Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
December 7, 2011
Professor Girard called the meeting to order at 2:20 P.M.
Present: Professor Jim Girard, Leigh Riddick, Barlow Burke, Melissa Becher, Phil Brenner, Joe
Dent, Christine DeGregorio, Larry Engel, Alberto Espinosa, Bryan Fantie, Phil Jacoby, Bob
Jernigan, Jonathan Loesberg, Stacey Marien, Sarah Menke Fish, Candice Nelson, Gemma
Puglisi, Shalini Venturelli, Patricia West, William Ryan, Lacey Wootton, Provost Scott Bass and
Dean Phyllis Peres
Welcome and Introduction, Jim Girard
Professor Girard called the meeting together and welcomed everyone to the last meeting of the
year. Professor Girard stated that he had attended the AAUP Conference on Shared Governance
which was held on November 11-13 here in Washington. He stated that there are a lot of various
ways that Senates work as well as how Boards work with Senates and Faculty. Professor Lacy
Wootton and Professor Glenn Mumha presented a panel paper on, Contingent Faculty can have
a Voice in the Twenty First Century Academy; Lessons and Suggestions From Term Faculty.
After attending several sessions, he expressed that he felt confident that AU is moving in the
right direction issues of importance to the academy, such as shared governance.
Provost Report, Scott Bass
Provost Bass began by reading a formal statement which he stated he will not be able to
comment on at this time. “The Service Employees International Union Local Five Hundred has
filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to represent part-time faculty at
the university. While I have concerns relative to the unionization of part time faculty and along
with the collective bargaining over matters traditionally involving issues of academic freedom,
we encourage a healthy and vigorous discussion. There will be an opportunity prior to any
election for us to engage in this discussion. First however, we want to ensure that the legal rights
of both our part –time faculty and the university are being honored. Therefore in the upcoming
days we will be reviewing the petition to determine if it complies with the laws governing the
NLRB election process. I also will provide some important lawful guidelines to help facilitate an
interactive campus discussion regarding the issue. Additionally, I understand that the senate will
be exploring a process concerning the employment of adjunct faculty during today’s meeting and
out of an abundance of caution and to ensure compliance with the legal process governing the
petition we have received, but not to stop the proposed dialogue, I ask the senate leadership to
work with the office of Legal counsel in developing a process of gaining input from our parttime faculty peers. As always, the university remains committed to working with everyone to
improve our academic community and just as importantly we believe in honoring legal rights in
addressing our community concerns we will continue to keep you apprised of all developments
regarding the petition and what the next steps in the process will be.”
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Provost Bass stated that he would like to share with the senate an historical sketch of the profile
of our new freshman class from 2007 thru 2011. The data provided shows that the number of
new freshman has vacillated a bit. In 2010 the freshman target number was 1498 and we had
1500 students arriving, from a pool of 18,000 applications. This year the target number was 1550
and we missed it by 9. The admissions team has done an amazing job. SAT’s are stable, 1260
being our sweet spot, giving us a very strong student. Our entering student’s GPA has gone up
from 3.5 to 3.8. He mentioned to the previous senate that in the AY year 2009-2010 that the
admit rate had dropped it by 10%. So from this pool we had been admitting 53% but we dropped
the admission rate to 43% and this year we will drop it a little further. Next year we will see what
happens as we start a different application process by using a common application and requiring
an essay. Our application numbers are lower now compared to the same time last year. We will
have to take a look at the admit rate, but we are moving in the right direction. As for race and
ethnicity , Provost Bass said that he thinks you might be surprised that the international
population is much smaller than one might think at AU and the board has asked us to increase
international student enrollment. The graduate population is about 6.8% international students
campus wide. He called specific attention to the issue of unrepresented minorities which would
include Hispanic, African American, American Indian and the multi-racial group. In 2007
Hispanic students accounted for about 4% and this year they are more than 11% of the class. The
African American group has doubled from 3.3% to 7% of the student body. When you add
multi-racial into the ethnic population, this campus has gone from 7% unrepresented minority to
24% minority of the total student population. This is quite an accomplishment which is of
national significance. The first generation population went from 2.6% to close to 10%. Pell
eligible went 10% to nearly 24%. One quarter of our population is now low income. This fact
may impact what faculty does in the classroom; even internships that require our students to take
the metro back and forth may be a challenge for these students. These numbers show our student
body has both academic excellence and diversity. Provost Bass continued by stating that we all
have a stake in the success of these students and the inclusiveness we provide will make AU the
kind of community that we all desire. Campus wide, there is reason for concern because there are
a higher number of withdraws from fall to spring. The tools to better understand this new
population in the freshman class is being installed. Home sickness, we are finding, is a large
challenge especially for those who are the first to leave the family unit. I am going to ask the
faculty to look at their students to and to alert student life if they observe these difficulties and
see if we are providing tools for them to adjust to these challenges. Another variant for this year
is the early decision group. The applications are up by 10% and we are going to do a second
round of early admitted students in December.
