M21014

Minutes of the Wichita State University Faculty Senate

Monday, February 10, 2014
CH 107 3:30 pm

Members Present: Baker, Barut, Brooks, Castro, Close, Decker, Hanawalt, Horn, Houseman, Hull, Johnson, Klunder, Lewis, Liu, Matveyeva, Mosac k, Perry, Pile, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Trechak, Yeager, Yildirim

Members Absent: Anderson, Bergman, Driessen, Hamdeh, Kreinath, Lu, Miller, Moore-Jansen, Oare, Taher, Yu

Members Excused: Bryant, Celestin, Kagdi, Thiessen

Summary of Action
1. Accepted Mary Koehn as the representative from Health Professions to the General Education Committee
2. Honors College Baccalaureate -- 1st reading

I. Call to Order
President Victoria Mosack called the meeting to order at 3:30pm. She announced that today's meeting would be an abbreviated meeting (adjournment at about 3:50pm) in order to allow all interested senators to attend today's open forum at 4:00pm with Fred Logan, Chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents. Chairman Logan plans to open with some brief remarks and then accept questions from the audience.
President Mosack also informed the Senate of the memorial service for Alan Elcrat, professor of mathematics, which is scheduled for 10:00 am, February 22, 2014, in room 180 of the WSU Metroplex.
President Mosack encouraged all faculty, staff and students that are interested in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion at WSU to attend the Tilford Commission meeting scheduled for 3-5 pm, Monday, February 17,, 2014, in room 142 of the Rhatigan Student Center. Contact jean.griffith@wichita.edu for more information.

II. Informal Statements and Proposals
Senator Brooks presented the following informal statement and proposal:
“The English Department received authorization to proceed on a search effort to hire a Composition Specialist on December 12 and hand carried the paperwork to administrative offices on December 13. As of February 4, no ad has been run. My chair just signed the authorization form to run the search for the fourth time, after which for the fourth time signatures will need to be gathered and the form routed to four more offices. Perhaps the advertisement, approved on December 12, will finally be run two months after initial approval. I am reading this to ask that the Faculty Senate gather similar information from other academic units and produce a report that will lead to the creation of a new policy or process for search procedures, one that will prioritize these searches, will provide that someone in every office is authorized to sign such search documents in the absence of the administrator who usually signs, that documents forwarded by email be prioritized, and that all efforts are taken to ensure that the machinery of the hiring process does not come to a complete stop because one person is off campus or one form is misplaced. We have lost top candidates on several occasions, lost interviews on multiple occasions, and dismayed potential hires with the slowness of our search processes. If we wish our massive Strategic Plan to represent a truly exceptional university, perhaps streamlining the way that we hire people to work at this exceptional university should be moved somewhere near the top of a list of priorities at WSU. Nothing lowers morale like watching brilliant candidates take other jobs simply because we moved too slowly. We must do better.”
Several Senators leaped at the opportunity to support Senator Brooks' observations, analyses, and recommendation for action. Several voiced the opinion that Senator Brooks' remarks concerning the need for streamlining of the “hiring process” would hold true for all campus processes that require a string of signatures for final authorization. President Mosack declared that the Senate Executive Committee would take this proposal under consideration at its earliest opportunity.

III. Approval of the Minutes
Due to the brevity of today's meeting, approval of the minutes of the January 27, 2014, meeting of the Faculty Senate was postponed until the next meeting of the Faculty Senate.

IV. President's Report
Again due to the time constraint, President Mosack had no remarks beyond those reported earlier in the announcements directly after she called the meeting to order

V. Committee Reports.
A. Rules Committee Report – Senator Mehmet Barut, Chair of the Rules Committee, presented the name of Mary Koehn as the committee's recommendation for the General Education committee representing the College of Health Professions, with a term ending 2015. She was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
Senator Barut pleaded for support in filling the remaining four vacant senate positions

B. Academic Affairs Committee Report- Mary Walker, Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, presented a proposal from the Honors College that had been approved by the Academic Affairs Committee. The Honors College is seeking the Faculty Senate's approval to offer an Honors Baccalaureate degree[BROKEN LINK] to be conferred by the Honors College. Eventually several different tracts will be available for honors students to pursue, but at this time only the “Leadership” tract has been developed to the point of being offered in the Fall semester of 2014. Previously the Senate has approved the concept of the Honors College conferring a baccalaureate degree. At this point the College is asking for the Faculty Senate's approval for the Honors College to create a new program (Honors Baccalaureate degree) in the Honors College. The Leadership tract will serve as an example of the remaining tracts to be available at a later time.
A great number of issues were raised in the limited time available for discussion, Senator Castro asked when the development of the remaining tracts would be completed, and questioned the necessity of proceeding with only one tract. Senator Hull inquired about the process used to select the “Honors Fellows”, the procedure that faculty are to use to have an honors section of a course approved, and availability of necessary forms on the Honors College[BROKEN LINK] website.
President Mosack intervened in the discussions to announce that time for discussion had expired for this first reading of the proposal and that more time for debate would be available at the second reading of the proposal.

VI. Old Business
WSU Policies and Procedures 5.06: Resolution of Internal Disputes Second reading of proposed revisions - President Mosack tabled further discussion of the proposed revisions until the next meeting of the Senate

VII. New Business – None

VIII. As May Arise – None

IX. Adjournment
As announced at the beginning of the meeting, the meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 3:53 pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate