Faculty Senate Minutes - 3/24/2005

Missouri Western State College
Faculty Senate Minutes

March 24, 2005
SU 208

Current Senators Present: President Andrews, Vice President Hegeman, Secretary Ottinger, Senators Caldwell, Heider, Holian, Hunt, Nandan, Noynaert, Tapia, Tushaus, Williams

Current Senators Absent: Past President Greiert, Senators Gregory, Haney, and Voelkel

Newly Elected Senators Present: Kathleen Andrews, Alicia de Gregorio, Shiva Nandan, Phil Mullins

Newly Elected Senators Absent: Cary Chevalier, Karen Fulton

Ex-Officio Members Present: None – both were at concurrent Board of Regents meeting.

Ex-Officio Members Absent: President Scanlon, Vice President Arnold

Guests Present: Kevin Anderson (Chair of Faculty Salary Committee), Jason Baker (Chair of Fringe Benefits Committee)

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Call to Order: President Larry Andrews called the meeting to order at 3:58 p.m.

Election of Senate Officers for 2005-2006 Academic Year

Michael Ottinger withdrew his candidacy for Vice-President

(Ottinger/Nandan) Motion to elect Slate of Officers for 2005-2006 Faculty Senate Officers by acclamation. Phil Mullins, President; Cindy Heider, Vice President; and Evan Noynaert, Secretary.
Motion approved unanimously by 2005-2006 senators.


Approval of March 10th Minutes: (Noynaert/Caldwell)
Minutes were approved by unanimous voice vote.

Approval of Agenda: (Heider/Holian)
Agenda was approved by unanimous voice vote.

Report from College President: none.

Report from Vice President for Academic & Student Affairs: none

Report from Senate President:
The following reviews the work of the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate since the last meeting of the 2004/2005 academic year. The committee met twice with the college president and vice- president since our last meeting.
· Congratulations – Western students, staff, administration and alumni. Senators thank you for your support of the new legislation. Governor signed bill at MWSC, President Andrews was invited to participate in signing.
· Governor’s flat budget. It does not look like the Higher Education budget will remain flat. We expect some core cuts this next year. Exact details will not be known until the budget is passed in May.
· PS Dean Search. The search is ongoing. Search committee asks faculty to network and invite qualified colleagues to apply.
· Resolution from English Department. Vice President Arnold is planning an open meeting with faculty to discuss this issue.
· Parking. There will be some changes in the number of reserved parking spots on campus. Some spots will be moved to areas of increased need.
· CGAC – outcomes
1. Employee and Dependent Tuition – clarified. Scholarships and Employee Dependent waivers are not stackable.
2. Curriculum Development – proposal approved. Dr. Arnold requests an Ad Hoc Committee be appointed next year to review procedures of curriculum development.
3. Faculty Senate Bylaws – approved.
4. General Studies emergency proposal – approved.

Report from Faculty Salary Committee: See Minutes Appendix A for written report. Committee Chair Kevin Anderson presented the report.

(Tapia/Heider) Motion to accept the report.

Report from Fringe Benefits Committee: See Minutes Appendix B for written report. Committee Chair Jason Baker presented the report.

(Hunt/Caldwell) Motion to accept the report.

Old Business:
SR-13-05 (Heider/Haney) Approve Recommendations 1 through 5 of the Senate Ad Hoc Peer Review Committee, as outlined in the 17Feb2005 report.

Motion withdrawn by Senator Heider.

SR-18-05 (Noynaert/Tapia)
The Missouri Western State College Faculty Senate extends its thanks to Dr. James Scanlon for his leadership in obtaining the legislation necessary to change the name of the institution.

The Faculty Senate also extends its thanks to Dr. Scanlon for his skillful management of difficult budget issues.

Motion approved by unanimous voice vote.

New Business:

SB-19-05 (Noynaert/Caldwell) Change the CSMP terminal degree statement on page 91 of the 2004-2005 Policy Guide from
Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics – Doctorate
to
Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics – Doctorate in Mathematics and Physics. Those with appointments in Computer Science would be required to have a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Management Information Systems, or a closely related field, and have at least three years of professional experience.

(See Minutes Appendix C for memo on justification)

Adjournment: (Ottinger/Hegeman)
Senate adjourned at 4:46 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michael B. Ottinger, PhD
Senate Secretary.


MINUTES APPENDIX A

Faculty Senate Salary Committee – Report 2004-2005

The following proposals are in order of importance to the faculty.

Proposal #1: The Salary Committee recommends an across-the-board percentage increase of 4% in order to
maintain the equity that has been achieved this year.

Last years rate of inflation was 3.3%, taking into consideration the rising fuel costs and other considerations the salary committee recommends a 4% increase in salary.


