FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
FOR FEBRUARY 1, 2000
(Vol. xxix, No. 18)

The Faculty Senate agenda is posted weekly on the Web, at 2504 Buzzard, and at 315K Coleman.

  1. Call to order by Bonnie Irwin at 2:07 p.m. (2504 Buzzard Building)

    2. Present: J. Allison, R. Benedict, J. Best, G. Canivez, J. Coons, C. Eberly, B. Fischer, G. Foster, B. Irwin, G. Lockart, N. Marlow, J. Tidwell, M. Toosi, B. Young, G. Kelly. Excused: P. Fewell, K. Bielenberg. Guests: T. Abebe, M. Beurskins, L. Cooper, E. Davidson, L. Drake, J. Moore.

  2. Approval of the minutes of January 25, 2000

    3. Motion (Benedict/Lockart) to approve the minutes of January 25, 2000.

    Corrections: Under IV.B. the last bullet, add: "the situation" to the end.

    Yes: Benedict, Best, Canivez, Coons, Eberly, Fischer, Foster, Irwin, Lockart, Marlow, Tidwell, Toosi. Abstain: Allison.

  3. Communications
    1. Minutes of the Library Advisory Board meeting, 10 November 1999

      2. Among other business, ideas for how the library might participate in the faculty development initiatives discussed at the forum: use of campus conference room for annual speakers forum, display areas for student research, use of technology training facility to provide educational opportunities for parents of summer campers, statistical assistance, groups study rooms in which faculty and students could work together.

    2. Agenda for the Library Advisory Board meeting, 2 February 2000
    3. Minutes of the Council on Academic Affairs meeting, 13 January 2000

      4. Change in prerequisites for business courses approved. Revision of Speech Communication major approved. New courses: SPC 2010, Introduction to Communication Theories; SPC 2020, Speech Communication Research; SPC 2030, Applied Communication. Political Science 2003, Introduction to Political Research, replaces PLS2002. Revision of Political Science major approved. Revision of PLS3373, International Political Economy, approved.

    4. Agenda for the Council on Academic Affairs meeting, 27 January 2000
    5. Minutes of the Council on Graduate Studies meeting, 18 January 2000

      6. Manual for the Master’s and Specialist’s Thesis revised and approved.

    6. Agenda for the Council on Graduate Studies meeting, 1 February 2000
    7. University Internal Budget, FY2000
    8. Minutes of the Committee for the Assessment of Student Learning, 18 January 2000

      9. Assessment Document discussed and revised.

    9. Minutes of the Committee for the Assessment of Student Learning, 25 January 2000

      10. Discussion of the appropriateness of deriving portions of grades from assessment activities. Presentation of information on writing portfolio project.

    10. Packet of materials from the Committee for the Assessment of Student Learning, 25 January 2000

      11. Definitions, goals, measures of student learning, process, sample course revision.

    11. Minutes of the International Programs Advisory Committee, 20 January 2000

      12. Discussion of joint activities with Lake Land College; move of Graduate Schools and International Programs to Blair Hall is progressing; AIS has requested Bill Kirk as their advisor; Frances Murphy will assist as co-advisor. An AIS officer will be invited to attend IPAC meetings. International Student enrollment is 147 for the Spring semester.

    12. E-mail from Joseph Ryan, Student Senator, regarding Textbook Rental Service, 25 January 2000

      13. Improve textbook rental service but do not abolish it.

    13. E-mail from Brent Gage, Registration and Orientation, regarding Preview EIU, 26 January 2000

      14. Preview EIU, an pre-orientation program will be held on Saturday, March 4. Faculty are needed on "Transition to College" panels. Anyone interested in participating should contact Brent Gage (csbag).

    14. Memo from VPAA Abebe regarding University Studies with accompanying flow chart, 28 January 2000

      15. University Studies will be renamed CASA (Center for Academic Support and Achievement), a name that more accurately reflects the responsibilities of the unit. Academic Assessment and Testing will move to Ninth Street Hall, which is wheelchair accessible and where other CASA units are located. Search for a director of this area will resume.

    15. President’s Council minutes, 3 November 1999

      16. IGP Revisions: employment and recruitment procedures for Administrative positions (IGP #12), Faculty and Academic Support Professionals (IGP #14) were revised to bring them into compliance with federal statues and to streamline the process. Drafts have been circulated since Sp 1999. Holiday schedule for 2000-2001 established. NCAA self-study announced.

    16. President’s Council minutes, 1 December 1999

      17. Staff morale was discussed. Mr. Cooley and Dr. Nilsen will be working with Human Resources and staff senate on plans for improvement. Livingston C. Lord Distinguished Service award will be given to Ms. Eulalee Anderson at the years of service luncheon on December 7.

    17. President’s Council minutes, 8 December 1999

      18. Y2K status report: contingency plans have been developed. FPM, ITS, and Housing staffs will be "on call" the night of December 31.

