UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS ACADEMIC SENATE VOLUME XXX, No. 2
MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY
OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2001
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
MU II, Memorial Union
Chair Jeffery C. Gibeling called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m. a quorum having been certified. He noted that since a quorum had been certified he would dispense with the roll call. A roster of members present and absent is attached as Appendix I to these minutes. He welcomed everyone to the first regular meeting of the Representative Assembly for this academic year.
Chair Gibeling stated that many of the reports of standing committees appear on the Consent Calendar and he asked if anyone wished to remove any of these reports from the Consent Calendar. He was asked to remove the Annual Report of the Committee on Academic Personnel. No other requests were made and the Annual Reports of the Committee on Elections, Rules & Jurisdiction, Graduate Council, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Law, Letters and Science and School of Medicine were noted as having been received and placed on file. [The Annual Reports of the College of Engineering an School of Veterinary Medicine were received too late to be included in the Meeting Call.]
The Minutes of the May 24 and June 5, 2001 meetings will be noted as having been received and placed on file.
Chair Gibeling reported that the Chancellor’s State of the Campus address, as
agreed last year by the Representative Assembly, has been moved to the Winter
quarter meeting.
5. Announcements by Deans, Directors, or other Executive Officers – None
6. Special orders
A. Remarks by the President of ASUCD, Tiqula Bledsoe – Mr. Bledsoe
reported that ASUCD supports the move toward comprehensive review for admissions and also eliminating the SAT exam. He said ASUCD advocates a better balance between research and teaching among faculty. He mentioned that some students have expressed concerns to him about comments by some faculty members during lectures that are somewhat exclusionary in the wake of the terrorist attack. He encouraged faculty members to be cognizant of the need for mutual respect among the entire campus community.
Chair Gibeling asked Mr. Bledsoe if ASUCD had any particular issues they were planning to focus on this year. Mr. Bledsoe responded that the proposal to amend the admissions policies and also the issue of diversity were on their agenda.
B. Remarks by the Chair of the Graduate Student Association, Claire
Vallotton – Ms. Vallotton reported that on a Statewide basis, graduate student priorities this year included promoting graduate student recruitment and retention, eliminating out-of-state tuition, protecting the right of international students and promoting resources and rights for post-docs. At UCD, she said graduate student priorities include promoting the quality of graduate education by emphasizing accountability in the mentoring process. She noted that the Graduate Student Bill of Rights and Mentoring Guidelines needs to be distributed to all graduate students and also reinforced by departments and graduate groups. She mentioned the importance of inclusion of graduate students in decision making and noted that there is a lack of consistency among departments in this regard. She said GSA intends to survey departments and graduate groups and develop of list of “best practices”. Finally, she noted that promoting quality of life including financial, health, and social wellness for graduate students was also a priority for GSA this year.
C. Remarks by the Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate –
Chair Gibeling reported on agenda items he anticipates for the Senate this year noting
that at the Chancellor’s Fall Conference the focus was on undergraduate education and it became clear that we (the faculty) really need to think about the General Education Program. Secondly, he mentioned the two Special Committees on the academic personnel process that were appointed last year and noted the resolution to the Chancellor, the resolution to the Committee on Academic Personnel and the numerous recommendations discussed by the Representative Assembly last spring. He said he expected an official response from the administration concerning the resolution to the Chancellor in about a month. He said that based on his conversations with the Chancellor and the Vice Provost he believed the recommendations of the most concern are the 5-member ad hocs and the appeal process. Thirdly, he reported that the Committee on Academic Personnel would be joining the Senate Office when the Senate Office moves to temporary quarters during remodeling of the third floor of Mrak Hall, now scheduled for mid-December. Fourth, he mentioned an article in the most recent edition of “Notice” in which the California State system wants state lawmakers to pass legislation that would enable CSU to award a doctorate in education, the Ed.D. Chair Gibeling said UC must give careful and thoughtful analysis of such a plan and the implications. He said such a move on the part of CSU would alter the Master Plan for Higher Education in which UC, the California State University and the California Community Colleges have each been given distinctive missions. Finally, he called attention to the annual letter from the Chair of the Academic Council sent to every member of the Academic Senate via e-mail. He noted that in that letter, the chair talks about possible budget cuts for the University in the coming months.
Chair Gibeling said he had received a request for a slight re-ordering of the agenda that would move the Annual Report of the Distinguished Teaching Awards to the top of the list of committee reports. He asked if there were any objections. None were voiced.
8.D. Annual Report of the Committee on
Distinguished Teaching Awards
1. Announcement of the 2001 recipients – Anna Kuhn, Chair of the Distinguished
Teaching Awards Committee announced the 2001 recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards: Shirley Chiang, Department of Physics, Christopher Reynolds, Department of Music, and Peter Rodman, Department of Anthropology. The committee’s report was approved by acclamation. Winston Ko, Chair of the Department of Physics accepted the award for Professor Chiang; Professors Reynolds and Rodman both made brief comments. The statements concerning the achievements of each of the recipients appear as Appendix II to these minutes.
2. Announcement of the new Graduate Mentoring Award – Jeffery Gibeling
announced the establishment of the new Graduate Mentoring Award and reported that the call for nominations will go out this Fall. He encouraged those in attendance to watch for it and be thinking about colleagues that might be potential nominees for the award.
