Academic Senate Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio  44555

Note:  The next meeting of the Academic Senate is scheduled for Wednesday, October 6, 2004, at 4:00 p.m. Please submit agenda items and cover sheets for the October Senate meeting to Bob Hogue by noon on Monday, September 27, 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 4:09 p.m.

Nominations for Senate Chair and Charter & Bylaws:

Dr, Jane Reid, Elections & Balloting, handled nominations: Tom Shipka and Daryl Mincey were nominated for Chair.  Nominations for Charter & Bylaws (three slots) were then accepted: Fred Viehe, Al Bright, Louise Pavia were nominated.  Rick Shale moved to close nominations; the motion was seconded. Nominations were closed.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting:

Minutes of the May 5, 2004, meeting were approved as posted.  To view the May minutes, go to <http://www.www.ysu.edu/acad-senate/minmay04.htm>. 

Remarks by Dr. David C. Sweet, University President:

YSU's Enrollment is 13,102 as of this morning. This reflects 250 additional students (1.67%) over last year. Toledo is down about 5%. Bowling Green is up, so there is no real statewide trend yet on enrollments. Our FTE count is above our budgeted level -- 276 over our target. Incoming students are up 4.7%. Transfers are up 13.7%. Incoming graduate students are up 6%.  The Bitonte College of Health and Human Services has enrolled 3132 majors, making it the largest college on campus for first time in history.

One factor assisting increased enrollment is the presence of new degree initiatives. The new Master's of Social Work is now enrolling students. There are 55 students in the Electric Utility program. Conditional university admission being explored. We need to work with area secondary schools to be sure students are better prepared when they enter YSU. We are looking at ways to increase scholarship funds for students.

We have had ongoing conversations with Slippery Rock University on possible tuition reciprocity. Pennsylvania has been slow to approve such agreements in the past. Perhaps we can have better luck with a smaller, more targeted program like one related to Slippery Rock. We are also hoping to increase the enrollment of Columbiana County residents, since that county has one of the lowest percentages of college degrees among the adult population

Items on the University Master Plan are proceeding: The Wellness Center is under construction; parking and the Wick-Pollock Inn are other items to be examined this year in the Master Plan.  The Technology Master Plan is also moving forward.  The plan is for the replacement of Administrative computer software over next three years with STC Banner software.

A final note: We are a part of the early campaign for United Way. Please get behind the United Way and help demonstrate our commitment to the community.

Remarks by Dr. Tony Atwater, University Provost:

The good news on our enrollment is an outcome of the caliber of faculty and student support at YSU.  Thanks to the faculty for their support of our students and programs last year. The faculty is the engine that drives the University.

A. Update on Two University Initiatives for Student Academic Enrichment:

(i) Civic Engagement Education Initiative: The idea is to help our students in a programmatic way to develop leadership skills and promote civic engagement. An advisory group being led by Paul Kobulnicky is looking at this. What is the message of this program? It is important to our mission as an urban University not only to develop strong scholars but also strong citizens. This initiative seeks to link scholarship, leadership, and outreach.

(ii) Undergraduate Research Initiative: We want to help our students become more interested in and involved in undergraduate research. Dr. Jeffrey Dick is leading this effort. Last year we launched a small grant program to link students with faculty doing research. We hope to get more funds this year. We have also strengthened Quest; the focus now is almost entirely undergraduate research. Another piece of this effort relates to a regional symposium as part of Northeast Ohio/ Western Pennsylvania consortium.

B. Freshman Readers Dialogue for Academic Year 2004-05: This is not only for Freshman. The hope is to initiate university-wide discussions.

(i) Book: The Vanishing Voter, by Thomas Patterson.

(ii) Topic: Presidential Politics and Voter Participation

(iii) A symposium will be held October 18 at noon, in the Chestnut Room. The author of the book will be a guest.

(iv) A faculty colloquium will also be set up, including the promoting of voter registration.

(v) There will be an essay contest for Freshman and for upper-division students.

 

C: New Degree Program Proposals awaiting OBOR approval:

(i) Bachelor of General Studies

(ii) Master of Computing and Information Systems

(iii) Master of Arts in American Studies

(iv) Master of Arts in Financial Economics

(v) Northeast Ohio Consortium MFA in Creative Writing.

We hope all of these will be approved this year.

D. YSU Early College High School and YSU Faculty Engagement:

We now have over 70 ninth-graders in the program. The school is housed in Fedor Hall. The goal is to have these students gain experience in college courses and be more ready for university admission. There is a significant role here for faculty involvement and support. There will be an invitation this year for faculty involvement.

