The Faculty Senate of Metropolitan State University of Denver hosted its biweekly meetings Sept. 7 and 21 to share announcements, listen to guests of the Senate and discuss policy changes.
Senate guests
- Christine Shiekh, Ph.D., affiliate professor of Sociology and faculty lead for MSU Denver’s voter–engagement project, gave a presentation on the voter-engagement project. Elizabeth Parmelee, Ph.D., associate vice president of Undergraduate Studies, was awarded a $30,000 grant to fund the campaign, which is looking for faculty members to join as ambassadors.
- Sam Jay, Ph.D., director of Faculty Affairs, gave an overview of the process for proposed handbook changes and introduced the department’s new SharePoint site.
- Shaun Schafer, Ph.D., associate vice president for Curriculum and Policy Development, asked the Faculty Senate for six committee members of each academic subdivision to give final approval for digital badges. Sens. Brian Hutchinson, Marcia Aziz-Walch, John Rief, Rob Niemeyer, Laurel Lee and Zsuzsa Balogh volunteered for the committee.
- Megan Hughes, Ph.D., director of the Honors Program, and Kristy Duran, Ph.D., professor of Biology and director of Undergraduate Research, presented on MSU Denver’s Research Symposium through the Honors Program.
- Emily Willan, director of operations and planning for Student Affairs, discussed MSU Denver’s Don’t Cancel That Class Program. The program brings valuable resources to students on days when instructors need to cancel class.
- Cecily Cullen, director and curator of the Center for Visual Arts, spoke to faculty members about “Banana Craze” and “Cultivate”, the current exhibitions at the CVA, which last through Oct. 22.
Discussions
Academic Policy Committee’s technical changes to catalog and academic-policy development
Sen. Jenny Allert, MSN Ed., RNC-OB and chair of the APC, led discussions regarding technical changes to the catalog that would replace three outdated links and removed Geography 1100 as an option for the Standard Geography exam, as it should be only in the Higher Exam field. She then went into detail about how academic policies are developed from requesting, data collection, presentation, faculty voice, communication and decision.
Adjustments to catalog language for international students
Allert also proposed a change in catalog language to the body regarding the admission of international students. The proposed change removes the requirement of having an F-1 visa and can be fully read here.
Board of Trustees update
Meredith Jeffers, Ph.D., faculty trustee, updated the Faculty Senate on the Board of Trustees meeting Aug. 25-26 with information regarding the approved salary increase, MSU Denver fundraising goals, updates from the Auraria Higher Education Center and more. More information from the August Board of Trustees meeting can be found here.
Minutes
The minutes from Aug. 24 and Sept. 7 were approved in both September Faculty Senate meetings.
Votes
There were no votes taken in either of the September meetings.