Faculty Senate elects new officers

President Charles Boncelet, professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented a Faculty Senate Commendation May 2 to Linda Gottfredson, professor of education, for extraordinary leadership and service provided to the Senate. Elected a senator, Gottfredson served as a member of the Student and Faculty Honors Committee for eight years and its chair for four consecutive years. Boncelet noted that Gottfredson set up the web site for the Senate committee that now permits candidates to file easily online for excellence-in-teaching and advising awards and the Francis Alison Faculty Award. “We went from a handful of candidates to thousands,” Boncelet said. Gottfredson continues to serve as the official adviser to the committee.

2:38 p.m., May 4, 2005--At its May 4 meeting, the University Faculty Senate elected officers, received an ad hoc committee report on recycling, listened to an update on UD’s general education initiative and then debated the wording of a resolution on “unlawful harassment” for the Faculty Handbook.

The senate will reconvene in two weeks to finish their agenda. The final meeting of the year will be held at 4 p.m., Monday, May 16, in 104 Gore Hall.

New officers elected for the 2005-06 year include Dallas Hoover, professor of animal and food science, president-elect; Donald Lehman, assistant professor of medical technology, secretary; and Eric Rise, associate professor of criminal justice, chairperson of the Committee on Committees. Avron Abraham, professor of economics, will serve as president of the senate for the 2005-06 academic year.

Submitted by the senate Committee on Faculty Welfare and Privileges and the Committee on Rules with the concurrence of the Executive Committee, the resolution on harassment sought to revise the passage on sexual and other unlawful harassment to "ensure freedom from all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment at the University of Delaware." At issue was a list of types of actions that could constitute other unlawful harassment. Further debate and action on the resolution was held over to the May 16 meeting.

Earlier in the meeting, Senator Burton Abrams, head of the ad hoc committee on recycling, reported that the committee surveyed 14 universities and found that the average institution recycled 30 percent of its waste. He praised the University’s current recycling efforts and said that the University recycles an average of 19 percent, including the mercury from florescent lights, cardboard and computer parts. His remarks pointed out the need for greater education of the entire University community on improving recycling practices. His committee recommended that the University should set a goal of 30 percent and hire a recycling manager who will maintain a web site and advertise UD’s efforts. He also recommended that the senate approve a standing committee on recycling and consider packaging recycling into the curriculum, perhaps as a concentration across several fields of study.

Martha Carothers, associate director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, reviewed UD’s General Education Initiative and the First Year Experience (FYE) mandated to begin in the fall of 2005 [www.ugs.udel.edu/gened/FYE/]. The first year experience can include LIFE (an academic living-learning experience), first-year seminars, honors colloquia in residence halls or Pathways (thematic, integrated courses). Last year, there were 27 LIFE program clusters with 450 students, and in the fall of 2005 this program will expand to 75-80 LIFE clusters with 1,600 students. There will be 25 first-year seminars and two Pathways courses (“Personal Health Management” and “Seeing and Being in a Visual World”).

Carothers reminded the senators that all undergraduates entering in September 2005 or later are required to take at least three credits of discovery-based or experiential learning, including participation in undergraduate research, study abroad or service learning. She said that the capstone courses already in place have been surveyed, and the senior year requirement will be implemented in the 2006-07 academic year.

Article by Cornelia Weil
Photo by Duane Perry

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