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Minutes for December 8, 2004
A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday,
8 December 2004, in Maxwell Auditorium.
Present were: Chancellor Cantor; Senators: Aiken, Alcoff, Anderson, Behm, Bennett, Biklen (D.), Biklen (S.), Breese, Burak, Carter, Cleary, Cohan, Crowston,
de Berly, Donavan, Elin, Faiola, Flusche, Freund, Gensemer, Getachew, Gilman, Himes, Holzwarth, Horwitz, Jeneault, Johnson,Kasowitz-Scheer, Kenn, Klaver, LaGraff, Lederman, Legaspi, Letterman (M.), Letterman (R.), MacDonald, MacInnes, Martin, Mason, McKay, Murphy, Newton, O'Rourke, Pellow, Phillips, Potter, Robertson, Rosenzweig, Schell, Sokoloff, Spina, Sternlicht, Tussing, Urtz, Van Gulick, Wadley, Wallace, Ware (B.), Ware (E.), Webber, Yao.
[If you attended the meeting and your name does not appear above, e.mail the Senate office.]
Presiding officer: Chancellor Nancy Cantor
The Chancellor called the meeting to order, and proposed that the minutes
of the November 10th meeting be approved as distributed. They were approved.
She then called Prof. Doug Biklen to present the report of the Agenda Committee.
Prof. Biklen reported that the Agenda Committee had recently had a good meeting
with all committee chairs, and that committee members should contact their chairs to find out more. He also reported that the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns would be looking at the Solomon Amendment [ the Department of Defense requirement that military recruiters be allowed on campus, even though its policies were contrary to those of the University, or their federal funding could be
denied ], and bringing a report to the Senate at a future meeting. Prof. Paula Johnson
commented that the Law faculty was considering the matter as well.
The Chancellor called Prof. Eric Spina to present the report of the Committee on Honorary Degrees. She asked all non-senators to step outside during the discussion of proposed candidates, and asked members of the Agenda Committee to invite them back in afterwards. Prof. Spina said that his report contained the first of two slates of candidates for honorary degrees at the 2005 Commencement, and made a motion for their approval. The motion carried. He told senators that there would be a second list of names brought to the January meeting, and that it would include suggestions for commencement speaker as well.
The Chancellor then called Prof. Louise Phelps to present the report of the Academic Affairs committee, which included a motion, as follows:
The University Senate approves the establishment of a Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, as proposed by the College of Engineering and Computer Science and representing the merger and renaming of two departments: Bioengineering and Neuroscience and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.
The motion carried.
The Chancellor called Prof. Mike Olivette to present the report of the Committee on Curricula, which included a motion to approve courses and changes in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science, and Human Services and Health Professions, the Schools of Information Studies, Management, Public Communications, a new program in the School of Education, and program changes in the School of Public Communications. A senator rose to point out a mistyping on p. 3 [LIN 251 should read: English Words].
The motion carried.
The Chancellor called Bryan Legaspi, Co-chairman of the Committee on Student Life. Mr. Legaspi introduced Undergraduates for a Better Education (UBE) president Christiane LeBonte, who presented a report of results of their survey of the student body. Among the items highlighted were dissatisfaction with advising, suggestion that professional advisors be used, Freshman Forum be reformed, and a call for a student voice on academic affairs committees and changes in the Writing Program.
In the discussion, the comments made and questions raised included:
- that the Senate appreciated the work of the UBE; the body applauded;
- Do you recommend that faculty advisors be replaced by professional
advisors? [LaBonte said that having both was probably better.]
- that you lost something when you changed to professional advisors, but
gained as well;
- that the University of Chicago, for example, used professional advisors
for all its undergraduates for all four years;
- a senator from the College of Arts and Sciences said that his office could provide an in-depth report of professional advising if the Senate wished;
- complaint that sometimes a student showed up to an advising session but
the faculty advisor was not there;
- observation that faculty were not all to blame, that many times it was students who did not show up for advising sessions;
- senator commented that it was his perception that often students wished for
the close relationship with advisors they'd had in their high school days
The Vice Chancellor rose to comment that she was in favor of making improvements
in the advising system, saying that she was glad the issue had come up, and that she applauded the UBE's work.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Teresa Gilman
University Senate Recorder
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