2011-2012 FACULTY SENATE
California State University, Sacramento

AGENDA
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Foothill Suite, Union
3:00 - 5:00 p.m.

 

MOMENT OF SILENCE

 

OPEN FORUM

 

CONSENT ACTION

 

 

REGULAR AGENDA

 

FS 11/12-89/Flr           MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 23, 2012

 

FIRST READING

 

FS 11/12-90/EX          TOBACCO FREE CAMPUS, RECOMMENDATION TO CONSIDER A

 

The Faculty Senate endorses the idea of Sacramento State becoming a tobacco-free campus and recommends consideration of such a policy to take effect at the beginning of the 2014-2015 Academic Year. 

 

The Faculty Senate further recommends that, if such a policy is adopted, implementation considerations should include the availability of resources for all members of the campus community to aid with the transition, similar to the cessation assistance programs currently available to students.

 

Guests: Harit Agroia and Katie Magnuson, Health Science Students

Attachment D

 

SECOND READING

 

FS 11/12-80

FPC-APC/EX             THE FACULTY SENATE ENDORSES FOUR STATEMENTS (ATTACHED) FROM THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS (AAUP) TO SERVE AS GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR FPC-APC DEVELOPMENT OF FACULTY AND STUDENTS RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES POLICIES

Attachment A

(Please note, this attachment has been updated since the February 23 meeting.)

 

FS 11/12-81/SEL        REFERENDUM TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FACULTY – CHANGE IN VOTING STATUS OF POLICY COMMITTEE CHAIRS ON THE FACULTY SENATE FROM VOTING TO NON-VOTING, AND MINOR EDITORIAL AMENDMENTS.  Attachment B

 

Send to referendum a motion to amend Article II, Section 5A (Membership of the Faculty Senate) of the Constitution of the Faculty of California State University, Sacramento (http://www.csus.edu/acse/constit.htm#II5) to take effect in Fall 2012. 

 

A.    The membership of the Faculty Senate shall be composed of (1) the representatives of the electing units; (2) four representatives to be elected at-large by the temporary faculty from those temporary faculty who are teaching six or more units during the semester in which the election is conducted; (3) chairs of certain standing Policy committees of the Faculty Senate (as specified in the committee's charge), as at-large ex-officio non-voting members, unless such chairs are already serving concurrently on the Senate as representatives of the electing units; (4) the statewide academic senators, as ex officio, non-voting members; (5) a Faculty Emeritus member of the California State University, Sacramento Retirees Association the President or designee of the Emeritus Association of CSU, Sacramento, as an ex officio, non-voting member, chosen by, and in a manner determined by, the Association; (6) three student representatives, as non-voting members, chosen by, and in a manner determined by, the Associated Students, Inc. of CSUS.

 

Rationale: 

 

Needed to implement recommendation #1 of the 2010-2011 Senate Select Committee stated in the Committee’s May 5, 2011 memorandum to the Faculty Senate as follows: 

 

1.      The Select Committee recommends amendment of the Faculty Constitution to provide that chairs of certain policy committees of the Faculty Senate (as specified in the committee’s charge) shall henceforth be ex-officio non-voting members of the Senate, unless serving simultaneously as a member for a department or other electing unit as defined in the Faculty Constitution. 

 

Makes minor clarifying editorial changes.  Most Senate committees are “standing” (as opposed to ad hoc) committees, but only a few are designated as “Policy” committees with representation on the Senate.  The name of the retirees association has been changed and is inclusive of faculty, staff and administrators.  ASI’s formal name is now indicated.

 

FS 11/12-82/SEL        REFERENDUM TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FACULTY–DELETE REQUIREMENT FOR SENATOR REPRESENTATION ON ALL STANDING SENATE COMMITTEES, AND MINOR EDITORIAL AMENDMENT.  Attachment C

 

Send to referendum a motion to amend Article II, Section 3B of the Constitution of the Faculty of California State University, Sacramento to take effect in Fall 2012.

 

B. The Faculty Senate shall create such committees as it deems necessary to the performance of its duties, shall establish rules and procedures for its committees, and shall establish methods of selecting the membership of all required or requested committees. These committees shall not be construed to be sub-units of the faculty, and may not assume duties constitutionally assigned to other sub-units of the faculty. Each of these committees shall include among its members no fewer than two (2) voting members of the Faculty Senate. In addition, the Faculty Senate shall elect the chairs of certain standing Policy committees (as specified in the committee's charge).

 

Rationale: 

 

For several years, the constitutional provision requiring that standing committees of the Faculty Senate include no fewer than two Senators has proved impractical to implement.

