UAH FACULTY SENATE
PRESENT:
ADSC: Wilhite, Schnell
LBAR: J. Johnson, Rountree, Neff, Gyasi, M. Johnson, Ragsdale, Jones, Reeves, Neuschatz, Sitaraman
ENG: Banish,
Gaede,
LIB:
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
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.
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
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.
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
B. University Committees:
Officer Reports:
Parliamentarian: No Report.
Ombudsperson: No Report.
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
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