FS Minutes - 05-05-03

May 5, 2003 Minutes

2008-2009

Meetings

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, May 5, 2003 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Johnson called the ninth meeting of the academic year to order at 3:30 p.m.

The following members of the Senate were absent:

A. Banks	M. Baxter	D. Carter
J. Dantic	J. Harley	B. Janeway
D. Jones	M. Lifland	P. McGuire
M. Miranda	L. Patterson	J. Payne

* denotes prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary

Visitors to the Senate were:

Kelli Carmean, Anthropology, Sociology, & Social Work; Jim Conneely, Student Affairs; Nina Coyer, Special Education; Denise Morgan Discepoli, Model; Renee Everett, Communication; Cassandra Kirby, The Eastern Progress; Ken Johnston, Finance; Marlow Marchant, Technology; Melinda McNew, Model; Sandra Moore, University Diversity Office; Faye Newsome, Curriculum & Instruction; Kristina O'Brien, Student Government Association; Doris Pierce, Occupational Therapy Jaleh Rezaie, Computer Science; Freda Sharp, A.D. Nursing; Sharon Shasby, Occupational Therapy; Aaron Thompson, Enrollment Management; Mixon Ware, Family & Consumer Sciences; Elizabeth Wachtel, Academic Affairs; and Doug Whitlock, Administrative Affairs.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:

The March 3, 2003 minutes were approved as revised.

Senator Schlomann requested that the Regent's report be changed from: "Senator Schlomann discussed the motion on Senate Bill 152 which will be presented later in the meeting" to: "Senator Schlomann discussed concerns surrounding the issue of Senate Bill 152."

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Glasser

Senator Glasser expressed her thanks and appreciation to the Senate for all their hard work and many contributions. During the past year many difficult issues were collegially and fairly discussed and debated indicating that this truly has been a year of shared governance.

Senator Glasser stated that great strides were made with the budget this year, particularly considering the many uncertainties. In retrospect, it was fortunate that we prepared for the worst and then received only a minimum budget cut from the state. A great deal of gratitude is owed to the governor and the General Assembly for their continued support of higher education.

Even with the budget crunch, a cost of living increase has been approved for the coming year. In better financial times when sufficient funding becomes available, merit pay increases will again be considered.

A pool of money for salary adjustments and salary inequities has been set aside for the coming year. While the amount is small, it is considerably larger than last year.

Senator Glasser conveyed her appreciation to Senator Koppes and the Strategic Planning Committee members for working tirelessly over the past year to develop a strategic plan for the University. That plan should be available soon.

Further gratitude was given to Shirley O'Brien and her committee members for their work on the graduate task force. In the fall a national search will begin for a new dean of Graduate Education and Research.

Senator Glasser also extended her thanks to the Alcohol Task Force for developing the newly approved alcohol policy which is now in place.

A number of searches were completed this past year. Starting July 1 the permanent Provost will begin his duties. Lyle Cook comes to us from Black Hill State University where he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs. Senator Glasser complimented Dr. Jaleh Rezaie and Gary Cordner for their many hours and hard work on the Provost search.

Senator Glasses recognized Dominick Hart and the search committee members for their many hours and contributions in searching for the new dean of Criminal Justice and Safety. Dr. Allen Ault will begin in that capacity beginning July 1st. He comes to EKU from the Department of Justice where he served as Director for the National Institute of Corrections.

Senator Glasser thanked Senator Fisher for all of his hard work, friendship and support at EKU; and she wished him well in his future endeavors.

Senator Glasser praised Senator Siegel for her wonderful work with COSFL, and for making sure that EKU always has a presence and a voice at COSFL meetings.

Senator Glasser also thanked Senator Schlomann for always being a very strong faculty voice on the Board, and Senator Johnson for his outstanding leadership as Senate chair during the past year.

REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR: Senator Johnson

Senator Johnson reported that the Executive Committee met on April 21, 2003 and discussed the agendas for today's meetings, the senate committee vacancies, and approved the senate schedule for 2003-2004.

REPORT FROM THE FACULTY REGENT: Senator Schlomann
Senator Schlomann announced that the Board met on April 25, 2003. Senator Schlomann stated there have been concerns after recent activities that the Board members may have difficulty working together. In actuality, the situation has created opportunities for increased dialogue among board members.

One of the best outcomes of the year was the opportunity to have Board members meet with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. This is something that has never happened before, but hopefully interaction between the two groups will continue in the future.

REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Siegel
Senator Siegel reported that COSFL met on April 26. Most of the meeting was spent discussing the upcoming joint meeting with AAUP scheduled for Saturday, October 18 in Frankfort. Senator Siegel distributed a flyer regarding the meeting to be taken back to departments and posted. Details and a full program will be posted on the U of L AAUP and COSFL websites (http://www.louisville.edu/org/aaup and http://www.cosfl.eku.edu/). The meeting is open to all who wish to attend and a $5 box lunch will be available. Scheduled speakers are Dr. Jane Buck, National AAUP President , and Dr. Tom Layzell, President of the Council on Postsecondary Education for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Lastly, there will be a round table discussion of various faculty leaders from around the state discussing a range of issues. If anyone has a particular issue that they would like to have addressed, please contact Senator Siegel and she will be happy to bring it to COSFL's attention.

Rick Feldhoff, COSFL President, and Richard Freed , EKU's CPE faculty representative, will be participating in the CPE's Institute for Effective Governance. The CPE began this as a training session for incoming trustees and regents and this serves as an excellent opportunity to raise important issues, particularly the issue of shared governance.

REPORT FROM STUDENT SENATE: Kristina O'Brien reported for Mary J. Hall

Ms. O'Brien expressed gratitude and appreciation for everyone who worked on the plus/minus committee this year. SGA appreciates the cooperation and action of the committee to look deeper into an issue that may have been decided too quickly. Ms. O'Brien indicated that SGA is looking forward to working with the faculty and administration on future issues, such as the per credit hour tuition policy which will be re-visited again in the near future.

Ms. O'Brien distributed a resolution concerning social security numbers which was passed by the Student Senate earlier this year. She indicated that a Faculty Senate committee is currently reviewing the resolution and offered SGA's support to help the committee in any way possible.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Rules Committee. Senator M. Yoder
Senator M. Yoder reported that Senator Matthews has compiled a list of discrepancies that appeared in the most recent changes in the faculty handbook from the previous handbook and is currently tracking down why those occurred.

The committee has been asked to research the possibility of having a Senate Vice Chair. Senator McKenney researched this and found that most places either have a Vice Chair or similar position. Further study is needed.

The committee is still working on updating the Internal Procedures. The tentative document should be available in the near future on Senator M. Yoder's web site. Upon completion, the Internal Procedures will be moved to the Faculty Senate web site.

Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Senator Callahan reported that a motion on a university ombudsman will be forthcoming in the fall. It will be submitted for the Executive Committee's perusal in the fall.

Senator Callahan again requested the senators to e-mail their comments and suggestions regarding the need to secure the use of social security numbers. Only one senator has responded to date.

Elections Committee. Senator Everett announced that Frank Souther, a part-time faculty member in the Department of Agriculture, will serve as the new part-time representative for the Senate for the next two years.

Committee on Committees. Senator Wolf reported that based on the self-nominations received, the committee has made committee recommendations for the upcoming year.

Faculty Welfare Committee. Senator G. Yoder stated that the committee's major agenda item would be to formulate standard campus-wide procedures to address the problem of salary inequities.

The committee decided the first task should be determining the nature and the scope of the problem. At the suggestion of Senator Wasicsko, the committee began working closely with Gary Barksdale in Human Resources and Karen Carey in Institutional Research in order to gather data and begin the task of making a set of scatter diagrams of faculty salaries across the university. With this information, it should be easy to identify individuals whose salaries are well above department averages or well below market values. Additionally, this data should also clearly indicate those people who are inverted.

AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Plus/Minus Grading. Senator Fisher wished to recognize the members of the committee: Meredith Wells, College of Arts and Sciences; Daniel Thorne, College of Business and Technology; Marty Diebold, College of Education; Dr. James Wells, College of Justice and Safety; Matt Schumacher, Graduate Student; Lance Melching, Undergraduate Student. Two additional members also served on the committee. David Campbell, an honor student in the Math program, did his thesis on EKU's plus/minus grading experience; and he became an instrumental data source. Also, a grad assistant from the College of Justice and Safety helped with the development of the survey and with entering the data.

The committee has completed the data analysis and are now finalizing their findings and recommendations. Sixteen of our 18 Benchmark institutions along with the other seven Kentucky public universities, 55% of EKU's full-time faculty members and 22% of the 1500 random sampling of EKU's students participated in the study. The findings will answer the seven research questions that were agreed upon by this faculty senate on November 4

Do EKU Benchmarks use +/-? If yes, how? If no, why not?
Do other KY public universities use +/-? If yes, how? If no, why not?
What are the benefits to +/-? (Increased grading resolution, motivating students)
What are the drawbacks to +/-? (Recruitment, retention, scholarships)
Does +/- significantly minimize grade inflation?
What is EKU experience of +/-? (Usage rates, like vs. Dislike)
What is EKU's preference--using +/- or not? If yes, which scale?

