SENATORS: Tom Acker, Sheri Arosteguy, Barbara Borst, Jim Buckley, Michael Gizzi, Phil Kavanagh, Steve Murray, Doug O’Roark, John Sluder, Cindy Thomas, Russ Walker, Carrie McVean Waring, Mary Zimmerer.

GUESTS: Ed Bonan-Hamada, Jill Cordova, Matt Dahl, Sam Gingerich, Gary Looft, John Rogers.

The meeting was convened at 3:30 by Senate President Doug O'Roark.

I. Announcements

Doug reported on the activities of the transition team that is guiding the draft legislation for a new governing board. The team met with the presidents of the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and University of Northern Colorado. None expressed any significant interest in being associated with Mesa.

The new Anti-Discrimination Policy and Affirmative Action Grievance Process passed a campus-wide vote of the faculty by roughly a margin of 4 to 1, with 75 faculty voting. A recommendation was made that future campus wide votes be conducted in a way that doesn't require UTEC and Montrose faculty to come to the main campus to vote.

II. Meeting minutes

A motion was made to approve the October 8 Graduate Council minutes (Zimmerer/Thomas). The motion passed.

A motion was made to receive the October 22 Graduate Council minutes (Walker/Sluder). The motion passed.

A motion was made to approve the September 26 Curriculum Committee minutes (Gizzi/ Zimmerer). The motion passed. Some members of the Senate disagreed with the process by which the revisions to the Sport and Fitness Management concentration (included at the September 26 meeting) were revised and approved. Discussion also included concerns about whether the number of new courses qualified the concentration as new instead of revised, whether the sociology program was in agreement with the Sport and Society course, and whether the number of credit hours associated with courses in the major exceeded the limit.

A motion was made to receive the October 24 Curriculum Committee minutes (Kavanagh/Gizzi). The motion passed.

A motion was made to approve the November 7 Faculty Senate minutes, as amended (Gizzi/Thomas). The motion passed.

III. New Graduation Process

Pat Hampton (Registrar) distributed handouts and discussed the new procedure by which students will be approved for graduation. The old procedure provided an opportunity for students to change the information on their program sheets in between obtaining signatures and submitting the sheet to Records. The new process precludes this opportunity and improves our ability to track courses taken by students in their final two semesters. The department chairs gave their unanimous approval to changing the procedure at this time. Pat apologized for not communicating the change more effectively.

IV. Pilot Course in the Advanced Learning Center

Mike Gizzi distributed a handout describing the Advanced Learning Center and a proposed pilot course. The Center is a collaborative effort between Mesa State College and School District 51 that intends to offer interdisciplinary, technologically-oriented courses for both high school and college students taught using a constructivist approach. A 6-credit hour pilot course SOCI 296 "Topics: The Science of Complex Systems" is scheduled for the Spring 03 and Fall 03 semesters. Mike and the other course developers believe that the course fits the criteria for general education. They requested that the Senate approve the use of this pilot course by Mesa students for general education credit¾3 credit hours in the Applied Studies category and 3 credit hours in the Social Science category. Considerable discussion ensued about the process by which this request was made. A complication factor was the late arrival of funding to implement the course, which delayed the decision to offer the course and the question of getting approval for general education.

A motion was made to approve the use of SOCI 296 "Topics: The Science of Complex Systems" (6 credit hours) by MSC-registered students who take the course in the Spring 2003 or Fall 2003 semesters (Gizzi/Sluder). The motion passed with one opposed.

V. Distinguished Faculty Awards

Discussion of changes to the Distinguished Faculty Awards was postponed.

A motion to adjourn was made at 4:40 (Kavanagh/Thomas). The motion passed.