Although the University Senate meeting lasted about 10 minutes, several motions were passed, including a name change for the Department of Public Administration to the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs.

Harvey Teres, an English professor, presented the senate Committee on Academic Affairs’ report at the meeting, held at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Maxwell Auditorium.

The program is a master’s degree program in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, according to the Maxwell website. Teres recommended the name change on behalf of the Academic Affairs Committee.

According to the motion, the name change is the result of the Department of Public Administration and the International Relations Program recently merging together. The faculty of both the department and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs approved this change.

The senate passed the motion without any discussion or opposition.

Barbara Kwasnik, a professor in the School of Information Studies, present the Committee on Curricula’s report. Kwasnik presented a motion including curriculum changes to several schools and colleges.

The School of Education gained six new courses and lost two programs. Both the Doctor of Education and Certification of Advanced Studies Reading Education programs were discontinued because the School of Education has not admitted students to these programs for several years, and there are also no active students in them, according to the report.

A request from the Reading and Language Arts Department to change the name of the Reading Education doctorate program to the Literacy Education doctorate program was also included in the motion. The request was made to keep the name parallel with the master’s certification program and to be a more compatible title to an evolving field in which the new name is considered more current, the report stated.The School of Information Studies also received one new class and courses were altered in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The motion, containing all the curriculum changes, was passed without contention.

Doug Anderson, a mathematics professor, presented a motion for the senate Committee of Appointment and Promotions to promote associate professor Randall Jorgensen to the title of full professor. The Senate voted unanimously to promote Jorgensen.

In his report, Anderson also motioned to honor Michael Sickler, associate professor of art, and John Orentlicher, professor of transmedia, with the title of emeritus. This again resulted in a unanimous vote for approval from the senate.

Anderson stressed the importance of the emeritus title.

‘This is the time for department chairs and various colleges to be collecting information for nominations for emeritus for the faculty that will be retiring at the end of this year. In the past, these nominations have tended to trickle in,’ Anderson said. ‘I am asking that everybody pay attention to that so can be handled in timely way.’

rebarill@syr.edu

Published on November 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm