Academic Senate Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio  44555

Note 1: Please submit agenda items and cover sheets for the April 3, 2002, Senate meeting to Bege Bowers, A&S Dean's Office, by noon on Wednesday, March 20. 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:

Note 2: If you want to read or print the pdf version of these minutes and don’t have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you may download the program at the following link: <http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html>.

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Major topics presented/discussed: Report of the Senate chair; OFC report; need to propose general-education intensive courses before the end of spring semester; library/OhioLINK budget; Ad Hoc Ethics Committee draft of the "YSU Faculty and Administration Code of Professional Conduct"; strategic planning update; distance-education recommendations.

Jim Morrison, chair of the Academic Senate, called the meeting to order at 4:08 p.m. Because of the lack of a quorum, the meeting proceeded as an informational meeting only. Reports were presented and discussed, but no actions were taken.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:

Because of the lack of a quorum, approval of minutes of the 6 February 2002 meeting was postponed until the April meeting.

To view the February minutes, click here; click your “Back” button as necessary to return to the March minutes.

Senate Executive Committee (SEC) / Report from the Chair: Jim Morrison reported that the SEC has met to discuss several items. He made the following announcements:

• As reported at the last Senate meeting, the SEC had asked Tom Shipka to propose language related to realignment of the Academic Grievance Subcommittee. He has done so, and his suggestions will be forwarded to the Charter and Bylaws Committee for review.

• Homer Warren has been appointed to fill a vacancy on the University Outreach Committee; the SEC will ask that the committee meet as soon as possible to consider ideas about the Metro College that Provost Atwater presented at the February Senate meeting.

• Also in response to the Provost's request, the SEC is asking the Academic Programs Committee to think about how program review might be re-instituted and administered and what role the Programs Committee and other Senate committees might play in program review. Some of the functions carried out by the Assessment Council in the past could perhaps be incorporated into the Senate committee structure as well.

• In response to a request to explore whether the recently announced two-year electric-utility degree had been approved through the Senate, the SEC discovered that the approved electric utility courses were posted to the Senate agenda in February 2002. The Academic Programs Committee did approve that program and two minors in December 2001 but inadvertently failed to have them posted to the Senate agenda. They will be posted to a future agenda.

Ohio Faculty Council (OFC): Tom Shipka, our elected representative to the OFC, made the report that appeared as Attachment 1 to the March 6 Senate agenda.

Charter and Bylaws Committee; Elections and Balloting Committee; Academic Standards Committee; Academic Programs Committee; University Curriculum Committee; Academic Planning Committee: No reports.

General Education Committee (GEC):  Bill Jenkins, chair of the committee, announced the need for departments to complete the task of proposing intensive courses before the end of spring semester.

In addition, a list of newly certified "intensive" and capstone courses appeared in Attachment 2 to the agenda for the March 6 Senate meeting. A list of all certified general education courses appears on the General Education web site at http://www.ysu.edu/ger/.

Integrated Technologies Committee, University Outreach Committee: No reports.

Library Committee:

Tom Atwood summarized the Library Committee report that appeared in Attachment 3 to the agenda for the March 6 Senate meeting, reminding the Senate that although the cost of OhioLINK continues to rise, the benefits to YSU are tremendous. The library would like to designate more for OhioLINK in next year’s budget. OhioLINK's Elsevier consortium provides electronic access to 4,000+ journals, only 66 of which we subscribed to before joining the consortium.

In addition, departments should review the hard-copy periodicals list and make whatever cuts they can so that YSU can continue to build the book collection. The library has compiled data showing usage rates for existing hard-copy periodicals.

Nancy Mosca, Nursing, asked about the status of "electronic reserves," a process that would enable faculty to place items on reserve electronically. Atwood said the library is exploring it.

J-C. Smith, Philosophy and Religious Studies, asked whether one can access the electronic journals from off campus. Atwood said that the bar code on the back of one's YSU i.d. card should provide access from anywhere. 

Academic Research Committee, Student Academic Affairs Committee, Student Academic Grievance Committee, and Honors Committee; Academic Events Committee:  No reports.

Ad Hoc Ethics Committee: 

J-C. Smith, chair of the committee, gave the report that appears in Attachment 1 to the March 6 Senate minutes. The report summarizes the committee's progress in drafting a code of ethics entitled "YSU Faculty and Administration Code of Professional Conduct." 

You may review the working draft and submit comments via the committee's WebCT site at http://webcourses.ysu.edu (select the "Go to WebCT" graphic/link; log into your existing account or create a new account if you don't already have one; and select or add the "course" Academic_ Ethics_ Committee_J_ C_ Smith). The committee hopes to submit a final draft at the April 3 Senate meeting and to complete any additional revisions before the May 1 Senate meeting.

Strategic Planning Update:  Bege Bowers, chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, reported:

Over the past couple of months, the Strategic Planning Committee has drafted a Vision Statement and drafted and revised goals and strategies for the strategic plan. As noted in the agenda for the March 6 Senate meeting, "short-form" and "long-form" drafts appear on the Strategic Planning web site at http://www.ysu.edu/Strategic_Plan/, along with Core Values, Defining Principles, and other documents related to the plan. The short form includes the ten critical issues, plus goals and strategies for each; the long form includes sample objectives as well. 

Ten subcommittees composed of approximately 80 individuals (the Strategic Planning Committee plus approximately 40 other individuals with expertise in the areas addressed in the plan) drafted the goals, strategies, and objectives, with wide input from others in the University and broader community. A four-member subcommittee of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee further revised the drafts and prepared the short and long forms that appear on the Strategic Planning web site.

The Board of Trustees will review the "short" draft on March 14, focusing primarily on the goals. Revisions and action plans will be developed during the spring, before the final draft goes to the Board of Trustees in June.

Basically, the plan is a "plan to plan": to develop master plans and coordinate efforts in areas such as enrollment management, technology, and budget development; to target funding to achieve University-wide strategic initiatives; and to provide units within the University greater flexibility to pursue their own initiatives related to strategic priorities.

The committee appreciates the comments you have provided so far and encourages you to submit additional comments via the links on the web site.

Jim Morrison noted that President Sweet has promised to "bring financial resources to bear" so that the plan doesn't  just sit on a shelf.  There will be a concerted effort to correlate the strategic plan with annual plans and the budget. In reviewing the draft, focus primarily on the goals and secondarily on the strategies. The objectives listed in the long form are suggestions only and may or may not appear in the final plan.

Discussion followed.

Unfinished business:  None.

New business:  None. J-C. Smith noted that he is serving on a committee that is providing the joint negotiations team with recommendations about distance education. For information, see the committee's WebCT site at http://webcourses.ysu.edu (select the "Go to WebCT" graphic/link; log into your existing account or create a new account if you don't already have one; and select or add the WebCT "course" Distance_Learning_Review_Committee). The committee is being expanded to serve as an advisory committee to the Provost; if you are interested in serving on such a committee, contact Smith.

Adjournment:  The meeting "adjourned" at 4:48 p.m.