Minutes of October 3, 2002 Meeting
MSC Faculty Senate

SENATORS: Tom Acker, Sherri Arosteguy, Jim Buckley, Jill Cordova (for Steve Murray), Michael Gizzi, Phil Kavanagh, John Sluder, Cindy Thomas, Russ Walker, Carrie McVean Waring.

GUESTS: Morris Brown, Linda Drexel, Gary Looft, Sarah Swedberg, Hasson Tavossi.

Carrie McVean Waring (Senate Vice President) opened the meeting at 3:30.

I. Announcements

Tom Acker distributed a summary of the September 20 meeting of the Colorado Faculty Advisory Commission (CFAC) (attached). In particular, he reported that CCHE Director Tim Foster sees vouchers as a way for higher education to deal with the current budget problems. It appears that the details of the voucher concept have not yet been worked out.

Mike Gizzi passed on information from Doug O'Roark, who was attending the CCHE meeting in Alamosa. The CCHE approved the base funding proposal described by Tim Foster during his discussion with Mesa faculty and staff last week. The proposal must now be approved by the legislature. See http://www.state.co.us/cche/agenda/agenda02/oct02/indexoct.pdf for details.

Mike also reported that the State Colleges' Faculty Development Conference, held at Mesa on September 27-28, had received positive reviews. However, he was dismayed and embarrassed by the number of Mesa faculty who signed up for the conference but did not attend.

II. Meeting Minutes

A motion was made both to receive and approve the Graduate Council minutes of September 10, 2002 (Gizzi/Buckley). The motion passed.

A motion was made to receive the Curriculum Committee minutes of August 22, 2002 (Kavanagh/Walker). The motion passed.

A motion was made to approve the Faculty Senate minutes of September 19, 2002 (Kavanagh/Thomas). The motion passed.

III. Changes to the Curriculum Approval Process

Gary Looft (Chair, Curriculum Committee) described a proposal for changes to the curriculum approval process (attached). The main feature of the proposal is that non-substantive curriculum actions would be dealt with by a small school-level curriculum committee, then forwarded on to the full committee as part of a consent agenda. Any item could be pulled from the consent agenda for detailed consideration by the full committee at the request of any member of the full committee. This proposal was framed by an ad hoc committee of recent Curriculum Committee chairs along with other interested parties, then further developed by the Curriculum Committee itself.

IV. Anti-discrimination Policy and Affirmative Action Grievance Process

Phil Kavanagh (Chair, Senate Ad Hoc Committee) updated the Senate on the status of the proposed new Affirmative Action Grievance Process (to be inserted in the MSC Handbook as Section 20.8) and Anti-discrimination Policy (to be inserted in the MSC Handbook as Section 21). There have been a few revisions to the process and policy since they were first distributed to the Senate in August. In particular, prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation has been added to the anti-discrimination policy.

Phil asked the Senate to receive these two handbook sections today for discussion and possible approval at the next Senate meeting. Following Senate approval, these sections will be presented to the entire campus and two meetings will be held to hear comments and concerns. The approval of these sections is subject to a campus-wide vote.

Phil noted that the affirmative action grievance process was drafted here at Mesa, then revised by the attorney general, then revised to correct some errors by Mary Zimmerer, the MSC AA/EEO officer.

A motion was made to receive these two handbook sections (Sluder/Thomas). The motion passed.

V. Plus/Minus Option for Course Grades

Mike Gizzi raised the idea of the Senate recommending the adoption of a plus/minus option for course letter grades.

Mike noted that grade inflation was discussed at the Faculty Development Conference. Faculty from Adams State College reported that 32% of the grades at their college were A's. Here at Mesa, 30-35% of the students are on the Dean's or President's Lists. The Senate discussed the possible effect of plus/minus grading on grade inflation.

Mike will present a more detailed proposal at a future Senate meeting.

A motion was made at 4:20 to adjourn. The motion passed.