UNIVERSITY
COUNCIL
Minutes No. 2
2002-2003
Thursday, November 21, 2002
I. CALL TO ORDER
AND ATTENDANCE: The James
Madison University Council met electronically on Thursday, November
21, 2002.
PRESENT: Mr.
Ralph Alberico, Dr. Violet Allain, Dr. Jerry Benson, Dr. Patricia
Brady, Dr. David Brakke, Dr. Doug Brown, Dr. Michael Busing, Dr.
Steve Frysinger, Ms. Donna Harper, Mr. Charlie King, Dr. Sharon
Lovell, Dr. Robert Reid, Dr. Lin Rose, Dr. Michael Smilowitz, Dr.
Kathy Stafford, Dr. Mark Warner, Dr. Richard Whitman, Ms. Emily
Wyman and Dr. David Zimmerman.
ABSENT:
Ms. Andrea Fischetti, Dr. Karen Forcht,
Dr. Ramon Mata-Toledo, Mr. Levar Stoney and Dr. William
Walker.
II.
COMMISSION/COUNCIL REPORTS:
Committee on Academic
Programs:
Dr. Steve Frysinger, Chair,
reported that their committee had not met and therefore had no
report at this time.
Graduate
Council:
Dr. N. William Walker, Interim Dean, will be meeting
later in the month and therefore does not have a report for this
meeting.
III. REPORT
OF THE FACULTY SENATE
Dr. Michael
Smilowitz forwarded the following
report:
A. Standing
Committees
Academic Policies
The Committee (along with the Faculty Concerns
Committee) presented to the Senate its deliberations regarding the
Academic Advising Initiative. The Speaker was appointed the responsibility
of recommending editing changes to the proposed document to
elaborate the meaning of "Best Practices" and
to clarify the role of faculty.
Faculty Concerns Committee
The committee is in the process of determining
whether there is a need for University-wide policy regarding the
conversion of current RTA faculty with ranks of assistant professor
and above to tenure-track positions.
The Faculty Senate is hosting the Faculty Handbook
Committee web site at its own website. The Handbook Committee site underwent
revisions, including a form for the electronic submission of
proposed changes to the Handbook.
See http://web.jmu.edu/facultysenate/facultyhandbook/main.htm.
Student/Faculty Relations
Responding to President's Rose request of last
spring, the Committee presented its recommendations to improve the
attendance of students at the presentations of major speakers. The Senate unanimously endorsed the
recommendations.
Recommendations made to the
Faculty Senate by the Student Relations Subcommittee
Endorsed by the Faculty Senate, November 7,
2002
Student Attendance at Campus Speaking Events
Purpose: The Faculty Senate recognizes the importance
of expanding the academic reach of students at James Madison
University through exposure to new and sometimes complex
ideas. We also recognize that
students may be reluctant to seek out scholarly experiences. The following recommendations are
provided to encourage student participation in campus-wide speaking
events.
Procedures:
• Provide
sufficient advance notice of events (that is, before the semester
begins) so that faculty may include the event in the course
syllabus.
• Give major
consideration to speaking skills, especially the skill of
successfully presenting complex, scholarly information to
undergraduate audiences, when selecting speakers.
• Advertise
events in venues frequented by students, such as dorm bulletin
boards, dining halls, etc.
• Increase
student involvement (and the visibility of student involvement) in
planning speaking events.
• Encourage
involvement of University-recognized student organizations in
supporting events. For example, one
or two student groups could be assigned to promote an event. Student groups could be evaluated based
on their promotional efforts, audience size, response, and other
criteria, and provided an incentive such as an increase to the
organization's budget.
• Establish a
"Scholars' Day" on which several speakers, panel discussions, etc.,
are scheduled. A larger, more
focused event would have more visibility, and be easier to
promote. Students could be
encouraged or required to attend a minimum number of events. Scholars' Day could be scheduled on the
day before or after Assessment Day, in place of the Fall Semester
holiday (rescheduled to midweek) or another midweek date (midweek
to encourage attendance rather than a long weekend).
• Tie student
attendance at speaking events to a broad General Education
requirement or Academic Enrichment program (for example, require or
encourage attendance at 2 events per year throughout the student's
time at JMU).
B. Ad Hoc
Committees
1. Day Care Initiative
The Committee has completed its analysis of the
survey data and prepared a draft of its report. The final report should be available by
month's end.
2. Expanding Horizons" Project
Thomas Harrison Middle School is
currently in the process of selecting the first 24
participants.
IV. REPORT OF THE
STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION
Mr. Levar Stoney, SGA President, forwarded the attached
report.
Virginia Higher Education Obligation Bond
Victory
The JMU SGA would like to extend a gracious thank
you to all the faculty and administrators for the network of ideas
concerning the Bond issue. We were
able to implement many of the ideas throughout the last three
months and work side by side with the administration and faculty to
build a successful campaign on behalf of higher education. With the passage of the Bond in the
70th percentile, we were able to make the statement that
higher education should be a priority in the Commonwealth
Tuition Increase Response
With the Commonwealth of Virginia in a budget
shortfall, JMU was asked to reduce its operating budget by
10.4%. This reduction was a topic
of concern within the Student Senate because of its impact on the
student body. On October
21st, the SGA's Academic Affairs committee coordinated a
campus wide referendum to gauge student opinion on the role the
Student Senate should play in response to a pending tuition
increase or cut in faculty.
Overwhelmingly, students chose to raise tuition by $150 across the
board for in-state and out-of- state students. The Senate was able to use these results to
sponsor a resolution in support of a raise of such a
magnitude. The results of the
referendum along with the support of a Senate resolution were
presented to the JMU Board of Visitors, who moved to raise tuition
by $170 for the spring semester.
SGA Newsletter: Student Glance
Ahead
The Communications and Public Relations committee
has sought to engage the student body in the affairs of the
SGA. The committee has begun to
publish an electronic newsletter which will be distributed via
email on a biweekly basis. We hope
this tool accomplishes our goals of educating and informing the
student body on the activities the SGA and other organizations are
pursuing.
The Madison Challenge
The Community Affairs committee is currently
coordinating a campus-wide canned food drive competition among
clubs and organizations. The
collected food items will be donated to the Mercy House for needy
families this Thanksgiving. The top
three collectors will receive prizes for their service and
participation. This project is one of many planned to foster a
stronger relationship between JMU and the Harrisonburg
community.
Senior Class Council Graduate &
Professional Program Fair
The 2003 Senior Class Council
along with the College of Graduate and Professional Programs held
the 2nd annual Graduate and Professional Programs Information Fair
Thursday, November 14.
Representatives from JMU's graduate programs, as well as
representatives from other institutions were present to talk with
students about post-baccalaureate education.
The following Graduate Schools
were represented:
American University
East Carolina University
Wake Forest
Georgetown University
UNC-Charlotte
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of Virginia
Virginia Tech
Radford University
Lynchburg College
Purple Out
On Homecoming Day, the SGA held its second annual
Purple Out at the football game. The free t-shirts were given out
earlier in the week to students.
Students waited in long lines for two hours only to exhaust a
couple thousand t-shirts in five short minutes. Students were asked to wear purple at the
football game to create a sea of purple in the football
stands. We hope to continue this
event during the basketball season and for next year's Homecoming
game.
V.
REPORT OF THE HONOR COUNCIL
Mr. John Horigan, Honor Council
President, provided the following information.
Informal
Resolutions: agreements
between a faculty member and a student accused of violating the
Honor Code. The agreement is
essentially a contract between the instructor and the student
regarding the violation, generally including an admission of guilt,
and the sanction for that violation. The maximum sanction that may be imposed by
this course of action is failure of the course without the option
to repeat/forgive. Average number
of Informal Resolutions for any academic year is highly
variable.
As of 11/11/02 for '02- '03: 11
Formal
Resolutions: hearings
granted to a student accused of violating the code for any of the
following reasons: First, the accused refuses to sign an Informal
Resolution, or denies guilt.
Second, the faculty member involved deems the violation too serious
to be dealt with by only one faculty member. Third, the student has one or two prior
violations, whether informal or formal. A Formal Resolution requires that a hearing
panel be convened with four students (three Honor Council
Representatives and the Council Vice President), and three faculty
representatives as the deliberations panel. The decision of guilt is made before intent
and sanctioning. Only after a
decision regarding guilt is made is the panel informed of any prior
violations. Minimum sanctions that
apply are as follows: for a first violation there is no minimum
sanction. For a second violation
suspension for one academic semester and failure of the course
without the option to repeat forgive. Lastly, for a third violation the minimum
sanction is expulsion. In past
years the average number of Formal Resolutions per year has
fluctuated around two.
As of 11/15/02 for Fall Semester '02: 2 under investigation
As of 11/15/02 for Fall Semester '02: 2 hearings completed
Representatives
New Representatives are added to the council at the
start of each semester. Any full-
time student, undergraduate or graduate may apply. Twelve of the 15 new Representatives have
completed their training.
Student Education
Committee
The Student Education Committee will be undertaking
numerous Residence Hall presentations on the topic of the Honor
Code in an effort to increase awareness of the importance and value
of academic integrity at JMU beginning in the Spring semester.
Honor Advisory
Board
The Honor Advisory Board has not yet met for this
semester.
VI. REPORT
OF UPB
Ms. Emily Wyman, the Executive
Director for the University Program Board, presented the following
report.
The University Program Board has one new event for
next semester. We are working with
CMISS to bring a keynote speaker for the MLK Day Celebration. Movies are continuing as scheduled and
our second sneak preview of the year ("Friday After Next") will be
shown on November 21 at 11:30pm.
Due to budget cuts, UPB was unable to go to the annual NACA
conference so we will be participating in an UREC low ropes course
and a retreat in January to fulfill the teambuilding role NACA
usually fills. Happy Holidays and
if you have any questions about events/co-sponsorships, please
email me at mailto:wymanej@jmu.edu.
NOTE:
The next
meeting is scheduled to meet Thursday, February 20,
2003.
Linwood H. Rose,
President
Donna E. Burch,
Secretary
