In attendance: Ellen Ansell, Patty Beeson, Chao-Lin Chiu, Judy Erlen, Nancy Grove, Kathleen Kelly, Neepa Majumdar, Susan Sereika, Tony Silvestre, Evelyn Talbott, Charlene Trovato

Not present: Kathlenn Knapp, Walt Alan Stoy, Justin Hsieh, Cahris Jones, Jackie Merranko, Joan Cutone, Catherine Bender, David Crossman, Ivanka Nikolova, Jack Daniel, Irene Frieze, Fran Czak

1. Announcements

a. Susan Sereika and Judy Erlen attended the Senate Expanded Executive Committee meeting to hear what the various standing Senate committees have been doing the past year and present the plans for SEPC were for the upcoming year:

i. Grade Inflation

ii. Cheating Policies

iii. Horwitz's Academic Bill of Rights

iv. Evaluation and Length of Contracts of Part-time Faculty

b. Liaison Appointments are as follows:

i. Faculty Assembly and Senate Council-Judy Erlen, Susan Sereika

ii. University Planning and Budgeting Committee-Susan Sereika

iii. Provost's Advisory Committee on Instructional Excellence-Judy Erlen

c. Susan Sereika suggested creating an e-mail distribution list via Majordomo, sepc@list.pitt.edu. This will a secure distribution list for the SEPC members to post comments or other business. Susan will organize and maintain this distribution list.

d. Brief discussion about the maintenance of the SEPC webpage, which is currently being housed on the main Faculty Senate website. Currently, Dave Crossman, a pro-tem member, is responsible for updating the site. If he is unable to continue in this capacity, Charlene Trovato offered to take responsibility for maintaining the site.

e. It was suggested that the responsibility for scribing the 'Meeting Minutes' be rotated among the SEPC members. Kathy Kelly offered to scribe the minutes during this first session of AY 2005-06.

f. The SEPC will meet on the 3rd Tuesday of the month from 11:45-12:45 PM in Victoria Building.

2. Approval of the Minutes: Nancy Grove moved that the Meeting Minutes from 4/19/05 be approved as amended; Kathy Kelly seconded the motion.

3. Cheating Policies: Patricia Beeson noted that the issue of cheating is covered in a University document entitled "Guidelines in Academic Integrity." Copies of this document were distributed to committee members. Also each school has developed policies related to cheating and have shared these policies with the Provost's Office.

4. Part-time Faculty Survey: The last survey conducted by SEPC was in late 2001 and the results were analyzed in 2002. These surveys (n=898) were mailed through campus mail. About 15% were returned (n=138). The committee discussed the need for revisiting the results of that survey and the survey done by the Tenure & Academic Freedom committee. After there is a review of both surveys and the responses to those surveys, the SEPC will decide on the best course of action which may or may not be a survey. Evelyn Talbott suggested that if we do decide to use survey methodology that we consider using the web and software such as Survey Monkey to design, collect and analyze survey results.

ACTION: Evelyn Talbott will distribute a copy of the previous SEPC survey report and the response from the Provost's office to that survey. Susan Sereika will get a copy of the previous survey results done by the Tenure & Academic Freedom committee.

5. Grade Inflation: This issue generated much discussion as it seems to be an increasing 'problem' here and elsewhere. Faculty sometimes experience harassment by students to change grades. An issue that was brought up was the relationship between grade inflation and OMET evaluations, and ultimately to faculty performance ratings by the Department Chairs and Deans.

The conversation then switched to University policy on mentoring new, part-time, and junior faculty. Does the University have such a policy? Judy Erlen suggested that we ask Diane Davis from CIDDE to attend a meeting to report on CIDDE's role in creating a supportive teaching culture at the University of Pittsburgh.

Tony Silvestre suggested that the University needs to keep track of grades over time to see if and where there is grade inflation before we embark on this issue (i.e., an examination of historical grade data).

ACTION: Judy Erlen is going to check on whether or not there is a policy on mentoring new faculty.

6. Adjournment: The meeting ended at 1:20pm. The next meeting is October 18th, from 11:45 to 12:45 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

M. Kathleen Kelly, PhD, PT