WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY Minutes of the Faculty Meeting

September 11, 2002 (first Faculty Meeting of academic year 2002-2003)

Attendance: Approximately 58

Announced Agenda: 6 items

1. Approval of the minutes of May 10, 2002 (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~facsec/facmin/02-05-10.html)

2. Report from University Standing Committee on Athletic Admissions

3. Proposed Academic Calendar 2003-04

4. Vote on motion to study Spring 2-day recess

5. Announcements - September 11 commemoration plans

6. Adjournment

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President Malcolm Gillis called to order and chaired the General Faculty Meeting in McMurtry Auditorium of Duncan Hall at 4:02 PM. Alan Chapman served as Parliamentarian. A guest from the media (The Thresher) was present.

President GILLIS called for a moment of reflection to commemorate the tragic events of September 11, 2001. He then reminded faculty of the observance scheduled for 8:00 PM in the RMC and invited all to attend.

1. Minutes of 05-10-02 Faculty Meeting - One correction was noted to the minutes as circulated in advance on the web. On motion duly made and seconded, the Minutes were APPROVED as corrected.

2. Report from University Standing Committee on Athletic Admissions.

After reminding faculty of the confidential nature of the material regarding athletic admissions, President Gillis asked all non-faculty present at the meeting to leave the room during this discussion.

As required by a 1997 mandate, the first order of business at the first Faculty Meeting of each academic year is a report on the admissions and academic performance of athletes. President Gillis called on Fred Rudolph, chairman of the subcommittee of the University Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, to report for the UCAFA.

Rudolph began with some general facts regarding the new entering freshman class. The total class entering this fall is 700. The number of out-of-state students is about 54%. He then provided information on the Century Scholars Program. This fairly new recruitment program is designed to offer applicants with the strongest qualifications the opportunity to work closely with faculty members on research during their first two years as undergraduates. It also provides merit scholarships to those accepted into the program. This has been very positive program, and faculty members were encouraged to become involved by providing potential projects.

Rudolph discussed athlete admissions and compared the credentials of 2002-admitted scholarship athletes and performance of scholarship athletes enrolled at Rice over previous years.

He reported that in 2002, 62 freshman scholarship athletes were admitted (8.8% of the 700 total undergraduate students admitted as freshmen this year), plus 5 transfer students. This number was slightly lower than last year due to the higher class admission size.

SAT scores for entering freshmen athletes and non-athletes were summarized and compared.

Performance of freshman athletes was examined by SAT score providing the mean Spring GPA and Spring credit earned from 1997 through 2002. Also an analysis of scholarship athletes by class was provided showing Spring 2001 and 2002 cumulative GPAs for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Looking at all the different classes - freshmen through seniors -- the spring GPAs for the last two years do not show particularly big differences.

Data was provided on total number of admitted students, graduation rates, and average freshman cumulative GPA in the various categories of: 1) all graduates, 2) legacies, 3) faculty/staff dependents, 4) VIPs and 5) athletes. Numbers were provided from 1984 through 1998. In the last two years where reported data was available, the graduation rates for scholarship athletes was 91% in 1995 and 90% in 1996. These rates are up significantly from previous years.

Information from the College masters as to the participation of scholarship athletes was mandated by the faculty in 1995 as part of the annual report to the faculty. This information has not routinely been provided to the faculty subsequently. This fact was pointed out by a faculty member and acknowledged by Rudolph at the September 2001 faculty meeting, at which time he said the information would be collected and presented to the faculty at some point during the academic year. However, Rudolph informed the faculty today that the material is not yet collected. John Hutchison will work with the masters to do so, and it will be reported to the Faculty Council as soon as possible.

Data was requested on the selected majors of scholarship athletes. This information was not compiled for this meeting, but will be provided to Faculty Council as soon as possible. This information has subsequently been provided and is included below as Attachment A.

A request was made from the audience for a study on the type of academic advising athletes were receiving. President Gillis said he would look into the feasibility of such a study.

Rudolph provided printed handouts of all the data presented. A printout is attached to the hard copy of these minutes.

3. Proposed Academic Calendar 2003-04

President Gillis called on Speaker John Zammito to present the academic calendar for 2003-04 to the faculty.

Zammito began by announcing the electoral results for the new composition of Faculty Council this year. The newly elected members of Faculty Council are Mark Wiesner from Engineering and Deborah Harter and Steve Crowell from the School of Humanities. John Ambler is retiring this year. Chandler Davidson accepted an appointment to fill his position on Faculty Council.

Turning next to the calendar issue, Zammito thanked Jerry Montag and Bob Patten for the enormous amount of energy and work they put into preparation of the new academic calendar for 2003-04. He then continued to explain the two particularly salient calendar issues involved.

The first comes from the attempt to have Rice's spring break coincide with the spring break of HISD for the 2002-03 academic calendar. After Rice's calendar for 2002-03 was finalized, HISD changed the date for their spring break, thus moving the two breaks out of sync. For the 2003-04 academic calendar, the designation of the date of spring break is left "to be determined". This is due to another attempt, with faculty approval, to coordinate Rice's spring break with that of HISD. Once HISD has made a firm commitment to the date of their spring break, the Rice spring break would be scheduled accordingly.

The second issue is the elimination the two-day spring recess from Rice's calendar for this year. This was done in an effort to bring the number of class days in sync between the fall term and the spring term. On the planned calendar for 2003-04, the result is a calendar of 70 class days in the fall and 69 in the spring, an almost perfect equivalent in the number of days of the week available for classes, which is important for seminars that meet on a one-time-a-week basis. There was also the hope that equalizing the number of class days in both semesters would allow laboratory courses, which previously have seemed to be possible only in the fall with a 70-day calendar, to be also offered in the spring and create more flexibility for student curricula. This measure did not find uniform enthusiasm on the part of the students, especially the undergraduate students.

Zammito stated the situation faced now is to ratify this calendar in order to see the results of the change, which will only transpire in the spring. This calendar has been approved by Faculty Council and University Council.

If the calendar is ratified, an important issue is to determine what impact the elimination of the two-day recess has on the spring term, and, if there are good reasons, then it might be advantageous to reconsider. Therefore, if the calendar is passed as presented today, Zammito proposed a second motion, which would empower Faculty Council to make an inquiry into the impact of the elimination of the two-day recess and, if the evidence warrants, recommend to University Council and to the general faculty that the two-day recess be restored.

The first matter of business is to decide whether to ratify the calendar as presented, with the recognition that this calendar does not specify the date for spring break, but where the commitment is that spring break will be whenever HISD spring break is scheduled. Also this calendar eliminates the two-day recess.

Martin Wiener asked if anyone considered making the fall semester 69 days rather than 70 days, thus making each semester exactly equal and also only increasing the number of class days by one instead of two. Zammito replied that he was not aware of this idea being considered.

Stan Dodds asked when HISD would determine their calendar and what would happen if they later changed the date again. Jerry Montag responded that he had spoken to the HISD system office and was told this business was taken care of in their January meeting. Last year, it was approved on January 10. That is when the date of HISD's spring break will be known and would be incorporated into the Rice calendar.

John Hutchison asked about the specific issue of the preregistration schedule. If it were the combined judgment of the Office of the Registrar and the Office of Academic Advising that it would be better to have preregistration occur a week later for example, would they have the flexibility to make that move without the faculty being particularly concerned about what that date was? Zammito requested comments from the faculty. No one had any strong feelings on the issue, and it was declared to be a procedural matter that would not need to be ratified by the general faculty.

Gale Stokes moved to call the question and ended the debate. The motion was approved, and the faculty voted unanimously to APPROVE the academic calendar for 2003-04 as presented. The ratified calendar is shown below as Attachment B.

4. Vote on motion to study Spring two-day recess

The second motion is as follows:

Faculty Council shall gather information to access the impact of the elimination of the two-day recess in spring 2003. If the evidence warrants, it will forward to University Council and the general faculty before the end of that term a proposal to amend the calendar for AY 2003-04 to reinsert the two-day recess. Such a change would require no other alternations in the calendar as approved.

An inquiry from the floor asked how the Faculty Council would go about addressing this question. Zammito commented on a lengthy discussion in University Council where a number of things were discussed as possible indicators. These included determining if any lab courses that were only offered in the fall had been rescheduled for the spring, or were being planned for rescheduling. Faculty could also be polled to determine how many are canceling classes in order to participate in the religious holiday and how many students are involved? These methods would give some indicators.

Gale Stokes opposed this motion believing the calendar should be in effect for a year or two, so this information could be gathered based on actual experience and not merely on anticipation, and if the circumstances or information warrants, when the next calendar is proposed, it be incorporated in that proposal. Ed Akin opposed the motion on grounds that Faculty Council has the right and responsibility to gather this information without being told to do so by the general faculty.

Zammito reread the motion as presented above. The motion appears below as Attachment C.

Bob Curl added that this information could not be gathered until next spring because no one would move a fall course at this time. Zammito commented that no laboratory courses appear to have been moved for this year, but it was very likely the departments would have sketched out their course offerings for next year by the late spring of this year. Stephen Baker remarked that spring semester laboratory courses could be enhanced if the new schedule is adopted, and this should certainly be in the mix of considerations. He did not feel that people or departments would reschedule fall laboratory courses for the spring semester knowing that the spring semester might yet get immediately altered. Making the change for one year at the risk that it’s an empty exercise would probably be a preventive influence.

Zammito called for a vote. By a show of hands, the faculty voted on the motion. The motion FAILED. The calendar remains in effect without amendment for this year.

Marty Wiener asked that Faculty Council, when it is considering the calendar for next year, consider whether or not to reduce the fall semester by one day, thereby bringing the two semesters into exact correspondence. Zammito said they would investigate that option.

5. Announcements - September 11 commemoration plans

President Gillis again reminded the faculty of the September 11 commemoration service this evening at 8:00 PM in the Rice Memorial Center.

There being no further announcements, the meeting was adjourned at 4:48 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Janis L. Cain
Secretary to the Faculty

Attachment A

Majors of Student Athletes Spring 2002 TermCount of Majors

Count of Athletes
Number of Majors Total
1 190
2 69
3 15
Grand Total 274

Attachment B

Proposed Academic Calendar 2003-2004

The Spring 2004 mid-term recess will be determined at a later date after the
Houston Independent School District (HISD) makes their decision.
The Rice mid-term recess will coincide exactly with the HISD.

This calendar has not been presented to the faculty so is not to be considered official
until the faculty approves this calendar at the first meeting during the Fall 2002 semester

Fall 2003

J. Montag
February 23, 2002
Revised February 28, 2002
Revised April 30th, 2002
Revised June 6, 2002
Revised July 8, 2002
thetentativeproposed20032004calendar.doc

Attachment C

Faculty Meeting
September 11, 2002

Second Motion (upon approval of the 2003/2004 Calendar as presented)

Faculty Council shall gather information to assess the impact of the elimination of the two-day recess in Spring Term, 2003. If the evidence warrants, it will forward to University Council and the general faculty before the end of that term a proposal to amend the calendar for AY 2003/2004 to reinsert the two-day recess. Such a change would require no other alterations in the calendar as approved.