HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY Academic Senate Minutes January 28, 2003

Chair MacConnie called the meeting to order at 4:06 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, 2003, in Nelson Hall East, Room 102 (Goodwin Forum).

Members Present: Adkins, Bicknell, Butler, Coffey, Dalsant, Derden, Dunk, Fulgham, Gill, Goodman, Klein, Knox, MacConnie, Martin, Meiggs, Mortazavi, Moyer, Oliver, O'Rourke- Andrews, Paselk, Paynton, Sanford, Schwab, Shellhase, Snyder, Thobaben, Travis, Varkey, Vrem, Yarnall

Members Absent: Fonseca, Richmond

Proxies: Green for Cheyne; Marshall for Nelson; Platin for Kinney; Post for Novotney

Guests: Steve Smith, College of Natural Resources & Sciences; Karen Carlton, College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences; Susan Higgins, College of Professional Studies; Val Phillips, Office of Undergraduate Studies

1. Approval of Minutes

It was moved and seconded (Klein/Bicknell) to approve the submitted minutes of December 10, 2002. Voting occurred and MOTION PASSED WITH ONE ABSTENTION.

2. Announcements and Communications

New members were introduced by Chair MacConnie: Simon Green (Bernadette Cheyne's proxy for this term); Brian Post (Eugene Novotney's proxy for this term); Kristine Nelson (the Staff Council representative this term); and Rick Vrem, (Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs).

Senator Little has agreed to serve as Interim Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies so Senator Mortazavi has agreed to serve as Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

Chair MacConnie announced:

Nominees are needed for the upcoming general faculty election. Anyone interested may contact Greta in the Academic Senate Office.

There are several ongoing searches: 1) the last candidate for the position of Vice President for Administrative Services was interviewed yesterday, and the committee is in the recommending process; 2) the search committee for the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs is just starting the process and hopes to get the announcement published by February 3; 3) President Richmond has made an offer to one of the candidates for the Budget Director, and the offer been accepted verbally; and 4) President Richmond is close to making an offer to one of the candidates for the position of Special Assistant to the President.

Ron Maggiore, who has resigned his position as Dean for Enrollment Management, will serve in a temporary position as Special Assistant to Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs, Richard Vrem.

A preliminary draft of the Governor's budget was released January 10; many cuts to the CSU are quite specific, including a 25 percent student fee increase. On February 1 campus presidents will be receiving the anticipated allocation for their campus.

Enrollment figures from Enrollment Management have been distributed, which indicate positive gains in the number of new students (13.9 percent increase), continuing students (4.3 percent increase), total head count (4.2 percent increase) and FTES (3.9 percent increase). Overall, the increase in applicants and admissions is up by 9 percent and 6 percent respectively.

The President's Cabinet meets Monday, 10-11:30.

Senator Shellhase announced that the Library has updated its User Privacy Policy to reflect changes brought about by the Patriot Act. The policy may be found on the Library's home page.

3. Committee and State Senate Reports

Statewide Senate - Senator Snyder reported that the Academic Affairs Committee has two resolutions for campus input; one is on the recommended changes to the CAN process, and the other is a report from the Task Force on Facilitating Graduation, which asks campuses to assess graduation problems and develop a plan to overcome such impediments. The recommendations include requesting campuses to develop graduation road maps to help students decide which courses they should take in order to graduate. However, there are other options to facilitate graduation ranging from curriculum reform to such options as limiting the number of times students may repeat classes, not allowing withdrawals, requiring first-year students to take a full load, etc. All of these options need to be considered carefully.

Senator Snyder distributed a handout on the findings and recommendations of the Advisory Committee for the CSU and Comparable Faculty Workload Studies. Dave Spence, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, discussed the increase in the number of transfer units from 56 to 60, citing the contrast between UC and CSU students in terms of average number of units to graduate. A UC student takes far fewer units to graduate (125 or 126 units) than a CSU student (145 or 150 units).

Senator Thobaben distributed a handout highlighting the activities of the Academic Technology Planning Committee and announced that a team will be coming to Cal Poly Humboldt February 14. Senators Thobaben and Snyder and Chair MacConnie will not be on campus that day; Professor Betsy Watson and Director William Cannon will be coordinating these events. It will be Humboldt's opportunity to give feedback regarding the initiatives that the committee has developed. Senator Thobaben urged all senators to participate in the focus groups. Information gained from the focus groups will be used to influence the initiatives the CSU will be planning for academic technology.

Also included in the handout was a Report of the Task Force on Roles and Responsibilities of Department Chairs. The system report and individual campus information will go to each campus so this information will be available when decisions are made regarding the work of chairs on each campus. The Faculty Affairs Committee was not comfortable endorsing the report; it seemed best that it be a campus decision. The committee recommended that the Chancellor's Office, in consultation with the Statewide Academic Senate, review the report to identify any systemwide implications. Senator Thobaben stated that there probably are Union concerns surrounding this item, and believes it is important that everyone be aware of this report.

A systemwide whistleblower protection policy was approved; however, it probably would be best if Humboldt developed its own policy. The senate opposed the decrease in CSU funding that was tied to student/faculty ratio owing to long-term ramifications on how classes are taught. A resolution on program suspension, discontinuation and dissolution was passed; it may be a good time to revisit Humboldt's policies on this issue to determine if the principles outlined in the statewide senate policy are reflected in Humboldt's policies. A resolution affirming the role of faculty in the development and placement of curricula in the CSU system was approved. It was noted that on some campuses financial pressure was used to offer programs without the benefit of faculty consultation.

OAA - Interim Vice President Vrem announced that Dr. Nancy Sprotte will be serving as Interim Dean for Enrollment Management beginning February 3. Regarding the budget, it appears that Academic Affairs' share of the last round of cuts for this term (hopefully) will be approximately $228,000. Academic Affairs will be looking at its budgeting processes at the same time that the University's budgeting processes are being examined.

Associated Students - The general election dates have been finalized; they will start April 22 and run on line through April 24.

At CSSA's conference in San Diego strategies were developed in response to the Governor's budget. Students are dismayed and deeply concerned at the magnitude of the proposed cuts and the degree to which student services is targeted. Students are involved in several projects dealing with the budget and developing CSU student-based proposals which offer other solutions to the budget problem. Associated Students Council has openings for four students, two from the College of Natural Resources and Sciences and two from the College of Professional Studies. Senators were asked to mention this to students and direct any interested students to the Associated Students' Office.

Student Affairs - Two sections of transfer interest groups have been instituted this term; these groups parallel the freshmen interest groups.

Administrative Affairs - The search committee for the position of Athletic Director hopes to have final interviews on campus mid-February.

Educational Policies - There is a draft resolution on today's agenda.

Faculty Affairs - The Committee will be meeting next week, and will continue its work on Appendix J.

UCC - The Committee met today and spent time planning its work for this term. The Committee passed 6 DCG courses; there are now 52 courses either approved or in the process of approval.

CFA - The California Post-Secondary Education Commission (CPEC) will release its annual comparison of faculty salaries; this year's results will indicate that in California faculty salaries have fallen further behind those of comparable institutions. Next year faculty at comparable institutions will be earning 12 percent more than CSU faculty on an average and at the professor level will be earning close to 20 percent more. Senators were reminded that bargaining for the last year of the contract will be occurring soon. The reopeners this year will be on compensation and salary, workload and benefits. The process requires the Union to initiate the overall bargaining sessions by publishing the public notice proposals, or sunshine proposals, which will be approved at the next board meeting. Assuming that such proposals are accepted, they will be transmitted to the CSU administration and the administration will respond with its own sunshine proposals. This year bargaining is even more difficult because the Governor's budget will be a matter of political contention. The budget will be revised in May and supposedly completed by June 15. CFA is attempting to develop strategies to respond to the accessibility issue and the 25 percent increase in student fees, which may prohibit students from enrolling in the CSU. A meeting of students, faculty and staff will be held later this term to discuss some of these bargaining issues.

