Minutes for May 6, 2002

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, May 6, 2002 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Schlomann called the eighth 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: Jim Clark, Government Relations; Rita Davis, Student Affairs; Lynn Gillaspie, Curriculum & Instruction; Ken Johnston, Finance; Larry Kelley, Baccalaureate & Graduate Nursing; Erin Michalik, Student Government Association; Gil Smith, Art; Aaron Thompson, Academic Affairs; Elizabeth Wachtel, Academic Affairs; and Doug Whitlock, Administrative Affairs

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The April 1, 2002 minutes were approved with the following corrections.

Senator Marsden requested that a correction be made on Page 5 under Academic Affairs, the last item listed should be changed from: Senator Marsden moved approval, seconded by Senator Fenton, of the program revision in the B.S. in Fire Safety Engineering Technology to drop the Occupational Safety and Health Engineering Technology minor and add the Safety and Industrial Relations minor. This motion was approved by the Senate.

To: Senator Marsden moved approval, seconded by Senator Fenton, of the program revision in the BS in Fire Safety Engineering Technology to drop the Occupational Safety and Health Engineering Technology option and add the Safety and Industrial Relations option. This motion was approved by the Senate.

Senator Johnson requested a correction to the last line of the report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Compensation and Benefit to change from: The motion was NOT meant to alter the process of annual faculty evaluations or post tenure in any way.

To: The motion was NOT meant to alter the process of annual faculty evaluations for post tenure review in any way.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Senator Schlomann announced that the new student government president, Lucas Hammons, has a class conflict and will be unable to attend today’s meeting to give the SGA report.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Senator Glasser

President Glasser met with the mayor and representatives in Hazard recently to work out increased articulation agreements with Hazard Community College.

President Glasser shared an update of several items with the Senate.

• Budget. While the Kentucky General Assembly has not yet approved a final budget for the new biennium, EKU has moved forward to establish budget guidelines and a plan for the new fiscal year. The 2002-2003 budget recommendations which the President will present to the Board of Regents at a special meeting on June 17 honors the commitments she made earlier to the campus community and to the Faculty Senate. Specifically, that there will be no layoffs of any institutionally funded positions; that EKU will maintain the existing level of health insurance coverage; and that a salary increase of 2.7% will be recommended as a cost of living, across the board raise. The recommendation for the salary increase is based in large part on the recommendations received from the Faculty Senate and also because there is such a small amount of funds available. The President indicated that in the next physical year merit adjustments will be looked into, if at all possible.
• University Strategic Plan. The deadline to send comments and suggestions regarding the University Strategic Plan has been extended until May 15. Please send any comments or suggestions to Dr. Libby Wachtel.
• General Education Committee. The General Education Committee, chaired by Dr. Gary Kuhnhenn, will continue to work on the general education proposal during the summer and will present a revised General Education program to President Glasser at the beginning of the fall semester.
• 2 + 2 Articulations. Within the past two weeks, President Glasser has signed two new 2 + 2 articulation agreements with Central Kentucky Technical College and the Lexington Community College. These agreements will help provide students who complete specific two year programs at their respective institutions a seamless transition to an appropriate four year degree program here at Eastern Kentucky University.
• Undergraduate Enrollment. EKU admissions and housing data continue to run ahead of last year. The numbers are definitely going up, particularly for out of state enrollment. This may be due in part to the well received six open houses held recently in surrounding areas.
• Graduate Enrollment. President Glasser will soon be appointing a graduate task force to study and make recommendations concerning the organization and processes of EKU’s graduate school. She encouraged anyone interested in serving on the committee to contact her by e-mail.
• Lancaster Crosswalk. President Glasser has requested through our state elected representatives that the Lancaster crosswalk come down at no cost to the University as early as the second or third week in May. The Lancaster lot will be closed for a while and will re-open as a residential parking lot. The President plans to appoint a parking committee composed of faculty, students and staff to consider alternative parking sites and locations on campus. Anyone interested in serving on this committee should contact her by e-mail.
• Alcohol Task Force. Within the next couple of weeks, the President should be receiving final recommendations from the Alcohol Task Force. President Glasser will consider the recommendations carefully during the summer and will share those recommendations with the campus community on August 12.
• Kentucky Riverkeepers Project. The Kentucky Riverkeepers’ project, which is sponsored by EKU’s center for Appalachian Studies in conjunction with the National Waterkeepers’ Alliance, was officially launched today. A benefit dinner was held in the Perkins building on Sunday night with over 250 people in attendance. Also in attendance were Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kevin Richards, a Kentucky Native and a member of the Backstreet Boys, who donated their time and money to support the first Riverkeepers project in Kentucky. The President expressed her sincere thanks to Dr. Alan Banks for his leadership and for putting together such a wonderful program.
• Spring Commencement. Spring commencement will be on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Hangar Field. Helen Thomas will be the featured commencement speaker; and there are approximately 1200 candidates for degrees.
• August Convocation. The President reminded everyone of the August convocation at 8:00 a.m. on August 12, followed immediately by a Faculty-at-large meeting. The President thanked everyone for their support and wished everyone a restful, relaxing, rejuvenating summer.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Schlomann

Senator Schlomann announced that the Executive Committee met on April 22. The meeting began with Chip Smith, Athletic Director, who asked to talk to the committee about his vision of how Athletics and academics could work together better. After that, the meeting dealt with housekeeping issues which included the agenda for today and also included a discussion on unfinished business for the year and how to proceed for next year.

