Campus Assembly

Minutes

April 1, 2003

 

 

1.            Approval of Minutes

The minutes of the March 4, 2003 Campus Assembly were approved as posted on the Assembly Website.

 

2.            Provost’s Update

a) Fifth-year Interim Accreditation Report:  Dr. Miller gave an overview of the process for completing the Interim Accreditation Report, indicating that there will be a visit in October and the report being due in September.  Dr. Miller also announced that Sarah Witte has agreed to be the Accreditation Liaison and will be involving faculty and staff in the process.  Our Ten-year Reaccredidation will take place in five more years.

 

b) Faculty Sabbaticals for next year:  Dr. Miller congratulated John Thurber, who will be at Cornell University; April Curtis, who will be in Greece and participating in the designing of the opening session of the Olympics; Donald Wolff, who will be at Cal State-Riverside.

 

c) Summer Stipends:  Dr. Miller announced that there have been eleven stipends funded.  Partial stipend applications are in the process of being reviewed.  Will announce the recipients of both at a later time.

 

d) Interim President:  Dr. Miller indicated that a decision has not been made yet regarding the interim president.  It is anticipated that the decision will be announced at the next state board meeting.

 

e) COPLAC:  There will be a site visit sometime in mid-May.  In addition, a group of faculty from Eastern attended a one-day COPLAC conference/workshop in Seattle.  There was a lot of information received and the participants would like to bring this information to the campus community through a program they have put together called “The Courage to Question” on Wednesday, April 16, 2003.  It was indicated that instructors will not be forced to cancel classes but are being encouraged to participate in as much as they can.  The event will take place from 9:00 – 4:00 p.m.  An agenda will be distributed as soon as it has been finalized.

 

f) Teaching/Learning Center:  Dr. Miller announced that two faculty members, Anna Maria Dill and Joe Hart will be co-chairing a committee to begin making plans for this project. 

 

g) Budget:  OUS is looking at projections for next year.  It is anticipated that this information will be presented next week.  We are looking at an increase in tuition of about 3% for undergraduates. 

3.              Information Items

 

a) Committee Member Elections:  The chair of the assembly announced that it is again time to make nominations and hold elections for the various assembly committees.  The assembly secretary will distribute to the various departments the necessary positions to be filled.  Elections will be held in May.

 

b) Committee Preference Form:  The chair of the assembly announced that the Committee Preference Forms would be distributed to each member of the campus assembly.  Please identify committee(s) you are interested in serving on and submit the form to the President’s Office, Inlow Hall.  Appointments will be made in late May.

 

4.            Discussion Items

 

a) Assembly Quorum and voting issue:  The chair of the assembly opened the discussion at hand.  Several questions/concerns were as follows:

            1) Should we redefine a quorum?

            2) Do we want to continue the assembly?  If so, under what body?

            3) What are our options for the Assembly?

            4) We will need to bring forward a constitutional amendment.

            5) Invite John to Executive Committee regarding the Assembly

 

5.         Five-Minute Access

a) NAAMP and Spring Pow Wow:  Jackie Grant discussed the NAAMP program, an adolescent mentor program.  It requires a one-year commitment to volunteer as a mentor.  Faculty who have been participating have been very supporting of the eighteen students that have made this commitment to mentor—Thank You!  It is hard to measure at this time whether or not the students being mentored have benefited from the program.  Jackie invited everyone to the 33rd Annual Spring Pow Wow to be held on May 10 (Mother’s Day), 2003 at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. in Quinn Coliseum.  The friendship feast will be held at 5:00 p.m.

 

b) Faculty Athletic Representative Update:  Jeff Dense mentioned that there is a focus group being formed that will discuss the future of Division III and the issues at hand.  On another note, Sean Trimble took 5th in the nation in the pole vault competition, with a height of 16.4’ give or take two inches.  Sean is a theatre major and a great swordsman, a real role model.

 

c) Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) Survey:  Colleen Cascio announced that it is again time for the SSI to be implemented.  As in the past, the survey will be implemented at the 10:00 a.m. classes.  The survey takes approximately 20-25 minutes.  Ambassadors will be implementing the survey.  Faculty who have a class at 10:00 a.m. will be contacted by Colleen to identify the best date and time. 

 

d) Spring Symposium Update:  Greg Monahan reminded everyone of the Spring Symposium date—May 20, 2003.  The deadline for electronic submission of abstracts is April 10. 

 

e) Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) (for International Students):  Kimberly Donivan gave an overview of the new SEVIS policies and procedures.  Kimberly must report and identify the status of students at each institution each term.  If students have not completed 12 credits, they could be deported and reported.  There cannot receive X’s or Y’s.  International students can only take one distance education course per term.  Students can only drop below 12 credits one term.  A U = F, is ok for status.  Kimberly will provide a workshop for faculty and staff in order to assure that everyone understands the process by which she is bound.  This process is not new, was implemented by most other institutions a year and a half ago, EOU this past term.

 

6.         For the Good of the Order

a) Laramie Project:  This is a very controversial play.  As a result, we may have some people come to campus and protest.  These protestors are very hateful.  Currently people in the theatre department are working with others on campus to identify a way to deal with this if it should come up.

b) National Library Week:  Next week is National Library Week.  On Wednesday evening there will be many activities.  Please join us.

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:40 p.m.

 

The next Campus Assembly will be held on Tuesday, May 6, 2003.