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College Senate records

 Record Group
Identifier: 001-004-002

Scope and Contents

The collection is composed of minutes, reports, and memoranda from the College Senate meetings, as well as from subcommittees within the College Senate.

Series 1: College Senate Constitution and Amendments This series contains the constitution, drafts, revisions, amendments on structure and functions of the College Senate.

Series 2: College Senate Executive Committee This series contains minutes from the meetings of the Executive Council of the College Senate.

Series 3: College Senate Meeting Agendas and Minutes This series contains the agenda, reports, requests of items to add to the agendas, as well as memos sent to members of the College Senate.

Series 4: College Senate Committee on Committees This series contains lists of committee members, committee functions and structures, proposals for new committees, committee descriptions, organizations and duties, correspondence regarding members’ eligibility to serve on various committees, and end of year reports.

Series 5: College Senate Curriculum Committee This series contains agendas and minutes from committee meetings as well as annual reports. The series also contains the agendas, minutes, and reports from various departmental subcommittees that would report back to the Curriculum Committee.

Series 6: College Senate Academic Standards Committee -- Restricted This series contains the minutes from meetings of the Academic Standards committee. The committee was responsible for establishing policies regarding admissions of students, standings of the students, issues surrounding transfer credits, and also reviewed petitions and requests related to those procedures.

Series 7: College Senate Admissions Committee This series contains minutes and year-end reports of the activities of the Admissions Committee which recommended policies regarding admission of students to the school. This committee also reviewed student applications.

Series 8: College Senate Catalogue Committee This series contains minutes from the Catalogue Committee which was charged with maintaining the Towson State College Bulletin.

Series 9: College Senate Council of Department Chairmen This series contains the agendas and minutes of the meetings of the Department of Chairmen. This department oversaw policies relating to the development of the academic program at Towson. Their work included deciding how best to evaluate teacher loads, evaluations, appointment policies, office space, and sabbaticals, as well as final exam procedures, secretarial time, library surveys, use and design of new buildings, faculty advising, material purchases, and policies relating to graduation honors, extension programs, and grade point averages.

Series 10: College Senate Intercollegiate Athletics Committee This series contains minutes, agendas, year-end reports, surveys, and budgets for the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee. This committee was charged with overseeing all aspects of the men’s and women’s intercollegiate programs, but had no jurisdiction over the school’s Physical Education department. The committee decided on sports programs, determined players’ eligibility, regulated the seasons as well as the number of practice and regular games, determined the extent, modes, and budgets for travel, and reviewed the coaches’ programs every year.

Series 11: College Senate Faculty-Staff Social Committee This series contains items relating to the Faculty Staff Social Committee including invitations, programs, and budgets for the annual Christmas Dinner, picnic, tea, gifts for illness or deaths in community members’ families, and the staff lounge.

Series 12: College Senate Faculty Standing Committee This series contains items from the Faculty Standing Committee which acted as the intermediary body between the faculty and the administration of the school. The committee’s work focused on topics such as faculty loads, schedules, classroom assignments, evaluations, fringe benefits, secretarial and janitorial services, and creating subcommittees to advise on administrative appointments.

Series 13: College Senate Graduate Council -- Restricted This series contains minutes and memoranda relating to the Graduate Council meetings. This committee oversaw procedures and policies relating to the Graduate school programs including student placement and evaluations, reviews of proposed theses, course enrollment and credit work, student presentations, concern about adapting to growth of the programs, ways to expand programs offered, advising concerns, the findings of outside consultant groups, staffing, and budget concerns.

Series 14: College Senate Library Committee This series contains the agendas, memos, and year-end reports of the Library Committee. This committee was composed of both faculty and students and served as an advisory body to the library, and a liaison between the library, the faculty, and students. This committee discussed matters relating to budget and physical concerns of the library, as well as any official suggestions or complaints made by the faculty.

Series 15: College Senate Long Range Planning Committee This series contains agendas, minutes, memos, and reports of and to the Long Range Planning Committee. Known as the Committee Discussing College Expansion until its 13th meeting on April 23, 1963, this committee was charged with overseeing the physical growth of the campus, taking into account the changes in enrollment and programs. This committee was also responsible for recommending names for the various buildings on campus.

Series 16: College Senate Promotions and Tenure Committee -- Restricted This series contains documents relating to the Promotions and Tenure Committee. Composed of a seven-person board with the Dean of Instruction as a permanent member and the other 6 members who were full-time professors of the College elected by the Faculty, this committee made recommendations to the President regarding tenure, salary increments, and promotions. The series contains meeting minutes, agendas, evaluation forms and data, correspondence, and appeal letters.

Series 17: College Senate Public Relations and Special Events Committee This series contains a program, and memoranda from the Public Relations and Special Events Committee. This committee was responsible for planning and coordinating campus sponsored events on campus.

Series 18: College Senate Student Life Advisory Council This series contains a report from the Student Life Advisory Council. This committee was charged with coordinating student activities.

Series 19: College Evening College and Summer Session Committee This series contains meeting minutes and annual reports from the Evening College and Summer Session Committee. This committee made recommendations relating to the structure of these sessions as well as class sizes, need for off-campus support, salary scales for instructors, and proposed budgets.

Series 20: College Senate Bookshop Advisory Committee This series contains minutes from the Bookshop Advisory Committee, a body created as a conduit between faculty and the College book store.

