ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES
(Approved)
October 24, 2001 Volume
XXXIII, No. 5
Call
to Order
Chairperson Curt White called the meeting to order
at 7:00 p.m.
Roll Call
Senator
Crothers called the roll and declared a quorum.
Approval of Minutes of October 10, 2001
Motion XXXIII-31: by
Senator Borg, second by Senator Albrecht, to approve the Senate minutes of
October 10, 2001. The minutes were unanimously approved.
Chairperson's
Remarks
Senator White: We welcome the newly elected non-tenure track
faculty Senate representative, Mary Kay Rotsch, to the Senate this evening.
Vice Chairperson/Student Government Association President's Remarks
Senator
Kording: The Student Government
Association has submitted two resolutions for the Senate Executive Committee
agenda. The first resolution is the SGA's endorsement of the Benefit of the
Better Grade Policy and the second is a request for a review of the delivery of
professional practice services. SGA has made several student appointments to
the Senate external committees and is considering a referendum for a rec
center.
Administrators' Remarks:
·
President Boschini: On Friday, October 26, 2001, Kent Machina, will be
installed as our first endowed chairperson. I will be in Springfield next week
to attend a retreat for trustees. Cori Brown, our student trustee, will also
attend this retreat.
·
Provost Al Goldfarb: No Comments.
·
Vice President of Student Affairs
Senator Mamarchev: Our own Guerilla Theatre has been invited by the
Governor's Commission Against Hate Crimes to perform at the annual meeting in
Chicago on December 18.
·
Vice President of Finance and Planning
Senator Bragg: The Board of Trustees has approved our current year
budget as well as our proposed fiscal year 2003 appropriations budget. We
reported to the Board on an update of the Campus Master Plan and they received
it enthusiastically. We will be going back out to campus groups to give an
update on the plan and then we will go back to the Board for formal approval.
Committee Reports
·
Academic Affairs Committee
Senator Borg: The Academic Affairs Committee discussed a proposed
admissions policy and also the University Mission Statement. We hope to bring
both of those items before the Senate before the end of
the fall semester. We also have three proposals on
the agenda tonight as information items: 1) Tiered Program Admissions Policy
proposal, 2) proposal for revisions to the current General Studies Degree
Program, and 3) proposal for a University Studies Degree Program.
·
Administrative Affairs and Budget Committee
Senator Wells: The committee continued to discuss the issue of
student protests. Because the guidelines on this topic are very vague, the
committee will draft a proposal for a policy on maintaining order on campus
while ensuring free speech.
·
Faculty Affairs Committee
Senator Deutsch: Faculty Affairs is gathering information to bring
before the Senate.
·
Planning and Finance Committee
Senator Kurtz: The focus
groups on collegiate restructuring are ongoing and will conclude at the end of
this month. There is a good deal of material on the Senate web site concerning
collegiate restructuring, including historical documents on this subject from
the ISU archives. We are looking at these historical documents to help us to
understand how the process of reorganization should proceed. Jan Cook has
volunteered to draft an executive summary of this historical material and I
have drafted a document on structuring the process of considering
restructuring. The Planning and Finance Committee continues to meet for two
hours weekly.
·
Rules Committee
Senator Reid: The Rules Committee passed a proposal for revisions
to the bylaws concerning the election process for the non-tenure track faculty
Senate representative. The committee also looked at Milner bylaws revisions and
the suggestions from Thomas Hustoles on combining the Faculty Ethics and
Grievance Committee and the Academic Freedom Committee. We also looked at a
policy involving consensual relationships within the university community.
Information Items
08.10.01.01
Establishment of a Graduation Rate Goal Policy (Academic Affairs
Committee)
Senator Eric Thomas: ISU
currently has no official policy on a graduation rate goal. I am, therefore,
proposing a policy for a graduation rate goal of 60%. The current graduation
rate is approximately 55%.
Senator Razaki: Have you compared
this rate with our competitor schools?
