December 4, 2003

W. Bateman called the meeting to order in Room 223 of the Student Union Building at 4:03 p.m.

Present: Marilyn Baguinon, Deborah Barlieb, William Bateman, Eric Beaven, Jorie Borden, Emily Button, James Chaney, Janice Chernekoff, Joan Davis, Peggy Devlin, Pascale Dewey, Dennis Dietrich, Bruce Gottschall, Amadou Guisse, James Hall, Beth Herbine, Roger Hibbs, James Hvidding, Deryl Johnson, Patricia Kelleher, Lisa Ladd-Kidder, David Laubach, Will Towne (for Carol Mapes), Robert Martin, John McAndrew, George Paterno, Morris Perinchief, Ilene Prokup, Dennis Rains, Linda Rinker, Charles Roth, Paul Sable, Neil Shea, Andrew Skitko, Judith Smith, James Sowerwine, Kim Shively (for David Tavakoli), John Vafeas, Eric Vicic, Robert Watrous, Dana Wilcox, and Clark Yeager

Absent: Dan Cates, Miles DeCoster, Paula Holoviak, Kevin Kjos, Joseph Lippincott, Carol Mapes, Gail Rothermel, David Tavakoli, Ray Tumbleson, and Donna Wagaman

Others in Attendance: Javier Cevallos, R. Donato, M. Myers, B. Cook, Ulyssus Connor, Patricia Richter, Eileen Hogan, Debra Lynch, Ritta Basu, and V. Barandes

I.    Announcements

W. Bateman gave the Senate an update on the first University Scholarship Ball. The 2004 KU Presidential Scholarship Ball will be held on November 6, 2004.

E. Prokup moved, M. Devlin seconded, to approve the Agenda. M. Perinchief made a motion to add a report on the Committee on Committees, P. Kelleher seconded. The amendment passed. The motion passed.

B. Gottschall moved, C. Roth seconded, to approve the Minutes of the November 6, 2003 meeting. M. Baguinon made corrections to the minutes, under Announcements it should read University Senate Secretary, Page 2, Old Business remove the work they, last page, misspelled Baguinon. The motion on the corrected minutes passed.

A.    Committee on Committees


M. Perinchief brought two recommendations from the Committee on Committees. The first was the addition of P. Sable to the Library Committee. The second was to add six new members to the Enrollment Management Committee: the Associate Director of Admissions, the Director of Lifelong Learning and Community Partnerships, the Registrar, the Director of the Summer Start Program, the Assistant Vice President for Administration and Finance, and the Director for the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching. J. Smith seconded the motion, the motion passed.

B.    General Education Restructuring Team


D. Lynch updated the University Senate on the progress of General Education restructuring. There will be two more meetings before the end of the semester.

C.    Enrollment Management Committee


E. Hogan addressed the University Senate on a proposal to replace the current two progress reports with just one faculty report on student progress. P. Richter and U. Connor spoke in favor of requiring a single report once a semester because it would help students. The reports are also needed in order to satisfy the rules associated with federal grants. W. Bateman informed the Senate that the proposal would not be voted on today since the proposal was not available one week in advance of this Senate meeting. The proposal also lacked the specificity needed for implementation. After a question and answer session about the concept of such a report, W. Bateman agreed to work with the committee in order to generate a well-formed proposal for the next Senate meeting.

At this point in the meeting, W. Bateman asked if there was any objection to the addition to the agenda of one short overlooked item about fall graduates. Since there was no objection, W. Bateman called for a motion to approve the December graduates as certified by the Registrar's Office. E. Beaven moved approval, M. Perinchief seconded, and the motion passed.

A.    Plus/Minus Grading Proposal

E. Beaven moved and M. Baguinon seconded to remove the Plus/Minus grading proposal off the table. The motion passed. Discussion followed.

E. Button noted that SGB held a referendum on the plus/minus grading. In three days 240 students cast votes. The tally was 169 against and 71 in favor of the plus/minus grading proposal. P. Kelleher and W. Bateman reported that they had attended an SGB meeting where the proposal was unanimously voted down. Discussion centered on the negative impact of C-minus and D-minus grades especially on students' eligibility for financial aid. J. Chernekoff called for the question, E. Beaven objected. Since there was an objection, a vote was taken. The vote was 23 in favor and 14 against closing off debate. The motion failed since a two-thirds majority is needed for such a motion so discussion continued.

In answer to a question from C. Yeager, W. Bateman stated implementation would not occur before the fall of 2005, the target date for the implementation of the academic grading portion of the S.A.P. software package. M. Baguinon moved to amend the motion to eliminate the D-minus grade, C. Yeager seconded the motion. The vote on the amendment was 8 in favor and 22 against so the motion failed.

D. Rains moved and C. Yeager seconded to amend the proposal to add the grade of A-plus with a value of 4.33. After some discussion, M. Devlin called the question on the amendment. With a vote of 28 in favor and 1 against closing off debate, the motion carried. The vote on the amendment to add an A-plus grade was defeated by a vote of 2 in favor and 27 against.

C. Roth then called the question on the original proposal and D. Wilcox objected. The vote to close debate was 31 in favor and 6 opposed so debate ended. Thus, the Senate prepared to a vote on the proposal. C. Roth called for a roll call vote. As a point of clarification before the vote was taken, W. Bateman explained that if the Senate motion to adopt a plus/minus grading system were successful, a referendum of all permanent faculty will be conducted electronically where tenured and tenure-track faculty would vote using a PIN. The outcome of the referendum would be decided by a simple majority of those who vote. The roll call vote was taken. The vote 18 in favor and 17 against the motion before W. Bateman voted. Voting at the end, W. Bateman voted to create an 18 to 18 tie. Thus, the motion to introduce a plus/minus grading system at KU failed for lack of a majority.

Roll Call vote: M. Baguinon (aye), D. Barlieb (left), E. Beaven (nay), J. Borden (nay), E. Button (nay), D. Cates (absent), J. Chaney (aye), J. Chernekoff (aye), J. Davis (aye), M. DeCoster (absent), M. Devlin (abstain), P. Dewey (aye), D. Dietrich (nay), B. Gottschall (abstain), A. Guisse (nay), J. Hall (aye), B. Herbine (nay), R. Hibbs (nay), Holoviak, P. (absent), J. Hvidding (nay), D. Johnson (aye), P. Kelleher (aye), K. Kjos (absent), L. Ladd-Kidder (nay), D. Laubach (aye), J. Lippincott (absent), W. Towne for C. Mapes (aye), R. Martin (nay), J. McAndrew (nay), G. Paterno (abstain), M. Perinchief (aye), I. Prokup (aye), D. Rains (aye), L. Rinker (abstain), C. Roth (nay), G. Rothermel (absent), P. Sable (left), N. Shea (aye), A. Skitko (aye), J. Smith (aye), J. Sowerwine (aye), K. Shively for D. Tavakoli (aye), R. Tumbleson (absent), J. Vafeas (nay), E. Vicic (nay), D. Wagaman (absent), R. Watrous (nay), D. Wilcox (nay), C. Yeager (nay), and W. Bateman (nay)

A.    Election of Senate Vice President (two-year term) and Secretary (one-year term)
J. Hall, chair of the nominating committee, ran the election. J. Hall announced that D. Johnson had been nominated for the position of Senate Vice President. E. Beaven and M. Devlin moved and seconded to close nominations. The motion passed. W. Bateman directed D. Johnson as Senate Secretary to cast a ballot for himself as Vice President Elect.

Since there were no nominations for the position of Senate Secretary, this matter was carried over to the next meeting.

B. Gottschall moved and E. Beaven seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 5:35 p.m.