May

Faculty Senate update

Officer elections, committee highlights and a handoff between academic years for the final meeting of the semester.

By Cory Phare

May 7, 2018

The Faculty Senate convened to a packed house Wednesday in Tivoli 320 for the last 2017-18 meeting and an interim session to select participants for the upcoming 2018-19 term.

Chris Harder (mathematics and computer science) announced that the affiliate senator nomination pool was robust and welcomed the three incoming representatives: Aaron Johnson (sociology), Heather Hageman (nursing) and G. Anthony Wolusky (criminal justice).

Faculty Senate President Matt Makley (history) acknowledged the work of Rolly Schendel (education) to celebrate the Teaching Excellence Awards recipients at the recent Faculty/Staff Appreciation Barbecue. Awardees will be invited to share their teaching practices with the senate in the fall. 

Jessica Weiss (art) briefed the senate on previous policy regarding certificate qualifications on minimum grades and catalog-year standardization and its delayed insertion of the language into the academic catalog. The Academic Policy Committee advised that the current catalog language would disadvantage about 100 students and suggested striking it as-is with an articulated addendum to be released this summer. This proposal was brought to a vote and passed with 97 percent approval.

Makley also thanked departing senators for their service before adjourning the 2017-18 senate meeting. 

“What we do here directly affects everyone on campus,” he said. “The work of the Faculty Senate is a testament to the willingness of everyone to help make MSU Denver a better place.”

Michael Jacobs (chemistry) and Peter Vigil (education) then presided over the interim session, beginning with a vote for officer positions.

After a call for floor nominations failed to yield any additional candidates, Makley, Vice President Jo Bailey (social work) and Secretary William Carnes (management) were all re-elected by affirmation. 

Nominations then opened up for at-large committee seats; all nominees were unopposed, including:

• Budget Committee: Brendan Fry (math and computer science) and Randi Brazeau (earth and atmospheric sciences)
• Curriculum Committee: Rebbecca Nemec (nursing) and Andrea Maestrejuan (history)
• Diversity Committee: Maureen Flynn (psychology)
• General Studies Committee: Shelley Rohde (math)
• Two more positions are open; interested faculty should contact Vincent Piturro (English)
• Rules Committee: Daniel Krasner (philosophy)

Other items included:

• Makley thanked faculty who participated in the recent Roadrunners Give Back Day service event.
• Makley also thanked Robyn Sherwood for her support of the Faculty Senate (“Without her, none of this works,” he said) and Provost Vicki Golich for being an advocate of the senate’s interests, noting her backing of curriculum being the domain of faculty.
• Jean-Francois Duclos (modern languages) gave an overview of the new programs, courses and modifications the Curriculum Committee worked on throughout 2017-18; he also noted the committee has multiple positions to fill for the upcoming academic year.
• Anne Williams (modern languages) provided highlights from the Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion Committee; the committee also still needs two alternate representatives. Interested faculty members should contact Williams.
• Liz Goodnick (philosophy) highlighted the Diversity Committee’s work, helping the two post-doctoral positions get settled and noting their upcoming plans to move their survey online from a paper format.
• Piturro provided an update from the General Studies Committee: 23 proposals were approved, and 50 transfer evaluations were looked at the past senate session; Piturro also noted that the proposal-policy process has changed to break down changes as either content- or non-content-related to save revision time.
• James Murphy (accounting) discussed the upcoming summer work of the Budget Committee, specifically the discussion around dependent tuition benefits.
• Joe Hasley (computer information systems) reviewed the Professional Leave Committee’s 28 sabbatical applications processed this past academic year; he also will be stepping down, so the committee will need a chair.