FACULTY SENATE PRÉCIS

May 8 and 10, 2007

12:15 p.m.-1:50 p.m., Auerbach 426

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Attendance:

A	Ball, Kevin A.	A	Fang, Clara	P	Padberg, Carol
A	Beaulieu, Mark	P	Gray, Edward	P	Petry, Elizabeth
P	Borucinska, Joanna	A	Gray, John	A	Russell, Ingrid
A	Canedy, Charles	P	Katrichis, Jerome	P	Shepela, Sharon
A	Carey, Elen	P	Mayer, Howard	P	Siegel, Paul
A	Comiskey, Anne	P	McMiller, Darryl	P	Sumukadas, Narender
P	Davis, Robert	P	Mohamed, Osama	P	Weinholtz, Donn
A	Decker, Robert	A	Mori, Akane	P	Westfall, David
P	Diehl, Susan	A	Nolan, Dennis	P	Williamson, Daniel
A	Eppes, Tom	P	Oliver, Peter	=	Present/Absent Attendance: 55 % (17 out of 31)

Chair Katrichis welcomed the ninth and final meeting of the 2006-2007 Senate, which soon became the first meeting of the 2007-2008 Senate. Midway through the meeting, those Senators whose term ended left and elections for the 2007-2008 officers were made by the new and returning Senators.

Chair Katrichis also announced that Vice President for Student Affairs, Lee Peters, who was scheduled to visit with the Senators on Thursday, will visit instead in the Fall.

1. Chair Katrichis announced the candidates for filling Faculty Senate representation slots in various committees. The Senate seconded the motion and they were unanimously approved.

§ Budget Advisory Team member: Jerry Katrichis, Barney School of Business

§ The Provost’s Committee for Promotion and Tenure and Academic Freedom: Professor Katherine Certo, EHNP, Physical Therapy.

The following Faculty Senate Committees reported:

2. Academic Standards – Senator Borucinska reported the changes proposed at the April meeting were approved by all senators present, but formal voting on the changes has been postponed until the senators receive feedback from the Deans Joint Committee. The discussion of the changes proposed by the Academic Standards Committee on the academic dishonesty policy has been postponed until fall 2007.

3. Environmental Task Force – Senator Borucinska invited Senators to participate in this Task Force. She told the Senate about the Bio-diesel buses being used to shuttle students to and from the Asylum Avenue Campus. She also advised that there are two environmental science teaching vacancies for September ’07.

4. Computer and Technology – Senator Sumukadas gave his last report for the year on the Blackboard upgrade. He handed out a three-page “Important Information For All Blackboard Instructors” with tips on how to handle summer and fall courses. Also listed were scheduled information forums throughout the summer. A move toward “smartboard” vs. black or white boards was also discussed.

5. Curriculum Committee – Senator Shepela presented the list of Curriculum changes discussed at the Curriculum Committee meeting on May 1. A report was included in the Senator’s meeting packages. Faculty Senate motioned to approve and the motion passed unanimously. It is posted on the web, at http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/facsenate/CC/cur-rept-may-07.htm

6. Constitution and Bylaws – Senator McMiller presented a viable slate of officers for the 2007-2008 academic year. A motion was made to direct the secretary to cast one ballot for the unopposed slate: Vice Chair Donn Weinholtz for Chair; Senator Shepela for Vice Chair, and Senator Petry for Secretary. The motion was seconded and unanimously passed.

7. Development – At the 2006-2007 Development Committee Chair’s request, a charge was devised as follows: “The Development Committee will work with the Office of Institutional Advancement to design a plan and specific set of implementation strategies for involving faculty in ongoing development activities.”

