Tuesday, 18 March 2008
2:00 p.m., EB 162
Meeting 2008-07

Meeting called to order at 2:03pm.

Roll call

• In an effort to streamline the Senate meetings, we will dispense with the calling of the roll.
• Any objections to this process?
  • Hearing none, starting today and in future, two sign-in sheets will be circulated around the room.  Please initial only next to your name to indicate that you are present.

Absent:

Departmental Senators: Avery (Chemistry), Berkeley (Theatre), Blundo (Social Work), Clark (Cameron), Cox (Creative Writing), Cutting (Environmental Studies), DePaolo (Chancellor), Graham (Economics), Hall (Social Work), Henry (Geography), Kinard (Marketing), Lammers (Mathematics), McCartney (Biology), Moore (University College), Salwen (Music), Satterlie (Biology), Sawrey (Psychology), Schuhmann (Economics), Seidman (History), Simmons (Anthropology), Walters (Nursing), White (Creative Writing).

Committee Chairs:  Brenner (Student Affairs), Caropreso (Evaluation), Combs (University Curriculum), Gerard (University Advancement), Patterson (Information Technology), Walker (Admissions).

Approval of the February 2008 minutes

• February 2008 minutes were approved.

Individual reports

1.  Chancellor DePaolo

• Chancellor is not present today; she had to attend a biotech meeting.
• Floor ceded to Provost.
• I would like to introduce two people.  Increasing our online presence is a continuing goal for UNCW.  We now have two full-time employees to work with regarding the development of online courses.
• Patricia McQuiston, the new Coordinator of e-Learning/Information Technologies, works jointly for the Information Technology Systems Division and the Division of Academic Affairs.
• Dr. June Talvitie-Siple, the new Coordinator of e-Learning/Faculty Liaison, works for the Division of Academic Affairs.
• Regarding Isaac Bear Early College, it’s during the third year that students will be moving into UNCW classes.  Deron will speak to this process.
• Ceded the floor to Deron Fort, Early College Liaison, regarding Isaac Bear Early College High School (PPT Presentation).
• I gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees at the end of February.
• I work out of Academic Affairs.
• Isaac Bear is two things:
• A partnership between UNCW and New Hanover County schools.
• A collaborative effort to get motivated local students to make the transition to college.
• Isaac Bear has a wide range of students from all backgrounds.
• We’re about 1.75 of a year through the program.
• Isaac Bear is on the edge of campus – they welcome visitors.
• In August 2008, Cohort I is going into the 11th grade.
• In 9th and 10th grades, they all are taking high school classes.
  • They finish 4 years worth of core high school requirements in 2 years – but they can’t graduate yet.
• In 11th and 12th grades, they will take UNCW courses if they are ready.
• HAHS is running clinics that satisfy the Isaac Bear students' PE requirements.
• Randall Library is Isaac Bear’s library – the library has been most critical from the beginning, giving the Isaac Bear students checkout privileges and instructional sessions.
• ITSD taught a digital literacy course that all Bear students took.
• Of those top 5 schools for EOC scores in the state, Bear students had the highest percentage of minority students taking the EOC tests.
• Please explore the website:
• http://www.uncw.edu/isaacbear/
• Questions:
• How is the program funded?
• The New Schools Project is an offshoot of the Governor’s office and the DPI – there is grant funding.  Tuition and fees for UNCW courses are paid by the school system.
• Is SMEC involved?
• We are still in the early stages of working with them.
• How much are these students bound to come to UNCW after they graduate?
• They are not – but this is an excellent opportunity for UNCW to recruit.  I personally hope that many of them will apply.
• For basic studies classes with large lectures, have you thought of doing a special grouping for Bear students in the discussion sections (like is done for learning communities here at UNCW)?  I know that mainstreaming is a goal, but we find there is a big advantage to doing this.
• Yes – mainstreaming is the goal in this model.  The model does not support as a whole having special groupings or a special methodology as we would not be seeing how these students are faring in the university.
  • I would just suggest that this is useful for our own students; you would not be doing anything different from what we do.
• I appreciate that – it’s a good suggestion that we will explore.
• What plans do you have in place regarding social interaction problems between Bear and UNCW students (i.e. dating or amorous relationships, or discipline problems)?
• We will be doing some orientation sessions over the summer for parents and students, as we prepare them for this transition.  We will be having very specific schedules for the Bear students that will hopefully help with this – obviously we can’t prevent everything from happening.  I think with the early college students, we will be better prepared (than with other high school students taking classes on campus).  We are going to make a very concerted effort to monitor these students and emphasize to these students and parents the personal responsibility involved with being on a college campus.
• Sometime our curriculum is for 18 and over – how do we deal with that?
• We’ve eliminated courses from their options where that is clear.  We are also working on a consent form, working with legal counsel; a piece of that will be that parents are signing, acknowledging that they know that their children may be exposed to this content even in the approved classes.
• So if I am doing a lecture on abortion rights, I don’t have to get a permission form from Isaac Bear beforehand?
• No.
• When they graduate from the program, the Bear students will have college credits?
• Yes – it will vary.
• What about retention – what do you do if they aren’t doing well?
• At the UNCW level?
• Yes
• We will be monitoring them very carefully for this.  They will be operating under the same rules and requirements as UNCW students.  We will do everything we can to monitor that and stay on top of it.
• Where in the registration queue are they?
• We are working on that right now.  We have a course placement and registration team.  It has yet to be determined how exactly that will happen.
• Provost:  Deron will be available to discuss this further.  He can visit departmental meetings, too.

