2011-2012
FACULTY SENATE
California State University, Sacramento
MINUTES
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Foothill Suite,
Union
3:00 - 5:00
p.m.
Present: |
Altman, Nursing; Barrena, Biological Sciences; Bersamin, Child Development; Blanton, Speech Pathology and Audiology; Blumberg, Music; Bogazianos, Criminal Justice; Boulgarides, Temporary Faculty (Kinesiology and Health Science); Bowie, Social Work; Buckley, Computer Science; Buckman, Humanities; Carroll, Student Services; Cortez, Associated Students, Inc.; W. Dillon, Government; J. Dixon, Temporary Faculty (Music); Domokos, Mathematics and Statistics; Echandia, Temporary Faculty (Bilingual/Multicultural Education); Fanetti, Susan, English; Fell, Civil Engineering; Flohr, Art; Gherman, Chemistry; Gibbs, Design; Goodrich, Theatre and Dance; Gonzalez, Associated Students, Inc.; Hadley, Sociology; Hamilton, Mathematics and Statistics; Hecsh, Teacher Education; Kirlin, Public Policy and Administration; Kornweibel, Emeritus Faculty (History); Krabacher, Parliamentarian and ASCSU Senator (Geography); Liles, Counselor Education; Marbach, Mechanical Engineering; Matthews, Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Mayberry, Foreign Languages; McKeough, Physical Therapy; Mejorado, Bilingual/Multicultural Education; Meltzer, CPC Chair (English); Michael, Management; Mikhailitchenko, Business Administration; Moni, Women’s Studies; Mosupyoe, Ethnic Studies; Moylan, Family and Consumer Sciences; Noel, FPC Chair (Teacher Education); Peigahi, GE/GRPC Chair (Library); Quirarte, Student Affairs; Reddick, Library; Russell, Social Work; Shaw, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration; Sheppard, Faculty Senate Chair (Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration); V. Smith, Communication Studies; Stevens, Environmental Studies; Strasser, Anthropology; Taylor, Physics and Astronomy; Theodorides, Kinesiology and Health Science; Van Gaasbeck, APC Chair (Economics); Wanket, Geography; |
Absent: |
Bellon, Philosophy; Chanda, Nursing; Choi, Business Administration; Deegan, Temporary Faculty (Family and Consumer Science); Hammersley, Geology (excused); Koegel, Communication Studies; Miller, GSPC Chair and ASCSU Senator (Communication Studies) (excused); Numark, History; Penrod, Psychology; Perez, Economics; Reveles, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies; Singer, Criminal Justice; Vacant, Athletics; Vacant, Special Education, Rehabilitation, School Psychology & Deaf Studies |
MOMENT OF
SILENCE
Jack Heron Emeritus Coach Intercollegiate Athletics Matthew Anderson Student |
|
APPROVAL OF THE
AGENDA
The agenda was
amended at the request of the Chair, and without objection from the membership,
to remove FS 11/12-50/GSPC/Ex. The
amended agenda was approved unanimously.
CONSENT
ACTION
FS
11/12-75/
CPC/Ex PROGRAM REVIEW- GEOLOGY
The Faculty Senate recommends that all degree programs and minors in the Department of Geology be approved for six years from the date of Senate approval. Attachment A
Carried unanimously.
FS 11/12-76/Ex COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT – SENATE
General Education/Graduation Requirements Policies
Committee
Sue Holl, Spring Semester 2012
Carried unanimously.
FS 11/12-77/Ex COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT – UNIVERSITY
ASI Appellate Council
Sylvester Bowie, 2013
Carried unanimously.
REGULAR
AGENDA
FS 11/12-78/Flr MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 2, 2012
The Faculty Senate will review the minutes at the February 23, 2012 meeting.
INFORMATION ITEMS
§ “Redefine the Possible” – President Gonzalez 3:30 pm
§ Introduction of the Faculty Endowment for Student Scholarship Award recipients 4:00 pm
Reception to follow. Appendix A
FS
11/12-73/
SCIPP/Ex POLICY ON INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM PRIORITIES: ACADEMIC PLANNING, RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT, AMENDMENT OF
The Faculty Senate recommends the following change to the quartile grouping as outlined in Section V of the Policy on Instructional Program Priorities: Academic Planning, Resource Allocation and Enrollment Management:
The process of making recommendations for academic prioritization shall result in four separate groupings-undergraduate degree programs (majors), other undergraduate programs (e.g., minors/certificates), graduate degree programs, and other graduate programs (e.g., credentials/certificates)-into quartiles based upon the criteria described in Section III for undergraduate programs) and Section IV (for graduate programs).
