Minutes of the Wichita State University Faculty Senate
Monday, October 10, 2011
CH 126 3:30 pm

Members Present: Barut, Besthorn, Bolin, Bryant, Close,Decker, DeSilva, Hull, Driessen, Gibson, Hemans, Horn, Jacobs, Johnson, Klunder, Kumar, Lewis, Miller, Mosack, Pulaski, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Russell, Skinner, M. Smith, Solomey, Yeager
Members Absent: Henry, Mandt, Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, P. Smith, Thompson, Yildirim
Members Excused: Adler, Carruthers,
Summary of Action:
1. Accepted the nomination of Denise Celestin as Senator at Large replacing Hershfield (1 year term)
2. Accepted the following committee appointments:
Faculty Affairs – Aleksander Sternfield-Dunn,Fine Arts (1 yr. appt)
Honors – Will Klunder, LAS Humanities, (3 yr. apt)
3. Accepted the proposed changes to the Academic Calendar
4. Accepted the revisions to the WSU Policies & Procedures, 2.15, Chair

I. Call to Order: President Steven Skinner called the meeting to order at 3:30pm
II. Informal Statements and Proposals: none
III. President's Report
President Skinner made the following announcements:
1. The AAUP Fall 2011 Kansas Conference will be held on the WSU campus in the Rhatigan Student Center October 22, 2011. All faculty members are encouraged to attend the conference which will begin at 10:30 am and conclude at 4 pm. Admission is $10 which includes a lunch. Those interested should sign up at the AAUP website, www.aaup-in-ks.org. by October 22.
2. Members of the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) will visit WSU on October 24 and 25. Arrangements are in progress to schedule a meeting to discuss the procedure for conducting the WSU Presidential Search. It appears that this might be set for 9:30 am on Monday, October 24. In addition, four Members of Faculty Senate Executive Committee will meet with the Regents group over lunch on the 24th.
3. The General Education worksheets distributed to all department chairs should be returned by the end of October. One clarification to the instruction is in order. The list of nine outcomes proposed by the task force should be ranked from 1(the most important) to 9 (the least important).
4. Office for Faculty Development and Student Success is considering developing a WSU 201 course for new transfer students. The course would be one credit hour and transfer students would have the option of taking the course or going through the current 6 hour orientation for transfer students. During the discussion of the new course Interim Provost Pickus indicated that the WSU 101 course for new freshman would remain optional for the next several years.
5. The Executive Committee has directed the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs committee to develop a position on the following: a) Dual Major Double Counting, b) Policies for the Grade of Incomplete, c) Grade Replacement Policies, and d) Hours in the major requirements. Likewise the General Education Committee has been asked to develop a policy statement regarding General Education courses being used in the major.
IV. Approval of the Minutes
The minutes of the 2010-11 Faculty Senate meeting of May 9, 2011 and the election meeting of the 2011-12 Faculty Senate on the same day were approved with no corrections.

V. Committee Reports
Robert Ross, chair of the Rules Committee, reported that the group of at-large senators nominated Denise Celestin to fulfill the term of the at-large position recently vacated by Jeff Hershfield. The members of the senate voted to accept.
Senator Ross announced that Will Klunder, LAS Humanities, had agreed to join the Honors Committee and his appointment was confirmed by the members of the Senate.
Senator Ross also noted that faculty senate vacancies remain in the following areas: Health Sciences (one two-year term), Humanities (one two-year term), and LAS Social Sciences(one two-year term). He requested those senators from the areas with vacancies to help in the recruitment of their colleagues to fill these vacancies.
Senator Ross announced that Aleksander Sternfield-Dunn, Fine Arts, had agreed to serve as a replacement for Silvia Carruthers on the Faculty Affairs Committee. He also mentioned there are still some vacancies on some of the Faculty Senate Standing Committees.

