Minutes for April 2, 2001

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, April 2, 2001 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Taylor called the seventh 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: Jill Allgier, Nick Bertram, Karen Sue Cain, Rita Davis, Margaret Dean, Jim Kenkel, Linda Kuhnhenn, Diana McGregor, Stephanie McSpirit, Emily Ann Montgomery, Marshall Myers, Meredith Reed, Jennifer Rogers, The Eastern Progress, Karen Rudick, Aaron Thompson, Elizabeth Wachtel, and John Wade

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:

The March 5, 2001 minutes were approved with no corrections.

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Kustra

Dr. Kustra mentioned that the Strategic Planning Committee met recently and there will be forums scheduled soon to discuss the outcome of that meeting.

Dr. Kustra expressed his support for establishing a minimum wage policy for faculty at Eastern. He indicated that this will be the first year in Eastern's history that a salary equity line has been listed in the proposed budget, and if all goes accordingly, $100,000 will be available to begin making faculty salary adjustments, pending approval of the proposed policy.

REPORT FROM THE CHAIR: Senator Taylor

Senator Taylor encouraged the Senate members to attend the Strategic Planning forums in order to discuss what direction the university should take in the future.

OLD BUSINESS:

Faculty Minimum Wage Proposal: Senator Taylor re-introduced the proposed minimum wage salary proposal, which was moved for approval and postponed at the previous meeting. The proposal reads as follows:

1. The Faculty Senate recommends that the following minimum wage requirements be enacted:
   • Professor ($54,000) - Requirements: terminal degree, tenure, and 15 years of EKU experience
   • Associate Professor ($45,400) - Requirements: terminal degree and tenure
   • Assistant Professor ($36,800) - Requirements: terminal degree
   • Instructor ($27,100)
2. This minimum would be implemented after determining the current faculty member's contract at 3 percent (50 COLA raise/50 merit).
3. Funds to implement this policy should be provided through the "Faculty Salary Equity Pool" proposed in the current budget at an allocation of $50,000.
4. Additional funding (approximately $30,000) should be added to this pool by:
   1. Requesting 30,000 from the "action Agenda" fund which is subject to CPE approval OR
   2. Limiting the three percent raises of all EKU personnel holding tenure/faculty rank to no more than $2,100. The amount the faculty member would have received beyond the $2,100 amount will be added to the "Faculty Salary Equity Pool."
5. After this minimum wage policy has been implemented, any remaining funds should be held for either resolving other salary inequities as specified by a university wide salary equity policy when approved by the EKU Faculty Senate or for continued implementation of this policy in the budget period of 2002-2003.

Senator Siegel moved to amend the motion and delete item "4b" from the proposal, seconded by Senator Carter. The faculty Senate members approved deletion of item "4b" with a vote of 32 in favor of deletion.

Senator Maclaren moved to forward this proposal to the Ad Hoc Committee on Salary Inequities for further study. Seconded by Senator Harley. Senator Banks requested to make a friendly amendment to the motion on the floor to request a firm deadline for the committee to have a report by April 30. Senator Maclaren accepted the friendly amendment to his motion provided that it was understood that the committee would not be making a final report, but would only be giving a status report by April 30. The motion in its amended state to send the minimum wage proposal to the Ad Hoc Committee on Salary Inequities was approved by the Senate members with a 38 to 13 vote.

REPORT FROM THE PROVOST: Senator Marsden

Student Retention Proposal. Senator Marsden indicated that the Student Retention Proposal which was included with the Faculty Senate attachments was provided as an informational item for the senators.

Mid Term Grade Proposal. Senator Marsden, seconded by Senator Lifland, moved acceptance of the mid term grade proposal which states:
Faculty will provide mid-term grades via the Banner system for all students in full semester courses by the end of the seventh week, or one week before the withdrawal deadline. In the case of non-standard courses, faculty will enter mid-term grades by the mid-point of the course and before the course drop date.

Senator A. Jones moved to amend the motion to include more class offerings beginning mid point in the semester. Senator Marsden agreed to accept the amendment as a friendly amendment to include with the original motion.

Senator Jones moved to divide the motion into two parts with the posting of mid-term grades being the first motion considered. The Faculty Senate members approved dividing the issue into two parts and considering the original motion first. The mid-term grade report was approved by the Faculty Senate.

Senator Marsden indicated that the administration is sensitive of the needs for additional courses beyond the standard course offering, and is committed to working with the deans and chairs to meet that need. In light of this statement, Senator Jones withdrew the motion to require more mid term courses.

Adding a Question to the IDEA Course Evaluation. Senator Marsden, seconded by Senator Wasicsko, moved to approve an additional question to be added to either the IDEA Evaluation Form or the departmental evaluation form which states:

Did your instructor provide you with written information regarding your progress in the course at least once prior to the midpoint of that course?

Senator Marsden withdrew the motion after Senate discussion.

Promotion and Tenure Status Report. Senator Marsden indicated that there were 49 applicants this year with 26 applications for tenure and 34 applications for promotion. Twenty-four of the applications for tenure were approved and 32 of the applications for promotion were approved.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Health Insurance Coverage. Linda Kuhnhenn reported that the Option 2000 and Option 2000 Advantage health coverage plans will not be available next year. So employees need to be sure to attend the open information sessions which will be scheduled in late April to become familiar with the new plans available. She did mention that the benefits on the blue preferred which is the HMO will not change; however the premiums will be adjusted. The University will continue to pay for single coverage for employees. Single coverage costs have increased approximately 23% from last year. Additional information will be mailed to faculty and staff as soon as it becomes available.

NEW BUSINESS:

Board of Regents.  Senator Thompson reported that the Board had a special called meeting last week to look at the procedures to use in searching for a new President. The Board also decided on a consulting firm, A.T. Kearney, to help with the search process. Jan Greenwood will be the consultant working with the Board.

The next Board meeting is scheduled for April 1.

COSFL Report. Senator Falkenberg mentioned that a position paper on University Governance was included in the Faculty Senate attachments. This document was adopted by COSFL at the March 24 meeting and COSFL has asked the Senate to consider endorsing the position paper.

Student Government Report. Nick Bertram

The Student Senate has passed a proposal to remove the social security number from the student identification cards.

A proposal from the Student Senate was recently presented to the Board of Regents requesting to take money out of the student activity fee and place in a fund for organizations that currently do not have a budget.

The Student Senate constitution has been amended to incorporate counsels in Student Government at each of the extended campus sites, and they will become part of the legislative action of the Student Government beginning as early as next year.

An Ethnic Studies minor has been approved by the Student Senate.

The Student Government is working closely with the Student Success Institute on administering diversity training for all faculty, staff and student orientation programs. This should be in place beginning in the fall semester.

Mr. Bertram encouraged the Senators to remind students about the upcoming student elections.

STANDING COMMITTEES:

Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Workload. Senator O'Connor reported that the committee would like to make the following recommendations:

1. That the current policy on faculty workload be widely circulated to both faculty and administrators.
2. That Eastern move in the direction of reducing teaching loads. Furthermore it is proposed that if a department, or discipline within a department, wishes to have a reduced teaching load, that they formulate a plan regarding scholarly activity and teaching load. This plan would include the plans of individual faculty in the department regarding research and scholarly activity. The plan would be submitted for approval to the Dean of the College and the Vice President of Academic Affairs. On approval the plan would provide the framework for decisions regarding the allocation of workload in the department or discipline.
3. That a benefit-cost analysis of the role of technology in the university be undertaken to examine the effectiveness of technology in enhancing instruction and its cost in monetary expenditures and faculty time.
4. That the policy regarding advising be examined as it relates to the treatment of undeclared advising relative to advising majors.

Committee on Elections: Senator McAdams reminded the Senators that the ballots for Faculty Regent are due on Friday. She also reminded the Senators that names of new senators need to be submitted to her before the second meeting on April 30.

Senator McAdams asked for nominations for the Faculty Chair position for the 2001-2002 academic year. Senator Jackson nominated Senator Pam Schlomann. Senator Falkenberg nominated Senator John Flanagan. The two nominees will give a short presentation at the second meeting on April 30.

ADJOURNED:

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 5:30 p.m.

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