E: Topics for Academic Senate Input and Involvement for AY 2004-05:

Input will be sought on these items:

(i) Academic Credit for Work Experience: Some of this is already being done. How can this be done university-wide? How can we do this in such a way as to preserve academic integrity?

(ii) Conditional Admission Framework for Under-prepared Students: How can we better serve under-prepared students? Can a conditional Admission system help these students?

(iii) Framework for expansion of First-Year Experience Instruction: Some colleges have this, some don't. Is there a need for a more comprehensive approach to this?

(iv) Preliminary planning for North Central Accreditation Site Visit during academic year 2007-2008: It is a massive undertaking. Dr. Bege Bowers, Assistant Provost for Academic Planning, will begin developing the framework during this academic year.

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

Tom Shipka, Chair of the Senate, reported:

Welcome to all of you and thank you for accepting the responsibility to serve as a Senator. A special welcome to all those serving in the Senate for the first time. May I ask all new Senators to please raise your hand. Thank you.

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

Speaking of the Senate Executive Committee, the members this year are Robert Bolla (Dean of Arts & Sciences), Kenneth Miller (Education), Jane Reid (Williamson College of Business Administration), David Kurtanich (Engineering & Technology), Dennis Morawski (Health and Human Services), Sunil Ahuja (Arts & Sciences), Dennis Henneman (Fine and Performing Arts), Justin Truitt (Student), and myself.

Special thanks to our new Student Government leadership, President Angela Mavrikis, and Vice Presidents J. T. Holt and Justin Truitt, for finalizing student appointments to the Senate and Senate committees so efficiently at the start of the school year.

Thanks, too, to Chet Cooper, Senate Vice President, Bill Jenkins, Senate Parliamentarian, and Bob Hogue, Senate Secretary, for their continuing work on behalf of us all, and to Chet Cooper, Jim Morrison, and Charles Singler, who have helped me cover the myriad campus committees during the past year which a Senate chair inherits. Thanks also to the dozens of Senators and Senate committee members who carried out the important work of the Senate as provided in our Charter and Bylaws during the past year. The workload in some of these committees this past year, particularly Academic Programs, Curriculum, Elections and Balloting, Professional Conduct, and General Education, was significant and time consuming.

A word about domestic partner benefits. The Ohio Faculty Council and the YSU Academic Senate have endorsed domestic partner benefits by resolution in recent years for faculty and staff in the public universities in Ohio. Recently Ohio University, Miami University, and The Ohio State University extended such benefits to faculty and staff. This action by these three universities resulted in the automatic extension of these benefits at Cleveland State University which has a “me-too” clause in its collective bargaining agreement with the faculty. When this happened, I wrote to President Sweet and Board of Trustees Chair Mr. Larry Esterly reminding them of the OFC and YSU Senate resolutions and encouraging them to take the initiative on domestic partner benefits. I am told that the administration and the Board of Trustees have taken this matter under advisement.

In this connection, petitions have been submitted to the Ohio Secretary of State for an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to appear on the November 2 ballot making
same-sex marriages and civil unions illegal in Ohio. A defense of marriage law – House Bill 272 - was passed last year in Ohio but the groups circulating the petitions, including the Citizens for Community Values, the Christian Coalition of Ohio, and the Ohio Campaign to Protect Marriage, apparently believe that a constitutional amendment is less susceptible than a law to what they view as mischief by the courts. I mention this because the actual wording of the amendment may imperil domestic partner benefits. The wording is this:

Only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this state and its political subdivisions . This state and its political subdivision shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance or effect of marriage.

Despite the fact that two prominent Republicans, Governor Bob Taft and state Representative Bill Seitz of Cincinnati, sponsor of House Bill 272, have questioned the need for the amendment, it will almost certainly be on the ballot and polls conducted by The Columbus Dispatch show strong support for passage across the state. Governor Taft and Representative Seitz have issued statements saying that House Bill 272 does not prohibit domestic partner benefits. If the constitutional amendment passes, there will predictably be court challenges if an effort is made to terminate existing domestic partner benefits in the public or private sector, or to impede public or private employers from implementing such benefits.

Domestic partner benefits are common in the private sector. More than 40% of Fortune Five Hundred and more than 60% of Fortune One Hundred companies offer them. They are also increasingly common in universities as well. About 225 universities offer them, including more than a dozen with church affiliations such as SMU.

Moving along, one unfinished piece of business is a review by a Senate ad hoc committee on the waiver of search policy adopted by the Board of Trustees. When this was adopted, the Senate passed a resolution calling for creation of an ad hoc committee to review the policy and report its findings and recommendations to the Senate. I was able to turn up only one person willing to serve on that committee many months ago. Now I am able to report that three persons have agreed to constitute this ad hoc committee and they will begin their work immediately. They are Sandy Stephen, Chet Cooper, and Charles Singler. I ask Chet Cooper to convene the first meeting of the committee.

Speaking of searches, two additional comments. Firstly, a search in which I participated as Senate chair concluded recently with the appointment of Attorney Holly Jacobs as YSU’s new General Counsel. Holly was chosen from a very impressive pool of more than eighty applicants. She is a 1988 magna cum laude graduate of YSU with a psychology major and an economics minor. After law school at The Ohio State University she pursued private practice as a trial attorney for several years and then served in ever more responsible positions in the Attorney’s General’s office and the Ohio Department of Insurance over the past decade. Most recently she was Chief of the Office of Legal Services at ODI. Attorney Jacobs is in the audience today. Holly, please stand.

Secondly, in the wake of publicity about a recent appointment in the Department of Criminal Justice, as Senate chair I requested President Sweet to order an administrative inquiry into that appointment, and that review is underway.

Next, the Professional Conduct Committee adjudicated its first case in late summer. You will hear a report from that committee later today. In my view it is important that the administration and the faculty union officially sanction this Committee jointly through a Memorandum of Understanding or in the collective bargaining agreement so that persons found guilty of professional misconduct cannot file a grievance claiming that the Professional Conduct Committee has no standing under the Agreement as was done in the case this summer.

The Senate committees are fully staffed now with a few exceptions. The roster of all Senate committees and the roster of the Senate are available on the Senate web site maintained by Secretary Bob Hogue. To reach these rosters, go to the YSU web page, click on Academic Programs, then click on the Academic Senate. I have written to the member of every Senate committee whose last name is first in the alphabet asking that person to convene the committee for election of a chair and that process is continuing. As these elections are conducted, I ask the new chairs to notify Bob Hogue of their election so that we will have accurate records.

As to the agenda for committees this year, I expect another busy year for programs and curriculum, and I’m told that the Honors Program will be submitting several changes to the Honors Committee and Academic Standards Committee. I also expect proposals for changes in admissions policies and changes in the Charter and Bylaws, among others.

As for the Ohio Faculty Council, it will hold its first meeting of the school year at the Ohio Board of Regents on Friday, October 8. The business will include election of officers, a report by Deborah Gavlik, OBOR’s Associate Vice Chancellor and legislative liaison, and a report by Attorney Jim McCollum, Executive Director of the Inter University Council.

I have heard perhaps eight of these periodic briefings to the OFC by legislative specialists during my four years on the OFC. The news has gone from bad to worse. The percentage of state support of higher education continues to slide year after year. There is no prospect of relief in sight. Recently I asked a prominent Ohio Republican what he thought would be necessary to turn around the higher education funding picture in Ohio. He said 1) massive improvement in the economy which will generate badly needed revenue, and 2) reinvention of the two-party system in Ohio.

I hope and expect to turn over my duties as chair of the OFC for the past two years to another Council member. I will continue as a member of the OFC if I am reelected Senate chair. The OFC is very grateful to two individuals at YSU - Bob Hogue from CSIS and James Sacco, Research Assistant in the YSU Center for Islamic Studies - for creating and maintaining the OFC web site. I will ask these two individuals to continue their service to the OFC if that is the wish of the new OFC officers. You can reach the OFC web site from the YSU Senate web site.

Today we need to elect a YSU delegate to the OFC for a two-year term to join the YSU Senate Chair as our second delegate. You elected Paul Sracic from Political Science last year to substitute for Daryl Mincey in the second year of Daryl’s term when Daryl was on sabbatical. Paul did a very fine job. His knowledge of the political landscape in Ohio has been a great asset to the OFC. He is willing to continue in the OFC if that is your wish.

I will save further comments about the OFC for my next report to you.

It has been a privilege to serve as chair of the Senate and I thank continuing Senators for your help and support. In the few cases where there have been disagreements, they were always about issues and never personal. I will be happy to answer any questions or respond to any comments.

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Charter & Bylaws Committee:    No report.

Elections & Balloting Committee:  No report.

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee:    The list of course proposals that have been approved by the committee and have passed the objection period since the May Senate meeting is contained in Attachment 2.

General Education Committee: Bill Jenkins reported: One of the major works this year will be on assessment. Several workshops were held today; others will be held in the future. The General Education Committee will be glad to meet with individual departments. Also, it is not too late to hold additional events related to the Freshman Readers Dialogue.

Professional Conduct Committee: Committee chair Joseph Edwards reported. (see Attachment 3.)

Unfinished Business:   None.

New business:   

Nominations were received for the second Ohio Faculty Council delegate from YSU.  Dr. Paul Sracic was nominated.  After no other nominations were received, nominations were closed. Dr. Sracic was elected by acclamation.