Executive Committee Report 02-26-07

Executive Committee Report given at the Feb 26, 2007 University Senate Meeting

Steering Committee of the University Senate and Faculty Advisory Committee to the University President

Members President Leland, Vice President Gormly, Kendra Russell (SoHS), Cheryl Reynolds (SoE) <ex-officio non-voting>

Officers: Secretary: Tanya Goette (SoB), Vice-Chair: Karynne Kleine (SoE), Chair: Craig Turner (SoLAS)

Since the last University Senate meeting (January 29, 2007), the Executive Committee met as a committee of the whole on February 6, 2007 and jointly with the Standing Committee Chairs on February 20, 2007. In addition, the elected faculty members of the Executive Committee met on January 30, 2007 and February 13, 2007.
On February 6, 2007, the Executive Committee
1. reviewed the January 2007 University Senate minutes for accuracy prior to distribution to the membership of the University Senate for approval by email,
2. appointed the membership and chair of the Committee on Nominations, as authorized by the University Senate Bylaws. The Committee Chair is Dr. Kendra Russell and the membership of this committee is the minimum membership required for compliance with the University Senate bylaws, specifically all members of ECUS, Standing Committee Chairs (Mike Gleason, Kathleen McGeever, Richard Mercier, Ken McGill), SGA President (Janessa Hartmann), and Staff Council Chair (Gina Peavy). Note that the main function of the Committee on Nominations is to prepare a slate of nominees to serve on the committees of the University Senate for the 2007-2008 academic year. This slate is subject to the approval of the 2007-2008 University Senate at its organizational meeting on Wednesday April 25, 2007.
3. agreed to complete an application to request a graduate assistant for the University Senate for the 2007-2008 academic year. Some responsibilities for this graduate assistant that were discussed included assisting officers of both the University Senate and committees, producing some of the reports and doing research for committees, possibly taking minutes and updating the Senate website or its databases. It was the sentiment of the group that a graduate assistant in a program having an educational leadership component may particularly benefit from serving in this role simply by observing and experiencing the university governance process.
4. noted that the proposed agenda for the February 26, 2007 meeting was full including the possibility of up to nine motions for consideration by the assembly. This led to a discussion and review, informed by our parliamentarian Dr. Ken Farr, of the parliamentary procedure (including Robert’s Rules of Order) and the logistics (extra time for a meeting in adjournment) that may make the meeting more efficient as well as allow for sufficient consideration by the assembly of the pending motions. The proposed time for a meeting in adjournment (continue the February meeting after adjournment at a later time PRIOR to the scheduled March meeting) was Wednesday Mar 7 from 12:30 -1:45 in Arts & Sciences 2-72, noting of course that this would require approval of the assembly. Additional details of this discussion are available in the meeting minutes http://info.gcsu.edu/minutes/UnivSenateExec/reports/CM_077C73B0BF.html
5. reviewed the proposed motions, nine in number, for the February 26, 2007 University Senate agenda, noting that the supporting documents for these motions were available in the online motion database. The motions were ordered based on time sensitivity for action of the University Senate, the bylaws revisions being the most sensitive, noting that the steering function of the Executive Committee might be most responsibly administered by postponing some of the motions to the March 2007 meeting. Ultimately, it was decided to include some of the motions under New Business to allow the assembly at its discretion to consider them during the February meeting.
On February 13, 2007, the elected faculty members of the Executive Committee discussed:
1. drafts of checklists for annually reoccurring tasks such as Standing Committee Officer Orientation, Governance Calendar Preparation, Governance Retreat Planning, Faculty Senator Elections including At-Large Election Implementation. Also in preparation is an Executive Committee Calendar indicating the responsibilities to which the committee should attend for each month. Each of the aforementioned checklists and the calendar may become part of the 2006-2007 Executive Committee Annual Report or form the basis for a Standing Operating Procedures Manual for future Executive Committees to reference and maintain. These checklists and calendar are accessible at http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/univ_senate/ECUS/ECUS_Calendar_Checklists_02-19-07.doc
2. the at-large election procedure and plan to implement a call for nominations and secret ballot vote (electronically using an environment called Test Pilot) for the at-large election for a faculty senator having term of service from April 2007 to April 2009. This procedure is accessible on the web at http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/univ_senate/Elections_0708/At-Large_Procedure.htm
3. the agenda of the February 26, 2007 University Senate meeting informed by the discussion of the entire committee membership from February 6.
On February 20, 2007, ECUS and Standing Committee Chairs discussed the following matters.
1. Received informational updates from the University President (details available in the meeting minutes which are in preparation), the Governance Retreat Planning Committee (date of retreat Thursday May 10, 2007, location still under consideration, tentative agenda in preparation but an outline of the day will be similar to retreats of the past), and the Committee on Nominations (see 2.b. above), as well as information about the at-large election (election in progress with only one candidate on the ballot). Additional details of these reports are available in the meeting minutes.
2. Finalized the template of the annual committee report and agreed to a due date of Tuesday May 1, 2007 for these reports. The template of the annual reports is available electronically at http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/univ_senate/Annual_Reports_2006_2007/
3. Continued discussion of the University Senate agenda for February 26, 2007. It was agreed to supply the informational items in reports in writing and restrict the oral committee report to the nine motions awaiting consideration by the assembly. The parliamentary procedures relevant to the efficient use of time and the possibility of meeting in adjournment were also discussed.
4. Each committee chair shared an informational update on their upcoming meetings and it was agreed that the content of meetings held on February 23 would be reported to the University Senate at its March meeting scheduled for March 19, 2007 from 12:30 – 1:45 in A&S 2-72..
Congratulations to the faculty elected for a 2007-2009 term of service on University Senate
1. Economics and Finance: Doug Walker
2. Management: Jan Flynn
3. Information Technology and Marketing: Doug Goings
4. Special Education and Administration: Bee Crews
5. Early Childhood and Middle Grades Education: Lee Digiovanni
6. Foundations and Secondary Education: Chris Greer
7. Nursing: Carol Ormond
8. Nursing: Flor Culpa-Bondal
9. Art: Patrick Holbrook
10. Biology: Andrei Barkovskii
11. Government and Sociology: Jennifer Hammack
12. History, Geography, and Philosophy: Bill Risch
13. History, Geography, and Philosophy: Doug Oetter
14. Mathematics: Craig Turner
15. Modern Foreign Languages: Hedwig Fraunhofer
16. Music and Theatre: Todd Shiver
17. Library: Nancy Davis Bray
18. History, Geography, and Philosophy: Deborah Vess
The next meeting of the entire Executive Committee is presently scheduled for March 6, 2007 and the next joint meeting with Standing Committee Chairs is scheduled for March 13, 2007. Each of these meetings will be held in the University President’s Conference Room (third floor Parks Administration Building).

Note: On February 27, 2007, the elected faculty of ECUS will convene to prepare for these meetings.