Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
*** The complete recording of this meeting can be
September 17, 2014
found at http://www.american.edu/facultysenate/agendas-minutes.cfm
Professor Wootton called the meeting to order at 2:36 PM
Present: Professors: Lacey Wootton, Larry Engel, Candy Nelson, Tony Ahrens, John Douglass,
Todd Eisenstadt, Maria Gomez, Sheila Bedford, Alex Hodges, Billie Jo Kaufman, Despina
Kakoudaki, Iris Krasnow, Joshua Lansky, Christine Lawrence, Gwanhoo Lee, Jonathan
Loesberg, Jun Lu, Mary Mintz, Glenn Moomau, John Nolan, Arturo Porzecanski, Andrea
Pearson, Steve Silvia, Chris Simpson, Shalini Venturelli, Provost Scott Bass and Interim DAA
Mary L. Clark
Chair’s Report – Lacey Wootton
Professor Wootton welcomed everyone to the meeting and paid special attention to the new
members or new returning members: Joshua Lansky, Tony Ahrens, Despina Kakoudaki, Chris
Lawrence, Alex Hodges, Billie Jo Kaufman, Mary Mintz, Steve Silvia, Maria Gomez and
Jonathan Loesberg. She stated several points of business as follows:
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As a reminder, anyone can speak in senate discussion but try to limit it to three minutes.
Any business can be brought to the Senate Executive Committee.
Communicate the senate business with your units and bring responses back to the senate
so we can engage with the faculty at large more.
If not already done, read the senate by-laws and the faculty manual since there have been
many changes since 4 years ago when revised.
Change in senate minutes: No longer will they be as detailed, similar to transcripts. We
will transition to an outline format with less detail. Recordings of the minutes will be
posted to the senate web site.
The Executive Committee has nominated two at-large senators to be representatives on the
Executive Committee, and they are Glenn Moomau and Gwanhoo Lee. The senate VOTED and
the motion was passed 23-0-0 in favor.
Faculty Manual was integrated with the University Library manual as per the approval of the
senate and the BOT last spring. There was an agreement to bring the language changes back to
the senate to review and so this has been received from legal counsel with recommendations.
Senate leadership would like to form a committee to go over the changes and recommendations,
and discuss how to bring them to the senate and how to proceed. Along with Mary Clark, Lacey
Wootton, Larry Engel, and Candy Nelson, we need two other members of the senate. Please let
Lacey Wootton know if you’re interested via email within the next few days.
Approval of Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and May 2014 Minutes
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Jan approved 20-0-5, Feb approved 20-0-5, Mar approved with changes in the COI & COTC
section, 20-0-5, Apr tabled, May approved 18-0-7.
Provost’s Report – Scott Bass
 Phyllis Peres had another surgery and is home recovering. Her recovery will be long but
she is home recovering. Mary Clark came from WCL and has taken the position of
Interim Vice Provost and DAA. She is doing a phenomenal job.
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Enrollment for the current freshman class was a challenge but was a great success. The class yield
was 20%. Housing is the difficulty for now. Convocation was an amazing success. Graduate
enrollment was low. The budget will balance but there is work to be done. Although there are
challenges, we are off to a good year.
The fall Faculty Retreat is October 11-12 and registration is filling up. Provost Bass asked to
please register for this great event.
He also stated that there was a change of the dean in Kogod. Erran Carmel has taken over and is
doing a great job.
A new retirement proposal has opened for a window of time and is a great opportunity for
qualifying faculty.
Faculty Retreat—Nancy Davenport & Jim Goldgeier
Retreat theme: Challenges of Higher Education - Dean Jim Goldgeier stated that the request of
the faculty from the previous retreat was to have more opportunity to interact with their
colleagues in small groups. He went over the program and stated that there will be plenty of
options that will appeal to all. There are optional events after the retreat on Saturday that all can
participate in but some will include additional charges.
Middle States Evaluation—Karen Froslid-Jones
Director of Institutional Research and Assessment Karen Froslid Jones presented the following
statement from the Middle States final report of June 26th, 2014: the committee met and their
decision was “to affirm the accreditation and to commend the institution for the quality of its
self-study report and process, and the periodic report is due in June of 2019.” Director Froslid
Jones stated that this was a very short way of saying there would be no follow-up interim reports
necessary between now and the next regular report. The university should be very proud. There
are three recommendations that will be reported on in 2019.
