ACADEMIC SENATE MEETING

MINUTES

TUESDAY, October 21, 2008

SEVEN HILLS CONFERENCE CENTER, NOB HILL ROOM

2:00 – 5:00 p.m.

	ATTENDANCE:
	Avani, Nathan	Hussain, Mahmood	Noble, Nancy
	Behrooz, Maziar	Kohn, Jim	Rehling, Lu
	Boyle, Andrea	Landry, Lynette	Rothman, Barry
	Bugayong, Arlene	Lau, Jenny	Shapiro, Jerald
	Burke, Adam	LePage, Pamela	Sherwin, Paul
	Chen, Yu-Charn	Levy, Eileen	Shrivastava, Vinay
	Cheung, Yitwah	Li, Wen-Chao	Sinha, Dipendra
	Danner, Don	Luna, Debra	Sveinsdottir, Asta
	Dariotis, Wei Ming	Mahan, Dianne	Taylor, Don
	Gomes, Ricardo	McCarthy, Chris	Trautman, Ray
	Gubeladze, Joseph	McCracken, Bridget	Ulasewicz, Connie
	Hellenga, Kate	Minami, Masahiko	van Dam, Mary Ann
	Hellman, David	Modirzadeh, Hafez	Whalen, Shawn
	Holzman, Barbara	Moody, Laura	Wingard, Leah
	Hom, Marlon	Neely, Francis	Yee, Darlene
Absences: Robertson, Bruce (on leave Fall 08); Morishita, Leroy (exc); Chou, Fang-yu (exc); Sheldon, James (exc); Salama, Mohammad (exc); Gemello, John (exc); Fuentes, Enrique (exc); Corrigan, Robert (exc); Chelberg, Gene (exc); Bartscher, Patricia (exc); Flatt, Sylvia (abs); DuVal, Derethia (abs); Jin, Leigh (abs); Rosegard, Erik (abs)
Guests: Gail Evans, Gail Whitaker, Wanda Lee, Cyrus Ginwala, Nancy Hayes, Helen Goldsmith, Anna Rendall, Gerianne Merrigan, Linda Buckley

CALL TO ORDER: 2:13 p.m.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. Friday, October 31, 2008, is the deadline for submitting proposals for the 2009 SF State Faculty and Staff Development Retreat. Information is available online at http://www.sfsu.edu/~senate/retreat/

2. November 17, 2008, is the deadline for submitting applications for the 2009-2011 Faculty Trustee position of the 25-member California State University Board of Trustees. Craig R. Smith, Professor and Chair of Film and Electronic Arts, Cal State Long Beach, the current CSU Faculty Trustee, will not be seeking nomination for another term as the Faculty Trustee.

3. The Willie L. Brown, Jr. Leadership Center can provide well-paid internship positions to qualified seniors. This program places selected SF State students in paid internships within the City and County of San Francisco’s government agencies and departments. The post-internship job-placement rate is extremely high. Application packets must be completed and returned by Monday, November 17, 2008. Further information is available at http://www.sfsu.edu/~wbcenter/internships.html.

AGENDA ITEM #1—Approval of the Agenda for October 21, 2008

The agenda was approved by acclamation.

AGENDA ITEM #2—Approval of the Minutes for the October 7, 2008, meeting of the 2008-2009 Senate

The minutes were approved by acclamation.

AGENDA ITEM #3— Report from Susan Shimanoff, Chair, Graduation Requirements Task Force

The Senate heard a report from Susan Shimanoff, Professor of Communication Studies and Chair of the Graduation Requirements Task Force.

In 2006, the Academic Senate (F05-237) charged the Graduation Requirements Task Force (GRTF) with “developing a plan for implementing changes to the current university-wide baccalaureate degree requirements.” In this third report to the Senate, Professor Shimanoff focused on the GRTF’s proposed revisions to SF State’s upper-division general education requirements. The GRTF will circulate the proposal and a questionnaire to all faculty, staff, and students by e-mail in the near future. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the GRTF survey.

AGENDA ITEM #4— Recommendation from the Academic Policies Committee: Proposed Academic Calendar for Summer 2009, Second Reading

Senator Dariotis, on behalf of the Academic Policies Committee, moved that the Senate approve the Summer 2009 academic calendar.

Senator Trautman moved to amend the proposed summer calendar, to add a fourth session. The new session, to be called R4, would begin on the same day as session R1 begins, and end on the same day as session R3 ends; it would be a ten-week session.

The motion to amend the summer calendar passed by voice vote.

The main motion, as amended, passed by voice vote.

AGENDA ITEM #5— Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee: Proposed Revisions to the Retention, Tenure, & Promotion Policy, First Reading

Senator Levy, on behalf of the Faculty Affairs Committee, moved that the Senate approve revisions to the Retention, Tenure, and Promotion (RTP) Policy (#S07-241).

Discussion points included:

• Adding department/program RTP criteria to the list of required documents in a candidate’s working personal action file (WPAF), suggested by the University Tenure and Promotion Committee (UTPC), makes perfect sense.
• Adding reports and rebuttals, if any, from prior substantive reviews to the current WPAF, suggested by UTPC, makes perfect sense.
• Although UTPC recommended an increase in its membership from five to nine, FAC is recommending an increase to just seven members, to ensure that UTPC retains a university-wide perspective.
• Instead of increasing the membership, additional released time for five members might solve the workload problem and ensure consistency in reviews.
• Perhaps the size of UTPC could vary from year to year, in response to the anticipated number of tenure and promotion candidates.

AGENDA ITEM #6—Adjournment—no later than 5:00 p.m.

Senator Ulasewicz moved that the meeting be adjourned. The motion passed by voice vote. Chair Whalen declared the meeting adjourned at 3:44 p.m.