EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

2008-2009 FACULTY SENATE

The fourth regular meeting of the 2008/2009 Faculty Senate will be held on

Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at 2:10 p.m. in the Mendenhall Student Center, Great Room.

 

AGENDA

  I.           Call to Order

 

II.                      Approval of Minutes

November 4, 2008                      

 

III.           Special Order of the Day

 
A.    Roll Call

 

B.    Announcements

 

C.    Steve Ballard, Chancellor

 

D.        Marilyn Sheerer, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs

E.    Janice Tovey, Chair of the Faculty

 

F.     Catherine Rigsby
Update on ECU’s SACS Accreditation Process

 

G.    Question Period

 

 IV.         Unfinished Business

 

V.                   Report of Committees

A.     Academic Standards Committee, Linda Wolfe   

        1.   Proposed use of “NR” (Not Reported) (attachment 1). 

                        2.   Approval of Foundation Curriculum Courses as follows:

                              a.   For Humanities: RELI 2693, 2694, 3694, 3700, 3800, 1000, 2695, and 2696

                              b.   For Basic Science: GEOG 1300 (Weather and Climate)

                                   

B.    Agenda Committee, Christine Zoller 

Proposed 2009-2010 Faculty Senate and Agenda Committee meeting dates (attachment 2).

 

C.    Committee on Committees, Tom Caron

                        1.   Nominee for 2009 alternate term on Appellate Grievance Board (attachment 3).

                        2.   Nominee for 2009 regular term on Appellate Hearing Committee (attachment 4).

                        3.   Nominees for UNC Faculty Assembly Delegation (attachment 5).

 

D.    Educational Policies and Planning Committee, Sandra Warren
1.   Proposed change in name of graduate degree program  in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies.

        2.   Request for authorization to establish a MS in Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine.

        3.   Request for authorization to establish a BS in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology in the Department of Geography.

        4.   Request for authorization to establish a BS in Geographic Information Science and Technology in the Department of Geography.

        5.   Post Master’s Certificate in Nursing Leadership in the College of Nursing.

 

E.    Faculty Governance Committee, Puri Martinez

        Proposed revision to the ECU Faculty Manual, Appendix L. Section E. Five Year Unit Program Evaluation (attachment 6).

 

                F.     University Curriculum Committee, Jane Manner

Curriculum matters contained in the October 23, 2008 and November 13, 2008 meeting minutes.   

 

      VI.      New Business

 

 


Faculty Senate Agenda

December 2, 2008

Attachment  1.   

ACADEMIC STANDARDS COMMITTEE REPORT
Proposed use of “NR” (Not Reported)

 

The Academic Standards Committee recommends the proposed use of “NR” (Not Reported) for those courses for which the instructor/faculty member fails to turn in a grade. 

As part of the end of term process, sometimes a faculty member does not submit grades by the prescribed deadline, as listed in the Grades memo sent to all faculty each term.  As a result, in order to complete the programs and processes associated with grades, the University Registrar must assign a grade to those courses where the faculty member has not completed their responsibilities for the course.

 

Historically, a grade of incomplete (I) has been used to accomplish this task.  This policy addresses the use of a new grade, Not Reported (NR), which will be used instead of (I) to accomplish this task.  The grade of “NR” will not be available for faculty to assign to a student, but will be part of the administrative function that occurs once the deadline for submission of all grades has passed (and staff members within the Office of the Registrar have attempted to obtain all grades through additional outreach efforts to faculty, department chairs, and their deans).

 

Procedures used with Undergraduate and Graduate Student Courses:

·    Once the deadline for the submission of grades has passed, and all attempts at
obtaining the grade without a substantial delay to beginning the processing and calculation of GPA and Academic Standing for all students have been exhausted, staff within the Office of the Registrar will assign a grade of “NR” to those students whose grades have not been submitted by the faculty member assigned to the course.

·    The faculty, department chair, dean, Senior Executive Director of Enrollment Management, and Provost will be sent a list of the courses and the students who have been assigned the “NR” grade, along with a request to have the grade submitted via the Change of Grade/Removal of Incomplete form, as soon as possible.

·    If a “NR” grade is not resolved by the start of the next academic term, a reminder will be sent at both the beginning and the end of drop/add to the faculty member, department chair, dean, Senior Executive Director of Enrollment Management, and Provost.

·    If a “NR” grade is not resolved by the end of the next academic term, another reminder will be sent to the faculty member, department chair, dean, Senior Executive Director of Enrollment Management, and Provost.

·    A grade of “NR” can remain on the student’s record until the student is ready to graduate.  At that time, if the “NR” has still not been resolved, and the student does not need the course to meet graduation requirements, then the student may submit a request to have the course dropped from their transcript without penalty. 

·    If the student needs the course to complete their graduation requirements, and the faculty member has not submitted the paperwork to remove the “NR” grade, then the student must obtain credit for the course. 

 

Grading System:

·    In order to calculate GPA and Academic Standing for students who receive a “NR” grade, the “NR” will be included in the computation of GPA using the same logic as a grade of “I”.  “I” grades do not harm or help a student’s GPA; however further implications are listed below.

·    A student may not receive academic honors for the semester – Chancellor’s List, Dean’s List, and Honor Roll – with a grade of “NR” on his/her record.  Once the grade is submitted, the student, if eligible, will have the honors notation added to their record, and will be notified of the change in academic honor standing.  This is the same process as is used with the grade of “I”.

·    If a student enrolls in a course in which he or she has a grade of “NR”, the “NR” will be dropped without penalty to the student before the grading period begins for the term in which the student re-enrolls in the course.

 

Benefits of using the “NR” grade:

·    It is an accurate reflection of the work and grade at the time of grading.  Since the student may have completed all requirements of the course, it is not an accurate depiction to assign a grade of “I” (Incomplete).

·    Tracking of outstanding grades is simplified – using an “I” grade does not provide a way to distinguish between grades not reported and a true use of the “I” grade.

·    “NR” will not change to a grade of “F”, if the faculty member does not submit the grade before the deadline as prescribed within the University Calendar.

 

Timeline for the submission for final grades:

·    With the implementation of the Banner system, effective Fall 2007, faculty  no longer have a 48-hour deadline (after the exam is given) to submit grades.  The Office of the Registrar provides the deadline in the memo sent to ECU Official, and available on their website, www.ecu.edu/registrar, for the deadline that all grades must be submitted.

·    Ideally, staff within the Office of the Registrar would begin the multiple programs and processes that must be run at the time of the deadline.  However, in an effort to avoid penalizing students when a faculty member has not submitted grades, the deadline is such that there are two to three hours where faculty can be contacted - one last effort to receive the remaining grades before an administrative grade must be assigned to begin running grades and calculating GPA and Academic Standing.

·    Once all grades processes have run, and Academic Standing is complete, Athletics, Financial Aid, Advising, and various other areas on campus can begin their next step in the process (determining whether or not students are eligible to compete [Athletics], if a student is making Satisfactory Academic Progress and can still receive aid [Financial Aid], if the student needs to grade replace or re-take a course the following term [Advising]).  Delays in the processing of final grades can result in these offices not in compliance with the rules that govern them.


Faculty Senate Agenda

December 2, 2008

Attachment  2.   

 

AGENDA COMMITTEE REPORT

Proposed 2009-2010 Faculty Senate and Agenda Committee Meeting Dates

 

 

Fall 2009 University Calendar                  Spring 2010 University Calendar

August 25

Classes Begin

January 8

Classes Begin

September 7

State Holiday

January 18

State Holiday   

October 10 - 13

Fall Break

March  7–14

Spring Break

October 26-30

Early Registration

March 22-26

Early Registration

November 25–29

Thanksgiving Break

April 2-3

State Holiday

December 8

Classes End

April 26

Classes End

December 10-17

Exams

April 29-May 6

Exams

 

 

Agenda Committee will meet:         Faculty Senate will meet:

September 1, 2009

September 15, 2009

September 29, 2009

October 6, 2009

October 20, 2009

November 3, 2009

November 17, 2009

December 1, 2009

January 12, 2010

January 26, 2010

February 9, 2010

February 23, 2010

March 16, 2010

March 30, 2010

April 6, 2010

April 20, 2010

 

April 27, 2010

Organizational Meeting

 


Faculty Senate Agenda

December 2, 2008

Attachment  3.   

