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Volume 35-----DECEMBER 4, 2001-----Number 3
The Senate Record is the official publication of the University Faculty Senate of The Pennsylvania State University, as provided for in Article I, Section 9 of the Standing Rules of the Senate and contained in the Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Rules of the University Faculty Senate, The Pennsylvania State University 2001-02.
The publication is issued by the Senate Office, 101 Kern Graduate Building, University Park, PA 16802 (Telephone 814-863-0221). The Record is distributed to all Libraries across the Penn State system, and is posted on the Web at http://www.psu.edu/ufs under publications. Copies are made available to faculty and other University personnel on request.
Except for items specified in the applicable Standing Rules, decisions on the responsibility for inclusion of matters in the publication are those of the Chair of the University Faculty Senate.
When existing communication channels seem inappropriate, Senators are encouraged to submit brief letters relevant to the Senate's function as a legislative, advisory and forensic body to the Chair for possible inclusion in The Senate Record.
Reports which have appeared in the Agenda of the meeting are not included in The Record unless they have been changed substantially during the meeting or are considered to be of major importance. Remarks and discussion are abbreviated in most instances. A complete transcript and tape of the meeting is on file.
I. Final Agenda for December 4, 2001
A. Summary of Agenda Actions
B. Minutes and Summaries of Remarks
II. Enumeration of Documents
A. Documents Distributed Prior to
December 4, 2001
Corrected Copy – Committees and Rules –
Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5;
Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(e)1; and
Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1
III. Tentative Agenda for January 29, 2002
B. COMMUNICATIONS TO THE SENATE - Senate Curriculum Report
C. REPORT OF SENATE COUNCIL - Meeting of November 13, 2001
Committees and Rules
Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5; Standing Rules, Article II,
Section 6(e)1; and Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1
Undergraduate Education
Revision of Senate Policy 47-20: Basis for Grades
New Senate Policy 43-00 Syllabus
Major Accomplishments of the Teaching and Learning Consortium (TLC) First Two Years, John A. Brighton,
University Professor and Chair of the Teaching and Learning Consortium
Visual Construction Report of Academic Buildings, William J.
Anderson, Jr., Assistant Vice President of Physical Plant
Security Briefing, Thomas R. Harmon, Director of Police Services
One report was discussed, however, since it is a constitutional change, it cannot be voted on until the January 29, 2002, meeting.
Committees and Rules – "Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5; Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(e)1; and Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1." If approved, this legislative report would change the Constitution to allow for retired faculty Senators to serve on the Senate Committees on Faculty Affairs and Faculty Benefits. (See Record, page(s) 10 and Agenda Appendix "B.")
The Senate passed two Legislative Reports:
Undergraduate Education – "Revision of Senate Policy 47-20: Basis for Grades." This legislation specifies that faculty should provide written notification of the basis for grades to students within the first ten calendar days of a semester. (See Record, page(s) 10-11 and Agenda Appendix "C.")
Undergraduate Education – "New Senate Policy: Syllabus." This new legislation stipulates that a written syllabus must be distributed to students in the first ten calendar days of a semester. Included in the syllabus is the course examination policy, basis for grades, and academic integrity policy. (See Record, page(s) 11 and Agenda Appendix "D.")
The Senate heard five informational Reports:
Admissions, Records, Scheduling and Student Aid – "Reserved Spaces Program." This annual mandated report documents the reserved spaces at the University Park Campus reserved for academically eligible students in such categories as athletics, the arts and the Blue Band. (See Record, page(s) 12 and Agenda Appendix "E.")
Undergraduate Education – "Summary of Student Petitions by Colleges, Unit or Location." This annual mandated report provides a summary of petitions for the previous two years by college and campus. (See Record, page(s) 12-13 and Agenda Appendix "F.")
Undergraduate Education - "Major Accomplishments of the Teaching and Learning Consortium (TLC) First Two Years." This informational report, given by John Brighton, describes the strategies and efforts underway to promote active and collaborative learning initiatives at Penn State. (See Record, page(s) 13-18 and Agenda Appendix "G.")
University Planning – "Visual Construction Report of Academic Buildings." William Anderson provided an overview of three construction projects (IST, Chemistry, Life Sciences) at the University Park Campus. (See Record, page(s) 19-24 and Agenda Appendix "H.")
University Planning – "Security Briefing." Thomas Harmon, Director of Police Services, provided a report on how safety and security procedures at Penn State have changed since September 11, 2001. (See Record, page(s) 24-30 and Agenda Appendix "I.")
The University Faculty Senate met on Tuesday, December 4, 2001, at 1:30 p.m. in Room 112 Kern Graduate Building with John S. Nichols, Chair, presiding. One hundred and seventy-four Senators signed the roster.
Chair Nichols: It is time to begin.
Moving to the minutes of the preceding meeting, The Senate Record, providing a full transcription of the proceedings of the October 23, 2001 meeting, was sent to all University Libraries, and posted on the University Faculty Senate's web page. Are there any corrections or additions to this document? All those in favor of accepting the minutes, please signify by saying, "aye."
Senators: Aye.
Chair Nichols: Opposed? The minutes are accepted. Thank you.
You have received the Senate Curriculum Report for November 20, 2001. This document is posted on the University Faculty Senate's web page.
Also, you should have received the Report of Senate Council for the meeting of November 13, 2001. This is an attachment in The Senate Agenda for today's meeting.
Chair Nichols: The Faculty Advisory Committee to the President met on Wednesday, November 14, 2001 and discussed the following topics: Student-Centered University; General Education Course recertification; ESACT requirement; Proposal for an Institute for Legislative Education; Penn State's Policy toward Federal Monitoring of Foreign Students; and an update on graduate assistant unionization.
The next meeting of the Faculty Advisory Committee is scheduled for January 16, 2002. If you have topics to be raised, contact one of the Senate Officers or one of the elected faculty members.
I would like to call your attention to a couple of door handouts that were distributed today and remind you of the Senate's long support for the Martin Luther King Day of Service. This time last year the Senate amended Policy 42-27 on class attendance by adding participation in the King Day service activities to the list of conflicts for which faculty should offer reasonable opportunity to make up class work. Would you please remind your units of this new policy and make sure that they are fully informed about the King Day service opportunities and activities on Monday, January 21, 2002.
The chair has also received the report and recommendations of the Joint Committee to Review the University Calendar and forwarded it to the Senate Committees on University Planning and Undergraduate Education for consideration. As promised, the report is posted on the Senate web page. You are encouraged to distribute and discuss it within your units as appropriate. The Senate has heard and will continue to hear all points of view on this issue. Please contact the chairs of those two committees if you have additional comments or suggestions. And a hearty thanks to Jim Smith and his committee for the very hard work that they have put in on this complex matter.
Two weeks ago today, the Senate Officers completed their visits to locations other than University Park. The schedule of spring visits to units at University Park is posted on the Senate web page. In a little over 14 months time, your chair has visited 23 Penn State locations and all but six of the University Park units; and seven of the 11 CIC/Big Ten universities. Chair-Elect Moore has been to almost an equal number. In each of those campus visits and unit visits, the Senate Officers held extensive discussions with students, faculty and administration. I tell you this not to look for a pat on the back for enduring this time-consuming and sometimes exhausting process, but rather to point out that the Senate Officers (past and present) and a few in Old Main are among the very few people at Penn State who have this comprehensive internal perspective and external comparison. Most of us understandably see the university through the lens of our own unit or our own location, but because the Penn State landscape looks quite different for those of us who have the privilege of being Senate Officers I thought I would take just a minute or two to summarize what I have observed in a little more than a year's time.
A few weeks ago, the Senate Officers were at the Fayette Campus doing what most Penn State faculty at most Penn State locations do—looking for a parking spot. In the process, we noted that a prime parking spot near one of the main buildings was reserved for the Chair of the Campus Senate. Upon ribbing the Fayette Senate Chair about this perk, she said that this admitably inducement to take on a thankless task was not all that it was cracked up to be. It seems that the parking spot is situated under a tree that produced a certain kind of berry. And the birds in the tree ate the berries and deposited them not fully digested in copious amounts on her car beneath. We quickly established that this was a symbol for not only Senate chairs, but all of us who labor in faculty governance.
But the highlight of the fall trips came at the opposite end of the commonwealth—at the Delaware County Campus. There the Senate Officers had the honor of meeting a very impressive Penn State undergraduate. She was a traditional age student, a woman of color and one with at least a couple of significant disabilities. She is an English major, she was bright, articulate and had a sunny disposition.
On that day, she awoke at 5:00 in the morning in order to make the necessary commute to campus to meet with the Senate Officers. She caught a 5:45 a.m. bus near her home in Philadelphia, transferred to another bus in order to arrive at the Delaware Campus two hours later in time for an 8:15 a.m. meeting with the other student leaders and the Senate Officers. Although she makes the same commute most every day, she was eager to endure the early start and the considerable hassle so that she could register two important, interwoven messages to the Senate Officers.
First, she said she loved Penn State. There were other colleges and universities that were geographically more convenient, but she was willing to make the considerable sacrifice because of the reputation and reality of a quality Penn State education. She and her classmates were delighted with the personal attention they received from their faculty and delighted with the administration's support for various co-curricular activities—in her case support for the gospel choir.
Her second interrelated message was that Penn State must do better. Because Penn State is so good, it should be held to a higher standard. If she was willing to sacrifice, so too should Penn State. She politely challenged us to do more and better—not so much for her because she was close to graduation—but rather for future Penn State students.
She had some specific complaints and suggestions that I will not go into at the present time. Although, many of them, but not all, were resource-related problems that would be difficult for us to fix within the current budgetary constraints. However, many of the problems that she identified and other students and faculty at other locations identified are within our power to fix. Secretary Jago will give a more detailed report on our campus visits and some of the specifics. But, for the moment, our conversation with this young undergraduate at Delaware summarized for me at least, the umbrella findings of 14 months and 23 locations overview of Penn State. In summary, it is that Penn State is an excellent university—far better and for significantly different reasons than I would have anticipated before I became a Senate Officer. But there is much to be done. Indeed, the problems we face seem to be increasing in number and in complexity.
As the challenges increase, so do the importance and responsibility of the Senate. I previously mentioned that our last Senate meeting marked the 80th anniversary of the first Senate meeting at Penn State. When reaching such historical milestones, it often is a good time for assessment and planning for the future. The last time the Senate undertook a wide-ranging self-examination and significantly revised its structure and procedures was a decade ago. Since then, much has changed in the Senate, in the university, and in higher education. Therefore, a hard introspective look by the Senate is once again appropriate.
Consequently, I have initiated a Senate Self Study this year to examine how the body can be updated and strengthened to meet the challenges of that delightful Delaware County Campus undergraduate. It is only slightly ironic that even before our visit to Delaware, I asked George Franz, the Director of Academic Affairs at Delaware, to chair the Self Study. George, as you know, is the senior-most Past-Chair currently active in the Senate and also is our Parliamentarian. My charge to the Self Study committee is, first and foremost, to do some "blue sky" thinking about how the Senate can do a better job and seek ways to give faculty at large a greater sense of ownership in the important work that the Senate does and, second, to make specific recommendations about how to improve Senate organization and procedures. Any suggestions that you have or people from your units might have if you would pass them along by email to George at email@example.com, he would appreciate it.
Another, but related initiative for this year, is to expand cooperation between our Senate and other CIC/Big Ten faculty governance bodies. To this end, I have invited Dr. Joseph Massey, my counterpart at the University of Minnesota, to join us today. Joe is Chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee at the University of Minnesota. He is also Professor and Head of the Department of Wood and Paper Science and a student of shared governance. Although I suspect that Joe probably has learned as much from us in this trip as vice versa, he has kindly been helping us with the self study and we have had a good exchange of ideas. Joe, will you please take a bow.
Senators: Applause.
Chair Nichols: Last, but certainly not least, I would like to introduce one more special guest. The Senate, from time to time, sets aside a moment to recognize those among us who bring honor to the university and its educational mission as a way of helping to remind us of the core values and purpose of the institution.
I would like to introduce to you this afternoon Penn State student, Jeff Hantz. Jeff is from Latrobe, PA. He is a fourth semester student in the Schreyer Honors College majoring in Computer Science. In addition to carrying 19 credits of honors, research and laboratory courses Jeff finds time to play trumpet in one of Penn State's concert bands, a jazz band and the basketball pep band. If that were not enough, Jeff is considered one of the premier wheelchair track and field athletes in the nation. Jeff competed this past summer at the National Junior Paralympics, where he won gold medals in the shot put, discus, and javelin, setting national records in all three areas. He also finished second in the bench press, lifting 275 pounds. He already is in training for qualifying for the World Championship in Paris this summer and the 2004 Paralympics in Greece. Jeff has done all this, while maintaining a 3.66 grade point average. Jeff is in the back of the room. Jeff, thank you very much for helping remind us of the purpose of the university.
Senators: Applause.
Chair Nichols: Agenda Item E, Comments By The President Of The University. President Spanier is in attendance today and has comments. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question of the president or in a later discussion comment on a report you need to be recognized by the chair, please stand and identify yourself and the unit you represent before addressing the Senate. Thank you.
Graham B. Spanier, President: Thank you. Let me begin by saying have I got a parking space for you.
Chair Nichols: I think I have found it.
President Spanier: John did say that the Senate Officers were not looking for a pat on the back, but I had planned to give them one anyway and I think they really deserve it. The Senate leadership is functioning extremely well at the present time and I just want to say from where I sit how pleased I am with the quality of the work that they are doing, especially with their commitment that they are showing in so many different areas. One example you have heard about visiting the campuses and learning more about all of the needs and variations of Penn State across the commonwealth. It has been very impressive to see their work and of course I have the opportunity to meet with the leadership group on a regular basis, once a month formally, and then as needed at other times. And it is really going very well right now and I think they do deserve our thanks.
I also want to second something that John mentioned. There are really only a few of us in the university who have actually been around to all the campuses. Now I would not want to suggest that you all pack your bags and leave on a month long tour of all of our campuses, but I cannot tell you how rewarding it is to occasionally visit another campus, one that you may not be familiar with at the university. Particularly, folks at University Park rarely set foot on another campus and it is quite amazing to get a feel for how Penn State operates in so many different locations. I have never run into anybody who has visited one of our other campuses and not come away feeling more enlightened about the university as well as even more proud than they were before about what all we do for our students and the many other constituencies that we serve. I think it is fair to say that any of you would be welcomed with open arms if you had the inclination to visit another campus. I know I always am and I do not think it is just because I am the president of the university. I think that they would gladly welcome anyone with open arms and you should all think about doing that at some point.
I want to report that the state of the university in my opinion is excellent right now. And I say that despite the fact that several million dollars of this year's current appropriation have been frozen because of the financial circumstances around the state. Despite that cut which we have had, I am really quite pleased with all of the progress that we are making in so many different arenas and the quality of the educational experiences that we are providing for our students. I feel very good about what is happening at Penn State right now. I think one continuing indication of our overall health is not only the official enrollments that you have all probably read about for this fall, but the continuing flow of applications for this coming academic year. As of the report that I saw this morning—and we get a weekly comprehensive report of what the applications are system-wide—we are right on track with where we have been in the last couple of years, maybe a little bit ahead. Interest in Penn State continues to be very strong. There are a couple of areas that account for what increase we see right now. They are increases in the flow of graduate applications, which is something that many of us here predicted of course when the economy is in a bit of a downturn and there is recessionary indications out there, and many people as they are beginning to complete their baccalaureate degree lean a little more in the direction of graduate school versus competing for one of the positions in the job market. So we do see a little more activity in the level of graduate applications and we are also seeing significant increase in interest in Penn College, which you also might expect with students coming out of high school and looking for the excellent applied opportunities that are available there. But enrollments are strong and our following all of the assumptions and planning targets that we had at University Park, at our campuses—graduate and undergraduate—we feel very good about what we have achieved in that particular area. We are however engaged in a number of different areas associated with long range planning. Most of this occurs under the purview of Rodney Erickson, our Executive Vice President and Provost. I think there are two things that are pretty much on the table right now. We have a deadline coming up pretty soon for units to have their diversity plans, the updates, the mid-course update on the five year diversity plans coming in currently. Those will be very carefully reviewed, analyzed, and feedback will be reported during the balance of this academic year. Another important area of planning that is going on is in the area of the finances of the university. We are unmistakably in the middle of a long-term trend of state appropriations that are not keeping up with our needs, let alone our aspirations. Currently, only about 14 percent of the university's budget comes via state appropriation and while we are going to continue to make our very best case and work very, very hard with the legislature on meeting Penn State's needs, we cannot assume that the state is going to be able to do for us what we need to do. Given that our other principle source of revenue, besides appropriation is tuition, we are engaged in a long-term analysis of tuition pricing at the university. Looking at our needs in relation to the cost of operating the university, and again Rodney Erickson is the person overseeing that task force--we are working towards involving the university Board of Trustees very substantially in that discussion in the coming months. The task force has had the benefit of input from students, faculty, staff and members of the administration so we are very eager to see how that turns out. But certainly we need to take a long-term five, ten, twenty-year kind of look at how we are going to support the quality of education, research, and service that we expect at the university.
I know that many of you are on committees that are busy at work on giving input into the discussions about the university calendar. John Cahir reported to me on the way in that there were some discussions this morning and that there continues to be progress and feedback in that area. At some point, I am not exactly sure when, but at some point soon, I think all of that input and any further Senate discussion will be forwarded to us and Rodney Erickson and I as well as other colleagues will then try to make some sense out of it and do the right thing, whatever that is. I do not know what the right thing is. You know I am not bashful so if I had this figured out at any point I would have told you or the committees working on it in the beginning. But it is a very complex issue because there are many, many different perspectives, many different opinions, and I dare say there are also probably some variables that we might not even be giving sufficient weight to in the discussions. I am hearing from campus executive officers, from students, and others about what should go into the discussion. So all I can say about the calendar is that all input is welcome. We really do look forward to receiving the Senate recommendations. About the only thing that I have concluded is that the current calendar is not optimal. There are just too many problems around the edges of what we are trying to do right now and so some things have to change. I am just not sure what the better system is right now and I say that as I have said in my State of the University Address only to point out that I am very receptive to receiving what recommendations you have and then trying to come up with a better mousetrap for that situation.
