Acadia University Senate
Agenda


SENATE AGENDA FOR 8 SEPTEMBER 2003
 

27 August 2003

Dear Member of Senate:

I advise you that a meeting of the Senate of Acadia University will occur at 4:00 p.m.., Monday, 8 September 2003 in Room 132 of the Beveridge Arts Centre.  The AGENDA follows:

1)  Minutes of the Meeting of  7 May 2003

2) Announcements and  Communications
 
3) Business Arising from the Minutes
 a) By-Laws Committee - Faculty Development Committee (034-01-LAW) *
 b) Divinity College - Semester Change as per notice of motion 7May03
  (034-02-DIV)
 c) By-Laws Committee - Academic Integrity Committee (034-03-LAW) *

4) New Business
 a) University Teaching Complement Committee - Request from Department of Languages and Literatures (034-04-ART) *
 b) Curriculum Committee - Geology Program Change (034-05-CRE) *
 c) By-Laws - Review-The Constitution of the Faculty of Acadia University
  (034-06-LAW) *
 
5) Other Business
 
Yours sincerely,
 
 
 

Rosemary Jotcham
Acting Registrar and Secretary of Acadia University Senate

* Material Attached

 

Attachment 3)a)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-01-LAW
By-laws Committee Report

Faculty Development Committee
 

At the May, 2003 Senate meeting, members of the By-laws Committee were asked to consider whether the Faculty Development Committee should be maintained as a standing committee of Senate.

Currently the section in the Constitution and By-laws of Senate for the Faculty Development Committee appears as follows:

VIII. (o) FACULTY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

i. The membership of the Faculty Development Committee shall be elected in
 accordance with Article VI. 1. and shall be as follows:

 One member of the Faculty of Arts
 One member of the Faculty of Professional Studies
 One member of the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science
 One member of the Faculty of Theology

ii. The duties of the Faculty Development Committee shall be:

 -- to collect and disseminate information related to teaching;

 -- to promote projects that will enhance the teaching function of Faculty.

The Faculty Development Committee has not met or been staffed since at least 1995.  The collection and dissemination of information related to teaching is currently done by individual Faculties and evaluation of teaching is subject to the negotiation process between the Board of Governors and AUFA.

The duty of promoting projects to enhance the teaching function of Faculty has been assumed by the AITT and other projects such as the McConnell granting initiative.
 
Therefore the By-laws committee recommends that the Faculty Development Committee be struck from the list of standing committees of Senate.
 

Respectfully submitted:

Patricia Corkum, Chair
Malcolm Grieve
Andrew Mitchell
 

Page 1/Attachment 3)c)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-03-LAW

By-laws Committee Report

Academic Integrity Committee

Part 1

At the May, 2003 Senate meeting, members of the By-laws Committee were asked to look at the Academic Task Force Committee Report and to recommend wording for establishing a Senate Standing Committee on Academic Integrity.  While we were asked specifically to look at quorum, we have not included a recommended quorum as this is not the normal practice regarding Standing Committees of Senate.

The Committee recommends that The Constitution and By-laws of the Senate of Acadia University be amended to insert the following:
 

VIII. (o)  ACADEMIC INTEGRITY COMMITTEE

i.  The membership of the Academic Integrity Committee shall be elected in accordance with Article VI. 1. and shall be as follows:

One member of the Faculty of Arts
One member of the Faculty of Professional Studies
One member of the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science
One  member of the Faculty of Theology/Divinity College
One member of the student body
The Registrar or delegate
The Librarian or delegate
The Director of the Department of Distance and Continuing Education or delegate
 

ii. The duties of the Academic Integrity Committee shall be:

-- to advocate for any additional resources that are necessary and appropriate to support effective proctoring of tests and examinations, plagiarism detection software, campus awareness programs, etc.;
-- to recommend practical and technical measures to deter and detect cheating and plagiarism;
-- to monitor University policy on cheating and plagiarism and to recommend any changes deemed necessary;
-- to promote uniform procedures across campus for reporting cheating and plagiarism;
-- to oversee a Registry in the Registrar’s Office of reported incidences of penalties applied for cheating and plagiarism in order to deter repeated offences; and
-- to review as necessary policy and procedures in other Canadian universities and to act as a liaison with outside organizations as appropriate.
 

Page 2/Attachment 3)c)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-03-LAW

Part  II

In Part 1 of this report the committee composition is listed as accepted at the meeting of Senate held 7 May 03.  It is the opinion of the By-Laws Committee that this eight-member committee would be unwieldy and that it would be more effective to have a smaller committee. As a result, the By-Laws Committee recommends that Section VIII. (o) i. be replaced with the following:

The membership of the Academic Integrity Committee shall be elected in accordance with Article VI. 1. and shall be as follows:

One member of the Faculty of Arts
One member of the Faculty of Professional Studies
One member of the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science
One member of the Student body
The Registrar (who will act as Chair)
 
 

Respectfully submitted:

Patricia Corkum, Chair
Malcolm Grieve
Andrew Mitchell
 

Attachment 4)b)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-05-CRE



The Senate Curriculum Committee moves that the following program be approved.

Rosemary Jotcham
Committee Chair

Bachelor of Science with Honours in Environmental Geoscience
1.  The environmental geoscience core, GEOL 4996 and 6h elective geology, each completed with a minimum grade of B- (57h).
2.  Chem 1013, 1023 (6h)
3.  6h in Math
4.  PHYS 1053, 1063 or equiv. with lab (6h)
5.  BIOL 1113, 1123 (6h)
6.  6h from Chem, Math, Phys, Biol or ENVS
Participation in departmental seminars is required.  This program is career-oriented and preparatory to graduate study in environmental geoscience.  It is needed for registration as a professional environmental geoscientist.

Bachelor of Science with Major in Environmental Geoscience
1.  The environmental geoscience core, and 6h elective geology, each completed with a minimum grade of C- (51h).
2.  Chem 1013, 1023 (6h)
3.  6h in Math
4.  PHYS 1053, 1063 or equiv. with lab (6h)
5.  BIOL 1113, 1123 (6h)
6.  6h from Chem, Math, Phys, Biol or ENVS
This program is career-oriented and is needed for registration as a professional environmental geoscientist.

 The honours and majors programs in environmental geoscience require the following core: 1013, 1023, 2033, 2080, 2123, 2213, 2303, 2703, 3103, 3303, 3603, 3723, 3823, ENVS 2643, 3113, 3423 (45h).  No more than 3h non-lab geology courses at the 1000/2000-level may be offered towards the major.

No new courses are required to support this program.
 

Page 1/Attachment 4)c)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-06-LAW

By-laws Committee Report

Review - The Constitution of the Faculty of Acadia University

Article Section VIII. (a) ii of The Constitution and By-laws of the Senate of Acadia University reads as follows:

The duties of the By-laws Committee shall be:

 -- to review annually the By-laws of the Senate, Faculty and Faculty Councils and  recommend any changes or additions deemed necessary;

The Committee has recently completed the review of the Constitution of  the Faculty of Acadia University and makes the following recommendations. If approved by Senate, these recommendations should be submitted to the Chair of Faculty for Faculty’s consideration.

The Constitution of the Faculty of Acadia University

The committee understands that prior to its review, a number of the following recommendations to The Constitution of  the Faculty have been included in motions that certain Faculty plan to bring forward to the October meeting of  Faculty. The committee urges members of Faculty to attend this October meeting to help ensure a quorum.

Article III. MEMBERSHIP

Recommendation One

Name changes
Certain terms and or positions (Demonstrators, Tutors, Director of Admissions) are not relevant and need to be replaced with new terms consistent with the Collective Agreement between the Board of Governors and the Acadia University Faculty Association.

Recommendation Two

Membership composition
With various organizational changes that have occurred over recent years, consideration should be given to the new structure and whether or not the membership should be increased for certain positions.

