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Chair: Susan Camp
Recorder: Kimberly Kenney
Members Absent: M. Nojan, B. Hampton, W. Silky, J. McKeown, J.
Langenfeld-Rial
The meeting was called to order at 3:13 PM
I. Approval of Agenda
The agenda for April 7th, 2008 was approved unanimously.
II. Approval Of March 17th, 2008
Minutes
The minutes of March 17th were approved with two corrections: the
word “unanimously” was misspelled under the first item of Unfinished Business,
and the word “union” was changed for clarity to “union contract” under the last
item of Unfinished Business.
III. FA Chair’s Report – S. Camp
Dr. Camp began her report with news from President Stanley and Provost
Coultrap-McQuin, stating that President Stanley and Provost Susan believe that
the Academic Appeals procedure that was approved by FA should be more fully
developed. The President has not approved the process and would like the
Assembly to create a more detailed and complete policy so that students and
faculty have a clear understanding of the appeal process. Provost Susan would
like to work with APC to further develop this policy.
Speaking about a Hybrid Pilot, Dr. Camp noted that Faculty Assembly will be
asking the hybrid pilot committee for a status report and a policy
recommendation for implementing hybrid courses across campus.
Several weeks ago Dr. Camp sent a link out regarding AAC&U Core
Commitments. Deans and Chairs have been asked to bring feedback to the Provost
and President. Early next fall the Chair hope to have time to discuss these as
an addition to the Sesquicentennial plan and the graduation outcomes.
The Chair finished her report by noting that the Provost is beginning the
process to recruit and select an Assessment Facilitator. Rameen Mohammadi will
lead the process.
IV. Reports of Councils, Committees and Task
Forces
Personnel Policies Council reported that they met with the Provost
about external review for promotion and tenure. They also are in the process of
electing search committees for the Deans of the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences and the School of Communication, Media and the Arts.
Academic Policies Council met and reviewed the agreement for
development of new SLN courses for issues of academic freedom. They agreed that
there was wording that was potentially unclear which could lead to abuse of
control of course content by Multimedia Instructional Designers (MID) who lack
background in a given field. The Council felt strongly that the role of the MID
needs clearer definition, including stipulation that these individuals should
not have authority on course content. The Council was not clear if they were
being asked for policy recommendation or just an opinion so no proposal was
passed.
General Education Council has met three times since the last Faculty
Assembly report.
- Eric Olson has joined the Council as the representative
from School of Education.
A working group representing interests in “Tolerance and Intolerance in the
United States” has met and begun to craft a rubric for assessing the learning
outcomes in this category.
There is an updated list attached under “handouts” for today’s meeting for
those departments for which Critical Thinking Infusion Plans have been
approved, and those departments that still need to send in their
plans.
The Council approved PBJ 454 (Religion, Crime, and Justice) as an
Intellectual Issues: Self and Society category course.
Adolescence Education Social Studies (AESS) concentrates will receive an
exemption for Humanities in their prescribed program.
Childhood Education Social Studies concentrations MUST satisfy the
Gen Ed Humanities requirement and thus are NOT EXEMPT from this
requirement.
The Council recommends one of three options regarding Library membership to
this Council:
1) That current status quo be maintained.
2) The Library be asked to consider ex officio status on the council.
3) The Library spell out precisely why it is that it desires a seat on the
council.
Graduate Council met and heard further preparations for the opening
of the Metro Center. They also reported that there are several grants for
fellowships available in advanced leadership.
Undergraduate Curriculum Council met and approved one updated course
and five new courses. DNC 201: Modern Dance 1 (3 credits) was
updated. SOC 260: Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender (3 credits), MUS
498: Music Internship (1-5 credits), GST 103:Exploring Your
Strengths (1 credit), SOC 498: Internship in Sociology (1-12
credits), and BRC 222: Introduction to New Media (3 credits) were all
added as new courses.
Campus Concept Committee met April 3 with Mahar faculty to discuss
the process for their visioning and missioning in regards to programming the
Hewitt Quad. The next meeting with Auxiliary Services and Student Affairs is
scheduled for April 24th.
Retention Task Force has begun working on recommendations regarding
student retention. This process includes identifying what has been successful
in the past along with studying certain groups that have not been retained.
Introductions:
Daniel Nau introduced himself to the Assembly. He is the new SA
President, hailing from the SA Senate. He is currently working on a diversity
campaign and reforming the College Hour. For questions, email Daniel at nau@oswego.edu.
Chrissy Ballesteros also introduced herself to the Assembly. She is the
Director of Communications for SA and is working on a project called Code:
Unity. She distributed a handout that will be posted on the FA website.
V. Elections
No actions were taken..
VI. Unfinished Business
Geology BA Program Revisions: The Geology department revised their
program by combining courses in order to streamline the curriculum. After a few
minutes of discussion, the proposed program revisions were approved
unanimously.
Geology BS Program Revisions: Similar actions were taken on the BS
program as on the BA program. After another short discussion, the proposed
program revisions were approved unanimously.
Electronic Mail Accounts as Official Mechanism of Communication:
After the introduction of the proposal, questions arose about item #7, as to
who has the power to make college-wide announcements via e-mail. Some members
of the Assembly wondered whether there should be one authority that makes these
announcements. Another question arose about item #6, and the “freezing” of
student e-mail accounts. To which it was noted that “freezing” of a student’s
account is only under extreme circumstances. In the past, it has only been
copyright issues that have frozen a student’s personal computer’s access to the
network. The Committee on Academic Quality tried to make a friendly amendment
that would require all faculty and students to read and explicitly respond to
emails in a timely fashion. This amendment was accepted. There was a new
friendly amendment proposed to strike sentence 2 from item #1. This
friendly amendment was accepted. The proposal as amended passed 34-4.
Graduation Outcomes APC proposed wording: on March 3rd APC
distributed a less “wordy” version of the Graduation Outcomes. It was moved to
amend item #6 to read, “Recognize the need to articulate and uphold ethical
standards,” but this motion was voted down. There was another motion to amend
item #6 to read, “Recognize, articulate and uphold ethical standards,” but this
was also voted down. It stands as the original proposal, and will be carried
over into the next meeting on April 21st, 2008.
VII. New
Business
Time did not allow for New Business.
VIII. Issues, Challenges, Other
Time did not allow for discussion.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:02 P.M.
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