MINUTES
UAF FACULTY SENATE MEETING #139
Monday, November 6, 2006
1:00 p.m. - 3:35 p.m.
Wood Center Carol Brown Ballroom 

I	Call to Order – Shirish Patil

Faculty Senate President Shirish Patil called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.

A.	Roll Call

Members Present:  
	Members Absent: 	
Allen, Jane 	Daku, Michael	
Anderson, Jodie	Dehn, Jonathan	
Bandopadhyay, S. 	Roberts, Larry	
Berge, Anna	Wiechen, Heinz	
Bret-Harte, Marion	Zhang, Mingchu	
Brown, Liz		
Burleson, Derick		
Cahill, Cathy		
Cascio, Julie	Others Present: 	
Chowdhury, Ataur	Bailey, Ro	
Collins, Jim	Cysewski, Steve	
Cooper, Christine	Exley, Rob	
Dandekar, Abhijit	Hapsmith, Linda	
Davis, Mike	Hardy, Cindy	
Deters, Pamela	Harris, Michael	
Freymueller, Jeff	Henrichs, Susan	
Genetti, Jon	Jones, Steve	
Iken, Katrin	Layral, Sheri	
Illingworth, Marjorie	Madison, Curt	
Kingsley, Ilana	Misra, Debasmita	
Konar, Brenda	Morrison, Joy	
Lardon, Cecile	Reichardt, Paul	
Lurman, Julie	Thomas, Dana	
Newberry, Rainer		
Patil, Shirish		
Rickard, Anthony		
Rosenberg, Jonathan		
Sousa, Marsha		
Weber, Jane		
Zhou, Thomas		
Zhou, Wendy 		

Non-Voting Members Present:  
	Non-Voting Members Absent:	
Morrow, Phyllis - Dean, CLA	Williams, Richard - Dean, CEM	
Stepp, Jeff - Staff Council President 	Stickel, Tim - Registrar	
Gilkey, Sven - ASUAF 	Illingworth, Ron - ACCFT	
Francis-Chythlook, Oceana - GSO 	Porter, David - UNAC	
	United Academics-Adjunct - vacant	

B.	Approval of Minutes to Meeting #138

The minutes were approved as distributed.  

C.	Adoption of Agenda

The agenda was adopted as distributed. 

II	Status of Chancellor's Office Actions 
	A.	Motions Approved:
1.	Motion to amend Section 3, (Article V, Committees, Standing) of the Bylaws by deleting E.4., the Faculty Research Oversight Committee.
2.	Motion to add STAT 200 as a Mathematics Literacy component of the Core Curriculum.
3.	Motion to modify the "Guidelines for the Evaluation Process for Administrators (Group A) to add the Dean of Libraries and the Vice Chancellor for Research.
4.	Motion to suspend the Group B Administrators reviews for 2006-2007.
5.	Motion to modify the UAF document "Policies and Regulations for the Appointment and Evaluation of Faculty" Chapter IV, D, 1, b (3) to add "unsatisfactory" to the categories for ranking or evaluating faculty.
	B.	Motions Pending:  none

III	Public Comments/Questions - none

IV	A.	President's Comments - Shirish Patil

Shirish welcomed all the rural faculty senate members.  

Shirish gave a report on the student success and college readiness retreat with President Hamilton held on October 18, 2006.  Several faculty members provided him information about the issues related to student success and college readiness.  Faculty Alliance has taken a lead on the discussions relating to this topic.  Pat Ivey has posted information on a web site at: http://gov.alaska.edu/faculty/StudentSuccess/default.html.  Shirish will meet further with Jane Weber and Cindy Hardy to discuss changes needed to assure student success.  Staff Council and Staff Alliance have made this a priority as well. 

Shirish is working with Dave Veazey to bring up David Connelly in late January 2007.  He is a professor of educational policy and leadership at the University of Oregon.  He has done studies for the College Board to validate standards for SAT, VSAT, and ACT tests.  He is a well-known speaker and author of college success.  

Shirish gave public testimony at last week's Board of Regents meeting on the same subject.  The BOR appreciates the Faculty Alliance's lead on this subject.  The FY08 budget was approved.  It included a request for $1.5 million for student success.  We hope that a significant proportion will go to the three MAUs in making student success as number one priority.  Systemwide Academic Council has asked Dave Veazey and Shirish to put together a formal plan.  

Other issues include:
1.  Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA).  This has been sent to Faculty Affairs and Curricular Affairs.  
2.  The BEM degree will be going to the Board of Regents during their December meeting. 
3.  There is a guaranteed tuition task force that has been established at statewide.  It will look at the task and how best it could fit UA and forward its recommendations to President Hamilton by March.  Assistant Vice President Saichi Oba is heading that task force.  They will be looking at various models.   Pete Pinney will serve on the task force.  Steve Hamilton from UAS will serve as faculty member on the task force. 
4.  There is discussion on a two-tier UA Scholars program.  It is at the discussion level.  If you enter college ready, then you could get additional funding.  
5.  Document imaging went live on Friday.  Mike Earnest in Admissions is the lead. 
6.  A Gubernatorial Candidate forum was held last week and was a huge success.  

Announcements:  
Provost Reichardt will lead a forum on teaching assessment next Wednesday, November 15 from 12-3 p.m.  RSVP to Joy Morrison.   

Shirish attended the Jonathan Kozol presentation in Anchorage.  Shirish read some statistics about the Alaska schools that was presented at the panel.  As we move forward on student success and college readiness we are looking at developing strategic partnerships with K-12.  

Update on the TRS system.  The Alaska Retirement Management (ARM) board has voted to make the TRS contribution to 54% for FY08.  The University has requested to the state that the extra money that needs to be funded for TRS be directly funded into the TRS system and not be made part of the University of Alaska budget because that inflates our budget.  It also has an impact on the ORP rate because they are linked.  Jon Genetti mentioned that it would affect the overhead rates for grants.  That makes us much less competitive.    

`B.	President-elect's Report - Jon Genetti

Jon stated that we are starting to move out the communication aspect about the FY08 baccalaureate admission standards being changed.  The Chancellor sent out a letter on Friday to all the high schools guidance counselors in Alaska.  There was a Cornerstone article.  That article was picked up by a Daily News-Miner reporter and we expect an article within the next week.  Please communicate this out to your faculty.  This will identify students who have not had the best success and will give them the resources they need to succeed.  

From the statewide Information Technology Council, they are in the process of hiring a vendor to do an outside security audit of all the computer systems.  It also includes the business practices. 

V	A.	Remarks by Chancellor Steve Jones

Chancellor Jones had a number of FYI items:  
1.  Tuesday he presented his annual State of the University address to the Fairbanks Chamber.  It was an abbreviated Convocation address.  
2.  Announcement of a new title for Bernice Joseph – Vice Chancellor Rural, Community and Native Education.  
3.  November 1 the Board of Regents approved the FY08 budget request.  In the Capital budget was $43 million for renewal and renovation.  The systems new construction capital priority is the BIOS building.  
4.  The Chancellor has five more open dialogue listening sessions scheduled for November--CRCD, TVC, Museum, the Fire Department, and Facilities Services and on December 1, the School of Management.  
5.  The United Way campaign is underway.  Please think about donating and if you desire, you can designate the University as a recipient of your donation.  Also, we have started a more aggressive annual giving campaign within the university.  
6.  The Provost search committee began review of applications last week.  He looks forward to updates as the process unfolds.  
7.  Tomorrow is election day.  Support for the university is crucial.  The Chancellor encouraged everyone to vote.

B.	Remarks by Provost P. Reichardt

Accreditation – A month ago we had a site visit.  They have seen a draft report and have had an opportunity to respond to errors in fact.  They do make some comments about areas where we need to keep an eye on and places where we have to improve.  Learning Outcome Assessment is one area.  It does not recommend anything to which we need to respond to until our self-study in 2011.  We don't anticipate a need to formally report to the commission until the next ten-year review.  The final report will go to the Northwest Commission and they will decide if we need additional reporting.  

UA FY08 Budget Report Document – University of Alaska Performance Measures and Performance-Based Budgeting, October 2006 - This is the first formal response from statewide administration to the performance-based budgeting reporting that has been done by the three MAUs.  We were asked as an administration to rank the importance of the different categories.  The least important was Student Credit Hours (SCH).  An analysis showed that over the last six years, when it comes to student credit hours and headcount generated by students that are in a program--certificate through Ph.D.--student credits hours have been on a slow uphill increase.  Fluxuation in enrollment from year to year are largely due to non-degree students.  If you look at data from this fall, the Fairbanks campus percent change in headcount is down 4.5% and SCH is down 6%.  It looks like this decrease may be in our degree-seeking students.  It warrants a closer look.  Our overall retention rate is up.  We are not in a footrace with Anchorage for total student hours.  

Provost Forum on Teaching Assessment -- scheduled on November 15, from 12-3 in Wood Center.  It is limited to 50 people.  There will be an hour presentation.  Then there will be roundtable discussions on how we might evaluate teaching and then an hour on reporting out the results.  The goal of the forum will be some recommendations or ideas that we would pass back to the Faculty Senate to look at in terms of how we might evaluate teaching.  The motivation for this is less than complete satisfaction about the way we evaluation teaching at UAF.  Paul discussed the process UAS has adopted.  They are very much into the scholarship of learning.  It is not the overall focus for us.  They have come up with a way of looking at teaching that allows them to describe both expectations and an outline of evaluation process that represents a pretty comprehensive way of looking at teaching and leads them away from an over reliance on one or two things.  All of us that have been involved in the evaluation system, the promotion/ tenure system have seen that, almost by default, the IAS scores have achieved a status of preeminence in our evaluation of teaching.  While they are important, they are far from the only piece of evidence.  Paul encouraged the senate members to attend the forum.  

VI	Guest Speakers:

A.	Ro Bailey, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services

Ro Bailey stated that she is well immersed into the vast number of issues and areas of interest. Her office is involved in every aspect of the university.  Her vision for Administrative Services is to become easy to work with in every area.  The second goal is to ensure communication.  Next is to knock down the barrier to getting thing done in an efficient and effective and useful way. 

Ro indicated that they together with student services had an opportunity, before the spring scheduled was finalized, to change something that will make a difference for students.   That is a change from dropping students on a particular drop date or keeping them on the records if they show up for class and simply increase the late registration fees over time.  It turns out that UAA has been doing this over the last two semesters.  The students much prefer it.  What it does is eliminate the need to re-register.  The place where faculty get involved is we need to know who didn't show up.  The reduction for hassle will be significant.  She hopes the net outcome is well worth going ahead with this change.  She will get a communication effort out to all faculty so that everyone understands what this change means. 

	B.	Curt Madison, Director, Center for Distance Education

Curt Madison spoke about Distance Education and indicated that it is defined differently by almost every group.  One of the hallmarks of Distance Education is that there needs to be a strong effort on transparency and openness so that we can converge our vocabulary on things we can communicate with.  They have done a lot toward that regard.  The Distance Education Steering Board has a website were they keep all the proceeding from their meeting: www.distance.uaf.edu/steeringboard/index.html. 

Over this past year they have been working on a status report on distance education across the UA system for the state of Alaska.   The report is available on the web site:  www.distance.uaf.edu/steeringboard/ett/documents.html

Steering Board has been in effect for two years.  They have a series of seminars to help faculty develop courses.  Last September the directors of the community campus and the registrar's met in Ketchikan to talk about various items.  Mary Lou Madden from UAS has put out a report on business practices.  Performance Based Budgeting distributed some dollars for distance education.  They used them in negotiation with UAS/UAA to leverage to have a web conferencing tool "Eluminate" to support the system.  

Students across the state take courses.  The Steering Board has put together a task force and report to deal with the technical help desk.  They have worked with OIT in implementing the recommendations.  

There is a Distance Educational gateway, which lists all the courses available across the system.  It will also include courses from the Tanana Valley Campus.  It is a way to see what is available, but is not a way to register or get advise.  They are working on those areas.  

Steering Board met October 19-20.  There were representatives from across the system.  Over 60% are faculty.  

On December 8th there will be a meeting of the Educational Technology Team, which is the oversight group that has liaison for all governance areas of the university.   Karen Purdue is chair of that group.  Steve Hamilton is representative from Faculty Alliance.  

Distance Education has a long history.  We are presently in the area of giving a network for student and faculty to coordinate they activities for discovery of new knowledge.  Distance Education is a great place to do innovation.  Distance Education runs a gamut from correspondence courses to 3D virtualization.  

Mike Davis asked about the teleconference server.  Curt indicated that the new vender is very responsive to working with the university.  Ataur Chowdhury asked about the teaching process and the selection process and qualification.  Curt indicated that all faculty are approved through the academic departments.   Courses are approved through the departments.  A list of all faculty are given to department head every year.  Cecile Lardon indicated that student services are not always available to the rural students.  Technology is not always available to them.  Curt indicated that there is often a discussion on whether to design to the lowest common denominator or to the most useful.  They take both ends.  There are about 5,000 students per year registered through the Center for Distance Education/Independent Learning.  More than half take correspondence paper based courses.  There is access for everyone.  

Shirish asked about assistance in developing web based courses.  CDE offers advise to any department who would like to do that.  

VI	Governance Reports    

	A.	Staff Council - Jeff Stepp 

Jeff Stepp indicated they are working on the "UAF Votes" campaign.  They hosted a gubernatorial forum.  It was well attended.  One of the many issues that they are interested in is the PERS/TERS situation.   Staff Council continues to advocate for a staff handbook.  Their annual retreat was held on October 15.  They had a presentation by Megan Brown from Health & Counseling on "Finding your Passion/Live your Dream".  It is about being happier in the workplace.  Focused topics of discussion included: participation on Staff Council, Student Success, and fair practices.  Jeff brought some handouts they are using to shape their discussions.  Each addresses how important it is to have an approach to student success that involves administration, faculty, staff, and students.  That is the most successful approach to implementing new strategies and policies that affect retention rate and graduate rates. 

Shirish had invited Jeff to the recent Faculty Alliance retreat.  He was the only staff member there to talk about issues about staff and how staff contribute to student success, both by offering co-curricular learning opportunities outside of the classroom, learning communities in the residence halls, support of the campus environment, and things like that.  Jeff talked about student success with President Hamilton, Chancellor Jones and he will be addressing the Division of Student Affairs and talking with Tim Barnett and his staff about some ideas from Staff Council.  Jeff spoke about the report from George D. Kuh, "Promoting student success:  What campus leaders can do" from the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.  

Staff Council will continue to talk about issues such as the Master Planning Committee, parking and other things.   

	B.	ASUAF -Sven Gilkey 

Sven Gilkey reported that ASUAF is doing a number of programs.  The Student Senate passed a bill providing funds to participate in the United Way Chili feed.  They are gearing up for the Legislative Affairs conference they put on for the Coalition of Student Leaders.  They are hoping to send10 students as well as their executive staff to go down to Juneau to speak with legislators about what students want from their university.  The number one priority of the Coalition is a needs based scholarship.   Tony Knowles proposed to the regents a $1 million endowment for the university that would produce a 5% yield each year for a needs based scholarships.  The Senate passed a resolution in support of that plan and it will be delivered to the legislators.  

Currently in the University Relations committee there is a resolution concerning faculty advise to students.  The point is to look at how faculty are trained and how they work with their student to give academic advice.  Last year they passed a resolution on advisor signature.  

In the packet from Jeff, in the article on "What Campus Leaders Can Do" it speaks to "Frequently remind colleagues of the institution's commitment to enhancing the quality of the undergraduate experience."  One of the things that reminded him of is the faculty involvement in extra-curricular activities.  He wanted to thank the faculty who attended the recent volleyball game--he enjoyed the faculty attendance.  Student elections for the Senate and student regent will take place on November 16-17.  He encouraged faculty to speak to students about the importance of the governance elections.  

The meeting with the legislative will take place in February prior to the Regents meeting.  The opportunity for students to attend is important, so please work with students who will miss class.  

	C.	GSO - Oceana Francis-Chythlook

Oceana introduced herself as the new graduate student representative.  

VIII	New Business

A.	Motion to amend the Associate of Arts degree requirements, submitted by the Core Review and Curricular Affairs Committee 

Rainer Newberry introduced the motion and stated that this would tie the A.A. degree to the baccalaureate core.  When the core changes it will change the A.A. degree requirements.  Mike Harris from Core Review indicated they support the motion.  The motion passed unanimously.  

MOTION:
=======

The UAF Faculty Senate moves to amend the Associate of Arts degree requirements (2006-2007 UAF catalog, page 83) to the following:

[[   ]] = 	Deletion
CAPS  = 	Addition 

General Associate Degree Requirements

You must have completed at least 60 semester hours, including transfer credits, to earn a UAF associate degree.

At least 15 credits applicable to any associate degree must be UAF resident credits.

Associate of Arts Requirements

The Associate of Arts degree represents the completion of broad-based college study. This degree may serve as a starting point for your career or as a stepping-stone to a baccalaureate program. You may earn only one A.A. degree.

