Faculty Council Meeting
October 3, 2002
Call to order 9:05AM
The minutes of the September meeting were approved.
Old Business
Student Life Committee (Mark Bestoso)
It is currently difficult to get an estimate of how much work the committee faces due to the
random nature of filing of Academic Integrity violation reports. The Student Life committee
will be able look at other charges such as the commuter student transportation issue and
improving the academic culture (working with Undergraduate Studies).
Undergraduate Studies (Traci Halmi)
Bob Secor has agreed to hold an open forum for the faculty regarding the UNISCOPE model
and the changes to Promotion & Tenure dossiers. The open forum will be October 25th in Reed
114 from 1:00 to 1:45 PM.
There was discussion on recommendations made last year to improve the academic culture at
Behrend. Traci Halmi, Bob Light, Jack Burke, and Mark Bestoso. will meet to develop a plan of
action for implementing the recommendations.
New Business
Continued to discuss the responsibilities of the various committees and issues to be addressed
this year.
Academic computing (Ron DelPorto)
This committee will work with the Academic Computing Center and Ron Hoffman to
determine the effects of REDC on Behrend’s computing needs. The objective is to identify
necessary preparations for the REDC.
Research (Bob Gray)
The committee will be reviewing sabbatical applications, applications for early career faculty
grants, and the outreach and research awards. Bob Light indicated that a section will be added to
Behrend’s website to highlight faculty accomplishments.
Scholarships and Awards (Jana Goodrich)
Committee will be encouraging faculty to nominate students for awards. There were several
problems with the awards nomination process that were discussed. First, there seems to be a
constant solicitation for nominations as there are many awards and different deadlines
throughout the academic year. This makes it difficult to determine which award a student would
be best nominated for. A second problem is that there is no feedback to the nominator on the
status of the nominations. It was also suggested that a procedure be put in place for electronic
nomination via the Behrend website. Jana will consider ways to address these issues.
Student Government Association (Ralph Ford for Brandi Hovis)
Last year an effort was made to better communicate to the faculty and students the events
being held by the Multi-Cultural Council (MCC). Brandi was going to meet with the MCC to
follow-up on this issue.
SGA is is concerned about the tuition increase. A group of students recently met with Penn
State Trustee Bob Metzgar to discuss the issue. SGA is going to get involved with Rock-theVote efforts to increase student voter registration and also work with the student government at
UP to lobby legislators regarding state funding to the university.
Advising Center Concept (Jack Burke)
Jack proposed that we examine the idea of establishing an advising center at Behrend.
Student advising is difficult due to the complexity of the PSU system and we have been
consistently rated low in this area on senior exit surveys. There was favorable response from the
council that this idea should be pursued and different models for an advising center were
discussed. Jack Burke will ask Tom Wortman and Mike Chiteman to put together some
information and models on the subject.
University Senate Report (Dawn Blasko)
The Senate has not met since last meeting. Bob Gray reported that athletic schedules for the
entire PSU system were approved and that they meet the "Rule of 75." This rule indicates that
Athletic teams or individual team members shall be allowed to be absent from the University for
no more than seventy-five class periods in one semester. It was also noted that swimming and
golf were the sports that most often took the student out of the classroom. Students from these
two sports make up some of the highest athlete GPAs at Penn State.
CEO and Dean search (Ralph Ford)
To date, nearly 40 vita have been received and are being reviewed by the committee
members. The committee will be meeting on 10/25 to start discussing the candidates for the
position.
Sustainability at Behrend (Bob Light)
Bob distributed a “Sustainability at Behrend” brochure describing ways to improve
sustainability. About 20 to 25 actions have been implemented to improve sustainability.