Faculty SenateMinutes

December 3, 2014

  1. Call to Order and Welcome
  2. Approval of Minutes from November 4, 2014

a) The minutes were approved without further change.

  1. Vice-President for Academic Affairs’ Remarks

a)89% of the undergraduates have registered so far

b)There is an increase in new applicants for spring, around 40%.

c)There has been some progress made with Gen Ed. Both faculty and committee are working to come to an agreement on the model.

d)Portal updates are also in the works.

e)As of Nov. 10, 80% of the students are returning. Is it believed that the early alert system as well as the Vortex committee has had a positive impact on this increase in retention.

  1. Senate Chair’s Report
  2. Executive Committee –
  3. Enrollment Management Committee - update

i. Each department has been encouraged to set enrolment targets with each major.

  1. Standing Committee Reports
  2. Personnel - Ron Leslie–no report
  3. Academic Integrity–Davy Gibbs-no report
  4. Admissions and Standards–Steve Jacobs-no report
  5. Faculty Development –Kerry Waller - no report
  6. Budget & Compensation – Stephen Whited
  1. The university is 80% tuition driven and enrollment is down.
  2. The budget has been adjusted for this and we are spending money conservatively.
  3. One of the results of this is the hiring freeze.
  4. Future plans indicate the financial state of the college is solid and will continue to improve.
  5. The building of the new village will bring in some much needed students and tuition money.
  6. Efforts to communicate budget issues with faculty is ongoing.
  1. Ad Hoc Committees–no updates
  1. Old Business
  1. Compass Committee – Davy Gibbs
  1. There have been 60 approved compass projects
  2. There has been an increase in compass program information on Pilgrim Net and this will continue.
  3. The President has issued a challenge to the students to submit proposals by February.
  4. The question of whether or not qualified adjunct faculty could run a compass project was brought up.
  1. Online guidelines – Kenyon Brown
  1. A draft of the guidelines has been presented to the President’s Council for review.
  1. Changes and reviews will be discussed in the spring.
  1. Vice- Chair language – Steve Carlson
  1. The members of Senate felt as if there was a loss of institutional memory and wanted to find a way retain it.
  2. In April of 2014 a motion was proposed and passed. The motion stated that: A change to the Senate Bylaws was proposed to rename the position of Vice Chair to Chair Elect. The Chair Elect will serve as Chair of the Senate during the year following their election as Chair Elect.
  3. This motion was presented to the faculty in August with mixed reviews and was tabled until the next faculty Assembly.
  4. Having discussed this further, it was determined that by increasing the Senate member’s term to three years, the problem of institutional member had been decreased.
  1. A new motion was proposed and passed. The motion states: Senate retracts the previous proposal and proposes no further changes to the bylaws at this time.
  1. A second motion was proposed and passed. The motion states: The Executive Committee is responsible for preparing a slate of recommended officers for consideration by the incoming Senate at the last Senate meeting of the academic year.
  1. This will be presented to the faculty at the next Assembly.
  1. Gen Ed
  1. There was a lengthy discussion on the role Senate should play in Gen Edsince curriculum changes are being considered.
  2. It was determined that the primary responsibility of Senate was to be the voice of the faculty. Senate would like to ensure that all faculty have a voice in any upcoming curriculum changes.
  3. A new motion was proposed and passed. The motion states: The Gen Ed committee willmake a monthly report to Senate on their process. This report should include information that assures the Senate that there has been ample two-way communication between the Gen Ed committee and the faculty regarding any curriculum changes under consideration.
  4. There was a consensus of opinion that the Senate's role regarding Gen Ed was related to the oversight of process, and that the content was not subject to their approval.
  1. New Business

i. Some faculty feel as if there is too much push from the administration to track down unregistered students to determine their reasons for not registering.

ii. Rettig: The Vortex committee has been working on retention numbers and is trying to find a good way to increase these numbers.

iii. Other methods are being discussed.

  1. School Reports
  2. School of Arts & Sciences
  3. School of Business
  4. School of Education
  5. Library
  6. School of Nursing
  7. Announcements:

The next meeting of the Faculty Senate will be held January 7, 2014 at 1:00 pm in Camp Younts.