Minutes for April 7, 2008

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, April 7, 2008, in the South Room of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Eakin called the seventh meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The following members of the Senate were absent:

^*Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT John Taylor attended for M. Hessee
^ ALT Steve Barracca attended for L. Noblitt
^ ALT Dana Howell attended for S. Shasby

Visitors to the Senate: Nickole Hale, Student Affairs; Chris McHargue; Mona Isaacs, ITDS; Gary Kuhnhenn, Enrollment Management; Shannon Means, Office of EYP; Deborah Newsom, Financial Affairs; Val Parks, Policy Compliance/Governance; Sherry Robinson, Academic Affairs; Virginia Underwood, Chief of Staff; Janna Vice, Academic Affairs; and John Wade, Arts & Sciences

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The March 3, 2008 minutes were approved as written.

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Whitlock

Since the last Senate meeting, all affected parties have met regarding the Higher One Card. The University plans to move forward on this project pending the answer to a couple of questions regarding the student part of the implementation. Faculty and staff will receive new I.D. Cards as well, but there will not be a MasterCard logo or a debit card option available for those cards.

On the health insurance, EKU is moving toward having the plan year and the deductible year on the same cycle beginning in 2009. The current health insurance will be extended through December (President Whitlock has indicated that he misspoke partially on this point and will clarify the situation at the May Senate Meeting. He has met with the Senate Benefits Committee to discuss this issue.); and the new plan with modest changes will begin in January 2009. There will be an open enrollment period to cover July 1 through December 31; and another enrollment period in the fall for the new cycle which will run from January 1 through December 31, 2009. Also beginning in January 2009, the health insurance lifetime maximum will be increased from $1 million to $5 million.

On the budget, EKU received a 3% budget cut rather than the 12% reduction anticipated. Senator Whitlock thanked Harry Moberly for his role in the budget process. With the state of the budget known, serious deliberations can begin regarding tuition for the coming year. Senator Whitlock reported previously that a number of institutions were considering a plan to charge by the credit hour. However, most institutions that were looking at that have now decided to study it for another year before making a decision. One thing EKU may consider is a surcharge beyond 16 credit hours. A meeting is scheduled to discuss tuition with the students on April 16th in Walnut Hall in the Keen Johnson Building. The discussion will also be available via the web so that extended campus students may also participate.

Senator Whitlock will be meeting on Wednesday with the other university presidents to discuss tuition and possible salary improvement pools, etc.

Unless the economy improves, an additional cut may be mandated from Frankfort sometime during the coming biennium. The University should prepare for that possibility.

Approximately 80 individuals have shown interest in the fifteen available spots for the new Educational Leadership doctoral program for the fall semester.

As a point of information, Senator Whitlock reported that within the next couple of months the Boards of several institutions in the state are planning to enact policies that empower their faculties, where advisable, to reduce the number of hours required for a baccalaureate degree from 128 to 120. Senator Whitlock cautioned against lowering requirements as a way to award more degrees.

Sheila Tobias, a representative of the Sloan Foundation, visited EKU in March. The Sloan Foundation is championing the Professional Science Masters which consists of approximately 70 hours of science and 30 hours of business. The purpose of the program is to get more individuals with a science background in positions of leadership. The Sloan Foundation will help fund the development costs for activities directly related to the Foundation program areas and interests, especially if there is a system-wide approach. The STEM initiatives could easily fit into this kind of program. Dr. Jerry Pogatshnik and Dr. Piercey will be attending meetings to learn more about this program.

Senator Whitlock has asked Dr. Piercey to review all interim positions within Academic Affairs and to formulate a plan for how best to move forward on those positions. All affected individuals will be asked for their input.

NEW BUSINESS:

Report on Health Insurance & Benefits.
Wally Skiba was in attendance to share updates on EKU's health care plan. There will be a short plan from July 1 to December 31 this year, with the University picking up the cost of the premium increases for that period. An open enrollment for the six-month period is scheduled for April 15, 16 & 17 and April 21, 22 & 23; and the information can also be accessed online through the Human Resources website. Those individuals who contribute to the flexible spending accounts will be able to contribute $2,500 maximum for the six-month period.