Finally the committee discussed the creation of the ad hoc committee to study plus/minus grading and came up with a final plan for that committee to have faculty representation from each college as well as graduate and undergraduate student representations. According to the plan discussed, the committee will be asked to bring a progress report to the October meeting to give the Senate an opportunity to make any other suggestions early in the process. The committee will bring a second progress report in the spring and then a final report with recommendations in fall 2003. The committee members are: Daniel Thorne, Marty Diebold, Meredith Wells, James Wells, and Thom Fisher, who will chair the committee. The students will be Matt Schumacher and Lance Melching.

Senator Schlomann announced for clarification that the recommendation for plus/minus to go to whole number quality points does not go into effect until fall 2002. It is not retroactive to the spring semester nor will it affect the summer session. Banner is capable of handling this request and has already been programmed to do so. Finally, this is only a temporary change until the Senate considers the Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations in Fall, 2003

Senator Schlomann reported that on May 2 the Executive Committee met with Jim Applegate from CPE. He spent the day on campus to look at EKU’s internal process for approving new programs and wanted to know the Senate’s involvement in that process. Mr. Applegate discussed an increased emphasis by CPE for collaboration between institutions and for articulation plans.

Senator Schlomann expressed her appreciation to Bob Miller, the Senate’s parliamentarian, and Pauletta King, the Senate’s Secretary for their help during the year; and she expressed her thanks to the Senate for the opportunity to serve as Chair of the Senate.

FACULTY REGENT: Senator Schlomann

Senator Schlomann thanked the Senators for their support in the recent Regent election.

Senator Schlomann’s first meeting with the Board was on Friday, April 26. The Board of Regents will hold a retreat early in June and then will meet again on June 17 for a special meeting to discuss the budget recommendations for the coming year.

COSFL REPORT: Senator Falkenberg

Senator Falkenberg thanked the Senate for the opportunity to serve as the COSFL representative for the past two years.

Senator Falkenberg shared the highlights for the 2001-2002 year for COSFL which included:

• All of the faculty representative bodies endorsed the COSFL Statement on Shared Governance.
• A motion was passed expressing the concern about the search process, including minimal opportunity for meaningful involvement of faculty in the process, for the president at Murray State University.
• Discussions were held with CPE staff, including Dr. Gordon Davies, centering on the budget, the CPE’s methods for requesting institutional data, and program review.
• COSFL pursued a more active role in providing input to the process of selection of regents and trustees particularly through Postsecondary Education Nominating Committee.

Senator Falkenberg shared with the Senators several issues which COSFL will address in 2002-2003 which included:

• Budget
• NSSE and how CPE plans to use this information
• Continued involvement with Regent/Trustee Institute
• Search for CPE President
• The future of Governor Patton’s higher education reform program

Senator Falkenberg announced that COSFL’s constitution will be available on the Faculty Senate web site in the near future.

REPORT FROM THE PROVOST: Senator Marsden

Senator Marsden thanked the Senate for their continued cooperation on a variety of key issues from salary adjustments through a variety of other policy matters. He expressed his thanks to those faculty and staff who served on several special committees and task forces that were formed this year.

Senator Marsden wished the Senate a relaxing and rewarding summer.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Rules Committee. Senator M. Yoder reported that the committee met on Wednesday, May 1 at 3:00 p.m. to discuss incomplete items and to make a list of suggestions for next year’s committee.

The most recent version of the Faculty Senate rules can be found in the current Faculty Handbook. New senators are encouraged to refer to that until a new version is posted on the Faculty Senate web site later in the summer.

The Internal Procedures is currently out of date and the Rules Committee plans to work on this during the summer and hopefully will get approval for all recommended changes in the fall semester. Once approved, the internal procedures will be available to the senators on the Faculty Senate web site.

The Rules Committee has also been charged with looking at the feasibility of several rules changes, including items related to retired faculty serving on the senate, the procedure for selecting a faculty regent, and the overall committee structure. After some research, the committee concluded that an accurate definitions of the "Faculty-at-Large" and of the "Faculty Senate" are needed before proceeding with these issues.

Based on the committee’s research, Senator M. Yoder requested that all senators recognize that the Senate recommends policies only, and that motions should be worded to reflect that. There are several motions that, though passed by the Senate, have not been acted upon. The Rules Committee will be looking at ways to ensure that action is taken in a timely manner in the future and will devise a tracking mechanism. There are several motions which are ready to go to the Faculty-at-Large and those motions have been distributed to all faculty for their consideration.

Ad Hoc Committee on Compensation & Benefits. Senator Johnson announced that the committee has met regularly since last spring. Three motions have been brought forth to the Senate and all three were approved. The committee plans to continue working through the summer and hope to bring further motions to the floor in the fall.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Periodic Review of the President. At the April 1, 2002 meeting Senator Flanagan moved approval of the proposed procedure for the review of the President and the recommended change in the rules, seconded by Senator Johnson. Senator Schlomann indicated that as this was a substantive issue, action should be delayed until the May meeting. The motion was approved by the Senate.

Sick Leave Policy. Senator Siegel moved to recommend that the Faculty Senate approve the revised sick leave policy, seconded by Senator Fister.

Senator Schlomann indicated that as this is a substantive issue, action should be delayed until the September meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

Report from the Council on Academic Affairs. Senator Marsden moved, seconded by Senator Banks, to approve 1) suspending the Athletic Training Option in the Physical Education major and 2) suspending the Health Care Administration major in the Bachelor of Business Administration degree program. Both items were approved by the Senate.

ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Senator Siegel announced that on behalf of the Graduate Council and the Research Committee she would like to extend an invitation to attend a reception for the inaugural publication of The Eastern Scholar on Wednesday, May 8 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Walnut Hall. Refreshments will be served.

On behalf of the Senate, Senator Miller presented Senator Schlomann with an engraved gavel for her dedication as Senate chair for 2001-2002.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Marsden moved to adjourn at approximately 4:15 p.m.

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