Faculty Senate Meeting
April 20, 2011
Founder’s Room, Lovett Hall
Agenda:
I. Welcome
and Announcements
II. Speaker’s
Report
III. Deputy
Speaker’s Report
A. Results
of Non-tenure-track Teaching election
B. Election
of Deputy Speaker and Speaker for 2011-2012
C. Announcement
of Executive Committee slate from NEC
IV. Update from Working Group on Appeals and
Grievances
V. Old
Business
A. Motion from CUC regarding LPAP course
approval
B. Motion from CUC regarding Freshman Seminar
C. Motion to accept SA proposal regarding
“Centennial Celebration Days”
VI. New
Business
A. Motion
to adopt the Policy on Data Management
B. Motion
to adopt statement regarding Senate oversight of GA
C. General
discussion on items for Senate consideration 2011-2012
Senators present: Gregory
Barnett, Ed Billups, David Caprette, John Casbarian, Danijela Damjanovic, Ramon
Gonzalez, Jane Grande-Allen, Deborah Harter, Matthias Henze, Illya Hicks, Tom
Killian, Scott McGill, Speaker Susan McIntosh, Provost George McLendon, Matteo
Pasquali, Brian Rountree, Dale Sawyer, Stan Sazykin, Robin Sickles, Meredith
Skura, Randy Stevenson, Jane Tao, Moshe Vardi, Duane Windsor, and Jim Young.
Senators absent: Randy Batsell, Sarah Ellenzweig, David
Leebron, and Devika Subramanian.
PROCEEDINGS
(To listen to an audio tape of this meeting, email senate@rice.edu.)
I. Welcome and Announcements
·
Prior to the announcements, the Rice
Philharmonics (“The Phils”) sang two songs for the Senate in a spirited
performance.
·
Speaker Susan McIntosh called the meeting to
order at 12:00 p.m. She welcomed
everyone to the Senate meeting, especially the Senators recently elected to
serve three-year terms beginning in Fall 2011:
Natural
Sciences: Michael Kohn, Anatoly
Kolomeisky, David Alexander, Kate Beckingham
Engineering: David Scott
Humanities: Carl Caldwell, Rebecca Goetz, Helena Michie
Social
Sciences: Fred Oswald
Jones Graduate
School of Business: James Weston
NTT-Research: Stan Sazykin
NTT-Teaching: David Caprette
·
The plenary meeting of the faculty to approve
degrees will be held Friday, May 13, 2011, in the International Conference Room
of the Baker Institute, followed by a luncheon in Dore’ Commons, during which
President Leebron will present the annual Teaching Awards.
·
The plans for Habitat for Humanity’s Rice
Centennial House are under way. Building
will begin in March or April of 2012, with completion of the house in April
2012. There are several ways to obtain more information, see: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~habitat/rch
or send an email to ricecentennial@gmail.com. In addition, Centennial House Committee
applications are available at: http://tinyurl.com/ricech.
II. Speaker’s Report
·
The Senate recently hosted Faculty Forums on the
three Rice Initiatives, which concludes the work of the Senate on this
issue. Summaries of the forums have been
posted on the Senate’s wiki space, available to all Rice faculty members for
review and comment, and may be viewed here: Energy and Environment, Bioscience and Human Health, and International Strategy. Provost McLendon’s office is in
charge of the next steps in the process, which are expected to include faculty
workshops.
·
Russell Barnes, Rice’s Director for Equal
Employment Opportunity Program/Affirmative Action, discussed the required
training of faculty regarding sexual harassment, and he distributed printed
materials on the subject. A link to Rice’s
online training is provided here: http://training.newmedialearning.com/psh/riceuniv/.
·
The Senate has received a request from Jan
Rinehart to see if there is interest in holding a webinar on academic bullying.
Information on the topic will be forwarded to Senators.
·
The Senators whose terms are ending were thanked
for their service to the Senate, including several Senators who have served
multiple terms: Ed Billups, Tom Killian, Dale Sawyer, Jim Young, Deborah
Harter, Matthias Henze, Mark Kulstad, Meredith Skura, Duane Windsor, and Devika
Subramanian.
·
Senators who have served as chairs for Senate
working groups during the past year were recognized: Tom Killian (Senate
Governance and Rice Initiatives Phase II), Moshe Vardi (Appeals and
Grievances), Meredith Skura (Communication in the Curriculum), Jim Young
(Teaching), Randy Batsell (Grade Inflation and Academic Honors), and Robin
Sickles (Salary Report).
·
Senators who have served in Senate leadership
positions were also recognized: John Casbarian (Convenor) and Duane Windsor
(Parliamentarian), as well as Senators who have served as the Senate’s
representative to other groups: Matthias
Henze, Dale Sawyer, and Moshe Vardi (Rice Initiatives Task Forces); Ramon Gonzalez (Council on Diversity);
Duane Windsor, Jane Tao, and Stan Sazykin (ADVANCE Faculty Development); Jane
Grande-Allen and Ed Billups (University Committee on Examinations and
Standing); Randy Stevenson (University Committee for Undergraduate Curriculum),
and Moshe Vardi (Chair, Graduate Council).
·
Deputy Speaker Tom Killian was thanked for his
dedicated service to the Senate, and he received a standing ovation from all
assembled. Killian was presented with a plaque and a gift.
·
The date for the Senate’s end-of-year reception
was announced: Thursday, April 28, at 3:30 p.m.
III.
Deputy Speaker’s Report
A.
NTT-Teaching
Election results
Killian announced that David Caprette won
the Senate’s recent Non-Tenure-Track Teaching election, and Caprette was
congratulated. Killian noted that
ambiguity exists in the Senate governance documents regarding the definition of
voting eligibility among non-tenure-track teaching faculty. He requested that this issued be addressed by
the Senate next year.
B.
Election
of Deputy Speaker and Speaker for 2011-2012
Killian announced that Jane Grande-Allen
had been nominated by the Nominations and Elections Committee (NEC) for Deputy
Speaker, and he asked if there were any nominations from the floor. There were
none. Meredith Skura seconded the NEC’s nomination, and the resulting vote was
unanimous for Grande-Allen.
Deborah Harter nominated current Speaker
Susan McIntosh for Speaker. Harter
described how McIntosh has conquered challenge after challenge during the past
year. Moshe Vardi seconded the nomination, followed by a unanimous vote for
McIntosh, and a hearty round of applause.
C.
Executive Committee slate proposed by NEC
Killian explained that although the Senate
Bylaws require an Executive Committee (EC) slate be presented by the NEC in the
last Senate meeting of the year, the election of the EC is not held until the
first meeting of the fall semester. Other EC slates may be presented at that
time, and they may overlap to any extent with the slate proposed by the NEC. Killian stated that the slate proposed by the
NEC satisfies the formula required in the Bylaws.
Proposed Executive Committee slate, in
addition to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker:
Anatoly Kolomeisky, Natural Sciences
Moshe Vardi, Engineering
Rebecca Goetz, Humanities
Carl Caldwell, Humanities
Robin Sickles, Social Sciences
John Casbarian, Architecture
Brian Rountree, Jones Graduate School of Business
David Caprette, Natural Sciences
IV. Update from Working Group on Appeals and
Grievances
In a previous Senate meeting, Chair Moshe
Vardi presented a report prepared by the Working Group on Appeals and
Grievances in which improvements to the current appeals and grievances
processes were recommended. At that
time, President Leebron requested that Rice University’s General Counsel review
the document, which has resulted in several revisions. Vardi stated that there
are two main points with which the working group and the General Counsel
disagree.
First, the working group recommended that
mid-process appeals be allowed. Currently, a faculty member who is being
considered for promotion or tenure may only appeal after a decision has been
made by the Promotion and Tenure Committee (P&T). Richard Zansitis, Vice
President and General Counsel, indicated to Vardi that he was not completely
comfortable with this item, and there are plans to discuss it further.
