Minutes for December 1, 2003

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, December 1, 2003 in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Johnson 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
^ S. Jones attended meeting for C. Everett

Visitors to the Senate were: James Conneely, Student Affairs; Karen Janssen, Graduate Council Chair; Ken Johnston, Financial Affairs; Cassondra Kirby, The Eastern Progress; Laura Koppes, Academic Affairs; Elizabeth Wachtel, Academic Affairs; and Marc Whitt, Public Relations & Marketing

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The November 3, 2003 minutes were approved as written.

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Glasser

Senator Glasser reminded everyone the December commencement will be held on Saturday, December 13. There are 1,022 candidates for graduation and for the first time in December there will be two commencement ceremonies. The first will be at 10:00 a.m. and will include the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business and Technology. Dustan McCoy (President of the Brunswick Boat Group in Knoxville, Tennessee) will be awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree and will be the morning guest speaker. The second ceremony will be at 3:00 p.m. and will include the Colleges of Education, Health Sciences and Justice and Safety. Colonel P.K. Keen (Assistant Commander of the US Army's 7th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado) will be awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree and will be the afternoon guest speaker.

Senator Glasser shared some enrollment statistics with the Senators. This fall there were 1660 active courses and over 3,866 sections offered with student enrollment. This is the highest enrollment in ten years.

There will be a team of ten traveling to Nashville, Tennessee this weekend to attend the national SACS Accreditation Conference. Senator Glasser expressed her gratitude to Laura Koppes and Virginia Falkenberg for putting together the SACS committee.

The Chairs Association has provided several outstanding workshops for new chairs. Senator Glasser thanked Malcolm Frisbie and Jaleh Rezaie for their outstanding work coordinating the workshops.

Senator Glasser expressed her appreciation to Tom Watkins, newly elected chair of the Gen Ed Committee, and John Wade for their outstanding leadership to move EKU forward in the Gen Ed Program restructure.

There are currently 41 faculty position searches and 7 departmental chair searches under way. In addition, the searches for the Associate Provost and Dean of Graduate Education and the Dean of Arts and Sciences are moving along. Senator Glasser took the opportunity to thank Malcolm Frisbie, chair of the Graduate Dean search committee and Gary Cordner, Chair of the Arts and Sciences Dean search for their excellent work.

Numbers are up for new admits for the upcoming spring semester, not only for new freshman, but for transfer students and graduate students as well. This is due in large part to the hard work of the Enrollment Management staff and the Marketing and Public Relations staff. Undergraduate application requests are 36% ahead of this time last year.

Senator Glasser stressed the importance of building an infrastructure and support for faculty and staff to continue to pursue grants and contracts. She has established a committee of faculty to examine this issue and to bring recommendations to her in the near future.

While not an all inclusive list, Senator Glasser wished to recognize some of the important college and departmental initiatives currently under way.

• The English department is collaborating with Enrollment Management in the retention area. In particular, Jim Kenkel is doubling as not only the department writing coordinator but also as the Student Success Coordinator.
• The Forensic Science program recently completed a self-study and an on-site accreditation visit. EKU was one of six schools in the country chosen to participate. The results of the accreditation application will be known in January.
• The College of Business and Technology has proposed a new degree program in Professional Golf Management.
• The Department of Agriculture has been very active in working with the community and has raised funds this fall to buy gifts for the Angel Tree project.
• In the College of Education, the Professional Education Fellows Program (PEF) for 2003-2004 includes a total of 61 fellows from four of the colleges (Arts and Sciences, Business and Technology, Health Sciences and Education) and eighteen departments.
• Three members from the library staff have assisted the school district in securing over $215,000 in grants for library improvements.
• The College of Health Sciences, the Health Careers Opportunity program, was recently funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for a total of $312,000. The total project is for three years and is for slightly over $1,000,000. The target population for this program are students from 49 Appalachian counties.
• The College of Justice and Safety continues to pursue funding initiatives and grants for the Department of Homeland Security which has the potential for large amounts of funding. (Senator Glasser has asked the College to consider offering a doctoral program in this area).

EKU has signed a memorandum of understanding, in conjunction with Hazard Community College and Morehead State University, for the University Center of the Mountains. Byron Bond will be taking programs, particularly in health and education, to a much needed service area. In addition, there is now a full social work degree program offered in Hazard.

Senator Glasser expressed her appreciation to Bruce MacLaren for his outstanding coordination of the Chautauqua lecture series. She encouraged everyone to attend the lectures.

EKU continues to collaborate with the Lexington Community College and to partner with them in providing programs at the newly opened Winchester campus.

Jim Marsh has been appointed as the General Manager of Arlington, and he officially began his duties today. Also recently appointed, J. Barton Meyer will be joining the EKU community on January 5 as the new Vice President for Institutional Advancement.

Senator Glasser announced that the student newspaper, The Eastern Progress, has been selected for a National Pacemaker Award. This is the fourth time the Progress has received this honor, and Senator Glasser commended the students for their successful work.

