The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday,
May 6, 2002 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Schlomann
called the eighth meeting of the academic year to order at 3:30 p.m.
Jim Clark,
Government Relations; Rita Davis, Student Affairs; Lynn Gillaspie, Curriculum
& Instruction; Ken Johnston, Finance; Larry Kelley, Baccalaureate &
Graduate Nursing; Erin Michalik, Student Government Association; Gil Smith,
Art; Aaron Thompson, Academic Affairs; Elizabeth Wachtel, Academic Affairs;
and Doug Whitlock, Administrative Affairs.
APPROVAL
OF MINUTES:
The
April 1, 2002 minutes were approved with the following corrections.
Senator
Marsden requested that a correction be made on Page 5 under Academic Affairs,
the last item listed should be changed from:
Senator
Marsden moved approval, seconded by Senator Fenton, of the program revision
in the B.S. in Fire Safety Engineering Technology to drop the Occupational
Safety and Health Engineering Technology minor and add the Safety and
Industrial Relations minor. This motion was approved by the Senate.
To:
Senator
Marsden moved approval, seconded by Senator Fenton, of the program revision
in the BS in Fire Safety Engineering Technology to drop the Occupational
Safety and Health Engineering Technology option
and add the Safety and Industrial Relations option.
This motion was approved by the Senate.
Senator
Johnson requested a correction to the last line of the report from the Ad
Hoc Committee on Compensation and Benefit to change from:
The
motion was NOT meant to alter the process of annual faculty evaluations
or post tenure in any way.
To:
The
motion was NOT meant to alter the process of annual faculty evaluations
for post tenure review
in any way.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Senator
Schlomann announced that the new student government president, Lucas Hammons,
has a class conflict and will be unable to attend today’s meeting to
give the SGA report.
PRESIDENT’S
REPORT: Senator Glasser
President
Glasser met with the mayor and representatives in Hazard recently to work
out increased articulation agreements with Hazard Community College.
President
Glasser shared an update of several items with the Senate.
• Budget.
While the Kentucky General Assembly has not yet approved a final budget
for the new biennium, EKU has moved forward to establish budget guidelines
and a plan for the new fiscal year. The 2002-2003 budget recommendations
which the President will present to the Board of Regents at a special
meeting on June 17 honors the commitments she made earlier to the campus
community and to the Faculty Senate. Specifically, that there will be
no layoffs of any institutionally funded positions; that EKU will maintain
the existing level of health insurance coverage; and that a salary increase
of 2.7% will be recommended as a cost of living, across the board raise.
The recommendation for the salary increase is based in large part on
the recommendations received from the Faculty Senate and also because
there is such a small amount of funds available. The President indicated
that in the next physical year merit adjustments will be looked into,
if at all possible.
• University
Strategic Plan. The deadline to send comments and suggestions regarding
the University Strategic Plan has been extended until May 15. Please
send any comments or suggestions to Dr. Libby Wachtel.
• General
Education Committee. The General Education Committee, chaired by
Dr. Gary Kuhnhenn, will continue to work on the general education proposal
during the summer and will present a revised General Education program
to President Glasser at the beginning of the fall semester.
• 2
+ 2 Articulations. Within the past two weeks, President Glasser
has signed two new 2 + 2 articulation agreements with Central Kentucky
Technical College and the Lexington Community College. These agreements
will help provide students who complete specific two year programs at
their respective institutions a seamless transition to an appropriate
four year degree program here at Eastern Kentucky University.
• Undergraduate
Enrollment. EKU admissions and housing data continue to run ahead
of last year. The numbers are definitely going up, particularly for
out of state enrollment. This may be due in part to the well received
six open houses held recently in surrounding areas.
• Graduate
Enrollment. President Glasser will soon be appointing a graduate
task force to study and make recommendations concerning the organization
and processes of EKU’s graduate school. She encouraged anyone interested
in serving on the committee to contact her by e-mail.
• Lancaster
Crosswalk. President Glasser has requested through our state elected
representatives that the Lancaster crosswalk come down at no cost to
the University as early as the second or third week in May. The Lancaster
lot will be closed for a while and will re-open as a residential parking
lot. The President plans to appoint a parking committee composed of
faculty, students and staff to consider alternative parking sites and
locations on campus. Anyone interested in serving on this committee
should contact her by e-mail.
