Minutes of the General Faculty Meeting
Hubbard Hall 208
Friday, January 27, 2017, 2:00-3:30 PM
Summary of Actions:
1. Accepted – Revisions to the Constitution
I. Call to Order –President Yildirim called the meeting to order at 2:07 PM, Senator Ewing was appointed secretary and Senator Brooks was appointed parliamentarian.
II. Moment of Silence for Deceased Faculty – the following faculty were recognized
• Maureen Hoag
• Paul Magelli
• John McBride
• Patric Rowley
• Jim Snyder
• Jonelle Turner
• William Unrau
• W.D. “Dean” Vickery
III. Approval of the Minutes – Minutes of the May 6, 2016, General Faculty Meeting were accepted.
IV. President John Bardo – University Update. President Bardo addressed the faculty, shared the following updates, and responded to questions.
a. Budget – President Bardo or Andy Schlapp will provide information regarding the budget. If faculty have questions or want clarification they are encouraged to contact Andy Schlapp.
b. WATC – President Bardo sent out a Q&A regarding the WSU/WATC merger. If the legislation
passes this means that:
• WATC will become a branch of WSU;
• The impact on the daily lives of faculty/staff should be minimal/negligible;
• Sources of funding will remain the same;
• Allows for better coordination;
• Head of WATC will sit on the President’s Executive Team;
• Accreditation will not change; and
• General Education will not change
c. Increased Faculty Input/Shared Governance
• President Bardo is committed to including faculty on committees.
• The release pay for the faculty senate president will come from the university
instead of the senate president’s department.
• In putting university committees together, President Bardo will ask the faculty
senate for individuals who can serve.
• President Bardo would like to have faculty who work with the Innovation Campus
and understand the nature of nondisclosures to serve on a committee and work with
Vice President Tomblin
d. Public Statement about Conceal Carry
• President Bardo does not generally make public statements. He believes they increase
opposition rather than “get you where you need to go.”
• President Bardo did sign the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Petition
because “I think the weight of numbers matters.”
• He has expressed our interests regarding conceal carry and will continue to do
so. “If people feel strongly that I need to make a public statement, I will think
about it.”
e. Questions from the faculty
• Question: Do you think it would be effective for us as faculty/individuals to make
contact with legislators? Response: If you make a statement as an individual voter,
absolutely you should exercise your right as citizens.
• Question: If we are coordinating more with WATC how do you see a good way to navigate
the overlap? Response: Right now we find out about what they do after it is done;
what we will do is have a joint group of faculty and staff who could sit down monthly
and talk about what is going on.
• Question: Is the issue of a merger going to come before the faculty for a validating
vote? Response: I don't know if that is the usual way of doing business in these cases.
• Question: Isn't this a case of curricular impact? Response: The way we are doing
it doesn't have a curricular impact. The way we started would have.
• Question: Is their budget going to be separate from ours. Response: Yes
• Question: When they graduate will they graduate from WATC or WSU? Response: They
will have an AA from WSU at the WATC branch campus.
• Question: Are we looking into some sort of reciprocity? Response: We have really
interesting opportunities when they are a branch campus. They will have information
on their students and we could do electronic transfer of information – their students
would meet our requirements and pay our tuition. It opens up the possibility of true
2+2, so we would offer the upper level programs and they would offer the lower level
programs.
f. President Bardo thanked the faculty for their time and commented that he was looking
forward to the outcome of the discussion.
V. Faculty Senate Updates
a. Nominations for 2017-2019 senators – process will begin soon.
b. If you are interested in volunteering for a Senate Standing Committee, please
do so.
c. The leadership of the Faculty Senate has created a Questions and Concerns page. Faculty can submit questions. The questions/concerns will be shared with the appropriate
administrator(s).
d. The Faculty Senate will discuss the possibility of a resolution on the issue of
concealed carry.
VI. New Business
a. President-Elect Shaw presented the Proposed Revision to the Faculty Senate Constitution. Article 1, Section 1a – expanding the eligibility for membership in the Faculty
Senate and Committees. The recommendation presented was approved by the Faculty Senate
on 11/28/16.
i. President-Elect Shaw shared the background for the proposed revision and the process
by which the revision came to this meeting of the general faculty. The proposed revision
requires a vote of the full faculty as it is an amendment to the constitution. Approval
of the amendment would add seven new senators to the Faculty Senate.
