Agenda and minutes from the Wright State University Academic Council Meeting held on October 2, 1989

Sayer, James E.

English

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Wright State University CORE Scholar Faculty Senate Minutes and Agendas Faculty Senate 10-2-1989 Academic Council Meeting Agenda and Minutes, October 2, 1989 James E. Sayer Wright State University - Main Campus, james.sayer@wright.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/archives_senate_minutes  Part of the Educational Leadership Commons Repository Citation Sayer, J. E. (1989). Academic Council Meeting Agenda and Minutes, October 2, 1989. . https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/archives_senate_minutes/134 This Minutes is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Senate at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Senate Minutes and Agendas by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact library-corescholar@wright.edu. WRIGHTS1ATEWright State University Dayton, Ohio 45435Office of the University Faculty 032 Rike Hall513/873-2039TO: Members of Academic Council and University FacultyFROM: Jame^ET Sayer, Faculty Vice PresidentSUBJECT: Agenda for Academic Council Meeting on Monday. October 2,1989. 3:10 p.m.. 155 A. B, & C--Universitv CenterI. Call to Order --------II. Approval of Minutes of June 5, 1989III. Report of the President: Paige MulhollanIV. Report of the Steering Committee: James SayerV. Report of Standing and Ad Hoc CommitteesA. Building & Grounds Utilization & Planning: Robert RiordanB. Curriculum: Robert WagleyC. Faculty Affairs: Allan BarclayD. Library: Adrian RakeE. Student Affairs: Lewis ShupeF. University Budget Review Committee: Alphonso SmithVI. Old BusinessVII. New BusinessA. Call for Nominations for Academic Council Representative to University Promotion and Tenure Committee-Attachment AVIII. Announcements and Special ReportsA. Next Academic Council: November 6, 1989, 3:10 p.m.IX. Adjournment/dcII.III.ACADEMIC COUNCIL MINUTESOctober 2, 1989The meeting of October 2, 1989, was called to order by James Sayer, Vice-President of the University Faculty, at 3:10 p.m., in 155 A, B, & C University Center.Present: S. Baucher, J. Blair, D. Carson, P. DeClaire, M. Dunn,R. Fichtenbaum, E. Harden, C. Hathaway, R. Hiskey, M. Kapp, M. MacDonald, J. McKnight, R. Millman, P. Moore, P. Mulhollan, J. Rossmiller, E. Rupert, E. Rutter, J. Sayer, D. Schlagheck, P. Seybold, A. Smith, G. Spalding, G. Sturm, R. Williams, R. Wilson-VinsonAbsent: N. Dorris, R. Fox, C. Funderburk, G. Gayle, F. Gies, A.Gillis, D. Henderson, H. Khamis, M. Perkel, P. Rodenhauser, T. SudkampThe June 5, 1989, Academic Council minutes were approved asdistributed.Report of the President. Paige Mulhollan reporting:President Mulhollan welcomed all members and expressed his pleasure to see the student representatives in attendance. He reported on the following:A. Wright State University's 25th Anniversary. The twenty-fifth anniversary celebration is underway with several successful events already concluded. Two very important events coming up:1. October 7 - Caberet Concert with Roy Meriwether and theSh-Booms.2. October 10 - All-university reception honoring retirees.Special guests will be Robert Oelman, one of the four founders of WSU, and previous Wright State University presidents, Brage Golding and Robert Kegerreis.B. WSU Smoke-Free Environment. Many were interested last spring, with varying degrees of passion on each side of the subject, on a task force's recommendations on creating a smoke-free environment at WSU. The recommendations were circulated widely during May and June and have been accepted. However, they will be substantially more difficult, administratively, to implement than was first believed.A task force from the service areas has advised the president of physical plant changes necessary (signs, etc.). Although they continued to work through the summer, they are not prepared at this point to implement massive series of changes in a short period of time.A faculty group, chaired by Allan Barclay, School of Professional Psychology, has recommended necessary implementation of support groups in terms of education activities and other services to persons who wish to quit smoking.These two task forces and the administration will continue working on these policy recommendations through the balance of this fall and early winter. The target date for implementation of most of the recommendations for a smoke-free environment at WSU is January 1, 1990.C. President Mulhollan's Charge to the Academic Council and to the University Faculty:Wright State University has a tradition of outstanding teaching. Because of this tradition, teaching was stated as the university's first priority on the strategic plan. Theuniversity's General Education Program is far advanqed, more than most institutions in the country. For this reason, the university has supported, and continues to support, the implementation of the Writing Across the Curriculum Program which is being received well by faculty members and which will serve our students well.During the past several years, WSU has an extraordinary record in enhancing research sponsored by both external as well as internal grants. Sponsored programs are up 5% this year compared to last at a time when many institutions are having a difficult time keeping even with previous years.The administration of the Dayton public schools lists WSU as currently active and having in place twenty-five different collaborative agreements with them.As this institution matures, as these good things have been happening, there seems to be developing an underlying problem which is fundamentally academic which can only be solved by faculty interest, faculty commitment and faculty creativity. The problem is not clear-cut, but its symptoms become more evident as each fall quarter rolls around and begins.This year the 14th day enrollment is up 2% in headcount. Enrollment of new freshmen are up by 7%. Undergraduate student credit hours appear to be up between 2-3%. An equally consistent trend is that upper division enrollment is consistently down. Graduate student applications and admissions are actually up, and were up last year, but enrollment is down. It is obvious that we are not retaining advance students and/or not recruiting graduate students and retaining them as we are with the freshmen.Most serious is that it seems that we are falling short of student expectations, and we are not retaining those students who give us the opportunity to start giving them their collegiate experience. This trend has to be reversed if we are going to be the high-quality institution that we are and that we want to be, if we want to recruit better and better students and retain them through their educational experiences, and if we want to maintain our financial base. The latter cannot be done by replacing upper division students with freshmen students.This is not "a" problem, but a set or a group of related problems. Students consistently express their concerns to President Mulhollan as various groups meet with him 9-12 times during the course of each year.1. First Area of Concern:a. Advising. The most frequently mentioned are problems with either college-level or department-level ^advising. This is not a universal complaint; there are departments in the university that get extremely high marks for advising.b. Scheduling. Scheduling appears to be constructed forthe convenience of faculty and not for students.1) There are problems with the frequency when courses are going to be offered.2) There are upper division electives with only a few students in them. Students can not get into required upper division courses.3) Sequencing is a problem with the students in order to finish courses required for their graduation.4) Times of the day and/or night classes that are or are not offered presents difficulty to students.2. Second Area of Concern:a. Bureaucracy. This problem can be classified, ingeneral, as the bureauracy of going to school— problemshaving to do all the way from admissions throughfinancial aid, registration, fee payment, drop dates, and all of the bureauracy that a student goes through in order to get registered, to complete academic work, to get the appropriate credit, etc.The Enrollment Management Task Force is addressing most of these issues. Very shortly in this quarter the task force is going to bring forth a series of recommendations that are intended to deal with the bureaucratic problems that seem to be prevalent. Each of the recommendations is going toconstitute a change and, predictably, there will be large numbers of individuals who do not want to change.3. Third Area of Concern:a. Curriculum. This is an extremely sensitive issue todeparments, but there are students who believe the departmental curriculum has been static for some time, that there may be things in the field which are not readily available in our curriculum, or things required that are no longer required by similar curricula elsewhere, and that there are rather fundamental reaffirmations of curriculum that can and should be made at the department level.1) Academic Calendar. Part of the curriculum problem has to do with the academic calendar. Past polls have revealed the preference of the faculty, students, and the president. However, no calendar change anywhere appears to take place by consensus. As aconsequence, if there is general support among those who are sufficiently familiar with the issues to have an opinion that there are compelling academic reasons for making a change, the university will do so, if not, it won't. Ultimately, the Board of Trustees will take action to choose the calendar. A decision will be made with respect to the calendar by January 1, 1990.President Mulhollan reiterated that most of these problems can only be solved by the faculty. He asked the Academic Council to take these issues as their charge for the year.Discussion: A statement was made during discussion that thesesame problems were brought forward by a task force in 1983-84.President Mulhollan responded that he was sorry to hear that these issues were brought to the attention of the institution so long ago and that they still remain issues. Hopefully, the university community can collectively remedy them so that in five or six yearsfrom now the same statement can not be made again about theseproblems.He further stated that it will not do to continue trying to keep the university's economic base secure by simply recruiting more freshmen and then not retaining them. The other thing that can not be done is to continue business as usual with replacing any lost revenues by passing the cost on to the students. In economic terms, the base that provides for new faculty, that provides adequate operatingexpenses, and that provides for salary increases and compensation increases is at threat sooner or later by the trends described. The university has managed thus far to avoid any serious crises resulting from that, but if those trends become routine, and perhaps even pronounced, they could produce very serious financialdifficulty for the institution within a reasonable period of time. That's why it is prudent for the faculty to spend a serious amount of consideration on these issues now before they reach crises proportions, before they become long-term trends, and try to reverse them.IV- Report of the Steering Committee. James Sayer reporting:A. Agenda. Among other items of discussion at their meeting thecommittee prepared the October 2 Academic Council agenda.October 16 is the next scheduled meeting of the SteeringCommittee.B. University Committees. The 1989-90 University Committees have been updated. As it changes frequently, it is dated at eachpublication (Attachment A).C. Fall Quarter General Faculty Meeting. A reminder has beenmailed to all faculty that the Fall Quarter General FacultyMeeting will be on Tuesday, November 14, at 3:30 p.m., in the Medical School Auditorium. Any concerns or items to be considered at that meeting should be forwarded to James Sayer or to any other member of the agenda committee by October 27.D. President Paige Mulhollan's Fifth Year Review. This is thefifth year of President Mulhollan's tenure as president ofWright State University and, as required by the university'sreview procedures, his performance must go through a verylengthy, formal review process. Fred Young, Chairman of the WSU Board of Trustees has agreed to be in charge of this process.Each member of the faculty and staff (classified and unclassified) will receive a copy of the review instrument and a letter explainng the