I. Call to order by James Tidwell at 2:04 p.m. (Conference Room, 2540 Buzzard Hall)

A. Minutes of the Library Advisory Board--April 15, 2000.

B. Minutes of the Council on Academic Affairs--Sept. 21, 2000.

Agenda included changes to the undergraduate waiver regulation. Tidwell asked CAA to co-sponsor the Fall Faculty Forum. CAA has formed a sub-committee on web-based technology course guidelines.

C. Agenda for the Sept. 21, 2000 CAA meeting.

Report of Sub-committee on General Education submitted.

D. E-mail from Professor Frank McCormick concerning Fall Phi Beta Kappa Lecture scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000, 7:30 p.m., Coleman Auditorium

E. Minutes of the Committee for the Assessment of Student Learning (CASL)--Sept. 12, 2000.

F. Minutes of COEPS Curriculum Committee--Sept. 11, 2000

G. Email from Dean Hohengarten concerning a taskforce to look at the electronic notebook grade book concept--Sept. 25, 2000.

H. Toosi mentions that several faculty had expressed problems with service from ITS in repairing and installing new computers.

I. Toosi announced that faculty in the College of Business and Applied Sciences have submitted a proposal to separate into the College of Business and the College of Applied Science, and have requested delay on a new Dean search until the issue is determined.

A. Committee Reports

1. Executive Committee: Free Speech issue: Chair Tidwell contacted the University Counsel, who said the issue was in his office waiting for completion of the present litigation against the University.

Electronic Grade book: Dean Hohengarten has requested from Chair Tidwell and Dana Ringuette, Chair, Council of Chairs, to provide a volunteer for a Taskforce on the use of Electronic Grade book. He would like to provide the means for electronic submission of instructor grades at the end of the term, and requests a faculty volunteer to work with Sue Harvey on a small task force to explore the feasibility to send grades electronically to Registration at the end of the term. Fewell: Please make certain they know what they are requesting. Fraker volunteered to go to the initial meeting.

Motion (Fischer/Fewell) to appoint Senator Fraker to the Taskforce on the Electronic Grade book. Yes: Fewell, Fischer, Fraker, Gruber, Tidwell, Toosi, Young, Zahlan, Addison, Benedict, Best, Canivez, Dilworth, Eberly. Passed.

Tidwell learned today from Jill Nilsen that Senator Rauschenberger would be at EIU on Wednesday, October 25, 2000. Tidwell has requested an open meeting with the faculty since the Senate will not be on campus during the day Senate meets.

ITS computer repair and installation: Tidwell attended the Instructional Support Specialists committee last week. Both Mr. Lewis and Mr. Witsman were there. ITS has real problems working to have enough staff to do installations. They are bringing in some outside people under contract to do installations that take up to 3-4 hours to do a single installation. Toosi: There is a problem since only ITS people can contact Gateway. We have five computers of 20 in our area that are broken. It is a system problem that only ITS can contact Gateway. Tidwell said Witsman reported ITS is already out of money, so any additional hires are difficult. Toosi: The sheer number of computers on campus demands that more technicians be hired. The system is backwards. Benedict: What can Faculty Senate do to speed computer installation? We lose a significant amount of productivity when a computer is down for even a week. We can't allow this. Tidwell: ITS is making a good faith effort. Fischer: ITS staff training appears haphazard to install computers. Acting VPAA Wall: I heard that you could have Gateway pre-load software. If it is done at the factory it might save time. Perhaps there is a cost issue. She encouraged faculty to send e-mail to Bill Witsman when problems arise. He needs to know. Benedict: Isn't it a financial issue? We don't have the personnel to do what we need to do. This is a productivity issue, this in not a technology issue. Tidwell: Senate EC will meet with VP Wall to ponder the issue. Fewell: The other issue is that we could get ITS people to repair laser printers, now we cannot do so. Fewell would have purchased a maintenance agreement if ITS had said so earlier. Toosi: We have two resident copier repairpersons, why not two Gateway repairpersons on campus?

Tidwell: A meeting with President Surles and VPAA Wall has not yet been scheduled through Judy Gorrell, the President’s Secretary.

2 Elections: Fischer has sent Dean Ivarie an e-mail to appoint a COBAS faculty person to UPC. Ron Wohlstein, Chair of CAA, has reported that Godson Obia has had to resign. Fern Kory is the next person in line, and Fischer has e-mailed her.

3. Nominations: Canivez: Three committees are in need: Apportionment Board has vacancies, but faculty who have volunteered to serve on committees have a time conflict since the Board meets on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. On the Enrollment Management Committee, Barbara Kemmerer has agreed to replace Valencia Browning. Canivez/Fischer moved that Senate appoint Barbara Kemmerer to represent COBAS for the remainder of Browning’s term. Tidwell: Senate needs to check to determine if there was an alternate from the 1998 elections first, so Fischer will do so. The vote was deferred.

Addison questioned whether a replacement on the UPC would follow the Faculty Senate By-Laws. Tidwell read the regulations about the 75% of votes of the next higher candidate for a person to replace a resigned elected official. Zahlan asked that the CAA bylaws also checked for consistency with the Senate By-Laws.

Canivez: The Library Advisory Board had four alternates for three vacant positions, and now has a vacancy for three alternates. We are asked to provide them. Canivez has one person who will serve: John Weber. He will also ask Allan Grant. The Library Advisory Board meets Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m. He is seeking people from the Colleges of Science, Business, and Education who would be interested in being an alternate this year, then being a regular member the next two years.

4. Student-Faculty Relations: No report

5. Faculty-Staff Relations: Young has been in e-mail contact with Doug Sloat, Staff Senate Chairperson, and hopes to meet with him shortly.

6. Enrollment Management Committee: Best: The Enrollment Management Committee has been dealing with transfers over the past year. He passed out two pages from the current admissions policy and data from Institutional Planning and Studies on transfer admissions. Eastern's transfer friendliness has been questioned on the one hand, and on the other, student quality from the faculty. How would one define quality? See the requirements for beginning students: p. 41. EIU has a sliding ACT/HS Rank process for new, first-time students. The next page defines native students, and then transfers students. If a transfer student has less than 30 semester hours of transfer, they must meet freshman requirements. If they have 30 hours and a 2.00 GPA or higher, they can transfer. What percentage of transfer students are admitted who would not have been admitted as freshman? In Abell's data from fall, 1999, 541 people transferred in with a 2.00 GPA or higher, and 271 reported an ACT score. Note the number with less than 18 in this distribution (49). About 20 percent of these people would not have been admissible as freshmen. Tidwell: There are three other ways to get in the University, via the Admissions Appeals Committee, the Gateway Program, and Presidential Admissions (not to be more than 1 percent of the total Freshman enrollment). Eberly objected to Best's arguments on the basis of measurement theory and the limited time frame in which ACT scores should be used to predict student performance.

Addison: CEEB and GRE scores show a strong relationship. If students don't do well on the ACT or SAT, then they are unlikely to do well in Psychology. After teaching an undergraduate course in statistics for 14 years, I see students who just can't get basic math and arithmetic. While they may only be 5 % of my students, when I go to the student records, they are invariably transfer students. I don’t have access to their ACT scores, but inevitably they are transfer students. Zahlan: There is a critical mass of those students, but we can't write them off. Also, student evaluations are couched in terms of customer satisfaction at EIU. Canivez: Here is a starting point, what is the relation of people in the lower quartile to the performance of other students? If we see a great disparity, then our admissions criteria should be re-evaluated. Best: I want to emphasize that this discussion is on people who would not otherwise have been admissible as new, first-time students. This is not about "regular" transfer students, who make a wonderful contribution to this institution. Toosi: Student evaluation of faculty is not the only issue in retention of faculty; it is not a strong factor at all. There are many other performance criteria.