Professor Venturelli stated that in her last department meeting they learned there was a large
group of students that have mental health problems. The concern is the ability to be able to see
the warning signs. She said that she does not feel that the faculty knows how what the indicators
are and how to deal with them. She would like to know if there is consideration of training for
faculty to address this issue.
Provost Bass responded by stating that he would look into possibly addressing this at the Anne
Ferren Conference and see if there might be a workshop to assist faculty with this issue.
Professor Engel said that he shares the concern about mental illness. He stated that he remembers
the “CARE” system being discussed and that when the faculty first feel concerns about a student
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they need to report so that it triggers a process to address these issues. This would be a source to
use now until further training or accommodations for those students with mental illness are
resolved.
Professor Espinosa stated that he was very encouraged with the diversity figures and he wanted
to know if there were similar numbers for the faculty.
Provost Bass replied that this is a great question and that he would ask the Dean of Academic
Affairs to respond.
Dean Peres said that she will bring in some demographic data on faculty to the next meeting and
she does believe it is an area in which we are still behind. Moving forward she will be working
with each unit and search committee to ensure that we are doing proactive recruiting and that we
are not just putting an add out and just waiting to see who responds to the ad. She stated that she
will bring data for the Senate to the next meeting.
Student Elliot Bell - Krazner, Graduate Leadership Council Chair, stated that he agrees that in
this generation of students there are some very needy students and feels that they do not know
how to use the resources that are offered to them. Sometimes they present themselves in an angry
tone but he feels they are just not sure how to express what they are feeling. He would like to
encourage faculty and the student leadership to help inform the students of the resources that are
available to assist them through these difficulties.
Provost Bass replied that in addition to those issues, higher education is seeing new problems
that come with this younger generation and he is not sure why but these problems need to be
addressed.
Term Faculty Report to the Senate
Professor Girard explained to the senate that Term Faculty Report to the Senate document was
presented to the Senate at the last meeting of the Senate last year for review and it was accepted,
but no further action was taken at that time. He stated that all he was now bringing it to this
Senate for review. Professor Girard stated to take notice on page eleven of the report for the
action items that are highlighted for review. He asked Professor Lacey Wootton to give an
overview of the document to the Senate.
Professor Wootton stated that the committee felt good about the recommendations and felt good
that the senate had accepted them. The focus of the committee was on promotions criteria,
promotion policies and modified work load. The Term Faculty Committee reviewed these with
members of the HR team as well. Professor Wootton stated that now that we have this report
with recommendations we are now asking what should be done with these findings.
Professor Girard stated that the Provost has requested all chairs of departments from the schools
and colleges to come up with guidelines for promotion and appointment on a departmental basis
just like the process that was followed for tenure track procedures. The deadline for submitting
these is early February. But there are other issues in the report that do not deal with promotion so
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the Executive committee decided that if the Senate approves, an ad hoc committee will be
formed to address the other issues. He stated that he has asked all chairs to recommend who
would be the best people to be a part of this committee. He also asked the Senators to
recommend by email any of their recommendations as well.
Professor Riddick indicated that this document is a step to creating policy for the university and
that the recommendations will then presented to the Provost who along with the administration
who will decide what is appropriate.
Professor Girard stated that by forming the ad hoc committee the Senate could look forward to
recommendations to address the other issues within the document besides promotion.
Professor Wootton assured the Senate that this document is not a “policy”. It is a guide to
discussing how the recommendations can be handled. The committee will be responsible in
determining the needs of the schools and colleges and making appropriate recommendations to
present to the Senate.
Professor Girard informed the Senate that he would like to create a similar committee for
Adjunct faculty. He stated that it will be harder to form this committee because of the uncertainty
of the exact adjunct population, but this is something that the senate leadership feels is very
important.
Graduate Regulations Review, Leigh Riddick
Professor Riddick stated that would like to begin with a quick overview for those new members
to the senate on how the review of the graduate regulations document will work. She went over
how the Senate reviewed the Faculty Manual and the Undergraduate regulations. The process
that will be followed will be similar and will create this very important document. The following
issues were discussed:
•
Course Numbers for foreign language’s needed to complete a Masters or Ph.D. Degree
•
Structure of the Ph.D. Dissertation Committee: Committee size, committee composition,
AU faculty members and outside members, number of members, were discussed. After
extensive discussion was had on various concerns and issues not allowing for any final
decisions to be made. New language for these sections will be presented in January.
For the Good of the Order
Professor Girard asked the senate if there were any issues for the good of the order. He
wished the senators all a happy holiday and dismissed the meeting.
Meeting Adjourned at 4:45 PM
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