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Governance Minutes ArchiveNovember 13, 1990
VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE & STATE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE November 13, 1990 32 Pamplin Hall PRESENT: Senators Allen for Batie, Barker, Baumgartner, Brown, Bunce, Canestaro, Clowes, Crittenden, deWolf, Eiss, Eng, Etgen, Farkas, Feret, Flick, Geyer, Hillison, Kingston, Kriz, Landen, Marriott, McDaniels, Miller, Murray, O'Neil, Parsons, Rakes, Saunders, Snoke, Thompson, Wade for Ventre, Webster. ABSENT: Diesenroth, Falkinham, Scanlon, Simmons, Sorrentino, Walker, Wang. VISITORS: Carl Polan, Dairy Science; Vivian Allen, President CALS FAC Asso- ciation; Sherilyn McConnell, CSAC; Nancy Barclay, HIDM for Nancy Canestaro; John Ashby, Spectrum; Roy Jones, Extension and Public Service; Richard Alvarez, Director, Public Safety, Health and Transportation; David Kapallo, Parking Services Manager. 1. CALL TO ORDER Visitors were welcomed and identified to the Senate. 2. ANNOUNCEMENTS Secretary Dyke has been reinvited to meet with the Faculty Senate. Dates proposed included all remaining Senate meetings, all remaining BOV meetings, and any other date convenient for the Secretary. Budget - the University has been asked to prepare contingency plans for a 2.5% cut in Research and Extension for the current year and a 5% cut in all three divisions in the next fiscal year. VTEF - the Virginia Tech Employees Fund is up and running. It will be run as a special project by the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program for former Tech employees. Donations are tax deductible, and faculty are urged to contribute as much as possible. Roll Call was completed with 3. ADOPTION OF AGENDA It was moved, seconded and approved that new business be undertaken prior to Council, Commission and Committee Reports. 4. PROGRAM Richard Alvarez, director, Public Safety, Health, and Transportation and David Kapallo, Parking Services Manager, spoke on parking plans, progress and problems. (Exhibit I) 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Faculty Senate meeting of October 9, 1990 were approved Faculty Senate Cabinet meeting of November 2, 1990 were approved. 6. NEW BUSINESS RESOLUTION Whereas a Statement of the University Mission has been formulated and a University Plan drafted and publicized in a recent issue of the University's SPECTRUM, Whereas the role of the faculty in determining the ultimate form of this Statement and Plan has been and is too limited, in spite of the fact that the faculty is the main instrument by which the pro- posed goals are to be achieved, Whereas previous participation of faculty in the inclusion of the multifarious listed goals has been restricted to a series of work- shops which resulted in a collection by a relatively small Planning Committee of a greatest common denominator of goals formed from a much large collection of spur-of-the-moment opinions gathered in a set to fifteen-minute periods of time, Whereas the formulation of university goals and a mission statement require much greater faculty participation if these are to be rep- resentative of the intellectual efforts of the faculty, Now therefore be it resolved, 1) That the University Plan be revised by the Planning Coordinating Committee in close consultation with a Committee of faculty, 2) That University Council be urged to revise the Mission Statement in accordance with suggestions offered by said Committee, 3) That members of that faculty Committee be appointed by the Fac- ulty Senate of VPI&SU in a manner of Its choosing. Resolution II Whereas a Statement of the University Mission has been formulated and a University Plan drafted and publicized in a recent issue of the University's SPECTRUM, Whereas this statement appears to have been approved by the Board of Visitors, and is therefore likely to enhance the possibility of dissemination of the University Plan outside the University without further input from the faculty, Whereas members of the faculty have reasonable objections to style and/or content of portions of the Plan, as formulated in the Sep- tember 20, 1990 issue of SPECTRUM, Whereas the University Plan contains an excessively large list of goals, many of which are so self-evident that they may either in- vite criticism from outside or otherwise suggest, needlessly or unjustifiably, that improvement in basic areas of university activ- ities is sorely needed, Now therefore be it resolved, That the Faculty Senate strongly feels that a revised version of the University Plan should contain a much shorter list of goals with significant omission of those that are deemed to be self- evident. "The Faculty Senate does not support furloughs for short-range sol- utions to budget problems in the absence of a longer-range plan not based on attrition to solve the budget problem." After extended debate, the above resolutions were passed with near unanimous consent. 