New Senate Blog – Larry Engel
Professor Engel stated that in the attempt to make the senate a more transparent committee, a
blog site has been created to assist in this process. The site will provide updates on senate
activates and the senate committees with the exception of the CFA and the CFG. This is due to
the confidentiality of their work. The site will launch soon, so please feel free to contact
Professor Engel.
Professor Mintz asked if comments on the blog be anonymous.
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Professor Engel stated that they can be.
Senate By-Law Revisions – Lacey Wootton
Professor Wootton presented the following changes to be made in the Senate by – laws. The
senate VOTED and the changes were approved unanimously in favor.
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Article IX. Committees and Functions, A. Executive Committee - Language was
inserted to constitute an Executive Committee at the first meeting in September. This
reflects practice.
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Article IX. Committees and Functions, B. Standing Committees – 3. Committee on
Faculty Actions - Faculty Manual Language changed last spring. This revision will match
the revisions made in the current language that were approved by the BOT in the spring.
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Article XII. Amendments – Language is added to allow changes that have been
approved in the Faculty Manual to be automatically changed if they are also in the senate
by-laws, but if changes are made in the senate by-laws that affect Faculty Manual
language, they must undergo Senate and Board of Trustees approval.
Undergraduate Regulations – Lyn Stallings & Sharon Alston
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Enrollment Sharon Alston stated that she was present to update
the senate on a few policy changes that have been made for transfer students seeking admission
to AU:
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Admission Requirement – Students with fewer than 24 transfer credits will no longer
have to provide standardized test scores. This aligns with current practice by putting
greater emphasis on high school transcripts and accommodates transfers who have been
out of high school and whose scores are no longer valid.
Maximum Credit – Increased the number of transfer credits to 65 to allow for the
change in community colleges that are now able to confer a four-year degree.
Mathematics Requirement – Transfer students are required to meet AU’s mathematics
requirement with a transfer course equivalent to Math – 221 or higher.
Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies Lyn Stallings stated that the retention of transfer students
has gone up and is great for the university. She also brought forward several changes to the
undergraduate academic regulations:
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4.2 Proposed change was brought forward by Professor John Hyman: students need to
have the right to choose an exam to take on a different day when three exams are offered
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on the same day (with four-week notice). The concern here is in the interest of the
students to help them not to have to struggle with any professor as to which exam to
change. Language was suggested to allow the student to choose the exam that would be
best to be reschedule.
Several concerns were expressed that a professor might have to consider: class size,
technicality of the exam, 72 hour time limit for grading. A lengthy discussion was had,
and Professor Stallings stated that this proposal needs to go back to the faculty for their
opinions and suggestions; she will also consult with the registrar’s office, and the
proposal will be brought back to the senate.
5.3 Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) language needs to be changed so the language
will read Academic Progress towards Degree Completion (APDC). This will allow SAP
language to only be used in reference to financial aid and will no longer apply towards
the progression within the academic units. VOTED and APPROVED 21-1-0
5.8 – Part-time students who fall below a 2.0 GPA are expected to follow all regulations
regarding probation and dismissal after earning 12 credits. VOTED AND APPROVED
20-1-0
7.2 & 13.2 – Permit to Study students placed on temporary leave preserves active status.
Students may not take more than two semesters. VOTED AND APPROVED 18-0-2
12.6 – Reduction of Course Load Due to Medical Reasons – This is a topic that needs to
be resolved to prevent issues that are currently a problem since students are abusing the
process; a written procedure needs to be put in place. This will be brought back to the
senate, but VP Stallings stated that this is a workload problem and they will be looking at
best practices at other universities.
SETs/Beyond SETs – Chris Tudge, Tony Ahrens & Lenny Steinhorn (4:30)
Professor Tudge stated that this is the first step in a long process. We will be accessing all
constituents for their input. We have two sub-committees and will be gathering information with
many areas of this issue.
Professor Ahrens stated that they are seeking as much input as they can get. There is an online
blog and survey link to post suggestions.
Professor Steinhorn stated that best practices from other institutions have been reviewed and are
provided in the report that the committee presented. The committee started with two goals, 1)
how can we provide meaningful feedback for faculty to improve their teaching and 2) how can
we provide an instrument that allows people to better evaluate their colleagues and peers. The
discussion also included what value can students have in helping improve their teaching and
what issues are students not best qualified to judge.
Professor Wootton stated that this presentation will be brought back to the October meeting due
to lack of time.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM
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