VI. Old Business – none
VII. New Business
a. Graduation requirement for training in “Scholarly Integrity” – Abu Masud, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, provided a followed-up on his report from last spring regarding responsible conduct of research. He summarized the recommendations of the September 15, 2011, report of the Graduate Council concerning “Scholarly Integrity Training Requirements for Graduate Students.” This report is the results of Graduate Council committee's work of last spring that was motivated by federal funding agencies moves to require responsible conduct of research training, recent cases of graduate student plagiarism, and national events that indicate that graduate students lack full knowledge of scholarly integrity. The committee recommends that all graduate students should be required to have training in scholarly integrity during the early part of their graduate studies. Areas to be addressed during this training should include the following as a minimum: research misconduct, responsible authorship of publications, conflict of interest and commitment, and ethical issues regarding research data acquisition, management, sharing and ownership. The process will be initiated the fall of 2012 for all doctoral students and then for all masters' degree students the following fall of 2013. The Graduate School will provide guidance regarding topic descriptions and expectations, but the departments offering graduate degrees will be required to develop their individual plans for providing this training. The report generated a great deal of discussion within the senate, but no recommendations for change or further study were suggested.
b. Recommendation to move fall 2013, 2014, and 2015 academic calendar up one week – President Skinner informed the senate that the current approved calendar for the fall semesters of 2013, 2014, and 2015 contained ending dates that required a number of university employees to remain on campus very close to December 25. He indicated that the university could ask for the dates to be changed to coincide with the dates approved for Emporia State, Pittsburg State and Fort Hayes State which would provide an additional week prior to December 25. He sought the senate's endorsement for such a change. Senator Rillema moved to change the semester start and end dates as recommended. The motion was seconded by several senators and the motion passed without dissent.
c. Correction to Section 2.15 of WSU Policies and Procedures regarding “Chair Policy and Procedures” - President Skinner informed the senate that “extraneous wording” had been included in Section 2.15 during a revision of the section. The Senate Executive Committee proposed the removal of the phrase “the committee recommends” and the insertion of the word “will” from the sentence “Thus, the committee recommends that the following procedures will be utilized in the selection, appointment, and evaluation of chairs.” so that it now reads as: “The following procedures will be utilized in the selection, appointment, and evaluation of chairs.” After limited discussion Senator Lewis moved that the senate dispense with the second reading of the motion, and Senator Ross seconded. The motion to dispense passed with no dissent, as did the original motion from the Executive Committee.
d. Proposed revisions to Section 4.13 of Policies and Procedures (1st reading) in order to conform to KBOR Policies and Procedures - The proposed changes to Section 4.13 of the University's Policies and Procedures has been recommended by the University's attorney, Ted Ayres to bring it in alignment with Section 8 of the Kansas Board of Regents Procedures. Copies of the current Section 4.13, marked-up copy showing proposed changes, final copy of the section after proposed changes, and KBOR Policy 8 can be found on the Senate website. Senators were encouraged to examine these documents and to be prepared to discuss the changes during the second reading at the next meeting of the Senate. President Skinner agreed to invite Ted Ayres to attend the next meeting as well.
e. Report on KBOR Transfer and Articulation (TAAC) – Senator Hemans, one of two WSU representatives. reported on the work of the committee. He represents the faculty of the three Kansas research universities based on nomination from the Faculty Senate Presidents. This committee is in its second year of developing a rational and realistic procedure of granting transfer of credit for a class taken at a Regent's institution at another Regent's institution. The current emphasis on this, sometimes difficult, process was motivated by a joint request from the State's community colleges. Senator Hemans, along with Interim Provost Pickus, feels that this is a very serious matter that must be examined thoroughly and dealt with cautiously. For those that are interested, all of the documents associated with the work of this committee are available on the Senate web site - under Current Topics, within the folder "KBOR Transfer and Articulation Information." Senator Hemans promised to keep the Senate informed of the action of the committee.
VIII. As May Arise
President Skinner informed the senate that he had been contacted by the Office of Career Services regarding the “Hire-a-Shocker” service provided by the office. He agreed to invite the Director of Career Services, Jill Pletcher, to the Senate for a presentation detailing the service.
IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:52pm.