The
Regular session – January 22, 2007 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail: facsen@ou.edu web site:
http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Roger Frech, Chair.
PRESENT: Badhwar,
D. Bemben, M. Bemben, Benson, Biggerstaff, Blank, Bradford, Brown, Civan, Croft,
Draheim, Elisens, Fincke, Forman, Franklin, Frech, Gade, Ge, Greene, Gutierrez,
Houser, Keppel, Kolar, Kutner, Lai, Lester, Livesey, Magnusson, Marcus-Mendoza,
Miranda, Rambo, Roche, Scamehorn, Schwarzkopf, Strawn, Tan, Thulasiraman, Trytten,
Vitt, Warnken, Weaver, Wyckoff
ISA representatives:
Cook
ABSENT: Albert,
Basic, Brule, Cramer, Hamerla, James, Knapp, Raadschelders, Riggs, Skeeters, Wei
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Senate Chair's Report:
Grade scale
Lecture by Ruth Okediji
Faculty retiree deaths
Statement on science (evolution)
Faculty Senate apportionment for 2007-10
E-mail
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The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of December 11, 2006 was approved.
Prof. Frech reminded the Senate
that several issues would be considered at upcoming meetings: health benefits, library task force
recommendations, and the grade scale.
The grade scale task force is making final changes in its draft report
and will most likely present the report at the February Senate meeting. The preliminary draft, which is 21 pages,
contains background information, data, analysis of these data, recommendations,
and rationale for the recommendations. When
the final draft is ready, Prof. Frech will send it to senators and ask them to discuss
the recommendations with their constituents.
The Senate will consider the recommendations in February and potentially
vote in March.
Prof. Frech encouraged the
senators to attend a lecture, "Negotiating Success: Gender, Leadership and
the Academic Culture," by Prof. Ruth Okediji on January 25. Prof. Okediji was Faculty Senate Chair in
2000-01 and is now a professor at the
[Although not reported at the
meeting, Prof. Frech wishes to acknowledge the deaths of Ernest Larkin,
Journalism & Mass Communication, on December 15; Constance Lindemann,
Social Work, on December 16; Ramon Alonso, Management, on December 23; Ernest
Trumble, Music, on December 24; and C. Joe Holland, Journalism & Mass
Communication, on January 10.]
At the October 9, 2006
meeting, the Faculty Senate voted to support the Department of Zoology
statement on evolution (http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/Zooevol2.htm)
and tabled a statement proposed by the Senate Executive Committee (http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/refevol.htm),
which was a modification of the Zoology Department statement (see 10/06 Senate
Journal). Prof. Frech explained that the
Senate Executive Committee statement had been revised (attached – http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/fsecevol.htm),
had modest changes from the Zoology Department statement, and focused on the
definition of science and the scientific process.
Prof. Weaver commented that
the Geology & Geophysics faculty thought it would be pertinent to include a
reference in the statement to the age of the earth, which provides a time frame
for evolution to occur. In their
teaching, professors encounter questions related to the age of the earth. Prof. Frech said he was reluctant to add
specific scientific issues. The revised draft
talks some about evolution but focuses on the meaning of scientific theory and the
scientific process and the idea of testable hypotheses that are falsifiable. Prof. Weaver said he thought the original Zoology
statement included some reference to the age of the earth. Prof. Fincke said it mentioned the age of
life. Prof. Frech said someone would
need to suggest some language. Prof. Fincke
said she thought the statement was supposed to be about science in general, not
evolution. Prof. Vitt said his
recommendation at the December meeting was that the Faculty Senate statement should
be supportive of science and the scientific method, as opposed to alternative
explanations as to how the world works. He
envisioned an opening paragraph that would discuss the major discoveries in
science, including evolution. The new
statement is just a revision of the Zoology statement. Prof. Frech asked Prof. Schwarzkopf to work
with Professors Vitt, Fincke, and Weaver to come up with an appropriate version. Prof. Vitt said the statement should address
science in general, which includes evolution, rather than treat evolution as a
separate issue. Prof. Schwarzkopf said
it had not been clear how explicitly the Faculty Senate wanted to call out certain
theories. The Senate had already
supported the statement from Zoology that explicitly called out the non-evolutionary
theories. Prof. Vitt said he thought the
approach ought to be to define what science is, highlight major discoveries of
science that are based on the scientific method, and point out that alternative
explanations that do not use the scientific method are not consistent with what
is done in science. The statement could
mention evolution and discoveries in other fields but not explicitly address
any single one. The idea is to bring
them all together as part of science. That
would be a more powerful tool to use with the legislature and to advance
science in the state.
Prof. Frech reported that
reapportionment of the Senate was done on a periodic basis. The report of the ad hoc committee and recommended
apportionment for 2007-10 is attached -- http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/fsapporrep07.htm
and http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/fsappor07.htm. An error in
the heading was corrected to read 931.15 instead of 927.15. Since the last regular apportionment in 2004,
the College of Earth & Energy has been added. One unit each from the colleges of Atmospheric
& Geographic Sciences and Engineering was folded into Earth & Energy,
and one seat from each was allocated to the new college. In 2004, the
Prof. Finke commented that
she could hardly use e-mail because of all the spam, even though she has a spam
filter. Prof. Ge said the Information
Technology (IT) office could add a line that would filter out most spam. Prof. Fincke said she was concerned about
filtering out legitimate messages, such as those from editors. Prof. Ge responded that before she deletes
junk mail, she scans the messages. Occasionally,
a legitimate message may get sent to the junk mailbox. She said it is better than dealing with lots
of spam. Prof. Badhwar said she was
having problems receiving e-mail, and people are not receiving her messages. Prof. Ge said she recently had not received some
messages that students had sent. She
wondered if there was a problem between the server for students and the one for
faculty. Prof. Frech said he had found that
he needed to scan through spam because it included messages from editors on
occasion. Prof. Marcus-Mendoza said the
better way for professors to communicate with students was through Desire2Learn
instead of regular e-mail. She pointed
out that sometimes she will not receive any messages for several hours, and she
fears that legitimate mail is lost during that interval. Prof. Frech said he would bring this up with
IT. Prof. Fincke noted that some schools
do something to filter out spam at a higher level. Prof. Vitt pointed out that the Eudora system
could provide information on the time one spends on e-mail. Prof. Trytten explained that spam filters
will occasionally catch legitimate messages and miss some spam. The spam filter in the Outlook system seems
to work extremely well. Prof. Frech said
he would talk with IT about publicizing the availability and accessibility of e-mail
filters.
The meeting adjourned at 4:00
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at
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Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
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Cecelia Brown, Secretary