[Approved September 13, 2007]
Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate
September 6, 2007
St. Mary’s 113 B; 12:00 PM
Present: D. Biers
(presiding), T.
Eggemeier, A. fist, P. Johnson, R. Kearns, L. Laubach, J.O’Gorman, R. Penno, f.
Pestello, A. Seielstad, T. Stevens, R. Wells
J. Farrelly (Faculty Board)
Roll Call:
All of the twelve members of the Committee were present.
Prayer:
The meeting opened with prayers and poems from the Navajo people read by Andrea Seielstad.
Approval of Minutes:
August 30, 2007 approved with one minor change.
Announcements:
·
D. Biers has received
the graduate certificate document from the
Old Business:
· Set aside to attend to new business
New Business:
· The Committee reviewed the text of the ballot for voting on Document 06-10. D. Biers will communicate with the Provost’s Office on this issue.
· Items for the agenda for the meeting of the Academic Senate on September 14 include: an open discussion of Doc 06-10, the Campus Master Plan, the Higher Learning Commission visit, and the reports of the standing committees.
· Academic Policies Committee forwarded a document received from the Registrar concerning changing the P grade (Progress) to IP (In Progress)/ APCAS recommends approval by the Academic Senate. It was noted that the document should have been sent to ECAS prior to APACAS . Had that happened, the document would have been sent to SAPCAS as well. The document will be numbered and posted and assigned to SAPCAS with the request that they deal with this issue promptly.
·
The draft proposal from APCAS regarding the
constitution of a “Curricular Reform Committee” was discussed. This is a major change
from the structure reported last year by APCAS. It was noted that APCAS had not
been submitting regular minutes. Because minutes are essential for the work of
ECAS and members of the Academic Senate, the standing committees are all asked
to submit regular minutes.
After considerable discussion the
following decisions were made:
o This
proposal, once finalized by APCAS, should be reported to the Academic Senate on
September14 as part of the reports of the standing committees. Members of the Academic Senate will be asked
to provide feedback on the proposal.
o One
role of ECAS is to provide feedback on the proposal. The following items were put forward by
members of ECAS:
§ The date of September 30, 2008 might be changed to August 15, 2008 to better reflect the academic calendar.
§ The chairperson of the proposed committee should be a member of APCAS.
§ There is a preference for the members of the committee to be selected because of their expertise. This needs to be mediated with the desire to have representation across Schools and the College. It is important that both goals be accomplished in finalizing the membership of such a committee.
§ The selection process needs to provide the deans with guidelines and should also provide the opportunity for individuals to express interest in serving. It was noted that there are many faculty with expertise in various areas and that this process should be careful to identify such faculty.
§ The funding of release time as well as Summer time needs to be considered. It is also important to note that funding may entail a sense of obligation to a certain approach. Faculty should be assured that the goal is to develop the best curriculum as determined by the faculty.
o APCAS needs to meet to determine whether or not this document is the proposal that they support. They will meet next Wednesday. ECAS will receive their recommendation and vote next Thursday on whether or not to support the change of direction proposed by APCAS.
Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1:15 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Patricia A. Johnson, Secretary