The Faculty Senate passed three bills Tuesday, postponed a vote on two bills and heard the first readings of four bills that will be voted on in March.
Passed bills
The Senate heard the second readings for five bills, unanimously passing three.
The first bill was a program proposal for an undergraduate minor in graphic design named user experience design (UxD).
The Senate postponed their second reading of the bill at the last meeting in January to update certain electives on the proposal.
According to the proposal, the minor offers students “a comprehensive exploration” of user-centered design principles. It is centered around the creation of user interactions with digital products, websites, applications and other interfaces.
“Undergraduate students can declare for the UxD minor using the minor declaration form, with enrollment not exceeding more than 20 students for each required studio by a first-come, first-serve process,” according to the bill.
The bill passed unanimously.
The second bill was a proposal for adding, removing or changing a program degree for family and community service.
According to the bill, the focus area is already part of the Innovative Digital Education Alliance (IDEA) programming and “provides working professionals in areas other than the already existing foci to obtain a fully online degree program.”
The existing areas are for those wanting to work with specific populations or financial planning, while the proposed focus area could apply to “a broad population working with families across the lifespan and in a variety of settings.”
The bill passed unanimously.
The third bill was a new area of specialization in an existing graduate degree program.
The VDPAM Graduate Program is seeking to establish five areas of specialization for the master of science degrees. Students could either choose an area of specialization or follow the core program.
“The students electing an area of specialization will major in veterinary preventive medicine. Their graduate transcripts will acknowledge the area of specialization. The core epidemiology (VDPAM 528) and statistics (STAT 5870) courses will remain required for all students, with or without area of specialization,” according to Senate documents.
The bill passed unanimously.
The fourth bill is for a new undergraduate minor in sports media and communication. The Senate held off on second reading and voting until next month’s meeting.
“We would like to take a motion to postpone voting for our March meeting based on comments in an email from certain departments,” Sen. Jennifer Schieltz said.
The fifth and final bill was a proposed policy for academic progress & summer academic standards regulations.
The policy proposes to “clarify that the first semester students on academic warning (because of a first semester GPA between 1.00-1.99) will STAY on academic warning (not drop to probation) after the summer session, even if their cumulative GPA does not rise above 2.0 after the summer session.”
Some Senate members shared their opinions on the difference between summer session classes and fall and spring semester classes.
“Summer session classes are not comparable to fall and spring. They are twice the speed, only 4 to 8-week classes and mostly online,” Jan Boyles, an associate professor at the Greenlee School of Journalism, said. “The overriding factor is Iowa State’s mission is [that] students are successful. Once they get off probation, we want them to stay.”
Some Senate members disagreed.
“It puts the message that summer classes are risky and online classes are condescending,” Sen. Meghan Gillette said. “It is biased against online classes and biased against one-half semester classes and a complete bias for full-time in campus students.”
The amendment received two yes votes and the rest were against.
There was a motion from the Senate to separate the summer academic standards regulation and the remainder of the amendment.
The Senate unanimously passed to separate the amendment and unanimously passed the remainder of the amendment.
They will vote on the amendment’s summer academic standards regulation portion at next month’s meeting.
New business
The Senate heard the first readings for one new bill, which will be voted on at the next Senate meeting.
The bill was to propose changes to FH 5.1.1.2 Annual Reviews.
The bill added, “For probationary faculty, the annual review must document the faculty member’s progress towards promotion and tenure.”
Some of the senate mentioned how “simple” and “vague” the addition was in the bill.
“I like how simple it is, but so simple it is too vague,” Sen. Jon Perkins said. “Saying something about making progress toward tenure doesn’t guarantee tenure.”
Others mentioned confusion in the sentence.
“When I first read it, I thought the faculty had to document it,” Sen. Steven Lonergan said. “I would amend it by adding that the chair has to document it, not the faculty.”
The proposal will be voted on at the next meeting.
“We will be considering all faculty comments for the reading and voting next month,” Sen. Matt Frank said.
The next Faculty Senate meeting is slated for March 4.
