Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
May 2, 2007
Jonathan Loesberg called the meeting to order at 2:15 p.m.
Present: Professors Loesberg, Ahrens, Becher, Belson, Cochran, Flug, Forst, Girard, Jacoby,
Kim, Klein, Langbein, Mintz, Sampson, Sha, Silvia, Willoughby, Wisman, Yates, Weaver,
Reece, Douglass, Leap, Stallings, Wanis, St. John, Young, Riddick.
Welcome and Introduction, Jonathan Loesberg
Professor Loesberg welcomed everyone to the meeting. The minutes for the March and April
meetings were approved.
Report of the Chair, Jonathan Loesberg
Update on Presidential Search, Mary Mintz
The search will take longer than expected to find the new university President. The main reason
is that there are several very impressive candidates, and the search committee would like more
time for additional screening and interviewing.
Report of the Provost, Dr. Broder
Fall Admissions
Deposits for master’s students are up significantly for the fall semester. The doctoral programs
are similar to last year. Law School deposits and quality were above last year, despite more than
a 6% decline in law school applications in the mid-Atlantic region. The freshmen deposits are
lower. One reason is that students are slower in making decisions than they have been in the
past. Regarding the Mentorship Program, there are only about ten fewer students than last year
at this point, so the numbers should be on track with last year. There are about the same number
of transfer-student applications this year,. The Washington Semester Program applications are
ahead of last year.
Retention
Retention is highly correlated to student quality. In fall 2005, Dr. Broder assembled a universitywide Retention Working Group, and they have produced a report analyzing retention, in which
they made several recommendations about special learning opportunities, special learning
communities, establishing a retention resource center, and making undergraduate education a
priority. The Senate Committee on Student Learning and Academic Engagement also produced a
report that Dr. Broder is considering.
University Librarian Search
Last week, three finalists were interviewed on campus and met with many different
constituencies. The search committee is expected to produce a report for Dr. Broder regarding
their recommendation for the new librarian.
Data on Faculty Course Loads
In mid-June, the Deans will be submitting the final version of Faculty Workload Reports for
academic year 2006-07. At the same time, they will be submitting their requests for new tenuretrack lines for academic year 2008-09. Once these reports have been assembled, the Provost’s
office will review them and see to what extent they can be broken down into the categories that
have been suggested by Tony Ahrens and others.
Report on Student Life Procedures and Policies, Gail Hanson
The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech left the Office of Student Life to assess whether we were
adequately prepared to respond to a comparable situation. In the case of Virginia Tech, it
seemed that a number of people knew that the shooter was troubled and that it took the shooter
only nine minutes to commit the crime.
Who’s at risk in our community?
Any member of the faculty, staff, and students is potentially at risk. On campus there are a
number of offices which can offer support for a variety of psychological troubles. For instance,
the Counseling Center and Disability Support Services offices deal with individuals who have
serious psychological problems. Additionally, the Dean of Students Office and the Academic
Support Center see numerous students with problems ranging from psychological and learning
disabilities.
Dr. Hanson distributed a handout on guidelines for faculty and staff about how to help troubled
students. It includes issues such as responding to students in distress, addressing mental health
issues in the classroom, and dealing with the aftermath of a tragedy. It also details all of the
resources available on campus to handle any variety of problems.
Report on Campus Security, Chief Michael McNair
Chief McNair mentioned that public safety personnel at AU are sworn District police officers
and have the power to make arrests, although they are unarmed. They are called “University
Police,” meaning that they have completed seven weeks of training. Chief McNair emphasized
his confidence in AU public safety, in that they are well-trained and capable of responding to any
incident which may occur at AU. In addition, they have a very close relationship with the DC
Metropolitan Police, which can provide additional support.
Chief McNair is working on ways to improve communication on campus in case of an
emergency. He feels that emailing everyone on campus is not the fastest or most efficient way
to communicate. He is instead looking into a text messaging system, based on the DC alert
system. In addition, Chief McNair mentioned that he is looking into the possibility of installing
emergency sirens on campus.
Joint Committee on Curriculum and Academic Programs Report on Proposals Regarding
Office Hours and Final Exams, Sarah Irvine Belson
Office Hours
Professor Belson mentioned that her committee spoke with students regarding office hours, and
they expressed a preference for full-time faculty maintaining the current number of office hours.
While Professor Klein and his committee found that students would not mind if faculty reduced
office hours; it was more important that faculty actually kept their posted hours. There was
discussion among the Senators about the advantages and disadvantages of reducing office hours.
Dr. Broder mentioned that as it stands, she would not approve this proposal because it needs
more discussion.
Final Exams
Professor Belson said that these two proposals underscore a larger issue, which is the amount of
contact time faculty spends with students. Her committee researched other competitor
universities and found that AU faculty has about the same or more contact hours with students.
Linda Bolden-Pitcher stressed that if final exam week were to be removed from the school
calendar, it would in effect be reducing faculty contact with students. She added that AU has
had 15 weeks of classes since 1972. In the mid-1980s the final exam week became included in
those 15 weeks and no days have been added since.
In summary, Professor Belson stressed that these two proposals have prompted the committee to
further discuss the issue of faculty contact with students.
Faculty Senate Election Results, Jonathan Loesberg
Stephen Silvia has been elected as the upcoming vice chair, and all of the names listed for the
Honors Education Board and the General Education Board have been elected.
Evaluating Scholarship, Tony Ahrens
Professor Ahrens has been working on this topic already, but would like to have more time
during this summer for further work.
Next Year’s Agenda, Jonathan Loesberg
Professor Loesberg would like a group to be formed which could come up with more agenda
items that could be discussed at future Faculty Senate Meetings.
Turnover of Leadership
Professor Ahrens thanked Professor Loesberg for his hard work and leadership as Chair over the
past year. Gary Weaver is the Faculty Senate Chair for academic year 07-08.