Minutes of the Wichita State University Faculty Senate
Monday, April 28, 2014
CH 107 3:30 pm
Members Present: Baker, Barut, Bergman, Brooks, Bryant, Castro, Close, Decker, Driessen, Hamdeh,
Hanawalt, Horn, Hull, Johnson, Klunder, Lewis. Liu, Matveyeva, Miller, Moore-Jansen,
Mosack, Perry, Pile, Rokosz, Ross, Taher, Trechak, Yeager, Yildirim, Yu
Members Absent: Anderson, Kagdi, Kreinath, Lu, Thiessen
Members Excused: Celestin, Houseman, Rillema
Summary of Action
1. Accepted the appointment of Melissa Mellon to replace Cathy Moore Jansen on the
General Education committee (aapt ends 2015) and Susan Metveyeva to the Academic Affairs
Committee (apapt ends 2017)
2. Accepted the Standing Committee Annual reports from Academic Affairs, Court of
Academic Appeals, Executive, General Education, Library, Planning & Budget and University
Admissions
3. Accepted the nominations George Dehner, LAS Humanities and Denise Celestin, College
of Fine Arts at Large as senators for the 2014-15 Senate
I. Call to Order
President Mosack called the meeting to order at 3:30pm.
II. Informal Statements and Proposals
In Remembrance - President Mosack called for the Senate to pause for a moment of
silence for Deb Byers, Director of WSU’s Office of Financial Aid, who passed away
earlier today. Arrangements for her services have not been finalized at this time.
III. Approval of the Minutes –
The minutes of the April 14, 2014, meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved as written.
IV. President’s Report
Social Media Policy – Update
The Social Media Work Group presented the recommended language to revise the KBOR
Social Media Policy April 16, 2014 – to the April 16, 2014, meeting of the KBOR Governance
Committee (GC). The GC rejected the Work Group’s recommendations and then completed
a preliminary revision of the existing KBOR policy using some of the language from
the Work Group’s recommendations. The GC will hold an open meeting, by conference
call, before the May KBOR meeting to finalize the revision. It is anticipated that
the KBOR will review the changes proposed by the GC and vote on the revised language
at the May 14th KBOR meeting.
Meanwhile, the Joint Council of Kansas Distinguished Professors, met at KU on April
27 to discuss academic freedom, free speech, and the proper use of social media. The
Council suggested that the State universities create one policy for all KBOR universities
to address issues once the KBOR Governance Committee releases their revision. In effect,
they called for a policy with language that is uniform across all of the KBOR universities.
An article concerning this meeting can be found in the archives of the Lawrence Journal-World
(Sunday, April 27, 2014).
Credit for Prior Learning
The Kansas Guidebook to Credit for Prior Learning is to be released soon, and members
of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee will be attending a seminar on the topic
May 30, at the Wichita Area Technical College. Other faculty members are welcomed
to attend. Contact Bobbi Dreiling to RSVP.
Upcoming Events
Shocker Pride Celebration, Wednesday, April 30th, 3-5 pm, CAC Theater.
University Faculty Awards and General Faculty Meeting Friday, May 9th, reception
2:30 pm with awards and meeting from 3-5 pm in the CAC Theater. President Bardo, VPAA
Vizzini, and Regent Edwards will be the featured speakers.
V. Committee Reports
A. Senator Mehmet Barut, Chair of the Rules Committee, brought forth the nominations from the Rules Committee of Melissa Mellon for the
General Education Committee, and Susan Metveyeva for the Academic Affairs Committee.
Both were approved with no dissenting votes.
B. Vice President Moore-Jansen presented the nominations of George Dehner (History)
to for Humanities Senator and Denise Celestine for at-large senator for Fine Arts.
Both of these nominations for the Faculty Senate were approved with no dissent.
C. Seven Faculty Senate Standing Committee Annual Reports were summited. None of
them requested action by the Senate. All were received as presented.
D. Faculty Senate General Education Committee Proposal (first reading) – Prior to the report, President Mosack recused herself from presiding over the deliberations
during the report and Vice President Moore-Jansen presided. Jeff Hershfield, Chair
of the General Education Committee, presented the report from the committee. He was
the author of the report, but it reflects the collective opinions of the committee.
He thanked all of the members of the committee for their careful, hard work. President
Bardo asked the Faculty Senate to develop a course of action to accommodate the KBOR
desire to create a seamless transfer of general education credit from the Kansas community
colleges to the KBOR four-year universities. Currently, 46 courses have been identified
as KBOR approved transferrable courses, which means that the four-year universities
will automatically accept those courses from Kansas community colleges for general
education credit. The proposal before the Senate represents a compromise position
in which WSU will require two upper division “further studies” general education courses
(which by definition cannot be taken at a two-year community college) rather than
the current requirement for three such courses.
The RN-to-BSN Degree Completion Program (School of Nursing) has a similar “transfer
credit” issue that the General Education Committee recommends being addressed in a
manner similar to that adopted for the general situation stated above. That is, the
adoption of a compromise position in which any two of a fixed set of five Health Professions’
“Issues and Prospectives” courses must be taken at WSU.
Vice president Moore-Jansen asked the Senate to read the proposal thoroughly, think
about it, and to come to the next Faculty Senate meeting prepared to discuss the issues
and vote.
VI. Old Business
College Updates of the Strategic Planning Process - Tony Vizzini, Vice President
for Academic Affairs and visiting College Deans shared the current status of strategic
planning in the various colleges. The Executive Council of the College of Fine Arts
has completed the initial priorities for the plan and a subcommittee has been formed
to create a draft for the college’s strategic planning work group in the next two
weeks. The College of Education’s strategic planning document has been completed and
is available on the college’s website. Liberal Arts and Sciences has formed a sub
committee which will produce a draft.
VII. New Business - none
VIII. As May Arise - President Mosack announced that the KBOR had just released its revised Social Media
Policy on its website. At first glance, it appears to retain much of the original
policy, along with a portion of the language suggested by the Social Media Work Group.
The Regents will consider comments until May 2. Mosack encouraged all senators to
read the latest version, and comment in the narrow window allowed by the Regents.
IX. Adjournment – President Mosack adjourned the meeting at 4:50 pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate