THE
T H E S E N A T E R E C O R D
Volume 38-----December 7, 2004-----Number 3
The Senate Record is the official publication of the University Faculty Senate of The Pennsylvania State University, as provided for in Article I, Section 9 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, and contained in the Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Rules of the University Faculty Senate, The Pennsylvania State University, 2004-2005.
The
publication is issued by the Senate Office, 101 Kern Graduate Building, University
Park, PA 16802 (telephone 814-863-0221). The Senate Record is
distributed to all libraries across
Except for items specified in the applicable Standing Rules, decisions on the responsibility for inclusion of matters in the publication are those of the Chair of the University Faculty Senate.
When existing communication channels seem inappropriate, senators are encouraged to submit brief letters relevant to the Senate's function as a legislative, advisory and forensic body to the Chair for possible inclusion in The Senate Record.
Reports that have appeared in the Agenda for the meeting are not included in The Senate Record unless they have been changed substantially during the meeting, or are considered to be of major importance. Remarks and discussions are abbreviated in most instances. A complete transcript and tape of the meeting is on file. Individuals with questions may contact Dr. Susan C. Youtz, Executive Secretary, University Faculty Senate.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Final Agenda for December 7, 2004 Pages ii-iii
II. Minutes and Summaries of Remarks Pages 1-9
III. Appendices
A. Internet Security Presentation Appendix I
B. Attendance Appendix II
FINAL AGENDA FOR DECEMBER 7, 2004
A. MINUTES OF THE PRECEDING MEETING Page 1
Minutes of the October 26, 2004, meeting in The Senate Record 38:2
[www.senate.psu.edu/record/index.html]
B. COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SENATE Pages 1-2
Senate Curriculum Report of November 23, 2004
[www.senate.psu.edu/curriculum_resources/bluesheet/bluex.html]
Committee on Committees and Rules Editorial Revisions to the
Designations of three Curricular Affairs Subcommittees
C. REPORT OF SENATE COUNCIL – Meeting of November 23, 2004 Page 2
D. ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE CHAIR Pages 2-4
E. COMMENTS BY EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND
PROVOST RODNEY ERICKSON Pages 4-7
F. FORENSIC BUSINESS Page 7
G. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Page 7
H. LEGISLATIVE REPORTS
Revision of Senate Policy 83-80: Limitations on Source Pages 7-8
And Time for Credit Acquisition
I. ADVISORY/CONSULTATIVE REPORTS
J. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS
Computing and Information Systems
Information Technology Fee Usage – FY 2003-2004 Page 8
Internet Security: Surviving the Storm Page 8
[ten minutes allotted for presentation]
Senate Council
Summary of Fall 2004 Officers’ Visits to University Page 8
University Planning
Status of Construction Page 8
[ten minutes allotted for presentation]
K. NEW LEGISLATIVE BUSINESS Page 9
L. COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE Page 9
M. ADJOURNMENT Page 9
NOTE: The next regular meeting of the University
Faculty Senate will be held on Tuesday, February 1, 2005, at 1:30 p.m. in room
112
The University Faculty Senate met on
Tuesday, December 7, 2004, at 1:30 p.m. in room 112
Chair Steiner: Please come in and sit down. We are very nearly ready to start. I want to remind you to turn off your cell phones and pagers. Thank you.
MINUTES OF THE PRECEDING MEETING
Chair Steiner: Agenda Item A, minutes of the preceding meeting. The October 26, 2004, The Senate Record, containing a full transcription of the proceedings, was sent to all University Libraries and is posted on the Faculty Senate Web site. Are there any corrections or additions to the minutes of the October meeting? May I have a motion to accept?
Senators: So moved.
Chair Steiner: Seconded?
Chair Steiner: All in favor of accepting the minutes of October 26, 2004, please say, “Aye.”
Senators: Aye
Chair Steiner: Opposed, nay? The motion carries and the minutes are approved.
