The meeting was called to order by Dr. Racheotes.  Dr. Harbin presided over the last part of the meeting after Dr. Racheotes left to attend the Council of Texas Faculty Governments conference in Austin.

The following agenda items were discussed:

1. Senate President's Information Sharing.  (Racheotes)

The university is currently hiring six new faculty and working to arrange temporary office space for them beginning in September, 2002.
Dr. Johnson projects the addition of seven new faculty positions for the academic year in 2003-04.
Dr. Johnson is going to communicate to the faculty the job description for the Dean of Graduate Studies.  Dr. Johnson will invite internal candidates and strike a search committee to make a recommendation to him. The University has $17,000,000 for a new Science and Technology building and the expansion of the John F, Moss Library. New Senate officers will be elected in April.

2. Recommendations of the ad hoc committee on upper-division general education requirements. (McAllister)

The Senate discussed the four recommendations of Dr. McAlister’s committee and condensed these four into two.  Motion was made and seconded to refer these two issues to a ballot vote of the general faculty. The alternatives are:
1.  Each individual college or department will be allowed to alter the existing core course requirements to fit the needs of specific programs in any way they deem appropriate.
2.  Keep a University-wide GenEd/Core requirement for all students based on recommendations from all departments/colleges designating an array of courses the student may choose from in order to meet core requirements.

3. Recommendations of the ad hoc committee in graduate admissions. (D. Davis)

The Senate accepted the report of Dr. Davis’ committee, which recommended that each graduate program develop its own procedure for complying with the law by addressing the eleven items the law allows to be used as admission.  The committee also recommended the retention of the requirement to take the GRE or GMAT, using the exams not to deny any student admission but rather to allow a student with a low undergraduate GPA the opportunity to be admitted to graduate school and for counseling students on career opportunities.

4. Jason Academy outsourcing of courses.  (Allard)

The standing committee on Academic Policy has been charged with investigating the ramifications of outsourcing courses via the Jason Academy.
No action taken.

5. Restructuring of Program Assessment Process. (Kern)

No action taken.

6. Research Grant Requests (Racheotes)

  Dr. Racheotes wants to remind you that funding is still available for projects.  Contact him for further information.
No action taken.

New Business:

Dr. Racheotes charged the Faculty Governance Committee chaired by John Hamilton to propose a method of restructuring the Faculty Senate By-laws to accommodate representation from the new Nursing faculty and to present to the Senate a method for election of officers.

The next regularly scheduled meeting after this one will be in April.