7.Reports of special
committees
A.Report of the Special Committee on Transportation and Parking – Jeffery
Gibeling reported that the Special Committee on Transportation and Parking, created in June 1999, submitted its report in the Fall, 2000. At that time, they argued that they had met with some success but were still making good progress and requested more time to continue their tasks. The Representative Assembly approved an extension until the first regular meeting of the Representative Assembly in the Fall, 2001. On October 15, 2001, the Special Committee received a draft copy of the Long Range Access Plan Options Study for 2001-2010 for review and comment. He said the Special Committee has not had sufficient time to review and digest this report and have therefore asked for another extension of at least one quarter. Such action requires approval by the Representative Assembly. Professor Wexler said that in reading the report it appeared to him that the committee’s primary emphasis was on keeping the costs of parking down. He said air pollution is increasing and there was a need to reduce single vehicle occupants. He said he would like to have the committee broaden its scope somewhat to include some of these other issues.
Professor Robert Hansen moved that the Special Committee on Transportation and Parking be extended until the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Representative Assembly. The motion was seconded. Brief discussion ensued in which Professor Carlip asked if the recommendations in the current report would be replaced with new ones? Chair Gibeling responded that he doubted that the Special Committee would make substantial changes to their report. Rather, he said he would expect them to review the Long Range Access Plan and incorporate any additional comments or recommendations into their final report. On the call for the question, the motion to extend the Special Committee carried.
B. Report of the Joint Committee on Work-Life Balance – Chair
Gibeling reported that he and the Chancellor appointed the Special Joint Committee on Work-Life Balance to make recommendations for changes in policies or for new policies to help meet the challenges of balancing the demands of work, family responsibilities and personal life. He said the Special Committee worked throughout Spring quarter and has made a series of recommendations one of which is that parental leave should be centrally funded rather than funded with departmental funds. Also, that there should be a central resource contact to provide guidance on the policies concerning leave and modified duties. The Special Committee also recommended that an Advisory Committee be appointed to continue discussion of these kinds of issues – extending the tenure clock, greater training of department chairs, coordinated by the Office of the Provost, etc. He said he and the Chancellor have received a copy of the report and that the next step will be for a small group to take a look at the recommendations and see how to proceed from here. He said he anticipated that the report will be presented at the Winter quarter meeting of the Representative Assembly.
Professor McClain asked if there was any coordination and input from staff personnel on this committee. He stated that he thought this special committee was a good first step but that it should be broadened to include other members of the campus community. Chair Gibeling said the Special Committee was basically focused toward faculty but that the membership of the committee did include staff members.
7. A. Annual Report of the Committee on Academic Personnel - Having removed
the Annual Report of the Committee on Academic Personnel, brief discussion ensued with Professor Hagen stating that the tables appended to the Annual Report are rather cryptic because the first stage is missing – the departmental recommendations. He requested that such data be included in CAP’s report next time. Professor Colin Cameron pointed out that the data is not necessarily sequential and could therefore be misleading.
He noted, however, that it was a valid point and that it probably would be a good idea to request this information. A motion was made and seconded that CAP be encouraged to include department decisions in their tabulations in future annual reports. The motion carried.
B. Report of the Committee on Admissions and
Enrollment on Proposed UC
Davis Admissions Criteria – Chair Gibeling reported that there needed to be a vote on the UC Davis admissions criteria so that if the BOARS proposal passes at the Assembly meeting tomorrow, there is a policy in place for implementing it.
Patrick Farrell, Chair of the Committee on Admissions and Enrollment presented the proposed UC Davis admissions criteria and also summarized the information he provided at the Special Meeting of the Representative Assembly on October 9. He reported that 60% of our admissions decisions are now based on high school GPA and SAT exams. For 2002, the committee’s proposal would eliminate the tiered decision making process and add the criterion, “the number of foreign language courses beyond the minimum”. He said those are the only changes. He said academic factors continue to play a critical role in admissions; seventy-three percent of the total possible points are from academic criteria.
He reiterated the simulation outcomes he reported at the October 9 meeting stating that the differences in the number of admits under the proposed procedure vs. actual Fall 2001 admits are very slight.
He said that Berkeley is already utilizing a kind of comprehensive review in that two readers read every file. He said for Davis to have done that would have been impractical and very difficult.
He reiterated the successes of proposed procedure: it is easy to model and implement, as it utilizes the same reader evaluation procedure that is currently in use and essentially the same selection criteria, it is as effective as the Fall 2001 procedure, with respect to maximizing academic quality and minimizing disparate impact, and it actually exceeds the cost-efficiency of the Fall 2001 procedure because it makes it possible to read fewer applications.
Professor Ken Shackel moved approval of the UC Davis Selection Procedure for Fall 2002, appearing on page 48-49 of the Meeting Call, contingent upon approval of the BOARS proposal systemwide. The motion was seconded and unanimously carried.
Discussion continued with Professors Hoover, Silvia, V. Smith, Kusch, Cameron and Murphy participating. T. Murphy asked, based on Evelyn Silvia’s comments that there is a continuing study of the success of each of the parameters, if the Committee on Admissions and Enrollment could be asked to report the results of their study at the time of their next Annual Report. Another member of the Assembly suggested a renaming of the “individual initiative” criteria. He said he did not believe it was an accurate name for this criterion. Professor Farrell responded that the Committee will take that suggestion under advisement.
8.C. Report of the Committee on Committees – Chair Gibeling, in view of the time, asked Representative Assembly members if the Report of the Committee on Committees, reporting actions/appointments since the June Representative Assembly meeting, could be accepted by consent. No objections were voiced. The Report of the Committee on Committees will be noted as having been received and placed on file.
8.D. Report of the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction – Deferred.
9.Petitions of students – None
10. Unfinished business – None
11. University and faculty welfare – None
12.New business – None
Anita Oberbauer, Secretary
Representative Assembly of the
Davis Division of the Academic Senate
Attachments