May 17, 2004
Academic Senate faces action-packed agenda
UCSC's Academic Senate will hold its spring meeting at 2:30 p.m.
on Friday, May 21, at Thimann 1. Alison Galloway, Academic Senate Chair,
has addressed the following letter to members of the Senate outlining
issues on the agenda.
The meeting will be followed by a reception at University
Center, hosted by Acting Chancellor Chemers and the Academic Senate.
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Dear Colleagues:
The Spring meeting of the Academic
Senate will be action-packed as we have a large number
of important issues to address.
The printed Notice of Meeting contains only legislation and resolutions,
those items which the Senate must take action on at this meeting. To
view the Notice in its entirety, including reports and draft minutes
go to: http://senate.ucsc.edu/meetings/04may/A04may.htm
This is done in part as a cost-saving measure but also to serve as a
transition to the online format for this notice which will be initiated
starting Fall 2004.
The meeting will be followed by a reception at University Center, hosted
by Acting Chancellor Chemers and the Academic Senate. I urge everyone
to make the effort to attend. This meeting allows a number of people
to attend in new capacities: Acting Chancellor Chemers, Interim Campus
Provost/EVC Delaney, and Senate Vice-Chair Faye Crosby.
As usual, the slate of officers and committee members will be presented
to the Senate for ratification. The Committee on Committees has worked
very hard over the past several months, evaluating the work each committee
is doing and finding the combination of members to fill the openings.
As the scope of Senate work has changed, COCs role has also evolved.
Fortunately we have selected an excellent COC for next year as well.
The resolution on the non-Senate teaching faculty has undergone considerable
revision and will be returning in a simplified form for our consideration.
Coupled with this are a series of bylaw changes proposed by COC that
will enable the non-Senate teaching faculty to participate in specific
Senate committees at such time as they establish a procedure to nominate
representatives.
The Committee on Educational Policy has three amendments to Senate
regulations to propose. The first rewords our regulations on declaration
of minors while the second changes the timing for withdrawal from courses
to a point somewhat earlier in the quarter. The latter of these has
garnered student attention and should be carefully considered. The final
amendment addresses the General Education writing courses. This proposal
falls in line with the proposal from the Writing Program and the Council
of Provosts to enhance the ability of the core courses to meet the needs
for training in writing for our entering class.
The Committee on Academic Freedom along with the Committee on Faculty
Welfare is proposing a resolution on the Patriot Act, calling for a
reporting structure for the Chancellor and stating faculty opposition
to components of this Act. This is a lengthy proposal and deserves careful
consideration.
The Committee on Faculty Welfare also presents a resolution calling
on the administration to move forward on the establishment of a child
care facility. The lack of available care in the community for the children
of faculty and staff has reached a level that seriously affects parents
ability to combine work and family. This situation has adverse effects
on our ability to recruit and retain junior faculty who are most likely
to have younger children.
Finally, the Committee on Planning and Budget reports on the growing
deficit accrued by UCSC University Extension (UNEX) and calls on the
central administration to form a task force to advise 1) on the best
course of action to take at this time and 2) how UNEX can be best integrated
into the academic mission of the campus. This is a complex issue but
one that may become critical in the growth of our role on the Central
Coast and in Silicon Valley.
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