NUMBER 8   

University of Rhode Island
Faculty Senate

AGENDA

A. Announcements.

B. Activities of the Executive Committee (Minutes of Executive Committee Meetings #26, #27 and #28 attached pp. 5-12) -- Vice Chairperson Luebke.

C. Report of the Nominating Committee (attached p. 13) – Professor Welters.

D. Recommendations of the Executive Committee -- Vice Chairperson Luebke

1)  That the Faculty Senate appoint Professor Donna Meyer and Professor James Miller to the Search Committee for the Dean of the College of Engineering

2)  That the Faculty Senate appoint Professor Laura Beauvais, Professor Stephan Grilli, Professor Celest Martin and Professor Michael Rice to the Academic Program Review Committee (APRC).

E. Annual Report on the activities of the JSPC (oral) -- Chairperson Rice    

F. Update on NEASC Accreditation Self-Study (oral) -- Professor Kowalski.    

A. Status of Actions Forwarded to the President:

#06-07--32  Academic Standards and Calendar Committee Report #2006-07-3.  Approved By President Carothers on April 23, 2007.

B. Announcements.

A. The Four Hundred Fifty-Second Report of the Curricular Affairs Committee (attached pp. 14-28) – Vice Chairperson Luebke.

B. Curricular Report No. 2006-07-5A: Proposal for a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the Graduate Council to the Faculty Senate (attached pp. 29-33) – Dean Bibb.  

C. Curricular Report No. 2006-07-7A: Proposal for a dual Diplom/ Master of Science program with the Technische Universität Braunschweig (attached p. 34)

D. Curricular Report No. 2006-07-8 from the Graduate Council to the Faculty Senate (attached pp. 35-37) – Dean Bibb.

E. Report of the Council for Research on the Establishment of the URI Transportation Center (attached pp. 38-41) – Professor Lucht

F. Report of the Library Committee for 2006-07 (attached pp. 42-43) -- Professor Carson.

G. Report of the Providence Campus Initiative Committee (attached pp.  44-47) – Senator Quina.

H. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Early Course Registration (attached pp. 48-50) – Vice Chairperson Luebke.

I. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sections 8.87.10 of the University Manual (attached p. 51) – Professor Kinnie.

J. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Administrator Evaluation (oral) – Senator Rosen.    

A. On April 19, 2007, the following amendment to section 8.2 of the By-Laws of the Faculty Senate was introduced.  It is now returned to the Faculty Senate for action.*     

8.2 Secret mail ballots of the General Faculty shall be conducted either to ratify amendments to the Senate Constitution or to recall Senate actions.

They shall be conducted as follows:  

The Secretary of the Senate shall distribute a ballot to every eligible member of the faculty following a procedure adopted by the Faculty Senate.  Mail shall include electronic mail.

Two envelopes shall be distributed with the ballot. One envelope shall bear the word BALLOT, and will be used by the faculty member to enclose and seal his/her ballot. The second envelope shall be used as an outer mailing envelope. In order for a ballot to be valid, it must (1) be returned in the two envelopes as outlined above with the outer envelope signed, and (2) be received by the Secretary of the Senate within 15 days after the date on which the ballots were mailed to the faculty by the Secretary of the Senate, except that faculty members absent on official business may record their vote by telegram or radio-telegram addressed to the Secretary of the Senate, in which case the ballot will not be secret, but it must be recorded within the time limit. The tellers will validate the eligibility of the voter by the outer signed envelope, and then separate inner sealed envelopes from the outer envelope so that the inner envelopes can no longer be identified with the individual voters before opening the inner envelopes and counting the ballots.

The outer envelopes shall be retained separately until the outcome of the referendum shall have been decided. The names of those faculty members who have returned ballots as identified by the signatures on the outer envelopes shall be made available to any interested party during the 15-day voting period. At the end of the 15-day referendum period the ballots shall be counted and the results certified to the President of the University and to the Chairperson of the Senate.

*Requires 2/3 majority of those voting.

B. On April 19, 2007, the following resolution was introduced by Senator James Miller and postponed definitely until the May meeting.  It is returned to the floor at this time:

WHEREAS:

The mission of the University of Rhode Island states, in part, that students, faculty, staff and alumni are united in one common purpose:  to learn and lead together.  Along with embracing Rhode Island’s heritage of independent thought, URI values

THEREFORE

BE IT RESOLVED that the URI Faculty Senate encourages an open and respectful learning environment that cherishes and values free speech.

FULL AGENDA ARE IN THE HANDS OF ALL SENATORS

AND
DEPARTMENT CHAIRS.
THEY ARE ALSO AVAILABLE THROUGH E-MAIL ON
FACSEN-BUS AND
ON THE FACULTY SENATE HOME PAGE AT
http://www.uri.edu/facsen/.
CONTACT THE FACULTY SENATE FOR DETAILS.