WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE MINUTES – Monday, April 21, 2003
MEMBERS PRESENT: Bakken, Bees, Behrman, Brooks, Carroll, Celestin, Chopra, Decker, deSilva, Edwards, Hemans, Hershfield, Herzog, Hodson, Johnson, Klunder, Lancaster, Markovich, May, McDonald, Miller, Moore-Jansen, Murphey, Parker, Quantic, Ravigururajan, Roussel, Russell, Teshome, Williamson, Wimalesena, Withrow, Yeager, Zhang
MEMBERS ABSENT: DeLillo, Eichhorn, Hill, Hiltner, Kear, Lause, Matson, Mau, Riordan, Rokosz, Sheikh-Ahmad
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Dawe, Enns, Forlaw, Goldy, Muma Ross
Ex-OFFICIO MEMBERS PRESENT: VPAAR
SUMMARY OF ACTION:
1. Senate Accepted the Annual Committee Reports from:
Court of Academic Appeals
Rules
I. CALL TO ORDER: President Lancaster called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm
II. INFORMAL STATEMENTS & PROPOSALS:
Senator Hershfield moved, Senator Johnson, 2nd that the Senate not vote on any General Education motions until the discussion of them is completed The motion died when it was determined that a quorum was not yet present.
Senator Zhang told the Senate that candidates for the Dean, University Libraries, will be visiting campus, and the schedule is available at: http://www.wichita.edu/online/news/?__A=article&__NID=1082
III. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
The Minutes for the April 14, 2003, meeting of the Senate were approved as distributed with the Agenda, with the following corrections: that the reference to "Senate Muma" be corrected to "Senator Muma"; and that it be mentioned that Prof. Cathy Moore-Jansen addressed the Senate in combination with the Interim Library Dean Kathy Downes in the presentation about the Library's situation for the coming year.
IV. PRESIDENT’S REPORT:
President Lancaster informed the Senate that nominations for the new Regents' Faculty of the Year award have been mailed, and urged that nominations be made in the strongest and most persuasive form. Nominations are due on May 5, 2003.
He reviewed the tuition increase that each of the Regents' universities will be making, and said that Wichita State University is considering an 18.8% increase. He pointed out that this will not be enough to make possible the 1% increment in Library funding the Senate has previously recommended. Other university increases are: ESU, 13% + another 3% recommended by students, FHSU, 9%, PSU, 15% (not supported by students) + 3% to be used for equipment (supported by students), KSU, 20% + Architecture fee, and KU, 18%.
Senator Hershfield renewed his motion not to vote today on the General Education proposals, and added that he wished the Senate to base its discussion on the original proposals and not on the revised motions sent to senators today. He retracted the motion after President Lancaster explained that he did not contemplate votes today and explained the minor changes made by the revisions in the proposal
V. COMMITTEE REPORTS:
The annual reports from the Court of Academic Appeals and the Rules Committee were accepted as circulated with the Agenda.
VI. OLD BUSINESS:
President Lancaster presented five written motions from the Senate Executive Committee relative to the revision of General Education. They contain some changes from the proposal that has been pending before the Senate, reflecting the Executive Committee's incorporation of ideas submitted to it last week. He said that they were submitted now so that senators would have them before voting at the April 28 meeting.
Senator Williamson suggested that whenever revised motions or documents are submitted to senators the changes be delineated as such, showing any deletions and highlighting any added material.
Senator Hershfield referred to the report of the General Education Committee and said that it contains some positions that are contrary to the motions. He pointed specifically to the matter of substituting capstone courses for the I&P courses that have been a part of the General Education curriculum. This led to an extended discussion of Motion #1 and of both the I&P ("Issues and Perspectives") and proposed capstone courses. Senator Carroll suggested that the issue be separated into two parts: the dropping of the I&P courses; and the adoption of capstone courses.
Senator Klunder suggested that the complete program needed to be addressed to be sure the program met the goals & objectives, which was the concern of North Central had during their evaluation. That Basic Skills should remain as is but should be evaluated periodically. He also stressed that Further Studies must be directly tied to at least one introductory course and probably more.
Near the end of the meeting, the discussion moved on to Motion #2 relating to Introductory and Further Studies courses. Their relation to the General Education goals and outcomes was discussed. Senator Quantic moved to refer the motions to the General Education Committee for consideration during the coming academic year. Senator Murphey argued that the Senate should be very hesitant about keeping the process of General Education revision going, since it consumes vast amounts of faculty time to little effect. The motion died for lack of a second as the time for adjournment arrived.
VII. NEW BUSINESS: none
VIII. AS MAY ARISE: none
Respectfully submitted
Dwight Murphey, Secretary