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University Faculty Senate
University Faculty Senate

April 29, 2025 Plenary Agenda

Time: 1:30 – 5 p.m.

Location: 112 Kern and livestream.

Senators: Please see your email inbox for internal link via ZOOM, allowing you to participate during the meeting.

Public: The meeting will be streamed via Teams here.

Senate “housekeeping” information

Senators will use the Faculty Senate Microsoft PowerApps portal to collect attendance and to vote on the legislative/advisory consultative reports during the meeting. Senators who have voting rights should have their full PSU email address (ex. abc123@psu.edu) as well as your two-step authentication app ready.

SENATORS ONLY:

Senators are reminded to bring their laptop or smartphone for the purpose of logging into PowerApps to vote.

All Meeting Files

Agenda:

  1. CALL TO ORDER
  2. READING, CORRECTING, APPROVING, OR DISPOSING OF THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
    1. Minutes of the April 1, 2025 Meeting in The Senate Record
  3. COMMENTS OR REPORTS OF THE SENATE OFFICERS AND INVITED GUESTS
    1. Senate Council Minutes April 15, 2025
    2. 2024-2025 Senate Governance Documents – Editorial Changes from V.8 – Appendix A
    3. Invited Guests: John W. White Graduate Fellowship: Presented to outstanding undergraduate students who are graduating Summa cum Laude, and who plan to enroll in graduate study.
    4. Presentation of Senate Service Certificates
    5. Senate Committee Reports on Consultation and Progress
  4. GENERAL DISCUSSION – None
  5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS (Voteable) – None
  6. NEW BUSINESS (Voteable)
    1. Senate Committees on Committee and Rules and Curricular Affairs
      Revision to Standing Rules, Article II – Senate Committee Structure, Section 5(c) – Committee on Curricular Affairs (SCCA) (Legislative) – Appendix B
    2. Senate Committee on Education
      Revision to Senate Policy 47-45 Grading System of M.D. Candidates (Legislative) – Appendix C
    3. Senate Council
      Statement in Support of the Core Mission and Values of Higher Education in the United States of America (Positional) – Appendix D
    4. Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for the Universities of the Big Ten in Defense of Academic Freedom, Institutional Integrity, and the Research Enterprise
    5. Positional Report Opposing the Closure of Small Penn State Campuses
    6. BREAK
    7. Vote Results
  7. QUESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT AND PROVOST
  8. INFORMATIONAL REPORTS (Non-Voteable)
    1. Senate Committee on Curricular Affairs
      *Senate Curriculum Report of April 15, 2025 – Appendix E
    2. Senate Committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling, and Student Aid
      *2025 Annual Report on High School Students Enrolled Nondegree in Credit Courses (Informational) – Appendix F
    3. Senate Committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling, and Student Aid
      *2024 Annual Report on the Reserved Spaces Program (Informational) – Appendix G
    4. Senate Committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling, and Student Aid
      *Test Optional Updates (Informational) – Appendix H
    5. Senate Committees on Faculty Affairs and Intra-University Relations
      Faculty Tenure Flow Annual Report April 2025 (Informational) – Appendix I
      [15 minutes allotted for presentation and discussion]
    6. Senate Committee on Faculty Benefits
      2023-2024 Annual Report on the Status of Benefit Changes (Informational) – Appendix J
      [15 minutes allotted for presentation and discussion]
    7. Senate Council
      Report on Spring 2025 Academic Unit Visits – Appendix K
      [5 minutes allotted for presentation and discussion]
  9. INSTALLATION OF NEW OFFICERS 
  10. COMMENTS OR ANNOUNCEMENTS
  11. ADJOURNMENT

(*Web-only reports.)

Next Meeting and Accessibility Information

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the University Faculty Senate will be held on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. This meeting will be held in a REMOTE format.

Senators are reminded to wait to speak until recognize, and identify themselves and their voting unit before speaking on the floor. Members of the University community, who are not Senators, may not speak at a Senate meeting unless they request and are granted the privilege of the floor from the Senate Chair at least five days in advance of the meeting.

Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Erin Eckley at ele2@psu.edu or call 814-863-1204 at least 2 weeks prior to the next meeting (Senate Meeting Dates) to allow sufficient time to effectively meet your access needs.

We have enabled ZOOM automatic transcriptions for our meeting and invite you to turn that on if you wish. All Plenary meetings are transcribed, and published in an accessible format, linked on our “Agendas & Records” page.