Section V of the Policy on Instructional
Program Priorities: Academic Planning, Resource Allocation and Enrollment
Management states that “the process of making recommendations for academic
prioritization shall result in undergraduate and graduate/credential programs
(separately) being grouped into quartiles based upon the criteria described in
Sections III and IV.” This ranking process places programs into two groupings.
Based on the most current list of approved programs received from Academic
Affairs, there are 238 programs in the undergraduate grouping and 122 programs
in the graduate grouping.
Whereas, each quartile grouping would result
in four (4) clusters of equal frequencies, the undergraduate grouping (with 238
programs) would have approx. 60 programs within each quartile cluster and the
graduate grouping (with 122 programs) would have approx. 30 programs within each
quartile cluster.
Based on the most current list of approved
programs received from Academic Affairs, the breakdown of undergraduate programs
are:
·
140
programs are majors
·
83
programs are minors
·
15
programs are certificate
Based on the most current list of approved
programs received from Academic Affairs, the breakdowns of graduate programs
are:
·
94
programs are majors
·
28
programs fall in the certificate/credential category
The task of comparing and ranking dissimilar
programs is a formidable one. To make the task meaningful, the Senate Committee
on the Policy on Instructional Program Priorities (SCIPP) is recommending that
two (2) additional groupings be added to the ranking process. The addition
of two groupings for non-major programs at both the undergraduate and graduate
level would reduce the problems associated with ranking programs that are
inherently non-comparable on multiple criteria. For example, many minors
and certificates have extremely low or negligible costs as they rely on
coursework already embedded in majors. Conversely, only major programs
strictly "graduate" students. On balance, the Committee thinks that more
of the criteria (those not associated with cost) disadvantage non-major programs
than advantage them.
While being careful not to anticipate
results, the Committee would like to guard against the possibility that the
bottom two quartiles could potentially be weighted with non-major
programs. It doesn't seem to be within the spirit of the policy that the
lower quartiles be populated with non-major programs simply because the criteria
seem more focused on measurements associated with majors. While the majors
would likely see their rankings artificially elevated, it undermines the purpose
of a quartile approach to meaningful program comparisons.
Carried unanimously.
FS 11/12-52/
APC/Ex MINIMUM GRADES FOR UNDERGRADUATE PREREQUISITE
COURSEWORK, AMENDMENT TO
The Faculty Senate recommends amending the “Minimum Grades for
Undergraduate Prerequisite Coursework” as proposed in Attachment D-1.
Note: The side-by-side comparison can be found in Attachment D-2.
BACKGROUND:
Academic Affairs referred the issue of
minimum grades required for prerequisite coursework. Currently, there is no
university policy on satisfactory completion of prerequisites. However, there is
a policy that provides that a grade of “C-” be considered a “C” for the purposes
of satisfying prerequisite coursework. Last year, there was an inquiry from
Geography regarding our policy regarding a minimum grade requirement for
prerequisite coursework. This past
summer, we had a similar inquiry from Physics. In CMS, the default setting for a
prerequisite is “C-”; however, our actual policy is ambiguous as to whether or
not a grade below a “C-” (i.e. “D”) is sufficient to fulfill a prerequisite
requirement.
The Academic Policies Committee voted
unanimously on October 7, 2011 to refer the item to the Executive
Committee. At the same meeting, a
motion to endorse the item failed: 4 Yes, 4 No, 3 Abstentions On October 14,
2011, the Academic Policies Committee voted unanimously to recommend the
attached policy language.
The following issues were raised by APC on
Minimum Grade of C- or better in prerequisite coursework
·
The
absence of a University policy allows individual departments to enforce minimum
grade requirements without Faculty Senate approval/review. Some departments may assume the
enforcement of a specific grade.