 

Would allow for an amendment to the By-Laws as recommended in Recommendation # 10 2010-2011 Senate Select Committee stated in the Committee’s May 2, 2011 and shown in proposed amendment FS 11/12-84/SEL:

 

Makes minor clarifying editorial change.  Most Senate committees are “standing” (as opposed to ad hoc) committees, but only a few are designated as “Policy” committees with representation on the Senate.

 

FS 11/12-83/SEL        BY-LAW AMENDMENTS – EDITORIAL AMENDMENTS SUBJECT TO APPROVAL OF A REFERENDUM TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FACULTY-  CHANGE IN VOTING STATUS OF POLICY COMMITTEE CHAIRS ON THE FACULTY SENATE FROM VOTING TO NON-VOTING, AND MINOR EDITORIAL AMENDMENTS (FS 11/12-81/SEL).          

 

Subject to approval by referendum of the constitutional amendment to change the voting status of Policy committee chairs on the Faculty Senate from voting to non-voting (FS 11/12-81/SEL), the following editorial changes will automatically be made in the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate http://www.csus.edu/acse/bylaws.htm to go into effect in Fall 2012.

 .

(1)   Amend Article 1.A.  on membership on the Faculty Senate to include the same language approved in the constitutional amendment, as follows:

 

Article I. A

 

The membership of the Faculty Senate shall be composed of (1) the representatives of the electing units; (2) four representatives to be elected at-large by the temporary faculty from those temporary faculty who are teaching six or more units during the semester in which the election is conducted; (3) chairs of certain standing Policy committees of the Faculty Senate (as specified in the committee's charge), as at-large ex-officio non-voting members, unless such chairs are already serving concurrently on the Senate as representatives of the electing units; (4) the statewide academic senators, as ex officio, non-voting members; (5) a Faculty Emeritus member of the California State University, Sacramento Retirees Association the President or designee of the Emeritus Association of CSU, Sacramento, as an ex officio, non-voting member, chosen by, and in a manner determined by, the Association; (6) three student representatives, as non-voting members, chosen by, and in a manner determined by, the Associated Students, Inc. of CSUS.

 

(2)   Amend Article II. A. 1. to eliminate redundancy, as follows (i.e. if the voting status of the chairs is changed from voting to non-voting, the clause is unnecessary in light of the immediately preceding sentence, which provides that “The Chair of the Faculty Senate shall be elected by and from the voting representatives of electing units.”):

Article II.A.1.

The Chair of the Faculty Senate shall be elected annually by and from the voting representatives of electing units.  Committee chairs who are not also representatives of electing units may neither serve as nor vote for chair. The Chair shall preside at meetings of the Faculty Senate. The term of office of the Chair shall be one year. The term shall begin at noon on the last day of the spring semester in which he/she is elected Chair and shall end at noon on the last day of the spring semester of the following year. The Chair may be re-elected.

(3)   Amend Article II.A.2.  to eliminate redundancy, as follows (i.e. if the voting status of the chairs is changed from voting to non-voting, clause is unnecessary since the immediately preceding sentence, which provides that “The Vice Chair shall be elected by and from the voting representatives of electing units.”):

Article II.A. 2.

The Vice Chair shall be elected annually by and from the voting representatives of electing units. Committee chairs who are not also representatives of electing units may neither serve as nor vote for vice chair.  In the absence of the Chair, the Vice Chair shall preside at meetings of the Faculty Senate, and perform other duties of the Chair as delegated by the Chair. The term of office of the Vice Chair shall be one year. The term shall begin at noon on the last day of the spring semester in which he/she is elected Vice Chair and shall end at noon on the last day of the spring semester of the following year. The Vice Chair may be re-elected.

(4)  Amend Article II.B. 1. to reflect the change in voting status of Policy committee chairs on the Faculty Senate, if the referendum to amend the constitution in this regard is approved, as follows:

Article II. B. Other Elected Offices

 

1. Standing Policy Committee Chairs.

Each standing Policy Committee Chair, as specified in the  Standing Policy Committee's Charge, shall be elected annually by the Faculty Senate from among the full-time faculty of the University. Each Standing Policy Committee Chair shall preside over his or her Standing  Policy Committee and shall also serve as at-large an ex-officio voting member of the Faculty Senate and its Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate. In addition, these Policy Committee Chairs shall serve as ex officio non-voting members of the Faculty Senate, unless such chairs are serving concurrently on the Senate as representatives of electing units. The term of office of each of these Standing Policy Committee Chairs shall be one year. The term shall begin at noon on the last day of the spring semester in which he/she is elected Chair of the Standing Policy Committee and shall end at noon on the last day of the spring semester of the following year. A faculty member may be elected to serve up to three (3) consecutive terms of one year each as the Chair of a standing Policy Committee. After an interval of a year following the end of the third consecutive term, the faculty member shall become eligible for election to the Chair of a Standing Policy Committee.

FS 11/12-84/SEL        BY-LAW AMENDMENT—ARTICLE I, SECTION C--ADDITION OF DUTY TO SERVE AS AN “INTERESTED PARTY” OF ONE POLICY COMMITTEE TO DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF INDIVIDUAL SENATORS.

 

Amend the Article I, Section C. of the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate to include a duty for each senator to add to each senator’s duty to serve as an “interested party” of one of the standing Policy committees.  The amendment, as shown below, shall be added as a new paragraph after item 5 of the enumerated list of duties and responsibilities of individual senators, and shall be put into effect in Fall, 2012.

 

In addition, each Senator, during each academic year, shall be considered to be (for that academic year) an ex-officio non-voting interested party of one of the standing Policy committees.  As such, a Senator will receive the notices/minutes/agenda of that committee during the academic year of service on the Senate.  In the Spring prior to the following academic year, incoming Senators shall designate one standing Policy committee from the current (at the time) list of standing Policy committees.  Senators who have not designated a committee of interest by the second Senate meeting of a given academic year shall be randomly assigned a committee and informed within the first two meetings of the new academic year.  Similarly, Senators, upon joining the Senate at any point thereafter, shall be given a choice of committee followed by an assignment provided in case no choice is made.

 

Rationale:  This proposed amendment would implement recommendation #10 of the 2010-2011 Senate Select Committee stated in the Committee’s May 2, 2011 memorandum to the Faculty Senate (include a link here to the document, if there is one) to improve the “connection” between the Senate and its Policy committees.  In addition, it aims to mitigate the effect of potential deletion of the inoperable constitutional provision that requires that each standing committee of the Faculty Senate have at least two Senate representatives as regular members.

 

FS 11/12-85/SEL        BY-LAW AMENDMENT—ARTICLE II, SECTION B. 2 AND ARTICLE IV. SECTION A. 1 (MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE); DELETE REFERENCE TO SPECIFIC POLICY COMMITTEES, BUT RETAIN VOTING STATUS OF CHAIRS OF “CERTAIN” POLICY COMMITTEES ON THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

 

Amend Article II, Section B. 2. AND Article IV, Section A.1. of the By-Laws as shown below to delete reference to the names of specific Policy committees, but retain provision for Chairs of “certain” standing Policy Committees (as specified in their charge) to serve as voting members of the Executive committee.   Both amendments shall take effect in Fall 2012.

 

Article II. B.2 Members of the Executive Committee

In addition to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate, who shall be voting members, and the Chairs of certain standing Policy committees as specified in the standing Policy Committee’s charge the Academic Policies Committee, the Curriculum Policies Committee, the Faculty Policies Committee, the General Education Policies/Graduation Requirements Policies Committee and the Graduate Studies Policies Committee, who shall be ex-officio voting members, additional at-large voting members of the Executive Committee shall be elected annually by and from the electing unit representatives to maintain the Executive Committee membership at eleven (11). The at-large elected members of the Executive Committee shall serve for a term of one year, beginning at noon on the last day of the spring semester in which they are elected to the Executive Committee and ending at noon on the last day of the spring semester of the following year. At-large Executive Committee members shall be eligible for re-election so long as they remain electing unit representatives.

Article IV. A.1. Membership

The eleven (11) voting members of the Executive Committee shall be the Chair and Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate, the Chairs of certain Policy committees, as specified in the  committee’s charge,  the Academic Policies Committee, the Curriculum Policies Committee, the Faculty Policies Committee, the General Education Policies/Graduation Requirements Policies Committee and the Graduate Studies Policies Committee and the four (4) and additional at-large members of the Executive Committee elected by and from the voting members of the Faculty Senate to maintain the voting membership at eleven (11).

Rationale:  These amendments give effect to Recommendation #2 of the 2010-2011 Senate Select Committee stated in the Committee’s May 2, 2011 memorandum to the Faculty Senate to retain certain Policy committee chairs as voting members of the Executive Committee.  By deletion of any reference to specific committee names in the By-Laws, the Senate will acquire greater flexibility (and perhaps efficiency) in making changes to the number and organization of its Policy Committees (since changes of this type would not require By-Law changes to accommodate them.) 