Page 2/Attachment 4)c)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-06-LAW

Article V.    OFFICERS

Article V. a) reads as follows:

There shall be elected from members of Faculty at the spring meeting of Faculty in each year the following officers to serve for the next academic year:

1. Chair
2. Vice Chair
3. Secretary
4. Elections Officer
 

Due to a lack of  quorum at the May meetings, in recent years, the Faculty Elections Officer has conducted elections for the Chair and Vice Chair. The Senate (as provided for in its Constitution) has elected the Secretary. The Faculty Elections Officer has been elected by Senate (Per Section VIII. (q) of  its constitution).

Recommendation Three

Article V. a) be replaced with

Officers of Faculty will consist of a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Faculty Elections Officer.  The Faculty Elections Officer will conduct elections each May for the Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary to serve for the next academic year. The Faculty Elections Officer will be elected annually by Senate.

Article VI. MEETINGS

Article VI. a) reads as follows:

a) There shall be two regularly scheduled meetings of Faculty every year (one in the Spring and one in the Fall).  Also, the Faculty shall meet at the call of the Chair of , in his or her absence or indisposition, at the call of the Vice-Chair and the Secretary, or whenever twenty members of Faculty, in writing to the President, request that a meeting be called.

 Recommendation Four

Article VI. a) be replaced with

There shall be two regularly scheduled meetings of Faculty every year (one in the Spring and one in the Fall).  Also, the Faculty shall meet at the call of the Chair of Faculty, in his or her absence or indisposition, at the call of the Vice-Chair and the Secretary, or whenever twenty members of Faculty, in writing to the Chair, request that a meeting be called.

Page 3/Attachment 4)c)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-06-LAW

Article XI. FACULTY ELECTIONS

Article XI. a) reads as follows:

A member of Faculty shall be nominated by the Nominating Committee and elected by Faculty to act as the Elections Officer.  It will be his or her duty to set all the necessary dates for elections and to perform such other duties as may be necessary.  He or she may co-opt assistance whenever he or she so desires.  The term of office for the Elections Officer will be two years.

To be consistent with the rest of the constitution and Recommendation Three above, it is necessary to delete the first sentence and last sentence.

Recommendation Five

Article IX.  a) be replaced with

It will the duty of the Faculty Elections Officer to set all the necessary dates for elections and to perform such other duties as may be necessary.  He or she may co-opt assistance whenever he or she so desires.

Article IX  b) reads as follows:

The Elections Officer shall be responsible for the election of Faculty representatives on the Sabbatical Leave and University Review Committee.  The terms and conditions of the prevailing Collective Agreement between the Board of Governors and The AUFA shall determine eligibility for membership on the Sabbatical Leave and the University Review Committee.

To be consistent with  the current Collective Agreement between the Board of Governors and the Acadia University Faculty Association ,  individual Faculty Constitutions, the Senate By-Laws, and current practice, this paragraph should be amended in respect to the election of Faculty representatives to the University Review Committee.

Recommendation Six

Article IX.  b) be replaced with
 
The Election Officer shall be responsible for  the election of Faculty representatives on

the Sabbatical Leave Committee. (The terms and conditions of the prevailing Collective Agreement between the Board of Governors and the Acadia  University Faculty Association shall determine the eligibility for  membership on the Sabbatical Leave  Committee).

Page 4/Attachment 4)c)
Senate Agenda/8Sep03
034-06-LAW

Recommendation Seven

Article IX. c) be changed to c)i and c)ii be added as follows:

In addition the Elections Officer shall ensure that each of the Faculty Councils elect  two representatives  to  the University Review Committee. (The terms and conditions of the
Prevailing Collective Agreement between the Board of Governors and the Acadia  University Faculty Association shall determine the eligibility for membership on the University Review Committee).

Recommendation Eight

Delete Article IX f) that reads:

All regular terms of office will be for three years.

This statement is redundant and/or conflicting with other parts of the Constitution.

Respectfully submitted:

Patricia Corkum, Chair
Malcolm Grieve
Andrew Mitchell