Proposal #2: Increase part-time faculty salaries from $600 per credit hour to $750 per credit hour, and to
$850 per credit hour for part-time faculty that have taught more than 25 credit hours at MWSC.


Many local colleges and community college have adopted a variable pay scale for part-time faculty. Their averages of which are $727 starting to $883 on the top end of the pay scale. We recommend increasing part-time faculty salaries, and regular faculty overload, to $750 per credit hour in order to attract part-time faculty. Funds permitting, we commend that this increase be phased in over a three year period raising part-time salaries $50 per year over the next 3 years. (See Appendix)

Proposal #3 Increase full time faculty overload pay to $850 per credit hour.


Analysis of Faculty Salary Equity Plan:

Dr. Arnold’s “Faculty Salary Equity Task Force” was successful. Current faculty salary averages at MWSC, by rank, are now slightly above the average of our peer institutions. No action on equity is needed at this time.


APPENDIX 1 – PART-TIME FACULTY SALARIES

Local institutions used for comparison:

Central Missouri State University, Maple Woods Community College, Penn Valley Community College, Johnson County Community College, Saint Mary University, Wentworth Military Academy, Rockhurst University, UMKC, William Jewell, North West.

Method used to determine averages:

Average Part-time faculty salaries of local institutions for 2003-2004 were compared to part-time faculty salaries at MWSC. MWSC part-time salaries were not used in computing average local institution part-time faculty salaries.








APPENDIX 2 – FACULTY SALARY EQUITY PLAN

Peer institutions used for comparison.

Missouri Southern State University, Lincoln University, Central Missouri State University, Truman State University, Northwest Missouri State University, Southeast Missouri State University, Southwest Missouri State University.

Method used to determine disparity:

Average salaries for peer institutions for 2004-2005 at each rank were averaged and compared to MWSC’s average salary at each rank. MWSC averaged salaries were not used in computing average peer institution salaries.


Proposed
Rank Peer Institution Avg. MWSC Avg. Adjustments

Professor $65,946 $66,376 $0
Associate $52,388 $52,678 $0
Assistant $45,002 $45,285 $0

No adjustments required at this time.

MINUTES APPENDIX B
Report to the MWSC Faculty Senate
Fringe Benefits Committee
March 24th, 2005

2004-2005 Members:
Jason Baker (Biology) - Chair
Cosette Hardwick (Biology/PTA program) – Secretary
Jim Bargar (Psychology)
Kathleen Andrews (Nursing)
Jill Miller (CJLS)
Marilyn Hunt (CS&T) – Senate Liaison


This year’s Fringe Benefits Committee approached our tasks by looking at benefits for both current faculty and our retirees. We felt that retiree benefits have not always been discussed in the past and we wanted to make sure to continue including retirees in the Western family by dealing with their benefit issues.

The committee members each spent significant time investigating various concerns that have been articulated to us by our colleagues. Included in our conversations and investigations were matters for retirees such as personal and spousal use of facilities, continued use of e-mail, and inclusion on faculty listservs. Our investigations showed that all these are available to retirees. From these investigations we feel that retirees are receiving reasonable benefits and we are currently unaware of any other concerns for our retired faculty. We also investigated parking issues, which seem to keep arising, and found that, for the most part, parking issues have settled down across campus. A recent re-distribution of the location of reserved spaces has been beneficial. Several other issues were investigated and have lead to the following recommendations.

Recommendations:

1. We recommend that the Human Resources department be tasked with investigating the possibility of a tuition reciprocity agreement with one or more institutions in the state college and university system. This committee feels that the tuition reduction for faculty is a tremendously valuable benefit. We would like to see this tuition reduction benefit extend to allowing Western’s dependents to pursue degrees, that are not available here, at other institutions. Conversely, we feel Western has many strong, valuable programs that dependents of other institutions may wish to take advantage of as well. Initial discussions with Jan Asplund have been started. She is unsure if this is possible within our state laws but needs to investigate further.

2. We recommend that the Faculty Senate request of the Athletic Department to advertise the availability of faculty-priced tickets at the door of athletic events. This committee has been made aware that the athletic department will honor at-the-door faculty pricing, however most faculty are unaware of this and often make decisions not to attend because of this. The Communication Studies and Theatre Department has graciously volunteered to advise Athletics on how to do the at-the-door accounting involved in these sales. We feel that more openness on the part of Athletics will create an environment in which more faculty will be involved in campus athletic events.

3. We recommend that Faculty who are full time, but not on tenure track (such as one year replacements), be allowed to purchase reserved parking permits. This constitutes a small number of faculty, and is therefore unlikely to upset the balance of parking spaces available, but will make a more personal statement about the value we place on all full-time faculty, not just those on tenure track.