A draft of the report is under revision by the Ad Hoc Committee and will be submitted to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate for their comment. After feedback from the Executive Committee, the Ad Hoc Committee will prepare a final report for the Senate by the October 2003 Senate meeting as charged.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Lecturer/Part-Time Lecturer. At April's meeting, Senator Wasicsko moved, seconded by Senator Callahan, to recommend the following motion to the President: Senator Johnson ruled the motion substantive and deferred action until today's meeting.

That effective with the fall of 2003 and for a period of two years, we try pilot programs to create and test the concept of "Lectureship" in its broad definition, will be permitted under the following guidelines:

Departments, working in concert with their dean, may develop procedures and guidelines for the use of Lectureships for specific purposes that are unavailable under current faculty regulations. Any such plan will have the approval of the department faculty, chair and dean prior to submitting it for approval to the Provost. The policy and guidelines will specify all conditions under which Lecturers will be employed and will clearly delineate their duties and responsibilities.

Evaluation of the use of Lectureships will be conducted annually and a report will be submitted to the Provost and Senate by the April meeting of each year. By the May meeting of the second year, the Senate will make a recommendation to the President and Provost regarding the continuation of the use of Lectureships.

Senator Farrar moved to amend the motion, seconded by A. Jones, to insert another paragraph after the second paragraph stating:

That under no circumstance shall the percentage of full time and equivalent faculty that are in positions as lectureships, adjuncts, temporary faculty and part time faculty exceed the percentage of those temporary adjunct and part time faculty or the equivalent which currently comprise the teaching at this University.

The majority of the Senate were not in favor of the amendment, and failed for lack of support.

Senator Rahimzadeh moved, seconded by Senator Reed, to include the following statement preceding the motion:

Under the condition that lectureships do not either replace or hinder the development of tenure track positions which are essential to the mission and the integrity of this University, the Faculty Senate recommends the following motion.

The majority of the Senate were in favor and the amendment was approved.

The majority of the Senate were in favor of the amended motion and the motion passed. Senator Hart abstained from voting.

Senate Bill 152 Motion. At April's meeting, Senator Siegel moved to approve the Senate Bill 152 motion, seconded by Senator Dunston. The motion was postponed for discussion until today's meeting.

Senator Siegel moved to amend the original motion to the following, seconded by Senator Collins:

In light of the turmoil that surrounded SB 152, the Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University hereby makes it known that we support the following:

The Faculty Senate, on behalf of the faculty, expresses appreciation for the tireless efforts over the past 18 months that President Joanne Glasser has demonstrated to further the reputation and image of the University, to support academic and faculty concerns and to place the welfare of students as a top priority. The Senate pledges full support of the President as she moves us into the next phase of the development of the University into a Regional University of Distinction and expresses confidence in her assertion that "the best is yet to come."

Furthermore, the faculty of Eastern Kentucky University, as is true in any higher education institution, takes the issues of governance very seriously. The governance of higher education requires a working partnership among state government, appointed governing boards and the university administration, faculty and staff. The best decisions regarding governance are made with open and honest dialog among all stakeholders. By working together we can make significant strides to advance the goals of higher education in our Commonwealth. The EKU Faculty Senate expresses our concern with any activity that shortcuts or undermines the higher education governance processes. Therefore we:

support the action of the EKU Board Of Regents' members and faculty and student leadership who urged the Governor to veto SB 152;
encourage the Governor to make university board appointments based on an individual's abilities and commitment to the university and not determined by undue political influence;
encourage the Legislature not to further restrict Board members to only those with Kentucky residency;
urge the Council on Postsecondary Education, the Council of Presidents, and the Coalition of Senate Faculty Leadership to recommend criteria for appropriate selection of university regents/trustees.

The EKU Faculty Senate expresses hope and belief that all stakeholders can and will work together for the betterment of higher education in Kentucky.

Senator A. Jones moved, seconded by Senator Kelley, to separate the second paragraph as a separate motion. The motion failed with a vote of 22-24.

Senator Siegel's replacement motion was approved by the majority of the Senate.

NEW BUSINESS:

Council on Academic Affairs Report: Senator Wasicsko

Senator Wasicsko reported that item 1 on the agenda, the academic load for summer term, was listed as an informational item only and will probably come back to the Senate in the near future for a vote.

Senator Wasicsko moved approval of the act concerning the policy of replacing grades, seconded by Senator Reed. The majority of the Senate were in agreement and the motion was approved.

ADJOURNMENT:
Senator Wasicsko moved to adjourn at approximately 5:12 p.m.

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