October 7, 2004

W. Bateman called the meeting to order at 4:04 p.m. in room 223 of the McFarland Student Union Building.

Present: Marilyn Baguinon (Secretary), Len Barish, William Bateman (President), Eric Beaven, Kristin Bremer, Emily Button, Dan Cates, Janice Chernekoff, Margaret Devlin, William Donner for David Tavakoli, Jack Entriken, Bruce Gottschall, James Hall, Kathy Hartman, Roger Hibbs, Ted Hickman, Maria Hodel, Deryl Johnson (Vice President), Kimberly Johnston, Patricia Kelleher, Tracy Keyes, Robert Martin, John McAndrew, Todd McFeely for Miles DeCoster, Matthew McKernan, George Paterno, Morris Perinchief, Dennis Rains, Karen Rauch, Linda Rinker, Randy Schaeffer, Neil Shea, James Sowerwine, Peg Speirs, John Vafeas, Edward Vicic, David Wagaman, and Dana Wilcox.

Absent: Deborah Barlieb, Roberta Crisson, Joan Davis, Dennis Dietrich, Ina Grapenthin, James Hvidding, David Laubach, Gail Rothermel, Paul Sable, Ray Tumbleson, and Karen Williams.

Also in Attendance: President Javier Cevallos, Duane Crider, Mike Gifford, Debbie Lynch, Rick Miller, and Rich Zera.

I.    Announcements

W. Bateman updated the Senate on the contributions to the SECA Campaign and announced that the names of the drawing winners will be posted in the Daily Brief.

W. Bateman announced that the 2004 KU Presidential Scholarship Ball would be held on November 6, 2004. The cost per person is $175, just as it was last year.

R. Schaeffer moved, and E. Beaven seconded, to approve the Agenda. W. Bateman asked for a motion to change the agenda by adding Posthumous Degree as item A under Section VI. New Business, thus making the Plus/Minus Grading Proposal item B. E. Beaven moved, J. Vafeas seconded, to approve the change in the agenda. The motion on the amendment passed. The motion to approve the agenda as amended passed.

E. Beaven moved, B. Gottschall seconded, to approve the Minutes of the September 2, 2004, meeting. The motion passed.

A.    Committee on Committees
D. Johnson, chair of the Committee on Committees, announced that there is now a full slate of senators; that they have received all the student appointments for all the committees; they have not, however, received those of the graduate students but the Graduate office has been working on this. He further reported that the two vacant positions on the Strategic Planning and Resources Committee have been filled: Mark Jones (one-year term) from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Dan Benson (three-year term) from the College of Business.
If you cannot find up-to-date information on committee memberships from the Senate website, D. Johnson suggested that you should contact the Secretary of the Senate Office, Claudia Delong, who is also secretary for the CET, Center for the Enhancement of Teaching. D. Johnson also reminded Senate committee chairs to submit a brief report of last year’s activities so that those can be posted in the web.

B.    General Education Restructuring Team
D. Lynch, chair, General Education Restructuring Team, spoke on the recent voting on the Mission and Goals that was halted. She reported that the University has hired an accounting firm to conduct the voting and all future elections pertaining to General Education. The materials will be sent to the faculty’s home address by Monday and that the vote must be returned to the firm. She also reminded the Senate members about the upcoming “Food for Thought” session scheduled for October 15, 2004 at 1:00 p.m.

There was none.

A.    Posthumous Degree


E. Beaven moved, and M. Perinchief, seconded, to approve a posthumous degree for Dennis Rafferty, a Criminal Justice student who passed away in September. The motion passed.

B.    Plus/Minus Grading Proposal – endorsed by Senators: P. Kelleher (History), J. Chernekoff (English), and K. Bremer (Political Science)


Be it resolved that the grading system at Kutztown University be expanded to include the following grades with the point values given in parenthesis: A (4. 00), A- (3.67), B+ (3.33), B (3.00), B- (2.67), C+ (2.33), C (2.00), D (1.00), and F (0.00).



Be it further resolved that the matter be determined by a referendum of all permanent (tenured and tenure-track) faculty where a majority is required for passage.



P. Kelleher gave a brief history of the proposal indicating that the concept of plus/minus grading has been debated at KU over the past decade. She talked about the most recent referendum that failed to pass because the proposal required a two-thirds majority to pass, but only 65.15% of the faculty voted last March to support the proposal. This current proposal requires just a simple majority to pass.



