Minutes of the Meeting of the Senate of the
Faculty November 13, 2003, 7:00 PM, School of Education, Room
153
Meeting called to order with a quorum at 7:05 p.m.
Present: Edmund Acevedo, Milam Aiken, Aileen Ajootian,
John Bentley, Robert Brown, John Bruce, Victoria Bush, Daisy Cheng,
Kirsten Dellinger, Rick Elam, Michelle Emanuel, Kris Gilliland, Charles
Ingene, Amy E. Mark, Rosemary Oliphant-Ingham, Anne Quinney, James
Reid, David Rock, Bobbie Smothers, Ken Sufka, Joseph Urgo*, Charles West,
Nancy Wiggers
Absent: Donna Adler, Brahram Alidaee, Deborah Barker, Nancy
Bercaw*, Luca Bombelli, Judith Cassidy, Wei-Yin Chen, Laurie Cozad,
Gregg Davidson*, Steven Davis, Laurdella Foulkes-Levy, Matthew
Hall*, Ahmed Kishk*, Clifford Ochs*, Charles Ross, Warren Steel*, Steven
Stodghill, Diane Tidwell*, Annette Trefzer*, Waheed Uddin, Dawn Wilkins*,
Haidong Wu, Jordan Zjawiony
* Prior notification
I. Old Business A. The minutes for October 9, 2003
minutes_20031000.html
were approved without dissent.
II. New Business A. Report from committees
- Academic Affairs: no chair, nothing to report
- Academic Support Services: Chair Michelle Emanuel
- Results of SPAM survey were read.
- Questions from senators: What is the state of SPAM
technology? What is the false block rate? Is SPAM slowing down the
email? Kathy Gates: there are some products that look
good that we’ve forwarded to the administration; the department of IT
does not want to censor emails, and the software will not ever be
perfect. senators: can we have individual SPAM filtering
software? Kathy Gates: Yes, but really hard to service on
so many desktops and very expensive.
- Faculty Governance: Chair, Joe Urgo, nothing to report
- Finance: Chair, John Bentley, nothing to report
- University Services: Chair, James Reid, nothing to report
B. Dr. Eftink: Graduate School
- The rotating assistant dean position. position would give faculty
who are interested an opportunity to train for an administration
position and have a chance to see if administration suited them.
- When both Don Cole and Judy Cole left the office in June 2003 it
created a real hole in the department as well as having money left from
vacant positions.
- Two-year appointment after which make permanent or create a search
or have a rotating assistant dean.
- The benefit to the graduate school is that the program doesn’t
become stagnant; new people have different points of view. Also, new
focus is on recruiting, and new people create a new group of contacts.
The Senate feels that it would greatly contribute to the stability of
the graduate school if the Office of the Provost clarified if Dr. Eftink
is the official Dean of the Graduate school, and not the Interim Dean.
C. Dr. Eftink: Campus Management: Online course evaluations
- Spring 2003 there was difficulty with the two different systems and
course evaluations. SAP does not support scan-tron technology.
- Dr. Eftink looked at other universities where they had moved course
evaluations online. Some, but not all, the response rate drops from
70-80% down to 30-40% response rate. Others had a better response rate
because they added features.
- Features will be gradually rolled out.
- Features will include: quicker feedback; more classes can be
evaluated and still be anonymous; students do not have their grades
during the evaluation period and faculty cannot see the evaluations
until after they have posted the grades; a student-to-student feature
(which will be filtered to remove inflammatory comments); students
increase the amount of content because they type faster than they write;
departments can develop and add their own questions, or eventually pick
from a list of extra, tested questions.
- Are planning to rig this so students have to submit evaluations in
order to view their grades; there will be an opt-out option so that it
is not required. In the future, might move the evaluation process up to
about mid-semester and then PRE-pre-registration would be contingent on
having filled out all their course evaluations.
- Q: Can specific schools require evaluations in order to get
their grades? Example is School of Accountancy because their accrediting
body would not be pleased with a 30% response rate. A: Yes, if it
is a large enough group.
Faculty should encourage students to use this. The web may slow down
this first time but should be corrected by next semester.
D. Motion to Suspend Rules
Motion to suspend the rules to make a motion to hold the Senate
meeting on Dec. 11, 2003, 5:00 pm in order to attend the all-faculty
reception in the Memory House from 5:30 - 7:00 pm; so moved by Senator Ingene,
second: John Bently. Motion passed without dissent.
Meeting adjourned at 8:25 pm |