Oakland University Senate
Fifth Meeting
Thursday, 12 January 1989
Oakland Center, Gold Room C
3:10 p.m.
AGENDA
Respectfully submitted by Keith R. Kleckner for the Steering Committee.
A. Old Business
1. Motion from the Steering Committee to establish a new standing committee of the Senate (Messrs. Hough and Downing): Item B.1. from the agenda of 8 December 1988.
a. Main Motion
MOVED that the Senate establish a standing committee to be known as the University Senate Committee on Human Relations, with charge and membership as described below.
Although universities often consider themselves as idealized communities, they are seldom independent of, and are rarely immune from, deficiencies that exist in the larger societies to which they belong. Consequently, a university should be continually alert to those social problems that can impede its educational goals. Such a set of problems involves those that derive from racial bias, intolerance, stereotyping, and other like manifestations of human beings' inability to deal constructively with those natural differences that exist among them. It is essential that Oakland University maintain continuous and systematic efforts to minimize the negative effects these particular deficiencies have upon the educational experience it seeks to provide, and it is the task of the University Senate Committee on Human Relations to give strong impetus to those efforts.
To that end, the Committee on Human Relations is charged:
a. to consider the total educational climate at Oakland University, and to select for its particular attention those issues that are most directly related to instances of significant under- representation of various community groups wherever they may occur in all of the academic programs of the university,
b. to set priorities for possible improvements and develop biennial agendas of tasks to accomplish,
c. to assist university units in establishing priorities, developing approaches to achieve them, and evaluating their success in meeting their objectives.
In further pursuit of this goal, the committee is also charged:
a. to consult with, and to advise the President of the University, the Senior Vice President for University Affairs, the Vice President for Student Affairs, and the President of the University Congress how they might best use their senior leadership positions to promote an educational climate that treats diversity constructively,
b. to recommend to, and cooperate with, Senate and other committees whose actions define the formal Oakland educational experience,
c. to promote dialogue, and otherwise to heighten awareness among the larger groups of faculty, administrators, students, and other university personnel about how their individual actions contribute to the environment in which learning takes place, and
d. to maintain the committee's accountability, and that of the parties with whom the committee is charged to work, by reporting in open meeting to the University Senate on a biennial basis concerning the tasks that the committee has undertaken and the results that have been obtained.
Membership: Eleven members consisting of five faculty members (one of whom shall be chair) nominated by the Senate Steering Committee; two members nominated by the Senior Vice President for University Affairs; two members nominated by the Vice President for Student Affairs; and two members nominated by the President of the University Congress. It is expected that both minorities and women will be represented. All members will be subject to confirmation by the University Senate. The term for non-student members will be three academic years and the term for student members will be two academic years.
b. Amendment (Ms. Garcia; Mr. Stern)
Modify a sentence on membership to read "It is expected that minorities, including blacks; women; and students will be represented."
c. Amendment (Mssrs. Williamson and Stern)
Provide for four student seats.
d. Amendment (Mesdames Tripp and Garcia)
Modify the term of student office from two years to "not more than two years."
Second reading: Debatable, amendable and eligible for final vote at this meeting.
B. New Business
1. Motion from the Graduate Council to reduce credit requirements from the master's degree in Nursing (Mr. Dahlgren)
MOVED that the School of Nursing be authorized to reduce credit requirements for its graduate program from 48 to 36.
First reading: Debatable, amendable but not eligible for final vote at this meeting.
Comment: This proposal reaches the Senate with the blessing of the Graduate Council, which has reviewed a proposal from the School of Nursing. A rationale for this change and indication of how it would be accomplished may be found in the attached memoranda from Mr. Dahlgren and Ms. Zenas.
2. Motion from the Steering Committee to fill a committee vacancy. (Ms. Muir)
MOVED that Jacqueline Scherer be confirmed as nominated to replace Joan Rosen on the Academic Policy and Planning Committee for the winter 1989 semester.
Procedural motion: Debatable, amendable and eligible for final vote at this meeting.
C. Good and Welfare
Private resolutions.
D. Information items.
Brief report on budget and planning activities.