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University Faculty Senate

Approved October 05, 2006

 September 28, 2006 Minutes
 
	

Indiana State University
Faculty Senate 2005-06

GC#3

 

      Present:, W. Barratt, H. Chait, D. Collier, B. Corcoran, A. Gilberti, M. Haque, C. MacDonald, C. Mayer, L. O’Laughlin, L. Romero

            Absent: M. Boyer, J. Kuhlman (Interim Graduate Dean), B. Frank (Senate Liaison), T. Siefert (SOGS)

            Ex Officio: J. Gatrell (AS), S. Powers (Ed)

            Guests:  none

 

1.       Call to Order:  C. MacDonald called the meeting to order at 9:01.

2.       Agenda was adopted by consensus. Graduate Assistantship and Fee Waiver Guidelines and Program Prioritization moved to next week’s agenda.

3.       Minutes unanimously accepted.

4.       Unfinished/Ongoing Business

a.       Dreiser Committee Representative.  C. Mayer nominates Nancy Nichols-Pethick.  J. Gatrell seconds.  Approved by consensus. 

 

5.       New Business

a.       Graduate Council Subcommittees

                                                               i.      Revised list of subcommittee membership provided by C. MacDonald.  W. Barratt moves approval of new GC subcommittees. 

                                                             ii.      Discussion about the size of committees and their make-up.  C. Mayer notes that not every college is represented in each subcommittee. C. MacDonald responds that carry-over from previous year was valued in committee organization and that people volunteered to serve on specific committees. The Chair sought to give people their first or second choice, while also taking advantage of the fact that there was not lack of people willing to serve. 

                                                            iii.      The Chair also expressed the desire that there will be greater communication between the subcommittees and the Graduate Council this year.

                                                            iv.      Committees’ membership is approved unanimously [8-0-0]

b.       Charges for Subcommittees

                                                               i.      Graduate Faculty Committee

1.       Discussion about committee responsibilities.  The committee will review and approve Graduate Faculty applications.  Also, there was discussion about whether this committee will be involved with the development of guidelines for the training of Graduate Faculty serving on and/or chairing thesis committees.  Departments will need to do the actual training at this stage, but the guidelines may be useful.  The Graduate Council will return to this issue to determine whether a specific charge to the committee is warranted.

                                                             ii.      Assistantship Committee

1.       Discussion about committee responsibilities.  Concern is voiced by J. Gatrell about graduate students for whom English is not their native language producing theses and dissertations that require extensive revision to be readable.  With 50+ such dissertations some resources are needed to address this issue; this problem will only increase with further internationalization.  Committee discusses the relative merits and problems with relying on the Writing Center to do this work.  Presently, the Writing Center is not equipped to handle such large projects.  It is suggested that perhaps a graduate assistantship might be created to work with ESL students on standard English revisions. C. MacDonald advises that this is a much larger topic that will merit further discussion.

c.       Program Prioritization: discussion postponed until next meeting.

                                                               i.      Attachment from Prioritization Report only addresses Graduate Programs.  Concern remains about the number of Graduate Programs at risk of being terminated.

 

6.       Reports:

a.       Chairperson (C. MacDonald):

                                                               i.      Graduate Student Representatives introduced: L. Romero (Counseling) lromero@myisu.indstate.edu, D. Collier (Business) dcollier@indstate.edu.

                                                             ii.      President’s Planning and Advisory Committee (PPARC) Meeting: $1.5m distribution.  Conversation at the meeting (Sept. 27) about the danger of only minimally improving remuneration for employees earning the lowest salaries.  Minimal improvements may actually make people worse off economically if they are disqualified from the welfare benefits they currently receive.  No ISU employee should have to receive public assistance; salary increases should be adequate for real living wage. Hope was expressed that this disbursement will be resolved by November.

b.       Senate Liaison’s Report (B. Frank): absent

c.       Administrative Report (Interim Dean Kuhlman): absent

 

7.       Upcoming Business

a.       H. Chait announces that there will be a Chair’s retreat, October 26.

 

8.       Adjournment – 9:39am

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Brendan Corcoran

Secretary

 

 

 

Last modified: March 03, 2009 

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