April 3, 2013

DRAFT FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
April 3, 2013

Present: Steven Barkan, Jason Bolton, Richard Borgman, Ian Bricknell, Dick Brucher, Stephen Coghlan, Mauricio da Cunha, Marcia Douglas, Janet Fairman, Thane Fremouw, Michael Grillo, Robert Gundersen, Gordon Hamilton, Dennis King, Judy Kuhns-Hastings, Mary Ellin Logue, Paul Myer, Harlan Onsrud, Ray Pelletier, Michael Peterson, Andrew Reeve, Brian Robinson, Thomas Sandford, Howard Segal, Roy Turner, Chuck Wallace, Gail Werrbach, David Yarborough, Bob Rice, Kathryn Slott, Susan Hunter, Stuart Marrs, Edward Ashworth, Michael Montgomery (for Jonathan Rubin)

Absent: John Allen, Emmanuel Boss, Douglas Bousfield, William Congleton, Benildo de los Reyes, Charlsye Diaz, Dylan Dryer, Ramesh Gupta, Clarissa Henry, Steven Kimball, Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, Bill Livingston, David Marcincowski, James McClymer, Robert Milardo, Martha Novy-Broderick, Jay Rasaiah, Michael Scott, Claire Sullivan, Mark Wells, Molly MacLean, Melvin Johnson, Charles Rodda (GSG), Robert Strong, Paul W Ferguson, Alicia Bolduc (Stud. Gov)

The meeting was called to order at 3:15 pm

I.          Welcome and Announcements:

Harlan encouraged faculty to order robes for graduation and to attend commencement activities to support students and departments.

The poll on potential Work to Rule received 384 responses or 64% return rate. The poll can be viewed on the Faculty Senate website under Documents.

All faculty should have received a message from President Ferguson regarding the Work to Rule vote. The tone was supportive of faculty and responsive. President Ferguson, Vice President Waldron, and Provost Hunter will be visiting each college on campus to discuss issues.

At the next Elected Members meeting, April 17, Provost Hunter and Ted Coladarci will address a series of questions submitted by the Faculty Senate elected members on the Academic Status of the university.

 

II.        Approval of January 30, 2013 Minutes

            Vote: Motion Approved

III.       Committee Reports

BOT Rep – Robert Rice 
Funding has been increased for the Memorial Gym/Fieldhouse renovation by $1 million for roof repair and general repair. The System is moving quickly with the Procurement Administrative Review which is for preferred travel centralization and new PCard restrictions. The next BOT meeting is in May. Michelle Hood is stepping down as Chair of the Board, the BOT votes as a group on a new candidate, usually takes place in July.

Q. Howard Segal stated that a bill received by his department for security screening of a new hire. Should departments be billed for this?
A. There is a new policy that requires background checks. Who should be paying for that is unclear. Provost Hunter stated that there has been a broadening of background checks but she’s not sure about the rules for paying for those checks. This is a system wide policy.

Academic Affairs –Richard Borgman & Judy Kuhns-Hastings
Two motions under New Business. The committee met a couple weeks ago and had Jimmy Jung attend to discuss correspondence sent to faculty regarding parameters on teaching next fall.

Constitution & Bylaws – Mick Peterson
No report.

Research & Scholarship – Robert Gundersen
No report but a report regarding a new University Policy on Conflict of Interest. University Research Council subcommittee updated a policy based on the US Dept. of Health and Human Resources requirements.  Primary change is that in order to apply for a grant you have to have Conflict of Interest Training. These need to be done before the grant is submitted and the training is good for four years. The committee decided the policy would apply to all grant proposals, not just those for US Dept. of HHR.

Finance & Institutional Planning – James McClymer & Tom Sandford
The Senate received a letter from Karen Merrydaughter, a UM grad, regarding fossil fuels divestiture. The committee met with Janet Waldron and will report on findings at the next elected members meeting.

University Environment – Andrew Reeve & Mike Scott
The committee was contacted by Stuart Marrs stating classroom inventory is ongoing.

Library Advisory – Robert Rice & Howard Segal
No report.

Service & Outreach – Emmanuel Boss & Claire Sullivan
No report.

Committee on Committees – Roy Turner
No report.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Mick Peterson
Motion coming up under New Business.

General Education  — Harlan Onsrud
The process is slow, this campus developed student learning outcomes for Gen Ed requirements. Currently on hold, waiting to see if there’s something forthcoming system wide relative to Gen Ed.

Ad Hoc IT – Martha Novy-Broderick & Mike Scott
No report.

Committee of the Administration

Blue Sky Reports
Blue Sky Steering Committee – Bob Rice – absent.

Harlan stated that in the Work to Rule poll a majority thought Bob and Harlan should not continue participating. Harlan has decided to continue to meet based on the need for continuing dialogue and to promote the priority issues put forth by the Senate supporting students and faculty. He hopes to have a report on the progress of those priorities very shortly.

Pathway 1 – Mick Peterson – No report.
Pathway 2 – Jim McClymer – No report.
Pathway 3 – Rick Borgman – No report.
Pathway 4 – Judy Kuhns-Hastings – Met and had a long discussion with Dan Sandweiss. He was requesting direction from Pathway 4 for the Graduate School.
Pathway 5 – Doug Bousfield – No report.

IV.      Open Comments from the Administration
Q. Where can we find announcements for the VP for Research interview schedule?

A. The initial notices were posted on FirstClass which now seems like that wasn’t the best way to distribute them. They’ve now been sent to all faculty and the CV’s and information will be on the Research page. http://umaine.edu/research.

