Faculty Senate (2026 – 2027) Meeting Minutes - Draft

Monday, August 24, 2026 

3:30 - 5:00 pm Woolsey Hall, 110A

Present:

Aguirre, Ahmed, Allen, Beck, Billingham, Bowen, Boynton, Butler, Castro, Chesser, Dai, Dowling, Figy, Flores, Griffith, Jamkartanian, Jones, Kim, Koop, Kreinath, Loibl, Musaji, Myose, Nelson, Newbold, Nicks, O’Bryan, Ott, Owen, Price, Puskarevic, Rani, Rutti, Sager, Sarionder, Small, Smith, Solomey, Swindle, Terry, Tew, Thompson, Twomey, Vasquez, Wang, Williams, Young, Zhu

Absent:

Bannister

Call to Order

  • President Koop at 3:30 pm

Approval of Minutes

  • May 11, 2026 minutes approved for both 2025 – 2026 and 2026 – 2027 senates

Informal Statements

  • Senator Solomey shared a statement noting the increased prevalence of Latin honors and calling attention to the nation-wise problem of grade inflation. He encouraged the university to study if grade distributions at WSU have changed recently and determine if any action related to this matter is necessary.
    • Senators suggested possibilities for preserving the prestige of Latin honors, including presenting such honors based on percentages
  • Senator Billingham made a statement welcoming new senators and reminding the body of the wide purview of the Faculty Senate’s authority and the mechanisms through which senators may direct the agenda of the Senate. He also claimed that during his time in the Senate that the FS Executive Committee has concentrated the Senate’s authority into itself, fielding administrative inquiries and other decision-making, rather than bringing those issues before the full body of the Faculty Senate. He offered the following suggestions:
    • Detailed minutes be kept of all FS Executive Committee meetings and posted publicly
    • Require that should FS Executive Committee or Senate leadership guidance be sought by the administration, that any decisions made be brought before the Faculty Senate at the next meeting for ratification

President's Report

  • Welcome to all Senators and University Committee Members
  • Expectations of senators
    • Two-way communication between the senate and faculty is needed to relay discussions and actions of the faculty senate to faculty and to bring faculty issues before the senate body
    • Senators are encouraged to use all avenues of engaging with the faculty on issues, including unit leaders and the FS Executive Committee
    • Any senator may request that an item be placed on the agenda by emailing the FS Executive Committee
  • Welcome to new Faculty
  • FS Operations Update
    • Document Availability
      • Agendas and Minutes will be posted on the Faculty Senate webpage with other documents and materials housed in FS Teams
      • Non-senators may ask for documents from their senators or find historical documents on SOAR (library)
      • Senators asked several questions about the reasons for the change and raised concerns about how this increases the barrier of participation to non-senators
      • A few suggestions were made to allow non-senators more access to the documents posted on Teams, including opening Teams access to all interested faculty
    • Rules Committee will review the Constitution and Senate Rules this year
    • Lee Ann Birdwell is providing administrative support to the senate once again
    • Morrison Hall 002 is being renovated for faculty senate committee use
  • CoFSP update
    • Upcoming review of advanced placement (AP) and credit for prior learning (CPL) with the goal of making required scores more consistent across institutions

  • Faculty Workload policy update

    • Working group during summer formed between executive committee members and academic affairs to revise the policy draft, with faculty receiving a stipend for summer work
    • Three key areas of focus
      • Faculty workload models
      • Additional workload and its recognition
      • Work plans, deviations, and appeals
    • Ongoing discussions are occurring within the FS Executive Committee concerning how and when to bring this policy back to the full senate for evaluation; it is anticipated that the policy will first return to the Faculty Affairs Committee.
    • Senator Allen – Thanks the members who did summer work on the policy and requested that the receipt of a stipend and its amount be noted in the minutes so that faculty asked to do summer work in the future may refer to this event
  • LinkedIn Learning access ended in mid-June
  • Faculty Internal Funding Awards have been paused for FY 2027
    • Academic Affairs was not consulted prior to pausing the funding and is working to identify alternatives
    • Senator Dowling – NTT faculty were only recently added to these awards prior to the pause; disappointed that Faculty Support Committee were not informed that this change was coming and not given an opportunity to provide input
    • Senator Nicks – What is the impact of these changes on URCAF and GRASP? What funding will be available, and where will it come from? Should the Student Affairs Committee continue to plan these events with the potential of not having funding?
    • Senator Billingham – Potentially damaging because these awards often are seed money for external grants
    • Tentative Dates for General Faculty Meetings
      • November 23, 2026
      • April 26, 2027
    • Senator Castro – Faculty Chair Policy draft is currently available on Teams

