Interim President of Keene State College Dr. Melinda Treadwell made an appearance at this month’s College Senate meeting, and a variety of revisions were made to various majors and minors. The group met on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. in the Mountain View Room of the L.P. Young Student Center.
During the courtesy period, Treadwell reported the college is ahead in their year-to-date fundraising efforts when compared with last year, and any additional funds the college acquires will go toward scholarships for incoming students in the next academic year.
Additionally, the college is 100 admitted students ahead of where it was at this time last year. Treadwell also announced that throughout this current week, she will be holding meetings with faculty members in order to gather input on how to go about the restructuring of our campus.
On Nov. 28, there will be a campus-wide meeting held in the Redfern Arts Center at 2 p.m..
In terms of the fiscal year 2019 (FY19) budget, she reported there is a larger deficit to close when taking different factors into account, such as yearly raises. The exact number was not said, but the FY19 budget must be drafted and finalized by the second week in January, Treadwell said.
When updating the group on search processes for the Vice President of Financial Affairs position, Treadwell reported there are 35 candidates who have applied for the position, and of that number, 12 were reported as “highly qualified.” Eventually, Treadwell said the pool will be narrowed down to three top candidates.
The Provost search has not yet been posted.
In the Executive Committee report, a conversation was had surrounding the Senate’s program elimination guidelines, which were originally created in 2011 with a different outlook than is had now.
Then, they were designed to help struggling majors recover, and in 2015, minors were included in the description as well.
Now, a new question has been posed: When the only tenure-track faculty member in a department retires, how should the Senate proceed?
The Academic Policy Committee reported that KSC courses with the prefix “KSC” did not undergo curricular review because they aren’t associated with a specific school or department.
It was proposed that these courses be approved by all school curricular committees and the Senate Curriculum Committee.
After some discussion, the proposal was amended, and a new motion was made. Since courses with KSC as a prefix serve the entire campus, these courses should be reviewed by all school curriculum committees, as well as reviewed and approved by the Senate Curriculum Committee and approved by the College Senate. The amended motion was unanimously approved.
The Curriculum Committee presented the minutes from two of their meetings, which both resulted in a motion to have a variety of courses revised.
There was a motion to revise the following programs/courses: communications & philosophy major, communications minor, philosophy minor, health science major, addictions minor, IIPH 350, IIPH 445, INPH 175, ISPH 285, history major & history honors program, English major, chemistry minor, English writing minor, English professional writing minor, management minor, exercise science major and the physical education major.
Although the revisions to the above programs weren’t explained during Wednesday’s College Senate meeting, all changes were unanimously approved.
No new business was reported.
The meeting adjourned at 5:35 p.m..
Jessica Ricard can be contacted at jricard@kscequinox.com