Oakland University Senate
Thursday, 14 April 1988
Sixth Meeting
MINUTES
Senators Present: Abiko, Appleton, Braun, Cass, Coffey, Copenhaver, Dahlgren, Dawson, Desmond, Downing, J. Eberwein, R. Eberwein, Fish, Gerulaitis, Grossman, Haskall, Herman, Hildebrand, Horwitz, Hough, Jackson, Karasch, Ketchum, Kleckner, Martek, Muir, Murphy, Olson, Pettengill, Sherman, L. Stamps, R. Stamps, Strauss, Wedekind, Wilson.
Senators Absent: Barthel, Bhatt, Brown, Cardimen, Champagne, Chapman-Moore, Chipman, Christina, Eliezer, Faber, Frankie, Hart-Gonzalez, Hartman, Lauer, Lindell, Maschke, Miller, Millwood, Pillow, Pine, Reddy, Riley, Rosen, Stern, Tripp, Williamson
Summary of Actions:
1. Minutes of 10 March 1988 (Grossman; Pettengill). Approved as corrected.
2 . Motion from the Graduate Council to replace the Bachelor of Science program in Physical Therapy with a combined B.S. in Health Sciences/ Masters of Physical Therapy program (Dahlgren; Downing). Approved.
3 . Resolution from the Steering Committee on Distinguished Professor rank (Hough; Ketchum). Approved.
4 . Motion from the Steering Committee to staff Senate standing committees (Muir; Olson). Approved as modified.
5 . Resolution of thanks to Dean Copenhaver (R. Eberwein; multiple seconders). Approved.
Mr. Kleckner called the meeting to order at 3:14 p.m. He introduced the proceedings on a cheerful note, calling for a round of applause for Dean Horwitz and his faculty who had just received a favorable accreditation report from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. This accomplishment represents a particularly sweet triumph, given that body's exacting requirements. According to the provost, SBA people have been furnishing answers to such questions as "How many tenured faculty members teach night classes in classrooms with three windows?"
Attention then turned to the minutes of 10 March 1988, with approval moved by Mr. Grossman and seconded by Mr. Pettengill. Ms. Hildebrand, speaking for the University Committee on Undergraduate Instruction, requested a modification on page 5, at the end of the first paragraph. The verb "corrected" should be converted to "changed.' This accomplished, the minutes were approved as corrected (or changed).
Promising that he and Mr. Tracy would provide catch-up information on enrollment management/planning issues at the end of the meeting-as they intend to do from time to time, Mr. Kleckner directed attention to the only item of old business confronting the Senate, a motion from the Graduate Council concerning the Physical Therapy program (Moved, Mr. Dahlgren; seconded, Mr. Downing):
MOVED that the Senate endorse the phasing out of the current baccalaureate program in Physical Therapy and its replacement with a new undergraduate/graduate program leading to the Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in Health Sciences, upon completion of a prescribed program of study comprising 138 hours and a Master of Physical Therapy degree upon completion of a prescribed program of study comprising an additional 49 semester hours.
Despite the presence of various worthies from the Graduate Council, UCUI, the APPC, and the School of Health Sciences who stood ready to answer inquiries about this proposal, no questions arose. The measure was approved without dissent or discussion, prompting Mr. Kleckner to remark on the Senate's efficiency.
The first item of new business was a resolution from the Steering committee on Distinguished Professor rank. Mr. Hough, introducing this resolution (seconded by Mr. Ketchum), called attention to the final two pages of the agenda for wording of the full proposal. Mr. Eberwein wondered why the criteria for 'Preeminence in Scholarship' indicated no parallel to the internal university awards mentioned as indicators of exceptional performance in teaching and service. He proposed adding the annual research excellence award to the list. Mr. Hough agreed that the suggestion made a lot of sense. Mr. Kleckner concluded that the phrase "research excellence awards" should be inserted before "awards conferred by or office in professional organizations." Mr. Grossman inquired about the precise status of this resolution, asking specifically whether it confirmed the Senate's endorsement of an administration document. Mr. Kleckner responded that it would be our document--that of Oakland University in general; it would be used to establish criteria against which a person's accomplishment could be compared whenever the award of this rank should be considered by any group on campus. When Ms. Braun discovered that this resolution was, in fact, the long-awaited action that makes it possible to establish a policy for awarding emeritus titles, she remarked that "the mills of God aren't the only things that grind slowly." The resolution was approved by unanimous vote.
