ATTENDEES: Christiansen, Davis, Dean, Honeyman, Mehta, Parker, Romberger, Santi, and Thiry

APOLOGIES: Eberhart, Mitcham, Voorhees, and Wolden

GUESTS: Nigel Middleton - Vice President for Academic Affairs, Arthur Sacks - Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Joseph Dahdah - Graduate Student Association Representative

COMMENTS FROM GUEST:

1. Nigel Middleton, Vice President for Academic Affairs
   1. The CCHE staff is satisfied with the reduction in the number of credit hours required for a baccalaureate degree and will recommend to the CCHE Commissioners that this be approved. The average reduction that has been made since 2001 is 5.5 credit hours per program.
   2. The Master's of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree in hydrology was introduced to the Board of Trustees at their last meeting. A formal vote was not taken, however, there was a general acceptance of the program.
   3. The State has accepted the proposal for the Colorado Fuel Cell Center (CFCC). The proposal was a coalition between the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), the Gas Technology Institute, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Versa Power Systems, Inc. (VPS).
   4. Institution-wide, the attendance for the sexual harassment seminar sponsored by Human Resources was 52%. However, the attendance from the academic side was low especially among graduate teaching assistants. Human Resources will offer the seminar again.
   5. The Budget Committee will discuss graduate student tuition at their next meeting.

2. Arthur Sacks - Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs
   1. D. Matlock and A. Bunge have concluded their terms on the Promotion and Tenure Committee.
   2. There are discussions regarding the McBride Program. These discussions are centering on the focus of the program, which is currently public affairs.
   3. The Registrar's Office has presented a proposal to reorganize and expand their staff by two positions.
   4. Sacks and Phil Romig will give a report on advising issues to department heads/division directors.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Romberger announced that the following opportunities to meet the candidates for the vice president of research position:

Open Forums will be held in Ballroom C of the Student Center, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm on April 18, 21, 25 and 28. The 21st forum will be in Petroleum Hall of the Green Center.

The Senate will meet with the candidates in the Board Room from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on April 19, 21, 26 and from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm on April 29.

APPROVALS:

1. The minutes of the March 15, 2005 Faculty Senate meeting were approved.

COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE REPORTS:

1. Undergraduate Council - Mehta submitted the following written report:
   

   UGC met on 3/9/2005. Discussion on S. Romberger's memo to the UGC was postponed pending clarification of submission deadlines. Currently an item may be discussed if it is electronically distributed at 10am on the Tuesday preceding the UGC meeting on Wednesday. A proposal to increase EGGN 382 from 2 credits to 3 credits was unanimously approved, as EGGN 350 will be dropped from the EE specialty. A change to MACS 438, a GEGN 432 addition and a CHGN 395 addition/CHGN 95 changes were unanimously approved.

   The EGGN 460 addition prompted significant discussion. The Math and CS dept (MCS) felt that this class significantly overlaps with MACS 407. The two depts. had been requested to resolve this by A. Sacks in the Feb meeting. For a variety of reasons, a substantive discussion had not taken place in the interim. In view of this, MCS requested that an additional month be given for the two departments to resolve the issue. Eng stated that this was an honest disagreement and that a vote to approve this course should take place in this meeting. A motion to table the vote until the April meeting failed 8-9. A subsequent vote to approve the course passed 12-3 with 2 abstentions. (During discussion, the MCS representative pointed out that an Eng student could get credit for both classes, although, in her opinion, there was at least a 75% overlap in content.) There was some discussion about forming a subcommittee to investigate this issue, but this was not pursued.

   Several new items were presented. The most notable among these was a package from LAIS deleting courses that have not been taught recently and renumbering language courses to make them more consistent with offerings at other universities.

   The Senate is considering EGGN 460. Romberger will get clarification on both courses - EGGN 460 and MACS 407 - from the respective department heads and report back to the Senate.

2. Committee on Committees - Thiry reported that there are five nominees for the four Senate vacancies. Honeyman and Christiansen agreed to run for Senate President. Ballots will be distributed within the next week.

3. Committee on Evaluation - Davis submitted the following written report:

   Committee on Evaluation Minutes
   Meeting of Tuesday February 22, 2005, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM, EH217

   In Attendance: Graham Davis (Chair), Graeme Fairweather (DD/DH representative), Luis Garza (representative of Graduate Student Association), Barbara Moskal, Arthur Sacks (ex officio)

   Visitors: David Larue (Computing and Networking)

   Regrets: Cigdem Gurgur, Michelle Moorman (ASCSM representative), Dendy Sloan

   Agenda Item 1: Corrections/Adjustments to Minutes of 2/8/05

   None. The Minutes will be forwarded to the Faculty Senate.

