Penn State Mont Alto Faculty Senate minutes, April 27, 2016.

Penn State Mont Alto Faculty Senate minutes, April 27, 2016

Meeting began at 2:01 pm. Chairman Somjit Barat opened with a reminder about the end-of-year luncheon. He then gave a brief recap of the International Program that concludes at the end of the semester. Only four people attended the first two events, but attendance grew to about 50 people for the last three events on campus. The question is: how to involve students more? A reference to a statistical study showed that students involved in the program have higher graduation rates and better opportunities upon graduation.

The next area of discussion involved committee operations. There will be an ongoing effort to encourage committee reports at MAFS on a regular basis. Therefore, it is expected that all committees will conduct regular meetings and members of each committee are expected to attend. A question was raised about what to do with less active committees. Should every current committee remain in existence? Should some committees be put on an inactive list until they are needed? Should there be a cap on members for each committee? How many members are needed for each committee? There are provisions in the Constitution for making adjustments to committees, which is something that needs to be addressed by the incoming chair in the next academic year.

The discussion was halted due to a special surprise announcement about Dr. Lauraine Hawkins, assistant professor of biology at Penn State Mont Alto. Dr. Hawkins was the sole recipient of the 2016 Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching, which recognizes excellence in teaching and student support among tenured faculty who have been employed full time for at least five years with undergraduate teaching as a major portion of their duties. Milton S. Eisenhower, brother of former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, served as president of Penn State from 1950 to 1956. Dr. Hawkins was surprised with a bouquet of flowers by Dr. Mike Doncheski and Dr. Francis Achampong. Here is a link for more detailed information: http://news.psu.edu/story/406190/2016/04/25/academics/hawkins-receives-eisenhower-award-distinguished-teaching.

Chair Barat then continued his opening remarks by commenting that all correct information is now posted on door of Police Services for any faculty member to get assistance with classroom keys. Also, faculty should expect to be contacted about involvement in the Faculty Connections Program after what is considered a successful year of events.

Chair Barat concluded with an admission update from Diane Chamberlin, who could not attend the meeting. At the time of the meeting, the accepted invites stood at 160, which is about 100 less than the statistically expected number. The low number can be attributed to the lateness of the offers getting sent out because of the technical issues with the new system.

Dr. Achampong then addressed a recent incident involving potentially inappropriate interaction between the athletic department and faculty. There are some general guidelines that should be observed going forward, which stress that athletics should steer clear of any discussion involving grades or eligibility with faculty. There cannot be any perception of influence regarding grades earned by student-athletes. Discussions can be held about attendance, travel schedules and missing work. The PSUAC is expected to put specific regulations in place in the near future.

The Athletic Committee then interjected and gave a recap of their latest meeting, which included a lengthy discussion of the issue. Is the answer an appointment of a liaison between the coaches and faculty to ensure there is no perception of grade tampering? The committee felt it would be awkward for the liaison, a faculty member, to contact another faculty member about their grading process. It was the conclusion of the committee that the campus should emphasize the utilization of existing procedures instead of creating another layer of reporting. Dr. Achampong agreed that Marla Minnich, in her role as student advocate, is well within her prevue to serve as the contact person. The point was then made that the process in place, which is the Early Intervention Program form, is for faculty to report ANY student, not just student-athletes. Marla will automatically receive a copy of each form that is submitted. The underlying thrust of all of this is that the student should be encouraged to follow through on their academic performance.

Andrea Pritt then gave a recap of Academic Festival, which turned out to be the largest ever with 49 projects and 120 participants. A big thank you was expressed to all faculty who supported the students, the judges, the set-up crew and the food prep team.

Dan Dandy then discussed the poll that picked the winning theme for the coming year: Engaged Scholarship. The question now is: what’s next? Should there be a session in the fall MADE about the new theme? How to go about integrating the theme in all aspects of the campus, including the website? Would it be advantageous to have a two-year theme instead of something new every academic year? A comment was offered that this sounded like a good idea because introducing the new theme at the start of the year means integration probably won’t occur until the spring semester since everyone already has the fall plans in place. The overriding goal is to get the theme integrated and up front in everybody’s mind.

Kate Chronister followed with an update on Starfish. It was suggested that faculty take the opportunity to get familiar with the system before the fall arrives. Upon graduation, there will be no more advising notes in eLion; old notes will supposedly be transferred to the new system but we do not know when, or in what state, they will appear. A training session will be held on Wednesday, May 25 from 1 to 4 pm. A sign-up sheet was passed around for faculty to attend. An email announcement about the session will also be sent out to all faculty.

Robin Yaure gave a quick update from Faculty Affairs. There is $3960.83 remaining in the PDF fund; $0 in the TSF.

Renee Borromeo gave a quick overview of the most recent University Faculty Senate report. The four quick items reviewed were: 1 – Students want electronic access to all syllabus in the future; NOT just a paper copy. 2 – There should be some type of assessment update given in every class prior to the late drop deadline so that students can make an informed decision about continuing with the class. 3 – Minors will require six extra credits. 4 – Should a yearly diversity award be given? Mike Doncheski commented that instructions on how to set up a new award are in place if faculty chooses to do so.

The meeting concluded at 2:55 pm with an expression of thanks to Somjit Barat for his service ats MAFS Chair.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *