Academic Senate Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio  44555

Note:  The next meeting of the Academic Senate is scheduled for Wednesday, May 4, at 4:00 p.m. Please submit agenda items and cover sheets for the May Senate meeting to Bob Hogue by noon on Monday, April 25, at the latest.  Provide both a hard copy and a disk or electronic copy of your report and cover sheet in Word or rich text format.  A downloadable cover sheet is available at the Academic Senate web site [hit "cancel" if asked for a password]:

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Tom Shipka, chair of the Academic Senate, called the Senate to order at 4:05 p.m.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:

Minutes of the March 6, 2005, meeting were approved as posted.  To view the March minutes, go to <http://www.www.ysu.edu/acad-senate/minmar05.htm>. 

Senate Executive Committee (SEC) / Report from the Chair / Ohio Faculty Council Report:   Tom Shipka, Chair of the Senate, reported:

On Monday of this week, Dr. George McCloud and I closed out the YSU Tsunami Relief Fund at the Home Savings branch in Kilcawley Center and mailed a check to UNICEF earmarked for South Asia tsunami relief in the amount of $5,033. Thank you to all of you who participated in this YSU tsunami drive. Special thanks as well to Jeanne E. Watson-Antol, Manager of the YSU Home Savings Branch, and her staff who received monies and kept meticulous records through the past six weeks. The need for continuing support is staggering and if you did not participate in the YSU drive, I hope that you will give to a tsunami relief drive of one of the many agencies conducting them.

The Provost Search Committee has received 53 applications for provost. The committee has met regularly and will meet again next week on Wednesday and Thursday. Nine applicants have been advanced for further consideration and committee members are checking their references in the next few days via telephone so that a report can be given to the committee on these candidates at next Wednesday’s meeting. A list of nine questions was approved by the committee for the telephone reference check. As many as five or six of the candidates will be invited to meet with the committee in the next two weeks if possible. The committee will then select an as yet unspecified number of finalists to spend, hopefully, two days on campus to meet extensively with the various faculty, administration, staff, and student constituencies of the university. President Sweet has requested that the committee furnish him with a list of three to five candidates unranked.

There was some concern expressed by committee members about the lack of diversity in the pool. This prompted me to nominate a prominent African-American scholar who is currently Associate Provost at Vanderbilt but I do not yet know if he will submit his application. He is a close friend since my graduate school days in Boston and if he applies I will abstain from discussion of and voting upon his candidacy.

One discovery that the search committee has made so far, to the surprise of no one in this room, I’m sure, is that applicants for our job have applied elsewhere and the strongest applicants in our pool are finalists already at other institutions.

Finally, I want to mention that there are no internal applicants for provost.

A person who presided over the meetings of this body for many years, Dr. Jim Morrison, is retiring this year, and his successor as chair of Psychology, Dr. Vern Haynes, and his spouse Marite Haynes, are hosting a party for Jim and another psychology colleague, Dr. Steve Graf, on Saturday, April 30, at the Haynes residence near Volant, Pennsylvania. Dr. Haynes has asked me, on his behalf, to extend an invitation to this farewell party to all Senators. To make a reservation and to learn the details, please contact Vern in the Psychology department at extension 1613. Please do this by April 25.

There will be a Senate meeting in May. Several important items of business, including a report of special interest to YSU student senators, will appear on the agenda of the May 4 meeting.

I also want to remind you that the spring WYSU fund-raising campaign is underway. Please make a contribution to support this remarkable NPR station during its 35 th anniversary if you have not already done so. (If the radio station has a successful drive, maybe they’ll be able to pay the person that does the Thursday morning commentaries at 6:35 and 8:35.)

Finally, the Ohio Faculty Council met on March 11 and will meet on April 8. In March we heard campus updates and viewed a new PowerPoint presentation prepared by the Inter-University Council. This presentation is the product of collaboration by two-year and four-year public institutions in Ohio and it is aimed at presenting a united front to the Governor and the Ohio General Assembly as to the needs of Ohio public higher education and the economic and cultural impact of Ohio public higher education across the state. The worst news in the state continues to come out of Akron where negotiation of a first labor agreement covering the full-time faculty is at a virtual standstill after more than a year. This Friday’s OFC agenda includes discussion of controversies surrounding post-tenure review cases at the University of Toledo and the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo.

I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

Charter & Bylaws Committee: No report.

Elections & Balloting Committee:   Annette Burden reported. The results of elections so far have been appended to the agenda for this meeting. At-large elections are still in progress. Are there any volunteers for counting ballots? If so, please contact Annette Burden. Counting of the ballots will take place on April 20.

Academic Standards Committee:   Committee Chairperson Tod Porter reported and reviewed the reasons for considering the adding of midterm progress reports. Two things would be needed: The change would have to be incorporated into the new Banner information system, and some changes would be needed to the YSU/YSU-OEA Agreement. Dr. Porter made the following motion:

The Academic Senate recommends that the University institute a Midterm Progress Report as part of an early warning and intervention process to aid in student retention.

The suggested format of the Midterm Progress Report would include three categories:

• Making Progress (implies a “C” or better)
• At Risk of Failing
• No Completed Class Work

The motion was seconded. Angela Mavrikis asked if this could this be sent via Cuemail or via mail to the student's home? Dr. Porter replied that the committee didn't address that, but assumed that it would at least be available via SID. Tom Shipka asked if these would replace the progress reports from Center for Student Progress and from Athletics? Dr. Porter replied that they would. Cyndy Anderson asked when this would be implemented. Dr. Porter responded that it cannot be until the student section of Banner is completed, but this is an opportune time to get this idea out and under consideration. Vern Haynes asked how this recommendation will be forwarded to the Negotiating Teams. Dr. Shipka stated that Senate Secretary Bob Hogue will send the information to them. Daryl Mincey asked it this will be coordinated with drop dates. Dr. Porter responded that drop dates would be independent. Dr. Porter also noted that if this change is approved, we might also want to change the rules on returning graded work so that a piece of graded work must be returned to the student before the midterm reports. Bob Kramer asked it this would be done one time during the semester. Dr. Porter replied that the committee was envisioning only once per semester, but they are not sure what Athletics will do. Bill Countryman asked about summer term. Dr. Porter replied that the committee assumed it will include summer, but perhaps that needs to look at more closely later on. What the resolution says is that we need to look at it, and the actual implementation will depend on later details. A vote was taken on the motion. Motion passed.