    18. President’s Council minutes, 12 January 2000

      19. Board report for January BOT meeting was distributed

    19. Recognition of Bailey Young and Herb Lasky.
      20.

Senator Eberly communicated that Young and Lasky have been invited to speak on Eastern’s archeology program at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The Commonwealth Club is the nation’s premier program for public affairs.
  1. New Business
    1. Campus Alcohol Coalition, Lynette Drake, Director, Health Services and Eric Davidson, Assistant Director, Health Services. The purpose of the coalition is to address the topic of alcohol as it relates to our responsibility on campus. We all have different priorities. The coalition will bring together these varying viewpoints and try to unite them. Faculty and staff are the consistent factor here. A group of faculty and staff met last week to focus on the positive things we are doing in this area. Bud Fischer is a participant; his role is to foster discussion with faculty members about the faculty’s role in addressing the topic of alcohol. The coalition is made up of several subgroups. Each group will discuss their priorities and their issues. The coalition will then set its goals and priorities and these will be brought before the various campus groups. This is the concept; it is evolving and growing. Questions included the following:
      • Success requires substantial data and information. Do you have data regarding the extent of the problems on campus? Many of those on the coalition board have been working with this issue for many years. At this point it is not important how good or how bad off we are. What is important is that people on campus have identified this as a concern. The data is almost detrimental to our issues now. It will not show us what concerns our students.
      • What have faculty members done on other campuses? Is the purpose to advocate control, abstention? Because the coalition members all come from different perspectives our focus has different realities. Hopefully, the coalition will bring all these concerned parties together to create a list of areas that are of higher concern. We want to enhance our current program, to address these issues as a team rather than individuals. There are a lot of different things faculty are doing across the nation. Some schools have programs in which faculty are encouraged to weave alcohol topics into the classes. We are limited only by our creativity. We need to think in terms of what we hope to accomplish.
      • Currently each member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity is TIPS certified. They plan to offer TIPS training to the executive committees of each campus organization. There are many wonderful things going on on our campus. This coalition has given us a chance to learn about more of them.
      • Any approach which does not present students with positive as well as the negative side will not work. Many people in this culture drink alcohol in some form or another. A way a program could be helpful would be to help students decide to what extent they wish to be engaged in it. Perhaps they will not want to drink. But if they are going to drink, they need to learn it can be done for pleasure rather than as something that can get them into the siren report. We must be positive in our dealing with alcohol. It is easy to see the negative aspects.
      • We have not heard anything vocal from the President. When will she be visible, visionary, and vocal. This is a rhetorical question, but it is one that needs to be raised. On campuses where such programs have been successful, there has been the involvement of the president. The VPSA has been a part of the process since its initiation and instrumental in inviting people to the first coalition meeting. There is support at that level.
      • The President has been very supportive of this. She was here only a month when she attended a symposium on this. The VPSA would not have initiated this without specific backing from the President. This has been identified by the President’s Council as something they want to address.
      • Is there medical treatment in this area for people who are identified as alcoholic? We do not have such resources on campus. The community has limited resources. These resources are also financially limiting for students.
    1. Old Business
      1. Committee Reports
        1. Executive Committee. The executive committee will meet this Thursday at 11:00 a.m. Among the topics for this meeting are the State of the University Address and a timeline for the VPBA Search. Chair Irwin also distributed the flow chart for the Center for Academic Support and Achievement (CASA). This is the renamed University Studies. The Search Committee for the Director will have its first meeting tomorrow at 8:30. Several questions were raised:
          • Does this flow chart reflect a change in function or structure? There is a renaming of University Studies to CASSA. There is no change in function.
          • The Director will report directly to the VPAA. Currently the Director of Academic Advising is doing the job of the Director as well. It is expected that the Director will have some expertise in one of the areas within CASA–preferably assessment.
          • The entire operation will be in Ninth Street Hall. Part of it is already there.
          • Assessment and Testing needs to have access to planning and budgeting as well as to enrollment.

        There have been two requests for volunteers. The first is for the Distinguished Faculty Award Committee. Pat Fewell will chair the committee. It will consist of three senators, a Presidential appointee, two students (graduate and undergraduate), and an alumnus. John Allison and Reed Benedict volunteered to serve. The second is for panel participants for Preview EIU on March 4. The panel discussions will be held in the morning. The purpose of Preview EIU is to encourage students wavering between EIU and other universities to choose EIU. It is also an opportunity to start communicating our expectations–to help them understand how college is different from high school. Any faculty member can volunteer to help with this.

        Faculty interested in volunteering to participate in panel discussions for Preview EIU should contact Bonnie Irwin (English)–cfbdi@eiu.edu.

            1. Elections. The Faculty Senate is authorized to run spring elections for members of ten committees. The proposed timeline follows:
          • February 8. Call list, nomination petitions, and questions will be distributed with the minutes.
          • February 25. Due date for petitions.
          • February 28. Due date for answers to questions.
          • March 22-23. Elections

        Senators will be expected to sign up to work two hours during elections.
            1. Nominations. Nominations will be solicited after elections.
            2. Search Committees. Ken Baker has been selected Recreation Director. The University Counsel Search Committee has made their recommendations to the President. Some concerns were expressed about the search for VPIA, including that the committee will not look at all the applicants and that the interviews will occur during the summer session. It was suggested that the search firm supply a statement explaining the process and why the time line is necessary. Constituencies other than faculty are concerned with institutional advancement and they will be here this summer. The search appears to be well conducted.
            3. IBHE Faculty Advisory Committee. The IBHE FAC met last Friday at Dominican University in Oak Park. The topic was budgeting; faculty are encouraged to become involved in campus budget context meetings.
          1. Textbook Rental Service. It was noted that the Council of Chairs has recommended to the VPAA to establish a task force to look at TRS. It was decided that the Senate needs to dedicate an entire meeting to this topic. It is inefficient to spend fifteen minutes at the end of the meeting to discuss TRS. Some discussion of TRS included:
          • If there is a task force, Faculty Senate would like representation.
          • We need to make a recommendation that graduate students buy their textbooks. This is done at many of the benchmark institutions.
          • We are not competitive in our graduate stipends. We cannot add another expense. I prefer giving them the choice to buy their books at any time with the ability to get the fee back. They should also be able to buy only the books they want to.
          • How do you prorate the fee if the students do not buy all the books.
          • Graduate assistants are a relatively small portion of the graduate students. Can the textbook cost be added to the current stipend as a way of increasing it?
          1. Chair Irwin will create a tentative agenda for the rest of the semester.
        1. Adjourn at 3:59 p.m. (Canivez)


        Respectfully submitted,

        Nancy D. Marlow, Recorder