1:20 p.m., May 9, 2007--At its final meeting of the academic year, the University Faculty Senate elected officers and confirmed new committee members, granted permanent status to a bachelor degree and agreed to include two early reviews in the faculty promotion and tenure dossier.

Officers for the 2007-08 academic year are Amy Johnson, associate professor of nursing, president elect; Jeffrey J. Jordan, professor of philosophy, vice president; and Don Lehman, assistant professor of medical technology, senate secretary; Jack Baroudi, professor of business and economics, chairperson of the Committee on Committees and Nominations (COCAN); and Robert Opila, professor of materials science, COCAN member.

Senators gave permanent status to a bachelor of science with a major in management information systems, which had been granted provisional approval by the senate in 2002. Course changes for majors in electrical engineering, computer engineering and English education were approved without challenge.

Proposed changes in the Faculty Handbook regarding promotion dossiers evoked a longer discussion. As approved, the change reads: “Faculty members shall be required to include their contract renewal reviews as part of their dossier for promotion and tenure.”

Periodic review intervals are at least every two years for instructors and assistant professors, every three to five years for tenured associate professors and every five to seven years for full professors.

In another approved change to the handbook, senators agreed that “all work in rank, even if conducted at other institutions of higher education, will be considered for promotion and tenure.”

Speaking before the meeting, Provost Dan Rich told the senators that, as of May 1, some 3,600 freshmen have enrolled in the University including 470 new members of the Honors Program. The new class was carefully chosen from 23,000 applicants, Rich said, and is “the most racially and ethnically diverse class in the University's history.”

The selection of new graduate students is ongoing, Rich said, but he expects the University will enroll 1,050 new graduate students from some 5,000 applications.