Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 5/9/05 Section: Campus News

At its Monday meeting, the San Jose State University Academic Senate elected a new chair-elect.

Judith Lessow-Hurley, coordinator of educational partnerships for the Provost office, and Sally Veregge, chair of biological sciences, ran for chair but both told the senate that they respected each other and would happily work with the other. Senate members voted and Veregge was chosen for the position. She said the next year would be a busy one.

"We created the strategic plan," Veregge said. "Now, we have to implement it."

Miriam Donoho, a professor of marketing/decision sciences, was the first chair elected for the next term but recently decided to move to the East Coast where her husband will work for a year. In a tearful statement, Donoho said she was disappointed not to be able to meet her obligation and that she enjoyed her time on the senate.

Annette Nellen has been chair since 2003 and is no longer eligible for the position.

Terri Thames, a psychologist for counseling services, presented the final reading of the policy recommendation for greensheets and much debate followed. Though there is currently a policy recommendation in place, the Instruction and Student Affairs committee created the current document to replace it.

New requirements include making greensheets given to students on the first day of instruction mandatory, including the course description on the greensheets along with student learning objectives and a tentative course calendar.

Romey Sabalius, a professor of foreign languages, said he found the document "much too restrictive," and Kenneth Kellum, professor of mathematics, said "crusty, old" professors would not follow the new greensheet policy, which would therefore "encourage a lack of respect for the senate."

Kellum also questioned why he should have to provide a course description when that information is readily available elsewhere.

"Less is more," Kellum said in regards to the length that greensheets would be with the new requirements.

Irene Gonzales, an associate professor in the school of nursing, is on the Instruction and Student Affairs committee and said she supported the new policy because of the student senators' support of the changes.

Ambra Kelly, director of campus advising affairs for Associated Students, was the only student senator present at the A.S. meeting and reaffirmed her opinion of the importance of the new policy.

The meeting time ended before the greensheet policy could be voted on and the debate will roll over to next Monday's meeting.

The senate passed a policy recommendation changing the schedule adjustment period, which will shorten the amount of time students have to add classes by one week.

In the recommendation, the shortened time period is justified because of the benefits it will have for faculty members by having class enrollment stable earlier than the forth week of the semester. The recommendation also stated that students who add late are at an academic disadvantage and Registrar Services has difficulty in professing all of the adds before the date of the census.

Joan Merdinger, interim associate vice president of faculty affairs, presented the report on faculty diversity, which is required once a year. She said 42 searches for new tenure-track faculty resulted in 19 new tenure-track faculty members. In 2002-03, there were 70 appointments. Of this year's 19, 14 were Caucasian, two were Asian or Asian American, one was Hispanic or Mexican American and two were unknown. In terms of gender, 11 were female and eight were male.

Merdinger said the university is making quicker progress in regards to gender equality in comparison to ethnicity. She emphasized the low number of recruited faculty members in comparison to past years because of the budget crisis.

"What we have here is just an overall loss of tenure and tenure-track faculty," Merdinger said.

New CSU Board of Trustees member Carol Chandler spoke at the meeting. Her term started in 2004 and continues until 2012. Chandler took questions and comments from the senators.

"There's so much to learn about 23 campuses," Chandler said. "I'm just like a sponge."

She told of her concern that CSU faculty members are 17 percent below market.

"I would like to see some improvement in remuneration," she said.

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