FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes June 11, 2012
3:15 p.m., 601 Rudder Tower
http://facultysenate.tamu.edu
Present: Louise Abbott, Judith Ball, Michael Benedik, Doug Biggs, Edward Brothers, Joe Cerami, Jonathan Coopersmith, Joe Dannenbaum, Walter Daugherity, Darryl De Ruiter, Edward Funkhouser, Norma Funkhouser, Holly Gaede, Clare Gill, Ira Greenbaum, Ed Harris, Kevin Heinz, Kim Quaile Hill, Wendy Jepson, Andrew Klein, Karen Kubena, Paulo Lima-Filho, Blanca Lupiani, Igor Lyuksyutov, Clint Magill, Jeffrey Morris, Brian Perkins, Michelle Pine, Leslie Reynolds, J. Maurice Rojas, Karen-Beth Scholthof, Brian Shaw, John Stallone, Bob Strawser, Manuelita Ureta, Wyoma vanDuinkerken, Gary Varner, Jijayanagaram Venkatraj,
Absent: Derya Akleman, Jaime Alvarado-Bremer, Perla Balbuena, Maria Barrufet, Hassan Bashir, Leonard Bierman, John Carhart, Charles Bollfrass, Gwendolyn Carroll, Gwan Seong Choi, William Bedford Clark, Mark Clayton, Richard Curry, Robin Dabareiner, Swaroop Darbha, John Edens, Janice Epstein, Gioia Falcone, Jose Fernandez-Solis, Stephen Guetersloh, James Heilman, Shelley Holliday, Richard Hutchinson, Thomas Linton, R.N. Mahapatra, Sam Mannan,A. Gene Nelson, Harland Prechel, Sudarsan Rangan, Dale Rice, Luis San Andres, Jason Sawyer, Elizabeth Tebeaux, Grace Townsend, Wei Wan, William West, Tryon Wichersham, Jim Woosley, Keyan Zhu-Salzman
20 Senators were officially inactive for this meeting: Ergun Akleman, Jorge Alvarado, Carisa Armstrong, Patrick Burkart, Ron Douglas, L. Paige Fields, Fran Gelwick, Janet Hammer, Mike Hanik, Guido Kanschat, Carol Loopstra,Vanita Mahajan, Christopher Mathewson, Kathryn McKenzie, Stephen Miller, Kathleen Speed, Winfried Teizer, Mike Thornton, B. Dan Wood, Richard Woodman
Call to Order Speaker Comments:
The speaker reported that:
1) the dining services outsourcing review committee on which he and Manuelita Ureta represented the Senate had submitted its report to the president,
2) he and former speaker Benedik have been appointed to a committee to consider the prospects and problems concerning re-merging the Health Science Center into TAMU, and
3) the Texas Public Policy Foundation has recommended cuts to state funding of higher education and urged Senators to contact legislators with their concerns.
Speaker Stallone presented former speaker Michael Benedik with a framed Texas A&M collage from the Benjamin Knox gallery.
The April 9 Faculty Senate meeting minutes were approved as submitted. Attachment A
FS.30.001
Consent Agenda
The consent agenda was approved as submitted
GRADUATE COUNCIL GC Report Motion Passed
New Course Requests - May 3, 2012 FS.30.002
CSCE 630 Speech Processing Attachment B
EDAD 628 Advanced Legal Issues in Higher Education
GENE 677 Genes and Diseases
MARB 605 Air Breathing Marine Vertebrate Research Techniques
MARB 615 Coastal Marine Biology and Geology of Alaska
VIBS 688 Epidemiological Modeling of Infectious Diseases
Change in Courses - May 3, 2012 Motion Passed
EPSY 631 Program Evaluation in School and Clinic Prerequisite(s) FS.30.003
EPSY 647 Adult Development and Aging Attachment C
Special Consideration - Motion Passed
Graduate Council approved the Mays Business School: Proposed Certificate in Advertising. FS.30.004
Attachment D
Courses submitted for C certification - May 16, 2012
ACCT 421 Critical Communiation Skills for Accountants
Courses submitted for W recertification - May 16, 2012
ACCT 407 Auditing
BIOL 491 Research in Biology
ECEN 405 Electrical Design Laboratory
GEOG 404 Spatial Thinking
HIST 327 Caribbean History Since Emancipation
HIST 412 Soviet History, 1917-1991
HIST 481 Senior Seminar
JOUR 303 Media Writing II
MARA 440 Global Economy
MARA 466 Strategic Management
POLS/WGST 367 Women in Government Around the World
POLS 481 Comparative Ethnic Politics
RPTS/RENR 460 Nature, Values, and Protected Areas
SOCI/WGST 315 The Marriage Institution
WFSC 406 Conservation Biology and Wildlife Habitat Management
End of Consent Agenda
COMMITEE REPORTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE Motion Passed
Special Consideration - May 9, 2012 FS.30.011
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Attachment L
University Studies Degree
Area of Concentration – Environmental Business Request for a new program
Although the request was opposed by the College of Geosciences on the basis that the use of Environmental Business for the proposed program represented only a subset of environmental topics and courses so would be better named ‘Bio-environmental Business or Environmental Business-AG for example, others observed that there are a number of programs that include environmental as a part of the name including two Environmental Studies degree programs, one in Geosciences and another in COALS. After debate ended, the proposed University Studies degree was approved by a narrow margin
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Motion Passed
University Studies Recommendation FS.30.012
Attachment L
The recommendation to transfer oversight of University Studies degrees to the Colleges and Departments and to design degree options with an area of concentration and two defined minors that will permit direct entry of new and transfer students into University studies was passed by voice vote.