Minutes for October 6, 2008

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Ware
The Executive Committee met on September 22, 2008. One of the items of business was to approve nominations to the University Intellectual Property Committee. The following were approved: Dr. Jessica Lair (Arts & Sciences), Dr. Laurence Hayes (Education), and Dr. Preston Elrod (Justice & Safety).

SGA Vice President, Lindsey Cross, asked to delay presenting the revised draft of the Dead Week policy until the October 20 Executive Committee meeting.

The Graduation and Retention Task Force submitted a number of recommendations to CAA for consideration and discussion. These included:

• A recommendation to lower the minimum number of hours to complete a Bachelor's degree from 128 hours to 120 hours. This would be a floor, not a ceiling.
• A recommendation to allow academically dismissed students to take coursework elsewhere during their dismissal period and transfer their work back to Eastern. The impact of this change on students' ability to apply for academic bankruptcy needs to be considered in any final recommendation.
• A recommendation that students declare a major by their 45th hour rather than the 60th hour as is currently the practice. As discussed at the Council on Academic Affairs meeting, the impact of this change on faculty advising and workload will need to be reviewed before this recommendation moves forward.

A motion was presented at the Council on Academic Affairs meeting to preclude students from declaring the General Studies degree as a subsequent degree. After considerable discussion, the motion was defeated.

The CAA also discussed whether or not the 21-hour maximum load per semester needed to be reconsidered. At present it has been a firm policy with no exceptions, and Associate Provost Vice wanted input as to whether the maximum should be raised or remain at 21 hours. This was presented to the Executive Committee for discussion, and it was felt that students and faculty should always have the option to ask for exceptions, but that exceptions to the 21-hour maximum should only be granted in extreme circumstances. Senator Noblitt suggested that faculty be polled as to their opinion on this policy.

According to President Whitlock, the faculty dining room in Powell is slated for renovations later this fall.

FACULTY REGENT REPORT: Senator Frisbie

The Board met briefly in a special session on September 22nd for the purpose of considering a resolution to authorize the use of general receipts to meet our obligations under the Siemens Energy Savings Performance Contract. The Siemens project is a partnership in which Siemens guarantees to help the university realize at least $27 million in energy cost savings over a twelve-year period. The project will be paid for by the guaranteed savings; additional savings will accrue to the university. The resolution that the Board considered, and passed, deals with the financing of that project.

The Governor's Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship was held on September 29th. This conference is an annual meeting organized by the CPE for university administrators, trustees and regents, legislators, and CPE personnel.

One highlight of the conference was when EKU's Jerry Cook (Physics and Astronomy) was presented with the Acorn Award.

Several themes seemed to emerge at this year's meeting. CPE included a report about transfer students in the packet of materials everyone received at registration. While the number of students transferring from two-year institutions into four-year degree programs has grown over the last decade, CPE emphasizes that Kentucky needs to greatly increase the rate of transfers if we are to reach the "double the numbers" goal by 2020. EKU attracts the third largest contingent of transfer students in the state (after the combined entity of independent colleges and universities and UK). CPE points to several barriers to successful transfer that need to be addressed: inadequate advising, limited financial aid (including aid for things like relocation, housing, childcare), accessibility (particularly in the timing of course offerings), curricular barriers (specifically, that many technical curricula at the two-year schools include courses that do not apply to four-year degrees). CPE's report specifically mentions rewarding institutions that have been successful in the transfer arena in its funding recommendations.

Governor Beshear addressed the conference and spoke forcefully of the need for Kentucky to re energize its higher education reform efforts. He, and just about every other representative from the executive and legislative branches of government who spoke, addressed funding of higher education. Funding concerns focus on two elements: affordability for students and the uncertainty of funding from the perspective of the institutions.

The governor floated the idea of appointing a bipartisan task force to look at the problem of funding higher education in Kentucky.

Planning has begun for a Board retreat to be scheduled in mid-November or early December.

The Board will next convene for a regular quarterly meeting in January 2009.

REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator McKenney
Senator McKenney shared the following in her written report to the Senate.

The Coalition of Senate and Faculty Leadership held its first meeting of 2008/2009 in conjunction with the Governor's Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship at the Lexington Downtown Hotel & Convention Center on September 29th.

It was announced that last year's COSFL President, Terry Irons, had resigned and that Peggy Pittman-Munke was serving as Interim President.

Mark Wattier, the Faculty Representative to the Council on Post-Secondary Education, reported to the group on the search for a new president of the CPE. He noted that because there were serious leaks of information during the last CPE presidential search, this time all members of the search committee have signed confidentiality agreements. Therefore, he was limited in what he could say about the search. There are a number of people that the committee is interested in, and airport interviews will be conducted.

Dr. Wattier also talked about the importance of regional stewardship on the part of state universities. The regional stewardship program had set up a committee to determine the needs of each area, and then institutions could vie for money to fund projects. Unfortunately, the funding stream from the Legislature has ended. In answer to a question as to what could be done continue this program, Wattier said that each university should have an office to deal with this. If the money isn't there, then such an office would simply be shut down.

