Faculty Senate Minutes - 3/4/2004
Faculty Senate Minutes
March 4, 2004
Call to Order:
Senate President Barry Nelson called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm
Senators present:
Blessing, Caldwell, Cluff, Haney, Hegeman, Hennessy, Hunt, Mikkelsen, Ottinger, Wacek, Williams, Senate President Nelson, Senate Vice-President Tapia, Senate Secretary Andrews.
Senators absent:
Wagner, Past Senate President Greiert.
Ex-officio members present:
MWSC President Scanlon
MWSC Vice-President for Academic and Student Affairs Arnold
Guests present:
Professors’ Bonnie Alsbury, Shauna Hiley, (curriculum committee chair and secretary)
Professor Phil Mullins, Peer Review Committee
Approval of minutes:
Minutes of the February 19, 2004 were amended as follows; page 3, second to last paragraph, add “adversely” after the word “may” and page 5, the first paragraph add “for the corresponding academic year” after the word “time” and delete the words
“during the fall semester”.
(Senator Caldwell/Senate Vice-President Tapia)
(vote unanimous)
Minutes of the February 19, 2004 Faculty Senate meeting were approved.
(Senator Haney/Senator Hunt)
(vote unanimous)
Approval of agenda:
The agenda for the March 3, 2004 meeting was approved
(Senator Ottinger/Senator Hunt)
(vote unanimous)
Report from MWSC College President:
President Scanlon reported that the “University” name change is still under consideration and will likely go to floor debate as a combined bill in a week to ten days. Three students were present in Jefferson City at the legislature and made a good presentation to support the name change. Costs for graduate classes would come from internal reallocation if we are granted the opportunity to offer them. He indicated that the budget hasn’t changed from the Governor’s original budget, but we are attempting to obtain equity funding.
The Fulkerson Center bids were approved by the Board of Regents and ground breaking should begin by the end of the month.
Report from MWSC Vive-President of Academic and Student Affairs:
Vice-President Arnold reported on enrollment management with SPIF updates and planning for student engagement, community quality and applied learning goals. A professional research group has been hired to focus on student inquires, student applications and student enrollment to determine why students do and do not enroll. John Gardner, an expert on “best practices” will be on campus March 25 and will be available to the Board of Regents and faculty. Faculty will be notified about an afternoon meeting expected at either 3:00 pm or 3:30 pm.
Work on the Campus Master Plan will begin in June to identify “zone areas” including student, academic and recreation.
Senator Cluff spoke to a concern on how quickly we contact students who have sent ACT material to Western for consideration.
Report from Faculty Senate Executive Committee:
Missouri Western State College Faculty Senate
Executive Committee Report
March 4, 2004
The executive committee of the Missouri Western State College Faculty Senate met on Wednesday, February 25, 2004. Those attending were Senators Andrews, Greiert, Nelson, and Tapia, President Scanlon, and Vice President Arnold. The scheduled agenda included the following items:
· introduction of draft of "scientific misconduct" policy
· status of new organizational chart for Policy Guide
· discussion concerning analysis of enrollment and retention
· brief report of launch of Peer Review Committee
Dr. Arnold distributed a document entitled "2/25/04 WORKING DRAFT Scientific Misconduct Policy," with a brief discussion of the rationale for needing such a policy. He emphasized that the document is "still in the works" and that it is being distributed to this executive committee for advance information.
Regarding the organizational chart for Western, Dr. Arnold indicated that it is currently updated and will appear in the upcoming Policy Guide.
Dr. Arnold then distributed a spreadsheet analysis of student enrollment data that had been prepared by Judy Fields. Some brief discussion ensued concerning possible suggestions/methods for improving enrollment and retention.
At Nelson's request, Dr. Arnold then gave a very brief report of the launch and activities of the Faculty Senate Peer Review Committee. He indicated that Professors Brenda Blessing and Phil Mullins have been selected as faculty co-chairs. Arnold further reported that the Committee appears to be well founded, and that their work is progressing well, having been involved with readings related to their responsibilities. Regarding the Senate's charge to the committee, Arnold mentioned that the charge is rather ambiguous but did not recommend any change to the charge. I have invited Professor Mullins to today's meeting, so that he, along with Co-Chair Blessing, may wish to respond to the indication that the committee's charge is rather ambiguous. The charge as actually adopted is stated as follows:
>express purpose of formulating a general college model (in addition to
>other needed auxiliary guidelines) for faculty peer review by integrating
>various recommended peer review principles and guidelines which were
>developed by academic departments and submitted to the faculty senate
>during academic year 2002-2003.
At the conclusion of this report, I will relinquish the floor to any comments that Mullins or Blessing may have.
The committee, along with Drs. Scanlon and Arnold, also briefly discussed the status of the Senate motion to allow reserved parking for part-time/adjunct faculty.
Finally, the executive committee approved the ballot for election of senators that Senator Tapia had designed. The election of senators will be completed by Wednesday, March 3.
The executive committee met again on Wednesday, March 3, 2004. Present were Senators Andrews, Greiert, Nelson, and Tapia. Also in attendance was Professor Kevin Anderson, chairperson of the Faculty Senate Salary Committee.
Professor Anderson distributed a working draft of the Salary Committee's recommendations. The Committee has been working on recommendations related to possible faculty salary increases and possible part-time/adjunct/overload pay increases. Their final recommendations will be presented to the Senate at its April 1 meeting.
In other matters, Senator Greiert gave an informal assessment of the Student Engagement meeting that was held on Tuesday, March 2. Senator Tapia then gave a report of a meeting earlier in the day that was called by President Scanlon for members of Western's executive groups. Finally, the reserved parking for part-time faculty was again briefly discussed.
Following the meeting, Senators Greiert and Nelson collected senate election ballots from the various academic departments. Then, Senators Andrews, Greiert, and Nelson counted the ballots and verified the following winners:
Liberal Arts and Sciences:
John Tapia 57 *
Michael Ottinger 48 *
Timothy Holian 46 *
Monica Nandan 45 *
Evan Noynaert 45 *
Professional Studies:
Bonnie Gregory 67 *
Randye Williams 64 *
David Tushaus 47 *
A special Senate meeting will be held Thursday, March 11, for the sole purpose of nominating Senate officers for the coming year. A second meeting will be held Thursday, March 25, for the sole purpose of electing the officers. Newly elected and continuing Senate members are urged to attend these important meetings; retiring senators are encouraged but not obliged to attend.
At this time, I would invite Professors Blessing or Mullins to share any thoughts they may have, if any, concerning the mandated charge for the Peer Review Committee.
Finally, I invite other members of the Executive Committee to add to this report at this time.
Senator Blessing reviewed the progress of the “peer review committee” indicating they are currently in the study process with a good group of faculty representing a diverse base at Western. She indicated that when the report is completed, quite some time from now, she would report back to the Senate as the committee is a Senate sub-committee.
Senate Vice-President Tapia questioned handicap accessibility with the addition of the Fulkerson Center to the MC building. President Scanlon indicated that consideration for the handicapped would be available.
Senator Blessing also indicated a concern about reporting the total vote count of faculty running for senate positions. She had been contacted by other who felt the faculty not elected could be offended by the listing of votes for non-winning candidates. Senate President Nelson indicated his support for the current process along with Senator Mikkelsen. Additional discussion suggested that prior to next years election the process should be determined.
Report from Faculty Senate Fringe Benefit Committee:
Professor David Steineche, Chairman of the Fringe Benefit Committee gave the following report to the Faculty Senate.
Report to the MWSC Faculty Senate
From Its Fringe Benefits Committee
In response to the Faculty Senate charge to investigate what fringe benefits exist for MWSC faculty retiree, the Committee determined that there are two sources of information, the college Policy Guide and a brochure entitled "For Your Benefit," which the committee obtained by email from Terri Teschner in the Human Resources Office. This brochure has been forwarded to members of the Faculty Senate. An enquiry was made in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs, and that office did not have any information.
The Committee recommends to the Faculty Senate that it recommend to the campus health committee and officials who decide what health coverage to select for the college that: (1) other health insurance companies, including CHP (Community Health Plan), receive a closer look before a decision is made to renew participation in the MSU consortium; (b) our health coverage include more than one option, such as the three choices in 2003 of different cost: Gold, Silver, and Bronze; (3) a health category exist to insure just one child rather than subsuming one child into the broader category of children.
Discussion followed concerning issues relating to insurance options with a recommendation that Vice- President Ron Olinger be invited to the an upcoming Senate meeting.
Motion to accept the report
(Senator Haney/Senator Hegeman)
Old Business:
The following motions were discussed with action as follows;
MOTION SB09-04: (Senator Blessing/Senator Tapia)
to upgrade the text of the
CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE MISSOURI WESTERN STATE COLLEGE INSTRUCTIONAL FACULTY
and the
BYLAWS OF THE FACULTY SENATE,
in addition to any and all other included documentation within the Missouri Western State College Policy Guide, so that all other references to division, divisions, and/or divisional be revised respectively to school, schools, and/or school.
Note: this upgrade is considered clerical in nature, and therefore does not warrant the procedure specified in the CONSTITUTION for substantive constitutional amendments.
MOTION SB10-04: (Senator Tapia/Senator Blessing)
to change page 255 of the 2003-2004 Missouri Western State College Policy Guide, as follows: under Membership a.line3, add the following:
“The chairperson and secretary for this committee shall each receive three hours of release time during the fall semester.”
Amendments to the motion were made in the following manner;
the words “curriculum committee” were added to the second line of SB10-04 after the word under and now reads “Guide, as follows: under curriculum committee Membership a. line 3, add the following:”
amendment vote (Senator Ottinger/Senator Andrews)
Roll Call Vote: Senators Andrews, Blessing, Caldwell, Cluff, Haney, Hegeman, Hennessy, Hunt, Mikkelsen, Ottinger, Tapia, Williams (yes)
(vote unanimous)
Main motion vote (Senate Vice-President Tapia/Senator Blessing)
(vote 10 for 2 against)
Vice-President Arnold indicated his concern about a possible “ripple effect” for service and merit related to faculty. Senate President Nelson questioned “where the line will be drawn” and Senate Vice-President Tapia indicated that currently a faculty member could receive only two merit points and that each committee could make its’ own case for release time as the curriculum committee has done.
This discussion brought an old topic concerning the possibility of Western going to a two-year catalog sometime in the future. It was once again note that the curriculum committee had indicated that they did not support this proposed change.
MOTION SB11-04: (Senator Tapia/Senator Caldwell)
to change page 118 of the 2003-2004 Missouri Western State College Policy Guide as follows:
c. Salary advancement
Replace lines 1, 2, and 3 with the following: “Recipients will receive a base salary increase of $2,500.”
d. Performance levels required
Replace the final sentence with the following: “Regular participation and leadership in some combination of professional, departmental, institutional and community affairs is also required.”
e. Application materials
Replace the final sentence with the following: “A resume covering the applicant’s entire career and a summary table of teaching and comparisons (including lower and upper level courses, enrollments, grade distributions, and student evaluations) must be attached to the narrative.”
(vote unanimous)
MOTION SB12-04: (Senator Blessing/Senator Williams)
to replace the first paragraph entitled Application Procedures for Faculty, on page 49 of the 2003-2004 Missouri Western State College Policy Guide, with the following:
Application Procedures for Faculty. A faculty applicant for sabbatical leave must submit one copy of the leave proposal to the department
Chairperson by September 1. The proposal and the chair’s recommendation must be submitted to the appropriate dean and the chair of the Professional Leave Committee by September 15. The dean will send his or her recommendation to the chair of the Professional Leave Committee by October 1. (July 1993)(May 2000)
(vote unanimous)
New Business:
No new business was presented but Senate President Nelson reported to the Senate that a special meeting will be called on March 11, 2004 at 4:00 pm (room to be announced) for the purpose of nominating the Faculty Senate Executive Committee for “04-05”.
A second special meeting would be held on March 25, 2004 at 4:30 pm (room to be announced) to vote on the new Executive Committee for “04-05”. Newly elected Senators are encouraged to attend both special meetings as they along with current continuing Senators will vote on the Executive Committee.
Motion to adjourn:
Faculty Senate was adjourned at 5:28 pm
(Senator Hennessy/Blessing)
(vote unanimous)
Respectfully submitted,
Larry D. Andrews, EdS
Professor
MWSC Faculty Senate Secretary
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