MEETING CALL
REGULAR MEETING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
Monday, June 2, 1997
3:30 p.m.
Cabernet Room, Silo
1. Minutes of the February 18, 1997 meeting (previously distributed)
2. Announcements by the President
3. Announcements by the Vice Presidents
4. Announcements by the Chief Campus Officer
5. Announcements by Deans, Directors, or other Executive Officers
6. Special orders
A. Remarks by the Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate
B. *Annual Report of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility
C. *Annual Report of the Committee on Academic Planning and Budget Review
D. *Annual Report of the Committee on Admissions and Enrollment
E. Annual Report of the Committee on Committees
F. *Annual Report of the Committee on Courses of Instruction
G. Annual Report of the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards
and announcement of the 1997 recipients
H. *Annual Report of the Committee on Education Abroad Program
I. *Annual Report of the Committee on Educational Policy
J. *Annual Report of the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction
K. *Annual Report of the Committee on Emeriti
L. *Annual Report of the Executive Council
M. *Annual Report of the Faculty Privilege Advisers
N. *Annual Report of the Committee on Faculty Welfare
O. *Annual Report of the Committee on Grade Changes
P. *Annual Report of the Joint Committee on Senate/Federation Personnel
Q. *Annual Report of the Committee on Preparatory Education
R. *Annual Report of the Committee on Privilege and Tenure
S. *Annual Report of the Committee on Public Service
T. *Annual Report of the Committee on Student-Faculty Relationships
U. *Annual Report of the Committee on Teaching
V. *Annual Report of the Committee on Undergraduate Scholarships, Honors and Prizes
7. Reports of special committees
A. Annual Report of the Special Committee on Honors
8. Reports of standing committees
A. Report of the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction
9. Petitions of students
10. Unfinished business
11. University and faculty welfare
12. New business
*Consent Calendar. Items will be removed from the Consent Calendar on the request of any member of the Representative Assembly.
All voting members of the Academic Senate (and others on the ruling of the Chair) shall have the privilege of attendance and the privilege of the floor at meetings of the Representative Assembly, but only members of the Representative Assembly may make or second motions or vote.
While waiting for a quorum to be confirmed, Chair Lawrence B. Coleman made a few preliminary remarks. He thanked the members of the Representative Assembly for their attendance and participation, the chairs and members of all of the Senate Committees, and Davis Division Vice Chair, Merna Villarejo, and Secretary You-Lo Hsieh for all of their hard work this past year. He then thanked R. Bryan Miller for accepting the Davis Division Chair position for the next two years, and also John Vohs and Kathryn Radke for accepting the Vice Chair and Secretary positions for next year. Chair Coleman said that having served on the Academic Council (Universitywide) for the last two years he has come to appreciate more and more the relationship the Davis Division Senate has with the Davis campus administration. He said his experience has been that this relationship is better on this campus than at many of the other campuses.
Chair Coleman mentioned a couple of issues that he believed the Senate will be involved in this next academic year: further discussion of what diversity means and how it fits into our General Education Program, campus growth, and the new budget and accounting system. He also mentioned the fact that several new administrators will be coming aboard in the next few months. He noted that this last year the Senate has spent some time working on revising program review procedures to make them more effective. He said area reviews have been introduced and will be conducted on an experimental basis. He also noted that the Senate will be investigating the issue of outside influence on the resources and what effect outside dollars have on scholarship. He then expressed his thanks and appreciation to the staff in the Senate Office for their efforts.
Having been informed that a quorum was present, Chair Coleman called the regular meeting of the Representative Assembly of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate to order. A roster of members present and absent is attached as Appendix I to these minutes. He reminded those attending to please identify themselves when they speak.
1. Minutes - Chair Coleman announced that no changes to the Minutes of the February 18, 1997 meeting have been reported. He said anyone wishing to make corrections, should notify the Senate Office promptly. Otherwise, the minutes of the meeting will stand approved as distributed.
2. Announcements by the President - None
3. Announcements by the Vice Presidents - None
4. Announcements by the Chief Campus Officer - None
5. Announcements by Deans, Directors, or other Executive Officers - None
6. Special orders
Chair Coleman noted that the asterisked items on the meeting call were on the Consent Calendar but that upon request of any member of the Representative Assembly any items can be removed. Joel Hass requested that the Annual Report of the Committee on Courses of Instruction be removed and that there be a suspension of the rules so that discussion of the report would take place after the Annual Report of the Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards. John Vohs seconded the motion for suspension of the rules, the motion carried.
Hearing no other requests, the following annual reports were noted as having been received and placed on file: Academic Freedom and Responsibility, Academic Planning and Budget Review, Admissions and Enrollment, Education Abroad Program, Educational Policy, Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction, Emeriti, Executive Council, Faculty Privilege Advisers, Faculty Welfare, Grade Changes, Joint Committee on Senate/Federation Personnel, Preparatory Education, Privilege and Tenure, Public Service, Student-Faculty Relationships, Teaching, and Undergraduate Scholarships, Honors and Prizes.
E. Annual Report of the Committee on CommitteesOn behalf of the Committee on Committees, Eldridge Moores moved confirmation of the 1997-98 appointments to standing committees appearing on pages 8-10, the motion was approved.
G. Annual Report of the Committee on Distinguished Teaching AwardsLinda Acredolo, Chair of the Distinguished Teaching Awards Committee announced the 1997 recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards: Paul G. Fitzgerald, Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy; Kenneth Joy, Department of Computer Science; and Thomas L. Rost, Plant Biology/DBS. The committee report was approved by acclamation. Professor Acredolo's remarks concerning the achievements of each of the recipients appear as Appendix II to these minutes.
L. Acredolo congratulated the recipients and announced that a forum featuring the recipients will be held in the Spring of 1998.
F. Annual Report of the Committee on Courses of Instruction
Joel Hass said he asked for the Annual Report of the Committee on Courses of Instruction to be removed from the Consent Calendar because at the Special Meeting of the Davis Division, held on May 29, concerning diversity as it applies to the General Education Program, the Courses Committee responded to some criticism surrounding some of their decisions regarding certification of courses satisfying the GE social-cultural diversity category. He offered the following motion: "The Representative Assembly urges the Committee on Courses of Instruction to comply with the words and spirit of Academic Senate Regulations." The motion was seconded. Greg Clark stated that this was being brought to the attention of the Representative Assembly upon request of Juliana Schiesari since she was not able to be present. He said the intent of the motion was to urge the Committee on Courses of Instruction to return to the original Representative Assembly mandate that states that a course in the social-cultural diversity component is any course that deals with issues such as race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexuality, or religion. He said that the Courses Committee has made a much narrower interpretation than the spirit of the original wording.
John Vohs, Chair, Committee on Courses of Instruction, responded that prior to approval of the diversity requirement as part of General Education, the Representative Assembly discussed and debated at length an ethnic studies requirement. The Representative Assembly voted against such a requirement and the Representative Assembly finally approved topical breadth, writing experience, and social-cultural diversity as the three components of General Education. He said the majority of those on the Committee preferred a fairly narrow interpretation of the diversity Legislation. For example, a social-cultural diversity course would be one taught from an approach of ethnicity/gender or construction of identities that had not been typically represented in the curriculum previously. He said the committee also looked at the "approach" to subject matter of a course rather than simply its subject matter. He also said that the committee believes that because a group has been discriminated against does not mean that it automatically qualifies for a diversity course.
Discussion ensued in which Phyllis Jestice opined that the motion on the floor, as an idea, is acceptable but that she did not see how it is enforceable. She said it needed more specific language.
A. Sillman stated that without having had this issue placed on the agenda with proper notice, today's meeting is not the proper place to discuss diversity. He said until we revisit the issue and also based on the chair's statement that the committee has tended to make a narrower interpretation of the Academic Senate Regulations, he believed the motion should be approved.
Bryan Miller said that even if the Representative Assembly were to accept the motion in terms of original wording, it is still subject to interpretation. Should it be open to a very broad interpretation or should the Courses Committee's interpretation be accepted?
Eldridge Moores moved to table the motion until further discussion in the fall. The motion was seconded. The motion carried with 33 in favor and 24 opposed.
A motion to approve the Annual Report of the Committee on Courses of Instruction was seconded and carried.
P. Jestice offered thanks and praise to the Committee for the enormous amount of work they accomplished - very quickly, very helpfully, very cooperatively.
7. Reports of special committees
A. Report of the Committee on Elections, Rules and JurisdictionIn the absence of the Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction Chair, Mark Grismer, Chair Coleman presented the report of the Committee on ER&J. A. Kader moved approval of the editorial changes proposed by the Bylaw Revision Workgroup. The motion was seconded. Kevin Hoover, member of the Bylaw Revision Workgroup, reported that it is within the power of the Committee on ER&J to make editorial changes to the Bylaws without submitting them to the Representative Assembly but that both the workgroup and the ER&J Committee believed it wise to submit the proposed changes to the Representative Assembly for ratification. He said the second category of proposed changes, conforming editorial revisions, were presumably in the same category but that the actual Bylaw changes could not be acted upon today because they have not been properly noticed.
C. Nash, also a member of the workgroup, voiced mild disagreement with K. Hoover noting that even the editorial changes contain wording that could be interpreted as more than editorial changes within the jurisdiction of the ER&J Committee. Specifically, he said the definition and use of capitalization or lower case "f" in the word faculty has been the subject of discussion for many, many years. He said until very recently there was not a definition of the word faculty in any general University policies but that there has always clearly been a distinction between "faculty" and "Faculty". Chair Coleman asked if anyone wished to remove any of the editorial changes from the motion. Hearing none, a vote on the motion to approve the editorial changes ensued and carried unanimously. It was then agreed that the conforming editorial revisions and the proposed Bylaw revisions would be resubmitted to the Representative Assembly in the Fall. C. Nash requested that a copy of his minority report, as a member of the Bylaw Revision Workgroup, also be submitted with the documents sent to the Representative Assembly in the Fall.
B. Report of the Committee on Emeriti
Thomas L. Allen, Chair of the Emeriti Committee, presented the report noting that the report calls upon the Representative Assembly to take action that will benefit the entire campus concerning the budget of the Library. He moved approval of the report. The motion was seconded. Chair Coleman reported that the Executive Council has also recently discussed this issue and that he will be writing a letter to the Chancellor requesting that the present process being utilized by the Library to gather input as to the journal subscriptions to be canceled be suspended and that consideration be given to some other strategy for reallocation of the budget in order to protect the Library. The vote on the motion passed unanimously.
9. Petitions of students - None
10. Unfinished business - None
11. University and faculty welfare - None
12. New business
Bryan Miller made the following motion: "The Representative Assembly extends its appreciation to Larry Coleman for his many efforts during the past two years." The motion was seconded and passed by resounding acclamation.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.