Senator Glasser stated that the budget continues to look bleak. She has met personally with newly-elected Governor Ernie Fletcher to discuss a number of issues. She shared with the governor that in the past two years, EKU has internally cut $6,000,000 and that proactive measures have been taken to help reduce expenses further. An expected budget cut is anticipated sometime in the spring. In preparation for this, Senator Glasser requested a 7% reduction in all non-academic operating expenses and asked that all nonacademic vacancies remain unfilled for three months.

With the help of the Budget Council, President Glasser will be making several recommendations to the Board of Regents on Friday. One of the recommendations will include a tuition increase for the biennium. An exact figure is not known at this time.

Senator Glasser reminded everyone that weather announcements for the campus community are available three different ways: on EKU's web site, on radio and television stations, or by calling EKU's weather hotline at 859-622-2239.

Senator Glasser recently accompanied the Honors students to the National Collegiate Honors Conference in Chicago where they participated in a number of panel discussions. Senator Glasser joined the students on a panel discussion of "Rudeness in the Electronic Media." Senator Glasser commended Bonnie Gray for her excellent work with the Honors Program.

Senator Glasser shared some of the results of SGA's student survey with the senators.

1. Based upon your experience how do you perceive EKU as an academic institution? -- 87.9% rated EKU good to excellent.
2. Are you proud to be a student of EKU? -- 93.2% said yes.
3. Are you a member of a student organization? -- 59.4% said yes.
4. Do you think EKU encourages diversity? -- 87.7% said yes.
5. Do you think EKU is becoming a more diverse campus? -- 79.3% said yes.
6. 81.7% of the students said that in the past year they have attended at least one activity such as an academic lecture, music concert or art gallery showing.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Johnson

The Executive Committee met on November 17 and November 24. Discussion included the recently approved sabbatical leave policy and some clarification changes which were made and will be presented later in today's meeting. Also discussed was an upcoming motion presented by a member of the Faculty Welfare Committee.

A motion from the Rules Committee regarding the faculty regent election procedures was deferred to the December meeting. A representative from the Rules Committee has been asked to be present at that meeting to answer questions.

In both meetings, the committee discussed the presidential review. The review was completed and the information has been shared with the appropriate individuals.

REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Siegel

COSFL met on November 15 with CPE President Tom Layzell to discuss the higher education budget submitted by CPE to the Governor.

An amendment to COSFL's bylaws was proposed that would provide four voting members for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). The proposal will be considered further at the next meeting.

Responding to issues raised about retirement plans and retiree health benefits, COSFL is in the process of compiling a page of website links where information for each member institution can be found. A KTRS representative will be invited to a future meeting to provide information about the state retirement system.

Summer school compensation will be discussed at a future COSFL meeting.

CPE's "Purple Card" request for funding for 2004-2005 is available online, linked from a press release at: http://www.cpe.state.ky.us/announce/News/release2003_11_04.asp or from the Senate's web site at: http://www.eku.edu/academics/facultysenate/other/1_Purple_Card.pdf.

COSFL's next meeting will be held in late January.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Cook

Senator Cook reported that an updated Sabbatical Leave Policy was distributed to all senators in the meeting packet for today as an informational item only. Changes made include the recommended changes suggested by the Senate at the previous meeting and a couple of other changes made for clarification purposes only.

Senator Cook announced that two supporting positions were recently funded in the Grants Office, and a post-awards accountant has been added to the Business Office.

Senator Cook reported that the information has been distributed on the equity adjustments to the committee members. That committee will gather and make recommendations to him shortly and hopefully the equity money can be distributed to those identified in a timely manner.

REPORT FROM STUDENT GOVERNMENT: Senator Johnson reported for Kristina O'Brien

Senator Johnson reminded everyone that the tree lighting ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m. outside the Keen Johnson Building today.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Budget Committee: Senator Siegel reported that the Committee met on the November 13. The committee continues to study major university budget areas. Ken Johnston was in attendance to discuss the changes in positions during the past budget cycle. Discussions on this topic will continue at the January meeting.

Rules Committee: Senator M. Yoder reported that there are currently two motions the Rules Committee has forwarded to the Executive Committee for their review.

Elections Committee. Senator DeBolt reported that the committee is currently working on the time line for the Faculty Regent election in the spring semester.

Committee on Committees. Senator Wolf announced that the committee is in the process of revising the annual letter to send out to faculty for self-nominations to university committees.

Faculty Welfare Committee. Senator G. Yoder reported that the committee met on November 11 to address the issue of an appeals process for salary equity adjustments. A motion will be presented later in today's meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

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

1. Program Revision - MS in Industrial Education (changing program title)
2. Recommended faculty handbook change regarding criteria for the selection of faculty members for service in the Graduate School (information item only)
3. Suspension of the Interior Design Motion

Senator Collins, seconded by Senator Coyer, moved approval of the preceding items. The motion was approved by the majority of the Senate.

Faculty Welfare Committee Motion. Senator G. Yoder moved approval of the salary equity appeals process, seconded by Senator Reed. Senator Johnson ruled the motion substantive and deferred further discussion to the January meeting.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Cook moved to adjourn at approximately 4:35 p.m.

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