Series 21: College Senate Elections Committee This series contains forms, elections results, reports and meeting minutes from the Elections Committee. This committee oversaw the elections of members to the College Senate.

Series 22: College Senate Faculty Hearing Committee This series contains documents relating to the work of the Faculty Hearing Committee. This committee was created in 1969 and composed of 15 tenured professors to consider cases involving dismissal of faculty. This series contains meeting minutes, correspondence, and documents relating to specific cases.

Series 23: College Senate Faculty Research Committee This series contains documents relating to the work of the Faculty Research Committee. Begun in 1962 as the Institutional Research and Evaluation Committee, the committee then was named the Faculty Research Committee in 1963 and was an ad hoc committee the first year. In 1965, the committee was given permanent status. The committee was responsible for creating guidelines to request and award funding for faculty research, and evaluated the proposals made by the faculty. It also served as an informational body, alerting the campus to funding opportunities outside of the campus. The documents in this series range from meeting minutes, annual reports, requests from faculty for funding, documentation regarding funding, and correspondence from the committee to the faculty.

Series 24: College Senate Traffic and Parking Committee This series contains documents from the Traffic and Parking Committee which oversaw the procedures related to the use of cars on campus. This series contains meeting minutes, annual reports, parking maps, studies of campus parking needs, and documents detailing the parking and driving regulations on campus, as well as the use of College vehicles.

Series 25: College Senate Ad Hoc Committees This series contains documents of committees that were created on an as-needed basis and were not part of the permanent committee structure of the College Senate.

Dates

  • Creation: 1962-1970

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on access. This collection is open to the public.

Conditions Governing Use

Towson University Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) is the owner of the original materials and digitized images in our collections; however, the collection may contain materials for which copyright is not held. Patrons are responsible for determining the appropriate use or reuse of materials. Consult with SCUA to determine if we can provide permission for use.

Biographical / Historical

The first meeting of the College Senate of the State Teacher’s College at Towson, soon to be Towson State College, was held on March 29, 1962. Prior to this, the governing body of the school, formally known as the Maryland State Normal School, had been the Faculty Committee. In June of 1961, an ad hoc committee of the Faculty Committee proposed the structure of the College Senate, and this proposal was adopted by the faculty on December 14, 1961.

The Senate was the chief legislative body of the college and was charged with creating policy for both academic and non-academic matters, and appropriate committees or administrative offices were responsible for enforcing the policies.

There were six ex-officio members: the President of the College who served as President of the Senate, the Dean of Instruction and the Dean of Students who served as first and second Vice-Presidents, the Director of Admissions, the Registrar, and the Business Manager. The rest of the Senate was composed of one representative elected by each department and nine at-large members. Those elected members served three year terms and could serve two consecutive terms. However, after the second term, they had to wait a year before being eligbile to serve again. They also composed the remaining officers of the Senate who were elected by secret ballots to one-year terms: the Agenda Chairman who oversaw the agendas for each of the meetings, the Recording Secretary who took all minutes and prepared and maintained the records of all policies passed by the Senate, and the Parliamentarian who facilitated the conduct of the meetings.

The Senate represented the teaching faculty at both the college and the Lida Lee Tall Elementary School, the non-teaching faculty with degree status such as librarians, and directors of residence, health services, and dining halls, as well as the administrative officers of the college.

One week prior to each meeting, the Agenda Committee distributed the agenda. The meetings were held according to parliamentary procedure. A quorom was composed of two-thirds of the total membership, excluding the presiding officer. Meetings were held at regular intervals with at least two a semester, and were open to all members of the electorate. Special meetings could be called by the President or at the request of a group of five Senate members. Meetings were presided over by the President or Vice-Presidents depending on availability. Minutes were recorded and distributed to the electorate after the meetings. Any amendments to the Constitution required a quorom vote.

The committees of the Senate fell under three main groups; the Curriculum Committee, the Committee on Committees, and the formal College Senate. The Curriculum Committee had the power to approve new courses, workshops and special courses, changes in credit hours, and changes in the designated level of courses. The Committee on Committees oversaw the creation and powers of the various smaller committees within the Senate, as well as members who served on those committees.

Twenty smaller committees fell under the College Senate, and were organized as Executive Planning committees, Advisory Planning committees, or Student Affairs committees.

The Senate was designed as a medium to promote democracy within the college and help create a stronger sense of community within the faculty and administration. Anything decided by the Senate, however, had fall in line with the policies of the Board of Trustees of the State Colleges of Maryland, and the President of the College had the right to veto any action.

In 1969, Earle T. Hawkins retired as President of Towson State College, and his successor, James L. Fisher, decided to restructure the Senate. He no longer wanted to Chair the meetings and felt that the number of administrators in the Senate led to a less democratic body.

The College Senate was replaced by the Academic Council soon after Fisher’s arrival at Towson.

Extent

6.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Related Materials

UA00017 Faculty Committee; UA00019 Academic Council; UA00020 University Senate

Processing Information

Duplicate copies were discarded. Some files were transferred to their record group of origin -- UA00010, UA00017, UA00019, and AAUP files.

Title
Guide to the College Senate records
Status
Completed
Author
Felicity Knox (updated by John Esh, 2020)
Date
July 2011
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Towson University Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
Albert S. Cook Library
8000 York Rd
Towson MD 21252 United States