The second point of disagreement was
regarding the scope of grievances. For
the past 15 years, promotion and tenure appeals were limited to procedural
grounds, but grievances could be filed also for substantive grounds. Vardi said
that conversations are ongoing regarding this point, as well.
Vardi said that the appeals and grievances
policy is ultimately a faculty
policy, and it is in the purview of the Faculty Senate. Until the document can be finalized, a
temporary guidelines document will be prepared by the working group and
presented to Convenor John Casbarian for his use with the Appeals and
Grievances Committee this summer. The
committee was asked to let the working group know if the document proves to be
effective. It was also requested that
the issue be placed on the Senate’s agenda for next year.
V.
Old Business
A. Motion from CUC regarding LPAP course
approval
Motion to accept the proposal from the Dean of Undergraduates,
recommended by the Committee on the Undergraduate Curriculum, to transfer
approval of LPAP courses from the Athletic Director to the Dean of
Undergraduates
Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson
explained that approval of Lifetime Physical Activity Program (LPAP) courses is
currently the responsibility of the Athletic Director, but it was originally
the responsibility of the Dean of Undergraduates. Hutchinson requested that this responsibility
be returned to his office, his request was reviewed by the University Committee
for the Undergraduate Curriculum (CUC), and the CUC has recommended that the
request be granted by the Senate. Dale Sawyer seconded the motion from the
CUC. After a few questions from Senators,
in which they were assured that there are no budgetary or coordination issues
involved, a vote was held, and the motion received unanimous approval. (Motion may be viewed here.)
B. Motion from CUC regarding Freshman Seminar
Motion to accept the recommendation of the Committee
on the Undergraduate Curriculum to change the wording of the GA as follows:
To graduate from Rice University, all students must satisfy the
composition requirement (see below).
To satisfy the composition requirement, students must either pass the
composition examination or successfully complete (COMM 103 – delete and replace
with) a Freshman Seminar designated as “Fulfills the Composition Requirement.”
Speaker McIntosh reminded the Senators that
the idea of Freshman Seminars as a replacement for COMM 103 was presented by
Dean Hutchinson at the January 2011 Senate meeting.
The current motion comes to Senate with two
addenda from the Executive Committee:
1. The Freshman Seminar program
has a two-year time limit, with the possibility of renewal by the Faculty
Senate after review.
2. The establishment of criteria
for fulfilling the composition requirement and the identification of courses
that meet these criteria will be in the hands of a faculty oversight committee
that includes the Communications Program Director and several tenure-track faculty
knowledgeable about writing pedagogy, representing divisions that teach
Freshman Seminars.
McIntosh explained that the current
Freshman Seminar course code (FSEM) would be replaced with new codes for each
division: FSHU, FSNS, FSEN, as well as
the addition of FSCM (Freshman Seminar for Communication). The current
Communications 103 course would be discontinued, but the new FSCM course would
have the same writing/communication requirements. In addition, any FS course
could fulfill the composition requirement if so designated by the Director of
the Communication Program.
The motion was seconded by Tom Killian,
followed by discussion. Jim Young expressed concern over the proliferation of
course codes and concern that the program would no longer be interdisciplinary.
Meredith Skura said that although she
viewed the proposal from Dean Hutchinson as a positive temporary solution earlier, she was now against it for several
reasons. First, the dispersion of
oversight concerned her; one central authority over the writing program is
needed, both for undergraduates and graduate students. Second, the changing of programs every couple
of years causes confusion. Students and
faculty will have to keep track of which program requirements were in operation
when the student began at Rice. Skura
recommended avoiding any temporary program, keeping the current program in
place until the correct solution has been found. Third, the current Freshman
Seminar program allows students to take a course from a full professor, while
the new program will not. Finally, Skura
wondered if it will indeed be possible to change or eliminate the temporary
program at the two-year review point requested by the EC. She recalled that when English decided to no
longer offer ENG 103 for the composition requirement, the matter was turned
over to the Dean of Undergraduates as a temporary fix, resulting in the
creation of COMM 103.
Deborah Harter thanked Dean Hutchinson for
taking on an issue of such importance; she appreciated his offer to take
Communications 103 and make it more exciting. Harter went on to say that while
the current system needs repair, any time a fast fix is attempted, it leads to
more problems. Harter noted that three
outside writing consultants have been hired, and the reports from them have yet
to be written. Once these reports are received, she said that it should be the
working group which reviews them, and then discusses the issue with the
Senate. Harter said that innovative
solutions exist, and the faculty, through the Faculty Senate, must be the
entity to put a program together. She
said that for the Senate to do anything less would be shirking its
responsibility. She urged the Senate to
continue seeking the very best ways to improve the communications/writing
program and to avoid any temporary solution.
Provost McLendon stated that he had agreed
to a process in response to the
report from the Working Group on Communication in the Curriculum. He said that the smartest thing to do is to
table the motion until the fall semester when the reports have been received
from the consultants. Implementation of any new program would begin the
following fall (Fall 2012), with course registration in Spring 2012. McLendon complimented Dean Hutchinson and
said that Hutchinson is comfortable with waiting for the consultants’ reports.
At that point, McLendon said, the faculty committee could make recommendations.
Moshe Vardi moved to table the motion, which was seconded. A few more comments were made, including
mention that when the temporary CAIN Project was instituted, it allowed faculty
to turn away from writing instruction; a true writing center is needed. There was a motion to stop discussion (call
the question) on the motion to table the proposal, and the resulting vote to
end discussion was unanimous. A vote was
then held on the motion to table the original proposal until the fall, and the
majority approved, with one opposed. McIntosh thanked Dean Hutchinson, Deborah
Barrett, and all those who posted comments on the wiki space.
C. Motion to accept Student Association
proposal to shift Fall Recess 2012 from Mon-Tue
(Oct. 8–9) to Thurs-Fri (Oct.
11–12) and rename as “Centennial Celebration Days”
McIntosh introduced Georgia Lagoudas,
President of the Student Association (SA), who explained that the SA wanted to
find ways for undergraduate students to be involved with Rice’s Centennial
celebration activities, to be held in October 2012. Lagoudas gave some examples
of SA ideas, including “Rice in a Box.” Lagoudas said that the Fall Recess 2012
is currently scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, October 8 and 9, with regular
classes scheduled for the rest of the week, which will make it hard for
students to be involved with many of the Centennial events. Most of the Centennial events will occur
Wednesday through Saturday, October 10-13.
Lagoudas said two options were considered
by the SA: 1) leave the Fall Recess as it is scheduled on Monday and Tuesday,
but allow students to also miss some of their classes the rest of the week in
order to attend Centennial activities, or 2) move the Fall Recess to Thursday
and Friday so that students can attend many events without missing classes, and
rename the Fall Recess to “Centennial Celebration Days.” Lagoudas reported that
80% of the approximately 45 students who attended a recent SA meeting voted for
option number 2, and this option has thus come as a motion to the Faculty
Senate for approval. Matteo Pasquali seconded the motion.
In the discussion that followed, one Senator
stated that moving the Fall Recess to Thursday and Friday will result in less participation by students in
Centennial activities. In addition, in
the month following the Centennial (November 2012), classes will not be held on
an additional Thursday and Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Young noted
that care was taken with the academic calendar scheduling so that the number of
class days Monday-Friday were equal. Registrar David Tenney said that the
schedule could be adjusted, for example, Monday and Tuesday could use the
Thursday and Friday class schedule. Lagoudas said that the SA’s Student
Involvement Committee is working to make the Centennial events exciting for
students. In addition, Esperanza will be
held on Friday night, October 12, 2012.
Randy Stevenson made three points: 1) the
Faculty Senate represents the faculty and should thus base its decisions on
what the faculty wants, 2) in his
experience, a select group of students will participate in activities such as
the Centennial celebration whether there is a recess or not, and 3) an
amendment could be passed to switch the class schedule that week from
Monday-Tuesday to Thursday-Friday.
Tom Killian said that although there are
potential problems involved with approving the change to the academic calendar,
if the Senate were to make the change, it would send a message that the
Centennial is a big deal, and that the Senate wishes to support it. Following
Killian’s comments, and with the addition of the amendment to change the
Monday-Tuesday class schedule to the Thursday-Friday class schedule, a vote was
held on the motion. The majority of Senators approved changing the name of the
Fall Recess 2012 to “Centennial Celebration Days” and moving the days off from
Monday-Tuesday (October 8 and 9) to Thursday-Friday (October 11 and 12), while
one opposed, and several abstained from voting. (Motion may be viewed here.)
VI.
New
Business
A.
Motion to recommend that Rice University adopt
the Policy Protocol on Research Data Management document proposed by the
University Committee on Research
Doug Natelson, Chair of the University Committee on Research, was asked
to address the Senate regarding the Policy Protocol on Research Data Management. He explained that the recently finalized
policy, distributed prior to the meeting to both the Senators and to the
faculty at large, is a brief document consisting of general rules regarding
research data management. A longer, more
specific procedures document will follow. He said that the committee worked with
the General Counsel’s office in drafting the policy, as well as addressing all
concerns raised by various faculty groups or individuals. The policy comes as a motion for approval by
the Senate, and it was seconded by Harter.
Vardi suggested adding to the motion a sentence requiring that a link be
inserted at the end of the policy document which will direct readers to a
forthcoming document describing procedures for implementing the policy. This procedures document will be developed by
the Vice Provost for Research and the Director of Sponsored Research. This friendly amendment was accepted
unanimously.
Vardi noted that the policy was written to protect Rice, but also to
allow principal investigators (PI) to run their labs. Natelson said that the PI
will have the responsibility to monitor his/her graduate students, not the
Office of Sponsored Research. Killian
asked that training of lab assistants be included in the procedures
document. Following this discussion, a
vote was held on the motion, and the Senate gave its unanimous approval for
adoption of the policy protocol document with the Vardi amendment. (Motion may be viewed here.) McIntosh thanked
Killian, Pasquali, and Vardi for their involvement with the fine-tuning of the
policy, as well as Natelson and the University Committee on Research.
B.
Motion
to approve adoption of the statement regarding Senate oversight of General
Announcements
McIntosh presented a document entitled “Faculty Senate Oversight of the
General Announcements” which came to the Senate approved by the Executive
Committee. The document was prepared by Randy Stevenson. McIntosh also provided
a timeline which showed the various steps involved with the annual approval of
the General Announcements (GA). After
review by Deans and Department Chairs, a draft of the GA will come to the
Faculty Senate for its review in late June. The draft will be checked to make
sure that all items approved by the Senate since the last GA have been
included, as well as checking that items which still require approval from the
Senate are not included in the GA until approved. After approximately July 1, the official GA
will be available on the Rice website, and no additional changes can be made.
Stevenson said that the policy was needed due to several factors. First,
the GA is going online; a printed version is no longer being offered by
Rice. Second, a rationalized process for
making changes to the GA was needed, and third, this general policy document
provides both ex-ante and ex-post review of the GA by the Senate. Vardi
seconded the motion from the EC, and the Senate then voted unanimously for
approval. (Motion and "Faculty Senate Oversight of the General Announcements" may be viewed here.)
C.
General Discussion on items for Senate
consideration 2011-2012
McIntosh asked for items for the Senate to consider next year and several
were offered:
·
Identifying resources needed to manage
enrollment growth
·
Teaching (report from Working Group on Teaching
to come soon)
·
Possible Working Group regarding P&T process
(Vardi volunteered)
·
Need for ombudsman for faculty
·
Working Group on Salaries (Ensor, Goetz, Batsell
volunteered)
Just prior to adjournment, Tenney requested
that faculty provide their grades to him on time, and he reminded the group of
the plenary meeting to approve degrees on May 13. The meeting was adjourned at
2:00 p.m.