April 2, 2008

Gary Weaver called the meeting to order at 2:15 p.m.

Present: Professors Weaver, Loesberg, Silvia, Belson, Douglass, Forst, Girard, Hall, Kim, Langbein, Leap, Mintz, Pike, Reece, Riddick, Sha, Wanis-St.John, Willoughby, Yates, Young, Dean Mardirosian, and Provost Broder.

Welcome and Introduction, Gary Weaver

Professor Weaver welcomed everyone to the meeting. The March minutes were approved by the Senators.

Report of the Chair, Gary Weaver

• Disclosure of Directory Information – Chairs and members of the working group that proposed changes to the directory information policy, Senate officers, and members of three Senate Committees (SLAE, JCCAP and Information Services) met three times to discuss this issue and have decided that it needs further deliberation before it comes to the floor of the Senate for legislative action. Professor Silvia added that at this point, the project team is waiting for Nathan Price to meet with the University Council’s Office to come up with new language that would satisfy the objections made to the original version. The hope is that a revised draft will be on the agenda for the May meeting of the Senate.

• An e-mail has gone out announcing the results of the University-wide portion of Faculty Senate elections. The new at-large Senators will attend the May meeting, and will take office starting June 15th.

• Professor Weaver has sent out emails to all of the Deans reminding them of vacancies that need to be filled on the Senate and its committees.

• The emeriti representative to the Budget and Benefits Committee will be Valerie French.

• Nominations are now being accepted for Senate Vice-Chair, and the vote will take place at the May meeting.

• John Douglas and Don Myers will report to the May meeting of the Senate on budget issues.

• There is an urgent request for faculty to serve on Conduct Council Panels. This is a vital responsibility of the faculty. The panels cannot finish their work without faculty participation.

• President Kerwin sent out an e-mail announcing the four finalists for the Provost position. The finalists will be on campus over the next few weeks and will participate in town-hall meetings for all of faculty. In addition, the Faculty Senate will have an opportunity to participate in a closed meeting with each of the finalists.

Report of the Provost, Dr. Broder

Admissions AU mailed out decision letters for the fall 2008 undergraduate admissions starting March 11. Following that, we sent letters were out for waitlists, mentorships, and denials. There have been several successful conversion activities around the country There were also very good results at the receptions in Miami and Chicago. Deposit statistics were also very good. Searches The search for Vice Provost for Enrollment is in its final stages. There are three finalists. There are two additional senior administrative searches, one for an Executive Director for Marketing and the other for Vice President for Development. There have been 28 successful faculty searches for tenure/tenure-track positions. In addition, there are six outstanding offers, and five searches that are still in the interview stage. Nine searches will be held over until next year because the search was not successful this time.. Announcements There were three finalists for the Truman Scholarship Awards, and Molly Kinney and James Valvo have won. This is the second year in a row in which AU has had two Truman Scholars. Other schools that had two Truman scholars this year include: Georgetown, Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Tufts. The Faculty Recognition Dinner will take place on April 27 at the Washington College of Law and there will be numerous awards given to faculty for retirement and 25-years of service. The Annual Provost Address to the Faculty will take place on April 23.

Report of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Bill DeLone

President Kerwin appointed Professor DeLone to chair the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. There are seventeen members, and they meet every two weeks. The goal is to draft a plan for approval by the Board of Trustees at their November meeting. At this point, the purpose of the Committee is to engage the entire AU community to solicit ideas and to brainstorm about the mission of AU over the next ten years. Professor DeLone mentioned that there are many ways in which the community can participate, such as attending the Town Hall meetings or looking at the Steering Committee’s website.

