LA&S ASSEMBLY

Minutes for April 2, 2004

Sally Turner, Moderator, called the meeting to order. Because attendance fell short of a quorum, the meeting was conducted informally, and January 28, 2004 minutes were held for approval at a later meeting.

Myrna Cornett-DeVito, Secretary, announced that this academic year’s minutes were available on the LA&S web page. Earlier, Ron Keith suggested the potential value of posting minutes and other documents electronically. Further refinements are expected. Christina Sudbeck in the Dean’s office has been working on this project.

Dean Sobieski remarked upon three basic items:

• Nomination of LA&S faculty for the teaching, scholarship and service awards.

• LA&S retirees will be recognized during the May 12 (final) assembly of the academic year.

• Sobieski proposed an interdisciplinary Learning Community (LC) pilot experiment for Spring 2005. In these LCs, students would be enrolled in two back-to-back sections that would operate with an integrated syllabus. Spring schedules are due around mid-August, so immediate planning is needed and information meetings will be scheduled. Sobieski announced that he thought the General Education Council would be involved in considering the evaluations of the LC aspects of the experiment because the courses already have general education status. He encouraged those interested in participating to provide a title and descriptive paragraph by August 2004. Faculty incentives include $500 per faculty member to fully develop the LC course during fall 2004 with an additional $1000 per faculty member after course completion. The dean suggested that this LC initiative would be in keeping with other university efforts to create student cohort groups as a means of increasing retention. Faculty discussion ensued with comments regarding postponement of the “call” and related concerns about how selection of Learning Community proposals would be made and by whom. Questions were raised about how existing learning communities would be considered. Questions about course resources and funding for them (e.g., admission fees, travel, equipment) and potential scheduling problems and advisement were also asked.

Turner reviewed the history of the “Procedures for Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Election to the Vice President’s Advisory Committee” proposal. Earlier forms of the proposal have been discussed at two earlier assemblies and the Dean’s Advisory Committee attempted to make appropriate revisions based on these discussions. The current idea is to make the procedure the same as it is for electing Dean’s Advisory Committee members and General Education Council representatives.

Lacking a quorum, the assembly was limited to a discussion of the revised proposal. The wording of the third paragraph under “Election” stimulated several comments. The discussion that ensued explored ways to encourage involvement while maintaining the equal representation of the three areas. Turner explained that the only faculty who are eligible for election from the Assembly are those in the vacated areas of representation. The majority of comments seemed to support the idea of retaining the sentence, “Nominations may be made from the floor of the Assembly with consent of the nominee” based on the fact that this nomination system has been used satisfactorily for Dean’s Advisory Committee member nominations in the past.

Faculty offered their concerns about the statement that “The runners-up in each category will be announced and will serve as alternates in the event that faculty representatives cannot complete a term.” Specifically, faculty may not want to keep a commitment which might interfere with future choices. Suggestions were made including maintenance of a list in the dean’s office indicating runners-up by vote tally so that the Dean’s Advisory Committee could “move down” the list until someone accepts. If no one accepts, then a new election would be necessary. Other points were raised about how to fill a vacated representative position if the faculty member leaves, goes on sabbatical, or cannot fulfill the position as elected. The point was raised that if we create a system of substitutions for the VPAA Advisory Committee, we need to create one for the Dean’s Advisory Committee which lacks a system too.

A discussion about the possible reasons for the lack of a quorum which delays voting on the procedure occurred (e.g., class schedule conflicts; Friday afternoon; this issue has extended too long). It was mentioned that to allow voting outside the assembly would require a change of the LA&S constitution. The use of Zoomerang as an online voting option was proposed by several faculty who have consistent scheduling problems with the LA&S assemblies as a means of involving as many faculty as possible in voting matters. Other faculty expressed the importance of face-to-face discussion among faculty that can occur only at the Assembly meeting.

Turner said that the Dean’s Advisory Committee will edit and circulate the election procedures for the VPAA Advisory Committee to faculty again.

A call for nominees for both the Dean’s Advisory Committee and the Vice President’s Advisory Committee will be forthcoming in preparation for elections at the May 12 meeting.

Turner asked for announcements for the “good of the order.” Elizabeth Locey announced that as of July 1, the Department of Foreign Languages will officially be changed to Modern Languages and Literatures.

Turner adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Myrna Cornett-DeVito
Secretary

 

Last Updated April 24, 2007