REGULAR MEETING OF THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

Minutes

May 6, 2002

104 Gore Hall 4:01 PM

Members Absent: Michael Ginzberg, Phyllis Keys, Susan McGeary, Andreas Muenchow, Robert Nelson, Mark Radosevich, Beth Schubert, Iris Snyder, Donald Vlachos, Barry Walker

Members Excused: Melanie Dement, Paul Evenson, Annette Giesecke, Eric Kaler, Charles Luebbert, Robin Morgan, Betty Paulanka, Andre Rosay, T.W. Fraser Russell, John Weiss

I. The meeting was convened by Senate President Jim Richards at 4:01 PM.

The recent death of John C. Nye, former Dean of the College of Agriculture & Natural Resources was announced. A memorial service was held in the Bob Carpenter Center earlier in the day to commemorate his life. A moment of silence was held.

II. A correction was noted for the agenda. Under VI. Consent Agenda, A.2. Request for creation of concentration “Women in Global Perspective” in Women’s Studies the degree in question is the B.S., not the M.S. degree as stated in the handout.

The agenda was approved unanimously.

III. A correction for a name misspelling was noted in the last meeting’s minutes in the memorial announcement for the late Roy L. McCullough of the Department of Chemical Engineering.

The meeting minutes of April 8, 2002 were approved unanimously.

IV. Election of Senate Officers and Selected Committee Members.

Karen Stein was elected President-Elect

Charles Mason was elected Vice President

Michael Keefe was elected Chair of COCAN

Michael Keefe, chair of COCAN, briefly described the election and the candidates involved. The nominations were approved and votes were taken.

V. Provost Dan Rich presented “Enrollment Update and Grade Inflation”, an update of UD enrollments and the situation of perceived grade inflation at UD. In 2002-2003 there was a 12% increase in undergraduate enrollments from the previous year to an all-time high of 20,271 of which about 3,400 will be next year’s freshman class. It was noted that eighty percent of all college-bound Delaware high school seniors apply to UD. Provost Rich invited the Faculty Senate to evaluate grade inflation issues at UD. He did state in his presentation that the ~16% increase in A’s and B’s in the last ten years may be largely in part due to the increase in student quality and the increase in the quality of instruction.

VI. The consent agenda was approved unanimously.

VII Old Business.

The topic of Examination and Test Conflicts was revisited (last page of agenda attachments). Changes made due to discussion was the revision in bulleted paragraph no. 1 of the phrase “...Friday and 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM Saturday.” In bulleted paragraph no. 3, deletion of the term “multi-section” to read “...to schedule one section of a course in conflict with...” The motion carried for this version by a vote of 30 to 9 in favor.

VIII. Announcements. Jim Richards thanked the work of everyone in a productive year Faculty Senate year. Special appreciation was given to Rita Girardi who will be retiring from UD this year after noteworthy service to the Faculty Senate.

Respectfully submitted,

Dallas Hoover

Secretary