MINUTES

Faculty Senate Student and Faculty Honors Committee

April 18, 2008

8:30am – 9:30 am

Room 130 Hullihen Hall

Members Present: Mohsen Badiey, Jan Bibik, Michael Gilbert, Linda Gottfredson, Rhonda Hyde, Katharine Kerrane, Mark Serva, Zachary Shafer, Ismat Shah, and Jonathan Urick.

1. Opening Business

a. The March 14, 2008 minutes were approved.

b. Linda announced that Ismat Shah will chair the committee next year. Cheers all around.

2. Discussion of the candidates for the Francis Alison Award

a. The committee took a preliminary vote on the four nominees for the Alison award.

b. The ensuing discussion debated the relative merits of the four candidates’ cases.

c. The committee reiterated that the Award was for lifetime achievement.

d. Mohsen suggested that in future years, the committee reinforce its recommendation to deans that letters in the dossiers present the candidate’s research in a manner that non-experts can readily understand, so that the committee can better evaluate the impact of the candidates’ scholarly work.

3. Closing Discussion

a. Linda noted that the Named Professors Dinner is April 21^st, three days from today’s meeting, some weeks earlier than usual but the change unbeknownst to us. It is at this dinner that the President announces the recipient of the Alison Award so it is crucial that the winner attend. In the future, the committee should coordinate with the President’s Office to ensure the Alison winner is determined well before the dinner is held.

b. Linda reported that the Wayne Westerman Scholarship Award was revised to meet all our criteria for new awards and was therefore approved.

c. Mark, Linda, and Ismat will meet with the Brenda, the new CITA, before the end of the semester to discuss progress on the committee’s new information system.

d. Katharine noted that the date of the last scheduled meeting (May 9^th), conflicts with Honor’s Day. The committee decided to change the date of the next meeting to May 16^th at 8:45am.

Minutes submitted by Mark Serva.