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

• 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