Minutes - 4/4/2002
Missouri Western State College
Faculty Senate Minutes
April 4 and 11, 2002
Call to order:
The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m. on April 4, 2002, by Steven Greiert, Faculty Senate Vice President.
Senators present:
Larry Andrews, Brenda Blessing, Mike Cadden, Bill Church, Steven Greiert, Marilyn Hunt, Mark Mikkelsen, Barry Nelson, Evan Noynaert, Sally Radmacher, Keith Rhodes, Kelly Williams, Carolyn Windsor
Senators absent:
Ben Caldwell, Robert Klostermeyer, Mike Smith, John Tapia
Ex-officio members present:
James Scanlon, Missouri Western State College President
2002-2004 senators-elect present:
Richard Cluff, Michael Ottinger, Randye Williams
Guests present:
Richard Boutwell, Jon Euchner, Cynthia Heider, Kenneth Lee, Jessica Leonard
Approval of minutes:
The minutes of the previous meeting of February 21, 2002 were approved as submitted (Blessing).
Approval of agenda:
Senator Church moved to amend the agenda so that nomination of senate officers would occur immediately after the executive committee report. The move to amend passed unanimously. Senator Blessing then moved to accept the agenda as amended, whereupon the motion to approve passed unanimously.
Report from college president:
President Scanlon reported that the Missouri higher education core funding equity issue has now passed the "perfection of the bill" stage, which makes it ready for the third reading in the Missouri House. This is an indication that the bill is likely to pass in the House.
President Scanlon distributed a document entitled Budget Planning for FY2003 (Attachment A) which outlines the college's strategy to meet the funding cuts mandated by Governor Holden, detailing Western's proposed spending reductions, decreased revenue, increased expenses, strategic planning implementation costs, and increased revenue for FY2003. The final college budget will not be approved until the June meeting of the Board of Regents.
Scanlon further reported that the college name change to "Missouri Western State University" has passed the Missouri House and is now in the Senate.
Report from Faculty Senate executive committee:
Vice President Greiert reported that members of the senate executive committee, support staff and professional staff met with President Scanlon on March 26 for discussion of strategic planning. Greiert announced that the planning implementation committees are now being constituted and are in need of dedicated faculty volunteers to serve on these important committees. Faculty were asked to contribute names of those willing to serve to the executive committee members or other faculty senators.
Senator Nelson briefly reported on the recent discussion and possibility for simplifying faculty senate committee structure. It has been suggested by Nelson that it may be possible to combine the senate salary and fringe benefits committees, and to eliminate the evaluation of faculty committee (to be replaced as needed by an all-faculty ad hoc committee when or if needed). These suggestions were briefly discussed by the executive committee, with the consensus that major committee changes should perhaps wait until the dust settles in the college strategic planning arena. Senator Mikkelsen pointed out that certain senate committees are crucial and inherently fundamental to the operation of the faculty senate, namely the promotion & tenure committee, grievance committee, curriculum committee, and professional leave committee, and therefore does not leave a lot of room open for committee simplification.
Greiert then reported that there are still rumors or discussions in various places around campus regarding the college budgeting process, indicating that more openness in the budget process may be needed. President Scanlon replied with the affirmation that all budget matters should be open, and that he embraces that principle.
Nomination of 2002-2003 senate officers:
Vice President Greiert distributed a list of proposed election procedures entitled Recommended Election Procedures for Faculty Senate Offices as Proposed April 4, 2002, (Attachment B) taken from last year's approved election procedures. After a quick reading, the procedures were approved by consensus.
Greiert surrendered the podium to Senator Mikkelsen who then received nominations.
Nominations from the floor included the following:
for president: Steven Greiert (nominated by Senator Blessing)
for vice president: Barry Nelson (nominated by Senator-Elect Cluff)
for secretary: Carolyn Windsor (nominated by Senator Greiert)
The gavel was then returned to Senator Greiert, who announced that the election of officers would occur at the April 11, 2002 senate meeting, and that additional write-in nominations could be accepted in the election.
General studies committee report:
Cynthia Heider, chairperson of the general studies committee, gave the general studies committee report. She distributed Report to the Faculty Senate from the General Studies Committee, April 4, 2002 (Attachment C). Related to this document, she discussed in summary form the curriculum proposals reviewed by the general studies committee during this semester. She noted that "Econ Proposal #10" is in error, in that the course title for ECON 261 should be "Principles of Microeconomics" rather than "Principles of Macroeconomics" as printed.
Heider then distributed the matrix of general studies competencies as assigned to general studies courses, and offered a brief explanation. She indicated that the competencies are spelled out in detail in the General Education Reporting Matrix available on the college web site ( http://www.mwsc.edu/acadaff/matrix.html ).
She then reported that the task of assigning competencies to general studies courses is essentially finished, although the general education syllabi review is still needed. She expressed highest praise and thanks to all the members of the general studies committee for their excellent work, giving special thanks to Michael Ottinger for the design of the matrix.
Senators Greiert and Rhodes similarly expressed gratitude on behalf of the senate for the fine work of the committee, with special thanks attributed to chairperson Heider.
Senator Church moved to receive the report, whereupon Senator Greiert declared the report as received.
Promotion & tenure committee report:
Jessica Leonard, chairperson of the promotion & tenure committee distributed and reviewed the report entitled Faculty Senate Report from the Promotion and Tenure Committee for the 2001-2002 Academic Year (Attachment E). The report indicated that seven candidates applied for tenure in the fall semester, while six candidates applied for promotion in the spring semester.
Other items in the report included general recommendations from the committee and policy guide changes recommended by the committee. Highlighting the policy guide changes was the recommendation to alter the current tenure policy so that "… for tenure track faculty, tenure review is mandatory in the fifth year of full-time service at MWSC," and "failure to attain tenure by the end of the seventh probationary year will result in the issuance of a terminal contract for the next academic year." (reflecting the so-called "up-and-out tenure policy in place in most colleges and universities).
Some discussion followed the report, especially centering on the tenure policy recommendations. It was noted by Senator Greiert that such a major change in policy would best require significant and serious discussion across campus, and so such recommendation would best be left to next academic year.
Senator Noynaert moved to receive the report, whereupon it was received by unanimous vote. Senator Greiert expressed gratitude to chairperson Leonard and the other committee members for the fine work of the committee.
Quorum call:
Senator Greiert made a quorum call at 5:50 p.m. With only 10 of the 17 senators being present at this time, the quorum failed. This session will therefore be continued on April 11, 2002.
Call to order:
The session which began on April 4, 2002 was re-called to order at 4:06 p.m. on April 11, 2002, by President Klostermeyer.
Senators present:
Larry Andrews, Mike Cadden, Ben Caldwell, Bill Church, Steven Greiert, Robert Klostermeyer, Marilyn Hunt, Mark Mikkelsen, Barry Nelson, Evan Noynaert, Sally Radmacher, Keith Rhodes, Kelly Williams, Carolyn Windsor
Senators absent:
Mike Smith, John Tapia
Senators-elect present:
Richard Cluff, Michael Ottinger
Guests present:
Cynthia Heider, Catherine Lawson, Kathyrne Mueller
Old Business:
SB 01-02.04 (Mikkelsen): to substitute Senate bill SB 01-02.02 (dated January 24, 2002) with the following recommendations outlined in Attachment F, with the deletion of the words "Curriculum Committee Executive Committee or the" in the paragraph which reads "During the review process, the proposal submitters may change, add, or delete proposal items if recommended to do so by the Curriculum Committee Executive Committee of the reviewing subcommittee."
The motion to substitute passed unanimously. A vote was then taken on the substitute bill SB 01-02.04, which passed unanimously.
SB 01-02.03 (Mikkelsen): that the changes outlined in the General Studies Preliminary Report be approved and printed in the Missouri Western State College Catalog. (Reference Attachments B and C of Missouri Western State College Faculty Senate Minutes of February 7, 2002.)
A motion was made (Noynaert) to amend SB 01-02.03 to reinstate the clause which reads "Understand and appreciate technological concepts and their influence on society," which was not included in the General Education Status Report (reference Attachment B of February 7, 2002 Senate minutes). After brief discussion, President Klostermeyer called the question on the proposed amendment. Senator Greiert called for a roll call vote. The motion to amend was defeated with 4 YES votes (Nelson, Noynaert, Radmacher, Williams) and 9 NO votes (Andrews, Cadden, Caldwell, Church, Greiert, Hunt, Mikkelsen, Rhodes, Windsor).
Senator Andrews then called the question to end discussion of the main bill SB 01-02.03. Senator Greiert called for a roll call vote. The bill passed with 12 Yes votes (Andrews, Cadden, Caldwell, Church, Greiert, Hunt, Mikkelsen, Nelson, Noynaert, Rhodes, Williams, Windsor) and 1 NO vote (Radmacher).
New business:
SB 01-02.05 (Williams): that the Senate undertake a review of Proposal Number 10, which would include ECO 261 Principles of Microeconomics as a general studies course.
SB 01-02.06 (Williams): to amend the 2001-2002 Missouri Western State College Policy Guide as follows: on page 85, under "Preparation of Promotion Package, " letter "h," add the words "and reappointment forms" after the words "Annual evaluations."
SB 01-02.07 (Williams): to amend the 2001-2002 Missouri Western State College Policy Guide as follows: on page 260, under the "Procedures" section, add as letter "g:" "When there is a disparity between the committee recommendations and the recommendation of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, a meeting between the two should take place for clarification before it goes forward to the College President."
SB 01-02.08 (Williams): to amend the 2001-2002 Missouri Western State College Policy Guide as follows: replace the second paragraph under "Early Warning Provision for Faculty," (pp. 75-76) with the following:
"Faculty members who have been employed full-time at Missouri Western State College for more than two years shall not fail to receive a reappointment recommendation by the administration because of an unsatisfactory evaluation in instruction, department support, professional development, or institutional and community support unless they have been advised of their shortcomings in writing no later than May 15. The formal early warning will normally be issued by the department Chairperson in writing on the FACULTY REAPPOINTMENT FORM and incorporated within the formal evaluation process. However, within the spirit of helping the faculty member become clearly aware of serious shortcomings, a formal early warning may be provided at other times with copies sent to the Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
A faculty member placed on early warning has one year to demonstrate to the chairperson that the shortcomings have been remedied and are not likely to reoccur. Failing to do so will result in the termination of a non-tenured faculty member effective at the end of the spring semester, or in the case of a tenured faculty member, result in a terminal contract for the next academic year."
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m. (Andrews).
Respectfully submitted,
Barry Nelson
Faculty Senate Secretary
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