Faculty Senate Minutes October 28, 2004

SENATORS: Cindy Thomas, Tim Casey, Jill Cordova, Bill McCracken, Ellie Baldwin, Tom Acker, Larry Madsen, Tony Schountz, Chad Grabow, Tim Hatten, Phil Kavanagh, Rich Cowden

MINUTES SECRETARY: Jessica Cowden

GUESTS: Carol Futhey, Andrew Breckel, President Foster, Ken Davis, Myra Heinrich

I. ANNOUNCEMENTS

A report from Gayla Jo Slauson was passed out to the Senate concerning the October 21, 2004 Board of Trustees meeting.

Phil Kavanagh reported that, as requested, the MSC budget would be available to the Senate in about two weeks and the audit in late November or early December.

Rich Cowden passed out copies of a PowerPoint presentation explaining the College Opportunity Fund (COF) from a recent campus-wide meeting. The following four working groups were formed at that meeting:
1) A communications group in charge of publicizing COF information internally and externally.
2) An internal functions group to review how the COF policies will affect IT, Financial Aid, etc.
3) An external business functions group to report data to CCHE, etc.
4) A group to examine the issues concerning tuition, getting courses approved, etc.
One major concern is that COF goes into effect Fall 2005 and no information has effectively gotten out to the public or college and high school students as of yet. There are still unresolved issues being examined such as how COF will affect tuition, etc.

It was announced that John Sluder’s IT presentation has been postponed until the next Senate meeting.

II. MEETING MINUTES

The motion was made, seconded and passed to accept the Graduate Council minutes from September 14, 2004. (Thomas/Casey)

The motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the Faculty Senate minutes from October 7, 2004. (Cowden/Grabow)

The motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the Faculty Senate minutes from May 6, 2004. (Thomas/Grabow)

III. PERFORMANCE CONTRACT WITH CCHE

President Foster gave the Senate a report from the October 27, 2004 CCHE meeting where he presented the MSC proposed draft of the Performance Contract. He expressed satisfaction at having effectively communicated a few keys points to CCHE including that MSC does not have a faceless governing board and that the college is willing to negotiate an agreement, but is not satisfied with the original draft of the Performance Contract. Foster explained that the majority of the meeting’s discussion centered on defining the roles of CCHE vs. the Board of Trustees in overall college governing and decision making. Other discussion involved CCHE’s desire to establish a set of core courses common to all Colorado schools, which would be approved by GE25. There is a chance, however, that previously approved courses would not have to be re-submitted for approval. CCHE also discussed concerns about grade inflation and student retention.

IV. ACADEMIC POLICY ISSUES (Ken Davis)

Ken Davis submitted a recommendation vis à vis Academic Policies, proposed by Human Performance and Wellness, that eliminates the distinction between aerobic- and non-aerobic activity courses (previously “aerobic” and “lifetime”) as graduation requirements.
The motion was made, seconded and passed to accept the Human Performance and Wellness graduation requirement change to HPWA 100 (Health and Wellness) and two activity courses. (Casey/Cowden)

Davis then began a discussion as to which committee should be charged with addressing issues associated with offering 3 credit courses taught in a two-week format such as in the January session. The discussion went on to include issues concerning the delivery of courses on-line and off-campus. It was suggested that what should be addressed is how to develop a set of standards and methods for measuring the effectiveness of a variety of different course delivery formats.
The motion was made, seconded and passed to refer the issue of developing standards and measurements to Academic Policies for review of the delivery of courses in non-traditional methods. (Cowden/Casey)
A second motion was made, seconded and passed to refer issues of monitoring and assessing academic quality to Academic Policies. (Cowden/Acker)

V. GENERAL EDUCATION ASSESSMENT (Myra Heinrich)

Myra Heinrich reported that the General Education Assessment Committee has been working on a proposal using, among other things, examples from similar schools. One proposed change is to identify course objectives on general education course syllabi. A previous Faculty Senate motion had been made, but not approved, to this end during the May 6, 2004 meeting.
The motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the proposal that course objectives be identified in general education course syllabi. (Grabow/McCracken)

The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jessica Cowden
Minutes Secretary