·
If there
is uncertainty in how grades in prerequisite coursework are enforced, this may
create difficulties in student course plans and advising. Having a university baseline, or
default, would alleviate this uncertainty because it would require that
departments explicitly state their prerequisite grade requirements, if they
differ from a university standard.
·
There is
no evidence that the lack of a university minimum grade requirement is
problematic. The question of how
many students would be affected, and therefore the need for such a policy, was
raised by the committee.
·
Establishing a minimum standard for
prerequisites at the university level makes sense based on the definition of
grades in academic policy (e.g., passing with a C grade versus passing with a D
grade).
·
There is
ambiguity in the current catalog language, which suggests that some change to
the policy is needed to eliminate this ambiguity. The current catalog language is based on
the assumption that before the introduction of “+/-” grades, a “C” was required
in order to satisfy a course prerequisite.
Carried unanimously.
FS 11/12-54A/Flr. BA AND BS POLICY CHANGE (UPPER FISISION UNITS IN MAJORS), REFERRAL
The Faculty Senate refers back to CPC with a request that the item be brought back with language that inclusively addresses all bachelor's degree types offered on this campus with respect to the number of units of coursework required in the major.
Carried.
FS 11/12-54/
CPC/Ex BA AND BS POLICY CHANGE (UPPER DIVISION UNITS IN MAJORS)
The Faculty Senate recommends amending the BA and BS Policy as follows:
Bachelor of Arts Degree majors require a minimum of 24 semester units in the major with at least 12 units at upper division. Bachelor of Arts Degree majors are limited to 48 units in the major field, including lower division prerequisites. The comprehensive liberal studies degree program which includes both major and general education requirements is currently exempt from the 48 unit limitation. Exemptions to the unit limitation are granted only upon the recommendation of the Academic Senate's Curriculum Committee and approval of the school dean and the Vice President, Academic Affairs.
The Bachelor of Science Degree has the same primary objectives as the Bachelor of Arts Degree but is grounded in scientific methodology and emphasizes applications in a wide range of technical and professional fields. Bachelor of Science majors require a minimum of 36 semester units in the major with at least 18 semester units at upper division, and are limited to no more than one half the total degree unit requirements in the major field, inclusive of both lower and upper division units, but exclusive of co-requisite requirements. Exemptions to the unit limitation of Bachelor of Science programs are made in the same fashion indicated for Bachelor of Arts programs.
The complete background information and side-by-side comparison can be found
in Attachment F.
FS 11/12-53A/Flr. ACADEMIC RENEWAL, REVISIONS TO INCLUDE GRADUATE STUDENTS, POSTPONEMENT TO
The Faculty Senate recommends to postpone pending an answerto the question of authority to make such changes, with the item to be returnedto the agenda at such time as the Executive Committee deems appropriate.
Carrried unanimously.
FS 11/12-53/
GSPC/Ex ACADEMIC RENEWAL, REVISIONS TO INCLUDE GRADUATE STUDENTS
The Faculty Senate recommends revising the “Academic Renewal Policy” to
include graduate students. The original proposed policy can be found in Attachment E. The policy with proposed amendments is found in Attachment E-1.
Background:
Existing policy defines Academic renewal as it pertains to undergraduate
students, as can be seen in the catalog: http://catalog.csus.edu/current/first%20100%20pages/academicpolicies.html#Renewal
The lack of
parallel policy language as it would apply to graduate and post-baccalaureate
students was brought to GSPC's attention by the Graduate Coordinators and by the
Graduate Advisory Council. The proposed policy revision creates parallel
language to define Academic Renewal in those contexts.
SENATE SPRING
SCHEDULE
The Faculty Senate meets routinely the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Thursday of each month, from 3:00-5:00 pm, in the Foothill Suite, University Union, unless notified otherwise
The Faculty Senate meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month, on an as needed basis.
It is currently anticipated that the organizational meetings for the 2012-2013 Senate will occur on March 15th and 29th. These are the meetings during which nominations and elections are held for next year’s Senate. On those dates, the 2012-2013 Senate will meet from 3:00 pm – 3:20 pm (approx.) and the 2011-2012 Senate will meet and continue with regular business immediately following adjournment of the 2012-2013 organizational meeting.
Adjourned