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee:    A list of approved courses is contained in Attachment 2.

General Education Committee :    Committee Chairperson Bill Jenkins reported on three items:

1. The State Attorney General's office has issued an opinion that we can retain student work for assessment. However, Jeff Coldren from Psychology raised a valid point via email: If a department itself is going to use and publish student work, approval from the student is still needed. But for internal assessment, no waiver is needed. Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez asked if the language in the Student Code will be amended. Dr. Jenkins replied that it would.

2. PHIL 3760 was not appended to the Senate agenda, but it has passed and is now part of certified General Education courses.

3. Decertification: The General Education Committee has met to discuss how to have a GenEd course decertified. This can occur under several circumstances, both from a department request or from the GEC itself. Dr. Jenkins moved that the Senate approve the following Decertification Policy:

The motion was seconded. Cynthia Hirtzel asked when such a request might be made? Dr. Jenkins replied that the committee was given the charge to certify courses when they originally made GER policies, so we thought it appropriate to bring to the Senate the issue of possible decertification of courses, either by department request or by recommendation from the General Education Committee. If a course were to be recommended for decertification by the General Education Committee and the department did not concur, the matter would move to the Senate for a vote on decertification. Vote on the motion was then taken. Motion passed.

Library Committee:    Committee Chairperson Martin Cala reported. The data shown in the agenda attachment was discussed. Dr. Cala then presented Motion 1, to consider three mutually-exclusive proposals offered, as shown in Attachment 3. Senate Parliamentarian Bill Jenkins addressed the way in which the motion is framed and noted that it is not proper to present one motion with three mutually-exclusive parts. The decision was made to divide the motion and to vote on one plan at a time.

Motion 1a is for Proposal 1 from the attachment, representing an increase of approximately 2.9%. Motion was seconded. A vote was taken on Motion 1a. Motion failed.

Motion 1b is for Proposal 2 from the Attachment. The motion was seconded. Eleanor Congdon noted the following: For the last 2 years, the Library Committee has proposed more money, yet every college took a 41% hit in 2002-03. Many of Arts & Sciences departments are at the breaking point. Our response is largely out of frustration. The Library is starting to lose ability to serve you. Do you want to keep current levels? You've said no [to Motion 1a]. Do you want to ask for more? That's Motion 1b. Motion 1c is to give it all back right now. We want to see this part of the institution able to promote research, but we can't do it if the Library keeps taking hits. The State of Ohio is also cutting to Ohio Link. Jane Reid asked how the percent change per college was determined. Dr. Cala replied that it included a $15,000 increase for each college. Robert Kramer noted that the percentages are wrong in Motion 1b. Question from the floor: What part of the budget is this? Response: This is the acquisitions budget. A vote was then taken on Motion 1b. Motion failed.

Motion 1c is for Proposal 3 from the Attachment. This includes accelerated increases for teaching, learning, and research, which are linked to Critical Issue 2 of the Strategic Plan. The total increase is $330,000. Eleanor Congdon: The 2002-03 cut was more than $300k. We tried to re-establish levels of 2002-03 as closely as possible. The major change here is OhioLink. Daryl Mincey asked if we will have an opportunity to address OhioLink separately? OhioLink is being drastically hit. Large schools pay a lot more than smaller schools. It is important for us to ask the Academic Senate to find ways to encourage the Legislature to stop these cuts. Rick Shale: I am also concerned with OhioLink. It doesn't seem right that we are ready to vote to approve this motion when OhioLink may need more. Can we aim toward restoring funds but to not go back to each College? Can the committee revisit this motion? Paul Kobulnicky: When OhioLink gets budget cuts, they can't increase tuition like we can. We get two OhioLink bills during the year. We know they are coming. Our only alternative is to look at unencumbered funds to cover OhioLink costs. Also, at the end of the year we look at where colleges have not yet expended funds and put some of those toward OhioLink. Daryl Mincey: OhioLink Budget from the Board of Regents is is about $10 million. There could be a cut 2% from the state. Some journals could disappear. Some of those are entire holdings. A vote was then taken on Motion 1c. Motion passed.

[Secretary's note: For the record, the budget recommendation which passed (Motion 1c) is included below:]

                                    2004-2005 BUDGET    2005-2006 PROPOSED BUDGET   Percent
                                    ALLOCATION          ALLOCATION                  Change	
                                                                                    Sought 

   ARTS & SCIENCES                  239,136             400,136                     +67.4% 

   BUSINESS                         51,130              80,130                      +58.8% 

   EDUCATION                        33,630              60,630                      +90.9% 

   ENGINEERING                      31,413              60,413                      +96.7% 

   FINE & PERFORMING ARTS           28,270              49,270                      +75.0% 

   HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES          65,131              98,131                      +50.8% 

   OHIO LINK                        439,165             454,165                     +3.4% 

   LIBRARY:                         163,990             178,990                     +9.1% 

   NEW PROGRAMS * 

   TOTALS                           1,051,865           1,381,865                   +31.4% 

  *Based upon Motion #2, April 7, 2004 to add $1,000 per new program.