KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

Minutes of the University Senate

Academic Forum, Room 202

Thursday, April 12, 2007

W. Bateman called the meeting to order at 4:06 p.m.

Present: Marilyn Baguinon, Len Barish, William Bateman (President), Eric Beaven, Bobbie Berry for Tracy Keyes, Kristin Bremer, Kate Clair, Roberta Crisson, Mike Demetor, Patricia Derr, William Donner, Diane Fegely, Lisa Frye (Secretary), Kathy Hartman, Yong Huang for James Hall, James Hvidding, William Jefferson, Mark Koenig, JoAnn Mackesy, Robert Martin, Justin McCleary, Walter Nott, George Paterno, Morris Perinchief, Sylvia Pham, Ilene Prokup, Dennis Rains, Karen Rauch, Robert Ryan, Paul Sable, Loline Saras, Randy Schaeffer, Judith Smith (Vice-President), Pietro Toggia, Carlos Vargas-Aburto, and Madan Varma.

Absent: Deborah Barlieb, Dan Cates, Camille DeMarco, Ina Grapenthin, Jo Cohen Hamilton, Roger Hibbs, Ted Hickman, Lori Don Levan, Susan Mangold, John McAndrew, Rennie Sacco, Maria Sanelli, Laura Springman, David Wagaman, and Karen Williams.

Also in Attendance: Richelyn Penn-Mekile and Robert Watrous.

I. Announcements

R. Watrous announced that the issue of student behavior and the increasing volume of classroom disruption has been a major concern of the Student Services & Campus Life Office. His office is working together with the Student-Faculty Judiciary Board and the Student Government Board gathering information on policies and code of conduct standards that relate to academic disruptions throughout the country. They are working on establishing a policy and will bring a draft to Senate for referral to the Academic Standards & Policy Committee.

W. Bateman announced that the May 3 Senate Meeting will be held in MSU 223.

II. Approval of the Agenda

R. Schaeffer moved, and M. Varma seconded, to approve the Agenda. The motion passed.

III. Approval of the Minutes

R. Schaeffer moved, L. Barish seconded, to approve the Minutes of the March 1, 2007 meeting. J. Smith had an addition to the minutes under Old Business to read as follows:

J. Smith stated that the Human Kinetics Department gave Maria a list of changes and problems when teaching Health to 150 students in the Academic Forum.

The minutes were approved as amended.

IV. Committee and Task Force Reports

A. Committee on Committees

J. Smith, Chair, reported that the Willingness-to-Serve Form in Profs Online was a huge success with more than usual faculty completing the form. There were a few problems reported, but they were addressed immediately. The Committee on Committees met and made their selections to the Governance Committees. There are still vacancies on a few committees and requests have been sent to faculty.

Willingness-to-Serve Forms were sent to the departments for the 3 Governance Committees that have elected members. These committees are the Committee on Committees, Grade Appeal Board, and the Strategic Planning & Resource Committee. All forms will be due by Friday, April 20. Ballots will then be sent out to faculty for the elections.

J. Smith announced that a representative is needed from Senate to be on the Space Allocation & Renovation Committee for a two-year term. Ilene Prokup, Nursing Department, volunteered to serve. This was approved.

W. Bateman mentioned that the ballots for the Senator At-Large positions are currently out for nominations.

B. Strategic Planning & Resources Committee

No report.

C. Budget Review Committee

W. Bateman, Chair of the BRC, handed out copies of the mission statement and principles of a decentralized budget that were approved by the Strategic Planning & Resource Committee over a year ago. There is one more budget meeting scheduled to discuss where they are and what would happen next.

He said the plan is at this point is for Kutztown University to simulate a decentralized budget in parallel with the current budget process for one year to see how a decentralized budget might look using the West Chester plan. This will not require additional work by the department chairs as they will simply receive reports from the decentralized budget simulation.

E. Bevan asked if W. Bateman could provide evidence that department chairs like the decentralized budget at West Chester University. W. Bateman would talk to Dean Chris Fiorentino to see if there is any such evidence readily available.

W. Bateman stated that there is information on the BRC web site that might help answer questions. There is also a presentation on the web site explaining how a decentralized budget works. W. Bateman stated that a decentralized budget is based on class enrollment targets, which are determined by the Vice-Presidents and Deans in consultation with department chairs.

Provost Vargas recommended that the shadowing process begin with the summer sessions to simplify this process. West Chester University went to the summer model for two to three years before actually decentralizing during the fall and spring semesters.

V. Old Business

M. Perinchief questioned on when the plus-minus grading system will go into effect at KU. G. Paterno stated that this is tied in with Harrisburg’s implementation of the SAP System and he estimated that it has been pushed back from Fall 2007 to Spring 2008.

VI. New Business

A. Posthumous degree for Kevin Whaley

W. Bateman asked for a motion to award a posthumous degree to Kevin Whaley. E. Beaven moved, M. Perinchief seconded. The motion passed.

VII. Adjournment

W. Nott moved, M. Baguinon seconded, to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 5:38 p.m.

Signed:

___________________________________ ___________________________________

William E. Bateman, President Lisa M. Frye, Secretary

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