VPAA Wall: On the other end, 6% of Honors Students are transfer students. Wall was also not sure of how much weight to place on the ACT when the student is a year to two older than when the ACT was taken. She expressed surprise the Enrollment Management Committee is not taking a look at the good students who are leaving? Best: There is a concern about the loss of quality students and that needs to be addressed. Although policy cannot be changed, we don't want to accept this either. We want to identify individuals who were otherwise not admissible, and put them through a program which provides them special attention. We should have a programmatic approach to deal with these kinds of concerns. Fraker: What you are describing now is a retention issue. How do we create a retention model that meets their needs? There is a critical mass idea here at work. Eberly: We may not have all of the pedagogical tools to work with these students. Best: I think all around this table are master teachers, and the problem is with the unprepared students. Fewell: When we use the ACT to admit, what is the age of the test when it was taken? If we make decisions, we need to take that into consideration. Canivez: What is the impact of students who may not have the skills to succeed in particular courses, who get into a course, get a "D" or "F", then retake the course from up to three different people? These people take up seats multiple times, and that restricts other students from seats who might proceed in a more timely fashion. There are limited resources in an institution. Zahlan: There appears to be an absence of any real assessment for transfer students. Could we learn how to assess transfer students with the same rough validity that we assess freshmen students? Fraker: Is the 49 of whom we have an ACT a critical mass of students? Best: Many students in psychology are transfers. Fischer: There is an assessment; two years of college work. Look at the professor and what they want to teach in a class. The job of a professor is not to look at retention. That almost comes to babysitting in my mind. Fraker: As a professor worried about quality, perhaps, but as an institution, what should students be able to do for help? Zahlan: Which junior colleges send these students? Tidwell: Let’s not go there. Addison: I am still concerned about people who may not have the ability. Best will work to keep Senate on board with these issues. There is a risk the faculty will not support enrollment management if there are not some changes.

7. Tuition Review and Fees committee: Toosi could not attend last night’s meeting, but met with the Chair prior to the meeting. The committee passed three increases, a $15 textbook rental increase, $3.10 for the shuttle bus, and a 3.2 percent fees increase. The Textbook Rental System has been an issue for many years. What is the influence of the textbook rental system on quality of education? How efficient is it running? Of five we studied last year, several were running more efficiently than EIU. What are the reasons for that? Tidwell: What is the textbook rental fee? Student Senator Kelly: Full time students pay $93.00. Toosi: Student Senate and Faculty Senate should consider how we are going to deal with Textbook Rental in the coming years. Tidwell: Perhaps this is also a part of our Faculty Forum, since Textbook Rental is a part of an older system. Toosi: Please place Textbook Rental as an agenda item for the Senate.

Fischer: What are reasons that we increase fees by 3.2% every year, and not levy a higher increase? Tidwell: IBHE penalized our appropriation when we did so. Fischer: That does not appear to happen at other institutions. Kelly: The discussion among students is that if you could give us one semester where we don't see fee increases, you could find support for a bigger tuition increase. It seems as though students have a say in where their fee money goes, and we are not penalized by IBHE. Fischer: But there is no way to ever catch up. I would be better off if I could pass a fee increase rather than a tuition increase. I know the State is responsible but we have to figure out how to raise that base. Toosi: Some of the fees are misleading to begin with. The bus started with $2, but increased $3.10 to $5.10. Why this a year later? Tidwell: The policy is to raise fees in small increments year by year. One of the trustees asked about this. Kelly invited Faculty Senators to visit Student Senate when Student Senate passes their fees. Fischer: Is it that students see where the fees go to, and they don't see what their tuition goes to? Benedict: We need to convince students that a tuition increase is needed, and we have to do it in Student Senate. Tidwell: We need to appreciate the Springfield politics of raising tuition. Kelly: That is the reason that the Tuition and Fees Review Committee is being explored by the IBHE. Students have some control over what they pay for. If we let the students know about tuition in Student Senate, VP Hencken does a fabulous job of working with the Senate, and I am sure they would support an increase. Tidwell: When tuition was changed to per credit hour, the students voted that any increase would go to infrastructure.

7. Other Committees: VPAA search committee: Best: The VPAA Search Committee will meet the first time on Friday morning. Tidwell: In a timeline discussion, the Council of Chairs’ comments were almost exactly the same as the Senate's. We were heard in that area.

B. FY2002 Budget Request: Tidwell now has the entire FY2002 budget request and will postpone discussion until next week

C. Fall Forum: Tidwell: We need to nail down specifics in the next week or so. He went to the Instructional Support Specialists, and they gave him some ideas. We have about a month to promote the forum. Benedict: CASL also discussed the Forum and supported the concepts.

D. Other Old Business: Tidwell will investigate the politics of raising tuition in Springfield.