The
Regular session – April 11, 2005 - 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 Valerie Watts, Chair.
PRESENT: Barker,
Biggerstaff, Blank, Bozorgi, Bradford, Brown, Caldwell, Catlin, Civan, Davis,
Devenport, Dewers, Draheim, Driver, Fincke, Forman, Frech, Geletzke, Gutierrez,
Halterman, Hobbs, Houser, C. Knapp, R. Knapp, Lai, Lewis, Liu, Magnusson, Marcus-Mendoza,
Ransom, Rupp-Serrano, Scherman, Schwarzkopf, Sharp, Striz, Taylor, Watts,
Wheeler
Provost's office representative: Mergler
UOSA representatives: Deeg
ABSENT: Burns,
Cintrón, Cramer, Dohrmann, Elisens, Greene, Havlicek, Hayes-Thumann,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Faculty development awards
Carpooling
Renaissance project
Senate Chair's Report:
Meeting with OUHSC and OSU
Faculty tribute
New Chemistry building
Declaration of appreciation to Instructional Development Director Dee
Fink
Environmental Concerns Committee membership
Preliminary nominations for councils/committees/boards
Council on Campus Life
Web policy
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The Faculty Senate Journal for
the regular session of March 21, 2005 was approved.
The Faculty Senate is pleased
to present the faculty development awards for the spring 2005 semester to
William Beasley (Meteorology), Jose Ray Canoy and Elyssa Faison (History),
Johanna Cox (Music), Jeff Kelly (Zoology and Oklahoma Biological Survey),
Brandon Olson (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering), Ingo Schlupp (Zoology),
and Susan Shaughnessy (Drama).
Because of higher gas prices,
the Staff Senate office started an effort to coordinate employees who are
interested in carpooling. The office
will compile a list and connect people who commute from a particular area. If you are interested in carpooling, please
send the following information to StaffSenate@ou.edu: name, phone number, e-mail, address, city,
zip code, and general area from which you commute (e.g. east of Noble, name of
housing addition).
This fall, OU is launching
the Renaissance Project, a series of year-long programs to enhance our
students’ educational experience. The
theme for the pilot year 2005-06 is “Religion and Democracy.” For further information, see http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/renproj.htm
(attached).
“A couple of weeks ago the
Faculty Senate executive committee met with the executive committees of the OU
Health Sciences Center and
“I want to remind you that
next Monday, April 18, is the Faculty Tribute at 3:00 p.m. in the Lester wing of
the Art Museum.
“Finally, the senate received
some questions about the administration’s plan to build a new facility for the Chemistry
department on south campus. We have
arranged a meeting for chairs of the departments that will be impacted by the
move (that includes all Engineering programs, Zoology, Microbiology, Physics,
and Chemistry). The meeting will take
place Wednesday, April 20, at 3:00 p.m. in Jacobson 102. Vice President Nick Hathaway will present the
proposed plans and be prepared to discuss transportation issues for faculty and
students. I have informed the chairs
that they are free to invite faculty who may be interested in attending. If there are any particular concerns you
would like Mr. Hathaway to address, please send them to me (vwatts@ou.edu). I will make sure they are included on the
agenda. This will also allow Mr.
Hathaway additional time to gather the necessary information.”
At
the January 2005 senate meeting, Professors Jos Raadschelders and Rosa Cintrón
suggested that the senate express appreciation to Dr. Dee Fink, who is retiring
as Instructional Development Director at the end of June. Prof. Watts thanked senators Raadschelders and
Cintrón for their efforts in composing the resolution (below) and relayed their
regrets for not being able to be present at the meeting for its vote. The motion to approve the resolution was unanimously
approved by the senate on a voice vote. The
resolution will be presented to Dr. Fink at his retirement reception on May 11.
The Faculty Senate of the Norman Campus of the
University of Oklahoma
- acknowledging the importance of teaching and learning in our institution of
higher education,
- recognizing the major advances that have been made in the past 25 years to
improve the rigor, quality, and attractiveness of teaching and learning,
- emphasizing its functions as a representative body of faculty and staff of
the Norman campus,
- and having learned about the retirement of Dr. L. Dee Fink as Director of
OU's Instructional Development Program
wishes to declare its
profound appreciation for the efforts of Dee Fink as to advance the cause of
learning and teaching during his 25-year tenure as IDP Director. We
specifically express our respect for the fact that he has done so in the
various roles of:
- organizer, e.g. the development of various training
programs for faculty and teaching assistants at OU, the development of
platforms for exchange of teaching and learning experience across faculty;
- advisor, to individual faculty who came to him seeking and finding
suggestions to improve teaching and learning;
- grant writer, securing prestigious federal education related grants which
greatly benefited the teaching on our campus;
- scholar, as author of various articles and his book, Creating Significant
Learning Experiences, published in 2003, which has already attracted
national attention;
- and as good institutional citizen, both at OU and as a tireless advocate for
the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education,
which elected him to be its national president in August 2004.
