Academic Senate Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio  44555

Note:  The next meeting of the Academic Senate is scheduled for Wednesday, December 1, 2004, at 4:00 p.m. Please submit agenda items and cover sheets for the November Senate meeting to Bob Hogue by noon on Monday, November 22, 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 October 6, 2004, meeting were approved as posted.  To view the September minutes, go to <http://www.www.ysu.edu/acad-senate/minoct04.htm>. 

Senate Executive Committee (SEC) / Report from the Chair / Ohio Faculty Council Report: 

Tom Shipka, Chair of the Senate, reported:

With your indulgence, I will consolidate my reports from the Executive Committee, from the Senate Chair, and from the Ohio Faculty Council.

1. Ohio Faculty Council

For those of you who are new to the Senate, let me note that the Ohio Faculty Council is a body which advises the Chancellor and which promotes the cause of public higher education in Ohio in a variety of ways. Members of the OFC include the chair of the faculty senate of each public university and freestanding medical school and one other faculty delegate to the OFC elected by a campus Senate or faculty to represent an institution as an OFC member.

The Ohio Faculty Council met in Columbus at the Ohio Board of Regents suite on Friday, October 8, 2004. YSU was represented by Paul Sracic and myself. At this meeting, pursuant to the OFC governance documents, we elected new leadership. After two terms as OFC chair and one as vice-chair, I concluded my service as an officer and persuaded – drafted, cajoled, threatened, or bludgeoned might be better terms – three of my OFC colleagues to assume the mantle of leadership in 2004-2005. Our new chair is John Cuppoletti, University of Cincinnati, our new vice chair is David Witt, University of Akron, and our continuing secretary is Rodger Govea, Cleveland State University.

At this meeting we also heard briefings from Deborah Gavlik, Associate Chancellor for Finance and Government Relations and Attorney Jim McCollum, Executive Director of the Inter-University Council.

After the meeting I met with the new leadership to deal with transition issues.

In the transition discussion, I made an offer to the new leadership that YSU continue as host of the OFC web site and they accepted. One of the achievements of my terms was resurrection of a moribund and outdated web site and transfer of it from Miami University to YSU where the talent and dedication of webmaster Bob Hogue from CSIS, and his assistant, James Sacco from the YSU Center for Islamic Studies, have produced a much improved and up to date web site. How generous it was of me to volunteer Bob and James for another year of volunteer labor! Seriously, all of us in the OFC are deeply grateful to Bob Hogue and James Sacco for their continuing service in maintaining the OFC web site. There is a link to the OFC web site on the YSU Academic Senate web site.

Let me close my remarks about the OFC with a few general observations. For the first two years of my four years of service in the OFC, a typical meeting was poorly attended and the agenda consisted mainly of a monologue by the Chancellor. Although the Chancellor was informative, it seemed to me that the OFC needed to meet and hear from other resource people, including legislators, regents, STRS spokespersons and critics, presidents, university government relations coordinators, the chair of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and the Economy, the Executive Director of the Inter-University Council, the Director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, and others. So, while I continued to invite the Chancellor to meet with us, I added other guests each month such as the ones whom I just listed. Also, I contacted presidents and senate chairs throughout the state to attempt to improve attendance at our meetings. Attendance improved significantly and now at a typical meeting every campus save one or two has representation. I also felt that the OFC needed standing committees to undertake activities between meetings and I created a Legislative Committee and a Health Care and Retirement Committee.

An unintended side effect of reenergizing the OFC and expanding its reach, was, quite frankly, a virtual boycott of the OFC by the Chancellor. Time and again it seemed that his schedule was so hectic that he couldn’t squeeze us in. We went from a pattern where the Chancellor dominated our meetings to a pattern where the Chancellor was AWOL. I have urged John Cuppoletti to undertake a diplomatic mission, to build a bridge if you will, so that the OFC can resume healthy exchanges and dialogues with the Chancellor, and early indications are that he has been somewhat successful in that connection. I feel no need to apologize to the Chancellor. To my knowledge, I never did or said anything that should have alienated or offended him. I harbor no resentment toward him and I look forward to working with him in the future. I hope that the feeling is mutual.

2. Circulation of a Statement by the Criminal Justice Department

You will remember that at the last Senate meeting I distributed a memo from the
Senate Executive Committee to President Sweet with our comments about the appointment of Joseph Serowik in the Criminal Justice Department. President Sweet had solicited input from the Executive Committee on an administrative report about the hiring by the provost’s office. After the October Senate meeting I received a memo from Tammy King, chair of Criminal Justice, who is on sabbatical, and Jim Conser, acting chair of Criminal Justice, which responds to the points that the Senate Executive Committee made in our memo to the President. Dr. King and Dr. Conser asked that I distribute their memo to the Senate and I did that when I sent you a hard copy notice of this meeting. I invite each of you to evaluate the two documents and to determine their respective merits.