7. COUNCIL, COMMISSION & COMMITTEE REPORTS o University Council Senator Hillison - 6 Nov 90 First reading of CGS resolution reinstating the "D" grade for grad- uate credit: first reading of CUS resolution changing the under- graduate residency requirement; and first reading of Faculty Senate Constitution were undertaken. o COMMISSION ON EXTENSION Senator Marriott - No report o COMMISSION ON FACULTY AFFAIRS Senator Kriz - 2 Nov 90 Harassment Policy-Dean of Students Beverly Sgro reviewed the Uni- versity Harassment Policy which has been in effect for several years. HIV Infection (AIDS) Policy-Dr. Elizabeth Alexander reviewed the status of the "Policy Statement on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection." This administrative policy was developed by the University AIDS Committee. Revision of grievance procedure-Senate President Lud Eng reviewed the status of the proposed revisions to the procedures of the Fac- ulty Review Committee, and the proposed revision of the Faculty Grievance Procedures in the Faculty Handbook. These will be con- sidered further at the next meeting. o COMMISSION ON GRADUATE STUDIES Senator Snoke - 17 Oct and 7 Nov 90 17 Oct Meeting It was announced that course history summary reports can be ob- tained for graduate students if a department representative makes a request to Bernard Jones or Jerry Robertson in Student Systems Com- puter Services. Such reports are provided automatically each se- mester for undergraduates through the Colleges, but not for graduate students. A future agenda item will be the proposed com- bining of CGS and CUS. (Perhaps CUS should discuss it too.) The Commission voted to award a posthumous (masters) degree in Curric- ulum and Instruction to Ms. Jean Black de Cornejo. There are precedents for such awards, but no formal policy or procedure. A committee of CGS will look into establishing such guidelines. For this case the Commission voted to have the award contingent on re- ceiving a support letter from the department head. Dean Hooper noted that the incomplete grade policy is not being followed. Such grades should turn into an F if not given another grade after suf- ficient time for the work to be made up, but there are I grades on the books dating back 8 years! It came out in discussion that for undergraduates an I is treated as an F until it is changed, but for graduate students there is no such policy, implying it should be treated like an X grade with no credits until it is changed. A com- mittee is going to look into this. CUS may want to reconsider the I = F policy. Effective fall semester 1991 there will be mandatory health insurance for all foreign students. The question was raised as to why one does not require it for ALL students. That is being considered. 7 Nov Meeting The tax remission policy, whereby graduate students can exempt some earnings, is not in place but is being worked on. Dean Hooper will recommend to the Provost that students on support be required to register for at least 3 hours each session next summer. This is the same policy as we had this last summer. Comments were solicited pertaining to the University Plan specifically to the goals and ob- jectives on graduate and professional education. One suggested ad- ditional objective was to inform the public and the legislature about the importance of graduate education and research. Most com- ments were negative about the tone and scope of the Plan: the ob- jectives are nonspecific to VPI&SU and overly qualitative, and, given the budget crunch, there is an undue emphasis on expansion and growth with no recommendations for review and possible reorder- ing of priorities. Katherine Johnston, Director of Budget & Finan- cial Planning, spoke on the tuition surcharge and the stipend levels. Barring Round III, she was optimistic that tuition would not have to be raised next year. o COMMISSION ON RESEARCH Senator Bunce - 10 Oct and 24 Oct 90 10 Oct 90 Dr. Charles Steger, Vice President for Public Service discussed the role of his office in the University. The Public Service Area con- sists of two major divisions-economic development and continuing education. In the economic development arena, a Public Service Action Fund exists to connect communities or non-profit volunteer organizations with university expertise. A fee structure is to be established including overhead and it is intended that University funds will be matched by localities. One purpose to this effort is to expand the numbers of persons who participate in such activ- ities. In the sphere of continuing education, the objective is to ascertain the driving forces for this endeavor and the entire range of service activities that may be necessary to assist it. In re- sponse to a question, Dr. Steger indicated that Community Resource Development, the Center for Volunteer Development, and all continu- ing education activities including Donaldson Brown Center and Hotel Roanoke will be under its jurisdiction. The University Plan as it relates to Research was discussed. In general, Commission members felt that the document failed to capture either the importance of research to the University, its students and the public or to ex- press the frustrations and barriers to the effective pursuit of the research mission in harmony with other features of the academic en- terprise. o COMMISSION ON STUDENT AFFAIRS Senator Miller - 15 Nov 90 The discussion of summer stipends for student leaders continued. No clear and principled way of deciding what leaders should receive such stipends was agreed to. The matter was referred back to com- mittee. Revisions to the Panhellenic constitution were approved. Guidelines for the Student Budget Board allowing limited payment for lodging costs for student organization travel were adopted. Perhaps most interesting to the Faculty Senate was the action taken on the first draft of the University Plan. The Commission on Stu- dent Affairs declined to formulate a response as a body. It was quite apparent that any serious attempt to examine all the issues raised by all the interested groups would have required many hours and multiple meetings. The CSA therefore is simply forwarding, without endorsement, the comments received from the various student groups represented on CSA. o COMMISSION ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES Senator Etgen - 22 Oct and 12 Nov 90 22 Oct 90 Mr. Wayland Winstead introduced the first draft of the "University Plan, 1991-96" and asked the C.U.S. for a formal response including good and bad aspects of the plan as part of the "community involve- ment" phase of the plan. Several suggestions were made. An S.G.A. resolution requesting that senior, junior, sophomore and freshman registration priority be restored for spring semester was defeated. 12 Nov 90 Assoc. Provost Carol Burch-Brown reported overflow of 1,970 re- quests for humanities core courses for the spring semester, 1991. There are 400 open slots in humanities courses and some extra sections are being added. Several suggestions relating to the undergraduate education section of the University Plan 1991-96 were discussed, approved and forwarded to Mr. Winstead. Changes or adds to graduation checklists in Appalachian Studies, Classical Studies, Humanities and the Arts and Medieval and Renaissance Studies were approved. A request for restricted enrollment for internal trans- fer students by the Department of Family and Child Development, Childhood Education, and Child Care Administration Option, effec- tive spring, 1991, was approved. o ATHLETIC COMMITTEE Senator Baumgartner - 11 Oct and 8 Nov 90 11 Oct 90 A long but ultimately uninformative discussion on conference affil- iation and a presentation on the academic standing of the student- athletes. Among the Metro Conference schools Tech had the largest number with a grade point of 3.0 or above, 116. The average grade point for student-athletes was 2.41 last year compared to 2.31 in 1986-7. The football players rose from 1.96 then to 2.15 last year. A subcommittee had been formed in the spring to investigate the admission requirements for prospective recruits. It was deter- mined that 18 possible recruits in football were denied admission because they lacked either a third math course in high school or a second lab science. All 18 went to Division 1A schools: 4 to Wake Forest, 3 to Tennessee, others to UVA, WVU, Pitt, Purdue, FSU. I expect that the Athletic Committee will request a reconsideration of those two requirements. 8 Nov 90 Senator Baumgartner was unable to attend. o BUILDING COMMITTEE Senator Wang - No report o COMMUNICATION RESOURCE COMMITTEE G. Tront - No report o COMPUTER COMMITTEE Senator Webster - 7 Nov 90 1. Telephone access to the mainframe has been improved. The new number is 232-9100. 2. Mainframe usage for July-Oct compared to same period last year: CPU usage is up; VM by 25%, MVS by 12% Disk space consumption is up 15% IMS usage is up 15% Central printing has dropped 15% Connect time has dropped a little. Total billable charges are down 7% due to shifting of usage to less expensive times and decreased printing. 3. Despite the tremendous growth in distributed computing (i.e., PC's, desk-tops, work stations, etc.) on campus, demand for mainframe use continues to grow. This observation initiated a dis- cussion of distributed versus mainframe computing. Some of the ma- jor points made and questions asked during this discussion: a. Given the current fiscal situation, money for a mainframe up- grade are unlikely. b. Some of the numerically intensive work now being done on the mainframe could be done on work station type machines that cost around $100K each. c. If money for an upgrade ever does become available, should some of it be spent on distributed computing? If so, how would it be distributed? d. How and to what extent should the Computing Center support dis- tributed computing? Areas of existing and potential support include consulting, maintenance, set up, purchasing, program- ming, software distribution. 