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Dec 1, 1999 Minutes



Senators Present: Bible, Conroy, Early, Gillis, Gordon, Hays, Irvin,
McKinney, McGee, Peeler, Renick, Skerpan-Wheeler,
Stimmel, and Stone.

Absent: None

Liaisons Present: Margaret Vaverek, Library

Guests: Jerry Supple, President
Bob Gratz, VPAA
Pat Cassidy, Assoc. VPAA
Mike Moore, Better than DARS

CONTENTS

PAAG (SUPPLE, GRATZ)
DEVELOPMENTAL LEAVES (HAYS)
TRAVEL SOLUTIONS (MCGEE)
FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE (HAYS)
FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE (EARLY)
FACULTY SURVEY (GORDON)
NEW BUSINESS
APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM 17 NOVEMBER 1999

The meeting was called to order by Chair Hays at 4:00 p.m.

PAAG (SUPPLE, GRATZ)

Supple expressed thanks to the senate for the opportunity to have these
administrative/senate dialogues. He said that it didn't happen everywhere,
and that the faculty ought to appreciate the senate more.

Supple asked the senate to think about how to market SWT internally. Marketing
SWT to prospective students, parents, alumni, legislators, etc., is one thing,
but marketing SWT to SWT's own faculty and staff is quite another. There are
many things going on at SWT that most of the faculty/staff are quite unaware of.
How can we ensure that the academic community knows about, if not appreciates,
the various initiatives that are going on all over campus?

Supple also asked the senate to think about ways to enhance the importance of
academic honesty on campus. He quoted figures which indicated that:
57% of future teachers admitted that they cheated to get into graduate school
63% of future lawyers to get into law school
68% of future doctors to get into medical school
76% of future businessfolks to get into business school.
Those figures so dismayed Supple that he's interested in ways to combat the
problem at SWT which he has no reason to believe is different from those places
from which the preceding statistics came.

Various senators spoke of various difficulties in attacking the problem.
Chief among these is a perceived lack of administrative support, from chairs
on up, for faculty who pursue cases of academic dishonesty. Too, the student
justice system is perceived as a) being clogged with red tape, and b) loathe
to impose significant penalties on offenders.

Supple also spoke about the change from schools to colleges. While the change
seems to be mostly cosmetic, Supple says that it signals a change in administra-
tive philosophy.
1) Supple will have higher expectations of the deans, particularly in terms
of raising money.
2) Deans will be looking for programs to take to the national level in terms
of exposure -- marketing, again.
3) We will pursue more doctoral programs.
4) And we will continue to improve the quality of our offerings.

DEVELOPMENTAL LEAVES (HAYS)

Developmental leave application rankings were discussed. 14 of 15 applicants
were recommended to Supple/Gratz for developmental leaves.

TRAVEL SOLUTIONS (MCGEE)

McGee distributed a report detailing types of errors in travel vouchers and
proposing some solutions.

Errors: 926 vouchers [two months!] were examined. 334 [36%] were in error.
238 were incomplete, 56 exceeded allowable expenses, 24 didn't use
contract vendors, 16 had signatures missing.

Solutions: Attach the pocket travel guide to the travel application form.
Attach a checklist to the application form.
Post sample vouchers on the web.
Offer workshops about completing travel vouchers.

Follow-up: The erroneous vouchers will be examined to see if there are
particular departments which have extraordinary trouble with
vouchers.

The senate accepted the report. Early/Irvin 13-0.

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE (HAYS)

Senators and faculty are urged to read the draft report because, among other
things, it deals with faculty compensation.

FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE (EARLY)

The senate discussed the proposed final exam schedule produced by the Final
Exam Development Team. Team members were:

Bob Smallwood, Assoc. VPAA
Susan Day, Chair, Sociology
Grady Early, Faculty Senate
Daniel Guerrero, ASG
Joan Hays, Faculty Senate
Ken Margerison, Chair, History
Sue McCullough, Graduate College
David Rodriguez, ASG
Doug Skinner, Acting Chair, Music
Bill Yager, Chemistry

Dealing with numerous competing goals [length of exam, length of break between
exams, number of days of exams, etc., the committee developed a final exam
scheme which:

Schedules all exams on the same day and [roughly] at the same time
that the class meets.
The length of the final exam will continue to be 2.5 hours; the length
of final exams in the summer will be increased from 2 hours
to 2.5 hours.
The break between exams will continue to be 1 hour.
Exams will begin on Tuesday night of dead day and continue through
the next Tuesday.
There will be 4 exam periods per day except on Saturday for
Saturday-only classes.
The total number of exams per day is roughly the same throughout
the week.
Writing intensive courses with 75+ students, that would otherwise have
their exams scheduled on the last Tuesday of finals week, were
moved to the previous Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Final course grades will be posted to transcripts on Friday preceding
graduation.

Ultimately, 4 exam schedule consequences were examined in an attempt to minimize
their effects:

Number of students with 3 or more exams on one day.
Number of faculty with 2 exams at the same time.
Number of students with 2 exams at the same time.
Number of classrooms with 2 exams at the same time.

These factors were lessened but not eliminated.

Early noted that one difficulty with the process was Smallwood's absolute
refusal to provide accurate data to work with. That is, some classes which do
not have traditional final exams during final exam week were eliminated from
the data base, but many others were not. Thus, various of the exam schedule
permutations that were examined may have been produced in the mistaken belief
that conflicts existed where, in fact, they did not.

FACULTY SURVEY (GORDON)

The senate discussed the results of the recent senate-sponsored survey of
the faculty.

Each faculty member will be given a copy of the survey results.

The senate will re-visit the survey very soon in order to develop
recommendations based on the results of the survey.

NEW BUSINESS

Hays: Please study the report issued by the SWT Budget Committee chaired by
Bob Northcutt, mathematics. The senate will invite Northcutt to visit with
the senate to discuss budget issues.

Renick: The grievance/merit subcommittee will meet with a Council of Chairs
subcommittee re: paragraph 12 of the merit PPS. A report might be ready as
early as next week.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM 17 NOVEMBER 1999

Approved as amended.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

cheerfully submitted

grady

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