   Agenda Item 2: Feedback from Senate

   G. Davis reported that the Senate VOTED to change the Faculty Bylaws to add an additional voting member to the Committee on Evaluation. That additional member is a graduate student representative. Luis Garza will serve in that capacity, with a term expiring in Spring of 2007.

   The Senate also confirmed that unless otherwise stated, ex officio members of all Senate committees are full voting members.

   The Senate was open to the suggestion that the March Faculty Forum be devoted to discussions of the Committee's work on revising the student evaluations of faculty. It was suggested that A. Bunge and M. Pavelich would be useful resources in this regard.

   G. Davis has set up a Blackboard site for the Committee where minutes will be posted. The site can be found under Research, Councils, and Committees.

   Agenda Item 3: Standard Questions

   Discussions surrounded the presentation of the current set of 11 questions to the faculty at the March Faculty Forum. The committee supported B. Moskal's opinion that it would, as a first step, be better to solicit faculty input in written form, via a campus mailing. This way the history of the revisions could be documented and faculty could have time to think about and respond in detail to the proposed changes. It was also suggested that it would be useful at the time of that mailing to have an estimate of the cost savings (and potential use of these savings in other CSM activities) from revising the survey format to the one under consideration, with no elective questions by departments or faculty. G. Davis agreed to undertake such a cost savings study in the summer using Field Session student help, with full recognition that not all savings will be monetary. It was also felt that the committee needed to come to some decision as to whether and how the open-ended questions would be used prior to presenting the revised evaluation format to faculty.

   After the formal written solicitation of views from faculty, it may be beneficial to present the final version of the evaluations in a brief, 10-minute session at a faculty forum.

   G. Davis raised the issue of whether surveys of this type were needed at all, and whether instead we should move to a system of peer review, as is done in other professions. A. Sacks agreed that this would be desirable. G. Fairweather suggested that peer review would be very difficult for departments with large numbers of instructors, lecturers, and adjuncts, and that a standardized survey instrument of some type was essential.

   1. The teaching methods used in this course are effective for promoting student learning

   2. The instructor explains the material clearly

   3. The instructor is available during office hours

   4. The instructor creates an environment that fosters student involvement in the learning process

   5. The instructor demonstrates a positive attitude toward helping students

   6. This instructor facilitates student learning

   7. Graded work reflects content of the course

   8. The grading policies for this course are fair

   9. The course goals are clearly stated

   10. The course goals are being met

   11. This instructor is effective

   Table 1: Current Set of Questions, Student Evaluations of Teaching

   Agenda Item 4: Open-ended Survey Questions

   What aspects of instruction in this course do you find are effective for promoting your learning?

   What recommendations would you make that would improve the instruction that you are receiving in this course?

   If you have any additional comments, please write them in the space below.

   Thank you.

   There was no discussion of this item.

   Agenda Item 5: Other Business

   None.

   Agenda Item 6: Action Items for Next Meeting

   G. Davis will report to Senate that the committee does not wish to lead the March Faculty Forum.

   B. Moskal will provide G. Davis with a summary of the history of and motivation for the ongoing round of revisions to the student evaluations of teaching within the next few months, before she rotates off the committee. That history will be included in the mailing to faculty. The mailing will probably take place in the Fall semester of 2005.

   The meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM.

4. Faculty Affairs Committee - Dean reported that one grade appeal has been resolved and that another should be completed this week.

5. Sports and Athletics - Santi said the committee is conducting exit interviews.

6. Academic Standards and Policies - Honeyman reported that the issues identified by the committee are (1) fractional grades, (2) CSM's policy of forgiveness of "F" grade in MACS 111 and 112 and PHGN 100 but not CHGN 121 and 124, (3) time line for graduate students completing their dissertations and being able to walk across the stage (4) grade inflation.

7. Handbook Committee - Romberger reported the Board of Trustees approved the changes to the Faculty Handbook.

8. Executive Committee - If a Senator has an agenda item for this committee, they should e-mail it to Romberger.

9. Board of Trustees - The Board did not approve the revised alcohol policy presented by Cheuvront.

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Faculty Senate Distinguished Lecture - A motion by Dean, seconded by Parker to approve the Faculty Senate Distinguished Lecture committee's nominee for 2005, Craig Van Kirk, was unanimously approved by the Senate.

2. Vice President for Research - Romberger suggested that the Senators e-mail possible "standard" question for the candidates to him. This would ensure that the candidates are asked the same questions.

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Copies of the oath of allegiance were distributed to the Senators.

The next meeting will be April 19, 2005 at 1:30 PM in Hill Hall 300.

The meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM.