Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Faculty Council Meeting Minutes
November 16, 2005
I. The meeting was called to order at 2:03 p.m. by Council Chair Michael Campbell
Members present were Michael Campbell (Chair), Robert Light (Chancellor’s Office),
Jack Burke (Chancellor), Jim Fairbank, Bob Nelson (Academic Computing), Tom
Hemminger (Research Committee), Ron McCarty (Senate), Ash Deshmukh (Student
Life),
Deepti Soni (SGA), and Alex Henderson (SGA).
II. Remarks
A. Approval of Council meeting minutes from October 19, 2005, was deferred until
next meeting.
B. Senate Report: Ron McCarty
 Course alignment is progressing, with 37 faculty members from Behrend
involved. The deadline for initial input (reduced list of abbreviations and
collapsed courses, which are similar courses with different designations)
to the Senate is December 6. December 6 is an unrealistic deadline;
however, we will try to get our basic information completed. There was
discussion concerning other alignment issues: courses with the
same designations are taught quite differently at Behrend than at UP;
advising and graduation audit process will be confusing with new
designations; Smeal, Behrend, and Harrisburg must maintain the integrity
of their accredited business programs, while the variety of programs
throughout the campuses are assessed.
 The Senate agenda for December is light; therefore the Senate Council
will meet via videoconference. The agenda includes changes in HR 76
(Faculty Rights and Responsibilities), change from School of IST to
College of IST, and curriculum changes (Science, Technology and
Society).
 Discipline-based collaborative teams across the University are
corresponding regarding course alignment,; e.g., biology faculty members
are working together.
C. SGA Report: Alex Henderson, president
 Working with local businesses to consider giving discounts when students
use their PSU ID card.
 Actively helping to raise funds for THON.
 Diversity committee is looking at a number of issues and activities.
 Creating awareness among Commonwealth Campus students that they
can complete their degree at places other than UP.
 Active in the Harborcreek Township supervisor and Harbor Creek school
director political races.
D. Chancellor’s Report: Jack Burke
 There will be a panel teleconference on the University budget at 10:00
a.m. on November 30. The panel will include Spanier, Erickson, and
Romano.
 The Dobbins Hall Project has been delayed due to University budget
issues. However, the sidewalks that will connect to the REDC and to the
Dobbin’s addition are under construction.
 Review of REDC addition will be done with Spanier. REDC addition and
REDC parking structure projects will be bid together to generate better
bids and better coordinate the construction sequencing.
 Don’t have furniture and fixed equipment (FF&E) budget for REDC yet.
Need these funds so we can start ordering items for building. All rooms
have been assigned to SEET or Business.
 Ron McCarty asked if special funds were available to cover equipment
(furniture and computers) for space vacated by SEET. He was also
worried about size discrepancies of new computer labs; e.g., we do not
want to schedule a course in a lab that used to hold 40 students in a new
lab that holds less. Jack indicated that there were no special funds
available for science, but that the college would work with the school to
make sure that equipment and computers were available. Also SEET will
get some new computers in REDC and may leave some computers
behind. On the topic of classrooms, Jack indicated that he thought that the
room changes took class sizes into account.
 Jack indicated that budgets are going to be very tight this year and next
and that we were probably going to get some level of budget cut. In light
of that we are looking for ways to cut expenses. One way is to evaluate
summer teaching salary levels. We did research on all methods for
summer salary calculation around the University and found that we are
the only Commonwealth Campus that pays 11 percent of academic year
salary per 3-credit course. Models to evaluate include flat rate like our
current method or a graduated rate based on number of students and
academic year salary. The council indicated that it favored a graduated
rate.
III. Old Business
A. Reports of Standing Committees
 The research committee is proposing a slight modification to the
Outreach Award nomination form on the Web site. This change will help
us gather better information on nominees. The new wording is: Clearly
indicate the contribution of the nominee in furthering the outreach
mission of the college. Council indicated that this was fine and was an
administrative issue and did not need formal approval.
 Ash Deshmukh indicated that the Student Life Committee was working
on a clearer definition of software plagiarism and other plagiarism issues.


Bob Nelson reported that the Academic Computing Committee met with
Gary Augustson to discuss computing and technology issues. He
indicated the committee has been discussing desktop access to virtual labs
and a server SAN.
Jim Fairbank reported that the Faculty Affairs Committee is still
discussing SRTE procedures and that a discussion of gender issues will
continue into next year. In addition, the Chancellor’s committee on
diversity is looking at gender issues from a student view.
IV. New Business
A. Mike Campbell reported that Romano was creating a faculty advisory board
consisting of chairs of college senates.
V. Adjournment at 3:20 p.m.