FACULTY SENATE MEETING
President’s Boardroom, 14th floor, Saratoga Building
March 18, 2015 (Wednesday)
MINUTES
In attendance: Dr. Sarah Michel, Vice President; Dr. Isabelita Rambob, Secretary; Dr. Kimberly Becker, Dr. Amber Beitelshees, Dr. Meena Chellaiah, Dr. Karen Clark, Dr. Jeanne Geiger-Brown, Dr. Jane Lipscomb, Mr. Matt Rietschel, Dr. David Williams, Dr. Guofeng Xie and Dr. Julie Zito.
Guests in Attendance: Ms. Colette Beaulieu and Mr. Spencer Todd.
Staff: Ms. Camilla Kyewaah
12:05: Call to order – Vice President Dr. Sarah Michel
1. Review of February Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes – Approved without changes.
2. Senate Elections – Isabel Rambob
· Nomination Period: March 30th-April 8th
· Nominees are required to submit a brief statement describing the reason(s) they are interested in running for the Faculty Senate.
· A email will be sent out to senators asking them to divulge the election process in their respective schools newsletters.
· Once nomination period is over it will take three days to compile information.
· Election Period: April 15th – April 24th
3. Faculty Senate Presence – Sarah Michel
· Suggestions presented to increase the visibility of the Faculty Senate in the campus:
o Joint activities with Staff Senate & Student Senate;
o Hosting joint meetings with Staff & Student Senate;
o Participation in campus events;
o Creating social media accounts such as; Facebook;
o Looking into the Staff Senate website for ideas;
· Ask the Senator Guidelines: The guideline is 95% completed. Once it is completed, the link will be sent to senators and then it will be posted in the Senate webpage.
· It was suggested that Advisory Council should review the Faculty Senate webpage to ensure its content clearly defines what the faculty senate is and its goals.
· Ask the Faculty Senate Inquires (2):
o Request to advertise a new online UMB graduate certificate program.
o Inquiry from a social work student regarding IPE programs and potential expansion.
4. Committee Report:
· CUSF – Karen Clark:
o SARA-In progress changes related to SARA impacting student registration fees paid for each student from state of residence to university. Currently 20 states are members of SARA.
o Student Privacy Act- Issues with students using social media to access class content. The act is to find a loophole to avoid requiring students to sign up for social media accounts in order to participate in class(es).
o Sexual Assault-Concerns regarding requirements to report within 24 hour to ‘appropriate law enforcement’. If not reported it can result in jail time and fines (misdemeanor). Apparently, Title 9 does not suffice to cover this category.
o Health assessment requirement- Faculty senate would like to gain some clarity about the process and purpose of the requirement.
5. New Business
o Karen Clark will contact Nancy Gordon regarding latex balloon ban from graduation due to latex allergy concerns.
o It brought to the attention of the Senate a posting on the Baltimore Sun by Dr. Stephen Thompson, an adjunct instructor at the Community College of Baltimore County, entitled: “Allow adjuncts to unionize”. It was suggested the Senate should send a letter to the Baltimore Sun in response to this posting to show our support to the Adjunct Faculty.
1:05 Adjournment
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Isabel Rambob, Faculty Senate Secretary;
Ms. Camilla Kyewaah, Staff Secretary