4. With few dollars to spend, answers to these questions can be seen as optimistic long-range planning. o EMPLOYEE BENEFITS COMMITTEE Senator Thompson - No report o EO/AA COMMITTEE Senator Simmons - 13 Nov 90 A teleconference on Campus Security is scheduled for Thursday, 15 November, 2-4 PM in the CEC Auditorium, with discussion following until 5 PM. A draft announcement for a new Affirmative Action In- centive Grants Program to be initiated was discussed. Information will be disseminated before the end of the semester announcing the program which provides "seed" money for new affirmative action ac- tivities for faculty, staff, or students. An annual fund of $15,000 has been set aside, from which grants up to $2,500 may be made. Two 1991 deadlines have been established: 14 January, for immediate funding for Spring semester, and 15 April for funding af- ter 1 July 1991. The program hopes to encourage projects designed to demonstrate effectiveness of new approaches to achieving EO/AA goals; to enhance the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities; and to encourage behavioral and attitudinal changes supportive of EO/AA objectives. The subcommittee used as a model a similar program that has proved effective at Purdue. o INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES COMMITTEE - PATENTS Senator Falkinham - 1 Nov 90 1. The ownership of different patentable subject matter was re- viewed and ownership was transferred to Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc. (VTIP). 2. The Committee received the Intellectual Properties Status Sum- mary Report for Fiscal Year 1990 from VTIP. 3. The changes in the University's Policy on Intellectual Property will be moving through the University governance system. o LIBRARY COMMITTEE J. D. Stahl - 6 Sept, 3 Oct and 3 Nov 90 6 Sept 90 The University Library Committee agreed to meet at 4 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month in the Library's 6th floor board room. Paul Gherman announced that the library had not had any final word on the budget. The $404,000 additional allocation for books ap- peared safe for this year, but in danger for next year. If it were cut, that would mean substantial cuts in serials next year. There was some discussion of long-term space needs and possible plans to expand into Shultz Dining Hall--a still vague plan that requires much preliminary exploration and is years from realization. Susan Jurow, Director of the Office of Management Services of the Associ- ation of Research Libraries discussed the concerns of the represen- tatives on the committee. Among issues discussed were the desire of faculty to have access to the library from faculty offices; the need for more databases on magnetic tapes for use in Business and other fields; the problems of equity and procedure in possible can- cellations of serials; the status of VTLS and the need for mainframe access to CD-ROMS. Concern for maintenance of acquisi- tions in the humanities in case of a budget crunch was also men- tioned. 3 Oct 90 The committee discussed library privileges for graduate students. They are essentially the same as those of faculty: 90 day check- out, with up to four renewals. Only the fine structure is differ- ent. Paul Gherman reported that in the first round of budget cuts, the library lost 12 positions, but the Provost gave $250,000 to compensate for the cuts. $110,000 were lost on the second round, resulting in a 5% wage reduction, $30,000 reduction in the equip- ment fund, and $50,000 in book funds. Drastic cuts in serials will be inevitable by spring. A new books list will be distributed to all departments free of charge for a few months on a trial basis; after that it will be available free of charge electronically and for a charge on paper (charge not yet set). The list will be pub- lished monthly. A departmental profile project is planned. The profile will involve three-way interviews with the department head, the library representative, and a librarian. Department priori- ties, goals, needs, and projected needs are to be clarified. The librarian will write a department profile of research interest and teaching needs which will be shown to the department in draft form before it is completed. The rest of the meeting was devoted to a demonstration of methods of accessing data bases such as the Wilson Test Database on VTLS. o SCHOLARSHIP & FINANCIAL AID COMMITTEE R. Goss - No report o SUPPLEMENTAL GRANTS COMMITTEE Senator Barker - No report o PARKING/TRANSPORTATION TASK FORCE C. Polan - 9 Aug and 12 Oct 90 This second year of paid parking was initiated with much less trauma for the campus community than the previous year. One of the biggest problems of this year is lost or stolen parking permits. A policy of no replacements except at full cost had been adopted to discourage cheating. The policy was reconsidered in October and now have a low-cost replacement policy. A report must first be made to the Police Department about the lost or stolen permit. With a copy of that report and $5.00 service charge, a new one can be obtained from the Visitors Center. A considerable amount of parking improvement has occurred recently and planning contracts have been awarded to properly plan and design Lot B (Student Commuter Lot). Parking violations are still a major problem in cer- tain areas. Enforcement officers are writing tickets, but cover a wide area. They have been effective in identifying and recovering a number of lost/stolen permits. For the next academic year, we will soon consider the type of permit to require. Some aggressive activity is now occurring to secure Faculty/Staff parking privi- leges for at least, some graduate students. A backlog of violation appeals have been heard and resolved. o FACULTY SENATE OF VIRGINIA Senator Scanlon - No report o TASK FORCE ON BUDGET Senator Eng - No report o CLASSIFIED STAFF AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Senator Canestaro - 13 Nov 90 The project of greatest interest to members of the faculty involves the establishment of the Virginia Tech Employees Fund (VTEF) for temporary assistance through the layoff process. A task force with members from CSAC and the Faculty Senate have held four meetings to work out details of the fund. The fund will be administered by the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program (MCEAP) with over- sight by the CSAC/Faculty Senate task force. Members of your faculty/staff to send donations payable to MCEAP with VTEF desig- nated on the memo line. Donations can be mailed to: Virginia Tech Employees Fund, c/o Virginia Tech Mail Service 0337. Also see Ex- hibit 3 attached to minutes. o BOARD OF VISITORS Senator Eng - 5 Nov 90 Bonds for parking improvements were approved. A University Office Building of 80,000 feet will be built with funds borrowed from the Virginia Tech Foundation. The title of Emeritus will be conferred on retired tenured full professors and associate professors, admin- istrative officers, librarians with continued appointment, and ex- ceptional staff members who have given exemplary service to the University and are specifically recommended to the Board of Visi- tors by the President and approved by the Board. Their names will be carried in the University catalog until death. Optional retire- ment plans approved by the board include: Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Great-West Life Assurance Co. Metropolitan Life TIAA/Cref T. Rowe Price & Assoc Variable Annuity Life Insurance Co Special recognition by BOV was given to G. Wayne Clough, Mark E. Davis, (Chem Engr), Gerry Gibbs (Geol Sci). o COMMENCEMENT Senator Scanlon - No report o HONORIFICS W. D. Conn - No report o STUDENT BUDGET BOARD Senator Clowes - 13 Nov 90 The Board met on October 11 and November 5 in routine session and November 7 in special session. The primary business of the Board was accomplished in Spring when approximately $750,000 in student fee funds were allocated among the student organizations requesting annual funding. Two items were established for supplemental use through the year-a Small Grant Fund of $25,000 which provides fund- ing for organizations without annual budgets for particular activ- ities and a Contingency Fund of $28,000+ used to supplement approved annual budgets as necessary. The current meetings deal with Small Grant and Contingency fund requests and requests to re- allocate monies within approved annual budgets. The two regular sessions involved the processing of routine requests for Small Grant Funds (up to $500 per event and $750 per year per organiza- tion), Contingency Fund requests (supplemental to an already ap- proved annual budget of a student organization) and Fund Transfers (line item movement within an annually approved organizational budget). The current Small Grants Balance is about $21,000; the Contingency fund was augmented by account returns and carry-over funds and has a current balance of about $40,000. These funds ap- pear adequate to sustain operations for the 1990-91 academic year given the cautious stewardship exercised by this student dominated Board. The special session was called to debate the principle of funding travel for club teams. There was much debate and little consensus. The Board concluded that if the Board was to cover club travel, a cap of about $20 per night and a limit of six individuals for a maximum of two nights per trip was necessary to protect the funds available to the Board for annual budget requests. The ques- tion of whether club travel should be covered through these funds was referred back to SGA. o VPI FACILITIES BOARD C. Polan - No report o VIRGINIA TECH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES Senator Eiss - 24 Oct 90 The financial reports for fiscal year 1990 and the first quarter of 1991 were presented. These balance sheets contained the financials of the subsidiaries VTLS and WPI. The net worth of VTIP increased from $783,238 in 1989 to $912,709 in 1990. During FY 90, 69 disclo- sures were assigned by the VPI&SU Intellectual Properties Committee to VTIP for management, 12 were assigned to CIT for further evalu- ation, protection, and/or marketing, 29 had patents applied for through VTIP, CIT, or a research sponsor. Five have licenses and/or agreements in place. In FY 90 11 technologies had licenses and/or agreements in place and generated $249,651 revenues and $132,934 royalties to the inventors. 10 technologies incurred $48,840 patent and legal fees but no revenues. 13 technologies as- signed to VTIP since 1986 are actively being marketed or licenses are being negotiated. A nominating committee was formed to identify external directors to fill open positions on the Board of Direc- tors. A list of nominees for the WPI Board of Directors was dis- cussed. o OTHER COMMITTEE REPORTS None 8. OLD BUSINESS None 9. ADJOURNMENT
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