In its final meeting of the academic year on May 2, the University of Delaware Faculty Senate honored excellence in scholarly community engagement, approved new degrees and discussed potential class schedule changes, among other topics.

Provost Robin Morgan opened the meeting, sharing positive news about this year’s increase in student applications. She also reminded attendees that President Biden is the Commencement speaker and said that she hopes for a strong turnout from faculty.

During the meeting, President Chris Williams, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology, presented the 2022 Faculty Senate Excellence Awards to:

• Cindy Ott (history), Faculty Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement
• Ryan Beveridge (psychological and brain sciences), Faculty Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement
• Brandie Pugh (doctoral student, sociology), Graduate Student Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement
• April Kloxin (chemical and biomolecular engineering), Excellence in Mid-Career Faculty Scholarship
• Allison Karpyn (education and human development), Excellence in Mid-Career Faculty Scholarship

Amy Hagstrom, who is a professor of nursing and the director of global initiatives for the College of Health Sciences, was awarded the 2022 Jon Olson Exemplary Senate Service Award.

Due to a technical issue with the awards website, Excellence in Teaching and Advising awards were not given this year. Any nominations that were captured will be considered next year, and all nominees will receive a letter of recognition.

The Consent Agenda portion of the meeting included a single vote to approve 75 undergraduate and graduate proposals.

Among the items approved on the Regular Agenda were resolutions to create a Sustainability Certificate; and establish, provisionally for five years, a combined bachelor of science and master of science degree in engineering physics/electrical and computer engineering, a doctoral degree in environmental economics, a master of science degree in environmental economics and a master of science degree in environmental science. The Senate also permanently approved the applied molecular biology and biotechnology major, as it reaches the end of its provisional five-year review this year.

After debate, the Faculty Senate approved by a 55-6 vote to revise the credit hour definition. Under the current UD class meeting pattern, contact time for a three-credit course is 1,950 minutes of direct instruction — 300 minutes short of the federal requirements for course contact time. UD can achieve compliance by lengthening classes meeting three days a week from 50 to 55 minutes, by lengthening classes meeting twice a week from 75 to 80 minutes, and by adding one more day to the number of instructional days per semester.

These changes go into effect in the fall of 2023, and it is under discussion about how the academic calendar will be adjusted. Senate President-elect Nancy Getchell, professor of kinesiology and applied physiology and professor of women and gender studies, noted that time won’t be added to the beginning or end of the 14-week semester.

Also up for debate was the recommendation to revise the excused absence policy.

The proposed change included no longer requiring documentation for missing a week or less of classes. Naomi Nash, the director for student success initiatives, gave an overview of the proposed changes and said that the new policy is more student-centric and benefits students, faculty and assistant deans.

Several senators raised concerns that missing a week of class could be detrimental to a students' academic outcomes.

“I consider a week rather a long time in many cases,” said John Jebb, professor of English. “A week is a unit of the syllabus. A week may be missing a whole author in an English class, missing discussion of a work, missing a particular subject. A week is a long time for an absence without a statement from a dean.”

Many senators also expressed worries of students missing exams and said that language regarding missed assessments needed to be added to the policy.

John Morgan, associate professor of physics and astronomy, suggested that the Faculty Senate consider neither voting it down nor approving it, but rather sending it back to committee for further work; the motion to do that passed 44-6, and the policy will be discussed again in the fall.

For new business, Senator Morgan proposed a resolution allowing faculty members to decide the modalities of teaching their courses (in person or via Zoom) and suggested a review of the library hours, proposing longer hours.

Earlier in the meeting, Provost Morgan, who is retiring in June, expressed gratitude for her time at the University and excitement for the future of UD.

“I want to spend a minute thanking everybody I've worked with on the executive team and to everyone who gives up their time and their energy to try to help shared governance work at the University of Delaware,” she said via Zoom. “I certainly enjoyed my time working with the group, and I've learned a lot. I’m very excited about what the next few years will bring. I think that what we're seeing is just an incredibly bright and exciting future.”

Williams thanked Morgan for her work with the Faculty Senate.

“You have had such an illustrious career here at UD. Your role as provost has been just tremendous,” he said. “I always talk about the Blue Hen way, and you embody that in every way. And so we thank you for all of your time.”