process. All forms must be returned by November 17. The Office of the University Faculty, 032 RikeHall, is handling all on-campus evaluations while Mr. Young isoverseeing the remainder of the review of all external evaluations. The goal is to have all data collected before the end of the fall quarter.E. Visit to WSU-Lake Campus Faculty Senate. In order to insure a good faculty-to-faculty relationship between the main campus and the lake campus, arrangements have been made with Arthur Molitierno, president of the Faculty Senate at Celina, for James Sayer to visit the campus on November - 3. Mr. Sayer will meet with the faculty to discuss any particular concerns they may have that need to be expressed on the main campus at an appropriate Academic Council meeting.V. Report of Standing and Ad Hoc Committees:A. Building & Grounds Utilization & Planning. No report. Thecommittee will be meeting for the first time in October.B. Curriculum. No report.c* Faculty Affairs. Allan Barclay reporting:1. Drop Date Policy. The Drop Date Policy was reviewed and a report will be come forth at a later date.2. WSU Smoke-Free Environment. The committee had a preliminary discussion on the establishment of a university policy of a smoke-free environment and some of the support services necessary for persons who wish to quit smoking.3. Emeritus Status. The committee is going to review thepossibility of a university-wide policy regarding femeritus rights.4. Copyright Policy. The committee will review the proposedpolicy promulgated by Vice-President Hathaway relative tocopyright issues.5• Sexual Harassment Policy. The committee has someunfinished business from last year surrounding the current university policy on sexual harassment. A subcommittee is addressing these issues.6• Senior Instructor Ranking at WSU-Lake Campus. The committee discussed the action which was before the Board ofTrustees concerning the possibility of establishing the rankof Senior Instructor at the Lake Campus.D. Library. Adrian Rake reporting:The Library Committee met on Friday, September 29, andestablished an agenda.1. This fall it is going to examine three things:a. New Facilities Review. The committee will check the new wing of the library and other new facilities to see if there are any problems, i.e., noise level, etc.b. Head Librarian Search. The committee will have a role in the selection of a new university head librarian.c. Departmental Funding for Library Acguisitions. Thecommittee will investigate and determine whether the new method of funding departments for library acquisitionsis working properly and satisfactorily.2- OLIS. During the winter and spring the committee willdetermine how the university should prepare to interact withthe Ohio Library Information System (OLIS). That system should start to be defined in March.3. Journals. The unbound journals are now restricted so thestudents, particularly the undergraduate students, do not have free access to them. he committee will try to determine ifthis has seriously reduced the students brousing through the journals.It has been suggested that the committee figure a cost/benefit ratio concerning the reduction of students brousing versus the benefit of not having a substantial number of missing journals (over 500) in a single year. This may not be possible, but it will be considered.E. Student Affairs. Lewis Shupe reporting:The Student Affairs Committee will be meeting for the first timebeginning the week of October 9.1* Agenda: Some unresolved agenda items that will be picked upagain this year are:a. Class Drop Dates. As recommended by James Sayer, the Student Affairs Committee will be working in concert with the Faculty Affairs Committee to discuss the suggested class drop dates.b. After Hours Library Study Space. A very important agenda item early in the committee's discussion will be the request for space for students to study after hours once the university library has closed.2• Announcements:a. Student Affairs & Student Services Retreat. The directors of Student Affairs and Student Services will beconducting a two-day retreat on October 26-27 for studentpersonnel in each of the colleges. The purpose of theretreat is to discuss ways to encourage more student activities and to encourage more students to participate.The memorandums have gone out to the colleges and responses have been received. Mr. Shupe urged the faculty to take this agenda item back to their constituents and to support their student representatives.b. Multicultural Task Force. The Multicultural Task Force is operational, and two meetings have been scheduled. The Student Affairs Committee will be working directly with members of the task force to • help collect data and to implement the important objectives.c. Residential Campus Students. This year Wright State University is at full capacity with the largest number, 1,361, of residential students on campus.F. University Budget Review C o m m i t t e e - Alphonso Smith reporting:The UBRC met three times during the summer and twice during September. The agenda was set for the fall quarter as well as a data collection mode. The committee decided to hear from the various deans during the fall quarter. Dean Carlson met with the committee on September 11, and the other deans are scheduled for the next seven Thursdays.VI. Old Business: NoneVII. New Business:Call for Nominations for Academic Council Representative toUniversity Promotion and Tenure Committee (Attachment A, October 2, 1989, Academic Council Agenda).As a response to Mr. Sayer's call for nominations from the floor, the following persons were nominated:William Brown Peter Carusone Terry McKee Marvin Seiger Paul ServePrior to the election at the next Academic Council meeting on November 6, an additional call will be made for nominations.VIII. Announcements and Special Reports: The next Academic Councilmeeting will be on Monday, November 6, 1989, at 3:10 p.m., in 155A, B, & C University Center.IX. Adiournment. The meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m.jlAttachment

Academic Council Meeting Agenda and Minutes, October 2, 1989

https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1133&amp;context=archives_senate_minutes

Academic Council Meeting Agenda and Minutes, October 2, 1989

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