Inside Iowa State

April 13, 2007

Senate endorses new name for College of Agriculture

by Erin Rosacker

Unanimous consent was the order of the day at the Faculty Senate's April 10 meeting. A resolution calling for financial support and improvement of the University Library and a resolution that encourages increased visibility of ISU's policy on religion accommodation were passed without question.

The library resolution urges both the central administration and the colleges to make funding for the library a top priority in the new budget model; endorses the proposed student library fee; and supports the goal of keeping the library's acquisition budget on pace with the Library Acquisitions Price Index.

After brief statements of support, the proposed name change for the College of Agriculture also earned unanimous consent from the senate. The name change, to College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, must earn its final approval from the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

Athletics update

Senators heard from faculty athletics representative Paula Morrow and athletics director Jamie Pollard in a special presentation.

Morrow reported that last fall, for the fifth consecutive semester, ISU's student-athletes earned a higher overall grade-point average (3.00) than the general student body (2.92). Topping the list was the gymnastics team, which earned an average 3.41 GPA, while the football squad ranked the lowest with a 2.48.

Morrow said that 23 percent of student-athletes made the Dean's List and 48 percent earned a 3.0 GPA or better last semester. She also reported that according to the 2006 NCAA graduation rates, ISU graduated 70 percent of its student-athletes who entered ISU in 1999-2000 and 90 percent of student-athletes who remained at ISU after exhausting their eligibility. The NCAA gives each class a six-year window to earn a degree.

The men's basketball team is the only squad that is projected to fall below the cutoff of the NCAA's new Academic Progress Rate (APR), which monitors both academic eligibility and retention of student-athletes. Pollard and Morrow both cited the number of student-athletes that chose to leave the program after last year's coaching change as a contributing factor and said the required "academic recovery plan" has been developed.

"We have a new men's basketball coach who's paying particular attention to this," Morrow said.

On the docket

Three items earned their first reading and are scheduled for vote at the senate's final meeting of the academic year on April 24:

• The department of health and human performance hopes to reflect its new name (kinesiology) - which is pending regents approval - in its offered degrees. The bachelor's of science degree in health and human performance would change to kinesiology and health. Both the master's of science (exercise and sport science) and doctorate (health and human performance) would change to kinesiology.
• The academic affairs council, on behalf of the agricultural and biosystems engineering department, recommended the discontinuation of the graduate minor in agricultural systems technology.
• The governance council submitted revised language for the faculty handbook dealing with the university's updated smoking policy.

Faculty athletics representative Paula Morrow told the Faculty Senate April 10 that for the fifth consecutive semester, ISU's student-athletes earned a higher overall grade-point average (3.00) than the general student body (2.92).