REGULAR MEETING OF THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

	October 6, 1997


SENATORS ABSENT: 

Pamela Cummings, Kelly Druga, John Gallagher, Calvin Keeler, and Leslie Knapp

SENATORS EXCUSED: 

Larry Kalkstein, Joseph Glutting, Roland Smith, Calvin Keeler, Carlos Plata-Salaman, and Richard Wolbers

I.   ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
	
	The agenda was adopted as presented.
	
II.  APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

	The Minutes of the September 15, 1997 meeting were approved.
	
III. ANNOUNCEMENTS BY PRESIDENT CARROLL

	President Carroll opened the Senate Meeting at 4:00 p.m.  He thanked the senators for coming and referred them to an addendum in their voting cards.  The addendum was a list of appointments for confirmation and replacement information.  By unanimous vote Hilton Brown was approved as Chairperson on the Committee on Diversity and Affirmative Action and  Thomas Scott was approved as a member on the Committee on Promotion and Tenure.

	President Carroll introduced Greg Weight.  As President of the Graduate Student Association, Mr. Weight expressed his desire to fill the graduate student positions on various committees some of which have already been filled.  


VI.  ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR CHALLENGE

	There were no announcements for challenge.






VII.  OLD BUSINESS

	 There were no items of old business.

VIII. NEW BUSINESS

A.	Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker, Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on General Education spoke on the Progress in General Education. Dr. Hoffecker told the senators that they are the committee's partners in the effort to improve general education at the University of Delaware.  Rethinking the goals of general education is a national concern prompted by the sense that the old distribution model lacks coherence and fails to provide students with the skills and knowledge they will need in today's world.  The committee has been looking at several models from other universities and has benefitted from the leadership of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.  Dr. Hoffecker reminded the senators that the committee is sponsoring speakers from the AAC&U and from the College of New Jersey on October 14 and 21.  Copies of the committee's proposed goals statement were distributed.  Senators were asked to discuss the proposed goals statement with their colleagues and send their comments to the committee by November 1.  Meanwhile, the committee is gearing up to sponsor a series of focus groups to provide us with the advice on general education reform--to include students, faculty, and alumni.  The committee hopes to be ready to begin planning a program to meet the goals in January 1998.

	Attachment: Proposed Statement of Goals for General Education at the University of Delaware from the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on General Education

B.	Dr. John Bishop, Project Coordinator, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant reported on the grant the University of Delaware and the City of Newark have received from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to address the problems which are associated with high risk/binge drinking of alcohol among college students.  Lehigh University, the University of Vermont, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Iowa have received similar grants.

	




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	The five year project will emphasize the public health aspects of the problem, focusing on the second-hand negative consequences and costs of high risk drinking for the community-at-large.  Efforts will be made to shape the expectations of incoming, first-year students about the campus and community standards regarding alcohol use; hold students, organizations, business enterprises, and activities accountable for their role in providing environments in which high risk drinking is normative; and increase student and public support for alcohol policies that can be effectively publicized and enforces.

	The Faculty Senate was encouraged to consider ways in which it could exert influence on those aspects of the environment which might be enabling a high risk student drinking culture to be sustained.

C.   Introduction of New Business

	There being none, the meeting was adjourned 4:40 p.m.

							Respectfully submitted,



							Frank Dilley, Secretary

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