There was also a discussion of tuition charges and the tracking of enrollment numbers. Wattier emphasized that state law gives the CPE tuition-setting authority. Institutions should not expect their tuition proposals to be rubber stamped by the CPE. The CPE does track the numbers of students who transfer from 2-year to 4-year state institutions, but they don't track those who go to private institutions. They also keep track of dual enrollment (i.e. students enrolled in a university who also take some courses at a community college). In addition they track through KEES what types of programs students leave the state to take (because Kentucky has no university offering that major). They do not currently track graduate students who leave Kentucky because no state university offers the particular graduate program they want.

The following people were nominated and elected by acclamation to serve as COSFL officers for 2008/2009: President: Peggy Pittman-Munke (Murray State); Vice-President: Mixon Ware (EKU); Secretary: Nancy McKenney (EKU); and Treasurer: Karen Janssen (AAUP Rep. from EKU).

A motion was made and passed that COSFL meetings be held at several different locations during the year (such as NKU, U of L, or EKU) and that a lunch for all interested members be held after each meeting.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Piercey
The following items represent draft policies currently in the review process:

• Policy 4.1.12 (First-time Freshmen Admissions) was approved by the Board of Regents at the September meeting and was reviewed and approved by the Faculty Senate in September.
• Policy 4.1.2 (Course Syllabi) is still under review by a work group of the Faculty Senate.
• Policy 4.6.1 (Determination of Qualifications for Faculty Teaching Credit-Bearing Courses) has been reviewed by the Provost Council. The policy has been submitted to the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate and a small workgroup has reviewed Policy Definitions. The policy is being submitted to the Faculty Senate for review at the October meeting.
• Policy 4.3.4 (Joint Curricular, Collaborative, and Consortial Agreements) has not been worked on since the last report to the Faculty Senate.
• Policy 1.1.1 (Policy on Policies) continues to be discussed and revised.
• Early Registration for Designated Populations ­ this regulation has been reviewed by the Provost Council, which recommended that it be reviewed by the Council on Academic Affairs and the Faculty Senate and returned to the Provost Council by December 1. The regulation has been approved by the University Athletics Committee, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the Assistant Director for the Office of Services for Individuals with Disabilities, the Student Rights Committee, and the Student Senate.
• Policies 4.4.3 - 4.4.10 have been forwarded to the President's Office and the Faculty Senate for consideration after the University-wide task force completed its review of the proposed policies governing sponsored programs.

A small work group consisting of a representative from Faculty Senate who previously worked on the promotion and tenure policy and of an administrator who works with implementation on the policy will begin evaluating some potential amendments to Policy 4.6.4 (Promotion and Tenure).

The 2008-2009 Graduate Education and Research (GEAR) Scholars' Community held its initial workshop on September 29th. Now in its third year, the GEAR Scholars' program is designed to assist pre-tenured faculty in developing plans for advancing and sustaining their scholarly activities. Each faculty member selected for the program receives one unit of reassigned time in the Spring semester to devote to their scholarly or creative activities.

The Graduate School will be conducting individual departmental meetings throughout the month of October to seek input on the proposed recommendations regarding Graduate Faculty status. Please feel free to send comments or suggestions directly to Dr. Jaleh Rezaie.

A joint meeting of the Regional Stewardship Advisory Boards for Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky University was held on the EKU campus on September 24th. The purpose of the meeting was to explore opportunities for collaboration between Eastern, Morehead, and private Colleges and Universities in the region to increase the effectiveness of regional stewardship efforts. These collaborative efforts will focus on the three primary areas of Education, Health, and Economic Development.

Eastern Kentucky University has selected Huron Consulting Group to assist in the preparation of the Facilities and Administrative Cost proposal to the Federal government. This process is a comprehensive review that attempts to capture all associated costs to the University in providing facilities and administrative support for all sponsored programs activities. The proposal must be submitted by December 31, 2009.

Institutional Effectiveness has been leading the initiative for both VSA (the AASCU/NASULGC Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) Project) and ACE (the National Survey on Campus Services for Veterans and Military Personnel). The Voluntary System of Accountability is designed to improve public understanding of how public colleges and universities operate. The College Portrait provides consistent, comparable, and transparent information on the characteristics of institutions and students, cost of attendance, student engagement with the learning process, and core educational outcomes.

During late August through mid September, CAT tests were administered to freshmen enrolled in several of the Academic Orientation classes. A total of 692 students were given the CAT test. A database of all the freshmen taking the CAT is being developed in order to collect student progress throughout the academic years as well as initial baseline information. In addition, a faculty survey is being developed for the purpose of gaining information about involvement and needs in building skills related to critical and creative thinking and communication. The survey will also serve as a tool to reach out to faculty in order to increase the awareness of the University's Quality Enhancement Plan and to give help and support to those who want it. The survey is scheduled to be distributed in October.

REPORT FROM THE STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION: Alex Combs
Mr. Combs announced that Student Government continues to work on the dead week policy and the posting policy.

Aramark has been working with Student Government to address student's concerns. In an effort to comply with students' wishes, Aramark has added a few more items to their value menu.

There will be a forum on RSO banking on Wednesday, October 8th at 8 p.m. in the Ferrell Room in the Combs Building.

There will be an RSO funding meeting on Tuesday, October 14th.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: