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Faculty Senate tangles with grade form

Posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009, 1:05 am

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The University of Maine Faculty Senate learned ways the university could cut costs and grappled with problems in a proposed incomplete-grade form during its April 22 meeting.

Faculty Senate members became frustrated with a proposed incomplete-grade form during the meeting, having already dealt with it for months. The form is designed to facilitate the process of documenting incomplete grades. Senators raised concerns the form would put students’ grades on the shoulders of deans more than on the faculty and departments they work with.

Faculty Senate also heard from UMaine President Robert Kennedy.

“Instead of making horizontal cuts … we really need to concentrate on identifying all of the colleges in our centers that are centers of excellence and really be vertical [in our planning],” Kennedy said, relaying comments from an April 22 New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) meeting.

Kennedy, having returned from the 8:30 a.m. NEASC meeting, said college accreditors and administrators recommended comparing UMaine to peer institutions around the country instead of universities and colleges within Maine.

Faculty Senate President Dianne Hoff, who also attended the morning meeting, agreed with the recommendations Kennedy relayed to the senate.

Kennedy said he heard Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s task force may not make its June deadline, when it is required to deliver its final report to Pattenaude. Kennedy said he received this information publicly from the task force chairman, David Flanagan.

“It may take on a life of its own beyond June,” Kennedy said.

Hoff said Wednesday’s NEASC meeting was poorly communicated to the campus community and few people showed up for it.

“We did seem to have trouble communicating with the broader community about what was going on with the NEASC committee,” Hoff said. “The students didn’t seem to know about the sessions.”

Hoff suggested the Faculty Senate work with the provost or president’s office to ensure they advertise future meetings better.

“The Alerts and Announcements folder [on FirstClass] just isn’t really adequate,” Hoff said.

Undergraduate student representative Nate Wildes said Student Government was unaware of the NEASC meeting.

Gail Garthwait, assistant professor of technology, said Ralph Caruso, the chief information officer of the University of Maine System office’s Information Technology department, has offered to meet with faculty members April 28 to discuss concerns they may have with the PeopleSoft program. She invited faculty members to e-mail her on FirstClass if they wish to attend the meeting.

Faculty Senate’s members felt the proposed grading form on the agenda controlled professors too much.

“Seems like more growth of bureaucracy,” said professor James McClymer.

Professor William Halteman asked why the signature of the professor’s college dean was required on the form and why he or she needed copies of the form. Professor Dan Belknap said associate deans like to have something in front of themselves when answering questions about grades from the dean of the student’s college and that requiring the signature ensured they got a copy of the form.

“If they want to talk about students, they need to talk to the faculty member,” McClymer said. He felt students’ teachers should be the one to inform deans of grades, not associate deans.

The senate motioned to remove the requirement of the signature of the faculty member’s college dean, which passed with none against and one abstention.

Hoff said the form’s requirement of a signature from a faculty member’s chairperson was problematic because some colleges don’t have chairpeople.

McClymer said it was worthwhile to approve the form, and that if a problem comes up in the future the senate can discuss it.

After a few extra minutes of debate, Faculty Senate voted to move the form back to committee for revision.

A proposal from the Academic Affairs Committee to modify the student athletic “priority registration policy” to change athlete’s registration status to equal junior standing instead of senior and to cover the entire academic year was voted on during the meeting. It passed with none against and one abstention.

“Keep in mind that this suits the timing, not the location,” Wildes said, reminding senators that this policy gave athletes academic priority, not housing priority.

Belknap said senate needs to reauthorize Maine Day for another four years. He said it should have been done last fall, but was postponed because of other agenda items. The senate will vote to reauthorize it in May. Belknap said UMaine has not cancelled Maine Day this year and that professors should hold classes only if they meet two or fewer times during the week.

An amended version of the Faculty Senate bylaws passed unanimously during the meeting. Faculty senators also approved a shared governance document and three Faculty Senate officer candidates.

Professor James Warhola proposed remanding the issue of extending Kennedy’s presidential term by one or two years to a committee. Hoff said his proposal will be sent to several committees.