By the way, if you look at
those minutes for the
Chair Steiner: Agenda Item B, Communications to the Senate: the Senate Curriculum Report of November 23, 2004, is posted on the University Faculty Senate Web page.
Also, the Senate committee on Committees and Rules has made editorial revisions to the names of three Curricular Affairs subcommittees, and you will find this communication in Appendix B of today’s Agenda.
Finally, President Spanier has directed the implementation of three legislative reports that were approved at the October 26, 2004, Senate meeting. From the committee on Committees and Rules, action to revise the Bylaws entitled, “Revision to Bylaws, Article III, Section 7 (Senate Absences),” and action to amend the Constitution entitled, “Amendment to Constitution, Article II, Section 5c (Student Representation).” From the committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling, and Student Aid, action to revise Senate policy entitled, “Proposal for Revising Senate Policy 47-45 (Grading System for M.D. Candidates).”
Chair Steiner: Agenda Item C, Report of Senate Council, the minutes of the Senate Council meeting of November 23 are attached to today’s Agenda.
Chair
Steiner: Agenda Item D, Comments By The Chair. The Senate officers
concluded our fall visits to
My duties as Chair Elect and Chair
have taken me to 18 of
Each campus, and sometimes even the
campus community, has its own distinctive character or personality. One’s
understanding of the University expands immensely through the experience of
these visits. I consider it a privilege to have had this uncommon opportunity,
and I am sure those visits will be a prominent part of my memory of these two
years in Senate leadership. Now I did not say fond memory, but it is true that
I have asked Susan to invite me to visits next fall so that I can complete my
tour. I do not know whether I will actually do that when the invitation comes,
if it comes. It depends on my schedule, but it seems kind of a shame to drop
out of the marathon now with the finish line so close. It has been a great
experience, and as I stand here today, I really would have liked to have been
to all of our
The Faculty Advisory Committee to
the President met on November 23, and the topics that were discussed during
that meeting are listed in the minutes of Senate Council, which are included in
today’s Agenda. One of those topics was the situation with the Dickinson School
of Law. I made a rather lengthy statement on the
On October 12 and 13 of last month
Jamie, Susan, and I attended the Annual Meeting of the CIC Faculty Governance
Leaders at the
Well, it seems as though the Senate year has just begun, but it is already time to prepare for spring elections. Candidates for Secretary and Chair Elect of the Senate, membership on the Faculty Advisory Committee to the President, and the committee on Committees and Rules are nominated by the Senate Council Nominating Committee, which will convene on January 18. This committee consists of all elected Senate Council members and is chaired by the Immediate Past Chair of the Senate, Chris Bise. Candidates for other Senate-wide elections – for membership on the Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee, the University Promotion and Tenure Review Committee, and the Standing Joint Committee on Tenure – are nominated by the Committee on Committees and Rules, which is chaired by Pam Hufnagel. Of course, we want to have the best possible candidates for these positions. So I would like you all to think about who among your acquaintances and your colleagues on or off the Senate, in the case of some of these committees, might be good candidates for any of these positions. I am just going to ask Chris to stand up. Chris is the Immediate Past Chair, and he is chairing the Council nominating committee. Pam, would you please stand. Please talk to Chris or Pam, if you have any suggestion about candidates for these positions.
Two weeks ago, the Senate officers
and Doug Brown, Chair of Curricular Affairs, previewed a demonstration of the
Electronic Course Proposal and Review System, which was just renamed this
morning by Curricular Affairs, to the Course Submission and Consultation
Systems Process. I think the system looks very promising, and that is speaking
as somebody who had pretty long experience dealing with these proposals from
the department end of the process. Even so, after hearing this presentation we
sent the development team back to the drawing board with a lot of suggestions.
The hope is that a pilot run of the system can be conducted this spring with
two or three
At the last Senate meeting, I
mentioned the new Senate Web site. The site is now up, and we have a new, easy-to-remember
URL www.senate.psu.edu.
I am also pleased to say we got tremendous cooperation from Steve McCarthy in
changing the University’s home page in a way that you can easily find the
Faculty Senate from
Finally, I wish to alert you to an
important academic symposium coming up on February 25 and 26 entitled, “The
Future of the
COMMENTS BY THE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND PROVOST OF THE
UNIVERSITY
Chair Steiner: Agenda Item E, Comments by the President of the University. President Spanier is not able to be with us today, but I would like to call upon Provost Rodney Erickson to offer comments on behalf of the University administration and answer questions.
Provost Erickson: Thank you, Chair Steiner, and good afternoon everyone. Provost Erickson opened with an anecdote.
At this time of the year, I can
share with you a few things that are on my mind. First, I want to thank all of
our faculty who were very diligent in holding classes during Thanksgiving week.
As you may recall, we set aside Wednesday as a travel day with the idea that
Monday and Tuesday would be full days of instruction, and that we would not
have students heading off earlier in that week. This has become a cycle over
the years. Of course, the farther you back up the vacation, the earlier some
folks take off regardless. Some people have suggested that we should just take
the whole week off. Then I have said, “Well the Wednesday or Thursday before,
here at
One of the other things that is on
my mind this time of the year is commencement, which will be coming up at many
locations in the next couple of weeks. That is always the time of the year when
I think it is a really special time. You get to see a lot of happy faces,
interact with our students, interact with their parents, and so forth. There is
one group of faculty here at
One of the other things that is on
my radar screen right now is the Social Security Number conversion. I cannot
begin to describe how complex and complicated a task this is. We are changing
over from our current system that relies on Social Security numbers to a
different
One other thing that I have looked
at recently is the employee head count data. This is something that I get (the
census) regularly about this time of the year. I look at the data from the
standpoint of year-to-year changes as well as the long-term. For example, I was
just looking at the data between fall of 1996 and fall 2004. I think there are
a number of interesting aspects there. Over that eight year period, the number
of full-time faculty at
November 30, is an interesting day
that we also watch, because of the undergraduate admissions cycle for fall
2005. Every year is different, we encourage students to have their applications
in here by November 30, although, the admissions application cycle runs
somewhat later at many of our campuses. We had a surge of applications in the
week before November 30. I suspect that many of our students are now waiting
until the very last minute to hit that send button, knowing it will go over the
internet, and there is no worry about snow storms, snail mail, and all of the
other kinds of things that afflicted many of us in our generation. As of
November 30, we had over 34,000 applications, which is up about four percent
from last year. Actually, it is the highest number that we have had at this
date in
Finally, I would call your attention
to the Penn State Economic Impact Study. You may have read about it or heard
about it in the media over the last couple of weeks. It is a very interesting
study. As I think most of us knew beforehand, the impact of
Chair Steiner: Thank you, Provost Erickson. Are there any questions for the Provost?
Jeffrey
Nealon, College of the Liberal Arts: I wonder if you could give us an
update on what is happening with child care on campus here at
Provost
Erickson: I would be happy to respond to that. There are several different
aspects. First of all, I think everyone should understand there has been a lot
of misinformation about the Child Development Lab closing. Yes, it will close
somewhere in the neighborhood of two years at the earliest, when the Henderson
South Building is demolished and we construct a new building there. Yes, it is
closing, but the children who are at the Child Development Lab will be absorbed
into the
The second aspect that the
In 1996, the University as part of
its child care study, created the plan that led to the building later on of the
Chair Steiner: Any other questions? This seems like a very somber group on this rainy anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.
Jean Landa Pytel, College of Engineering: You mentioned the increase in the number of classes held during the couple days before Thanksgiving break, but we have been hearing some disturbing reports that facilities in the HUB, for example, where not moving in the same direction, in terms of closing. The support systems that are there normally on a day-to-day basis were kind of shutdown—let us say prematurely. I am wondering if something could be done in terms of coordinating, so the students and faculty who are here, do not feel like they made a mistake when they are in the HUB.
Provost Erickson: Jean, that is the first I have heard of it, but we will certainly check into it. I was not aware of that.
Chair Steiner: Anyone else? Thank you, Provost Erickson.
None.
None.
LEGISLATIVE REPORT
Chair Steiner: Agenda Item H, Legislative Reports. We have one Legislative Report today. It comes from the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education and appears on today’s Agenda as Appendix C entitled, “Revision of Senate Policy 83-80: Limitations on Source and Time for Credit Acquisition.” Art Miller, Chair of the committee, will present this report.
SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
Revision of Senate Policy
83-80: Limitations on Source and Time for Credit Acquisition
Arthur C. Miller, Chair Undergraduate Education
Art Miller: Thank you. The revision is pretty simple. There are three policies that you can petition for exceptions. Two of those were submitted to the dean and one to the subcommittee on Academic Standards. To make the process consistent, our committee decided to make the policies the same, all petitions go to their dean. If you go back over the last four years, only six petitions where submitted to the subcommittee and all were approved. I will now take questions.
Chair Steiner: Any questions for Art on this proposal? This report has been brought to the floor by committee and needs no second. Are we ready to vote? All those in favor of this legislation, please say, “Aye.”
Senators: Aye.
Chair Steiner: Opposed, nay? The ayes have it. The motion passes. The Senate has approved this legislation and it will be sent to President Spanier for implementation. Thank you, Art, and thanks to your committee.
None.
Chair Steiner: That brings us to Agenda Item J, Informational Reports. We have four Informational Reports on today’s Agenda.
INFORMATIONAL REPORTS
COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Information Technology Fee Usage – FY 2003-2004, Appendix D. The Senate Committee on Computing and Information Systems prepared a report on how the Information Technology Fee was used during fiscal year 2003-2004.
Internet Security: Surviving the Storm, Appendix E. Kathy Kimball, Director of Computer and Network Security, gave a presentation on measures to protect University computing systems from Internet security breaches. The URL address for this presentation is
http://www.senate.psu.edu/agenda/dec07-04agn/internetsecuritypresentation.pdf.
Summary of Fall 2004 Officers’ Visits to University Units, Appendix F. Dawn Blasko, Secretary of the Senate, gave a report summarizing the topics discussed during the Officers’ visits to seven campuses.
UNIVERSITY PLANNING
Status of Construction, Appendix G. H. Ford Stryker, Associate Vice President
Physical
Plant gave a report on the status of construction projects at
The
URL address for this presentation is http://www.senate.psu.edu/record/record120704/H_Ford_Stryker_Presentation.pdf.
None.
COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE GOOD OF THE UNIVERSITY
Chair Steiner: Are there any comments?
Chair Steiner: May I have a motion to adjourn?
Senators: So moved.
Chair Steiner: All in favor, please say, “Aye.”
Senators: Aye
Chair Steiner: Motion carries. The December 7, 2004, meeting of the University Faculty Senate was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.