We express our desire
that Dee Fink's work for the IDP will continue to fulfill its interdepartmental
functions and look forward to benefiting from his experiences.
The Environmental Concerns
Committee recommended that its membership be changed from a
faculty/staff/student ratio of 4/2/2 to 3/3/3 (see http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/envcon05.pdf
-- attached). Prof. Debra Engel (University
Libraries), co-chair of the committee with Ms. Sophia Morren (Arts &
Sciences), explained that one of the faculty appointments had come from the
Campus Planning Council, which is inactive.
The proposal would provide equal representation from each governance
group. Prof. Watts noted that the senate
executive committee had suggested the possibility of retaining four faculty by
having the Faculty Senate appoint the member that used to be appointed by the
Campus Planning Council. Prof. Engel said
that would make an even number of members, but she was willing to take the
suggestion back to the committee. She pointed
out that the committee was a remarkably dedicated group, and almost everyone
showed up for meetings. Prof. Schwarzkopf
said the reason for the suggestion to keep the additional faculty was to have a
larger cohort in case the other members did not actively participate. Prof. Engel said there was a lot of strong
support for the committee. A number of
student groups are involved with environmental and recycling issues. The recommendation will be voted on at the next
meeting.
The senate committee on committees’
preliminary nominations for the end-of-the-year vacancies on university and
campus councils, committees, and boards were distributed at the meeting and
will be voted on at the May meeting (see http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/maynom05.htm
-- attached). Prof. Knapp, chair of the committee
on committees, said the committee was still working on a couple of vacancies. He called for volunteers for the Conflict of
Interest Advisory Committee and Faculty Appeals Board. He noted that the Faculty Appeals Board is
like a jury pool.
The senate executive committee
recommended that the Council on Campus Life be dissolved. Prof. Watts explained that the committee was
formed in 1990. It is not a legislative
body. Its purpose was to provide a forum
for all campus constituencies to address matters pertaining to the quality of
campus life. It no longer serves the function
for which it was originally intended and, therefore, has not been active the
last few years. Vice President for
Student Affairs Clarke Stroud has an advisory council that serves the same
purpose and meets regularly. The
recommendation will be voted on at the next meeting.
The
Information Technology Council created a web policy with the purpose of establishing
standards and guidelines for web pages (see http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/ITCwebpol.htm
-- attached). Prof. Watts called
attention to two proposed changes distributed at the meeting.
Revise the last paragraph of
Personal Web Pages to read: The
opinions or statements expressed herein should not be taken as a position of or endorsement by the
Add to
the Introduction: Placing material on a
web site is equivalent to publishing it.
Prof. Barker remarked that placing
material on a web site was equivalent to putting something on a public notice
board but was not equal to publishing it in the sense of what is required for
promotion and tenure. Prof. Watts said
she had discussed the language with Sally Garrison in Legal Counsel. Ms. Garrison said there could be copyright
issues depending on whether the material was original or not. The executive committee wanted to make sure faculty
understood there were some instances when the material would be considered as
published. Prof. Barker said he thought
the issue of copyright ought to be separated from the issue of publication. He said anything could be copyrighted, but
not everything could be counted as a publication for the purposes of this
university. Prof. Bradford said the
point was that placing material on a web site was equivalent to taking someone
else’s material and putting it in a book that was going to be published. One could violate a copyright by putting
something on a web site that was written by somebody else. The purpose of the proposed language was as a
warning to be careful of what you use. Prof.
Watts added that the matter applied to any material that was not originally
yours. Prof. Schwarzkopf said he was the
one who wanted to make clear what was copyright and what was plagiarism. When someone puts something on the web, it is
the same as including material in published work. He thought it would be good to have a clear
warning. Prof. Barker said someone’s own
content, if placed on a web site, could count as a publication. He commented that it would be better to make
explicit that the intention was to warn people about using material. Prof. Fincke suggested that the proposed new
sentence read, “Placing material on the website is subject to the same
copyright law as a publication.” Prof.
Blank commented that the issue was not only copyright but also academic
dishonesty. Prof. Scherman said the
policy sounded like another set of rules to govern our lives. He suggested the addition of some language in
the introduction about the positive things the web does for us. Prof. Watts explained that the proposed
policy was a new policy; it was not replacing any policy. She told the senators to contact Prof.
Deborah Trytten (Computer Science), chair of the Information Technology
Council, if they had any questions.
Prof. Rupp-Serrano noted that there was already a section about
copyright in the document. Prof. Watts said
the executive committee had acknowledged that but thought it would be useful to
have some statement at the beginning. Prof.
Rupp-Serrano pointed out that the third bullet should read, “…enable
appropriate online transactions.” The
policy will be voted on at the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 3:55
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, May 9, 2005, in Jacobson
Faculty Hall 102.
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Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
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Roger Frech, Secretary