General Faculty - There are open positions for general faculty officers and committee members for the upcoming election; three faculty members are still needed for the Nominating Committee. The meeting to take nominations and close the nominations will be held Thursday, January 30, 3-5 p.m., NR 220.

4. Draft Resolution on Pilot Program for High School Courses for Humboldt Credit

A copy of the draft resolution was distributed. Chair MacConnie stated that this is a continuation of the discussion from the December 10 senate meeting. Much of the discussion at the December 10 meeting revolved around the English 100 course and how it has been improved. The question raised was whether the current program is adhering to the specifications of EO 461. It was agreed at the December 10 meeting that this issue should be discussed in a broader context than just the English 100 course.

Senator Varkey stated that members of the Educational Policies Committee discussed this item in detail, including review of the evaluations and consideration of EO 461. Contained in EO 461 is reference to "gifted students"; however, Eureka High School does not have a gifted students program so whether it is appropriate to offer this program to Eureka High School is the question. The MOU was based upon EO 461 so there is a conflict. The committee believed that owing to this inconsistency, if this program is to be offered then regulations other than EO 461 would have to be used to determine what type of courses could be offered, who should be overseeing the course, etc. The committee's position was that the program should be discontinued until such issues can be resolved.

Discussion included:

EO 461 language regarding gifted students has been interpreted across the system rather loosely and there is some flexibility. For example, the argument could be made that one who has made it to the level of an AP class may be considered gifted, at least in that area. [At Eureka High School there is no regulation at all; it is open enrollment and no minimum requirement is needed. So what criterion would be used?] [In Arcata the only mechanism that some schools employ in identifying students to be selected for a gifted program in the English program is based upon an essay that the students write and on their grades for the science program and their overall GPA.] [In Humboldt County the only time children are tested for the gifted program is in the third grade.] [It is important that we have this program; however, specific regulations need to be in place.] [EO 461 refers to gifted students, not gifted programs, and it calls for encouraging more able students from under represented groups.] [The definition of gifted is broad; it includes being motivated and having abilities that may not be recognized by teachers or through examinations. What is needed is a policy that states if a course is offered on the high school campus, then it achieves Humboldt's standards. Decisions must be done on each individual class to make sure standards are achieved.]

This is a complicated issue. It was suggested that in writing the resolution the committee try to specify AP courses which have a standardized test so that receiving university credit would be based on a standardized score rather than on an individual teacher's grading. This is different than saying high school courses will be established which, if passed, will then be counted as university courses. The system has no mechanism for counting high school courses for university credit.

Much of the issue has to do with clarifying policy so rather than recommending discontinuation of the program, it would be better to recommend suspension of the program until better policies can be developed.

EO 461 is written to allow high school students to take college courses; these are not AP courses. Humboldt allows many students into its courses and there is no definition of gifted. The issue is that a broad policy is in place that allows students to take high school courses and if they receive a certain grade in it, they will receive college credit for it.

Contained in any policy that is developed must be the assurance that courses being offered on the high school campuses are equivalent to university level courses, and that there is appropriate interaction between the department and the instructors who teach the courses.

If the programs are established, then it is important that they are monitored.

The Educational Policies Committee will work on developing a resolution taking into account the comments made today.

5. Discussion Item: Budget Process

Chair MacConnie announced that the Senate Executive Committee and the President's Executive Committee attended a retreat January 14. President Richmond indicated an interest in making the budget process here at Cal Poly Humboldt more open and inclusive. In an attempt to review the budget process, it was decided to establish two ad hoc committees, one to look at the process used to determine the budget and the second one to look at budget policies. Contained in today's packet are the charge and composition for each committee. Senators were asked for their input regarding these two committees and any suggestions for what the committees might review.

