Faculty Senate Minutes
April 21, 2011
Call to Order: Chair McCormick called the meeting to order at 4:13 pm; Riggle Room; ADUC
Senators Absent: Ali Ahmadi, Ray Bailey, Vincent Cesaro, Cynthia Faulkner, Braden Frieder, Sarah Hawkins, John Hennen, Stephen Lange, Biswajit Panja, Yuqiu You
The Senators signed a card to send to former Senator Terry Irons.
Visitor: Charles Holloway, Charlie Patrick
Minutes: Senator McCoy moved to approve the minutes of April 7, 2011 as submitted. Senator Stanley seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Committee Reports:
Academic Issues: No Report
Evaluation: Second reading of two resolutions
Faculty Welfare and Concerns: No Report
Governance: Ron Morrison was elected Faculty Regent; committee appointments to recommend; three committee descriptions to present
Senate Committee on Issues: Report on Faculty 180 and an action item regarding the faculty survey
Reports:
Chair’s Report:
• The Executive Council will meet again with the President and Provost during Finals Week for a discussion regarding ideas to address the conclusions/comments from the “Are We Making Progress Survey/Comments”. Chair encouraged Senators and colleagues to review and provide feedback on the “Are We Making Progress Survey/Comments” that are now posted on the President’s Leadership Council webpage.
• Last meeting of the Senate for the regular semester will be May 5, 2011; come early refreshments will be served.
Open Chair Segment:
Senator Donna Baker reported that a celebration for the opening of the Library Commons will be held on Monday, April 25, 2011 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.
Charles Holloway, Chief Diversity Officer, provided a brief report to the Senators on the Campus Diversity Plan which is posted on the Presidents’ Leadership Council webpage. He encouraged faculty to review the Plan and provide comments/feedback on the webpage. The President will hold two forums on Monday and Tuesday next week.
The University has an opportunity, ending December 31, 2011, to propose new academic programs to the CPE.
Provost’s Report:
• The University has a number of academic program proposals that should come before the BOR at the June meeting: Veterinary Technology Bachelors Degree; Public Affairs Undergraduate Degree and Traditional Music Major.
• Making plans for migration to BlackBoard 9.1; Moodle will continue to be available for use during the summer
• APPR reports were distributed to the Deans this week; Deans are currently meeting with the Chairs and then Chairs will then provide the reports to faculty for discussion
• The University’s official notification of SACS status will come after the SACS’ meeting the first week of December. The President is planning a celebration after the official letter is received.
A question and answer session followed. Some of the comments/questions were:
• Thanked the Provost for allowing the faculty to provide input into the BB/Moodle decision and asked if Moodle was a possibility in the future. The Provost responded that the University does not want to limit itself regarding progress on an integrated learning platform.
• Would the Senate be discussing the recommendations from the APPR report? The Provost stated that the results are more programmatic and probably should be handled on a departmental level and are likely not appropriate for the full Senate.
• What is the status of salary increases at the University? The Provost indicated that the budget is in the developing stage and is modeling a salary increase, waiting for results from the CPE regarding tuition increases.
Regent’s Report: Regent Morrison was attending a Board of Regents retreat and came into the meeting later.
General Education Report:
• First Year Seminar subcommittee is proposing a tiered incentive program (the longer you teach the more incentives you are eligible for) for First Year Seminar teachers. Incentives are not tied to salary, but to professional development or other types of incentives. Incentives will be retroactive to 2010.
• Tim Hare will serve as the First Year Seminar Coordinator to provide help for faculty teaching or interested in teaching a First Year Seminar course.
• Continuing to review Capstone course proposals
• Computer Competency Workgroup should be presenting a proposal to the Provost next week, and then to Deans and Gen Ed Council; Workgroup would like to bring the Computer Competency Proposal to the Senate as an action item on May 5th.
