WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY

GENERAL FACULTY MEETING of September 30, 1998

I. Call to Order:

JoLynne Campbell, Vice President of the Faculty Senate Called the meeting to order. Dwight Murphey was elect parliamentarian, Chris Brooks was elected secretary.

II. Business:

A. Proposal from the General Education Committee: Russ Widener, Coordinator of the General Education Program presented the five proposals from the Committee. There were: 1. List Issues and Perspectives Courses in the catalogue; 2. Accept I & P course proposals from the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering and Health Professions (along with continued proposals from LAS and Fine Arts; 3. provide sufficient resources to support and create I & P courses; 4. Ensure that a minimum number of I & P courses will be offered each semester, including summer; and 5. To make a three year I & P schedule available. All of the above recommendations with the exception of #2 had been accepted by the Faculty Senate. Discussion followed, much was said about the new guidelines and whether Gen. Ed. Courses should remain basically "liberal arts" oriented, the NCA report was mentioned in the context that some Gen. Ed. Courses didn't fit NCA guidelines, was there a need for new I & P courses (answer, yes, that sometimes there are a few as ten courses offered in a semester, not enough to serve 14,000 students. One faculty member asked if this proposal masked a quality or quantity issue, another suggested that to deny certain disciplines the right of offer I & P courses amounted to a denial of academic freedom. After much debate, the question was called and the motion to accept recommendation 2 was passed by a vote of 48-21.

B. Proposed Campus Parking Plan: VP of Administration Roger Lowe presented his plan and asserted that the recent request made by the Presidents of the WSU Senates to delay the plan for one year was unfriendly. Elmer Hoyer read the letter jointly written by the presidents in which the central issues were to allow a more complete sharing of ideas from all WSU constituencies and to allow the new President of WSU to begin his term without incurring the debt emerging from the parking policy costs. The letter also questioned the role of the parking policy proposal within the idea of a "metropolitan advantage". Lowe asserted that he had taken a collegial approach and met with many constituents about the policy and argued that the changes were necessitated by decay of the underlying strictures in current lots, and by a study that indicated WSU needed an additional 1000 + parking spots. He also noted that these changes will have to be made eventually, given the age of the lots. The hour being late, a motion to extend the discussion time was made and defeated. A motion to endorse the letter of the four Senate Presidents was made and passed 29-14.

The meeting was adjourned

Christopher Brooks, Secretary