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Minutes for December 3, 2008
A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday,
3 December 2008, in Maxwell Auditorium.
Present were: Vice Chancellor Spina; Senators: Anderson, Armstrong, Bakke,
Bhatia, Breese, Carter, Carty, Chen, Cihon, Cochren, Cooper, Dobrowolski, Donovan, Dudczak, Easton, Elin, Evans, Ferri, Frasciello, Golia, Greenberg, Hartmann, Hensberry, Hurd, Isik, Jeneault, Judge, Kornfilt, Kucharavy, Kwasnik, Lee (J.), Lee (K.), Letterman, Lipson, London, Lore, Mager, Marcocia, Marrero, Massey, McClure (D.), McClure (R.), McCoubrey, Meighan, Mitchell, Mohan, Mohanty, Mountz, Mulliken, O’Rourke, Pralle, Reed-Huff, Rio, Rupert, Saleh, Schell, Shane, Sherman, Sickler, Smith (D.), Stonecash, Suchy, Tankersley, Thorin, Trionfero, Tucker, Turnipseed, Van Gulick, Veley, Wallace, Ware (B.), Ware (E.), Warren, Wasylenko, Webber, Witucki, Wright, Zubieta.
Presiding officer: Vice Chancellor Eric Spina
In the absence of the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor Spina called the meeting to order, proposed that the minutes of the November 5th meeting be approved as written, and the body concurred. He called Prof. Eileen Schell to make the report of the Agenda Committee. Prof. Schell reported that she had received word from the newly-appointed ad hoc committee on sexual harassment and abuse of power, that they would convene on the 9th of December, and intended to report to the Agenda Committee with their recommendations early in the spring 2009 semester. She also reported that she had heard concern expressed from many parts of the campus about the economic situation for students, and told Senate members that many students were in financial difficulty such that they were not sure if they would be able to return second semester. She said that the Board of Trustees had come up with a plan whereby students could apply for various-sized sums of money in order to fill the gaps. Schell asked the Vice Chancellor to speak about the plan.
The Chancellor told the body that the Board of Trustees in its plan "Syracuse Responds" had given $5,000,000 to the endowment, and that they were working on ways to help students in need. He asked faculty members to be on the alert for students who might be in need of this help, and to tell them to apply to the Office of Financial Aid. He said that the Financial Aid office had received about 1300 appeals so far this year, that in a few days the board would be sending a press release about "Syracuse Responds,” and that the Office of Academic Affairs would be circulating the same information by email to all faculty members.
The Vice Chancellor then called Prof. Barbara Kwasnik to present the report of the Committee on Curricula, which included a motion to approve the new courses and changes listed in the report. A Senate member rose to make a motion to amend the report, deleting proposed new course EAR 111 Climate Change—an Impending Crisis (p. 2) pending consultation and agreement with the geography department. The motion to amend was seconded, and after some discussion, was approved. The body then voted on the amended motion, which carried.
The Chairman called on Prof. Larry Elin who presented the report of the Academic Affairs committee which was a motion, as follows:
The Committee on Academic Affairs moves approval of the name change of the newspaper department at the Newhouse School of Public Communications to Department of Newspaper and Online Journalism, effective immediately.
The motion carried.
The Vice Chancellor called Prof. Chilikuri Mohan to present the report of the Budget committee, which had been sent in the packet. There was no discussion.
Prior to adjournment a senator rose to ask the body to observe a moment of silent tribute to long-time Senate member Prof. Michael Freedman, who had recently died.
Another senator rose to bid fond farewell to Senate member David Smith who was retiring at the end of the month, and the body stood and applauded.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Teresa Gilman
University Senate Recorder
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