THE CURRICULUM OF THE ASSOCIATE OF ARTS DEGREE CONSISTS OF ALL COURSES REQUIRED TO MEET THE UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS BACCALAUREATE CORE, WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS: 
1. THE UPPER DIVISION WRITING AND ORAL INTENSIVE COURSES ARE NOT REQUIRED 
2. IN PLACE OF THE UPPER DIVISION ETHICS COURSE A HUMANITIES OR SOCIAL SCIENCE ELECTIVE MAY BE SUBSTITUTED

All credits for the A.A. degree must be at the 100-level or above with at least 20 credits at the 200-level or above and be distributed as follows:

BACCALAUREATE CORE CREDITS..............38-44 CREDITS

GENERAL ELECTIVES ....................................16-22 CREDITS

[[Communication (9 credits)
ENGL 111X--Introduction to Academic Writing (3)
Complete one of the following:
ENGL 211X--Academic Writing about Literature (3)
ENGL 212--Business, Grant and Report Writing* (3)
ENGL 213X--Academic Writing about the Social and Natural Sciences (3)
Complete one of the following:
COMM 131X--Fundamentals of Oral Communication: Group Context (3)
COMM 141X--Fundamentals of Oral Communication: Public Context (3)

Mathematics or natural science (10 credits) 
Complete one of the following:
MATH 107X--Functions for Calculus** (4)
MATH 161X--Algebra for Business and Economics (3)
MATH 103X--Concepts and Contemporary Applications of Mathematics (3)
MATH 200X, 201X, 202X, 262X, 272X or any math course having one of these as a prerequisite (4)
One natural science course, with lab, from the baccalaureate core (4)
Mathematics (computer science, mathematics or statistics course at the 100-level or above) or natural science elective (3)

Humanities and social science (18 credits) 
ANTH 100X/SOC 100X--Individual, Society and Culture (3)
ECON 100X/PS 100X--Political Economy (3)
HIST 100X--Modern World History (3)
Complete one of the following:
ART/MUS/THR 200X--Aesthetic Appreciation: Interrelationship of Art, Drama and Music (3)
HUM 201X--Unity in the Arts (3)
ANS 202X--Aesthetic Appreciation of Alaska Native Performance (3)
ENGL/FL 200X--World Literatures (3)
Humanities or social science elective (3)
Two semester-length courses in a single Alaska Native language or other non-English language or three semester-length courses (9 credits) in American Sign Language taken at the university level may substitute for two of the courses above.

Library and information Research (0–1 credit) 
Successful completion of library skills competency test or LS 100X or LS 101X (0–1)
Successful completion of the library skills competency test satisfies this requirement of the core curriculum, but does not carry degree credit.
(It is strongly recommended that this requirement be completed before enrolling in the 200-level English course requirement or that it be completed concurrently with enrollment in the 200-level English core requirement.)]]

[[General electives (22–23 credits) 
Any combination of courses. (Students planning to go on to the baccalaureate degree are advised to select courses meeting remaining core requirements and courses designated within baccalaureate majors and minors.) (22–23)

Electives to total (60 credits) ]]

STUDENTS PLANNING TO GO ON TO THE BACCALAUREATE DEGREE ARE ADVISED TO SELECT COURSES MEETING REMAINING CORE REQUIREMENTS AND COURSES DESIGNATED WITHIN BACCALAUREATE MAJORS AND MINORS.

TOTAL CREDITS REQUIRED  ................60 CREDITS. 

 [[* ENGL 212 does not fulfill the second half of the written communication requirement for the baccalaureate degree.
** No credit may be earned for more than one of MATH 107X or 161X.]]

	EFFECTIVE:  	Fall 2007
				Upon Chancellor's Approval

RATIONALE:  	 The AA degree should directly articulate with the baccalaureate core degree requirements. Students should be able to move seamlessly from the AA degree to a four year degree. There should not be wasted credits or exceptions that will confuse the student’s ability to move to a four year degree. The current AA degree requirements are different from the baccalaureate core degree requirements. The catalog description and the degree checklist are also different from the current baccalaureate core requirements. The AA degree should articulate directly with the baccalaureate core. By linking the degree requirements for the Associate of Arts program directly to the baccalaureate core, the AA program requirements will always be consistent with the baccalaureate core requirements. 