You have all heard if you have read the newspapers or perhaps heard directly that John Cahir has announced his retirement. It is not imminent. It is coming sometime next summer at the end of the summer and I must say we have very mixed feelings about that because I think John probably has tenure and longevity on just about all of us in this room. I say that in a nice way John. Yeah, he is old I guess… I have known John for a very long time. We served as associate deans together and I thought he was old then…and that was more than twenty years ago so you know I guess we got to give him a break and let him retire at some point. The good news is that it is still a few months off and I know John is not going to be a lame duck, he is going to continue to work very closely with the many Senate committees that he works with through this academic year and we will have a chance I am sure to thank him later. But for those of you who are in the mode of wanting to commiserate about this and express your concerns, why, you can start on that any time. John is here and I will say now as I will say at every opportunity throughout the year how much John Cahir has meant to this university and where it is at today.
The last thing I would like to say before I take your questions is get those final exam grades in on time, please. And get those papers graded and then after you are all done with that I wish you a very happy holiday and hope you rest up over the break and come back ready to go for the spring semester. And now your questions?
JoAnn Chirico, Beaver Campus: Many students at my campus as well as myself are concerned about our perception from national news stories that a student on campus was convicted of either rape or sexual assault and is still present on campus. Could you please fill us in to the picture of what the actual conviction was, what the student's status is and could I take a message from you back to my students about your concern for their safety?
President Spanier: Let me say first of all that I hope it is true that everyone in this room associated with the Penn State community abhors sexual assault and will not tolerate it, condone it, or accept that it should be present on any of our campuses. I think that should go without saying and I wanted to say that first. Having said that I am going to tell you very little. I am not going to attempt to answer the questions you have asked for a couple of reasons that should be obvious to people in the university community and beyond but, for some reason are not. First of all, there are a lot of people who have popped up as experts about what is going on who think they know what all the facts are and I am not sure that they do. This university will do its best to follow our judicial affairs procedures. Allow them to work. Allow due process to work. Allow the process to come to an expeditious conclusion and do everything we can to ensure what would be fair and not subject to outside influences. I am not surprised, but I am troubled by some of the mail I have received, email I have received, people showing up in my office demanding to argue a case one way or another. We cannot run a university on the basis of public opinion polls, on the basis of political forces who choose up sides on the guilt or innocence of a particular student conduct violation. We cannot have legislative resolutions or editorial writers to tell us how to act in a particular case. Some of the attempted interference in the university judicial affairs process is very surprising. It would be akin, I suppose, to jury tampering or someone barging into a judges chambers and telling the judge how to rule on a particular case. We just cannot go down that road. I hope you understand that. I hope you understand that we have a judicial affairs system within the university. Maybe some people do not like parts of it, some people do, some people think we try too many cases, and some people have lots of different opinions about it. Every year we reassess it, we fine-tune it, we study it—we actually have one of the better judicial affairs conduct systems that exist at a university. It operates under a director of the Office of Judicial Affairs and that person is overseen by the Vice President for Student Affairs. We have to follow certain processes that are in place and we will do that. We cannot let outside influences interfere with judgments that are made during that process. I say all of that to you now without even knowing the outcome at this moment. We will have a problem in that there are federal laws which govern what we can say about student conduct matters, and people who want to know things that cannot be and never will be public, just have to accept that. Perhaps there are some things that can become public or that some people involved in the process can themselves choose to make public. So we just have to ask your understanding with that and allowing that to happen and I will trust our staff in the Office of Judicial Affairs to do this right. And whatever they end up with, I assume they will end up with something pretty soon, and my inclination would be to be supportive of it. I should also say that the process does not call for the president of the university to insert himself into the process at some point along the way. This decision is actually made by that office and if there are appeals along the way they will go to the Vice President for Student Affairs. I do not have a role in this personally, but I am prepared to stand up, defend the process, and to do everything I can to make sure that the integrity of the process is maintained. So for those of you who would be inclined to write me an email, save your breath so to speak, it will not enter into the decision of the process. For anyone who is involved in letter writing campaigns on the different sides of this matter, it will not influence the process. We will not be granting appointments to people to come in and argue the case from their perspective. We will follow the processes in place. Nor will I be responding to further media inquiries on this matter. I have said just about everything I can think of to say, so for reporters who are here, do not bother sending me an email two hours from now saying, "I want to ask you further to explain the nuance of what you said there." I have spoken extemporaneously, not from a script, so I hope somewhere in there you will kind of get the message.
Chair Nichols: Other comments and questions for the president?
Stephen M. Smith, College of Agricultural Sciences: This is sort of a mundane question. Back to your issue of budgets, can you give us an estimate of how many of these millions we lost and an assessment of how permanent this is and how these losses were distributed among colleges and departments?
President Spanier: Well, let me say that on many days I love the mundane questions given some other things that are out there. But that is actually a very important question. We have had frozen and do not expect to receive back approximately $3.5 million out of this year's appropriation. It is about one percent of our appropriation. In addition, we believe that some additional amount, it is hard to identify exactly what it is but we have some estimates, it might be a comparable amount was actually lost because it was in some other budget that was part of the $200 million that Governor Ridge identified before he left. It was money that had not yet been allocated but in the normal course of events would have come to Penn State but perhaps through a different state agency or a different process yet to be determined. So it was a multi-million dollar hit for us. Now the way it has unfolded is that it is a temporary pull back out of our current budget and we have treated it that way. So we have not pulled permanent money back from anybody on campus. Centrally and within the different academic units of the campuses, colleges and so on, we have asked people to just deal with their fair share of that amount. When the legislature begins the budgetary and appropriation process in February, we anticipate we will go back to the base that we saw last year and that further decisions will be made from that point. But it does not appear based on current revenue projections that the state is going to have a huge amount of new money to deal with. So we expect to be in this somewhat constrained economic environment for the university for awhile to come, and that of course puts more pressure on us on the tuition side and we worry about that for obvious reasons. That's it? Okay, this could be your last chance for the year 2001. Okay, thank you very much.
Chair Nichols: Thank you, President Spanier. Agenda Item F, Forensic Business there is none. Agenda Item G, Unfinished Business there is none.
Chair Nichols: We are down to H, Legislative Reports. Senate Committee on Committees and Rules, Changes in Constitution, Articles and Sections as listed regarding retired and emeritus faculty. Jean Landa Pytel, Chair of the Senate Committee on Committees and Rules will present the report. This is a proposed Constitutional change and therefore the report must lie on the table until the January 29, 2002 meeting. What that means is that we will have a discussion today but no vote will be taken.
Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5; Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(e)1; and Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1
Jean Landa Pytel, Chair, Senate Committee on Committees and Rules
Jean Landa Pytel, College of Engineering: Thank you. You have all had a chance to look at the report as it is part of your Agenda. It came directly from a proposal that is included here as part of the introduction. This was a Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs report that was titled, "Recommendation for Emeritus/Retired Faculty," that was passed in January of this year. Before I forget, we had a slight two-letter editorial correction. On page four that is procedures number 10 that says, "If a retired Senator cannot fulfill his/her term," will you please change the word "the" to "an". "An alternate from the last election will be appointed to do so". The idea here is if the alternate is not willing to serve then we would go to the next alternate. Thank you. I will stand for questions as you should have read it yourselves.
Chair Nichols: Questions for Jean? It will be on the Agenda for the next meeting.
Jean Landa Pytel: Thank you.
Chair Nichols: Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education. "Revision of Senate Policy 47-20: Basis for Grades" that is Appendix "C" and Laura Pauley, Chair of the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education will present the report.
Revision of Senate Policy 47-20: Basis for Grades
Laura L. Pauley, Chair, Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education
Laura L. Pauley, College of Engineering: The Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education has two related policies to be reviewed today. The first policy is "Basis for Grades". The "Basis for Grades" is Policy 47-20 currently printed and we have made the modification that students should be notified in the first ten calendar days of basis for grades. This wording mirrors the wording in other policies including, the examination policy that students must be notified in the first ten calendar days. Are there any questions?
Chair Nichols: Docile group today. No questions? All right, it is a committee report so it is moved and seconded so we are at the question. All those in favor of the report, please signify by saying, "aye."
Senators: Aye.
Chair Nichols: Any opposed, "nay"? The aye's have it and the motion is carried. The next one is "New Senate Policy 43-00: Syllabus" that's Appendix "D".
New Senate Policy 43-00: Syllabus
Laura L. Pauley, Chair, Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education
Laura L. Pauley: The "Syllabus" policy is a new policy and what it states is, the place where written notification should be given to the student is the syllabus. So we have put together several different policies including the one just approved "Basis for Grades," "General Examination Policy," "Non-Final Examinations Policy," and "Academic Integrity," altogether into this one document. There is a phrase, "changes to the syllabus may be made during the semester shall also be given to the student in writing". So this is not a permanent contract, but it can be modified during the semester. Any questions?
Dan T. Brinker, College of Arts and Architecture: A couple of concerns that came up is if we could define written and distributed. The question is, that an online course for example, on the web considered written? And is distributed, simply can it be made available is that considered distributed? And I think that is the biggest issue that we have in fact and that I am concerned about with this policy.
Laura L. Pauley: We discussed this in the committee and our view was that by saying a written syllabus we considered electronic web sites to also be written text.