Senate Actions:
Governance:
217 faculty voted in the runoff election for Faculty Regent; Ron Morrison was elected
Senator Chatham, Governance Chair, moved to approve the recommendations of the Governance Committees slate of Standing Committee appointments and nominations presented, with one change – removing Donna Kizzier (BPA) from an appointment to the Tenure Committee, because she is already serving on the Tenure Committee. A Senator suggested that the replacement for Donna Kizzier be from the School of Public Affairs. Recommendations for Appointments passed as follows:
Appointments
Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee (2011-13)
LIB: Melissa Brooks
Library Committee (2011-13)
LIB: Karla Aleman
BPA: Michelle Kunz
AHSS: Kris Durocher
Employee Benefits Committee (2011-15)
EDU: Sam Wright
Faculty Promotion Committee (2011-14)
At-large: Susan Cresap, Robert Boram, Lawrence Albert
Tenure Committee (2011-14)
BPA: Vacant at this time
ST: Jacklynn Darling
AHSS: John Viton
Nominations
Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee (2011-13)
The ST, AHSS, and BPA representatives are to be elected by the faculty of their respective colleges. Candidates are:
ST: Ilsun White & Gilbert Remillard
AHSS: Gary Mesa-Gaido & Roma Prindle
BPA: Mesghena Yasin & Teame Ghirmay
Planning Committee
The EDU representative is to be elected by the faculty of the College of Education.
Candidates are:
EDU (2011-15): Chris Miller & Karen Lafferty
The Planning Committee requires two Senate representatives be elected by the Senate from the College of Education and the College of Science and Technology. Senator Chatham asked for nominations from the floor for a representative from Education. Senator Sharp nominated Senator Sarah Hawkins. Senator McCoy seconded the motion. Senator Lennex nominated Senator Lee Nabb. Motion seconded. Senator Chatham moved that nominations cease. Senator Berglee seconded. Motion passed. The nominees left the room. Senator Nabb will be the College of Education Senator on the Planning Committee for the term (2011-13).
Senator Chatham asked for nominations from the floor for a representative from S&T. Senator Gibbs nominated Senator Jason Applegate. Senator Ann Macintosh volunteered to serve. Senator Berglee moved that nominations cease. Motion seconded and passed. The nominees left the room. Senator Macintosh will be the College of Science and Technology Senator on the Planning Committee for the term (2011-13).
Governance presented three committee descriptions for first reading and explained the changes to 1) Academic Appeals Committee, 2) the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, and 3) the Graduate Curriculum Committee. Senator Rogers moved to suspend the rules and move to a second reading in order that appointments to these committees can be made prior to the end of the year. Senator Baker seconded the motion. Motion passed. Discussion followed on the Academic Appeals Committee. After discussion, Senator Davison moved to put the word “academic” back in line 17 replacing the word “grade”. Senator McMichael seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Senator Carlson made a friendly amendment to add “, all” after “…one at-large faculty” on line 5. Friendly amendment accepted.
The Senate discussed the need for Faculty Senators on Standing Committees.
Senator Chatham moved to end discussion and vote on the three committee descriptions as a slate. Senator Berglee seconded the motion. Motion passed. Chair McCormick asked for a vote on the 3 committee descriptions. The Academic Appeals Committee Description was approved as revised; the descriptions for the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Curriculum Committee were approved as submitted.
Evaluation:
Senator LaFleur, Evaluation Committee Chair, presented and provided background information on a “Resolution Regarding the Work of the Committee on the Proposed Annual Evaluation of Academic Administrators”. After discussion, resolution passed.
Senator LaFleur presented and provided background information on the “Resolution Regarding the Evaluation of Teaching”. The Provost asked the Evaluation Committee for copies of all the Department Evaluation Forms they gathered. Discussion continued. Senator Lennex moved to end debate and vote. Senator Royar seconded the motion. Motion passed. Chair McCormick asked for a vote on the resolution. The “Resolution Regarding the Evaluation of Teaching” passed with a vote of 17 for and 11 against.
Senate Committee on Issues:
Faculty 180 Subcommittee will meet as a group on Thursday, April 28 with Charlie Patrick.
The Subcommittee on Campus Morale provided a draft of a survey that they would like to disseminate to faculty in order to establish an agenda for the Faculty Senate for next year. The committee asked for comments. The goal is to determine if the Senate as a whole wants the Committee on Issues to move forward with conducting a survey of faculty.
Senators inquired regarding the wording and content of various survey questions.
As the Senate session was approaching its allotted time, Senator Berglee moved to close debate and vote. Motion seconded. Motion passed by a 2/3 majority.
Chair McCormick clarified what was being voted on. The Senate Committee on Issues was directed to make the changes discussed / suggested, and to send the revised survey to the faculty. The vote was 16 for and 12 against.
Ann Rathbun had information available regarding numbers of web hits to the MSU website before and following the NCAA basketball game.
Adjournment: 6:05 p.m.
