Minutes for December 2, 1996

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, December 2, 1996 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senate Chair Richard Rink called the fourth meeting of the academic year to order at 3:30 p.m.

The following members of the Senate were absent:

^*denotes prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary

Visitors to the Senate were: Mr. James Clark, Planning and Budget, Dr. David Eakin, Biological Science, Dr. Oliver Feltus, Accounting, and Dr. Shirley Snarr, Human Environmental Science

Approval of the Minutes

Senator Rink called for additions or corrections to the minutes. There being none, the minutes were approved as distributed.

Report from the President: Senator Funderburk

President Funderburk reported on a November 11 meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Postsecondary Education. The Task Force consultants at this meeting focused on the subject of governance in higher education. Dr. Funderburk traced the history of some of the issues involved with governance as viewed by the consultants. He then discussed in detail four options the consultants presented at the meeting.

Option 1

• Rename the Council on Higher Education to the Council on Postsecondary Education.
• Restructure the Council on Higher Education's responsibilities to emphasize policy leadership on public priorities.
• Establish Kentucky Tech under a separate governing board parallel to other state postsecondary boards.
• Decentralize by statute responsibility for academic leadership and management to each community college campus.
• Retain the community college system relationship to the University of Kentucky for administrative and support services.
• Establish Regional Advisory Boards to:
• -coordinate Kentucky Tech, community college, university, and other occupational programs. -strengthen the link with the future of regional workforce/economic development.
• Change financing policy to use strategic investment funds and incentives to spur collaboration and change.

Option 2

• Replace Council on Higher Education with a Postsecondary Education Planning Commission responsible for planning, policy analysis for the governor, state legislature, and major postsecondary sectors.
• Establish a Kentucky Community and Technical College Board parallel to other state postsecondary boards.
• Transfer community colleges to the new board.
• Consolidate the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky under a single Research University Board
• -retain institutional boards as advisory bodies for each university; composed initially of some members from each board with a majority of new appointees.
• Consolidate the regional universities under a single Regional University Board.
• -retain institutional boards as advisory bodies for each university; composed initially of at least one member from each university board with a majority of new appointees.
• Establish Regional Advisory Boards to:
• -coordinate Kentucky Tech, community college, university, and other occupational programs. -oversee plans for greater collaboration, if not consolidation, of community colleges and Kentucky Tech units within the region.
• -strengthen the link with the future of regional workforce/economic development.
• Change financing policy to use strategic investment funds and incentive to spur collaboration and change.

Option 3

• Rename the Council on Higher Education to the Council on Postsecondary Education and restructure responsibilities as in Option 1.
• Establish Kentucky Community and Technical College Board parallel to other state postsecondary boards.
• Transfer community colleges from the University of Kentucky to the new board.
• Establish two subunits under the new board, one for Kentucky Tech and the other for the community colleges.
• -retain two systems initially but mandate that the board achieve significantly improved coordination, if not integration in each region by the year 2000.
• -provide option for either community colleges or technical colleges to contract with UK, regional universities, or other entities for administrative and support services.
• Establish Regional Advisory Boards to:
• -coordinate Kentucky Tech, community college, university, and other occupational programs. -oversee plans for greater collaboration, if not consolidation, of community colleges and Kentucky Tech units within the region.
• -strengthen the link with the future of regional workforce/economic development.
• Change financing policy to use strategic investment funds and incentives to spur collaboration and change.

Option 4 (With Governance Changes in Option 3)

• Replace the Council on Higher Education with a new Kentucky Postsecondary Policy and Investment Board. The new board would:
  -develop a strategic public agenda for the future of Kentucky postsecondary education. -recommend strategic budget priorities consistent with the public agenda.
  -develop and monitor both system and institutional performance indicators.
  -oversee the investment funds as described below.
  -monitor governing boards' performance in carrying out their delegated program approval and managing base budgets consistent with institutional missions.
  -approve major programs that represent significant changes in institutional missions.
  -approve regional workforce development and coordination plans necessary for each region's eligibility for the Regional Fund described below.
• Establish a new postsecondary education funding policy and include Kentucky Tech within the new policy.
• Replace the current funding formula with a policy encompassing these elements: -base budgets, adjusted for inflation and major changes in workload.
  -a multi-year adjustment to base for selected institutions for "equity."
  -all additional state funds allocated to institutions through Investment Funds as described below.
• Establish four Investment Funds, with funds held in escrow to support a five-year state commitment to change:
  • A Research Challenge Fund
    -to be matched by internal reallocation.
    -aimed at building highly focused, selected, internationally competitive, and ranked research capability at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville.
  • A Regional Universities Renewal Fund
    -to be matched by internal reallocation.
    -aimed at state priorities and nationally competitive, applied research connected to Kentucky and unique to each university.
  • A Technology Initiative Fund
    -to support non-capital investments in the use of technology.
    -focused on extending access and improving student learning.
  • A Regional Postsecondary Access and Workforce Development Fund
    -to support region-by-region collaboration, integration, and, if appropriate, consolidation, of the state's postsecondary education assets, in support of the region's economic renewal.