 

Adoption of this amendment has no bearing on the Senate’s ability to accept, modify, or reject proposed changes to the number of Policy committees specified in recommendations #3-9 of the Select Committee Report.  However, although the Constitution and/or By-Laws require that the charges of the Policy committees specify whether the Chair of the Committee serves as a member of the Faculty Senate and its Executive Committee, these changes currently do not.  Therefore, if the Senate approves the above motions, it will be necessary to also approve a motion of the type proposed in Motion III, below, to identify the Committee Chairs who are specified to serve. (See Motion III and its accompanying rationale.)

 

FS 11/12-86/SEL        BY-LAW AMENDMENT – EDITORIAL CHANGES

 

The Faculty Senate makes the following editorial changes to the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate.

 

1.       Amend Article II. Section C. 1, as follows:

 

A parliamentarian shall be selected nominated by the Executive Committee and approved by the Faculty Senate at the first meeting of the Faculty Senate during the Fall semester of each academic year.

 

2.      Change the name of committees whose chairs  serve as ex-officio members  of the Senate “Standing” committees” to “standing Policy” or “Policy” committees

 

3.      Amend Article II. G., paragraph 4, as follows: (note: this is not a change in current policy, but a correction of a clerical error in the published By-Laws).

If the office of Chair of a standing Policy Committee with membership on the Executive Committee becomes vacant the Vice Chair shall preside over the routine business of the  Policy Committee until the Faculty Senate shall elect a successor as provided in Article II, Sections D.3 4and E.3 5 of these Bylaws. The Vice Chair, acting under this provision, shall not serve as an ex-officio non-voting member of the Executive Committee.

FS 11/12-87/SEL        STANDING RULES-2012-2013 POLICY COMMITTEE CHAIR MEMBERSHIP ON THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

 

To adopt the following: For the 2012-13 Academic Year, the Chairs of the following Policy Committees shall serve as ex-officio voting members of Faculty Senate Executive Committee: Academic Policies Committee, Curriculum Policies Committee, Faculty Policies Committee, General Education and Graduation Requirements Policy Committee, and Graduate Studies Policy Committee. Furthermore,  for the 2012-2013 Academic Year, the Chairs of the Policy Committees named above shall be ex-officio members of the Faculty Senate, with voting status to depend on the disposition of FS 11/12-81/SEL, a proposed referendum to change the voting status of these Chairs on the Senate from voting to non-voting, unless such chairs are serving concurrently on the Senate as representatives of electing units

 

Rationale:  Although the Constitution and/or By-Laws require that the charges of the Policy committees specify whether the Chair of the Committee serves as a member of the Faculty Senate and its Executive Committee, those charges do not so specify at present.  The only place this is currently specified is in the By-Laws.  Although the Select Committee will be presenting a set of motions to revise the Policy Committee structure in accordance with recommendations #3-9 of the prior select committee report, and has included in the proposed charges specification of the Chair’s membership on the Executive Committee and the Senate, these revisions are recommended for implementation in 2013-2014.  Therefore, regardless of the Senate’s actions on proposed revisions of the Committee structure, and this Select Committee’s recommendation to delete the names of the Committees from the By-Laws (FS 11/12-85/SEL), it is necessary to specify which Committee Chairs shall serve as members of the Executive Committee and Senate in 2012-2013.  If the proposed revisions to the Committee structure are rejected by the Senate, then the charges of the current Policy Committees will need to be revised in accordance with the constitution and by-laws to specify that they shall be members of the Senate and its Executive Committee.

 

These amendments give effect to Recommendation #2 of the 2010-2011 Senate Select Committee stated in the Committee’s May 2, 2011 memorandum to the Faculty Senate to retain certain Policy committee chairs as voting members of the Executive Committee.  By deletion of any reference to specific committee names in the By-Laws, the Senate is will acquire greater flexibility (and perhaps efficiency) in making changes to the number and organization of its Policy committees (since changes of this type would not require By-Law changes to accommodate them.) 

 

Adoption of this amendment has no bearing on the Senate’s ability to accept, modify, or reject proposed changes to the number of Policy committees specified in recommendations #3-9 of the Select Committee Report.  However, although the Constitution and/or By-Laws require that the charges of the Policy committees specify whether the Chair of the Committee serves as a member of the Faculty Senate and its Executive Committee, those charges currently do not.  Therefore, if the Senate approves the above motions, it will be necessary to also approve a motion of the type proposed in Motion III to identify the Committee Chairs who are to serve. (See Motion III and its accompanying rationale).

 

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.