2.  President of the Senate Spaulding

• I would like to make two introductions.
• Sylvester Allen from the Staff Council.  From now on, the Staff Council will be sending a representative to Faculty Senate and and vice versa.
• Peggy Styes is our new administrative assistant.  Some committee chairs have been contacted by her already.  We are currently organizing our temporary space.  We will be sending out an email soon, calling for any Faculty Senate documents that can be stored in our new space.
• We are going to have a crowded meeting on the 15th of April:  an honorary degree nomination, a presentation on basic studies -- a rough structure will be presented and discussed -- and the UNC Tomorrow response is due May 1st.
• Questions?

Committee reports

1.  Seahawk Respect Compact (More information in Word)

• Andy Jackson will speak to this.
  • I am serving as a liaison between the Campus Diversity Council (the chair of this committee is Tom Barth) and Faculty Senate.
  • Last year, the DAC divided up into a number of subcommittees.
  • One of these looked at the Campus Climate Survey – this subcommittee brought to the DAC a pressing concern.  There was concern about campus respect for each other.  Faculty, students, and staff thought their was a lack of respect and civility – and these were not small numbers.  The subcommittee concluded that the DAC should do something to address this issue – they saw this as the number one concern, resulting from the survey.
  • At the same time, there were two other related events:
    • A motion, on this issue, was proposed in Faculty Senate and withdrawn when it was revealed we were drafting the compact.  I expect if the compact fails, that motion will be back on the books.
    • We surveyed a number of campuses around the country while developing this document.  Such compacts are quite common and can be found at such campuses as Virginia Tech, the University of South Carolina, and UNC Asheville.
  • The Seahawk Respect Compact has been endorsed by:  the DAC, the Staff Council, SGA, and GSA.
  • And now we hope it will be endorsed by Faculty Senate.
  • After it is done with Faculty Senate, it will be sent to the Provost and Chancellor for their review, and to external bodies like the Board of Visitors and the Board of Trustees.
  • Regarding the nature of this document, we wanted it to be an aspirational document – we wanted to emphasize our campus values and culture.  We want to make these values explicit – we will publicize this final product and not put it in a drawer.  We will have it presented around the campus and use it as a source of expectations, expressing our aspirations.  We want to give this a new push, a new attempt, to make our values of an open campus community explicit.
• I'll turn it over to Tom Barth at this point.
  • Many people have worked on this document and I would just like to acknowledge them here:  Tom Barth, Ann Potts, Beth Braxton, William Fleming , Liz Grimes, Andy Jackson, Patti Mason, Jennie McNeilly, Cheryl Sutton, Rick Thompson.
• Questions:
• Are we being asked to approve this?
• Spaulding:  The members of the DAC would like the signature of the Faculty Senate President.  Steering Committee thought that we should seek the Faculty Senate’s instructions.  If the Faculty Senate instructs the president to sign it, then he will sign it; if the Faculty Senate instructs him not to sign it, he won’t sign it.
• Motion from the floor:  [Motion 08-07-31] That the Faculty Senate vote for the Faculty Senate President to sign the Seahawk Respect Compact.
• [Motion 08-07-31] seconded.
  • Discussion:
    • How is this going to change our lives?
      • We will take this and do what we can to make it part of our culture.  It will be in classrooms, in the catalogue, stated before games.  But it will ultimately be up to us in this room how we use this to change things.
    • Do you have some examples of what is wrong at the moment with our campus culture that we need this?
      • From the Campus Climate Survey.  The subcommittee said that their greatest concern is the recurring theme of the lack of respect that came through the survey.  Some statistics: 