4. We recommend that the Health Screening Program for all faculty and staff, and their dependents, be continued despite the change in health insurance plans. With the MSU consortium this was a part of the expenses. However, with the switch to BCBS we would like to see moneys continue to be dedicated to holding the Health Screening. We feel the health and wellness of our colleagues is too valuable to ignore.

MINUTES APPENDIX C


To: Faculty Senate Executive Committee
From: CSMP Department
Date: 3/21/05
RE: Proposed Change in Terminal Degree for CSC Faculty


By a departmental vote of 16-for, 1-against out of 21 eligible voters, the CSMP Department approved a motion to recommend that the terminal degree statement relative to our department be changed. Dr. Martin Johnson, LAS Dean, advised us to submit the change for Faculty Senate consideration. Therefore, we ask that the following motion be brought to the Senate. Rationale for the change follows the motion.

MOTION: Change the CSMP terminal degree statement on page 89
of the POLICY GUIDE from

Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics – Doctorate

to

Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics – Doctorate in
Mathematics and Physics. Those with appointments in
Computer Science would be required to have a Master’s
Degree in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems,
Management Information Systems, or a closely related field,
and have at least three years of professional experience.

RATIONALE:

Over the years Missouri Western has not been very successful in attracting or hiring doctorates in the computer science disciplines when faculty vacancies arise in the area. In our history we have hired one person with a doctorate in CIS, whose contract was subsequently terminated at the end of his first year. We have hired two faculty with doctorates in other disciplines but with master’s degrees in computer science, one of which lasted one year at MWSC and the other spent about five years here before moving on to chair the CSC department at a California university. We have sent two of our long-term Ph.D. faculty (one in mathematics and one in physics) on sabbatical leaves to earn an M.S. in CSC, and both immediately left MWSC for more financially attractive positions.

The production of new doctorates in the computer field interested in academia is not keeping pace with the faculty vacancies. Smaller colleges and non-major research institutions, like MWSC, have extreme difficulty filling their vacancies with doctorates in the field. Our entire current faculty, and all of the other CSC faculty we have had, have, as their most advanced degree, a master’s degree in a computer science discipline.


Our sister institutions in Missouri have had similar experiences. I recently contacted several schools to inquire about their latest hiring experiences in the computer science discipline.


MSSU: Four years ago they advertised for a “Ph.D. in CSC or CIS preferred”. They had few applicants and hired a master’s degree person, with extensive experience, at the rank of Associate Professor.

Truman: Approximately four years ago they advertised for a “Ph.D. in CSC”.
No other qualifications were acceptable. They had less than a handful of applicants, interviewed only one and then decided to leave the position vacant. At that time, the advertised starting salary was $50,500.

NWMSU: Two years ago they advertised for a “Ph.D. in CSC preferred”, for
which they had about five applicants, none of whom met their
preference. They hired a Ph.D. in another area who had extensive
computing experience.

CMSU: One year ago they advertised for a “Ph.D. in CSC preferred”, offering $60,000 – $64,000. They had few applicants. They hired a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a CSC background.

SEMSU: They have not had any recent vacancies in CSC. However, in
MIS they have been advertising and offering in excess of
$75,000 for a new Ph.D. in MIS. It is interesting to note that
of their CSC faculty who have a Ph.D., none have their doctorates in CSC. Their doctorates are in Mathematics, Engineering, Physics,
Electrical Engineering, Earth Science and Chemistry. They
have extensive computing experience, but not necessarily a graduate
degree in the field.


We believe the academic credentials of SEMSU’s CSC faculty are typical of non-research institutions; that is, seldom do you find a faculty member with a Ph.D. in the discipline, and that their formal academic expertise in the discipline is at most at a master’s degree level, and frequently a master’s degree in computer science is not required but extensive computing experience is acceptable.

Having the appropriate terminal degree in CSC be a doctorate in the discipline is not reasonable for MWSC. Our proposed statement would provide a level of academic expertise and experience in the CSC discipline above what some institutions require, since many will accept merely “extensive experience” in computer science.




The quality of our degree programs and the delivery of service courses in computer science are dependent upon faculty with expertise and experience in the computer science discipline. Our proposal addresses this concern. If approved, it would allow the department the possibility to hire CSC faculty at the rank of assistant professor. It would also permit the current CSC faculty at the rank of instructor an opportunity to be promoted and thus participate in our reward programs such as the Regent’s Awards for Distinguished Faculty.

Clearly it would be advantageous to the department and to the institution to be able to hire CSC faculty who have a doctorate, if not in CSC, then in some other discipline. But we feel that the “academic expertise as demonstrated by the completion of a graduate degree program and experience in the discipline” is more important to sustain quality programs than a “doctorate outside the discipline and extensive experience”.

We ask that you support our proposal and forward it to CGAC as a POLICY GUIDE change.