Dan T. Brinker: Does that also include the distributed portion? If it is simply made available is that…
Laura L. Pauley: Right. That was our interpretation. That it was an inclusive word.
Chair Nichols: Other comments or questions? Seeing none, we are at the question. This is a vote on whether to approve the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Education report for "New Senate Policy 43-00: Syllabus". All those in favor of the report, please signify by saying, "aye."
Senators: Aye.
Chair Nichols: Any opposed, "nay"? The aye's have it and the motion is carried. Thank you, Laura. Agenda Item I, Advisory/Consultative Reports there are none.
Summary of Student Petitions by College, Unit or Location
Major Accomplishments of the Teaching and Learning Consortium (TLC) First Two Years
Visual Construction Report of Academic Buildings
Anthony J. Baratta, Chair, Senate Committee on University Planning
So let us begin. The first portion of my presentation is going to focus on the Information Sciences and Technology Building. This building is designed to bridge Atherton Street and safely connect the central core of campus to the west campus. Then I will show you plans for the Chemistry Building and the Life Sciences Building, which are in the vicinity of the Thomas Building, Eisenhower Auditorium and Fenske Laboratory. I have combined the presentation on the Life Sciences Building and Chemistry Building and you will see why in a few minutes.
So to begin with the IST project, here are some quick facts about the project. The project will cost $56.9 million and it has three funding sources: State Funds, Tuition Capital Improvement Plan, and monetary gifts. The new facility was designed by a joint venture of Rafael Viñoly out of New York City and Perfido Weiskopf out of Pittsburgh. It will be three stories tall and will entail about 200,000 gross square feet. Construction and relocation of utilities as you know from driving around here is already underway and the whole project is scheduled for completion in November of 2003.
This next slide shows the list of program elements for the project. The IST Building will house the School of Information Sciences and Technology as well as the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the College of Engineering. The building will also include a Campus Crossing, which I will elaborate on in just a moment, a Cybertorium, laboratories, offices, workrooms and even some retail space.
To get a flavor for the project and to understand what we are trying to accomplish, we will start by looking at the Campus Master Plan. This plan was approved by the Board of Trustees in March 1999 and was intended to form a framework for campus development. This plan is now serving as a starting point for all of our campus planning and design decisions. The master plan's recommendations for West Campus, shown here on the screen, has similarly served as a good starting point. To orient you, Atherton Street runs north south, College Avenue is on the bottom of the screen. The master plan identified future building opportunities in light blue. The darker blue, red, yellow, purple and gray rectangles indicate existing buildings. The master plan delineated some key use areas: housing to the far west, and academic quadrangles closer to Atherton Street. The master plan also indicated two building opportunities on the east side of Atherton Street on both sides of Pollock Road. It also indicated some sort of pedestrian connection, indicated by the red arrow. This was the early stage of what has evolved into a design of the IST Building. As we began to develop this land use plan into physical design, we identified five key challenges.
The first was traffic and transportation: we must be very careful that cars do not overload Atherton Street or the neighborhoods south of West Campus. Second is pedestrian safety: we must provide a way for pedestrians to safely cross Atherton Street—ideally not just in one location but in multiple locations. Third is the IST Building itself. The building's design must reflect its exciting function in order for it to be a future landmark for Penn State. Fourth is the issue of connection: it is essential that West Campus be visibly and symbolically linked to the core campus. It cannot be perceived to be a remote outpost. Our fifth challenge was good design: we must ensure that the design of West Campus emulates the qualities that we value most in the physical environments on the core campus. To assist us in addressing these challenges and in refining the West Campus Master Plan, we hired Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Massachusetts, which is a landscape architecture firm nationally renowned for campus planning. And because of the special challenges with traffic and transportation, Sasaki worked with McCormick Taylor Associates, traffic planners and engineers, to ensure that our design solution worked for traffic. You have seen this plan before, so I will not go into great detail in describing it, however, I will point out some of the key components. The ingenious solution to combine the program elements of the IST Building with a safe crossing of Atherton Street resulted in a building footprint in this configuration. The building not only connects the West Campus to the core area physically as a bridge but also academically. The School of Information Sciences and Technology and the Department of Computer Engineering links the historic part of campus to the engineering oriented academic part of the West Campus. As in the Master Plan, housing for graduate students and families is located to the far west portion of the West Campus. In order to build the eastern portion of this 200,000 square foot facility on Pollock Road, the campus needed another vehicular entrance. We determined the best spot for this was to extend Curtin Road on the north side of Rec Hall. Very briefly that is an overview of the West Campus portion of our Master Plan. So now, let us look at some of the design issues and the solutions for both the IST Building and the Curtin Road extension.
To get you oriented, this aerial photo shows Atherton Street running north and south, Pollock Road running east and west and West Halls visible in the upper right. This is the approximate footprint of the IST Building. It gives you a better feel for the magnitude of the project and the real estate that it covers. The Lions Gate, a Pioneer Gift of the Class of 1903, located at the intersection of Pollock and Atherton, shown here, they will be moved one block east to the intersection of Pollock and Burrowes. This photo taken this past winter shows the existing intersection of Pollock and Burrowes looking east toward Old Main. Now watch the screen carefully. This photo simulation shows the relocation of the Lions Gate pillars and stone seating walls. The new location will serve as the entrance to the historic core of campus. Looking at the site plan, Atherton Street runs north south through the center of the screen. Walker Building is located at the bottom, the Water Tunnel is located just across Atherton Street, Noll Lab is to the north of the site, and Burrowes Road runs north south along the right-hand side of your screen. The IST Building helps in linking west campus to the core campus. The spine of the IST Building will comprise a "campus connector" for pedestrians and for bicycles, to that will be an extension of the Pollock Road mall. Along the way, people will encounter classrooms, IST displays, an atrium, and a café. It will be an effective and enjoyable way to get people safely across Atherton Street. A park-like setting with curvilinear walks, lawn areas, and trees will provide an inviting campus landscape surrounding the IST Building. To better understand this idea of a "campus connector," it is helpful for us to look at the building's design in a cross-section format. Beginning at grade on the east and west sides, the connector rises at a four percent slope to meet the second floor and cross over Atherton Street. Comparing the cross-section with a plan view, the "campus connector" highlighted in red, study carrels, computer classrooms and meeting rooms flank this ramped pedestrian path to the south and to the north. The Cybertorium, a high-tech auditorium, is accessed from a large lobby space on the second floor. The ramps meet in the center over Atherton Street at an atrium, which contains a small café and is open to the floor above. Moving up to the third floor, the third floor houses faculty, support staff and graduate student offices along with perimeter, research laboratory spaces along the central core, and meeting rooms are interspersed between the office spaces. The IST Dean's Suite faces the south above Atherton Street. Looking at the First Floor Plan, entry to the building occurs at various locations throughout the ground level. Atherton Street divides the building footprint in two. On the eastern side of Atherton Street, a computer classroom, meeting rooms, and administrative offices for IST, E-Government, and The Solutions Institute are located. Administrative offices for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering are located across Atherton Street along with computer classrooms and access to the Cybertorium. The remainder of the floor plan is reserved for mechanical and support facilities. The following two images are computer-generated perspectives that view the IST Building from Atherton Street looking north, and from Burrowes Road looking west. Standing on the west side of Atherton looking north, this perspective shows the IST Building spanning across the road. The Water Tunnel Building is visible on the left. Next standing near West Halls, this rendering shows the proposed IST Building looking westward. To the left you can see the "campus connector" rising to meet the second floor and eventually crossing over Atherton Street. This structure will have an exterior faced with brick, glass and metal.
As I said earlier, we are really excited about this project and believe that it will become a signature building for the University Park Campus. The next several slides I will show you are photos of the Curtin Road extension project. Standing with our backs to the golf course and looking across Atherton Street, this photo shows the Curtin Road extension. By keeping the road as close to Rec Hall as possible, we were able to retain the wooded area visible on the left. This is another photo of the improvements nearing completion. Taken from the roof of Rec Hall, this photo shows the enlarged civic space that replaced the parking lot that was in front of the Nittany Lion Shrine.
Okay, now moving on to the Chemistry and Life Sciences Buildings, here are some quick facts. Construction has already begun for this $63.5 million project which will encompass approximately 182,000 square feet. Bower Lewis and Thrower of Philadelphia and Payette Associates of Boston joint ventured to design both the Chemistry and the Life Sciences Buildings. The Chemistry project is slated for completion in November 2003. The Chemistry Building will include research space for Synthetic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Instrumentation, and Mass Spectroscopy. The program also includes an NMR Facility, meeting spaces and offices for faculty, graduate students and administrative staff. As I mentioned earlier, I will show you plans for the Chemistry Building along with the new Life Sciences Building. Bower Lewis and Thrower and Payette also designed this project. The footprint is smaller than Chemistry's at about 150,000 gross square feet. The project cost is $41 million and completion is planned for October of 2003.
Programmed for the Life Sciences Building are research spaces for Animal Development, Neurosciences, Toxicology, and Plant Research. The Life Sciences Building will also include faculty, graduate student and administrative offices as well as several general-purpose classrooms and an auditorium.
I will now show you the sites that were chosen for these projects. This aerial shows the location of the two sites outlined in blue. The former Robeson Cultural Center was still standing at the time of this photo. Pollock Road runs east west at the bottom of the screen and Shortlidge Road bisects the two sites. The plan reveals the L-shaped footprint of the Chemistry Building on the left and the Life Sciences Building on the right. The two buildings are physically connected across Shortlidge Road. Four different community spaces will be developed with vegetation and hardscape materials: a Life Sciences Courtyard; the "pedestrian-first" Shortlidge Mall to the south; a space connecting to the Eisenhower Auditorium's raised plaza; and a peaceful, green Chemistry courtyard. Starting on street level of Shortlidge Mall, we are looking at the first floor of the Chemistry Building, faculty offices are located along the south facing side of this facility, administrative offices near the building's entrance along Shortlidge Road, and a majority of the research labs along the north side. The support facilities are located mostly along the central corridor through the building. A large seminar space is located in the wing that parallels Shortlidge Road. Floors two through five have similar configurations as this floor.
In designing the first floor of the Life Sciences component, office and meeting spaces are located along the south side, administrative offices near the building's entrance, research labs are interspersed with the faculty offices. The support facilities are located along the central corridor. An auditorium is located in the wing that parallels Shortlidge Road. The second through the fourth floors have similar layouts. Moving down one floor, the Life Sciences Building has a ground floor that opens onto a courtyard. Here the architects have located a student commons space, general-purpose classrooms--all accessible from the Life Sciences courtyard and the Thomas Building. At the same elevation as the Life Sciences ground floor, the basement of the Chemistry Building will house laboratories and office space. I should mention that the Life Sciences Building will also have a basement, which I do not show here--one level below the ground floor plan that is shown on the right. This basement area will contain animal research laboratories. A physical connection between the Chemistry and the Life Sciences Buildings occur at both the third and the fourth floors, through a glass-enclosed space that is a common area. It will be used for poster sessions, informal gatherings, and for of course, the movement of scientific researchers from one building to the other. The architects have prepared a series of renderings that I will show you now. We will begin by seeing the Chemistry Building from this angle, followed by a rendering of the Life Sciences Building looking west and then the proposed Shortlidge Mall from this direction. This slide shows a view looking northeast through the outdoor space created by the L-shaped Chemistry Building. Here you can see the architectural style of the building with its brick veneer on the west facing façade, and a predominately glass façade on the south, which takes advantage of natural sunlight. Spruce Cottage is visible on the left. The curved block wall on the right contains the NMR facility. Here we are standing on Pollock Fields looking west with Eisenhower Auditorium in the background on the right. This view shows the Life Sciences' south facing façade across the courtyard from the Joab Thomas Building on the left.
Finally, this rendering shows the proposed Shortlidge Mall, with the glass connection of the Chemistry and Life Sciences Buildings visible in the middle of this slide. The facades of both buildings parallel Shortlidge Road and will be made predominately of brick, designed to be harmonious with the Thomas Building in materials, colors, and massing.
This concludes my presentation. I hope that you are as excited about these three projects as we are and I would be pleased to entertain any questions that you might have.
Security Briefing
Anthony J. Baratta, Chair, Senate Committee on University Planning
May I have a motion to adjourn? The December 4, 2001 meeting of the University Faculty Senate adjourned at 3:42 PM.
Committees and Rules – Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5;
Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(e)1; and Standing Rules, Article II,
Section 6(f)1 (Legislative)
Undergraduate Education – Revision of Senate Policy 47-20: Basis for
Grades (Legislative)
Undergraduate Education – New Senate Policy 43-00: Syllabus
Admissions, Records, Scheduling and Student Aid – Reserved Spaces
Program (Informational)
Undergraduate Education – Summary of Petitions by College, Unit or
Location (Informational)
Undergraduate Education – Major Accomplishments of the Teaching and
Learning Consortium (TLC) First Two Years (Informational)
University Planning – Visual Construction Report of Academic Buildings (Informational)
University Planning – Security Briefing (Informational)
Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5;
Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6 (e)1; and
Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1
(Implementation Date: Upon approval by the President)
The Committee on Faculty Affairs report entitled "Recommendations for Emeritus/Retired Faculty" was passed on January 30, 2001 (Appendix "E") and approved by the President. Recommendation #7 of the report reads as follows:
"The Senate Committee on Committees and Rules should propose the establishment of representation of emeritus faculty in the University Faculty Senate by having a voting member elected from and by emeritus faculty."
Rationale and Recommendations
The recommendation from the Committee on Faculty Affairs suggested that one (1) emeritus Senator be given membership on the University Faculty Senate. After extensive discussion in the Committees on Committees and Rules, it was decided that not one but rather two new members be included. It became clear that both the Senate and the retired population would be better served if there were a retired faculty Senator on the Committee on Faculty Affairs and the Committee on Faculty Benefits. In both cases, there are agenda issues addressed in these committees that have implications for retired faculty.
The decision to become more inclusive and have these new faculty Senators not only from the emeritus faculty ranks but rather from all of the retired population was based on the fact that there are many retired faculty who would be very effective Senators but were never in a position to be granted emeritus status.
Recommendation #1
Change Constitution, Article II, Section 5 as follows:
Section 5
(a) The following persons shall be ex officio members of the Senate: the President of the University; the Executive Vice President and Provost of the University; the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School; the Chair of the Academic Leadership Council; the Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education; the University Registrar; the Director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies; and any elected member of the Faculty Advisory Committee who is not an elected faculty Senator.
(b) The President may appoint other University personnel to membership in the Senate on an annual basis. The total number of appointed and ex officio members (not including any member of the Faculty Advisory Committee) shall not exceed a number equal to ten (10) percent of the elected faculty Senators.
(c) The full-time, degree-seeking students at the University shall be represented by elected student Senators as follows:
1. One undergraduate student from each of the ten (10) colleges at University Park.
2. One student from each of the following locations or units:
Penn State Abington
Penn State Altoona
Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley
Penn State Erie-The Behrend College
Penn State Capital College
Penn State College of Medicine
Penn State Commonwealth College
The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University
The Division of Undergraduate Studies
The Graduate School
Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies
Whenever comparable units are added to the University or created through reorganization, each new unit shall elect one student Senator. The term of a student Senator shall be one (1) year.
Recommendation #2
Change Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(e)1 as follows:
(e) Committee on Faculty Affairs
1. Membership
(i) At least twenty (20) elected faculty Senators including at least one (1) faculty Senator from each college at University Park and one (1) faculty Senator from each of the following: Abington College, Altoona College, Penn State Erie-The Behrend College, Berks-Lehigh Valley College, Capital College, Commonwealth College, Dickinson School of Law, The College of Medicine, Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies, and University Libraries.
(ii) ONE RETIRED FACULTY SENATOR
Recommendation #3
Change in Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1 as follows:
(f) Committee on Faculty Benefits
1. Membership
(i) At least seven (7) elected faculty Senators
(ii) The Assistant Vice President for Human Resources
(iii) ONE RETIRED FACULTY SENATOR
It is proposed that the following method for fulfilling these recommendations be used:
1) The Senate Office will obtain, from the Office of Human Resources, a list of retired faculty members from the last ten (10) years who are living in Pennsylvania and the contiguous states,
2) This list will be cross-checked with the names of those who served on the Senate prior to retirement,
3) From this list of former Senators, the Committee on Committees and Rules will establish a list of candidates and the Executive Secretary will then contact the individuals and ask if they would stand for election to the Senate,
4) A ballot will be established with the individual former Senators (the order of names on the ballot will be determined by lot) who have consented to serve,
5) This ballot will also have a line marked "Other" for write-in votes so that other members of the retired population can be included in the voting,
6) The ballot will be made available to all retired faculty,
7) A simple plurality vote will determine the winners (the first year of the election two retired faculty Senators will be elected). In the case of a tie the Committee on Committees and Rules will determine a winner,
8) Two retired faculty members will be elected. The Senate Committee on Committees and Rules will appoint one to serve on the Committee on Faculty Affairs and one to serve on the Committee on Faculty Benefits,
9) The term of office will be four (4) years. In the first year of the election, one Senator will be elected to a four (4) year term and one to a two (2) year term,
10) If a retired Senator cannot fulfill his/her term,
AN alternate from the last election will be appointed to do so,
11) The elected retired faculty will be full voting members of the Senate.
Joseph J. Cecere
Dwight Davis
Terry Engelder
Joanna Floros
Sabih I. Hayek
Deidre E. Jago
Arthur C. Miller
John W. Moore
John S. Nichols
Jean Landa Pytel, Chair
Cara-Lynne Schengrund
Stephen M. Smith
Valerie N. Stratton, Vice-Chair
Abmayr, Susan
Achterberg, Cheryl L.
Ambrose, Anthony
Ammon, Richard L.
Atwater, Deborah F.
Aydin, Kultegin
Baggett, Connie D.
Balog, Theresa A.
Baratta, Anthony J.
Barbato, Guy F.
Barshinger, Richard N.
Bazirjian, Rosann
Bernhard, Michael H.
Bise, Christopher J.
Blasko, Dawn G.
Blumberg, Melvin
Bonneau, Robert H.
Book, Patricia A.
Boothby, Thomas E.
