Academic Senate Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio  44555

Note:  The next meeting of the Academic Senate is scheduled for Wednesday, November 3, 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, October 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 4:04 p.m.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:

Minutes of the September 8, 2004, meeting were approved as posted.  To view the September minutes, go to <http://www.www.ysu.edu/acad-senate/minsep04.htm>. 

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

Tom Shipka, Chair of the Senate, reported:

The Senate Executive Committee met on Monday, September 20, 2004, to conduct regular business and to evaluate and comment upon a penultimate draft of an administrative review of the hiring of Joseph Serowik in Criminal Justice. President Sweet had asked the Executive Committee for a prompt evaluation of and comment upon this review.

Copies of the Executive Committee’s memo to the President were made available to you upon arrival today on the back table. The memo will also be appended to my report.

Although the Executive Committee felt that the procedural changes in faculty searches proposed in the review would be helpful in improving searches, we offered four specific points for consideration by the President and the administration.

We said firstly that the timing of the search – during the summer – is not optimal to conduct a faculty search and that the administration should approve positions and authorize searches early in an academic year for appointment in the following academic year.

We said secondly that the length of the search – about three weeks from the initial meeting of the search committee to the forwarding of the appointment paperwork from the chair to the dean – was too short to conduct a careful search.

We said thirdly that the fact that Mr.Serowick failed to disclose to the search committee, the chair, or the dean that the City of Cleveland had discharged him should have resulted in withdrawal of the offer of appointment when this fact was eventually discovered.

We said fourthly that, while we appreciate the search committee’s points that forensics witnesses are frequently criticized by forensics consultants hired by defendants’ attorneys and that Mr. Serowik should be considered innocent until proven guilty, the search committee did not seem to fully appreciate the gravity of the allegations against Mr. Serowik, did not attempt to check Mr. Serowik’s professional reputation and credentials with independent forensics specialists, and did not prepare a suitable defense and justification of their recommendation in anticipation of concern and skepticism about the appointment on campus, in the community, and in the media.

On other matters, the Executive Committee has requested the Senate Charter and Bylaws Committee to take under advisement two possible changes in the Bylaws, one which would permit electronic solicitation of nominations for Senate chair during the first week or two of fall semester in lieu of hard copy solicitation of such nominations on the first day of fall semester, the other which would permit a faculty member to serve on more than one Senate standing committee. The Executive Committee is considering other possible recommendations to the Charter and Bylaws Committee.

The Senate ad hoc committee on waivers of administrative searches has begun its work with Chet Cooper as chair and Sandy Stephan and Charles Singler as members. A student member is being sought as well.

The Board of Trustees’ Internal Affairs Committee discussed domestic partners benefits at its meeting on September 9. Board chair Larry Esterly and Internal Affairs Committee chair John Pogue expressed support for extension of these benefits. A specific proposal is under development and may go to the Board at a special meeting this month. Needless to say, the proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution banning same sex marriages and extension of benefits such as domestic partners benefits to same sex couples remains a significant concern to the Board and to all of those who support such benefits. Although opposition to this amendment has surfaced in many quarters, including business, polls show the amendment winning by a margin of 2 to 1.

I have appointed Bob Hogue, Senate Secretary, and a long-time member of the CSIS faculty, as Senate representative to the Advisory Committee for the SCT Banner Project. Also, Jim Morrison and Charles Singler have agreed to represent the Senate in the continuing project to upgrade classrooms on campus. I thank these individuals for their willingness to serve.

To my knowledge, all of the Senate standing committees are up and running – or at least walking. Chairs of all committees are asked to notify Bob Hogue of their election as chair so that he can note this on the Senate web site. I thank all persons who have agreed to serve on Senate committees, particularly the chairs and co-chairs of these committees.

As for the Ohio Faculty Council, it holds it organizing meeting of the 2004-2005 school year this Friday at the Ohio Board of Regents Suite in Columbus. After election of new officers, our guests will be Deborah Gavlik, Associate Vice Chancellor for Finance and Government Relations at OBOR, and Jim McCollum, Executive Director of the Inter-University Council.

This concludes my report. I welcome questions and comments.

(Note:  A copy of the Senate Executive Committee's report to the President is contained in Attachment 1.)

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Charter & Bylaws Committee:    No report.

Elections & Balloting Committee:   Annette Burden reported. A copy of the committee's report is contained in Attachment 2 .  Ballots for the election of Senate Chair have been distributed. The vacancies in the Charter & Bylaws Committee are now filled.   And the College of Fine and Performing Arts is currently holding elections for their Senators.

Academic Standards Committee:   Tod Porter reported. Dr. Porter introduced and moved approval of the following proposal for admitting Youngstown Early College (YEC) students into a special admission, non-degree status at YSU:

"Students admitted to the Youngstown Early College (YEC) program will be granted special admission, non-degree status at Youngstown State University (YSU).

