Plymouth State University
Faculty Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 3:35PM-5PM – Heritage Commons
Note – These minutes contain changes to the Faculty By-Laws which were approved at this meeting.
Note – Click here to view the full draft of these minutes (which includes the appendices) in PDF format.
Approval of draft minutes of the 12/05/07 meeting. Approved as corrected.
I. Reports
a. President Sara Jayne Steen: sent electronically. Attached. No questions.
b. Provost Julie Bernier: sent electronically. Attached. No questions.
c. Student Senate Speaker Peter Laufenberg: Senate has not yet met. No report.
II. New Business
a. Resolutions of the Standing Committees—
i. Motion from the Curriculum Committee: Drop the K-12 Special Education Certification option of the BS Childhood Studies
Motion passed unanimously.
b. Resolution from the Faculty Welfare Committee (Mary Cornish):
That the faculty endorses the concept of awarding extraordinary merit pay.
c. Resolution from the Faculty Welfare Committee (Mary Cornish):
That the faculty endorses the concept of awarding recognition pay.
Rationale: Extraordinary merit pay and recognition pay were awarded after the 2006-07 academic year. There has been debate and discussion about this issue,
including a Faculty Forum in December 2007. The Faculty Welfare Committee
would like to get a sense of the spirit of the full faculty on this issue. To that end, we are introducing two resolutions to gauge the support of the faculty for extraordinary merit pay and recognition pay. We are asking for a faculty discussion and a poll by paper ballot of full-time (tenure-track and contract) faculty at this meeting.
The ballot voting process was explained to the faculty in attendance. A discussion was held during which comments were made both for and against the motion. Following the discussion, ballots were distributed, votes were cast, and ballots were collected. An email to the faculty will announce the results of the balloting.
d. Motion from the GITF: (Linda Levy)
that Faculty By-Laws, Article VII, The Faculty Forum be changed:
Current wording:
The Faculty Forum meets to discuss matters of concern to the teaching faculty and to the University as a whole. The Forum has no legislative jurisdiction. The Faculty Forum meets at the request of the Executive Council; alternatively, the Faculty Speaker will, on petition from ten members of the faculty, call a Faculty Forum meeting.
Proposed wording:
The Faculty Forum meets to discuss matters of concern to the teaching faculty and to the University as a whole. The Forum has no legislative jurisdiction. The Faculty Speaker will, on petition from ten members of the faculty, call a Faculty Forum meeting.
It was suggested by Gary McCool that the minutes of this meeting reflect that this is a Faculty By-Laws change, which was not shown in the original agenda statement.
There was no discussion.
Motion passed unanimously.
e. Motion from the Curriculum Committee: (Wendy Palmquist)
That a minimum of 120 credits be required to earn a bachelor degree from Plymouth State University.
There was no discussion.
Motion passed unanimously.
f. Motion from the Associate VP for Undergraduate Studies (David Zehr):
To change the policy for declaring academic options as follows:
Page 51-Academic Catalog: Declaring majors, Options, and Minors (2nd paragraph)
The current catalog policy regarding options reads:
“…Where there are several options available within a major, it is advisable for students to choose the one that best suits their interests rather than to pursue several overlapping options jointly.”
The proposal is to add the following (in bold) to that statement:
“…Where there are several options available within a major, it is advisable for students to choose the one that best suits their interests rather than to pursue several overlapping options jointly. If a student does choose to pursue a second or subsequent option, at least 12 credits must be different from the first option. To complete an option a student uses the same catalog as the major.”
There was some discussion on this motion.
After a voice vote was not absolutely clear, a hand vote was taken.
Motion passed.
g. Motion from the Department of Environmental Science and Policy (Brian Eisenhauer):
That the Faculty approve a new program, a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy. (See Appendix A for vision and goals and Appendix B for curriculum)
There was some discussion on this motion.
Motion passed unanimously.
h. Report from the General Education Committee (Evelyn Stiller):
On the status of general education assessment.
Sent electronically. Attached. Question: How will the pilot program be structured? 100 students in the fall and 100 students in the spring. It has not yet been determined how the students will become part of the program.
i. Report from SPPC (Anne Kulig):
Sent electronically. Attached. No questions.
i. Report from Public Relations (Christopher Williams):
On P-Link.
III. Announcements
1. A reminder to bring your own drink containers as part of our sustainability efforts.
2. Reminder that Nadine Strasser, ACLU, will be speaking at Smith Recital Hall
on Thursday, February 7th.
3. New exhibit at Karl Drerup Gallery opening tonight: Standing on One Foot.
4. Terri Potter has asked the faculty to please give thought to making
recommendations to her for student orientation leaders.
5. The Academic Excellence Reception is coming up. Faculty were reminded of
how much students appreciate seeing their faculty at this special event.
The meeting adjourned at 4:58 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Alice O’Connor, Scribe