In October, 2008 there will be another open enrollment. Beginning in January 2009, the health care plan will run from January 1 through December 31.The amount of the premium increase is not available at this time. The Benefits Committee will begin deliberations again in the fall to make that determination. The high PPO option will have an additional 5% co-insurance with a maximum of $1,250 which the employee will be responsible for. With prescriptions, generic medicines are being lowered from $15 to $7 per prescription and the high formulary is changing from $35 to $40. Also beginning in January, the lifetime maximum will be increased from $1 million to $5 million. The exact increase to the premium for this additional coverage is not available at this time. Review the distributed handout for other changes to the health care plan.

Mr. Skiba encouraged faculty to participate in the flexible spending accounts. The money contributed to the accounts is tax-free and can be used for many over-the-counter medications as well as for paying co-pays for doctor and dental visits. In addition, the flex account can be used to pay for child care services. However, please remember that the funds contributed will be forfeited if not used during the designated time frame. The maximum yearly contribution is $5,000 per individual.

Draft E-mail Policy. Shannon Means and Mona Isaacs were in attendance to introduce the draft e-mail policy. As Eastern has established e-mail as one of the primary sources for official communication with all students, faculty, clerical and administrative staff, this policy outlines the use of and responsibilities associated with University-established accounts.

Senator Eakin requested that feedback on this issue should be directed to either mona.isaacs@eku.edu or shannon.means@eku.edu.

Draft Syllabus Policy. Dr. Sherry Robinson presented the draft syllabus policy for a first-read by the Senate. She also referred to an e-mail recently distributed by Dr. Eakin to the senators that separated the actual syllabus policy from the two discussion questions. Those two questions were inadvertently added at the end of the syllabus policy in the Council on Academic Affairs meeting which caused considerable confusion. The discussion points suggested for future discussion were:

1. Should multiple-section courses be required to have a common textbook(s)?
2. Should multiple-section courses be required to have a common syllabus?

Senator Reed distributed a memo opposing both discussion points, and he urged the Senate to oppose them as well. Several senators expressed similar concerns.

Senator Case mentioned that his department has been using a common textbook in multiple classes since their accreditation process and so far it has worked quite well.

Promotion & Tenure Policy Clarifications. Sherry Robinson shared a list of clarifications and editorial changes which should be made to the current Promotion and Tenure policy. Once the changes have been made, a new copy of the policy will be made available to the academic community.

Below is the list of clarifications and recommended editorial changes:

1. An editorial change was made in Policy Principles 13 (pg. 2 of editorial draft) in order to clarify that Associate Professors are not eligible to serve on the University Promotion and Tenure Committee.
2. As the policy currently stands, Policy Principles 18 will add approximately 15 days to the department and college timelines to allow for reconsiderations. Timelines should be adjusted accordingly. The new process also makes "divided" decisions irrelevant for promotion but still possible for tenure decisions. For promotion decisions, department chairs and college deans are still responsible for notifying a candidate of a negative decision at the committee level.
3. Principles for Establishing Criteria have been reordered for better flow, and in Principle 9 (editorial draft) the word "scholarship" has been substituted for the word "research."
4. Under Tenure Appointments, the phrase "for example" has been added and "five" has been substituted for "four."
5. The phrase "continuous full-time service" has been added to tenure criterion 2 (pg. 6 of editorial draft) in order to make the language consistent with other references in the policy.
6. In Candidate Responsibilities (4.a), the modifier "which is to be provided by the chair of the department at the candidate's request" has been moved behind "accurate factual data."
7. In Department Promotion and Tenure Committee Responsibilities (e), the phrase "reviewing applications for promotion to assistant professor and" had been inadvertently omitted and is now restored. In (h), "and tenure" has been added.
8. In Reconsideration and Appeals section of all Procedure Levels, the "and/or" circumstances have been rephrased to "the committee, the [administrator], or both."
9. In the University Level Procedures (C.1.c.), the length of term has been changed from three to two in order to be consistent with C.1.b.
10. In the University Level Procedures (Reconsiderations and Appeals, G.6.), the following sentence has been deleted: "The recommendations will be submitted to the Board of Regents, with the recommendations from the President, at the appropriate meeting for the consideration of faculty promotion and tenure." This sentence suggests that recommendations other than the President's are submitted to the Board (which is not the case). Additionally, the sentence is unnecessary because negative rulings are procedurally dealt with in G.7. and all other recommendations are procedurally dealt with in E.

Posthumous Degree for Joseph Flohre. Senator Case moved to approve awarding a posthumous degree for Joseph Flohre, seconded by Senator D. Phillips. The majority of the Senate were in favor and the motion carried.

Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Dr. Janna Vice reported for Senator Piercey.

Budget Committee. Senator Ciocca reported that the committee met on April 2, to discuss the preliminary results obtained from faculty feedback regarding suggested rank ordered priorities for the budget. Approximately 100 Faculty responded. The priorities were given a decreasing value (13 to 1) according to their ranking (Highest ranking is 13 and lowest is 1).

Below are the preliminary results obtained:

Committee on Committees. Senator Foote announced that the committee met on March 26th. The self nomination notices were distributed last Friday. The survey results should be compiled by the May meeting.

Elections Committee. Senator Randles distributed a tentative list of committee vacancies. Election for those positions will be held at the organizational meeting immediately following the regular meeting in May.

Welfare Committee. Senator Waters shared the following in her written report to the Senate.

One of the charges of the committee this year is a discussion of the philosophy and reality of shared governance at Eastern. The Faculty Welfare Committee would like to begin a discussion about shared governance within the professoriate and the EKU community during this year. At this time in the country, there is a concern about the business model of governance that is being promoted in academic institutions. This model of governance is a top down decision making model in which there is either no shared governance or very little among faculty, staff, and administration.

In an AAUP document that described a study of Indicators of Sound Governance:
http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/protect/legal/topics/legal-govern.htm?PF=1
shared governance is discussed and a survey of universities is described. The survey defines 3 models of shared governance on page 19.

The committee recommends that faculty review the following three documents:

• http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/
  contents/governancestatement.htm?PF=1
• AAUP link - http://www.aaup.org
• "Shared Governance" - http://www.aft.org/topics/shared-governance

In addition the committee recommends that each department begin the discussion of shared governance within their unit. This discussion is especially important in light of academic administrative decisions in which faculty had little to no role in the decisions. Please consider the following two questions in those discussions.

1. What does faculty think about shared governance at Eastern at this time?
2. What shared governance model, principles, and elements does faculty want at Eastern?

Colonel 1 Card Work Group Report. Senator Noblitt shared the following information in her written report to the Senate.

The impetus for the project is both to cut administrative costs and to improve student services. EKU would also like to get students their residual financial aid funds more promptly.

As currently planned, all students will be given Colonel 1 Cards as an identification card. These cards will be required for the library, gym, and anywhere else on campus that requires university ID. In addition to serving an ID function, the card will also have a Mastercard Debit Logo and a Higher One Logo. These two corporate logos are prominently displayed on the card along with the EKU logo and the new EKU Colonel logo.

Faculty and staff will not receive Colonel 1 Cards, but they will need to receive new ID cards due to technical difficulties associated with using new card readers. There will be no Mastercard Debit Logo or Higher One Logo on the card or any other features that are not currently available.

Higher One will oversee distribution of student financial aid reimbursements and perhaps other student funds. Students have three choices on how to receive funds: (1) placed on Colonel 1 Card within 24 hours, (2) transferred to own bank account within 24-72 hours, or (3) cut a personal check within 3-5 days.

Higher One will also offer banking services for students. Any funds placed on the Colonel 1 Card can be accessed through one of three ATM's on EKU campuses (1 on main campus, 1 near Stratton, and 1 on Corbin campus). If students use any other ATM to access funds, they will be charged $2 by Higher One and additional fees from the other bank's ATM. There is no overdraft protection or other type of credit extended to students.

Documentation regarding consequences of loss or theft of the card is conflicting. Please visit http://www.mastercard.com/general/zero_liability.html for additional information.

Senator Noblitt suggested that the Senate should discuss options for addressing the following issues surrounding the Higher One project:

1. Development of an assessment tool to determine student satisfaction with the Colonel 1 Card and associated checking accounts. The results of such assessment should be reviewed annually and in time for EKU administration to consider whether to extend the Higher One contract another year.
2. Implementation of appropriate financial education programs for incoming students that directly address the Colonel 1 Card and other banking options.
3. Assignment of a Faculty Senate Committee to review reports on the relationship of Higher One to EKU, including the cost-savings EKU enjoys as part of the relationship and any changes in the scope relationship. This committee should also review any breaches of confidential information or other problems that arise relating to the relationship.

FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER:

The topic of discussion was "Identifying Barriers for Working More Effectively and Efficiently" (examples: availability of records, ways to reduce "drudgery", etc.)

The discussion was postponed to the May meeting due to time constraints.

ADJOURNMENT:

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

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