February 23, 2016 – Senate meeting minutes

Meeting of the Faculty Senate
Approved Minutes
February 23, 2016

The meeting was called to order at 12:25 p.m.

1. A motion was approve the minutes of January 28, 2015. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote.

2. Jerry Verbrugghe, on behalf of the Academic Policy Committee, presented the following courses for approval.

Department	Course number	Course Title	Credit Value	New/ Revision
Fine Arts	50:082:203	Art of Middle Ages	3	New
Fine Arts	50:700:227	Jazz Theory	3	New
Fine Arts	50:700:313	History of Jazz Singers	3	New
Fine Arts	50:700:303	Music in Film	3	New
Biology	50:120:495	Biology Honors Thesis A	3	New
Biology	50:120:496	Biology Honors Thesis B	3	New
Computer Science	50:198:441	Parallel, Distributed, Grid, and Cloud Computing	3	Revised
Religion and Philosophy	50:730:195	Laboratory in Diversity	0	New
Religion and Philosophy	50:730:196	Laboratory in Engaged Civic Learning	0	New
Religion and Philosophy	50:730:197	Laboratory in Experiential Learning	0	New
Religion and Philosophy	50:730:198	Laboratory in Writing	0	New
Women’s and Gender Studies	50:988:312	Gender and Sexuality in Crime Thrillers	3	New
Women’s and Gender Studies	50:988:314	Masculinities	3	New

All courses were approved by voice vote.

Jennifer Thiel agreed to contact the Registrar about loading onto Degree Navigator all newly approved courses for the Master Course List. Department chairs are encouraged to follow up with the Registrar and Advising to confirm that courses have been added, edited, or removed.

3. Update concerning course overloads – At this time the APC does not recommend a change to the CCAS Course Overload Policy because the committee discovered that most universities consider 12 credits to be full-time, 15 credits as the recommended load, and 19 as an overload (per the Registrar’s website). What RUC needs to do is resolve the contradictions among Advising, which treats18 credits as an overload; our catalog, which states that “more than 17 credits is considered an overload;” and New Brunswick’s policy. Jerry Verbrugghe agreed to contact Dean Lindenmeyer for clarification. It is expected that the catalog will be updated in the near future with the correct statement.

Further discussion followed about the data from the Registrar’s office regarding the number of students taking course overloads. Data reported are by credits registered (18, 19, 29, 21, and 22+); School; academic year 2013 – 2016; student cumulative GPAs; and majors. Although there has been an increase in the number of students with overloads from 2013 to 2016, the percentage still remains small. It was requested that the APC check to see whether this trend toward higher course loads continues in Fall 2016.

4. Learning Goals – Bill FitzGerald reported that RUC’s Learning Goals were developed by an ac hoc Senate committee of himself, Bill Whitlow, and Julie Still to satisfy Middle States accreditation requirements as well as all our degree and general education programs. The list was not meant to hold departments to hard specifics, but rather to allow each program to determine appropriate specific goals for its major/minor. The Learning Goals will be published, but they will only be assessed at the programmatic, not departmental level. (RU is currently in year eight of 10 for accreditation.) A motion was made to approve the goals as presented. The motion was approved unanimously by voice vote.

5. Remarks by Craig Westman, Associate Chancellor for Enrollment Management – Craig introduced himself as having been at the University of Texas at El Paso, which has a student population not unlike that of our campus and where he implemented a financial aid program to help low-income students and working-class families attend college after the application of their federal and state aid, i.e., a program similar to our “Bridging the Gap.” He announced that Bridging the Gap will be available to all first-year students (freshmen) eligible for this kind of financial assistance.

Regarding current enrollment numbers, he reported that we are 70% higher than last year to date for students labeled as “Admit-Coming.” Whereas our usual incoming class includes some 400 freshmen, the plan is to increase our incoming freshmen class by 200 more students and perhaps to extend the deadline for decisions past May 1, depending on the numbers. Senators asked whether RUC had the housing to accommodate the potential influx of students and how the need for additional resources when it comes to extra sections of courses and faculty, counseling, and advising will be met. Craig assured us that we will be prepared.

Senators also expressed concerns about lowering admissions standards and compromising the quality of programs in order to satisfy the influx of students, e.g., by increasing the size of classes. They also questioned the wisdom of such expansion.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m.

Present (Senators):  Andrew Lees, Janet Golden, Laurie Bernstein, Eric Klein, Jongmin Nam, George Kumi, Osama Hamed, Aaron Hofstetter, Margery Amdur, Prospero Garcia, Kate Cairns, Ana Laguna, Nick Kapur, Julie Still, Haisheng Li, Tim Knievel, Shauna Shames, Bill Whitlow, Brandi Blessett, Richard Stansfield, Kenneth Elliott, Kenneth Hohing

Absent:  , Guy Kortsarz, Joseph Barbarese, Keith Green, Paul Bernstein, Susan Mokhberi, Debashis Kushary, Will Lee, Nicole Karapanagiotis, Richard Jimenez, Wayne Chan, Joseph Cutuli, Stephen Danley, Chinyere Osuji, Cyril Reade, Wayne Glasker, Jean-Louis Hippolyte