Oakland University Senate
Seventh Meeting
Thursday, 13 April 1995
Minutes
Members present: Andrews, Barclay, Benson, Bertocci, Briggs-Bunting, Brown, Buffard-O'Shea, Cameron, Chipman, Cole, Dahlgren, Downing, Eberwein, Fish, Gerulaitis, Gilroy, Hildebrand, Khattree, Liboff, Marks, Mittelstaedt, Moore, Moran, Moudgil, Muir, Olson, Otto, Polis, Reynolds, Rush, Russi, Schott-Baer, Selahowski, Sevilla, Taam, Winter
Members absent: Abiko, Ari, Berven, Bhatt, Bricker, Capps, Christina, Frankie, Hansen, Hough, Hovanesian, Jarvis, Kheir, Kim, Mabee, Pipan, Reddy, Rozek, Schmitz, Schwartz, Shepherd, Simon, Speer, Stano, Stevens, Thomas, Wedekind
Summary of actions
1. Minutes of Jan. 12, Feb. 16 and Mar. 16 meetings. (Briggs-Bunting, Andrews) Approved as corrected.
2. Motion to establish a university-wide Dean's List. (Benson, Stevens) Approved.
3 . Procedural motion from the Steering Committe to fill vacancies on Senate standing committees (Eberwein, Rush) Approved.
Calling the Senate to order at 3:10 Mr. Russi proposed that the minutes of the January 12th, February 16th and March 16th Senate meetings be approved as a group. There being no objection to this batch processing, Mr. Andrews moved, seconded by Ms. Rush, their approval. Corrections adding Ms. Briggs Bunting and Mr. Sevilla to the roster of the March 16th meeting were made, followed by approval of the minutes as corrected.
Bringing the Senate up to date on a number of items Mr. Russi apprised the group of plans for a bachelor of science in psychology, an interdisciplinary degree in women's studies and a program for family nurse practitioners. Also, a new 2+2 program with Oakland Community College in the field of criminal justice has recently been approved. The M.S. in Physical Therapy has gone to the Board of Trustees for approval and will then need to go to the President's Council. Currently in committee are proposals for a masters programs in accounting and software engineering and doctoral programs in applied mathematics and education. At the Macomb University Center Oakland the M.S. in Counseling is in place and we are planning for to add programs in HRD, CIL and reading. He expressed his pride and gratitude to the Deans and faculties who are working to bring these plans and programs fruition. He also promised a full and complete budget report the fall, giving a picture of the budget decisions of 94-95 and the allocations for 95-96.
Turning to old business, Mr. Russi asked for further discussion the motion on the floor to establish a university-wide Deans list. Ms. Gilroy responded with a number of concerns. She noted that this proposal closely duplicates the existing program for awarding honors. Currently students who have achieved a 3.6 GPA for 12 credits of numerically graded courses in a semester are awarded honors and this is noted on their transcripts. If the Dean's list is to recognize students who have high academic achievement in two consecutive semesters, then, she suggested it would be simpler to use the existing program and criteria to identify those people. The primary difference between the two that the existing program eliminates p grades and the proposal the floor does not. Thus, a student who receives p grades during fall & winter terms with only 8 hours of numerically graded classes each semester would be awarded the same honor as a student who completed 12 hours each term and also had a 3.6 GPA. She noted that many p grades end up becoming 0.0s and thus we should be wary of awarding honors when p grades are included. Also to be considered is the amount of programming time that would be required to implement the proposal; she estimated that it could take from 100-300 hours of computing time at $50 per hour. Her last point was that a student's request for confidentiality is encoded in the computer system so the note in the comment field about confidentiality is unneeded.
Mr. Russi asked if she had a recommendation regarding the proposal and Ms. Gilroy responded with an amendment:
Moved that, using the existing term honors program, Oakland University establish a Dean's List as an enhancement to provide additional recognition to those students achieving academic honors in each of consecutive fall/winter semester. Student transcripts would record the notation "Dean's List, yy/yy. Names of Deans List students, except those who have requested privacy, will be published on an official list to be posted on campus. Students will also receive letters from the appropriate deans.
Following Ms. Gerulaitis second, Mr. Andrews asked what would happen to p grades. Ms. Gilroy responded that they would not count until converted to a numeric grade. Mr. Sevilla asked approximately how many students are awarded honors. Around 1800 in a single semester, Ms. Gilroy replied, adding that she would expect a much smaller group, maybe 300-400, when two semesters were required. Mr. Gaylor, Chair of the Academic Standing and Honors Committee, thought that the proposed amendment sounded more like substitute motion. A quick consultation with the parliamentarian resulted and the amendment was designated as a substitute motion which was then accepted by the Senate by unanimous consent. Mr. Downing asked for clarification about undecided students, stating that undecided-arts or undecided- sciences should have their letters from the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Ms. Crum agreed, adding that only the students with the designation 'undecided-no major program, would fall in the category where letters would come from the Office of the Academic Vice President.
Disparities in GPA's among schools concerned Mr. Liboff and he proposed taking the top 10% from each school for honors. Ms. Gilroy distributed a chart showing average GPA's for each of the schools. Mr. Chipman stated that while he understood Mr. Liboff's concerns, the spirit of the motion is consistent with well established university procedures. Mr. Liboff pointed out that many schools which have Dean's Lists use a percentage to determine the top students and the disparities on the chart seem large enough to warrant rewording the current proposal. It's a matter of fairness since, he claimed, different schools have different grading patterns and students in programs where grading is quite rigorous would be disadvantaged by this proposal. Mr. Gaylor responded that the committee had considered a lot of options over the last three years, including formulas which would take different schools into consideration. However, the formulas were difficult to deal with and the prospect of getting a computer program to provide the needed data seemed unlikely. He added that most schools simply use GPA'S. Ms.Rowe supported Mr. Gaylor in that programming would be very difficult.
Ms. Winter opined that she would rather see the list consistent across the board and that, if schools or colleges wanted, they could provide their own honors. Ms. Eberwein remarked that if it is a university honor, it should be across the board, that it doesn't need to be perfectly tuned, noting that even within departments in the same school there are differences in grading patterns. She stated that she likes having a clear and simple system and that one of the tasks for the Academic Standing and Honors Committee might be to consider the Senate discussion and look at refinements. Mr. Liboff emphasized that this is a Dean's List and thus should reflect what happens in each school, that it is misnamed; also he doesn't believe that the programming problems would be that severe. Mr. Moran echoed Mr. Liboff's I concerns, stating that a Dean's List implies coherence within colleges and schools, that what we are talking about are university honors rather than a Dean's List. He also thought it misnamed and needing to be rethought.
Ms. Gilroy reported on a survey which found that most universities had 3.6 as the criterion and all schools surveyed also excluded p grades from their calculations. Mr. Liboff wondered if all schools had the same disparity between units and Ms. Gilroy said she rather thought so. Mr. Liboff also mentioned the problem of grade inflation and his belief that students from units who maintain stringent standards should have their achievements recognized. Ms. Muir pointed out that in a number of units the admission standards are high and so is the caliber of the students who are admitted. The fact that their grades are high isn't an indicator of grade inflation but rather the result of highly selective admissions standards. The motion was then put to the vote and approved.
Moving on to new business, Mr. Russi then recognized Ms. Eberwein who presented the traditional April motion to fill vacancies on Senate Committees. Ms. Eberwein stated that she was honored to present to the Senate the roster of appointments to Senate Committees as listed in the agenda, remarking that a vast amount of work is accomplished by these committees. Before proceeding with some additional comments, she moved that the appointments be approved; Mr. Olson seconded. She reported that, although the Steering Committee tries to get a complete list ready, time is limited and thus there are still some vacancies to be filled on Academic Conduct, Budget and UCUI. Also Ms. Papazian has withdrawn her name from the Academic Conduct Committee, leaving another vacancy. Chairs still need to be named to Admissions and Financial Aid, UCUI and the Academic Conduct Committee, the latter for the fall term only; Ms. Kulwicki will chair the Human Relations Committee rather than Mr. Macauley. Ms. Eberwein assured her colleagues that a roster of replacement names would appear on the Senate agenda in September. Mr. Dahlgren wondered if the Steering Committee had considered removing Mr. Chaudhry from the Human Relations Committee and Ms. Eberwein responded no. There being no further discussion, Mr. Russi called for a vote and the motion was approved.
When prompted for good and welfare items, Mr. Dahlgren informed the Senate the Graduate Council is currently considering a process to approve graduate certificate programs which will enable us offer graduate certificates for 15 credit hours within existing masters or doctoral programs; SBA is already looking at pre and post MBA certificates.
There being no further business, Mr. Russi called for a motion to adjourn (Ms. Briggs-Bunting obliged) and he wished everyone a productive, restful and enjoyable spring/summer. Upon that happy note the meeting adjourned at the remarkably early hour of 3:50 p.m.
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Respectfully submitted,
Linda L. Hildebrand
Secretary to the University Senate