[Approved March 3, 2006]

Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate

February 17, 2006

St. Mary’s 113 B; 1:30 PM

Present: J. Biddle, D.Biers (presiding), D. Gudaitis, P. Johnson, J. O’Gorman, R. Penno, F. Pestello, A. Seielstad, R. Wells.

Excused: D. Courte, S. Hileman, M. Morton

Guests: D. Bickford, T. Eggemeier

Opening Prayer: Pat Johnson began the meeting with a reading of two short prayers from Prayers from the Ark by Carmen Bernos de Gasztold.

Roll Call: Nine of the twelve members of the Committee were present.

Approval of Minutes:

November 29, 2005, not available

December 6, 2005, not available

December 13, 2005, not available

February 3, 2006: Moved and seconded, minutes were approved as written.

Announcements:

1. Dave Biers announced that he had prepared a document for the Provost Council outlining the key issues for the Academic Senate for winter 2006. The Senate is working to improve processes of communication within the Senate and to and from University Committees, Councils, and Boards. The Senate plans to use more “Sense of the Senate” documents to promote communication and consultation.

2. The Academic Leadership Council will meet on May 11. Members of the Dean’s offices of the various units, chairpersons, and members of ECAS will be invited. The topic of discussion will be learning communities at the University of Dayton.

3. Dave Biers reported on enrollment for FA06. At this point deposits are down and requests for deferral of decision until May 1 are up. There are a number of possible reasons: UD, like many institutions, has increased the deposit fee; students can no longer assure their residence preference with their deposit; students are more sophisticated in their decision-making and are waiting longer to finalize decisions. UD currently has about 400 students on hold, but has not decided to move to admit these students. The Provost indicated that he is monitoring the situation (sometimes into his sleeping hours).

Old Business: Old business was deferred until the next meeting in order to give time to invited guests.

New Business

Committee Reports: Reports were deferred until the next meeting to provide time for invited guests.

Fall 2006 Orientation: Associate Provost Deb Bickford was invited to review the proposed schedule for the FA06 orientation. She presented the process used to develop the schedule, explaining that Student Development is responsible for developing the schedule and that they consult with the First Year Team in this process. They are currently working at designing future orientations by drafting goals for orientation. This work will come to the Academic Senate. The issue for next year is to fit a range of events into the four-day period, looking at the role of VO (virtual orientation) as a pre-orientation, and finding ways of best engaging faculty in the format. The proposal to hold convocation on Monday, August 21, necessitating the canceling of 8:00 and 9:00 classes, was the main concern regarding the schedule. She reported that approximately 2,000 students would be affected by the cancellation of these classes. Dave Biers reviewed the importance that the Senate has placed on academic rigor, resulting in the move to begin classes on the Monday. Canceling classes seems to send a different signal about the importance of academics. The Committee reviewed the schedule and suggested several possibilities that could be looked at to move convocation back into the four days of orientation. One major concern is the temperature in Frericks for afternoon events. Fred Pestello asked that we explore the cost of providing fans or air-conditioning for one day. Deb Bickford will explore these costs and will try to move convocation so that classes are not cancelled. The Committee thanked her for the consultation.

Economic Growth Challenge: Dean Tom Eggemeier was invited to review the current status of the Ohio Economic Challenge/Innovation Incentive. He reported that the goals of this initiative are to attract researchers to the State doctoral programs in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas, to create products and services to generate economic resources for the state and to increase funded research in the state, and to complement the Third Frontier Initiative. All of the large public institutions as well as Case Western and UD have been invited to participate in the Economic Growth Challenge. Participation would give access to State funding, and would be consistent with our continued participation in the Research Incentive Program, and in the Third Frontier Initiative. While guidelines from the state are forthcoming, and at this point late, UD is moving ahead with the writing of a program statement that will include identification of areas in which we propose to invest, metrics for evaluating success, and an internal prioritization process. A draft proposal will be due to the State by March 30. After a review and revision process, it is hoped that there would be access to funds by mid-June. The initiative will require reallocation or possibly new allocation of funds to programs in the STEM areas. This internal reallocation will then provide access to an incentive pool of funds. There is a formula for a ten-year process of developing this funding. Our working group has members from the School of Engineering and the science area of the College of Arts and Sciences. A major focus of our efforts will probably be in bioengineering and biosciences. The Committee discussed the potential impact of this initiative on other doctoral programs. Fred Pestello indicated that he has expressed UD firm commitment to our doctoral programs in theology and education in the course of the discussions about this initiative.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 3:10 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Patricia A. Johnson

Secretary