9/16/08

President Wacholtz opened the Sept. 16, 2008, Faculty Senate meeting by welcoming both returning and new senators and by saying farewell to Lynda Olson and hello to April Haas.

The SAS report was given by Thomas Rowland, and the OSA report was given by Ann Duginske. Senator Kostman reported on the activities of the LERT team over the summer. Wacholtz reported on several items that were handled by the Senate Exec committee over the summer, including the Content Management System, a request from Provost Earns to develop a list of major issues that should be addressed over the 2008-2009 academic year and accepting minor language modifications to the Fair Trade Proposal.

He also reported on four items discussed at the Provost Staff meeting: the need to look into the Merit process for some areas, the development of a comprehensive instructional technology plan, the requirement of HLC to have all online curricular programs approved by them and the waiving of the 72-credit-hour transfer rule. This last topic generated extensive discussion.

The Senate approved the appointments of Bill Wresch and Art Pontynen to the Assessment Committee and Suzanne Marnocha to the Distinguished Teaching Award Committee.

9/30/08

The Sept. 30, 2008, Faculty Senate meeting began with Chancellor Wells giving his State of the University Report. He also provided us with an update on the efforts being made to improve faculty compensation. The Compensation Committee will consider recommending an increase in the percent paid for advancement in rank at their Oct. 10 meeting.

Reports were given by Thomas Rowland for SAS, Jim Simmons on the Faculty Reps Meeting, Bill Wacholtz on the Provost Staff meeting and Todd Kostman on LERT. The minutes of the Sept. 16 meeting were approved.

Karl Boehler presented a progress report on the First Year Experience program, while Linda Freed and Gary Adams provided an update on the FDP. There were several concerns about the shortfall in FD funds for this year, which were addressed by the representatives along with assurances that the budgeting process is regularly evaluated to minimize the chance for recurrent shortfalls.

The Senate approved several APC recommendations and made appointments to committees requiring Senate representation. The meeting concluded with President Wacholtz thanking Senator Loewenstein for his work on putting together a Committee on Committee Web site that will be linked to the Faculty Senate’s Web site.