Please
note the next meeting of the University Faculty Senate will be on February 1,
2005, at 1:30 p.m. in room 112
The
following Senators signed the Attendance Sheet and/or were noted as having
attended The December 7, 2004 Senate Meeting
Abdalla, Charles Casteel, Mark
Achterberg, Cheryl Catchen, Gary
Alcock, James Cecere, Joseph
Althouse, P. Richard Challis, John
Ambrose, Anthony Cheney, Debora
Anderson,
Ansari, Mohamad Clark-Evans, Christine
Atchley, Anthony Cole,
Bagby, John Conti, Delia
Barshinger, Richard Coraor, Lee
Becker, Paul Cox-Foster, Diana
Benson, Thomas Cranage, David
Berkowitz, Leonard Curtis,
Bise, Christopher Dansky, Katherine
Blasko, Dawn Davis, Dwight
Blood, Ingrid DeCastro, W. Travis
Blumberg, Melvin Disney, Diane
Boehmer, John Donahue, Henry
Boland, Donald Donovan, James
Boothby, Thomas DuPont-Morales, M. Toni
Bowen, Blannie Eckhardt, Caroline
Bower, Robin Egolf, Roger
Breakey, Laurie Elder, James
Brewer, Cynthia Engelder, Terry
Bridges, K. Robert Erickson, Rodney
Brinker, Daniel Eslinger, Paul
Brittingham-Brant, Margaret Evensen, Dorothy
Brockman, William Falzone, Christopher
Brown,
Browne, Stephen Feigelson, Eric
Browning, Barton Fernandez-Jimenez, Juan
Brunsden, Victor Flaherty, Jason
Burgess, Robert Floros, Joanna
Cameron, Craig Formanek, Edward
Cardamone, Michael Fosmire, Gary
Carlson, Richard Frank, Russell
Carpenter, Lynn Frank, Thomas
Carter, Arthur Franz, George
Freedman, Debra Lee, Sukyoung
Gapinski, Andrzej Leto, Dara
Gates, Zachary Levin, Deborah
Geiger, Roger Li, Bing
Georgopulos, Peter Love, Nancy
Glumac, Thomas Lundegren, Herberta
Goldstein, Lynda MacCarthy, Stephen
Gonzalez-Perez, Anibal Mara, Cynthia
Gouran, Dennis Marker, Anthony
Griswold, Anna Marsico, Salvatore
Hagen, Daniel Mason, John
Hanes, Madlyn Maxwell, Kevin
Hannan, John McCarty, Ronald
Harris, Ashley McCorkle, Sallie
Harrison, Terry McDonald, Anita
Harwood, John Mcdonel, James
Heinsohn, Robert Miller, Gary
Hellmann, John Miller, Arthur
Hester, Anne Mockensturm, Eric
High, Kane Mueller, Alfred
Hines, Michael Myers, Jamie
Holcomb, E. Jay Namasivayam, Karthik
Holen, Dale Nealon, Jeffrey
Horwitz, Alan Neiderer, Catherine
Hudson, Benjamin Oliver, Mary Beth
Hufnagel, Pamela Osa, Justina
Hupcey, Judith Page, B. Richard
Irwin, Zachary Pangborn, Robert
Jacobs, Janis Patchcoski, Justin
Jago, Deidre Pauley, Laura
Johnson, Ernest Peck, Kyle
Jurs, Peter Pell, Eva
Kamp, Marie
Kane, Eileen Petersen, Gary
Kennedy, Richard Pietrucha, Martin
Kephart, Kenneth Pytel, Jean Landa
Kester, Mark Rannels, D. Eugene
Khalilollahi, Amir Rebane, P. Peter
Kranzel, Jeffrey Richards, Winston
Kump, Lee Richards, David
Kunze, Donald Ricketts, Robert
Le, Binh Romano, John
Romberger, Andrew Willits, Billie
Ropson, Ira Wilson, Matthew
Rosson, Mary Beth Wrzos, Helena
Russell, David Wyatt,
Sachs, Howard Yahner, Richard
Salvia, A. David Yerger, Sara
Sathianathan, Dhushy Yoder, Edgar
Scaduto, Russell Youmans, Charles
Scaroni, Alan Zambanini, Robert
Schaeffer, Stephen Ziegler, Gregory
Schengrund, Cara-Lynne
Schmiedekamp, Ann Total
Elected: 195
Selzer, John Total
Ex Officio: 5
Semali, Ladislaus Total
Appointed: 14
Shuler, Patrick Total
Attending: 214
Singh, Harjit
Smith, Edward
Smith, Carol
Smith, Nadine
Smith, James
Sommese, Kristin
Spector, David
Spigelman, Candace
Spychalski, John
Steiner, Kim
Strauss, James
Su, Mila
Tempelman, Arkady
Thomas, Steven
Tikalsky, Paul
Tormey, Brian
Triponey, Vicky
Turner, Tramble
Urenko, John
Vandiver, Beverly
Vary, Thomas
Vgontzas, Alexandros
Vickers, Anita
Wager, J. James
Wheeler, Eileen
Wiens-Tuers, Barbara
Wijekumar, Kay