Ms. Muir, seconded by Mr. Olson, then introduced a procedural motion from the Steering Committee to staff Senate committees. She called attention to two corrections of the original agenda for this meeting. A supplementary agenda, distributed to those present, was to be substituted for the original agenda in naming the members of the Academic Conduct Committee. Mary Sherman's name was to replace Osa Jackson's as representative of the School of Health Sciences to UCUI. Mr. Kleckner hoped that these recommendations would effectively staff the standing committees for the 1988-89 academic year but recognized that faculty leaves might force the Steering Committee to return to the Senate for its blessing on replacements. The Senate approved the following motion without dissent:
MOVED that the faculty nominated below be confirmed as appointed to committees and term as specified:
a. Academic and Career Advising Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Julia Dorminey
Ann Pogany, chair (1988-90)
Sarma Vishnubhotla
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
Eleftherios Botsas
Mary Eddy
b. Academic Computing Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Jack Nachman
Ravi Parameswaran
Richard Pettengill
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
James Dow
Donald Hildum, Chair
Syed Mahmud
c. Academic Conduct Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Henry DeLorme (alternate)
Ren-jyh Gu (alternate)
Floyd Willoughby
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
Harvey Burdick, Chair
C. L. Ko (alternate)
Steve Miller
Subbaiah Perla
Floyd Willoughby
d. Academic Policy and Planning Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988,
Osa Jackson
Robert Payne
Ronald Tracy, Chair
Tung Weng
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
Joan Rosen
Robby Stewart
Carol Zenas
e. Academic Standing and Honors Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year term (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Naim Kheir
Satish Walia
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
Norman Kloosterman, Chair
Kristine Salomon
f. Admissions and Financial Aid Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Louis Bragg
Laurie Eisenhower
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89).
Frances Jackson
William Jones, Chair
Ralph Mobley
g. Campus Development and Environment Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Lizabeth Barclay
Kevin Grim
Richard Tucker, Chair
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
David Housel
Diane Wilson
h. General Education Committee
NOMINEES to new two year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Penny Cass
Leo Gerulaitis
Gary Shepherd
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89).
Pamela Hilbers
David Mascitelli, Chair
Robert Stern Research Committee
i. Research Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Jane Bingham
Mary Karasch
Mary Van Sell
Miron Stano (another member to be appointed by the Graduate Council)
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89).
Gary Moore
Ronald Sudol
Nalin Unakar, Chair
Steve Wright
Mohamed Zohdy (Graduate Council representative)
j. Teaching and Learning Committee
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Walli Andersen
Anahid Kulwicki
Ronald Rapin
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89)
William Fish
Sherman Folland, Chair
Subrainaniam Ganesan
k. University Committee on Undergraduate Instruction
NOMINEES to new two-year terms (1988-90) effective fall 1988.
Ka Cheok: School of Engineering and Computer Science
Jerrold Grossman: College of Arts and Sciences
Linda Hildebrand: Library
Osa Jackson: School of Health Sciences
NOMINEE to new one-year tem (1988-89) replacing David Housel as representative from the School of Human and Educational Services
Jacqueline Lougheed
CONTINUING MEMBERS serving final year (1988-89).
Kathleen Emrich: School of Nursing
Harold Hotelling: School of Business Administration
Mr. Eberwein responded to the chair's call for good and welfare contributions by presenting a resolution of thanks to the departing dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from faculty in that unit. Many voices responded to the call for seconds.
WHEREAS Brian P. Copenhaver has served since 1981 as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and is now about to leave Oakland University to accept new challenges at the University of California, Riverside; and
WHEREAS he has listened patiently and sympathetically to chairpersons in the College and offered prudent counsel; and
WHEREAS he has provided intellectual leadership to his faculty; and
WHEREAS he has concerned himself with the well-being of the University as a whole, particularly with reference to general education, public service, and institutional planning; and
WHEREAS he has served faithfully as a member of the University Senate, enlightening this body with his erudition and amusing it with his wit; and
WHEREAS he has cooperated generously with standing-committees of the Senate; and
WHEREAS he has carved out a special role for himself as the Senate's resident Latinist;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the University Senate extend its thanks to Dean Copenhaver, wishing him and his family much happiness. Ave atque vale'.
Mr. Kleckner thought it entirely appropriate for the Senate to vote a resounding statement of thanks to Mr. Copenhaver, pointing out that the college stands at the heart of the university's programs. He commended its dean for providing strong leadership. The Senate then supported the resolution with unanimous approval. When Mr. Copenhaver acknowledged this action with "Gratias ago omnibus vobis" and then proceeded to translate his thanks, Ms. Braun rejoined that her colleagues needed no such assistance in comprehending Latin. This set off a flurry of asides about years of classical study enjoyed by senators and the retentiveness of their memories. "Quid?' queried Mr. Kleckner, restoring order.
Information items began, as usual, with a report on library construction. Mr. Kleckner noted that the builders had already fallen some weeks behind schedule. He trusted that they would eventually fall still further behind so that a fourteen-week lagtime might again make it possible to move books between sessions of the academic calendar. Plans for the science building continue despite current discouragement caused by a state freeze on new construction projects. This freeze is a short-term response to a cash-flow problem and should present no impediment to negotiations now being conducted with the architect.
