In its final meeting of the 2022 fall semester on Monday, Dec. 5, the University of Delaware Faculty Senate honored excellence in scholarly community engagement, discussed changes to the academic calendar and voted to increase the number of elected faculty senators, among other items.

Provost Laura Carlson began her portion of the meeting by thanking President Dennis Assanis for his presentation at the General Faculty meeting, which was held immediately prior to the Faculty Senate meeting in Pearson Hall.

“What a fabulous overview of incredible accomplishments,” Carlson said. “The one thought that kept recurring to me was this: I'm so glad I joined this community. You are an incredible faculty, and that work represents such tremendous effort on your part.”

At the meeting, Carlson gave updates on searches for positions in the Office of the Provost, which include the associate provost and academic director for the Office of Sustainability, the associate provost for faculty development, and the vice provost for academic programs and University initiatives. Interviews are in the final stages.

Amanda Steele-Middleton, UD’s registrar, gave an update on calendar changes that will begin in the 2023-2024 academic year, a change that was approved by the Faculty Senate in May.

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. To achieve compliance, one instructional day per semester will be added to the calendar by shortening the course of final exams from six days to five. Class length will also increase by five minutes.

“We looked at the academic calendar with the goal of aligning our instructional time with best practices, our own internal policy, creating some consistencies, and of course, ensuring that we're meeting the federal credit hour definition,” Steele-Middleton said. “And while there wasn't a perfect solution, I am very excited to share with you the outcome of the culmination of the last year of work.”

Several senators expressed concern about restructuring final exams. Steele-Middleton said that the decision was made after reviewing data and determining that 91% of students have four or fewer exams. Mechanisms are also in place for students who need exceptions to reschedule their exams. Steele-Middleton also noted that both semesters maximize full-week schedules, as that is particularly important for lab science sequences. Steele-Middleton also acknowledged that the calendar for the next academic year is a pilot and that the Office of the University Registrar welcomes feedback to be considered in future editions of the calendar.

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

Items approved on the Regular Agenda included resolutions to approve moving three graduate programs — the master’s degree in water science and policy, the doctoral degree in water science and policy with a water policy concentration, and the doctoral degree in water science and policy with a water science concentration — to the Graduate College.

The only resolution that generated debate was a proposed resolution to expand the number of elected Faculty Senators from 50 to 60. The number of faculty senators in UD’s Faculty Senate has not increased since its inception in 1970 although the size of the faculty has more than doubled in that time.

“Over time, this has created a situation where several departments have felt disenfranchised because they do not have elected senators representing them,” said Faculty Senate President Nancy Getchell, professor of kinesiology and applied physiology. “Therefore, the problem we're trying to solve is one of equity, diversity and inclusion.”

After much debate and discussion, the resolution passed unanimously. After applying the apportionment formulas using 60 instead of 50 seats, one Faculty Senate seat will be added to the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, four seats will be added to the College of Arts and Sciences, one seat will be added to the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, one seat will be added to the College of Engineering, one seat will be added to the College of Health Sciences, and two seats will be added to the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.

During the meeting, Getchell presented the 2022 Faculty Senate Excellence Awards to:

• Carla Guerron-Montero, professor of anthropology, Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement
• Elizabeth Orsega-Smith, associate professor of behavioral health and nutrition, Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement
• Joseph Nakao, doctoral student in mathematical sciences, Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement for Graduate Students
• Lee Conderacci, doctoral student in English, Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement for Graduate Students
• Anjana Bhat, associate professor of physical therapy, Excellence in Mid-Career Faculty Scholarship
• Emily Day, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Excellence in Mid-Career Faculty Scholarship

For new business, Douglas Zander, executive director in the Office of Admissions, gave an update on proposed admissions guidelines and unit requirements. Those changes include adding flexibility regarding history classes taken in high school, removing rigidity on when coursework in world languages must be taken and making standardized testing submission optional. The Senate will vote on these changes in February.

Amy Biddle, associate professor of animal science, requested that an ad hoc committee be formed to investigate the impact of remote work on students and the campus community.

Provost Carlson requested the formation of an ad hoc committee to examine undergraduate and graduate student representation in the Faculty Senate.

Joseph Daniel, associate professor of economics, brought up a concern that Disability Support Services are not available during the evening, when some out-of-class exams are held.

John Morgan, associate professor of physics and astronomy, requested that the Faculty Senate executive committee conduct a survey of current senators about their preferences for meeting in-person or via Zoom, especially for the winter meetings, due to concerns about COVID-19.

Further information about the Faculty Senate, including meeting minutes and agendas, can be found on its website.