8. Part-Time & Adjunct Faculty – Senator Petry reported on the most recent Faculty Senate Part-Time Committee meeting. She spoke of the new Award for Part-Time Faculty recently announced by the Provost. The Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award for Part-Time Faculty gives the University an opportunity to celebrate the part-time faculty and their achievements. Up to five awards will be granted annually and announced at the annual Part-Time Faculty Reception held in November. The award was conceived by the Advisory Committee on Part-Time Faculty, which included Professor Susan Aliberti (Part-Time Faculty Member), Katherine Black (Assistant Provost, Chair of the Committee), Chuck Colarulli (Associate Provost), Arosha Jayawickrema (Associate Vice President for Finance), Bharat Kolluri (Professor, Barney School of Business), and Senator Petry (Associate Professor, College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, Faculty Senate’s Committee on Part-Time Faculty).
   
   She asked Senators to help inform part-time faculty about the award and encourage them to apply. More information and application guidelines can be found at http://ned.hartford.edu/forms. Any questions about the award or the application process can be directed to Assistant Provost Katherine Black at kablack@hartford.edu or at 860.768.4504.

Senator Petry also spoke of the Gordon Clark Ramsey Award for Creative Excellence. The Ramsey award recipients for this year were: Barry Lubin, CETA; Christopher Carrier, A&S English ; and Carole MacKenzie, A&S Psychology.

The Senate Chair Katrichis interpolated that a Part-Time Research Task Force headed by Professor Jay Stewart has been created.

1. Professional Standards – Senator Weinholtz informed the Senate that the faculty employee reporting to or working in close proximity with a relative issue had been discussed at the Council of Deans and would now be brought before the Deans/Faculty Joint Committee.

2. A motion was made that Senate Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary be nominated as Faculty Regents. They will serve on key committees of the Board of Regents, presenting the faculty’s viewpoint/concerns. Motion was carried and approved.

3. A motion was later made to authorize the Executive Committee to act for the Senate during June, July and August, and a second motion was made to adjourn the Senate for the Summer. Due to insufficient Senators remaining, this vote was taken electronically by e-mail where there were 19 yes votes, 0 no votes, and 0 obstain.

4. WELFund Director Jennifer Sanborn and Board Chair Lucille Nickerson came to talk to Senators at the Senators’ request. Ms. Sanborn and Ms. Nickerson gave an update of the Program. The first time they had come to visit the Senate the program had just begun. They now had two cycles of awards to report on; 14 awards were presented in the Fall (’06), and eight in the Spring (’07). A handout was included in the meeting’s package reviewing the Funds’ first year. Their website is: http://hartford.edu/welf/

Senators inquired to what extent are part-time faculty made aware of these funds.

5. Orders of the Day – meeting was adjourned at 1:50 p.m. until Thursday, January 25. (Robert’s Rules of Order – One (1), Senate meeting is spread over two noncontiguous days.)

Thursday, May 10 12, 2007

Attendance:

A	Ball, Kevin A.	P	Fang, Clara	A	Padberg, Carol
A	Beaulieu, Mark	A	Gray, Edward	P	Petry, Elizabeth
A	Borucinska, Joanna	P	Gray, John	A	Russell, Ingrid
A	Brown, Jennifer	P	Lei, Yu	P	Shepela, Sharon
P	Canedy, Charles	A	Machuga, Susan	P	Siegel, Paul
A	Carey, Elen	A	Mayer, Howard	P	Sumukadas, Narender
P	Comiskey, Anne	A	McMiller, Darryl	P	Weinholtz, Donn
P	Davis, Robert	P	Mohamed, Osama	A	Westfall, David
P	Decker, Robert	A	Mori, Akane	P	Williamson, Daniel
P	Diehl, Susan	A	Nolan, Dennis	A	Zimmerman, Christopher
A	Eppes, Tom	P	Oliver, Peter	=	Present/Absent Attendance: 50 % (16 out of 32)

Chair Weinholtz reconvened the meeting with a special thanks to past Chair Katrichis.

6. President Harrison greeted the Senators and welcomed the new Faculty Senate Officers. He apologized for Student Affairs Vice President Lee Peters not being able to be present as had been scheduled. President Harrison will report next Fall on a Public Safety Commission that has been created to look at public safety visibility, as well as other steps that can be taken to make the University community safe.

President Harrison spoke of the national attention that Financial Aid is receiving as a result of Attorney General Cuomo’s (N.Y.) actions.

President Harrison also took this opportunity to once again thank outgoing Provost Donna Randall. “I really value Donna’s partnership,” he said.

Provost Randall’s last visit to Senate as Provost of the University covered new details on the Spellings Accreditation Commission. She said she does not agree that more government dictating is necessary or a good thing.

Director of Faculty Center for Learning, Lorelle Wilson came to Senate to answer questions about resources that are available to faculty. http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/fcld/

The Faculty Center for Learning Development (FCLD) is very pleased to announce that Blackboard 7 Enterprise is now available to faculty and students. The campus may access Blackboard 7 by going to http://blackboard.hartford.edu. Usernames have not been changed, but all Blackboard passwords have been reset to the last four digits of the University ID. Summer 2007 courses will continue to use the old Blackboard 6 system until the conclusion of the summer term. A link to the new Blackboard 7 system (and fall courses) can be found on the Blackboard login page.

Other enhancements include:

· The ability to create custom learning paths through course content and activities

· Blackboard Forums to include options for grading, moderation, and peer review

· The ability to import test questions created outside of Blackboard

· The ability to import and export individual tests

· Visual Text Box Editor (VTBE) support for MAC users

· Second language support for eight languages

· Tutorial movies designed to help users learn Blackboard

On Enterprise, Blackboard course sites are created automatically for all scheduled classes sixty days in advance of the first day of the semester. These course sites will be empty and will not contain any copied content. Instructors will now have the choice of adding new content, or selectively copying forward content from their previous Blackboard courses themselves using instructions found at http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/fcld/BB7Copy.doc

NOTE: In order to access these courses, instructor assignments must be registered in the Banner system. If you need help getting listed in Banner, please contact the Registrar’s Office at (860) 768-4594.

By default, all courses are created as ‘unavailable’ or invisible to students, although instructors can still access and edit them.  Students will not be able to access Blackboard courses and/or course materials until the instructor changes the availability status. Instructions for doing so are listed at http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/fcld/BB7Available.doc

· Instructors teaching multiple sections of the same course who wish to have several sections enrolled into one Blackboard course must complete the Online Multiple Section Request Form on FCLD’s website, so that FCLD may set up the course for them.

· Automatic course enrollments will now include both adds and drops, and automatic enrollments will be updated daily. Faculty should avoid manually adding or dropping students from Blackboard courses, as this will interfere with the automated add/drop process.

FCLD staff is available throughout the summer and fall to provide assistance with the new improvements and features in Blackboard 7 Enterprise, and instructions may be found on the FCLD website at http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/fcld, as well as in the Instructor Manual, available through the Control Panel of all Blackboard courses. Blackboard upgrade seminars and updated information will also be posted on the FCLD website. Instructors are welcome to contact FCLD with any questions they may have concerning Blackboard 7 Enterprise. FCLD is open 8:30-5pm, Monday – Friday. You may also e-mail fcld@hartford.edu or call FCLD at (860) 768-4661.

7. Old Business - Representatives from the Situation Management Team will be invited to come to the Senate.

8. There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m. The next Faculty Senate Meeting will be held September 11, 2007, 12:15 p.m. to 1:50 p.m., A426.

Respectfully submitted,

Maria Marques

Recorder

N.B. Senator Katrichis will be leaving the Senate, but had chosen to continue on the Faculty Senate Executive. New Faculty Senate Chair Donn Weinholtz exercised the option from the University Faculty Senate Constitution and Bylaws, rev. March 8, 2005 as follows:

o 11.g. The Executive Committee shall consist of the Chair, the Vice-Chair, the Secretary, and chairs of task forces and committees designated by the officers of the Faculty Senate. The past Chair of Faculty Senate may be invited to be a member…