"When enrolling for YSU courses, YEC students must meet with an academic advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences and select coursework from a pre-approved list of courses. Courses not on the list can be taken by permit only. All acquisition of permits will be done through the advising staff of the College of Arts and Sciences. The permit will only be issued on the authority of the college offering the course.

"The list of courses YEC students can take without acquiring a permit will be approved by the YEC Executive Committee after seeking consultation from the YSU departments offering the courses."

Motion was seconded.

Janice Elias asked a question on the last sentence of the proposal: Shouldn't the department approve these courses, rather than just being consulted? Dr. Porter responded that presumably the consultation would carry some weight with the Executive Committee.  Dr. Atwater then stated that nothing relating to YEC would have an approval without a direct recommendation from the department. With no further discussion, a vote on the motion was taken. Motion passed.

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee:    Three courses were approved after the May 2003 but were never officially included in the minutes. These are included for informational purposes in Attachment 3 .

General Education Committee:  Bill Jenkins reported:   Thomas Patterson, author of this year's Freshman Reader's Dialog book, will be appearing on campus October 18 at noon in the Chestnut Room.

Unfinished Business:   None.

New business:   

Dr. Tony Atwater, University Provost, reported on the Administration's review of the Joseph Serowik appointment.

(Secretary's note: The following is not a verbatim transcript of the remarks but is a best attempt at listing the main points of Dr. Atwater's remarks.)

This issue relating to the hiring of faculty and maintaining the reputation of faculty is something we take seriously. I have full confidence in the faculty of YSU with respect to their professional integrity, quality of work, and support of our students. The President directed me in late August to review our hiring procedures. The instances gathering media attention lately are anomalies, but nonethless when the character of faculty is called into question, it is a very important issue that must be addressed. Therefore, I compiled and submitted a report to the President containing some recommendations which I will outline for you shortly.

There are not many things that rile me. But one thing that does is when there is any question raised about the character of our faculty. Whenever such an issue is raised, I want to make sure that we leave no doubt about the strength and character of the faculty.

When these concerns were raised, the President and I felt we needed to do something to ensure the continued integrity of hiring procedures. In carrying out this charge, I was not doing a comprehensive review of all aspects of hiring faculty. I concentrated on issues of professional competence and good character. Also, it was my intent from the beginning to appoint a faculty hiring methods committee to see how we could fine-tune the process. I could have tried for sweeping changes, but that would have been overkill. It was more appropriate to look at the issue and make measured recommendations for improvement.

The report has recommendations in several areas:

a. Strengthening reference checking procedures: There will need to be documented evidence of references and reference checks. For finalists, there should be at least 3 written recommendations. The report also recommends that we pursue contacting alternate references via phone.

b. There will be a background check for an individual who is recommended by the search committee as their primary choice.

c. A background disclosure statement is to be included before the candidate is hired. This would include a clause allowing termination if there was false disclosure or failure to disclose information that could be problematic for the University.

We feel these measures are appropriate but are not overkill.

The faculty hiring process gets into many areas. The Senate Executive Committee report also addresses calendar process issues (timing and length of search). That is a valid comment. The timing and length need to be such that the faculty can participate. Faculty searches should be launched in the Fall if possible. We will be looking at how we might be able to accommodate that. But there are always some exceptions – for example, a faculty vacancy occurring in mid-year. So there needs to be at least some flexibility with the timing as well. We will have a committee that will meet to discuss this and related issues regarding the timing of searches. We want to systematize the calendar, without making it so rigid as to be unable to adapt to special situations.

I want to reassure you that I have full confidence in the faculty. Thank you for being dedicated to our students. Some of the events in recent weeks have been challenging for us, but as I look back on it, there are actually some instructive things that result from it. YSU has been around for almost 100 years, but it appears that there has never been, until now, procedures regarding discovery and disclosure of potentially problematic information regarding applicants for employment. We will continue to look at hiring policies. Examination of those policies is something that doesn't happen once and then end.

Dr. Atwater then invited questions from the Senate.

Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez noted that faculty participate in searches and asked if YSU-OEA consulted was consulted during the review of hiring procedures.

Dr. Atwater replied that it is his understanding that YSU-OEA is being consulted regarding these proceudres.

Tom Maraffa, Special Assistant to the President, stated that the Administrative Advisory Council received a draft of the recommendations yesterday, and he noted that the President of YSU-OEA was the meeting as well and commented on them.

Dr. Palmer-Fernandez then stated that the Provost was quoted in the press as saying that there will be consequences and asked what the consequences were or would be?

Dr. Atwater responded that most of the recent hiring controviersies involved one college. He stated that he has had conversations with the Dean, has relayed his concerns about the accuracy of the search procedures and lack of communications in some cases. Further consequences are being discussed. There could be consideration of involving even stronger safeguards in the search process.