3. Domestic Partners Benefits

You will remember that the Oho Faculty Council and this body approved a
resolution four years ago urging the administration and the Board of Trustees to extend domestic partners benefits to faculty and staff at Ohio’s public universities and medical schools. When Miami University, Ohio University, Cleveland State University, and The Ohio State University announced their extension of such benefits in recent months, I contacted the President Sweet and Mr. Larry Esterly and asked them to consider following in the footsteps of these other institutions. Last Thursday the Board did indeed approve same-sex domestic partners benefits. This would not have occurred without the leadership of Board chair Larry Esterly, a former chair of this body, and Attorney John Pogue, chair of the Board’s Internal Affairs Committee. I am sending a letter to them and others thanking them for taking this initiative.

With the passage of State Issue 1 yesterday, the future of domestic partners benefits is uncertain. This afternoon the general counsels of the five public universities who have approved domestic partners benefits are participating in a conference call to discuss a variety of issues and to explore their options. YSU has signed a memorandum of understanding with the faculty union, the YSU-OEA, clearing the way for the extension of the benefits to domestic partners of bargaining unit members. I am told that the professional staff union, APAS, and the classified staff union, ACE, have declined to sign an MOU on the grounds that the new Board policy requires co-payment of the insurance premium and does not cover heterosexual domestic partners. A reply has not yet been received from the campus police union. Finally I can tell you that thus far one affidavit has been submitted as required by the new YSU policy to trigger provision of coverage to a domestic partner. My intuition is that there will be protracted litigation over the new amendment to the Ohio Constitution, particularly to its second sentence.

This completes my report. I will be happy to entertain comments or questions.

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Charter & Bylaws Committee:    No report.

Elections & Balloting Committee:   Annette Burden reported.  The departmental and at-large Senators from Fine & Performing Arts have now been chosen.  In the election for Senate officers, Dr. Tom Shipka was reelected as Senate Chair, and Dr. Chet Cooper will retain the office of Vice Chair.

Academic Standards Committee:   Committee Chairperson Tod Porter reported.

Dr. Porter outlined the committee's discussions regarding conditional admission, with the intent being to increase the probability of success and the retention of under-prepared students.

Dr. Porter then moved that the Senate hereby directs the Standards committee to research and develop a proposal for conditional admission. The motion was seconded. There was no discussion. The motion passed.

Dr. Porter then outlined the committee's discussions regarding differences between the withdrawal dates used by YSU and the federal student aid programs. Dr. Porter introduced a motion to set the date for the last day to withdraw with a W to coincide with the Department of Education’s 60 percent point in the term. Motion seconded. Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez asked what is the benefit would be to the change.  Dr. Porter responded that there are students who have to make a difficult choice between withdrawing before our withdraw date and having to pay back some of their loan. If they could withdraw at the 60% point, then they would not have to pay back a portion of the loan. So, this is to synchronize the YSU withdrawal date with the Federal System's date.   A vote was then taken on the motion. Motion passed.

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee:    A set of approved course proposals (see Attachment 2 and Attachment 3) was included as an informational report. No action is required by the Senate.

Unfinished Business:   None.

New business:   

Bege Bowers, Assistant Provost, distributed a handout regarding the Policy on Academic Minors (Attachment 4).  Dr. Bowers reviewed the policy as approved in 2000. If students follow approved minors (those officially listed in the Undergraduate Bulletin), then the minor can be listed on the transcript. In 2000, there were no approved minors listed in the Undergraduate Bulletin. In 2001, there were only 7 approved minors in the Undergraduate Bulletin. Thus, some department chairs might have approved alternate courses for a minor. There were many more minors in the 2002 bulletin. Presently there are about 80 approved minors.

It is important for our accreditation that the Senate-approved policy in the Undergraduate Bulletin be followed. In rare cases, a department chair can make a course substitution in a minor. Students can also propose a minor via the ICP process. But it is expected that students are to follow an approved minor. Some of the approved minors do contain flexibility, allowing students to choose some courses within the minor.

Work will begin on revising the change-of-major form to add a space for declaring a minor. This should also allow the minor to appear on Model 204. Dr. Bowers suggested that if the language of the requirement for the minor needs to be clarified, it could be sent back to the Academic Standards Committee for consideration.

Dr. Robert Kramer asked if a minor is at least 18 hours. Dr. Bowers replied that the current requirement for the approved minors is at least 18 semester hours, with at least 1/3 of the courses at the upper-division level. Although the 18-hour minimum was approved by the Senate in April 2000, the 2000-2001 Undergraduate Bulletin still listed the minimum as 15 hours (a figure derived from the 2/3 semester-conversion rule and the 21 quarter hours required before semester conversion). The 2001-2002 Undergraduate Bulletin was the first to list the 18-hour minimum.

Dr. Kramer then asked if it is correct that this will not prevent a student who entered prior to 2000 from using the old requirements for a minor. Dr. Bowers replied that students who have maintained continuous enrollment may choose either the catalog of entry or any later set of requirements for their minor, except that if a student changes his or her major, then the requirements for the minor will be either those in effect in the catalog of entry or those in effect at the time the change of major occurred.