        • 35% of students reported being treated rudely by other students. 
        • 30% of faculty reported being treated rudely by students. 
        • 38% of staff  reported being treating rudely by faculty. 
        • 32% of staff reported being treated rudely by students. 
    • This seems a serious thing, so why call it the Seahawk Respect Compact?
      • William Fleming:  There was no magic in the choice of the term "seahawk".  There is no major reason it should be called this – we just thought it would appeal more to students. 
      • Barth:  We were thinking about symbols.  There was some talk that it may trivialize it, though.  We are open to suggestions.
    • I applaud the committee’s efforts.  There is one word that bothers me, though, and that is “celebrated.”  I don’t think every difference should automatically be celebrated – it would trivialize ideas.  It seems illogical to me.  We want to respect people who discuss these different ideas.  Not the different ideas, themselves.
      • I disagree with your interpretation – you are parsing a sentence.
      • Fleming:  We are open to suggestions.  But I want to caution you about changing this too much at the level of sentences.
      • Spaulding:  The Steering Committee foresaw that this process of tinkering may occur.  We will not be productive, given the other bodies that are being asked to review this.  So unless there are aspects to this that we just could not endorse, I think we have to decide whether we have something in front of us that we could live with.  We can send a suggestion along with the document, of course.
      • Doesn’t celebrate our differences appear in UNCW documentation?
        • Spaulding:  Does anyone know if this does or not?
      • Barth:  If you would trust us to take this further, we will make changes based on your suggestions here.
      • I would agree with Ken’s reading of it.  He’s right.  But I agree with Mark, too.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if it is in the UNCW documentation as it is a common phrase.  So we should not be hung up on this – the language does not oblige you.
    • What has the effect of this been on other campuses?  Has it helped or changed anything?
      • Barth:  I honestly don’t know.  We just thought this was right for us now.  I would think that it would be all over the place – some people aren’t actively using it. 
      • I was at one of the schools using this for a while.  It is talked about in orientations and gives you a place to start from if problems do occur.
      • From all the graduate students that I have spoken with, they have wholeheartedly endorsed this.  And it would be a perfect opportunity to outreach to Bear students, based on the earlier presentation.
      • Fleming:  At Virginia Tech it is widely disseminated at orientations (faculty, students, etc.).  I think they have found it to be widely useful and beneficial.
  • Move to amend the Seahawk Respect Compact (additions are underscored and deletions are struck through):  "We foster an environment of respect for each individual even where differences exist are celebrated by the elimination of by eliminating prejudice and discrimination through education and interaction with others."
    • Seconded.
    • Point of order:  The motion on the floor refers to signing the document and not the text of the compact.
      • Spaulding:  Is it in order for a motion to appear to amend the text?
        • The motion to amend is not in order.
  • Motion to call to question:  [Motion 08-07-32].
    • [Motion 08-07-32] seconded.
  • [Motion 08-07-32] carried.
• [Motion 08-07-31] carried.
• Jackson:  It seems logical that Ken’s concerns would be reflected in the minutes for the Chancellor to see.
• Spaulding:  I think the Secretary has taken care of that.
• Barth:  You have our word that we will pass that on.

Old business

• No old business.

New business

• No new business.

Announcements

• Sue Cody:  Randall Library is doing a survey at the moment.  Please encourage your faculty and students to take this.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 3:20pm.