Budget Process Committee

The main focus of the budget process committee is to recommend structure procedures and time lines by which the budgets can be recommended. The committee's report will be presented to the Senate Executive Committee March 25 and will be reviewed by the senate and other appropriate bodies.

Members of the committee include Rick Vrem and Sue MacConnie (co-chairs), Carl Coffey, Development & Administrative Services; Randi Darnall-Burke, Student Affairs; James Howard, College of Natural Resource and Sciences; Saeed Mortazavi, Senate Finance Committee Chair; Shirley Messer, Budget Director and the new director will be acting in a consultative fashion; Janice Nielsen, College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences; Beth Wilson, Department of Economics; and Emelia Patrick, student.

Budget Policy Committee

The committee is composed of a combination of the members of the Senate Finance Committee and an equivalent number of administrators to be appointed by President Richmond, including a dean, the vice president for administrative services, the budget director, and the OAA budget director.

The charge of this committee is to identify and locate any budget policies currently being used on this campus, identify policies that may need to be developed for an open budget process and possibly draft new policies as needed.

The goal is to make the budget process known and understood; comments on the structure, process, etc., are welcome.

Discussion included:

The memberships of the committees are fine. If an open budget is the goal, then the language used must be such that it can be understood by all.

Students are eager to be included in this process and willing to work toward the goal. There are several student proposals that students would like to bring to the table.

There was discussion on the reason for two committees and the difficulty in working on the process without working on the policies since they are so intertwined. [The idea is to create a structure and the policies would fold into that structure. These are the first steps in moving toward having an open budget and the work of the two committees will evolve as more information is gathered.]

Since the budget policy committee is a recommending body, the recipient of any recommendations needs to be identified. [This committee also will identify what policies are available and will report to the senate with its recommendations.]

Perhaps the budget policy committee could be a subcommittee of the budget process committee. [The Senate Finance Committee chair serves on both committees so he is the liaison between the two committees.]

The Senate is the responsible body for making recommendations on policy and it would be good to state this in explicit language. Before any policy is adopted, it needs to come before the Senate.

6. Discussion Item: Strategic Planning Process

Contained in today's agenda packet is a proposed strategic planning process developed by President Richmond. Again, comment was invited regarded the proposed committee membership. After the committee is assembled, the goal is to instruct the members to begin working on an outline of the process, develop a set of time lines for the work to be completed, and have this information available by March 15. The committee's work would be presented to the appropriate bodies. A second deadline would follow by which time the steering committee would have identified the important foci that should be considered as part of the strategic planning process. The idea is to modify the current strategic plan and develop an implementation and assessment plan.

Comment was invited regarding the composition of the committee.

Discussion included:

The process for making appointments to the committee needs to be clarified. [It was understood that members would be elected to the committee by their constituents.]

The chair of the committee will be selected by President Richmond and Chair MacConnie. The idea now is to have someone chair the committee who has experience in strategic planning and leadership skills.

The entire senate will be involved in making decisions. The March 15 deadline was selected so that the information could be disseminated to all interested bodies, including a discussion at the April 1 senate meeting.

It was suggested that the Director of Financial Aid and the Director of Admissions should be included in the membership.

Representatives from Informational Technology also should be included.

Senators were reminded that the committee is quite large already and this committee will be setting up the process; there will be a number of foci to be identified and representatives or subgroups from all involved areas will be included in the ongoing discussions.

There are two deadlines: the first is to get acceptance for the process and the second deadline is for that group to review the critical foci to be examined and to consult with several bodies regarding the complete picture.

Senators were asked to send any comments, suggestions, ideas, questions, etc. by email to either Chair MacConnie (sem1) or to Greta (mg3).

It was moved and seconded (Fulgham/Post) to adjourn the meeting.

Meeting adjourned 5:35 p.m.