• Alcohol
Task Force. Within the next couple of weeks, the President should
be receiving final recommendations from the Alcohol Task Force. President
Glasser will consider the recommendations carefully during the summer
and will share those recommendations with the campus community on August
12.
• Kentucky
Riverkeepers Project. The Kentucky Riverkeepers’ project, which
is sponsored by EKU’s center for Appalachian Studies in conjunction
with the National Waterkeepers’ Alliance, was officially launched
today. A benefit dinner was held in the Perkins building on Sunday night
with over 250 people in attendance. Also in attendance were Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. and Kevin Richards, a Kentucky Native and a member of the
Backstreet Boys, who donated their time and money to support the first
Riverkeepers project in Kentucky. The President expressed her sincere
thanks to Dr. Alan Banks for his leadership and for putting together
such a wonderful program.
• Spring Commencement. Spring commencement
will be on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Hangar Field. Helen Thomas will
be the featured commencement speaker; and there are approximately 1200
candidates for degrees.
• August
Convocation. The President reminded everyone of the August convocation
at 8:00 a.m. on August 12, followed immediately by a Faculty-at-large
meeting. The President thanked everyone for their support and wished
everyone a restful, relaxing, rejuvenating summer.
EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE CHAIR’S REPORT: Senator Schlomann.
Senator
Schlomann announced that the Executive Committee met on April 22. The meeting
began with Chip Smith, Athletic Director, who asked to talk to the committee
about his vision of how Athletics and academics could work together better.
After that, the meeting dealt with housekeeping issues which included the
agenda for today and also included a discussion on unfinished business for
the year and how to proceed for next year.
Finally
the committee discussed the creation of the ad hoc committee to study plus/minus
grading and came up with a final plan for that committee to have faculty
representation from each college as well as graduate and undergraduate student
representations. According to the plan discussed, the committee will be
asked to bring a progress report to the October meeting to give the Senate
an opportunity to make any other suggestions early in the process. The committee
will bring a second progress report in the spring and then a final report
with recommendations in fall 2003. The committee members are: Daniel Thorne,
Marty Diebold, Meredith Wells, James Wells, and Thom Fisher, who will chair
the committee. The students will be Matt Schumacher and Lance Melching.
Senator
Schlomann announced for clarification that the recommendation for plus/minus
to go to whole number quality points does not go into effect until fall
2002. It is not retroactive to the spring semester nor will it affect the
summer session. Banner is capable of handling this request and has already
been programmed to do so. Finally, this is only a temporary change until
the Senate considers the Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations in Fall,
2003
Senator
Schlomann reported that on May 2 the Executive Committee met with Jim Applegate
from CPE. He spent the day on campus to look at EKU’s internal process
for approving new programs and wanted to know the Senate’s involvement
in that process. Mr. Applegate discussed an increased emphasis by CPE for
collaboration between institutions and for articulation plans.
Senator
Schlomann expressed her appreciation to Bob Miller, the Senate’s parliamentarian,
and Pauletta King, the Senate’s Secretary for their help during the
year; and she expressed her thanks to the Senate for the opportunity to
serve as Chair of the Senate.
FACULTY
REGENT: Senator Schlomann
Senator
Schlomann thanked the Senators for their support in the recent Regent election.
Senator
Schlomann’s first meeting with the Board was on Friday, April 26. The
Board of Regents will hold a retreat early in June and then will meet again
on June 17 for a special meeting to discuss the budget recommendations for
the coming year.
COSFL
REPORT: Senator Falkenberg
Senator
Falkenberg thanked the Senate for the opportunity to serve as the COSFL
representative for the past two years.
Senator
Falkenberg shared the highlights for the 2001-2002 year for COSFL which
included:
• All
of the faculty representative bodies endorsed the COSFL Statement on
Shared Governance.
• A
motion was passed expressing the concern about the search process, including
minimal opportunity for meaningful involvement of faculty in the process,
for the president at Murray State University.
