “Roles and Responsibilities of a Research University”. Invite classes to come where it is relevant. Wednesday will be the “Best of UAH” with displays. There will be written information and more information from Dr. Radonovich on this soon.

The Chief Academic Officers met. One of the topics was the Performance Indicators. They want to have several years of data. We are not on target for some of the goals. The enrollment goals are difficult to achieve. The six year graduation rate has not increased. There was some questions regarding capping programs and performance indicators and how that works. Dr. Radonovich stated we should not be capping enrollments.

Dr. Radonovich reported the DNP is going forward as a joint program. A joint program as defined in the Board and ACHE manual. A joint program is more than shared and collaborative. All institutions are participating and functioning. It now includes UA. The leadership will rotate between the three institutions. The faculty have done an outstanding job. It will be submitted to ACHE for their next meeting.

Melinda made a plea for people to become politically active to request the Legislature remove/reduce restrictions on Nurse Practitioners. She will send information to Peggy to send to others.

The Provost reported the President and Provost and a representative from the campus, Dr. Lee Williams, will be involved in a system-wide diversity meeting. Dr. Radonovich reported he has shared a copy of the Chancellor’s talk on this topic. We will continue efforts to enhance diversity.

5. A. Senate Committee Reports:

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

2. Faculty and Student Development: Dr. Reeves reported the Committee is looking at ways to help faculty who are not doing as well in teaching. Dr. Bell is looking at this as well. They are looking at some sort of Teaching Resource Center for the future.

The Committee also looked at the visa issue. The Provost is investigating this issue.

The exit interview was discussed and who the faculty talk to.

4. Governance and Operations: No Report.

5. Personnel: No Report.

6. Undergraduate Curriculum: Dr. George reported the Committee approved two new courses for HPE and did it in record time.

7. Undergraduate Scholastic Affairs: Dr. Rountree reported they have two bills on the agenda that were started in the fall semester.

8. Finance and Resources: Dr. Etzkorn reported the REU is finished with 29 proposals and 10 funded by the Provost and 6 by the Space Grant Consortium. The College of Science submitted the most proposals. Distibution of awards were fairly equal to those submitted.

B. University Committees:

Officer Reports:

Parliamentarian: No Report.

Ombudsperson: No Report.

President-Elect: No Report.

President: Dr. Boyd reported she will be going to the Board Meeting in February. The Board Meeting will be here in April. She will give a presentation. She asked if anyone had anything they want her to convey to the Board to please let her know. April 11 is also the inauguration ceremony.

Dr. Boyd reemphasized participation in recruiting and advancement issues.

Dr. Boyd reported we were invited to have representation on the Research Council and Carmen Scholz and Richard Fork have agreed to accept this appointment.

6. Gloria Greene and Chih Loo (Effort Reporting Form)

C. Loo and Gloria Greene are traveling around campus to talk about a new form for Professors on Contract and Grant Accounts. Only those who charge to Contracts and Grants will use this form. Now every two weeks everyone does a Budget Labor and Leave Report. This is not the best accounting procedure according to OMB regulations. Semester reporting is better. Faculty are on a semester reporting and staff on a quarterly. Ten days after the semester ends, log onto the website pull the report to committed effort with actual effort side by side. If they agree hit the button and you are done. If they do not agree then make the changes and submit a retro. Then you go back and verify. Two or three time for about 5 minutes and the report is done. The Federal Government requires we be more stringent on compliance. This enables us to better comply and answer questions from auditors. Time is in percent for effort reporting. C. Loo distributed information to the Senators.

7. Sense of the Senate Resolution in Support of College of Administrative Science Changing the Name to College of Business Administration.

Dr. Schnell presented the Sense of the Senate Resolution. The Faculty of the College met and unanimously supported the name change to help attract students and to have a name more accepted by the community. We would like you to support the name change by offering this resolution.

Rhonda Gaede moved, seconded by Melinda Lawson to accept the resolution. The vote was unanimous.

8. Senate Bill 311: Abolishing NC Grading

Dr. Gaede moved the bill to the floor.

Dr. Wilhite spoke to the fact that he teaches 100 level classes and some of these students are young and immature. For many of them it is the first time they have dealt with some of the issues they encounter and they are overwhelmed. The ARC has just gotten started and they are targeting the strugglers. He stated he is shocked this is coming from Liberal Arts. He proposed to let departments decide.

Some are concerned it is not serving a useful purpose.

There was some discussion regarding a failure in administrative system to stop multiple NCs and wrong use of it.

There was some discussion regarding the Articulation Agreement and forcing English to give NC as opposed to D.

Dr. Gaede moved, seconded by Melinda Lawson to call the question.

The vote was 25 in favor, 10 opposed and one abstention. The bill passed at third reading and will be sent to the Administration for action.

9. Senate Bill 312: Amendment to Student Attendance Policy

Dr. Rountree brought the bill to the floor. The bill was initiated out of concern for students participating in university sanctioned events and activities being penalized b y some instructors. It was recommended we make a university policy to make allowances for those participating in university sanctioned events. The request came from Dr. Wren who is involved in Athletics and found that students were losing a letter grade in some instances. We need consistent practices across the board. We are one of few universities without a policy covering this. We need to council students especially in lab courses.

There was some concern that a blanket policy includes too many events and borders on micromanaging the mechanics of how faculty teach a course. Where do we draw the line? Some concern for opening the door for lawsuits and discrimination. Suggested that faculty be encouraged to accommodate but leave it up to the faculty member.

Dr. Gaede moved to table the bill.

10. Dr. Boyd adjourned the meeting at 2:10 p.m. Motion by Melinda Lawson seconded by Dr. Wessling.