Proposed amendment: All employees who have teaching/library responsibilities of 50% of more and .5FTE or greater will be eligible for membership in the Faculty Senate, including: temporary faculty, probationary faculty, tenured faculty, contingent unclassified professionals, provisional unclassified professionals, and regular unclassified professionals. These employees all have the e-class designation of FA or F2.
ii. The original proposal lists teaching/library – a motion by Betty Smith Campbell and seconded by Twyla Hill was made to add the word research (Parliamentarian Brooks stated since we are voting on expansion, if we wish to add research we can.) Motion accepted.
Question and Concerns
• Does this have any impact on faculty control of the curriculum?
• Will we be increasing the number of unclassified professionals while we are losing
tenure track positions?
• Will this change impact or influence the administration regarding tenure track
positions?
• What is the 6.12 process? What is their review process?
• Why were they originally included in the Unclassified Professional Senate?
• If the rationale is for considering temporary doesn't this also apply to adjuncts?
• If you are contingent and here for a year are you really invested in the institution?
• This faculty needs a voice; however, they will not have the protections that tenured
faculty enjoy. They are dependent on good will. Do they have academic freedom?
• Is this incentivizing the hiring of more adjuncts?
• Are we diluting the vote of the faculty senate?
• Why don't they make a change in their senate?
• How did the university violate the 7-year rule; are we trying to cover up what
the university did?
• We used to have a university senate, what are we accomplishing here, better rights,
increase in pay, does opening up the faculty senate accomplish this?
• Is there a better way of doing this that won't compromise concerns?
• Are we saying they have a different ranking and not are qualified?
Comments
• Some individuals in nursing program who teach have been here 15-20 years, with
no input on academic policy, or promotion. They serve on committees and bring a wealth
of experience. The program couldn't run without them.
• I value my status as a tenure track faculty member, but when we think about the vote it is about the kind of work that you do and I understand that someone is doing the same kind of work that I do.
• Michael Poage (Instructor) Intensive English Language Center “we are here to ask if we can have a seat in the faculty senate...we want to be more involved in the life of the campus…some of our faculty members have been here over 30 years.”
• The faculty senate voted in favor of this proposal, it is an opportunity to have a university senate. Our clinical educators are educators – they teach our students, they are faculty members who have a different role, this gives us an opportunity to have a university-wide senate.
• Tenure is not what it used to be, not what it will be, so maybe we need to consider extending academic freedom to our colleagues.
• I have faculty in this position, their load is 100% teaching, and their voices need to be heard.
• Both sides are right at the same time – there is an erosion of faculty voice and there has been an erosion in the number of faculty we have. The definitions are different and we are redefining what is faculty.
• I am Pam Martin…. been here 10 years and still a clinical educator. Most semesters I have taught 180 students. Same concerns about the quality of student who comes to us…would like to have a shared voice in the senate…you can welcome colleagues who are fully engaged.
• We are all correct, faculty and folks who teach, but we are covering up for the fact that they should be tenure track and aren't. Suggest rather than inviting them to the faculty senate, give them policy and procedures and give them status as clinical faculty and research faculty appointments. Departments can get to decide who are faculty and give them the rights.
• Teaching faculty are represented in the faculty senate at KU, K-State, Emporia, Pittsburg and Fort Hays State.
• According to KBOR policy if you teach or do research you are an unclassified professional who is in control of the curriculum. A lot of people in Health Professions who are faculty suggest to this body that we are all faculty and need to have a voice in curriculum matters.
Motion made to strike contingent unclassified from the proposal as they are on one-year contract related to a five-year grant. No second. Amendment fails.
Prior to the vote, President Yildirim noted that if the proposal passes the next item on the faculty senate agenda will be an ad hoc committee on advancement.
Motion made and seconded to close the debate. The proposal to be voted on was the amended proposal (word research included). The motion was accepted: 77 Yes, 33 No, 1 Abstained and 1 Blank.
VII. As May Arise –
a. Gamal Weheba, Kansas Chapter President of AAUP: Stated that by definition is you
are a faculty member you are protected by AAUP. He suggested that faculty check out
the AAUP website to become familiar with the organization and what the organization
does to protect academic freedom.
VIII. Adjournment – at 3:55PM