Minutes for March 1, 2004

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, March 1, 2004 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Johnson 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
^ S. Jones attended for C. Everett

Visitors to the Senate were: Paul Blanchard, Government Relations; Betsy Bohanon, Student Judicial Affairs and Services for Individuals With Disability; Jim Conneely, Student Affairs; Ken Johnston, Finances; Cassondra Kirby, The Eastern Progress; Kristina O'Brien, SGA; John Shafer, Athletics; Judy Spain, Business and Technology; Aaron Thompson, Enrollment Management; Virginia Underwood, Equal Opportunities; Elizabeth Wachtel, Academic Affairs; and Marc Whitt, Public Relations & Marketing

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The February 2, 2004 minutes were approved as written.

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Glasser

Frankfort hasn't determined the budget yet. Per CPE's request, the Board of Regents will not meet again until April 22, which is after the legislative session is over. Budget recommendations and proposed tuition increases for the next biennium will be presented at that meeting.

Two weeks ago all of the public institution Presidents, as well as the Council for Postsecondary Education, testified before the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Senator Glasser shared a copy of her testimony with the senators.

Senator Glasser discussed House Bill 395. This bill is entitled "Past Enrollment Growth Funding" and is a $5 million dollar initiative proposed by the Governor and earmarked for the Council on Postsecondary Education for distribution to those institutions that have maintained enrollment growth since the creation of House Bill I back in 1997-1998. Unfortunately, Eastern's enrollment did not begin to increase until two years ago. The proposed distribution model CPE has configured allots about $100,000 of the $5,000,000 to Eastern. Senator Glasser is requesting to have the model reconfigured using enrollment data from 2001 forward, because this is the time period when state cuts in appropriation started to take place. As of yet, CPE has not agreed to amend the proposed model.

The faculty salary equity letters for this year have been mailed. Senator Glasser expressed her continued commitment to address salary inequities and will continue to annually set funds aside to address the issue. She thanked Senator G. Yoder and the Welfare Committee for their hard work throughout the past year and for their recent letter to her regarding salary equity for the next year's budget.

Senator Glasser reported that one of the top priorities in building next year's budget will involve looking at academic staffing needs and initiatives needs.

All five candidates for the Dean of Arts and Sciences have been to campus. An appointment should be made soon.

All three candidates for the Associate Provost for Graduate Education and Research have been to campus. The search committee will meet on Friday to make recommendations, so an appointment is expected soon.

Last week Senator Glasser was a keynote speaker at the CASE Conference, in Atlanta. She also attended an alumni event while there. Next week she will travel to Columbus, Ohio and then to Orlando, Fort Myers, and Tampa for fund raising and alumni visits.

Senator Glasser mentioned several noteworthy academic highlights that have occurred recently:

1. In Family and Consumer Sciences, Dr. Dianne Leggett recently had two historic costume exhibits. One at the Liberty Hall Historic site in Frankfort and the other at the Ashland Corporation in Lexington. Seven of Dr. Leggett's Apparel Design and Merchandising majors helped prepare the exhibit in the Liberty Hall.
2. Highlighting the Department of History, the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies have selected David Coleman's book "Creating a Christian Grenada" as the best book published during the last three years.
3. The honors program had 37 students who participated in the Kentucky Honors Roundtable Conference held at Kentucky State University in Frankfort. Special thanks to the following faculty who participated: Richard Freed, Bruce MacLaren, Gene Kleppinger, Beth Kleppinger, David Coleman, Todd Hartch, Christiane Taylor, Steffen Wilson, Isabelle White, Barbara Hussey, Jaleh Rezaie and Bonnie Gray. EKU will be hosting the fall state conference in October.
4. Thanks to Joe Gershtenson for his excellent work as the Director for the Center for Kentucky Government and Politics and for bringing Dr. Terrence Roberts (one of the "Little Rock Nine" ) to campus in February.
5. Congratulations to Jim Moreton and Keith Johnson for a wonderful production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying".
6. Congratulations to Gil Smith for putting on an outstanding Patron of the Arts reception prior to the theatrical production.
7. On Tuesday evening, EKU will host the first round of OVC playoffs against Samford at 7:00 p.m. in Alumni Coliseum.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Johnson

Senator Johnson reported that the Executive Committee met on February 23, 2004. Betsy Bohanon and Judy Spain presented a report on academic integrity.

Senator Johnson discussed with the committee the idea of creating an ad hoc committee to study advising across campus. The Provost will be working with Senator Johnson on this issue.

The Executive Committee approved the Senate meeting dates for 2004-2005. Those dates will be distributed to the Senators at the May meeting.

Senator Johnson encouraged all eligible faculty to vote in the Faculty Regent election. The two nominees are Senators Gil Smith and Pam Schlomann. The ballots will be available online from Monday, March 1 to Friday, March 5 at 4:30 p.m.

Senator Johnson met with the Provost and the Ad Hoc Committee on Promotion and Tenure to condense the committee's report on Promotion and Tenure down to a set of recommendations. Once an electronic copy is received, the full report and the condensed version will be linked from the Senate's web site.

REPORT FROM THE REGENT: Senator Schlomann

The Board met on February 21. It was reported that the Wellness Building should be substantially completed by April 15, and the Corbin site will be substantially completed by April 1.

A report was given on EKU's electrical system. It was noted that the recent repairs made due to the electrical outages were originally scheduled in the next phase of repairs and therefore would not have to be re-done.

The Board received a report from Jim Conneely of a master plan for housing for the ten-year master plan.

There are no proposed changes in health insurance for the next year. The Board did approve a motion to change the provider for the flexible spending accounts. However, there is no expected change in cost and shouldn't be any changes on the user end.

Other items approved included the RTP's for next year and the Council on Academic Affairs programs, which came through the Senate earlier.

A report was given on the annual audit of the university's budget.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Cook

Senator Cook reviewed the process he and the Welfare Committee used to determine this year's salary equity adjustments. The first process was to create a scatter plot for each department on campus which included years in rank and current salaries. Senator Cook distributed a sample of the scatter plot used. This preliminary information was shared with the chairs and deans for verification and accuracy and for their input. The charts were then re-created based on the information received from the chairs and deans. There were 90 people identified to receive adjustments, 76 of those received a full adjustment and 14 received a half adjustment. This left a couple thousand to address any appeals. If there are no appeals, that money will be distributed back. The deadline for appeals has been extended to March 22. Senator Cook suggested that faculty be sent an e-mail noting the extended deadline and listing the Senate's approved appeal process.

Senator Cook distributed a summarized handout to the Senators of the Ad Hoc Committee on Promotion and Tenure Committee's final report. He noted that there may be upcoming motions in the near future based on the committee's final report.

REPORT FROM STUDENT GOVERNMENT: Kristina O'Brien

Ms. O'Brien thanked the faculty for their support in allowing students to attend the rally in Frankfort last month.

Ms. O'Brien thanked to Senators M. Yoder and Johnson for their efforts to create an ad hoc committee to review the advising process.

On Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00, 12:30 and 2:00, a number of participants will be reading to children in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Seuss. Anyone interested in participating can contact the SGA office at 622-1724.

Toward the end of the month, the Director of Community Service will be working on a child abuse prevention campaign.

Ms. O'Brien distributed a handout of a postcard the SGA office will have printed and distribute to students to sign and send to senators or representatives in the Frankfort legislature. SGA will pay the postage to send those out. The postcards should be available the week after spring break. If you have students in a class or student organizations that would like to participate,contact the SGA office.

The Technology Fee Allocation deadline is March 5. The allocations will be made before the end of March.

The Declaration of Candidacy forms will be available for student government shortly after spring break The elections will not be held until April.

SGA is in the process of revising their constitution and bylaws.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Budget Committee. Senator Siegel reported that the committee met on February 19 with E.J. Keeley, Director of Institutional Research, in attendance to discuss the Institutional Research budget. Also discussed was the IDEA forms which resulted in the committee's developing a motion on IDEA which will be presented later in the meeting.

There are several budget committee meetings remaining for the spring semester. On March 25 John Shafer, Director of Athletics will be meeting with the Budget Committee. The second annual budget forum is scheduled for April 6 in Library 108 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Panelists for the forum will be Lyle Cook and Ken Johnston. Please announce this information to your departments. On April 22 the committee will meet with Mr. Jim Keith, Director of ITDS.

Rules Committee. Senator M. Yoder announced that the Rules Committee will be meeting the week after spring break.

Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Senator Dunston reported that the committee continues to work on the shared governance survey that will eventually be distributed electronically to all faculty.

Elections Committee. Senator DeBolt reported that the Regent Election is in progress.

Faculty Welfare Committee. Senator G. Yoder reported that the committee met on Monday, February 23 to discuss the ongoing salary equity process as well as several other items. The only action taken was to write a letter to President Glasser emphasizing the importance of continuing the salary equity process next year to maintain its credibility. The committee will meet next on March 15.

NEW BUSINESS:

Council on Academic Affairs. Senator Cook presented the following items:

1. Credit-by-Examination Policy Revision Proposal (information item only)
2. Change in Admission to Teacher Education Requirements (information item only)
3. Non-Degree Student Enrollment Policy (Information item only)
4. Applied Computing (MS): Bioinformatics Option
5. Applied Computing (MS): Statistical Computing Option
6. Geography/Teaching (BA)
7. Restructure of the Counseling and Educational Leadership Department

Senator Cook moved approval of items 4 and 5, seconded by Senator Sexton. This motion was approved by the Senate.

Senator A. Jones moved approval of item 6, seconded by Senator Siegel. The motion was approved by the Senate.

Senator Sexton moved approval of item 7, seconded by Senator Reed. The motion was approved by the Senate.

Informational items 1 and 3 will be on April's agenda so that a representative from Enrollment Management can be present to answer questions.

Report on Academic Integrity. Betsy Bohanon and Judy Spain presented a report on academic integrity and discussed the possible need to update EKU's current policy on academic integrity.

IDEA Motion. Senator Siegel moved approval of the following, seconded by Senator Reed.

The Faculty Senate Budget Committee recommends that the Faculty Senate call for a comprehensive University review of the IDEA as the University-wide instrument for student evaluation of instruction. This review should be designed to determine, in a timely fashion, if there is a more effective, less costly alternative and whether or not IDEA should be continued.

Senator Siegel mentioned that the study being suggested would be handled by the Provost's office.

The majority of the Senate were in favor and the motion passed.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Senator Johnson expressed his thanks to President Glasser for withdrawing from the presidential search at ISU and re-affirming her commitment to Eastern Kentucky University.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Cook moved to adjourn at approximately 5:25 p.m.

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