Motion to Revise Rules of the Senate to Establish an Executive Committee, Stephen Silvia

Professor Silvia outlined the main reasons for this change. The 2003 comprehensive reforms of the Senate included a provision that made the entire Faculty Senate its own executive committee. This arrangement proved unsatisfactory for three reasons: (1) the three Senate officers frequently could not avoid acting as a de facto executive committee to carry out essential tasks of the Senate (e.g., managing the nominations of faculty representatives to Board of Trustee committees), but found this problematic because they did not have a mandate to do so; (2) the Senate did not have an in camera venue for a preliminary discussion of the merits and readiness of proposed legislation; and (3) some duties specified in the academic regulations that the old Senate Executive Committee had performed (e.g., receiving reports of evaluations of key administrators) were not taking place because an executive committee that was smaller than the Senate as a whole and met in camera did not exist. The new executive committee as proposed would have seven voting members: the Senate Chair, Senate Vice-chair, Senate Past Chair, Chair of the Instructional Budget and Benefits Committee, one of the Co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Curriculum and Academic Programs, one at-large Senator and one Senator from among those not already on the Executive Committee. The Provost and Dean of Academic Affairs would serve as ex-officio non-voting members of the executive committee.

Ms Mintz proposed an amendment that would require the executive committee keep minutes of its meetings. Professor Silvia accepted the proposal as a friendly amendment. Professor Loesberg made a motion to strike item B5 on page 1, which set rules for inviting guests to speak at Senate meetings. The motion failed by a vote of 4 for, 9 against, and 7 abstentions. Professor Willoughby proposed alternative language for point 3 in the second paragraph of Article IX.C., which addresses the process for soliciting nominations for Senate elections. Professor Silvia accepted this as a friendly amendment. A vote followed to accept the main motion, which passed unanimously.

An Update from the Undergraduate Experience Council, Haig Mardirosian & Faith Leonard

Dean Mardirosian spoke about student retention. There is not a retention crisis, but the retention rate is not as good as it might be at AU. Some issues with regard to retention are as follows: First, identifying which students may be at risk for leaving AU and the implementation of a strategy for trying to keep those students at AU. Second, looking into the living and learning environment at AU, and paying particular attention to the challenges of adjustment for those students who have transferred to AU. Third, looking into the administrative barriers that may exist. In an effort to understand the situation better, the Council identified about 40 freshmen students with a 3.95 or better GPA, and invited them to dinner. The students were asked various questions about the other universities to which they applied, and how satisfied they were with the living and the learning situation here. The Council learned a lot about the students’ experience at AU. Ms Leonard added that the Council similarly met with a group of students with a GPA of 2.0-2.5. It seems that many students would like more social life at AU on the weekends. Dean Mardirosian stressed that there is no general answer to the issue of retention; it is very specific to each student. Thus, improving retention entails a relationship between Academic Affairs, Campus Life, faculty, and the AU community as a whole.

Committee Reports

Joint Committee on Curriculum and Academic Programs, Kiho Kim

The committee has reviewed several proposals lately, including four graduate certificates, two masters programs, and three other programs under review. Additionally, two KSB certificates, for global time-management and IT consulting, were approved recently. There was a joint KSB/SIS graduate certification approved. The committee re-reviewed a proposal from SETH for graduate certification on nutritional education. Lastly, the committee reviewed two proposals from KSB for establishing two masters programs, one in Finance and the other in Finance & Real Estate.

Strategic Planning Committee, Leigh Riddick

Prof. Riddick discussed the most recent draft of the committee’s report. The first principle of the committee is that there is an opportunity to improve the academic reputation in the broader community. A list of specific points includes: improving AU’s reputation by increasing the quality of teaching and scholarly activity, enhancing institutional trust within the AU community, improving outcomes and promoting innovation and creativity, fostering diversity within all groups on campus, encouraging interdisciplinary curricular programs, and increasing financial accessibility of AU to a broader range of students.

For the Good of the Order

• Professor Willoughby read a resolution that the economics department had approved. It called on the board of Trustees to establish a policy of providing a cost-of-living adjustment for all tenured and tenure-track faculty. The economics department’s resolution was forwarded to the Senate’s Instructional Budget and Benefits committee for consideration.

• Ms Mintz introduced Rachel Pentlarge, who spoke about driving safety on campus. Ms. Pentlarge asked the Faculty Senate to endorse the goalof her committee, whose purpose is to improve driving safety on campus. Professor Willoughby made a motion to endorse, and the motion was passed unanimously.

The meeting adjourned at 4:45.