Senator E. Thomas: Our 55% stacks up
reasonably well nationally.
Senator Kurtz: Is this an
institutional goal? Does it tie in with our goals for proposed changes in
admission policies? I think that there would be a disjunction if we have a
static graduation rate goal since we are continually trying to improve our
admission standards.
Senator E. Thomas: This would be an
institutional goal, but this is not a static policy. We could annually reassess
our goal. I don't want to tie this to admission policies, but rather have it as
a clear-cut policy on its own.
Senator Borg: University
policies are under an automatic three-year review schedule.
Senator Kurtz: Has there been
any benchmarking against our comparative institutions or against our
aspirational group?
Senator Bragg: With regard to
other public universities in Illinois, the average rate is about 55%. We have a
group in institutional research looking at comparisons to other universities at
levels to which we aspire.
Senator Boschini: I am mainly
concerned about our comparison to those universities to which we aspire.
Senator Kurtz, why would you want to revisit this policy each year?
Senator Kurtz: Because we would
hope that the graduation rate would go up every year.
Senator E. Thomas: There is value in
benchmarking, but this is a more introspective type of issue. The goal that we
chose to set is higher than where we are. We would reset that goal once it was
achieved.
Motion XXXIII-32: By Senator
Crothers, second by Senator Armstrong, to move the item to action. The motion
was unanimously approved.
Motion XXXIII-33: By Senator Borg,
second by Senator Albrecht, to approve the graduation rate goal of 60% as set
forth in the policy proposal.
Senator Armstrong: There is no
difference between the graduation rate of athletes and the student body in
general.
Senator E. Thomas: The graduation
rate for student-athletes is a little higher than that for all students. This
has constantly been the case for several years.
Senator Dave Thomas: Does
this goal apply to all students?
Senator E. Thomas: It is for students
beginning as freshman at ISU.
Senator Razaki: Would you provide
us with comparative numbers?
Senator Eric Thomas: I
will do that.
Senator Kurtz: What uses would
this be put to? We know our graduation rate is looked at by external entities.
Senator E. Thomas: We report our
graduation rate for NCAA certification and to a variety of other entities. Most
external entities do not ask for our graduation rate policy.
Senator Reid: Since there is a
relationship between increasing retention rates and increasing graduation
rates, will there be pressure to decrease our academic standards? Perhaps we
should draft a policy on the quality of our academic standards.
Senator Goldfarb: I think we should
tie this in with our admissions policies, but a high graduation rate does not
mean a decrease in standards.
Senator El-Zanati: Have we gone above
a graduation rate of 55%?
Senator Bragg: We are at about
56% reflecting the changes in student demographics. Graduation rates are
relatively stable and we do not expect to see large shifts. We could add about
10% to this figure because about 10% of those who transfer from ISU graduate
from another institution.
Senator Boschini: Our graduation
rate also includes those who come in for enhancement, but not to graduate.
Senator Reid: I think we should
look at increasing our standards for our teachers, not just for the students
admitted.
Vote on Graduation Rate Goal Policy: The Senate unanimously approved the Graduation Rate Goal Policy with
the stated graduation rate goal of 60%.
02.08.01.01
Proposal for Tiered Program Admissions (Academic Affairs Committee)
02.08.01.01A Proposal for B.A./B.S. Degree in University
Studies (Academic Affairs Committee)
02.08.01.01B Proposal for Renaming General Studies to
Interdisciplinary Studies and Increasing GPA Requirement (Academic Affairs
Committee)
Senator Borg: Academic Affairs
is presenting three proposals as information items that are related to each
other: a Tiered Admissions Policy, revisions to the General Studies Program and
a proposed University Studies Degree. In order for the Tiered Admissions Policy
to work, we would need to create a University Studies Degree Program. The
General Studies proposal involves increasing the GPA requirement for that
program from 2.5 to 2.75 and renaming the program Interdisciplinary Studies.
Senator E. Thomas: These proposals are
an effort to allow the current General Studies Program to have a higher level
of quality and to provide every student with an alternative degree path under
the University Studies Degree Program.
Senator Crothers: The University
Studies proposal states that a student with more than 60 credit hours and not
admitted to a major would be in this program. Sixty hours in what?
Senator E. Thomas: Sixty hours in
anything. A student would be a candidate for the University Studies Degree if
that student acquires sixty or more hours, but is not admitted to a major. If
they were not accepted into a major after acquiring sixty hours, they would go
into the University Studies Program. These students could not remain in the
existing General Student classification.
Senator Kording: Who must approve
the plan of study?
Senator E. Thomas: The faculty
advisor for the University Studies Program.
Senator Kording: Is there a
parallel program in Graduate Studies?
Senator E. Thomas: There is no such
degree offered to students in graduate school.
Senator Kording: If a student
applied to a program and was denied admission, could that student appeal the
decision?
Senator E. Thomas: Departments can
set their own standards for admission into their programs.
Senator Goldfarb: There is always
administrative recourse. A student could appeal to the college dean, the
Provost and Undergraduate Studies.
Senator Kording: Page 1 of the
catalog copy states that a student must meet the minimum admission/retention
standards of a major. Might this University Studies Degree be a disincentive to
supply resources to support student demand for other programs?
Senator E. Thomas: Some departments
cannot accommodate all of those that apply to their programs, but this
certainly is not an incentive to exclude students.
Senator D. Thomas: Would this
two-tired policy exceed the current two-tired policies already in place in
certain departments, such as having a requirement of 40 hours instead of 60?
Senator E. Thomas: If a department
has a requirement of a few more than 60 hours or a few less in their tiered
process, there should be no problem.
Senator Ballard: Would students in
Interdisciplinary Studies be able to enroll in other courses?
Senator E. Thomas: They could enroll
in all courses except those that are major blocked.
Senator Pollack: The proposal says
that additional resources and staff will not be required. Would it be of value
to add more resources to make more students successful in their first 60 hours
by providing more academic support so that they would not encounter the problem
of not being allowed into a major?
Senator E. Thomas: We currently have
very good student support through the University College, University Center for
Learning Assistance and the Academic Advisement Center. In fact, if an advisor
sees that a student is not doing well, the advisor will contact that student
and assign the student to tutorial support.
Senator Baum: What number of
students will the University Studies Program serve?
Senator E. Thomas: We don't want to
see many students in this situation, but we project that about several hundred
students will be in the program.
Senator Bathauer: The Curriculum
Committee handles these types of issues. Would there be only one person who
would decide with the student the course of study in the University Studies
Program?
Senator E. Thomas: Yes, the faculty
advisor.
Senator Bathauer: Is that amendable
during the course of study?
Senator E. Thomas: Students, once
they enter this program, may choose to go into another major.
Senator Bathauer: What effect will
this have on the current General Education classes? It is already very hard to
get into those classes. Is there a possibility of adding more sections?
Senator E. Thomas: There would be no
impact on the General Education Program. It would not be to the advantage of
those students to take more General Education classes.
Senator McNaught: Would a
re-enrolled student be able to get into this program?
Senator E. Thomas: I would advise
those students to select a major. However, if they have no major, they would
come in under University Studies.
Senator Deutsch: Do the individual
plans for coursework have any coherence?
Senator E. Thomas: For that aspect,
there would be a heavy reliance on the faculty advisor.
Senator Deutsch: Wouldn't it be
better to develop general models for courses of study?
Senator E. Thomas: Students could
enter from a broad range of programs, too broad to capture in general models.
Senator Armstrong: Would you provide
us with the number of programs that use the two-tiered process and the number
of students that are turned away?
Senator E. Thomas: I will try to
gather that information.
Senator Ballard: How many faculty
advisors are in Interdisciplinary Studies and University Studies?