Members present:  Aigbedo, Anderson, Awbrey, Bee, Berven, D., Berven, K., Butler, Chamra, Clason, Condic, Connery, Dalton, Doman, Dulio, Eis, Folberg, Fu, Graetz, Grimm, Grossman, Hoag, Jhashi, Latcha, Lauer, Leibert, LeMarbe, Lim, Meehan, Mitchell, Riley-Doucet, Roth, Schartman, Schuiling, Shablin, Solomonson, Spagnuola, Thompson, Thor, Tiegs, Williams, Wood
Members absent:  Bee, Cole, Dunn, Dvir, Estes, Frick, Gallien, Gamble, Giberson, Giblin, Guessous, Hightower, Hoffman, Miller, Mourdjian, Pickard, Polis, Reger, Russell, Sethi, Stano, Sudol, Tanniru, Taschereau, Wells, Zhang

Provost Moudgil called the meeting to order at 3:10 P.M.

ELECTION OF SENATE STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER

Lynne Williams conducted the election of a Senate Steering Committee member needed to fill a one-semester vacancy.  She recommended that the Senate consider Kris Condic (Kresge Library) who received the next highest number of votes in the election of the Senate Steering Committee at the beginning of the Fall semester.  Senate members concurred with this plan, and Ms. Condic subsequently expressed her willingness to serve.  She was unanimously approved by Senate members to fill this position.  

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS

1.  Appeal Procedure for Program Accommodations—Ms. Awbrey/Ms. Schmitz

Susan Awbrey introduced Nancy Schmitz  (Student Affairs) who was present to outline the appeal procedures that are followed in Disability Support Services when there are requests for course or programmatic adjustments to a course of study.  The law requires that prior to accepting or refusing such a request, a committee should be formed to engage in a careful and thoughtful assessment of the request.  Ms. Schmitz believes that is an accurate description of the way Oakland University has always functioned in this type of situation, but the plan to formulate a procedure will be helpful.  To facilitate the process, they believe it would be most efficient to use services that are already available, and so are suggesting that the Committee on Instruction could be the committee to hear these requests. 

2.  Macomb Update—Ms. Youngblood

Betty Youngblood updated the Senate on OU and Macomb.  She said that there are 3 instructional sites, with 12 graduate and 12 undergraduate programs, the newest of which is the BA in Social Studies at the Frankel Center.  They handle 2,000 students per year there.  The vision of the OU Macomb campus is to be widely recognized as Macomb County’s preferred university.  To this end, they work hard to facilitate relationships with business people in the county.  She pointed out that 1/3 of OU students come from Macomb County, and there is an unmet need for quality undergraduate education there.  If another university emerges, OU will suffer financially and other ways.  If half of the 1/3 students now from Macomb do not come to OU, there would be over 3,000 students with an associated revenue of $30,000,000  which would be lost.  The Macomb site contributes to the growth of OU, multiplies initiatives, and provides important academic offerings and program options for people in both traditional and non-traditional categories living in Macomb County.  She said that they are trying to generate awareness, both within Oakland University and in the community, of their existence, and also they work to strengthen relationships with communicate colleges and local development initiatives to nurture a college-going culture.  Provost Moudgil applauded the efforts that are going on at OU’s campus in Macomb.

3.  Senior Design Projects—Mr. Latcha

Mike Latcha provided an overview of the entrepreneurial program that has been developed in Mechanical Engineering, the goal of which is to offer design experience to engineering students.  The structure of the program is very student-centered.  Students come up with projects, and questions are not answered by the instructors who have to give up the idea of being the expert in the room, and allow the student to succeed or fail in the project.  The department wants students to develop products useful in the global marketplace, and they are put on exhibition when they are completed.  An example of such a project is the ‘infant simulator’, to take vital signs of a 5-minute old infant.  There are wonderful other projects as well.  This program has been in operation for 17 semesters, since 2004, with more than 1000 students participating, and has resulted in the restructuring and improvement of the undergraduate engineering program overall.   He said the engineering projects will be demonstrated on campus in April.  Mr. Latcha gratefully acknowledged the support that has been received from Provost Moudgil and also from the School of Engineering.  Mr. Moudgil expressed his enthusiasm and excitement about the accomplishments of the engineering students in this program. 

4.  Provost’s Update

Provost Moudgil said that he wanted to pay tribute to Professor Dick Burke, who passed away on February 14, 2012, and who was the first professor ever hired at Oakland University.  Mr. Moudgil enumerated the many accomplishments of Professor Burke during his lengthy career in the Philosophy Department.   Highlights included that Mr. Burke was the first faculty member to propose interdisciplinary programs before they were fashionable. 

A.  APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES of January 12, 2012

The motion was made (Eis, Latcha) to approve the minutes of January 12, 2012.  Senate member Todd Leibert asked that the minutes be amended to add the following to the discussion of the new degree programs in Psychology:  “Mr. Leibert asked if the new MA program includes a clinical track, and the answer was no.”  The motion was made to amend the minutes with the above correction, and the motion passed.  The minutes were then approved. 

B.  UNFINISHED BUSINESS

1.  Motion from UCUI to approve a change in the residency requirement in the Oakland University catalog:  

MOVED that the proposed revision to the residency requirement be adopted. (Latcha, Thompson)

Comment:  This change is necessary to be a part of the Servicemembers Opportunities Colleges. 

The motion was approved unanimously.

2.  Motion to change the Oakland University Role and Mission Statement to recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion:

MOVED that the Senate recommend to the President and the Board of Trustees the addition of the words “in a diverse and inclusive environment,” to the Role and Mission Statement of Oakland University.

The motion was approved unanimously.

C.  NEW BUSINESS

1.  Motion from the Steering Committee to recommend approval of the Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design in the Department of Art and Art History:

MOVED that the Senate recommend to the President and Board of Trustees approval of the Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design.  (Eis, Jhashi) (First reading)

Ms. Eis spoke on behalf of the proposal, and said that the BA in Graphic Design is oriented to what a graphic designer would do in the real world.  She said that there were positive reports from all of the Senate committees except for SPRC.  Ms. Eis addressed their concerns, and indicated that this major will have full-time tenure track faculty members to facilitate the major.  Mr. Grimm asked for clarification about a faculty member involved with this program who was listed as Special Lecturer which was a concern, but Ms. Eis said that was an error, and the individual was actually a Special Instructor.  The proposal has been corrected to reflect the change.  Provost Moudgil asked if this will be primarily a shift in students who are already here, or will these be new students.  Also, he wondered if there had been a survey.  Ms. Eis said there have been inquiries in the Department of Art and Art History, and in Admissions, and they have done a survey which indicated there is interest in this major.  In addition, the number of students listed in the proposal and budget are incremental (new students) numbers.

D.  GOOD AND WELFARE

Michelle Piskulich announced that Laila Guessous had won the Phyllis Law Googasian Award, and she invited Senate members to consider attending the luncheon on March 21st, at which Anne Doyle will be the keynote speaker.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,
Dikka Berven