Faculty Senate Minutes

Monday April 25, 2016

Clinton Hall 126, 3:30PM-5:00PM

Senators Present: Ahlnedm Baryutm Bryant, Celestin, Chand, Chang, Chopra, Close, Cramer, Decker, Dehner, Ewing, Hendry, Hull, Johnson, Moore-Jansen, Mosack, Muthiachareon, Myose, Palmer, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Shaw, Shukaev, Solomey, Walker, Woods, Yildirim

Senators Absent: Adler, Babnich, Birzer, Deibel, Huaghes, Hunsicker, Jin, Lu, Ramanan, Yao

Senators Excused: Brooks, Castro, Huckstadt

Summary of Actions:
1. Accepted -Proposed Revisions to the Constitution
2. Accepted - Revisions to the Rules of the Faculty Senate


I. Call to Order - Meeting called to order at 3:31PM by President Moore-Jansen

II. Informal Statements and Proposals - None

III. Approval of Minutes
a. Minutes of the April 11, 2016, meeting were accepted as presented

IV. Presidents Report
a. KBOR – Transfer/Articulation – CLEP/AP – Senate Bill 388 proposes that CLEP scores be legislated. Interpretation of the bill varies, one interpretation would leave some discretion to the KBOR institutions; however, other interpretations would mandate use of the highest score. On May 16th there will be a CLEP Council meeting. President Moore-Jansen will contact Susan Norton (WSU Representative) to share the preference for individual programs to be involved in the decision on what CLEP scores should be. The legislature is pushing for standardization and President Moore-Jansen is concerned that the legislature is infringing on faculty decisions.

V. Updates
a. Foundation -- Following Dr. Elizabeth King’s presentation at the last meeting e-mail questions pertaining to the endowment arose. Dr. King has responded to the questions. Dr. King is open to questions, so if there are any additional queries faculty are encouraged to contact President Moore-Jansen or Bobbi Dreiling.
b. WATC – Updated information is limited. There is a merger committee which will look at two aspects of the merger; structure - staff status and credit assignment – issues related to general education. President Moore-Jansen will send out an e-mail asking for interested faculty to work on these matters over the summer.
c. Weapons – President Moore-Jansen has been in contact with several individuals trying to identify volunteers who would be willing to serve on a weapons committee. The committee would work over the summer and focus on issues related to offices, lab spaces, safety in the classroom for faculty and students, etc. This committee would be an opportunity for faculty input and would provide feedback for President Moore-Jansen to share with the university committee working on a weapon policy.

d. House Bill 2531 (note correction) – HB 2531 addresses tenure issues for community college faculty. There are several faculty on campus who have met and are engaged with the topic, including Dr. Jay Price. President Moore-Jansen is proposing an ad hoc committee and invites members of the faculty who are interested to be part of the committee. The idea is to monitor this situation and determine the future impact on university faculty.

e. Strategic Planning – Dr. Cindy Claycomb, Assistant to the President for Strategic Planning - provided an update on the strategic plan. The primary focus of the update was assessment and the metrics used to assess Applied Learning, a key element of the strategic plan. The Assessment Committee has relaunched the website, reviewed all the colleges’ plans, created a self-assessment tool/rubric and provided it to the colleges, completed a template for the colleges which streamlined the annual review process, and created a dashboard. The committee is also reviewing the university goals to determine if the goals need updating. Dr. Claycomb discussed the value of the dashboard and the need for data related to applied learning to be collected. A definition of Applied Learning and criteria has been developed which colleges will operationalize (see handout provided).

VI. Committee Reports
a. Rules – Senators Yilram and Shaw presented the revisions to the Constitution and Rules of the Senate (2nd reading).
i. The revised Constitution was accepted as presented.
ii. The Rules of the Faculty Senate was accepted as presented.
iii. The proposed revisions to the Constitution was accepted and will be voted on by the General Faculty at the May 6, 2016,meeting.

b. Standing Committee Annual Reports – (Next meeting)
i. Faculty Affairs
ii. Scholarship and Student Aid

VII. Old Business
a. T& P Model - Senator Barut, Chair of the Faculty Affairs Committee, presented a resolution pertaining to faculty senate adoption of a revised T&P model. The model was discussed and on the faculty senate agenda last year (2014—2015). The Faculty Affairs Committee was charged with reviewing the UniScope Scholarship Model. The resolution, coming from the executive committee, was read (1st reading). President Moore-Jansen asked senate members if the floor felt ready to vote on the issue. There were several questions from the floor:
i. Q: Would faculty currently on tenure track be impacted? R: This should not be a disadvantage to current faculty. It still allows departments/colleges/schools to develop the scope within the framework.
ii. Q: Would this impact the 40, 40, 20 percentages? R: It should not impact the percentages and would be a big step toward Goal 7 of the Strategic Plan.
iii. Q: What about letters of appointment that do not require research? R: It would be up to the individual unit.
iv. Q: Would about faculty who are 2 to 3 years into the tenure process would they have a choice? Would they go under the old rules? R: This model could be used immediately.
v. Q: Why was it tabled? R: It had to go to the Faculty Affairs Committee for review and it was delayed because of other agenda items. It does not go to the general faculty; it goes to the Colleges.

Some senators voiced concerns that they were not familiar enough with the documents nor had they discussed the documents with the faculty in their colleges; and therefore, were not prepared to vote. A vote to put the resolution on the next faculty senate meeting was accepted, one opposed. The resolution will be voted on at the May 9, 2016 Faculty Senate meeting. The article Beyond Boyer the UniScope Model of Engagement will be sent to all senators.

VIII. New Business
a. SGA Resolution on Mandatory Diversity Training – Kiah Duggins, SGA Chief of Staff presented a resolution from SGA regarding mandatory diversity training for faculty and staff - the purpose of which is to help faculty and staff understand the challenges faced by students, how to not perpetuate the challenges, and how to combat the challenges. Several questions/concerns were raised by senators; including the validity of the survey, the potential overreach, and the practicalities of implementation.

b. SGA Resolution on Student Privacy Act – House Bill 2737 – Taben Azad, SGA Vice President shared with the faculty senate the SGA Resolution on Student Privacy Act HB 2737.

c. President Moore-Jansen asked that senators who would like to raise these issues at a future meeting and/or who have comments should send comments to Bobbi Dreiling.

IX. As May Arise – None

X. Adjournment – at 4:57PM