Implementation:

• each Regional Board would develop a plan for an integrated, seamless workforce education and training system in the region.
• all additional state funding over 1996-97 base for all two-or-fewer-year occupational programs would be contingent on approval of the regional plan by the new Policy and Investment Board.

Conclusion

• Kentucky faces serious issues concerning:
  -education attainment.
  -research capacity/competitiveness.
  -enhancing the quality of life.
  -student retention.
• Kentucky's postsecondary education system has many excellent people, programs, and facilities.
• The problem is that these are:
  -not focused on clear public and institutional priorities.
  -widely dispersed.
  -dissipated by debilitating institutional and regional turf battles.
• The challenge is to:
  -set forth a new vision for the Commonwealth and its potential.
  -raise aspirations.
  -align policies to move the system toward that vision.
  -commit to a multi-year, consistent strategy for improvement.

In response to several questions, President Funderburk stated that the consultants' options are very tentative and no sense of direction is currently evident. Dr. Funderburk believes that something will definitely be done about the status of vocational and technical education and how they fit into postsecondary education. Senator MacLaren asked about Eastern's compliance with Kentucky's desegregation plan and how it might affect the creation of new academic programs. Dr. Funderburk stated that compliance is a major problem which is presently being addressed.

Report of the Executive Committee: Senator Rink

Senator Rink reported that under old business, a question was raised on the issue of child care in response to a recent article in the Eastern Progress. Vice President Enzie briefly commented on the question and stated that more will be said about this issue in the coming months. Under new business, the Chair discussed the November 16 COSFL meeting. A request was made for the Chair to ask President Funderburk to report on the November 11 Task Force of Postsecondary Education meeting. Vice President Enzie also reported on changes and drops of minor degree programs approved by the Council on Academic Affairs.

Report of the Faculty Regent: Senator Freed

Senator Freed presented and briefly discussed a series of recommendations of the University Faculty Sub-Committee of the Governor's Task Force on Postsecondary Education. Below are the recommendations, excerpted verbatim, from each of seven individual position papers prepared by the faculty sub-committee and discussed extensively by the members of COSFL. Copies of the position papers can be obtained from Senators Freed, Lee-Riffe, or Rink.

1. Governance and Change

• Faculty should be included in the continuing proceedings of the Task Force.
• Most important, faculty should have a formally established, ongoing voice in deliberations of change and governance. To establish a permanent channel for faculty input in statewide discussions of higher education policy, we recommend that a faculty member be added to the Council on Higher Education.
• University governing boards should be allowed to continue to operate independently, but they should be strongly encouraged to cooperate more effectively. The pressure to improve cooperation should be brought about by the Council on Higher Education and, especially, by the Office of the Governor.

2. Funding for Higher Education in Kentucky

• The Task Force should endorse the higher education funding proposals put forth by the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education and the Council on Higher Education during 1995 and 1996 to fund higher education at least to the average of benchmark institutions.

3. Distance Learning

• A special statewide task force should be formed to study the issues, costs, potential opportunities and benefits, effectiveness, and future role of distance learning. It should also address the options for institutional cooperation to avoid unnecessary duplication.
• Faculty--who are ultimately responsible for the learning environment--should be included in campus committees or decision-making groups which establish institutional and statewide policy related to distance learning.
• Costs of distance learning (e.g., technology updating, faxing, computer hook-up charges) should be fully funded at state and institutional levels; these funds should not be transferred to departments or to individual faculty budget lines.

4. Technology

• Realistic and adequate appropriations must be made available at the statewide and institutional levels--there is little point in talking about minor improvements in access to current technology in higher education.
• Faculty members who use current technology must be involved in making the budget estimates and decisions about which technology to acquire at every level: in Frankfort, in the making of each institutional budget, and the making of each departmental budget.

5. Libraries

• All library facilities should be wired and equipped with the most current technological capabilities for the exchange of information electronically. Available technology will allow users statewide to search all Kentucky academic libraries' databases instantaneously. Ideally, users should be able to request and have delivered any information resources they need. Through existing protocols, such as Z39.50, this statewide access service is now available. Such a system has already been implemented in Illinois and Ohio.
• A centralized, commonly shared library storage facility for little used but important materials should be established. Such a facility would decrease the need for major library expansion efforts and help solve the space limitation problem within existing libraries.
• A position, with statutory authority, in either the Council on Higher Education (CHE) or some other governing body should be established to mandate and coordinate inter-institutional library cooperative efforts, including all of the activities discussed above.

6. Athletic Funding

Athletic programs clearly play an important role at many of Kentucky's state-supported institutions. However, the value of athletic programs must be evaluated within the context of their total effect on institutional budgeting--specifically, on academic quality and the rising costs of higher education. Therefore, we urge the Task Force to evaluate the role of intercollegiate athletics in higher education and to consider the following recommendations:

• The CHE should establish limits on the use of state appropriations to fund athletics.
• The CHE should establish limits on the use of student activity fees to fund athletics.
• The CHE should require universities to be more accountable for their athletics funding, including those coming from public and private (i.e., university foundation) sources.

7. Part-time Faculty

The report on part-time faculty is still in draft form. The final version will almost surely have two recommendations, one asking that the over-reliance on part-time help be curbed and that efforts be made to convert long-term, part-time positions to tenure- track positions. The other recommendation will ask that the working conditions of part-time faculty be improved and made as closely parallel to those of permanent faculty as possible.

These recommendations will be presented to the Task Force on December 9.

Report from the COSFL Representative: Senator Lee-Riffe

Senator Lee-Riffe reiterated that the seven recommendations to the Task Force underline the need to have faculty input in the educational process. She mentioned that COSFL's next meeting will be in January.

Report from the Student Senate: Ms. Melody Mason

Ms. Mason reported that the Student Government Association (SGA) telephone directory for 1996-1997 had been distributed, that the Fitness/Wellness student brochure had been published, that the SGA donated $1,000 for the Wellness Center sound system, that a student advisory committee on campus Food Service was working closely with Mr. Greg Hopkins, and that the SGA continues the EKU Reach Out project to help needy campus families.

Reports from Standing Committees

Committee on Elections: Senator Brown-Davis - No report given.

Committee on Committees: Senator Janssen - No report given.

Committee on Rules: Senator Lewis - No report given.

Committee on the Budget: Senator Watkins reported that the committee received summary budgets from eight of sixteen universities. Of the eight institutions only four reported in a format similar to the EKU's summary budget. Therefore, the committee decided it would only report educational and general expenditures per FTE student and state appropriations per FTE student for the eight institutions. The committee will present its final report to the Senate in March.

Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities: Senator Kipp - No report given.

Report from the Council on Academic Affairs: Senator Enzie - The following proposals from the Council on Academic Affairs were approved:

• Interdisciplinary minor in Gerontology in the College of Allied Health and Nursing.
• New minor in Horticulture in the College of Applied Arts and Technology.
• Name change in the Bachelor of Science in Home Economics Education (Teaching) degree TO Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences Education (Teaching) degree program in the College of Applied Arts and Technology.
• Name change in the minor in General Home Economics TO minor in Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Applied Arts and Technology.
• Name change in the Bachelor of Science in Early Elementary Education (Teaching) (Kindergarten-Grade Four) degree program TO Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education (Teaching) (Primary-Grade Five) degree program in the College of Education.
• Name change in the Bachelor of Science in Middle Grade Education (Teaching) (Grades Five-Eight) degree program TO Bachelor of Science in Middle Grade Education (Teaching) (Grades Five-Nine) degree program in the College of Education.
• Name change in the Bachelor of Science in Science (Teaching) degree program TO Bachelor of Science in Physical Science (Teaching) degree program in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
• New option (Cell and Molecular Biology) in the Bachelor of Science in Biology degree program in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
• Name change in the Department of Geology TO Department of Earth Sciences in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
• Suspend the Bachelor of Science in Earth Science (Teaching) degree program in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
• Suspend the minor in Earth Science (Teaching) in the College of Natural and Mathematical Science.
• Reactivate the Associate of Science for Engineering degree program in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
• Suspend the Masters of Science in Physics in the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.

Adjournment

Senator Enzie moved that the Senate adjourn. It adjourned at 4:23 p.m.