Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
March 1, 2007

Senators: Barbara Borst, Steve Werman, Judy Goodhart, Reenie Neal, Doug O'Roark, Jane Arledge, Bill Tiernan, Tim Casey, Tim Hatten, Ellie Baldwin, Bill McCracken

Guests: Joe Richards, Cathy Barkley, Diane Dauven

I. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Curriculum Committee minutes from January 25, 2007. (Tiernan/Baldwin)

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Faculty Senate minutes from December 7, 2007. (Casey/Arledge)

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Faculty Senate minutes from February 1, 2007. (Baldwin/Tiernan)

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Faculty Senate minutes from February 15, 2007 as amended. (Casey/Tiernan)
Discussion: Casey had two corrections: change from "Salary and Benefits" to "Tenure and Promotion" on page two and it was Casey rather than McCracken who met with the representatives from the Nursing department.

II. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT (Casey)

" The Tenure and Promotion Committee has requested that the written comments, which are detached from a tenure candidate's file under the current system, now be included anonymously along with the departmental vote. This would assist them in their assessment of the candidate, especially if they don't personally know the individual.

" EAS is drafting a grievance policy for students who don't feel that their needs have been adequately met. They are looking into the possibility of forming an interim faculty committee to participate in the process. Arledge agreed that it would be a good idea to involve the faculty. The question was raised as to the possibility of using an existing committee rather than forming a new one.

" Metro State has a faculty group called BASE (Board of Academic Standards Exceptions) who reviews students' challenges to various catalogue requirements and policies and makes recommendations to the Administration. The suggestion was made that a similar group be formed at Mesa or that an existing committee expand their duties to include the aforementioned tasks.

" There was an update on the recent Board of Trustees meeting. Several faculty members were approved for transitional retirements and sabbaticals.

" The Year of the Classroom proposal was sent forward. The two main budgeting foci will be faculty development funding and technological upgrades for the classrooms.

III. STANDING COMMITTEE UPDATE (Tiernan)

The Faculty Development Committee is inactive. Casey reported that he had recently spoken with Sarah Swedberg, who was the last committee chair and she agreed that the overall sentiment of the committee members was that, once the faculty development funding was removed, they felt that the committee was no longer vital or necessary.

Committee memberships are now updated and current on the website. Tiernan is in the process of trying to determine when the members' terms expire.

IV. NOMINATIONS FOR FACULTY TRUSTEE

An e-mail will be sent out soliciting nominations for the position of faculty trustee. The trustee must be a tenured faculty member. It is a two-year term.

V. PLUS OR MINUS GRADING POLICY CHANGE

Hatten reported that a member of the Faculty Senate at Metro State had recently contacted him about a proposal that they will be voting on that would change the grading policy to include pluses and minuses. Holly Teal told Hatten that the issue has previously been discussed, but not acted upon at MSC.

VI. STANDING COMMITTEE POLICY MANUAL (Casey)

Work on the policy manual is ongoing. Casey is still in the process of pulling together massive amounts of information from a variety of resources.

VII. NEW BUSINESS

Arledge reported that she had discovered minutes reflecting the fact that Jill Cordova had submitted a Kinesiology electives proposal to the Curriculum Committee in 2000. It appears that the issue was eventually dropped.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:34 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Cowden
Minutes Secretary