******************

IX	Discussion Item
 
	A.	Advising Pre-Majors - Dana Thomas

In his new role Dana is taking on the process of implementing the new baccalaureate admission standards.  There are a number of working groups working on the process and changes that we need to make to get ready for fall of 2008.  We know that the number of pre-majors will increase substantially.  The vast majority of pre-majors are advised by the Advising Center and RSS.  Some are advised by individual departments.  When we talk about helping pre-majors be more successful to making the transition to regular majors status, there is a handful of resources or approaches that seem to be accepted nationwide.  One is supplemental instruction for gatekeeper courses.  Students would act as tutorial support for gatekeeper courses.  Other ideas are a required seminar course.  Dana is looking for input.  Another key area is that advising can make a difference.  Who should be doing the advising?  A lot of faculty are not prepared to advise the under prepared student.   One working group is looking a best practice’s for advising the pre-majors.  Many schools/college have hired professional staff advisors.  Should we encourage an increase of professional staff advisors who work in cooperation with faculty or do we emphasis educating faculty and try to improve student access to faculty advisors.  That seems to be a critical concern of students and why so many pre-majors go to the Advising Center and RSS because those advisors are always there.  This is a sensitive topic.   Email opinions to Dana at ffdlt@uaf.edu.  Inclination is to give the colleges a choice of what they want to do.         

*******************

X	Committee Reports

	A.	Curricular Affairs - Marsha Sousa 

A report was attached to the agenda.   

Rainer led a discussion on the ramifications of changing to +/- grades.  There are three issues.  A handout was provided.  There are ramification to students at the top level and the low level.  This includes honors for graduation for summa cum laude.  They are looking at lowering the GPA requirements from 4.0 to 3.9.  The requirement of a grade of C or better in all classes for the major and a D or better in a minor course is another issue.  What do we do with the C- and D-?  The third issue has to do with helping new students into the system in terms of GPA for academic disqualification and probation.  

Paul Reichardt talked about a workshop that he and four others attended that dealt with recruiting and retaining minority students in the science.  One of the messages that came out of the successful programs is be careful of changes that you make that are perceived as lowering the standards.  By far the better way to go is to work on advising and placement of students into situations where they can succeed and keep your standards high.

-----------------------------

The following report was distributed as a handout.  

Curricular Affairs Meeting
10-30-06
Minutes

Present: Linda Hapsmith, Rainer Newberry, Tony Rickard, Melissa McGinty, Ilana Kingsley, Marsha Sousa, Ataur Chowdhury, Larry Roberts, Carol Lewis.  Guests: Colleen Abrams, Dana Thomas

Absent: Jodie Anderson, Anna Berge, Tim Stickel

Meeting began at 3:30, and finished at 4:25.  

1.	Dana’s proposal to require baccalaureate students to declare a major when they complete 75 credits.

•	Dana clarified that in discussion with Linda they determined 75 credits to be enough that students should know where they are going and be ready to declare.  That gives them junior standing plus one additional semester.  The number could be placed at other levels, but this one seemed to reasonably accommodate all students.  
•	Some questions remain about how to handle transfer students.  Occasionally students transfer in with many credits, but the major they may have previously pursued is unavailable.  They may need additional time to settle into a new major.
•	Ataur remains concerned about the inclusion of DEV credits. However, at most a student would take 12 credits of DEV that did not count toward a degree.  DEV credits at the 100 level count as electives.
•	Rainer asked that Dana create a mechanism to check on whether the 75 credit limit works and is appropriate once it is implemented.  Dana agreed that the process should be data-driven, and he will create a mechanism and bring data back to Curricular Affairs after implementation.
•	Motion was passed by consensus, with the clarification that it is 75 “earned” credits.

2.	Continuing discussion of +/- grades.

•	Revisited the requirement to check chancellor’s list for only A/A- grades.  Banner cannot pull out specific grades.  Looking at a 3.9 probably catches all the A/A- grades without any B grades, unless the student is taking an overload.  
•	Also changed the Summa to 3.9 with no requirement that it be all A grades, just an overall of 3.9.  Left magna cum laude at 3.8 and cum laude at 3.5.  
•	Left all other language as is.  
•	Rainer requested we do a broader discussion with the full faculty senate at the Nov. 6 meeting.
•	Marsha will prepare a summary of the discussion and proposed changes.  Rainer will make the presentation and lead the discussion at Faculty Senate.

3.	Freshman Grade Reports

•	Linda reported that some faculty used the NB and I grades on the mid-term grade reports, and asked that Banner not allow those grades to be entered.  
•	The assumption is that this problem can be fixed through Banner and through educating faculty.  Further information will be gathered by Melissa and Linda.

4.	Clarification of resident credit requirement for graduation.

•	Linda has found a discrepancy between the current catalog description of the residency credit requirement that faculty senate passed (which included all UA system credits in meeting the residency requirement) and what Board of Regents Policy states (UAF only).  We need to look into this further and see if local UAF Regulations can vary from BOR policy.  Rainer and Linda have additional information.  Further discussion will occur at the next meeting.

Next meeting will be after the faculty senate meeting on November 6.

***************

	B.	Faculty Affairs - Sukumar Bandopadhyay

Two issues they are working on are the Electronic Activities Report and College Learning Assessment (CLA).  

	C.	Unit Criteria - Debasmita Misra 

A report was attached to the agenda.   Their next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 22, 9-10:15 a.m. in Duckering 535.  

	D.	Committee on the Status of Women - Jane Weber 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	E.	Core Review - Michael Harris 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

	F.	Curriculum Review - Rainer Newberry

No report was available.  

	G.	Developmental Studies - Cindy Hardy 

A report was attached to the agenda.  The committee continues to work on mandatory placement issues.  

	H.	Faculty Appeals & Oversight - Norm Swazo 

A report was attached to the agenda. 

I.	Faculty Development, Assessment & Improvement - Larry Roberts 

The following report was distributed as a handout.  

Faculty Development, Assessment, and Improvement Committee

Meeting Minutes, October, 2006

Meeting was called to order at 12:15pm

Attending: 	Christie Cooper, Michael Daku, Dana Greci, Susan Herman, Marjorie Illingworth, Joy Morrison, Larry Roberts-Chairperson

Agenda items: 	Call to order
			Report from Joy
			Old and ongoing business
			Faculty Forum on assessment 
			2nd Annual Adult Learning Conference
			New Business
			Adjournment

Larry Roberts opened the meeting with a roll-call. Review of September minutes was postponed until the next meeting. Business was conducted resulting in the following decisions and shared information.

Report from Joy:	Three learning communities are meeting regularly. They are in the middle of the second round and getting the participating faculty ready to attend an out-of-state teaching conference in March. Barbara Mills will be presenting a pre-conference on games and other motivations in the classroom.

	This Friday afternoon (1:00pm-3:30pm), Dr. Sonia Gonsalves, Director of The Faculty Development Institute at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, will hold a workshop on “Assessment of Prior Learning.” The session will be web streamed live and archived for future viewing.

	Joy will be attending a Professional Organizational Development Conference in Portland, OR toward the end of October.

Old business:	Faculty Assessment Forum: Members discussed various desired outcomes of the forum and potential questions to be addressed. Joy Morrison, Paul Reichardt, and Susan Henrichs met since our last committee meeting to discuss the forum. Joy reported three main topics that were suggested for discussion at the forum (standards for documentation of teaching effectiveness, more specific guidance for reviewers at the various levels of review, systematic peer evaluation). The result of members’ discussion was that the forum would focus on assessment of teaching specifically, that the three issues defined by Joy, Paul, and Susan would be exhaustive for the time allotted to the forum, and a facilitation process was considered. It was suggested that the time be divided into three segments: one hour of general presentation by Paul to lay a foundation of the topic, break out groups over lunch where three groups are formed with each addressing one of the main topics, and a whole group session where each group reports their process and suggestions.

	Adult Learning Conference: Planning for the Circumpolar Conference on Innovation and Excellence in Teaching is moving forward. It will begin February 28th in the evening with two days of sessions following. This year participants will be assessed a small registration fee (in the area of $100). Multiple presenters from last year are returning with great enthusiasm about the conference. 

New business:	The learning communities’ proposal with Ohio State was not funded.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:00pm.

Next Meeting:  November 8, 2006 @ 12:15pm

Respectfully submitted by:  Christie Cooper, Secretary

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	J.	Graduate Academic & Advisory Committee - Cathy Cahill 

A report was attached to the agenda.  

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XI	Members' Comments/Questions - none

XII	Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m.

Tapes of this Faculty Senate meeting are in the Governance Office, 312 Signers' Hall if anyone wishes to listen to the complete tapes. 

Submitted by Sheri Layral, Faculty Senate Secretary.