Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate

[Approved March 24, 2006]

March 3, 2006

St. Mary’s 113 B; 1:30 PM

Present: J. Biddle, D. Biers (presiding), D. Courte, S. Hileman, P. Johnson, J. O’Gorman, R. Penno, F. Pestello, R. Wells.

Excused: D. Gudaitis, M. Morton, A. Seielstad

Guests: H. Gerla (member Post-Tenure Review Committee), D. Polzella (for M. Morton)

Opening Prayer: Jack O’Gorman opened the meeting with St. Patrick’s breastplate prayer.

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 17, 2006: Moved and seconded, minutes were approved as written.

February 24, 2006: Moved and seconded, minutes were approved with the correction of the spelling of Don Polzella’s name. Thanks to Rebecca Wells for writing these minutes.

Announcements:

Dave Biers announced that he has received a response from Deb Bickford that indicates that the group working on Orientation for Fall 2006 does not think it can change the placement of Convocation (see new business below). He will ask that ECAS have a representative on the Committee that is working on orientation.
Dave Biers announced that members of the Executive Committee had met with members of the Faculty Board to discuss the process for developing material for the North Central Association Self-Study. As a result of the discussions at that meeting, he will contact Joyce Carter about having a member of ECAS serve on the Human Resources Committee. The Faculty Board currently has a representative on that Committee. ECAS will also extend an invitation to the Faculty Board to have a representative sit in on ECAS meetings. Rebecca Wells will work with Jim Farrelly to develop the materials for the Self-Study.

New Business:

Agenda for the March 10 Meeting of the Academic Senate:

The Committee discussed agenda items for the meeting of March 10. Four items will constitute the main items of business.

1. Changes in the withdrawal policy will be DOC I-060-02. Pat Johnson will number this document and have it distributed with the agenda.

2. The tentative Orientation Schedule for Fall 06 will be distributed. Dave Biers will get this from Deb Bickford for distribution to the members of the Academic Senate. Pat Johnson will report on this as a point of information. She will explain that ECAS met with Deb Bickford over a concern about holding convocation on Monday, August 21, necessitating the canceling of 8:00 and 9:00 classes. Approximately 2,000 students will be affected by the cancellation of these classes. ECAS is concerned that the Senate has placed importance on academic rigor, resulting in the move to begin classes on the Monday, and that canceling classes seems to send a different signal about the importance of academics.

3. A “Sense of the Senate Discussion” on the Marianist Educational Working Group will be DOC 06-03. Paul Benson has indicated that he will have this to Dave Biers after a meeting on Tuesday, March 7. It will then be distributed to the members of the Academic Senate.

4. A “Sense of the Senate Discussion” on Post-Tenure Review will be DOC 06-04. Pat Johnson will prepare this document and have it distributed with the agenda.

Items for the April meeting of the Academic Senate will probably include a report from the group working on international issues, a document related to the policy on background checks, and a document on changing the timing of the election of faculty Senators.

Committee Reports:

SAPCAS: Steve Hileman reported for the Committee. A paper copy of a preliminary proposal of an honor pledge was distributed to the members of ECAS. This is assigned to the Academic Policies Committee. The two Committees will cooperate on this issue and determine if a proposal should come to the Academic Senate.

APCAS: Jim Biddle reported for the Committee. The Committee has completed work on the changes in the withdrawal policy and submitted this for action by the full Senate. They will meet on Monday, March 6, to finalize the policy on class rank. This should be ready for the full Senate for the April meeting. A report to them from the Calendar Committee is still pending. They will discuss an update on the work of the Provost’s committee working on Promotion and Tenure. They will add the Honor Pledge to their agenda. The Graduation Committee has also raised a question about printing and reading Latin honors for students walking in May who are short the required hours. They will address this issue.

FACAS: Dave Biers reported for the Committee. The Committee met with Joe Untener and Troy Washington on March 1 and had a fruitful discussion on a new draft of the policy for conducting background checks on faculty. The Committee raised questions about the lack of agreement between the policy and the application form that is used by a third-party company that performs the background checks. They noted the need to clarify some ambiguous language in the policy. The Provost office will be the responsible party for receiving background information and for making decisions as to whether a contingent offer of hire should be rescinded based on that information. The Committee noted that departmental chairpersons should not see the application form. This should also be sent to the assigned person in the Provost Office. The Committee asked that Joe Untener create a list of criminal activities that would and would not be considered as reason for rescinding an offer. While they recognize that such a list cannot be complete, the Committee thought it would be helpful for both the discussion and for the implementation of the policy. Dave Biers also noted that FACAS had raised the question about the use of this policy in relationship to the hiring of part-time faculty.

ECAS discussed the process for notifying a candidate about the information gained in a background search. Fred Pestello proposed that if information suggested the need to rescind an offer, the Provost Office should handle this in a reasonable manner. The candidate should be given the opportunity to question the information and/or withdraw from consideration for the position. Bob Penno asked that the Committee be requested to ensure that the concerns raised by the Black Faculty Association are clearly addressed in the policy. ECAS also asked if policies at other institutions have been reviewed. Dave Biers responded that Troy Washington had indicated that they began work by looking at other policies. However, Biers did not know which other institutions were part of that informational group.

Old Business:

Bob Penno reported on his research into the role of ECAS in relationship to University-wide committees. Kathleen Henderson has indicated that ECAS agreed on September 13, 2002, to take on the work of the old Committee on Committees. This would mean that ECAS has responsibility for ensuring that all cross-unit committees are appropriately elected or appointed. He noted that the list of committees on the Senate website has not been updated since 2003. He has a 2005 list that is different from the current list on the web.

Dave Biers noted that the list of these committees used to be published every year in the Campus Report. While the web may now be the appropriate medium for promulgating this information, there needs to be an easily identifiable place that is maintained and regularly updated.

Before this can happen, the list of committees and current membership of those committees needs to be determined. Bob Penno will consult with Kathleen Henderson to obtain the names of the current chairpersons or the administrator responsible for the various committees.

ECAS will continue this discussion at its next meeting.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 2:50 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

Patricia A. Johnson

Secretary