Committee Reports

  • Rules Committee
    • Brought forward slate of candidates for the Faculty Senate, University Exceptions Committee, and Court of Academic Appeals – passed unanimously

Old Business

  • None

New Business

  • Open discussion of President’s updates and Senate’s priorities
    • President Koop opened the floor for senators to comment on the President’s Report and to note items they would like to see on the agenda this year in the Faculty Senate
    • Senator Castro
      • KBOR DEI definition
      • 21-day remote work policy
    • Senator Billingham
      • Library fine change (automatic purchase, no longer late fees)
        • Requested for the Dean of Libraries to give a report on how these fines have affected student fees
    • Senator Nicks
      • Revisit Academic Integrity policy passed in December 2025
        • Noted that Student Affairs had requested updates to the policy
    • Senator Newbold
      • Merger policy between units, specifically have a policy and procedure for handling mergers and possible dissolution of academic units
    • KBOR DEI definition update
      • KBOR has provided a definition of DEI to comply with HB 2513
      • HB 2513 has a budget proviso that could withhold up to $10,000,000 from the university if it does not meet these new requirements
      • Restrictions center on courses required for a program (i.e., certificate, credential, or degree)
      • University is proactively reviewing the course inventory and awaiting KBOR guidance on the process and which courses/programs may be exempted
      • July 2028 is the university’s target compliance date
        • There may be earlier catalog deadlines
      • Exemption/waiver pathway does not yet exist, specifics still being worked out
      • Faculty input will be part of the process
    • Update on faculty pay – AVP for Faculty Affairs Mathew Muether
      • $3M approved by AY27/28 searches, with 39 new faculty lines
        • 24 TT and 15 NTT
        • 12 LAS, 7 CHP, 8 Eng, 5 BSB 4 FA, 3 Ed
      • Approved search requests based upon tenure density, ranking criteria, and accreditation needs
      • GU support capped at $110k for assistant professors
        • Differential tuition or RU funding may support higher salaries
      • AVP Muether offered to provide metrics used to make evaluations related to tenure density to the relevant committee
      • Faculty compensation
        • $447k increase in total faculty compensation for FY 2027
        • $8,000 increase for all 46 faculty with successful promotion or PIR cases
        • $79,246 in additional supplemental adjustments for 14 faculty to adjust compensation to rank-based minimums, peer salaries within units, and retention considerations
        • Established floors for full-time faculty are $55k for NTT, $65k for TT, +$8k for each increase in rank
        • Retention efforts made in consultation with deans to increase salary for long-serving undercompensated faculty
        • FY27 adjustments targeted in two categories
          • Faculty inverted within their unit or falling below rank minimums
          • Full professors paid below rank minimum

As May Arise

  • Senator Allen – concerning CoFSP review of AP/CPL, suggestion to engage department chairs to give recommendations for what the proper standards should be
  • Senator Musaji – elected chair of Faculty Support Committee last spring, only heard about the pause of Faculty Internal Awards at this meeting, and is disheartened at the lack of communication
  • Public Policy and Management Center is seeking engagement with faculty senators

Adjourn

  • Meeting adjourned at 4:57 pm

Next Meeting

  • September 14, 3:30 - 5:00 pm, 110 Woolsey Hall

Minutes prepared by Nathan Thompson