2010-2011 Motions
September 23, 2010 Faculty Senate Meeting
MOTION TITLE: Reauthorization of Maine Day
MOTION BY: Academic Affairs Committee
MOTION:
Introduction:
The tradition of Maine Day began in 1935, when then President Arthur Hauck designated a day for the students, faculty, and staff to work together in cleaning up the campus. Every four years, the Faculty Senate is required to re-authorize the institution of Maine Day.
Motion:
The Faculty Senate re-authorizes Maine Day for the years 2011-2015. Maine Day will occur on the Wednesday of the last week of classes in the Spring Semester. Classes will be canceled on that day with the exception of classes, including laboratories, which meet two or fewer times per week. Within 30 days after Maine Day, the group that has overall responsibility for organizing the event shall submit to the Senate a list of projects that were accomplished and the number of people who participated. The Faculty Senate will reconsider the policy of Maine Day in the Fall of 2014.
VOTING RESULTS: The motion passed: 24 for, 1 against, and 0 abstentions.
MOTION TITLE: Role and Scope of the University of Maine
MOTION BY: Senate Executive Committee
MOTION: Role and Scope Resolution
The University of Maine
The University of Maine is a nationally competitive Land Grant and Sea Grant university with a broad array of baccalaureate through doctoral offerings. Scholarship in the pursuit of new knowledge, education of undergraduate and graduate students, and outreach services to the state are central to the role of the University of Maine as the state’s major research University.
Public Agenda:
The University of Maine is committed to serving the needs of the state, nation and world in times of increasingly rapid changes in society and the natural environment. The faculty and staff are dedicated to working with varied and diverse constituencies in the State to foster social, economic, and cultural development as a means of improving the quality of life in Maine, the Nation, and the World.
Teaching:
The University of Maine faculty stay on the cutting edge of cultural and technological changes. Academic services, resources, and teaching are delivered statewide. A strong liberal education provides the foundation for all students, undergraduate and graduate, in the sciences, arts and humanities, and professions.
Research and Scholarship:
Internationally-recognized research, scholarship, and creative activity distinguish the University of Maine as the state’s flagship university, where faculty and students contribute knowledge to issues of local, national, and international significance. Research, scholarship, teaching, and outreach are linked in the classroom and laboratories, in projects, and in the culture of the university, and are the basis of the Land Grant mission, at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Outreach:
The University of Maine faculty and students provide comprehensive outreach to the State of Maine and worldwide with public service and multiple forms of education to the citizens of Maine and beyond. The university’s service to Maine provides underpinnings for business, industry, nonprofit organizations, community associations, and governmental agencies, to address the needs of contemporary society. Our outreach fosters vital economic engines and expands our global involvement in the sciences, arts, and professions.
There was a friendly amendment to add the words “and staff” in the second paragraph, second line, after “The faculty…” which was approved.
VOTING RESULTS: The resolution was approved: 21 for, 1 against, and 1 abstention.
October 20, 2010 Faculty Senate Meeting
MOTION TITLE: Assignment of Program Suspension Reviews to the Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee
MOTION BY: <who?>
MOTION: As the representative body of the University of Maine Faculty empowered to oversee “the establishment and elimination of academic programs” (Constitution of the University of Maine Faculty Senate, Article III, Section 3), the Faculty Senate designates the Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee as the committee appropriate to fulfilling the University of Maine System guidelines for program suspensions (Section 305.4, Paragraph 2g) to review all proposed academic program suspensions, hold public discussions on these proposed suspensions, and make recommendations to the Faculty Senate. The Senate will then send any resulting motion to the University of Maine Provost and President for inclusion with the Administration’s recommendation to the UMS Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
VOTING RESULTS: The motion passed: 19 for, none against, no abstentions.
November 17, 2010 Faculty Senate Meeting
MOTION TITLE: Amendments to the Constitution and the Bylaws
MOTION BY: Constitution & Bylaws Committee:
MOTION: The C&BL Committee and the Executive Committee recommend the following corrections and changes to the Faculty Senate Constitution and Bylaws.
Constitution:
1. Article III, section 6: change “Faculty Assembly” to “Faculty Senate”
2. Article IV: paragraph C, section 3: change “Vice Provost for Research and Graduate
Studies” to “Vice President for Research”.
3. Article VI, section 4: “Agenda”, paragraph B: change the wording so that it reads:
“The Secretary shall distribute the agenda at least 72 hours prior to each regular meeting.”
Bylaws:
1. Article II: Committee Membership: omit the sentence: “Except in unusual circumstances, a faculty member may serve concurrently on only one standing committee.”
Commentary: If this Bylaw requirement were strictly followed, the Senate could not function, nor is it possible, arithmetically, to fulfill this requirement because the number of standing committees now exceeds the capacity of the colleges’ distribution of Senators to enable each committee to have representatives from each college, while having each Senator serve on only one committee. The Executive Committee and C&BL Committee reviewed this issue and unanimously recommend the above action.
2. Article IV., Section 8, paragraph B: correct “Committee on Program Creation, Review and
Reorganization” to read “Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee”.
3. Article V.: replace “Center of Teaching Excellence” with “CETA (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Assessment)”
4. Article IV. STANDING COMMITTEES, “paragraph B: Membership” : Two corrections are needed in this paragraph:
(1) lines 4/5: present wording “Program Creation, Review, and Reorganization” should be changed to “Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee”;
(2) in the list of standing committees whose chairs are entitled to Executive Committee membership, the General Education Committee should be listed. It should be listed immediately prior to “Parliamentarian.”
5. Article V. SPECIAL COMMITTEES: Section 1 of the Bylaws currently indicates the existence of an “ AD HOC GENERAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE ….” . This is now incorrect, because the General Education Committee was changed to a Standing Committee (see Faculty Senate minutes, March 31, 2010). The following three corrections thus need to be made to the Bylaws, to correctly designate the General Education Committee as a standing committee, and re-numbering the concluding Articles:
a. move the content of present Article V. Section 1. to Article IV, Section 11: General Education Committee.
b. the present content of Article VI., “Other Ad Hoc Committees may be created for time limited periods as voted on by the full Senate”, should be moved to Article V. SPECIAL COMMITTEES.
c. the present content of Article VII.,” AMENDMENT …..”, should be moved to Article VI. There will now, thus, be no “Article VII”
VOTING RESULTS: The motion passed 34 in favor, none against, no abstentions. Bylaws were enacted.
NOTE: The Constitution amendments were NOT confirmed in a timely manner by campus-wide referendum and thus the changes were not enacted at this time.
December 15, 2010 Faculty Senate Meeting
– no motions made
January 26, 2011 Faculty Senate Meeting
MOTION TITLE: A Resolution affirming the student learning outcomes for the General Education category of Quantitative Literacy
MOTION BY: General Education Committee
MOTION: General Education represents a cross-college set of requirements for successful completion of any undergraduate major at the University of Maine. As such, oversight of the general Education curriculum, by designated categories, falls within the purview of the Faculty Senate.
The NEASC action letter of November 2009 mandates assessment results for General Education, with two interim reports, in 2012 and 2014, showing movement toward this goal. In order to accomplish this, the establishment of assessment criteria for each General Education category, based upon Student Learning Outcomes for each category, is an essential first step. Since the faculty has not reviewed the Student Learning Outcomes for each category since the inception of General Education in 1994 and 1996, the Faculty Senate, through the General Education Committee has commenced this first step.
A group of faculty have reviewed and made recommendations for the Student Learning Outcomes for Quantitative Literacy, which has been expanded to more clearly address the integration of the use of computers and computational mathematics in many areas, which was nascent when the general education category of mathematics was first configured. This process is in keeping with the iterative policy used to assure faculty ownership of General Education.
Resolution: The Faculty Senate, in keeping with its responsibility for oversight of General Education, hereby accepts the following Student Learning Outcomes for the General Education category, Quantitative Literacy (Mathematics).
General Education Student Learning Outcomes – Quantitative Literacy Preamble
Quantitative literacy is the ability to formulate, evaluate, and communicate conclusions and inferences from quantitative information. Students will develop their quantitative literacy during their undergraduate experience through courses targeted at quantitative literacy and through frequent exposure to quantitative problems and analyses both inside and outside their major.
Student Learning Outcomes Upon completion of general education study in quantitative literacy, students will understand the role that mathematics and quantitative thinking plays in solving and communicating information about real world problems and relationships. Students will be able to:
1. Translate problems from everyday spoken and written language to appropriate quantitative questions.
2. Interpret quantitative information from formulas, graphs, tables, schematics, simulations, and visualizations, and draw inferences from that information.
3. Solve problems using arithmetical, algebraic, geometrical, statistical, or computational methods.
4. Analyze answers to quantitative problems in order to determine reasonableness. Suggest alternative approaches if necessary.
5. Represent quantitative information symbolically, visually, and numerically.
6. Present quantitative results in context using everyday spoken and written language as well as using formulas, graphs, tables, schematics, simulations, and visualizations.
Instructors of courses offering General Education credit in the area of Quantitative Literacy will indicate how the Student Learning Outcomes will be achieved on their syllabi. Assessment practices are, for the most part, embedded within the courses awarding general education credit and are appropriate to the content and goals of each course and program.
VOTING RESULTS: The motion passed 34 in favor, none against, no abstentions.
February 23, 2011 Faculty Senate Meeting
– forthcoming
March 30, 2011 Faculty Senate Meeting
– forthcoming
April 27, 2011 Faculty Senate Meeting
– forthcoming