EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE November 8, 1988 The third regular meeting of the Faculty Senate for the academic year 1988/89 was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988, Mendenhall Student Center, Room 244. Members absent were Vice Chancellors Laupus and Matthews, Moskop (Faculty Assembly), Patton (Aerospace), Chamberlain (Art), Parkerson (History), Sadler (Library and Information Studies), and Dudek (Medicine). Alternates present were Rodabaugh for Sykes (Continuing Education), Malby for Harris (Foreign Languages and Literature), Chin for Whelan (Industry and Technology), Brown for Bernhardt and Farrance for Lee (Nursing). Agenda Item I. Call to Order Chair Conner Atkeson called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m. Agenda Item II. Approval of Minutes of October 11, 1988 Jim Joyce (Secretary) announced one correction to the minutes of October 11, 1988, changing the 5.7% on line 2 of page 2 to 4.7%. Bill Grossnickle (Psychology) requested that his request to the Faculty Assembly representatives be recorded. Grossnickle asked that the Faculty Assembly delegates quiz President Spangler concerning his request to the General Assembly for faculty raises, “to wit, was there any differential requested for Chapel Hill?" Emily Boyce (Faculty Assembly Representative) responded, “We will do it." The minutes, as corrected, were approved. Agenda Item III. Special Order of the Day B. Announcements, Chair of the Faculty, Conner Atkeson 1. Chancellor Eakin has appointed an Image Task Force, chaired by Ed Wheatley (Business), to address image-related issues of ECU. The Task Force will work directly with the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement. A subcommittee, seeking faculty input concerning the image of ECU as portrayed in its internal and external publications, stationery (currently there are over 100 letterhead styles), advertisements, and public service announcements, asks that written comments be addressed to the following: Image Task Force Subcommittee Office of University Publications 122 Ragsdale The Thanksgiving holiday break begins at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 23, 1988. Classes resume at 8:00 a.m., Monday, November 28, 1988. Fall Commencement will be held on Saturday, December 3, 1988. Teaching Grant applications and guidelines are available in the Faculty Senate Office, 140 Rawl Annex, or by calling ext. 6537. A copy of "The New Agenda of Women for Higher Education: A Report of the ACE Commission on Women in Higher Education" is available for review in the Faculty Senate Office. Although last Friday marked the end of the State Employees Combined Campaign drive, late contributions will be cheerfully accepted and may be directed to your departmental representative. C. Richard Eakin, Chancellor * Chancellor Eakin had no remarks. There were no questions for the Chancellor. D. Vice Chancellor Reports Vice Chancellor Bloodworth reminded the Senate that a criterion for accreditation approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in December, 1986, comes into effect after December, 1989. The criterion reads: Graduate teaching assistants who have primary responsibility for teaching a course for credit and/or for assigning final grades for such a course must have earned at least 18 graduate semester hours in their teaching field, be under the direct supervision of a faculty member experienced in the teaching field, receive regular in-service training, and be regularly evaluated. [Criteria for Accreditation, Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1988) p. 29.] In a response to a question by Bob Woodside (Faculty Assembly), Bloodworth indicated that putting this in effect in December will affect us in the fall semester, 1989. E. Approval of Fall 1988 Graduation List Chair Atkeson presented the Fall 1988 Graduation List for the Senate's approval. The Senate approved the list. (Resolution #88-41) Agenda Item IV. Unfinished Business There was no unfinished business. Agenda Item V. Report of Committees A. Credits Committee, G. W. Kalmus, Chair Professor Kalmus reported that under a directive of the Faculty Senate, the Credits Committee studied the issue of shortening the drop period. The Committee held two open hearings and the testimony received unanimously supported maintaining the present drop period length. The Committee identified no support for shortening the drop period, identified no advantages of taking that action, identified difficulties that would be created, and concluded that shortening the drop period was not advisable. The Senate voted to accept the report. Kalmus then moved the adoption of the Repetition of Course Work policy (Agenda Attachment 1). Woodside (Faculty Assembly) asked the reason for the change. Kalmus replied that it was a clarification of the present policy. Woodside then asked why one should not prohibit students from repeating a course in which he or she had earned a grade of C or better. Kalmus replied that it was the Committee's perception that faculty opinion favored the "less strong statement," and that some programs might legitimately require a grade of A or B in certain courses. Farrance (Nursing) inquired whether or not it was clear that a Raise Grade Form was required for any repetition of a course. Kalmus stated that a form was required for any repetition of a course. Sexauer (Art) suggested the editorial replacement of “departmental chairperson" on lines 2 and 3 with “unit administrator". Kalmus accepted the change. The Senate voted to accept the policy as editorially amended. (Resolution #88-42) Professor Woodside asked when this policy would go into effect. Professor Kalmus pointed to the large print in the heading of the policy giving the effective date. Bob replied, "Sorry, I can't read." Chair Atkeson responded, “It's just age, Bob." 3 Professor Kalmus then presented the General Requirements for Graduation policy (Agenda Attachment 2). Kalmus began by explaining that, under the present policy, there are more and more cases of transfer students coming close to obtaining a degree without having taken one course from their major department. Bob Morrison (Chemistry) inquired whether this would require transfer at the beginning of the junior year. Kalmus replied that in some programs this would be "most likely."' Morrison pointed out that a result of the resolution would be that the requirements for graduation would change. Bob Schellenberger (Business) asked about the meaning of the phrase “in the major discipline."' Kalmus responded that this would mean courses in the discipline and cognate courses. Karl Rodabaugh (Continuing Education) inquired whether the Committee had any hard data concerning the problem. Kalmus stated that there was none that he knew about except for statements by the Admissions Office that more and more students are coming closer to graduating without a course from their major department. He went on to say that foreign students, lacking only general education requirements, had been transferring to ECU lacking only general education requirements. Considerable discussion ensued concerning whether cognate courses should count as being “in the major discipline,'' whether a number would be better than “one-half", and whether it would be wise to allow individual units to specify the minimum requirements. Bob Morrison (Chemistry), stressing the need for more flexibility, moved to return the policy to Committee. The motion passed. Chair Atkeson requested that comments be sent to the Committee. (Resolution #88-43) B. Curriculum Committee, Bill Grossnickle, Chair Professor Grossnickle moved the adoption of the recommendations in the October 11, 1988, minutes of the Curriculum Committee. The Senate adopted the recommendations. (Resolution #88-44) C. Teaching Effectiveness Committee, Christa Reiser, Chair Professor Reiser pointed out the 97Z response rate to the survey conducted by the Committee and noted that the School of Music had responded to the survey (a correction to previous minutes). After discussing the study made by the Committee concerning the seven principles approved by the Senate to guide the use of the Student Opinion Survey data, she presented the following conclusions and recommendations for adoption by the Senate: ee There is a great need to evaluate teaching on the basis of a variety of methods. According to the survey results, a majority are interested in developing additional means of evaluating teaching. Assistance should be provided to unit heads, faculty, deans, etc., in order to identify and implement additional methods. Copies of the seven principles should be distributed semiannually to the faculty and unit heads and other administrators. Included along with each copy of the principles should be an explanation of potentially confusing aspects of the student survey process (e.g., definition of standard deviation). Presently, we emphasize the evaluation of faculty teaching. More attention needs to be given to the development or improvement of teaching. 4 4. The TEC should continue to consider the problems associated with the current methods of evaluating teaching. & David Lawrence (Geology), referring to Principle 4, stated that more research is needed on what the numbers from the Student Opinion Survey mean. He also wondered whether people realize that, in the study responses to Principle 6, statements that "evaluations below the mean should always be considered unacceptable" means that half of department's faculty will always be rated unacceptable. Don Sexauer (Art) noted that now 13 units have additional means to evaluate teaching as compared to 5 last year. He asked whether these means had been approved by the Chancellor. He also asked that if we are going to have many forms [to evaluate teaching], “aren't we going to have chaos?" Reiser responded that the Committee is considering whether a standard form is necessary. Chair Atkeson requested that faculty send their comments to the Committee. Sexauer then asked whether the Committee could acquire the 13 approved forms. Reiser responded that the Committee would compile the 13 forms and place them in the Faculty Senate office. The Senate voted to accept the Recommendations and Conclusions as_ submitted. (Resolution #88-45) [A complete report on the Committee's study is available in the Senate office. ] There being no further business, Chair Atkeson adjourned the meeting at 3:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, James Joyce, Secretary Sharon Bland, Office Secretary Resolutions: #88-41 Approval of the Fall 1988 Graduation List #88-42 Repetition of Course Work Policy #88-43 General Requirements for Graduation Policy referred back to the Credits Committee #88-44 Curriculum Committee Report #88-45 Recommendations for use of the Student Opinion Survey Data based on the seven principles previously adopted