WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING : Monday, November 8, 2010
MEMBERS PRESENT: Adler, Anderson, Bennett, Bolin, Brooks, Close, Decker, DeSilva, Dreisen, D'Souza,, Gibson, Hemans, Hershfield Horn, Jeffres, Klunder, Kreinath, Matveyeva, Miller, Mosack, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, D. Russell, L. Russell, Skinner, Smith, Soles, Strattman, Thompson, Yeager
MEMBERS ABSENT: Baker, Bryant, DiLollo, Taher, Yildirim
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Barut, Carruthers, Celestin, Henry, Lewis-Moss, Smith-Campbell
EX-OFFICIO PRESENT: Miller
I. Call of the Meeting to Order: President Hemans called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm.
II. Informal Statements and Proposals: President Hemans noted that the final meeting of the semester would be on December 13, 2010 and would be followed by a Holiday reception at the RSC 208-210.
III. Approval of the Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of Monday, October 11, 2010 were accepted with an amendment.
IV. President's Report:
A. President Hemans announced that the Academic Affairs Committee was considering
a proposal from the College of Engineering to create a B.S. in Engineering Technology
and that the proposal would soon come before the Faculty Senate, probably in spring
2011.
B. President Hemans announced that the Library Committee had completed the revision
of its charge and that the revised charge was expected to come before the Faculty
Senate in fall 2010.
C. President Hemans announced that the standing General Education Committee was in
the process of reviewing its charge and considering its future direction, especially
in its role as a liaison between different groups within the university that are all
involved in general education.
D. President Hemans reported that a subcommittee of the Planning and Budget Committee
had begun studying the Program Review process, focusing on ways to make Program Review
lead to improvements within programs, to revise the scheduling cycles for Program
Review, to increase access to data and reports generated in the Program Review process,
and to identify those triggered programs that play some essential role to the university.
E. President Hemans reported that the Planning and Budget Committee was reviewing
the Board of Regents' “Foresight 2020” document and focusing on those goals outlined
in the document that both would have a significant impact on the university and would
be of significant relevance to the work of faculty.
The Senate agreed to revise the agenda in order to consider New Business next.
VII. New Business:
A. Senator Skinner, chair of the Rules Committee, presented a proposal to revise
the charge to the Faculty Senate Scholarship and Student Aid Committee. Following discussion with the chair of said committee, a motion was made by Senator
Close (2nd Hershfield) to accept the proposal. The Senate approved the proposal.
B. President Hemans presented a proposal to revise Tenure and Promotion procedures. Following discussion, a motion was approved to dispense with a second reading of
the proposal, and the Senate approved. A motion to forward the proposal to Provost
Miller. was made by Senator Soles (2nd - Hershfield). The Senate approved the motion.
V. Committee Reports: none
VI. Old Business:
A. Proposal to endorse a policy to assign a faculty mentor to each student at the time
of admission, (second reading). President Hemans solicited discussion of this proposal, in particular the sort of
mentorship program that faculty would prefer, as well as efforts to track student
attendance for the sake of increasing student retention and the possibility of freshman
orientation. Discussion concluded with a plan to gather and present further information
on freshman orientation for discussion at the next meeting of the Senate.
B. Proposal to endorse a policy to require the declaration of a major at the time of
admission, (second reading). President Hemans solicited discussion of this proposal and presented data on retention
rates among WSU students who had declared a major and compared those data with data
on WSU students who had not declared a major. Discussion concluded with a plan to
gather and present national data on retention rates among declared and undeclared
students among the university's peer institutions.
IX. As May Arise: none.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:54 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dan Russell, Secretary