A lengthy discussion on a number of topics related to the proposal ensued. There were concerns, for example, on whether a professor is forced to use the plus/minus grading system or not; or if he/she can choose to just use parts of the system, etc.



R. Schaeffer asked the question why the proposal uses only 2 decimal places.



R. Schaeffer moved, K. Bremer seconded, that we avail ourselves of as many decimal places as we now use in our computer system. The motion failed.



The discussion went back to the main motion.



E. Vicic moved, and D. Wilcox seconded, to amend the main motion to require two-thirds majority to pass the proposal. More discussion followed.



Janice Chernekoff called for the question. There was an objection to the call. A two-thirds majority was required to close debate. Senators voted by standing. Since 30 senators voted to close the debate and 3 voted to continue, the motion to close debate passed.



Because there was a request to have a roll call, Secretary M. Baguinon called the roll.


M. Baguinon (no), L. Barish, (yes), D. Barlieb (absent), E. Beaven (yes), K. Bremer (no), E. Button (yes), D. Cates (no), J. Chernekoff (no), R. Crisson (absent), J. Davis (absent), M. Devlin (abstain), D. Dietrich (absent), W. Donner for D. Tavakoli (no), J. Entriken (no), B. Gottschall (no), I. Grapenthin (absent), J. Hall (no), K. Hartman (no), R. Hibbs (yes), T. Hickman (no), M. Hodel (no), J. Hvidding (absent), D. Johnson (no), K. Johnston (no), P. Kelleher (no), T. Keyes (no), D. Laubach (absent), R. Martin (yes), J. McAndrew (yes), T. McFeely for M. DeCoster (no), M. McKernan (abstain), G. Paterno (abstain), M. Perinchief (no), D. Rains (no), Karen Rauch (no), L. Rinker (abstain), G. Rothermel (absent), P. Sable (absent), R. Schaeffer (no), N. Shea (no), J. Sowerwine (no), P. Speirs (no), R. Tumbleson (absent), J. Vafeas (no), E. Vicic (yes), D. Wagaman (no), D. Wilcox (yes), K. Williams (absent), and W. Bateman (abstain).



The vote totals were: 8 yes and 25 no with 4 abstentions, and 9 absent, and so the motion was defeated.



Discussion on the main motion resumed. J. Chernekoff called for the question. There was an objection to closing debate. W. Bateman requested that Senators vote by standing: Since 25 were in favor of closing debate and 8 against, the motion to close debate passed.



D. Johnson asked when the proposal be implemented if the referendum were to pass. W. Bateman responded by saying that it depends on the implementation schedule for the S.A.P. academic software package, but that it probably would not be before fall 2007.



Secretary M. Baguinon conducted the roll call vote on the main motion.


M. Baguinon (yes), L. Barish, (no), D. Barlieb (absent), E. Beaven (no), K. Bremer (yes), E. Button (no), D. Cates (yes), J. Chernekoff (yes), R. Crisson (absent), J. Davis (absent), M. Devlin (abstain), D. Dietrich (absent), W. Donner for D. Tavakoli (yes), J. Entriken (yes), B. Gottschall (yes), I. Grapenthin (absent), J. Hall (no), K. Hartman (yes), R. Hibbs (no), T. Hickman (yes), M. Hodel (yes), J. Hiding (absent), D. Johnson (yes), K. Johnston (yes), P. Kelleher (yes), T. Keyes (yes), D. Laubach (absent), R. Martin (no), J. McAndrew (no), T. McFeely for M. DeCoster (yes), M. McKernan (abstain), G. Paterno (abstain), M. Perinchief (yes), D. Rains (yes), Karen Rauch (yes), L. Rinker (abstain), G. Rothermel (absent), P. Sable (absent), R. Schaeffer (yes), N. Shea (yes), J. Sowerwine (yes), P. Speirs (yes), R. Tumbleson (absent), J. Vafeas (no), E. Vicic (no), D. Wagaman (yes), D. Wilcox (no), K. Williams (absent), and W. Bateman (abstain).



The vote totals were: 23 yes and 10 no with 4 abstentions and 9 absent so the motion passed.



W. Bateman then announced that this proposal would be voted on in an upcoming referendum conducted electronically in the software package called Profs Online.

R. Schaeffer moved, and D. Johnson seconded, that the meeting be adjourned. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at 5:10 PM.