Borhan, Ali
Breakey, Laurie Powers
Bridges, K. Robert
Brinker, Dan T.
Brown, Douglas K.
Browning, Barton W.
Brunsden, Victor W.
Burchard, Charles L.
Burkhart, Keith K.
Cahir, John J.
Caldwell, Linda L.
Calvert, Clay
Cardamone, Michael J.
Carlson, Richard A.
Carter, Arthur W.
Casteel, Mark A.
Cecere, Joseph J.
Chirico, JoAnn
Clariana, Roy B.
Coraor, Lee D.
Curran, Brian A.
Curtis, Wayne R.
Davis, Dwight
Dawson, John W.
DeCastro, W. Travis
Deines, Peter
DeJong, Gordon F.
DeRooy, Jacob
DeVos, Mackenzie L.
Disney, Diane M.
Donovan, James M.
Eaton, Nancy L.
Eckhardt, Caroline D.
Egolf, Roger A.
Elder, James T.
Ellis, Bill
Erickson, Rodney A.
Eslinger, Paul J.
Esposito, Jacqueline R.
Evensen, Dorothy H.
Floros, Joanna
Frank, Thomas A.
Frank, William M.
Franz, George W.
Gapinski, Andrzej J.
Geiger, Roger L.
Georgopulos, Peter D.
Geschwindner, Louis F.
Gilmour, David S.
Glumac, Thomas E.
Golden, Lonnie M.
Gouran, Dennis S.
Gray, Timothy N.
Greene, Wallace H.
Gutgold, Nichola D.
Hanes, Madlyn L.
Hanley, Elizabeth A.
Harvey, Irene E.
Hewitt, Julia C.
High, Kane M.
Holcomb, E. Jay
Holen, Dale A.
Hufnagel, Pamela P.
Hunt, Brandon B.
Hurson, Ali R.
Jacobs, Janis E.
Jago, Deidre E.
Johnson, Ernest W.
Johnson, Karen E.
Jones, W. Terrell
Jurs, Peter C.
Kennedy, Richard R.
Kenney, W. Larry
Kephart, Kenneth B.
Koul, Ravinder
Lakoski, Joan M.
Li, Luen-Chau
Manbeck, Harvey B.
Marshall, Wayne K.
Marsico, Salvatore A.
Master, Andrew K.
Maxwell, Kevin R.
Mayer, Jeffrey S.
McCarney, Michelle H.
McCarty, Ronald L.
McCorkle, Sallie M.
McCollum, Gwenn E.
McDonel, James L.
Medoff, Howard P.
Milakofsky, Louis
Miller, Arthur C.
Minard, Robert D.
Mookerjee, Rajen
Moore, John W.
Morin, Karen H.
Mueller, Alfred
Navin, Michael J.
Nelson, Murry R.
Nichols, John S.
Nistor, Victor
Ozment, Judy P.
Pangborn, Robert N.
Patterson, Henry O.
Pauley, Laura L.
Pazdziorko, Nicholas J.
Pearson, Katherine C.
Pell, Eva J.
Perrine, Joy M.
Pietrucha, Martin T.
Preston, Deborah
Pugh, B. Franklin
Pytel, Jean Landa
Rebane, P. Peter
Richards, David R.
Richards, Winston A.
Richman, Irwin
Ricketts, Robert D.
Ritter, Michael C.
Romano, John J.
Romberger, Andrew B.
Rowe, William A.
Russell, David W.
Sachs, Howard G.
Sandmeyer, Louise E.
Schengrund, Cara-Lynne
Schott, Adam A.
Secor, Robert
Seybert, Thomas A.
Simmonds, Patience L.
Slobounov, Semyon
Smith, James F.
Smith, Stephen M.
Snavely, Loanne L.
Spanier, Graham B.
Stace, Stephen W.
Staneva, Marieta
Stoffels, Shelley M.
Stratton, Valerie N.
Strauss, James A.
Strickman, Mark
Su, Mila C.
Tachibana, Reiko
Thomson, Joan S.
Tingo, Jennifer
Tormey, Brian B.
Troester, Rodney L.
Troxell, D. Joshua
Urenko, John B.
Varadan, Vasundara V.
Wager, J. James
Wanner, Adrian J.
Webb, Sunny M.
White, Eric R.
Willits, Billie S.
Ziegler, Gregory R.
Hockenberry, Betsy S.
Price, Vickie R.
Simpson, Linda A.
Walk, Sherry F.
Youtz, Susan C.
157 Total Elected
7 Total Ex Officio
10 Total Appointed
174 Total Attending
Committees and Rules - Changes in Constitution, Article II, Section 5; Standing Rules,
Article II, Section 6(e)1; and Standing Rules, Article II, Section 6(f)1 (Legislative)
Faculty Affairs – Best Practices for Recruitment & Retention of Women and Minority Faculty (Informational)
Libraries – Trends in the University Libraries' Budget Allocation (Informational)
Outreach Activities – Update on the Status of Penn State's World Campus (Informational)
Senate Council – University Faculty Census Report – 2002-03 (Informational)
Senate Council – Report on Fall 2001 Campus Visits (Informational)
University Planning - Update on Classroom Conditions (Informational)


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Boa tarde amigos, verdadeiramente enviar um torpedo web gratuito est cada vez mais oneroso devido ao bloqueio das operadoras mveis. H ainda os servios que prometem entregar meu torpedo mas quase nunca chegam recepiente final. Alguns como o Mundo oi e o Oi Torpedo funcionam mas e para as outras operadoras? E os que dizem que mandam e nada chega. Para onde est indo as meus torpedos? E para a Tim, Vivo? Alguma Idia? Ou significa ter de desembolsar?. Desculpem, realmente est difcil achar servios para enviar torpedos de graa.
Hugh, and pigs fly 😛
Best regards,
Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol
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Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol
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The Zune concentrates on being a Portable Media Player. Not a web browser. Not a recreation machine. Possibly sooner or later it's going to do even better in those areas, however for now it is a unbelievable solution to arrange and hearken to your music and movies, and is with out peer in that regard. The iPod's strengths are its internet browsing and apps. If those sound extra compelling, maybe it is your greatest choice.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sat, May 5th Lincoln Park Chamber Hosts ARTrageous on Clark St. in Lincoln Park 10 to 5pm
Submitted by toiled_in_oil on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 10:36
Open call: Chicago Plein Air Painters! May 5th from 10-5 the Lincoln Park Chamber & Big Buzz Idea Group are hosting Artrageous on Clark St in Lincoln Park. They want artists painting on the streets thruout the day. It will be well-publicised and you should make some good contacts!! Contact LP Chamber of Commerce or Melissa @ Big Buzz Idea Group to get more info!
~~Thanks to Nancie for this info!


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Hybrid Plastics manufactures POSS® Nanostructured® Chemicals, Flow Aids, Dispersion Aids and Thermoset resins. If you need to manufacture at the 1-10 nm length scale or to simply expand the performance envelope of an existing material please contact us or view our existing product catalogs, brochures, and iFomercials.
If you have visited our site in the past, you will notice a number of changes. Please be sure to update any links or bookmarks you may have.
POSS® is Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane. Like all silsesquioxanes, POSS® has a chemical formula of (RSiO1.5)n, but unlike other silsesquioxanes, POSS® has a regular, often cubic, inorganic cage structure. To learn more, watch the What is POSS® iFomercial.


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Just serialize the set of all things and be done with it
Made law last year, the U.S. Drug Quality and Serialization Act adds a serial number to drug packages and labels within four years, and recommends "an interoperable electronic system that traces serialized product at the unit level through the supply chain" within 10 years.
For pharmaceutical manufacturers, "that's serialization at the smallest unit of sale, serialized cases by 2017 and full aggregation and serialization by 2023," says Matthew Thompson, a Xyntek company vice president. Xyntek provides serialization and aggregation software solutions powered by Antares tracking system.
DQSA is the start of a U.S. standard for track-and-trace. Its enactment precludes meeting California's so-called drug pedigree law. Wide variance in international standards will remain. In China and Turkey, for example, the government issues serial numbers for pharma makers to use.
Given the above, serialization was a topic of discussion at March's Interphex held in New York's Javits Center. To do serialization, a process manufacturer has to manage its serial numbers globally and deploy them on the plant floor. A vision system confirms the applied data, which must then be shared with the supply chain.
Transactions matter
What kind of vendor or supplier best supports those efforts – a printer maker, independent-software vendor or enterprise-system vendor? The printer maker has the shop-floor interface. The ISV wants your business. Maybe the ERP vendor has some basic functionality already.
Companies like Tracelink or Axway can generate serial numbers, "or we can do that for you as part of a system that also generates recipes — what makes up an order and its labeling elements," Thompson says. "Serialization needs to be managed on its own: print, verify, commission and aggregate."
The law also gives the Food & Drug Administration authority to regulate companies that compound sterile drugs and ship them across state lines. Compounding used to be the mixing of tailored doses for individual patients. Today it is big business and the very largest "outsourcing facilities" will be regulated by the FDA, but exempt from the full spectrum of regulation.
For manufacturers, the tracing requirements that start Jan. 1, 2015 include provision of transaction information, history and statement in a single document, either paper or electronic, to the initial purchaser.
Numbers game
With all those serial numbers being issued, the ability to print labels on demand will be more important than ever. Other changes to how warning labels must be printed also will make it less easy to pre-print.
Many companies today pre-print color labels and then later a monochrome printer adds any variable data such as a bar code. Falling color inkjet printer-technology cost is making it easier to eliminate this clumsy process that tends moreover to greatly increase pre-printed label stocks.
Kelly Ng, a health-care product manager for Epson says using a printer with feeder and take-up, "you're able to work in tandem with the ERP system, can serialize batches and run lot or expiration dates," says Ng. "Plenty of printers have speed and run high quantities, the trick is to do that and custom-printing in an production environment."
Matt Alldrich, a director of marketing at Videojet points to the out-size importance of the printing function. "Compared to some of your other capital costs, printing likely isn't a great expense. But if you are not 'future-proofing' your printers, you could end up in situations where the inability to print is shutting down production."


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Beads of Hope
December 14, 2012 at 9:00am — December 15, 2012 12:00pm
| Fanwood Scotch Plains YMCA | Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
Posted December 11, 2012
Content Options
"Beads of Hope "is a Fanwood-Scotch Plains Rotary project that benefits the girls of "Set her Free" in Kampala, Uganda. All the jewelry is handmade by the girls at the rehabilitation house and 100% of the profits go to this cause.
Where: YMCA, Fanwood Scotch Plains, NJ
When: Friday, December 14th, 9AM -12PM & 4-8PM
Saturday, December 15- 9AM-12PM
Stop by and purchase some beautiful jewelry for gifts or for yourself. Each piece is artful and unique. The sale of these beads will help pay for food, shelter and the rehabilitation process of these young girls, giving them a way out.
Contact Information
Kiran K. Dhaliwal IIDA CID
Cell: 908-403-1985


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Presented before
Rising Oil Prices, Declining National Security
May 22, 2008
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, about ten years ago,
Osama bin Laden stated that his target price for oil is $144 a barrel and that
the American people, who allegedly robbed the Muslim people of their oil, owe
each Muslim man, woman, and child $30,000 in back payments. At the time, $144 a
barrel seemed farfetched to most. Today, bin Laden is a mere $20 a barrel short
of his target and there is little doubt it will be attained. I would like to
impress upon this Committee that $144 a barrel oil will be perceived as a
victory for the Jihadist movement and a reaffirmation that the economic warfare
component of its campaign against the West is a resounding success. There is no
need to elaborate on the implications of such a victory in terms of loss of
Deeply embroiled in a struggle against radical Islam,
nuclear proliferation, and totalitarianism, the
While we in the
OPEC, spearheaded by
Source: WTRG Economics
The flow of petrodollars from consuming economies to the
coffers of producers not only casts a large shadow over America's prospects of
winning the war on terrorism but it also limits U.S. diplomatic maneuverability
on central issues like human rights and nuclear proliferation. Perhaps the most powerful statement of the impact on
One of these states is
Stripping oil of its strategic value
The unique strategic importance of oil to the modern
economy—beyond that of any other commodity today—stems from the fact that the
global economy's very enabler, the transportation sector, is utterly dependent
on it, with 220 million cars and trucks in the United States alone (today,
contrary to popular belief, only 2 percent of U.S. electricity is generated
from oil, and conversely only about 2 percent of U.S. oil demand is due to
electricity generation.) With 97 percent of
Neither efforts to expand petroleum supply nor those to
crimp petroleum demand will be enough to reduce
Oil's strategic value derives from its virtual monopoly on transportation fuel. This monopoly, which gives intolerable power to OPEC and the nations that dominate oil ownership and production, must be broken. Not long ago, technology broke the power of another strategic commodity. Until around the end of the nineteenth century salt had such a position because it was the only means of preserving meat. Odd as it seems today, salt mines conferred national power and wars were even fought over control of them. Today, no nation sways history because it has salt mines. Salt is still a useful commodity for a range of purposes. We import some salt, so if one defines independence as autarky we are not "salt independent". But to most of us there is no "salt dependence" problem at all — because canning, electricity and refrigeration decisively ended salt's monopoly of meat preservation, and thus its strategic importance. We can and must do the same thing to oil.
Today's vehicles have an average lifespan of 17 years and,
for the most part, can run only on petroleum. Every year 17 million new cars
roll onto
At this point, the fallacy that increased use of biofuels in
general, and corn ethanol in particular, is driving world hunger must be
addressed. The primary drivers of price increases for food
commodities spanning the spectrum from fish to rice (neither of which are used
to make fuel) and beyond are the massive increases in oil prices -- raising the
cost of distribution, labor, packaging and so forth; commodity speculation
driven by a weak dollar and increased calorie demand from hundreds of millions
of people in China and India who have risen out of poverty and bare
subsistence. Further, despite corn ethanol production, the U.S. corn food and
feed product has increased 34 percent over the last five years, and U.S. food
exports overall have increased 23 percent on the year.
The International
Energy Agency has reiterated that biofuels are key to keeping the lid on an
overheated transportation fuel market. According to Merrill Lynch, without the
increase in biofuels production, oil prices would have been 15 percent higher,
which at current oil prices translates into a savings of over $80 billion a
year to the
Since we hardly generate any electricity
from oil, using electricity as a transportation fuel enables the full spectrum
of electricity sources to compete with petroleum. Plug in hybrid electric
vehicles (PHEVs) can reach oil economy levels of 100 miles per gallon of
gasoline without compromising the size, safety, or power of a vehicle. The key
is changing our thinking from miles per gallon to miles per gallon of oil-based
fuel – it is not the total energy consumption of the vehicle which is the
problem, it is the portion of that energy that comes from petroleum. If a PHEV
is also a flexible-fuel vehicle powered by 85 percent alcohol and 15 percent
gasoline, oil economy could reach over 500
miles per gallon of gasoline.
Ideally, plug-in hybrids would be charged at night in home or apartment
garages, when electric utilities have significant reserve capacity. The
Department of Energy estimates that over 70
percent of the
Thinking Out of the Barrel
A nationwide deployment of
flex-fuel cars, flex fuel plug-in hybrids, and alternative fuels could take
place within two decades. But such a transformation will not occur by
itself. In a perfect world government would not need to intervene in the energy
market, but in a time of war, the
Every year that passes without Congressional action to
ensure that new cars sold in


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Tag: Americans
Fumich and Nelson run from D.C. to Boston to aid bombing victims
By Guest Blogger on June 21, 2013 at 9:28 AM
By guest blogger Chris Tasher Earlier this month, two Americans ran and ran and ran and ran … day and night … until 450 miles and five long days were behind them. They were on a mission to raise funds for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings and to raise spirits. Americans, they knew, […]
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Shepherd's Appreciation Week Celebration 2013
October 6th – 20th @ 5 pm, October 25th @ 7 pm, October 27th @ 10:30 am & 5 pm
The most urgent need of the modern church is for the restoration of the Prophetic Ministry. The Prophetic voice has been silent. Now in our time it is being restored. Lets begin to honor the Prophetic voice in our midst and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church in this hour. The Prophetic gift is from God and its purpose is to provide a way for man to speak forth the mind and counsel of God for repentance to be taught and righteousness to be preached in order to bring restoration. In recent years the gift of prophecy has been rediscovered, but there is still a desperate shortage of prophets. The church will not come to true maturity until God has raised up prophets among His people. God knows who His prophets are. God tells the prophet what to say and the prophet tells others what God has said to live a prophetic life.
The theme for year 2013 is entitled "Audacity, Assignment, & Anointing of a Faithful Leader: Honoring the Voice of the Prophet." The foundational scripture can be found in Ezekiel 37:3. We take great pleasure in announcing and extending to each of you a very personal invitation to join us for our annual "Shepherd's Appreciation Week Celebration 2013." The celebration dates are as follows: Each Sunday in October (6th, 13th, 20th) at 5:00 p.m., Friday October 25, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. This year's host will be St Michael Plaza Hotel located at 7800 North IH-35, Austin, Texas 78753. We will culminate our celebration on Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 5:00 p.m.
Distinguished speakers include:
One of the greatest blessings a true believer has is to hear and know the voice of God. It is through hearing and obeying the voice of God that we gather the harvest and expand the Kingdom of God. There is more reason to be encouraged through the good and powerful things that have been accomplished through prophetic ministry. By honoring those who walk in the prophetic gift we receive the blessing of that gift and life.
For more information you may contact Elder Lynel Gaines at (855) 45-FRESH x102 or via email at: firstname.lastname@example.com. We have enclosed a flier with an outline of the schedule that you can give to others who might be interested. For those who listen and obey, they are about to move forward into the greatest outpouring of God's Spirit that the world has ever known. We look forward to seeing you at this year's annual celebration!
Fresh Impact Christian Center


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Lone elliptical galaxies tend to be younger than those found in clusters of galaxies, according to astronomers in the US. The discovery could mean that scientists' estimates of the distances to these galaxies are wrong.
Elliptical galaxies are ellipsoidal in shape, in contrast to spiral galaxies, such as the Milky Way, which have a thin disc of stars and delicate spiral arms. Many astronomers believe that a large elliptical galaxy forms after two or more galaxies collide.
