Faculty Senate Minutes
September 16, 2010
Call to Order:
Call to order: 4:12 pm; Riggle Room; ADUC.
Senators Absent: Ray Bailey, Donna Baker, Verdie Craig, Braden Frieder, Sarah Hawkins, Stephanie Johnson, Rebecca Miculinich, Pam Ryan, Yuqiu You
Minutes: Senator McCoy moved to approve the minutes of September 2, 2010 as submitted. Senator Watkins seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Committee Reports:
Academic Issues: Gathering facts on Moodle and Blackboard 9 and drafting revision of the excused absence policy
Evaluation: No Report
Faculty Welfare and Concerns: No Report
Governance: Conducting online elections and have Standing Committee appointments to approve
Senate Committee on Issues: Divided into 2 subgroups; Faculty 180 and People First/Morale
Photos of the senate were taken by MSU photographer Timothy Holbrook.
Reports:
Provost’s Report:
• Continuing to work on moving the Senate office
• Scheduling promotion orientation meeting
• Dashboards for Data Strategies are being distributed on a schedule; The College of Science and Technology have received their Dashboards thus far
• Maria Fraser leaving Provost’s office
Charlie Patrick presented information regarding General Education:
• Gen Ed Council meeting weekly
• Continuing to accept Distribution Course Proposals
• Assessment Coordinator should be identified very soon
• Evidence of assessment of core and transition courses will consist of two SLO’s per class per semester and all of the SLO’s over a two year period
• CPE generated statewide SLO’s which were aligned with our new Gen Ed SLO’s that were sent to the chairs and deans for faculty review and feedback
• The budget may restrict the filling of the General Education Director position at this time
There was an array of questions and discussion regarding Data Strategies that were asked of Provost Hughes. She indicated that the data released for the Dashboard were utilized from last year. The data release was for benchmark purposes. No serious actions would be taken as a result of Data Strategies until more substantial data can be established from this year or subsequent years.
Regent’s Report:
• Attended the Governors Trustee Conference
• Attended the COSFL organizational meeting
• Regent Morrison provided a brief report from the latest Board of Regents meeting. He shared MSU’s preliminary enrollment numbers with the senate. He shared data for First-Time Freshmen and declining Credit Hour Production. There was a slight decline in enrollment at MSU while all the other state universities experienced an increase in enrollment numbers. MSU 2010 enrollment is currently at 9,004 students, down from 9,046 from a year ago. Various senators added to this discussion.
• President presented his goals for 2010-2011 to the BOR which are available for review. Some discussion followed.
General Education Report:
Senator Sharp submitted a request from the Gen Ed Council that “all Gen Ed faculty/instructors should receive a workload credit at a ratio of 1.333 to 1 of class credit hours, making a 3 credit hour class equivalent to 4 workload hours (work load credit)” for a first reading. Senator Stanley seconded the motion. A Senator requested the EC provide, prior to the second reading, the formula for using a multiplier for number of students in a class for meeting Data Strategies Tier Level goals and how it differs in its effect for faculty. Questions and clarifications were made for the motion.
Senator Sharp submitted a second request from the Gen Ed Council for a first reading to: “Reaffirm the recommended FGEAC cap of 25 students in reading and writing intensive Gen Ed courses which was approved by Faculty Senate in the Distribution Courses Document. Senator LaFleur seconded the motion. Questions and clarifications were made for the motion. Senator Katz made a friendly amendment to change “reading and writing intensive” to “reading or writing intensive” in the above motion. Senator Sharp accepted the friendly amendment. A clarification was made that the cap of 25 would actually pertain to all Gen Ed classes due to the fact that all Gen Ed classes are designed to be either reading or writing intensive.
Chair’s Report:
The Chair requested that Senator Chatham be approved as Parliamentarian for this academic year. He was unanimously approved.
Senator Chatham proposed a Special Rule: “In order to seek recognition, a Senator shall not stand, but instead shall raise his or her hand.” Senator Ahmadi seconded the motion. Senator Chatham moved to suspend the rules for a first and second reading of this Special Rule. Motion passed. The Chair called for a vote. The Special Rule passed and was effectively immediately.
The President is disbanding the University Council and replacing it with the President’s Leadership Council consisting of 17 members including the Senate Chair and Chair-Elect.
The Chair informed the members that there is an issue with the Academic Calendar related to Friday 1’s, Friday 2’s and holidays that fall on a Friday in Datatel. The fall calendar is correct as it stands, but the spring calendar will be different as follows: The Friday before and after Spring Break will be the same Friday because the Friday of Spring Break will be counted as a class day in Datatel as will any other Friday that is a holiday. Datatel cannot skip a Friday as has manually been done in the past.
Several UAR’s were revised over the summer. Notification will be sent to the Senate members.
Senate Actions:
Governance:
• The Governance Committee recommended the following slate of nominees for approval by the Senate:
Academic Program Review Committee
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, 2010-12: [to be announced]
College of Science and Technology Representative, 2010-12: Lucy Mays
Library representative, 2010-11: Mykie Howard
At-large representative, 2010-12: Sean Reilley
Academic Standards and Appeals Committee
Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, 2010-12: John Modaff
College of Science and Technology, 2010-12: Gary O’Dell
At-large, 2010-12, 2 positions: Tim Miller and [to be announced]
Senator Berglee moved to consider as a whole and approve the slate of named nominees that the Governance Committee recommended. Senator Stanley seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Planning Committee Election
The Governance Committee asked for nominations from the floor for a Senator from the College of Education to go on the ballot for the Planning Committee Election for a term of 2010-2011. Senator Sharp nominated Senator Sarah Hawkins from the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Special Education.
The Governance Committee asked for nominations from the floor for a Senator from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences to go on the ballot for the Planning Committee Election for a term of 2010-2012. Senator LaFleur volunteered to be put on the ballot for the Planning Committee Election.
Senator Berglee moved that the nominations cease. Senator Rogers seconded the motion. Motion passed to cease nominations.
Ballots were distributed for the Planning Committee Election. The ballot consisted of:
College of Business and Public Affairs, 2010-12: Stephen Lange and Ali Ahmadi
College of Education, 2010-2011: Lee Nabb and [nomination from floor - Sarah Hawkins]
Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, 2010-12: Denise Watkins and [nomination from floor - Gary LaFleur]
College of Science and Technology, 2010-2011: Jason Applegate and Mike Fultz
Senator Berglee moved to suspend the rules to extend the meeting passed 110 minutes in order to complete the election and the business of the Governance Committee. Senator Rathbun seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Announcements:
Special Senate meeting September 30th, 2010 – 302 Breckinridge – 4:10 p.m. – Academic Freedom Speaker; Chair provided Senators with a copy of PAc-14 for their review
Mr. Keith McCormick will be speaking in Button Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. today for Constitution Day.
The following Senators were elected to the Planning Committee:
College of Business and Public Affairs, 2010-12: Ali Ahmadi
College of Education, 2010-2011: Lee Nabb
Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, 2010-12: Denise Watkins
College of Science and Technology, 2010-2011: Jason Applegate
Adjournment: 6:03 pm
