Faculty Council Meeting

250 Student Union
May 11, 1999

President Halligan called the meeting to order with the following members present: Bertholf, Bost, Cole, Daugherty, Edgley, Gedra, Gregson, Hallgren, Hoffer, Krenzer, Locy, Martin, Miller, Moder, Montgomery, Peck, Rhoten, Sanders, Scott, Sisson, Tilley, and Warde. Also present: Beer, Beverage, Birdwell, Breazile, Collins, Dickman, Fletcher, Harp, Holmes, Hyle, Masters, Mayer, McCann, Mitchell, Watkins, and Woodward. Absent: Arquitt, Dawson, Eastman, Hsu, Johannes, Kimbrell, and Wilkinson.

HIGHLIGHTS

  1. Report of Status of Faculty Council Recommendations
  2. Reports of Standing Committees
  3. Reports of Liaison Representatives
  4. New Business
ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND POLICIES -- Bill Warde
Dr. Warde reported the committee was bringing two recommendations. The first concerned the Honorary Degree Policy and was also discussed and approved by the Graduate Council. The Faculty Council Recommends to President Halligan that: Oklahoma State University Policy and Procedures Statement 2-0220 on Awarding Honorary Degrees be amended as follows: (a) In paragraph 1.01, the last paragraph "Because the honor is conferred upon a person, the Committee on Honorary Degrees looks to sustained and characteristic activity as its warrant - uncommonly meritorious activity, exhibiting values that are esteemed by the University." Should be deleted; (b) In paragraph 3.02, add the phrase "department or school" after the phrase "academic unit"; (c) Replace Paragraph 3.06 which currently reads "Representatives of a nominating unit shall be invited to attend the committee meeting at which its nominee will be evaluated. Following the general discussion of the nominees, the committee moves into executive session. After deliberation, the members of the committee cast written ballots ranking the candidates. The cumulative rankings are then reviewed by the committee. The committee decides whether its rankings are satisfactory, whether more than one degree should be awarded, and what degree is appropriate to each candidate being endorsed." By "Representatives of a nominating unit shall be invited to attend the committee meeting at which its nominee will be evaluated. Following the general discussion of the nominees, the committee moves into executive session. After deliberation, the members of the committee cast written ballots ranking the candidates. The cumulative rankings are then reviewed by the committee. The committee decides which nominations are worthy of recognition, whether more than one degree should be awarded, and what degree is appropriate to each candidate being endorsed.

Individuals recommended for an Honorary Degree by the Committee, and not awarded a degree the first year, shall be eligible to receive the degree for the two subsequent years without further evaluation. After the third year the nomination must be resubmitted by an academic unit to the Committee for evaluation and ranking. The nominating unit will be invited to provide supplemental information to the Committee each year." Items in bold print reflect changes in the wording or additions to the paragraph. Rationale: Statement (a) seems to be superfluous and the concerns expressed are subsumed into the remainder of paragraph 1.01. Statement (b) is a housekeeping statement. Statement (c) comes about from the concern that a candidate once nominated remains eligible for consideration for the award of the designated honorary degree remains a candidate forever. The Honorary Degree Committee and the Graduate Council both expressed concern regarding this situation, and suggested that the proposed three year window be instigated after which some review by the Committee be made. Candidates who are not recommended to the president by the Committee can be reconsidered annually with updated information. The statement "rankings are satisfactory" created some interpretational problems for the committee which suggested the change in wording at this location. The recommendation passed.

The second recommendation concerned the courses allowed for the retention grade point average computation. The Faculty Council recommends to President Halligan that: Courses in the Department of Music numbered 1440 and below, and Musi 2610, 2620, and 2630 be removed from the list of courses which may not be included for the purpose of improving the retention GPA of students on academic probation or suspension. In August of 1991 Norman Durham, implementing Regents policy, wrote a memo for the fall semester of 1991 that singled out these courses. The policy was never reviewed by a faculty committee. Since that time OSU no longer has any athletic courses but the music and leisure courses have remained banned from the computation. The music courses are treated slightly differently than the leisure courses in the computation of the GPA and would require extra programming in the new SIS system. The committee could not find a reason for the music courses to remain on the list. President Halligan said he admired the committee for discovering this problem. Dr. Warde said the problem surfaced when Dr. Dahl was looking at policies that required extra programming in the new SIS system. The recommendation passed.

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