Reinaldo de Carvalho of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, and Stanislav Djorgovski of the California Institute of Technology studied a sample of 100 large elliptical galaxies within 300 million light years of Earth. Some of the galaxies belong to galaxy clusters, while others are what astronomers call 'field' galaxies, and not part of any galaxy cluster.
The scientists found evidence that field ellipticals tend to be younger than cluster ellipticals. ...
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BlackBerry Media Sync 3.0 released
A new version of BlackBerry Media Sync has been made available by RIM updating the software to version 3.0.
Media Sync 3.0 allows BlackBerry users to sync their desktop iTunes or Windows Media Player music with via USB "simply and quickly".
In addition to an improved interface, Media Sync 3.0 adds the ability to sync images to and from a device as well as add folders for syncing from a PC to a handset.
As far as pictures go, the software includes an option to optimise pictures for the phone with a "smart memory management" tool that shrinks down files to around 2% of the original size.
BlackBerry Media Sync 3.0 is available for PC and Mac via BlackBerry Desktop Manager for OS 4.6 and over but supports OS 4.2 and over, it's available for free via www.blackberry.com/mediasync.


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All-Star: Twitter voting opens Thursday at 9 a.m. PT
VOTE on Twitter to send Timbers players to MLS All-Star Game, Twitter polls close tonight 8:59p
June 19, 2013
Since fan voting for the 2013 AT&T MLS All-Star Game opened on June 10, the ballots have been flying in for the All-Star Fan XI.
Thursday, a new wrinkle will officially be added to the mix: The Twitter vote.
How does it all work? Here's what you need to know:
- Voting is open until from 9am PT Thursday, June 20 to 8:59pm PT Friday, June 21, 2013. A short window, so make sure you get as many tweets in as you can.
An eligible vote consists of the hashtag #MLSAllStar
- AND the player's full name (first and last required) with or without a space (Example: Diego Valeri, or DiegoValeri and Donovan Ricketts or DonovanRicketts);
- OR their twitter @handle (Example: @WillJohnson04, @DiegoChara21, @darlingtonnagbe, @mikeymomoney2).
RT this message:
RT this early & often: #MLSAllStar #DiegoValeri #DonovanRicketts @WillJohnson04, @DiegoChara21, @darlingtonnagbe, @mikeymomoney2 #RCTID
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) June 20, 2013
- A user may vote for multiple players in a tweet; however, a user may not vote for a single player multiple times within one tweet.
- There is no limit to the number of tweets a user may submit for any one player. Go nuts.
- Each twitter vote counts equal to one text vote, or one online vote.
So that's the deal. Get your Twitter game ready, the All-Star Fan XI depends on it.


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Fry, CH; Carey, P; Mundy, AR; Sheridan, DJ; (1999) Altered conduction in left ventricular hypertrophy. In: Sheridan, DJ, (ed.) Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. (113 - 121). Churchill Communications Europe, London
Full text not available from this repository.
|Book chapter
|Altered conduction in left ventricular hypertrophy
|Heart, Myocardium
|UCL classification:
|UCL > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Biosciences (Division of)
UCL > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Surgery and Interventional Science (Division of) > Research Department of General Surgery
Archive Staff Only: edit this record


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Expedia.ca Mobile App Takes Flight New app update now allows flight bookings on more than 130 airlines and mobile-only hotel deals via sleek new interface TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 01/28/13 -- Editors Note: There are two photos associated with this press release. Expedia.ca, Canada's leading online travel provider, today announced a significant update to its existing free Expedia app that now allows travellers to instantly research and book flights on more than 130 airlines via a beautifully designed and intuitive interface. While this newest update still allows travellers to book from 140,000 hotel properties, Canadians will now also enjoy access to mobile-only hotel deals of up to 60 per cent off properties worldwide all brought to life with new, crisp destination imagery. The updated Expedia travel app, available free in Canada for iPhone and Android platforms, can be d ownloaded at www.expedia.ca/app. "Expedia.ca has always been about allowing travellers to book their trip, their way, and this app update brings this belief to the next level by delivering flights to the palm of their hand," said Sean Shannon, Vice President and Managing Director of Expedia Canada. "We are thrilled to bring Canadians an app that allows them to book flight and hotel in Canadian dollars within the same app. Both iPhone and Android users will be impressed with the app's new sleek design, ease of use, comprehensive flight and hotel choices and speed of booking. We've worked hard to bring the online travel booking experience Canadians have come to love and expect from Expedia.ca to their mobile device." The newly updated mobile app features the following improvements: -- Introducing Flights: Travellers can now view, sort and book flights - to domestic and international destinations - on more than 130 airlines. Flights can be sorted by price, departure time, arrival time or duration. Sorting is a quick and simple process and travellers can checkout easily via a single swipe. -- Rich Hotel Visuals: Upwards of 140,000 hotel properties - and literally millions of hotel rooms worldwide - are accessible via the Expedia app with graphics that illustrate every last room. Rooms can be sorted via popularity, price, deals and ratings. -- Mobile-Only Hotel Deals: Upon launching the app, travellers will see hotel deals available exclusively on their phones. In some cities, rooms are available for up to 60 per cent off when booked via the Expedia app. New Update Builds off Success of Original Expedia Hotels App The original Expedia Hotels app launched in the spring of 2011 to great success. The Expedia Hotel app was downloaded just over 470,000 times here in Canada and its popularity was evident in the iTunes Canada and Google Play stores. It has consistently ranked in the Top 10 free travel apps on iTunes in Canada since November 2012 and was featured in Google's Best Apps of 2012. Of the mobile hotel bookings made by Canadians, 12 of the top 20 destinations were within Canada, with Paris being the only non-North American destination and the remainder of the top destinations located in the United States. Interestingly, 59 per cent of mobile hotel bookings made by Canadians in 2012 were for same day check-ins. About Expedia Inc. Expedia, Inc. operates Canada's most visited full-service online and mobile travel service, Expedia.ca. To help Canadians plan and purchase travel, Expedia, Inc. provides the best combination of scheduled and charter flights, car and hotel reservations, vacation packages, destination activities, cruises, trip insurance and traveller-authored content. Expedia customers are supported by customer support agents available 24 hours a day, seven days a week via a toll-free number and email response. Expedia, Expedia.ca, the Airplane logo and Vacation Deprivation are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. (C) 2013 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. CST: 2029030-50. To view the photos associated with this press release, please visit the following links: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20130125-VCimage1LG.png http://www.marketwire.com/library/20130125-VCimage2LG.png Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20130125-VCimage1LG.png Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20130125-VCimage2LG.png Contacts: Veritas Inc. Emily Vear 416-955-4590 email@example.com
Expedia.ca Mobile App Takes Flight
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THREE primitive humans who scrambled down a volcano's slopes more than 325,000 years ago have left their footprints fossilised in volcanic ash. If the ages of the trails are confirmed, they will be the earliest known footprints of our
Paolo Mietto of Padua University in Italy and his team examined three sets of footprints on the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy. Known to locals as "devils' trails", the footprints are fossilised in ash deposited by an eruption that has been dated to 385,000 to 325,000 years ago by radiometric techniques.
One person left a track of 27 footprints in a zigzag pattern, which probably allowed them to descend the steep slope more easily. Another track of 19 prints shows a gentle curve, but there are occasional palm prints where the walker must have put a hand on the ground to avoid slipping (see Graphic). A third track of ...
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The zero of a function is any replacement for the variable that will produce an answer of zero. Graphically, the real zero of a function is where the graph of the function crosses the x‐axis; that is, the real zero of a function is the x‐intercept(s) of the graph of the function.
Find the zeros of the function f ( x) = x 2 – 8 x – 9.
Find x so that f ( x) = x 2 – 8 x – 9 = 0. f ( x) can be factored, so begin there.
Therefore, the zeros of the function f ( x) = x 2 – 8 x – 9 are –1 and 9. This means
f (–1) = 0 and f (9) = 0
If a polynomial function with integer coefficients has real zeros, then they are either rational or irrational values. Rational zeros can be found by using the rational zero theorem.
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Anne and Aaron at the re-dedication of the La Salle County Courthouse.
We all feel some kind of love for a certain place (or places). That's why we're preservationists. So what happens when two preservationists fall in love? In the case of one Texas couple, meeting each other launched a commitment to celebrating the places they love together -- by visiting all the historic courthouses across the Lone Star State.
I talked with Anne Cornell shortly after she and her fiancé, Aaron Mason, attended the Comal County Courthouse celebration, which was one of the first events in our "I Love Texas Courthouses" campaign. Having just completed their courthouse journey on December 1, 2012, their tale of Texas love is inspiring in more ways than one.... Read More →
The National Trust for Historic Preservation works to save America's historic places. Join us today to help protect the places that matter to you.
Emily Potter is a copywriter at the National Trust. She enjoys writing about places of all kinds, the stories that make them special, and the people who love them enough to save them.


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Pet Care: Probiotics help dog's digestionDear Dr. Fox: My 18-month-old black Lab mix (rescued two months ago) frequently has loose stools. Not watery, just loosely formed. This doesn't seem to bother him, but I am concerned that he will need to have his anal glands cleaned out frequently (as per his vet). He tested positive for giardia and then tested negative after being treated.
By: By Dr. Michael Fox, INFORUM