V.        Old Business
None

VI.       New Business

 

Election of Officers for Faculty Senate 2013-2014

There were no additional nominations from the floor so a vote was taken on the slate put forward of:

President – Harlan Onsrud
VP – Mick Peterson
Secretary – Kathryn Slott
Board of Trustees Representative – Robert Rice
Vote: Motion Approved

 

             Motion to Recommend Approval of the Proposed Creation of the School of Food and Agriculture

The Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee (PCRRC)

28 February, 2013

            In accordance with the approved University of Maine’s Process, the PCRRC has discussed and held the required public meeting on February 20, 2013 for the proposed creation of the School of Food and Agriculture.  Discussions and the public hearing clarified several justifications for merging the departments of Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences; Animal and Veterinary Sciences; and Food Science and Human Nutrition.  The new school will improve student support relative to the existing departmental structure.  The creation of a school will also address some issues identified in external program reviews and will better align the program with funding agency structure.  Finding no compelling arguments against this new structure, the PCRRC recommends that the Senate support the creation of the School of Food and Agriculture.

Vote: Motion Approved

 

Military Credit:  Policy Adjustment

The Academic Affairs Committee

April 3, 2013

Below please find a motion to accept revised wording for policy re. Military Credit.  This language has been revised to reflect Faculty Senate concerns.  The current policy can be found below in the discussion.

Motion:  The Faculty Senate approves the following language for the Undergraduate Catalog:

Military Credit:
Credit allowed will be based on recommendations of the American Council on Education (ACE) and National College Credit Recommendation Service (National CCRS, formerly National PONSI) and will correspond to subject areas offered at the University of Maine. Only courses recommended at the upper or lower baccalaureate level will be considered for transfer credit.  A maximum of 15 credits will be allowed as military transfer credit (not including prior experiential learning and credit for standardized tests) and the courses will count as elective credit only unless an exception is made.  The process for an exception is as follows:  the student should contact his or her college or school Associate Dean who will forward the material to the appropriate department chair, unit director, or faculty member who will make the appropriate decision.

Credit for military experience: credit for learning due to duties or a position in the military is considered prior learning and will be considered in the same way as other prior experiential learning.  See subsection “Prior Learning Credit” in this section.

Discussion and Notes

Current Policy
Military Credit:

Credit for military experience or corporate training programs: Normally will be allowed according to the recommendations of the American Council on Education (ACE) and National Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction (PONSI). Credit allowed in this way normally counts for elective credit only. Courses considered to be at the upper baccalaureate level will be the only courses considered for transfer credit. All military students will receive 2 credits of KPE 100X for basics/recruit training.

The revised wording removes any reference to corporate training programs, limits credit to 15 credits, and now allows for both upper and lower baccalaureate level courses to be accepted. The credit limit protects the students in this way:  these credits come in as free electives in most all cases.  Having too many free electives only increases overall credits without moving a student toward graduation.  This has financial aid implications.

As always, and as is now clearly stated, credits must correspond to subject areas offered at the University of Maine.  This policy refers only to coursework.  Credit for work experience is covered through the university’s prior experiential learning policy.

Who or what is doing the reviewing and recommending?  ACE (The American Council on Education) is a nationally known and accepted organization that reviews courses to see if they are at a level of rigor and content equal to a college course and then recommends appropriate college credit.  National CCRS is a similar organization developed by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Why change the policy now?  A system-wide group was tasked by the Transfer Steering Committee to look into military credit.  That group recommended the expansion to upper and lower baccalaureate courses.  But it clearly left all specifics of policy to the campuses.  This is totally our wording and our policy.

A motion was made to table the motion on the basis of Work to Rule.

Vote: Motion Approved
 

Change of Grade Policy Adjustment

The Academic Affairs Committee

April 3, 2013

Below please find a motion to accept revised wording for a change of grade.  The current policy can be found below in the discussion.

Motion:  The Faculty Senate approves the following language for the Undergraduate Catalog and, when revised, the faculty Handbook:

The Change of Grade Policy

Instructors desiring to change a grade after official posting should submit a grade change request to the MaineStreet Grade Roster.  Normally, grade changes are a result of clerical errors or errors of omission.  Grade changes made beyond six months of the end of a semester require approval from the Associate Dean or designee.  The decision of the Associate Dean may be appealed to the faculty of the Curriculum Committee of the faculty member’s college (or equivalent academic unit) which shall be the final authority.

When entering the grade change on MaineStreet, the instructor should enter a brief written rationale containing their reasons for wanting to change the grade.

If a student wishes to improve a grade, then the option to repeat the course should be considered.  For policy regarding incomplete grades, please see the incomplete grade policy in this catalogue.

Discussion and Notes

Existing policy as cited in the 1988 Faculty Handbook:

“All grades changed by an instructor should state the reason for the change, and must be approved by the Dean of the College.  The only exception to this change is a change from an Incomplete to a letter grade (see section on change of Incomplete grades which follows.)

The purpose of this procedure is to assure that grade changes are clearly justified for academic reasons.  A change of grade should be a rarity, made only when legitimate mistakes such as computational errors, cause the initial grade to be incorrect.  Change of Grade cards (YELLOW CARDS) are available in the Dean’s Office.  After the card has all the appropriate signatures, it is forwarded by the Dean’s Office to the Registrar’s Office.”

The policy has to be changed to reflect the move from cards to MaineStreet.  But the new policy also allows a six-month window for a grade change by the professor with no required approval.  After six months the grade change will be reviewed, but a potential denial by an Associate Dean can be appealed to a faculty group—the faculty of the College Curriculum Committee.

A motion was made to table the motion due to Work to Rule.

Vote: Motion Approved

 

Adjourned at 3:55 pm

Respectfully submitted
Kathryn Slott