APOLOGIES: Kidnay, VanTyne

VISITORS: VPAA John Trefny

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: Alice Jensen was delayed in flight to DIA; consequently there were no minutes submitted from the March 7, 2000 meeting.

COMMENTS FROM GUESTS:

1. VPAA Trefny reported on a number of items:

   1. The moratorium on equipment matching has been dropped; CSMF has contributed $100K of undesignated funds. An endowment will be established in the near future to provide income designated for equipment matching.

   2. Most Departments are finding additional sources of money for departmental operations. The total amount expended in this category is $5.6M, considerably beyond the $3.9M provided by the Administration. It is estimated that $1.5M for faculty salaries are needed to bring CSM up to national averages; $1.1M for library acquisitions; $2.5M for infrastructure; $0.5M for faculty start-up funding, with $0.95M in multi-year; commitments made for new faculty starting in the Fall, 2000. These estimates are annual increases to the current level of funding to bring CSM to estimated parity.

   3. State appropriations via the Long Bill are still uncertain.

   4. There was a recent philanthropic donation of $1.5M finalized, which is designated for scholarships and matching monies.

   5. Nominations for annual awards are needed; there has been a recently occurring problem of a short-fall in nominations.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. VPAA Trefny and President Bickart will be invited to speak to the Senate about the planned fund-raising program at the April 18, 2000 meeting.

2. The Senate will meet on May 2 in order to approve the Graduation lists. This meeting requires a quorum.

OLD BUSINESS

1. The proposed changes to the Faculty Handbook will be discussed at the April 4 Senate meeting.

2. Dr. Robert Weimer was selected to carry the mace in the May 2000 commencement procession. The Senate will need to develop a short list of candidates for this honor in order that the selection can be made in a more timely manner.

3. The proposed Professional Degrees will be discussed by the Board of Trustees at their next meeting. This proposal seems to have generated considerable controversy

4. The Senate reaffirmed the earlier decision that there should be no undergraduate classes scheduled from 4:00-6:00 PM in order to allow for full participation in athletic practices. In the case of laboratories, there are normally sufficient alternate sections available, and athletes should be given priority in registration for these alternate sections.

NEW BUSINESS

Dr. Pang led a discussion of a proposal for developing a more formal program for International Programs that would result in developing cooperative exchange programs with specific universities around the World. There are a moderate number of MBA programs between U.S. and foreign universities in existence. These are recognized by large corporations as useful for training employees for future work assignments in specific countries.

An undergraduate student would go to the foreign university for a semester, or for a year. P otential problems were recognized in integrating a student's studies with the required CSM program, particularly for sequences of required courses. Another problem is comparison of courses for equivalency.

Such programs would have to be designed by interested faculty and submitted to either Undergraduate Council, or Graduate Council for the initiation of the approval process.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:25 PM.