The Penn State University Faculty Senate held a regularly scheduled meeting yesterday at 1:30 p.m. in 112 Kern Graduate Building to discuss a number of issues, including the 2011 budget and a new legislation regarding minor requirements for students.

University President Graham Spanier kicked off the meeting with an announcement that both enrollment and prospective student applications had gone up in the past year.

“The fall enrollment numbers are in,” Spanier said. “Right now, there are 96,000 students enrolled at Penn State campuses, an all-time high, including the World Campus.”

The number, he said, shows an increase of about 1,500 from last year. The president said that there was also a bump in applications to the university, totaling somewhere near 115,000.

The floor was then opened to a Q&A forum with the president. A concerned member of the audience asked about recent incidents, specifically the violence that occurred over Homecoming weekend.  His main concern was with the fact that students were going to parties and events armed with knives and other weapons. He stressed the lack of pat-downs and security members, and that DUI enforcement was being given priority over security measures.

Spanier responded that, while the incidents occurred off-campus and are out of the University’s jurisdiction, Penn State Campus Police were on the scene at one of the stabbings within moments. Spanier issued some reassurance that the Penn State Police and State College Police have been working “seamlessly” to curb violence and make sure that this type of incident wouldn’t occur again.

Following President Spanier’s remarks, the meeting moved to a lengthy presentation about the 2011 budget, the details of which are available here.

The meeting then moved to the discussion of an amendment that would allow students with minors specific to their campus to transfer campuses and still keep their minor.  The previous legislation stated that, if a student were to transfer campuses, their minor would not transfer over if that minor was specific to the campus they were transferring from.

Considerable discussion was focused on striking one of the lines of the amendment.

“Students may not change from a campus that offers their major to a campus that does not offer their major for the purpose of completing a minor.”

It was intended to keep students from transferring campuses for the purpose of obtaining a minor, a move that was argued over because of the potential headaches it would cause administratively.

Following are the links to both the amendment and yesterday’s overall agenda of the Faculty Senate.