 

 

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT

Nominee for 2009 alternate member term on Appellate Grievance Board

 

Nominee:  Tracy Donohue, Theatre and Dance




Regular Members
(with vote)

Academic Unit

Term

Alexandra Shlapentokh 

Mathematics

2009

Ronald Cortright

Health & Human Performance

2009

Wayne Hill   

 

Child Development and Family Relations

2009

Tony Polito

Business

2009

Bryna Coonin   

Academic Library Services

2010

George Sigounas

Medicine

2010

Bob Chin

Technology & Computer Science

2010

Alternate Members
(with vote)

 

 

open

 

 

2009

Nancy Stephenson  

Nursing
 

2009

Melissa Nasea

Health Sciences Library

2009

Catherine Rigsby

Geology

2010

Boni Boswell

Health & Human Performance

2010


                                      
  (Board members serve two year terms.)


Faculty Senate Agenda

December 2, 2008

Attachment  4.   

 

 

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT

Nominee for 2009 regular member term on Appellate Hearing Committee

 

Nominee:  Donna Lillian, English

 

Regular Members
(with vote)

Academic Unit

Term

open

 

2009

James Holloway

Business

2010

Mohammed Tabrizi

 

Technology and Computer Science

2010

Hanna Jubran

Art and Design

2011

Tara Jeffs

Education

2011

Alternate Members
(with vote)

 

 

Cal Christian

Business

2009

Cathy Hall

Psychology

2009

Bob Bernhardt

 

Mathematics

 

2010

Richard Bloch

Medicine

2011

Michael Felts

Health & Human Performance

 2011

 


Faculty Senate Agenda

December 2, 2008

Attachment  5.   

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT

Nominees for UNC Faculty Assembly Delegation

 

Nominees for one delegate and two alternate terms

Ken Wilson, Department of Sociology, for 2012 delegate term

Gregg Givens, College of Allied Health Sciences, for 2010 open alternate term

Andrew Morehead, Department of Chemistry, for 2012 alternate term

 

 

Current UNC Faculty Assembly Delegates for East Carolina University
*Chair of the Faculty term begins and ends with term in office.

 

Faculty Assembly Delegates

Janice Tovey

 

Chair of the Faculty*, English

2009

Ken Wilson

Sociology

2009

Catherine Rigsby

Geology

2010

Mark Sprague

Physics

2011

Hunt McKinnon

Interior Design and Merchandising

2011

 

Faculty Assembly Alternates

Andrew Morehead

Chemistry

2009

Open Seat

 

2010

Linda Wolfe

Anthropology

2010

Ralph Scott

Academic Library Services

2011

Mark Taggart

Music

2011

 





Faculty Senate Agenda

December 2, 2008

Attachment  6.   

FACULTY GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

Proposed revision to the ECU Faculty Manual, Appendix L.
Section E. Five Year Unit Program Evaluation


Revise Section E. Five Year Unit Program Evaluation to read as follows:
(new text is noted in bold print and deleted text is noted in strikethrough.)

“E.      Unit Academic Program Review

1.      The unit Academic Program Review will be conducted according to the Guidelines for Unit Academic Program Review (Faculty Senate Resolution #08-51).

2.      Changes to these guidelines need to be approved by the Educational Policies and Planning Committee and the Faculty Senate.”


E.   Five-Year Unit Program Evaluation

1.   Every fifth year, beginning with the 1998-1999 academic year, each unit shall complete a self-evaluation of its operation. The appropriate vice chancellor shall give notice to the voting faculty members of the unit that they shall meet and elect by secret ballot an evaluation committee. The committee shall supervise the unit evaluation ensuring full participation by all unit faculty members.  The evaluation shall include, but not be limited to, all academic programs, budgets, teaching, research, creative activity, and service activities. Expressions of student opinion concerning academic programs and teaching shall be included.
2.   The dean or unit administrator shall be ineligible to serve on the evaluation committee.
3.   The unit faculty members shall meet to consider the report and recommendations of the evaluation committee not later than the end of January.  The report and recommendations shall be distributed to the unit faculty members not later than one week prior to the meeting. The voting faculty members of the unit shall vote by secret ballot whether or not to accept the evaluation committee's report and recommendations.  Acceptance shall require three-fifths of the voting faculty members of the unit. The report and recommendations, whether accepted or not, and the vote of the unit shall be submitted to the next higher administrative official not later than thirty calendar days prior to the completion of the spring semester. The next higher administrative official shall review the report and the vote, and then forward the report through higher administrative offices to the Chancellor for review and comment.  If any administrator above the unit level fails to concur with the unit's recommendation that administrator shall inform the faculty of the unit in writing of the reasons for his or her decision.
4.   The unit program evaluation shall be used in the development of the unit
operational plan.          (Faculty Senate Resolution #98-28, November 1998)