The major news from the provost concerned enrollment management and planning issues. Mr. Kleckner reported that we now appear to be on target for a slight enrollment reduction next fall in keeping with plans. He stressed that our actual goal is quality of education rather than either downsizing or growth. Current resource problems create a conflict between preserving quality and either maintaining present size or growing. It remains quite possible, however, that funding improvements that recognize enrollment may eventually encourage renewed growth. Oakland University's stance now arouses both attention and understanding in the Michigan Senate. Our spokespersons in Lansing, including President Champagne whose latest trip there precluded his presence at this Senate meeting, have succeeded in calling attention to problems caused by the current state funding system although no significant improvement is foreseen until the state has more new money to apply to the higher education budget. Whether sentiment in the House will be as favorable to us as that in the Senate remains to be seen.
Summarizing the linkage he sees between enrollment management and planning, Mr. Kleckner enunciated the basic premise that we ought to have some vision of what the university should look like--whether growing or dropping in enrollment. We should be aiming at some set of goals for a decade or more ahead. Several groups are contributing to this process, with the APPC and the council of deans playing complementary roles. Mr. Appleton's work on the accreditation self-study is furnishing ample baseline data for the planning exercise. Extended planning activity must go ahead over the next year, engaging the Senate through the APPC. in the meantime, we need to make some short-term decisions; so a policy alternatives document is being developed as a framework for planning. This responsibility confronts an administrative 'gang of four' (Deans Copenhaver and Horwitz, Vice Provost Dahlgren, and Associate Provost Appleton). The product of its efforts will not be a formal plan but a framework to be employed through the coming year while the APPC works on long-range planning. Mr. Kleckner then asked Mr. Tracy to report on the work of the APPC and Mr. Copenhaver to discuss his gang's contribution.
According to Mr. Tracy, the APPC subcommittee on planning has been meeting since January when Mr. Champagne charged it with responsibility for long-range planning. Members have been gathering data and assembling an environmental scan of assumptions that seem to exist around us. At present, their main concern is with establishing a planning process that is truly bottoms-up, and therefore they intend to ask all academic units for their responses and counsel in the fall. They are also gathering current plans from all units, expecting to put these together to find common threads, recognize necessary differences, and arrive at a University plan that will be submitted for general approval. He thought it would undermine their process to get directly involved with the Gang of Four but assured the Senate that good communication links between these groups exist. Mr. Dahlgren belongs to both. The APPC hopes to parallel the process the College of Arts and Sciences went through in Developing its planning document but would like to accomplish the task in a shorter time. Mr. Tracy recognized that a continuing process lay ahead-one that must prove responsive to changing assumptions over time. He saw the deans' group as performing a different but valuable task.
Mr. Copenhaver then itemized four tasks that confront his group as they establish a framework for planning:
To analyze and synthesize planning and evaluation materials produced by the schools and the college; in the case of the college, the college's plan; otherwise, self-studies prepared for accreditation by AACSB ABET, NLN, and similar organizations; materials prepared for the North Central re-accreditation; and any other materials made available by academic units.
To prepare a conceptual scheme for establishing planning priorities at the university level.
To develop a framework for university planning which will be flexible, open-ended, and fully accessible to criticism and modification from all sectors of the university community.
To coordinate with other planning activities underway in the APPC, the deans' group, the provost's office, and the president's office.
He reported that the deans were already well embarked on their summer task Mr. Kleckner noted that the tasks of the two I)bodies provided a mixture of long-range and short-term planning. With questions invited from the floor, Mr. Strauss hoped that he had misheard Mr. Tracy's presentation and that he had not, in fact, had his ears assailed by the chair of a major faculty committee acknowledging that the faculty is abdicating its responsibility to do planning and is letting a deans' group take over and develop a plan for the university to which the faculty can do nothing but react. Mr. Kleckner assured him that the case was otherwise. He envisaged planning as an 18 to 24-month process and praised the APPC for its substantial progress over a 3-month period. Planning remains that committee's responsibility. The deans' group is not itself making a plan but simply establishing a framework for planning to guide us while the APPC develops its planning document. He described all this as a cooperative venture involving several constituencies. Whenever a plan does come forth, he promised that it will get a full airing and not be submitted for instant approval. Mr. Tracy said that he never meant to suggest that the APPC was abdicating any responsibility to administrators. Its members recognize, however, that they cannot be providing short-term guidance to the president and provost even while they are busy developing a long-range planning process and actual plan. That, they take it, is their most important charge from the president. Mr. Stamps, alluding to his four years of service on the College Planning Council, agreed that the APPC faces a task that will take a long time to fulfill. Still, he called attention to a feeling among some colleagues that something big is brewing without their knowledge. He urged planning groups to recognize the alienation and frustration that simmer outside committee rooms and to concentrate on communication, actively seeking out advice from the bottom up. He cited a relevant statement from the original Arts and Sciences planning document to underscore his point.
This discussion concluded the Senate's business year. Mr. Kleckner dismissed his colleagues, most of whom will return in September, with thanks for their service and best wishes for summer refreshment. The meeting adjourned sometime after the secretary's watch stopped at 3:34 p.m.
Respectfully submitted:
Jane D. Eberwein
Secretary to the University Senate