• Discussions
were held with CPE staff, including Dr. Gordon Davies, centering on
the budget, the CPE’s methods for requesting institutional data,
and program review.
• COSFL
pursued a more active role in providing input to the process of selection
of regents and trustees particularly through Postsecondary Education
Nominating Committee.
Senator
Falkenberg shared with the Senators several issues which COSFL will address
in 2002-2003 which included:
• Budget
• NSSE
and how CPE plans to use this information
• Continued
involvement with Regent/Trustee Institute
• Search
for CPE President
• The
future of Governor Patton’s higher education reform program
Senator
Falkenberg announced that COSFL’s constitution will be available on
the Faculty Senate web site in the near future.
PROVOST
REPORT: Senator Marsden
Senator
Marsden thanked the Senate for their continued cooperation on a variety
of key issues from salary adjustments through a variety of other policy
matters. He expressed his thanks to those faculty and staff who served on
several special committees and task forces that were formed this year.
Senator
Marsden wished the Senate a relaxing and rewarding summer.
COMMITTEE
REPORTS:
Rules
Committee. Senator M. Yoder reported that the committee met on Wednesday,
May 1 at 3:00 p.m. to discuss incomplete items and to make a list of suggestions
for next year’s committee.
The
most recent version of the Faculty Senate rules can be found in the current
Faculty Handbook. New senators are encouraged to refer to that until a new
version is posted on the Faculty Senate web site later in the summer.
The
Internal Procedures is currently out of date and the Rules Committee plans
to work on this during the summer and hopefully will get approval for all
recommended changes in the fall semester. Once approved, the internal procedures
will be available to the senators on the Faculty Senate web site.
The
Rules Committee has also been charged with looking at the feasibility of
several rules changes, including items related to retired faculty serving
on the senate, the procedure for selecting a faculty regent, and the overall
committee structure. After some research, the committee concluded that an
accurate definitions of the "Faculty-at-Large" and of the "Faculty
Senate" are needed before proceeding with these issues.
Based
on the committee’s research, Senator M. Yoder requested that all senators
recognize that the Senate recommends policies only, and that motions should
be worded to reflect that. There are several motions that, though passed
by the Senate, have not been acted upon. The Rules Committee will be looking
at ways to ensure that action is taken in a timely manner in the future
and will devise a tracking mechanism. There are several motions which are
ready to go to the Faculty-at-Large and those motions have been distributed
to all faculty for their consideration.
Ad
Hoc Committee on Compensation & Benefits. Senator Johnson announced
that the committee has met regularly since last spring. Three motions have
been brought forth to the Senate and all three were approved. The committee
plans to continue working through the summer and hope to bring further motions
to the floor in the fall.
UNFINISHED
BUSINESS:
Periodic
Review of the President. At the April 1, 2002 meeting Senator Flanagan
moved approval of the proposed procedure for the review of the President
and the recommended change in the rules, seconded by Senator Johnson. Senator
Schlomann indicated that as this was a substantive issue, action should
be delayed until the May meeting. The motion was approved by the Senate.
Sick
Leave Policy. Senator Siegel moved to recommend that the Faculty Senate
approve the revised sick leave policy, seconded by Senator Fister.
Senator
Schlomann indicated that as this is a substantive issue, action should be
delayed until the September meeting.
NEW
BUSINESS:
Report
from the Council on Academic Affairs. Senator Marsden moved, seconded
by Senator Banks, to approve 1) suspending the Athletic
Training Option in the Physical Education major and 2) suspending the
Health Care Administration major
in the Bachelor of Business Administration degree program. Both items were
approved by the Senate.
ADDITIONAL
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Senator
Siegel announced that on behalf of the Graduate Council and the Research
Committee she would like to extend an invitation to attend a reception for
the inaugural publication of The Eastern Scholar on Wednesday, May
8 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Walnut Hall. Refreshments will be served.
On
behalf of the Senate, Senator Miller presented Senator Schlomann with an
engraved gavel for her dedication as Senate chair for 2001-2002.
ADJOURNMENT:
Senator
Marsden moved to adjourn at approximately 4:15 p.m.
Meetings