Minutes for September 12, 2011
The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, September 12, 2011, in the South Ballroom of the Keen Johnson Building. Parliamentarian Miller called the first meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.
The following members of the Senate were absent:
| F. Awang* | A. Back | J. Hensley |
| N. Jasinski | K. Johnson* | K. Keltner-Previs* |
| M. Martin | S. Merlin | G. Purdue* |
| S. Zaragoza*^ |
*Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT E. Liddell attended for S. Zaragoza
Visitors to the Senate: Jim Conneely, Student Affairs; Mona Isaacs, Information Technology; Rick McGee, Registrar; Nancy McKenney, Library; Sandra Moore, Provost Office; Jaleh Rezaie, Graduate School; Sherry Robinson, Provost Office; James Street, Capital Planning/Facilities Mgmt; Garett Yoder, General Education
SENATE ELECTIONS
Senator Day moved, seconded by Senator Shordike, to approve Senator Noblitt as temporary chair until the October election. Motion carried.
Senate Chair. Senator Frisbie nominated Senator Noblitt for Chair. Senator Frisbie moved, seconded by Senator Shordike, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried. The election will be held at the beginning of the October meeting.
Senate Vice Chair. Senator Frisbie nominated Senator Day for Vice Chair. The election will be held at the beginning of the October meeting.
Academic Quality Committee (1 vacancy). Senator Shordike nominated Senator Marshall. Senator May moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
Budget Committee (2 vacancies). Senator Thieme and Senator Jackson self nominated. Senator Wray moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
Committee on Committees (2 vacancies). Senator Frazer and Senator Hayes self nominated. Senator Thieme moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
Elections Committee (1 vacancy). Senator May self nominated. Senator Nelson moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
Executive Committee (1 vacancy). Senator Kirk Jones nominated Senator May. Senator Pianalto moved, seconded by Senator Biggin to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
New Faculty Orientation Committee (3 vacancies). Senators Gerken, Krampe and Nowak self nominated. Senator Pressley moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
Rights & Responsibilities Committee (3 vacancies). Senator Palmer nominated Senator Whalen. Senator Wray nominated Senator Velotta. Senator Presley self nominated. Senator Smith moved, seconded by Senator Pressley, to close nominations and accept by acclamation. Motion carried.
Rules Committee (3 vacancies). Senators Parrott and Barracca self nominated. Senator May nominated Senator Kirk Jones. Senator May moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation.
Welfare Committee (1 vacancy). Senator Thieme self nominated. Senator Eser moved, seconded by Senator Biggin, to close nominations and accept by acclamation.
COSFL (1 rep & 2 alternates). Senators Summers and Price were nominated. Senator Summers was elected as the COSFL representative, with Senator Price serving as alternate. One additional alternate is needed and will be selected at the October meeting.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The May 2 regular and organizational minutes were approved as written.
REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Whitlock
Earlier today, Senator Whitlock attended the Annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards ceremony in Somerset. At that ceremony, Andrew Pennington received the student award for a creative enterprise he began online called contractoryardsale.com.
A day-long campus forum was held on September 8 to discuss the history of education in Kentucky. Retired EKU faculty member Bill Ellis, author of A History of Education in Kentucky was one of the participating members of the event.
Eastern Kentucky University has recently acquired Elmwood, a historic residence located across Lancaster Avenue from the Richmond campus. This year the Homecoming tent will be set up at Elmwood to give people a chance to tour the house.
The opening gala for the Center for the Arts was held on Friday, September 9.
The new science building phase I is due to open later this year. The space should be open for instruction beginning in the spring semester. Phase II of that project remains EKU's number one funding priority.
The funding process is well underway in Frankfort for the next biennium. The latest draft includes a recommendation for the first year of the biennium that unfunded M&O would be funded at 100%. This could mean approximately $3.6M for Eastern and could be used for replacement of resources that are already committed. The only other new money in the first year of the biennium is $750,000 for Senate Bill I implementation which is primarily for developmental work and professional development. In the second year of the biennium the two largest pools in the current draft are $20M which will be tied to student performance (approximately $2M of that would be aligned for Eastern) and another $60M (approximately $2M would be earmarked for Eastern) that would be bond-funded for another round of "Bucks for Brains" funding.
Effective Monday, September 19, the Strategic Planning Council and the Financial Planning Council will be merged.
The Board will begin working on the evaluation of the president soon. More information will be shared about this later. The Provost is also scheduled to go through an evaluation process later this year.
Senator Whitlock leaves tomorrow for China. He's been invited to help celebrate Liaoning University of Technology's 60th anniversary.
In approximately three weeks, Senator Whitlock will travel to Japan for an alumni event. He will also be attending a meeting of the American Committee for KEEP.
In the near future Eastern should have a signed MOU with Maseno University in Kenya. Senator Whitlock thanked Senator Shordike for her work with Maseno University.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
General Education Restructure. Garett Yoder was in attendance to discuss the proposals under review for the general education restructure and to answer questions. The proposals will be voted on at the September 27th General Education Committee meeting. The approved proposals will then go to the Council on Academic Affairs in October, Faculty Senate in November or December and the Board of Regents in January, 2012. Please share the PowerPoint and the proposals which were included in the Senate packet with your colleagues.
EKU Diversity Plan. Sandra Moore was in attendance to present the finalized EKU Diversity Plan. The Committee on Equal Opportunities (CEO) of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education approved EKU's comprehensive diversity plan on June 2, 2011, and EKU’s Board of Regents will review the plan at the September 28 meeting.
NEW BUSINESS:
Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Senator Vice
New Programs
Program Revision to Required Hours to Graduate
- Mathematics Teaching (B.S.)
Revise the mathematics teaching course options.
Program Revisions
- Athletic Training (B.S.)
Revise course descriptions within the program.
- Health Services Administration B.S.
Revise the program to reflect the revisions made to the Professional Practice Experience courses (HSA 411, 412, 413). - Computer Science (B.S.)
Update supporting course requirements for bioinformatics option. - English (B.A.)
Add ENG 367 African Caribbean Literatures to the list of elective courses available to the Literature option of the English major. This course fits into the sequence of diversity courses.. - History (B.A.)
Add HIS 414 to the major course offerings. - History/Teaching (B.A.)
Add HIS 414 to the major course offerings. - Master of Music
Add additional text to the Admissions section II, modifying composition credits, and clarification of electives. - Agriculture (B.S. Area Major)
Combine two options under BS program into one. Delete the Business Minor Option. Eliminate the statement "Professional Skills Seminar" from College Requirement and add "s" to Requirement. - Criminal Justice (M.S.)
Students cannot switch to a thesis after failing the comprehensive exam. New Admissions requirements: a minimum of 850 on the verbal and math sections of the GRE, a 4.0 in the writing, and only two letters of recommendation.
Discussion Items
- Independent Study Courses, Curriculum Guide Edit
- Additional Employment for Graduate Assistants
- Credit by Examination Revisions
Senator Vice moved approval of item 1, seconded by Senator Summers. Motion carried.
Senator Vice moved approval of item 2, seconded by Senator Matthews. Motion carried.
Senator Vice moved approval of items 3-12, seconded by Senator Potter. Motion carried.
Items 13-15 were presented for information only but will be presented for action at the October meeting.
GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Noblitt, Interim Chair
Faculty Senate will evaluate President Whitlock and Provost Vice in the coming year. The Executive Committee plans to work closely with Faculty Regent Malcolm Frisbie to coordinate survey efforts for the president's review. As in past evaluations, while the committee plans to use a joint survey instrument, it will conduct a separate evaluation of survey results and write a separate evaluation report.
Since there are a number of new senators this year, Senator Noblitt shared a color chart of EKU's policy process. As a number of policies will be reviewed this year, she thought it would be helpful to see what the Senate's role is in the policy update process.
Policies 6.1.3R, Travel Requirements and Procedures, and 9.4.1R, Motor Vehicle Use Regulation, are currently undergoing the 30-day public comment period. Please review these policies closely, as faculty traveling with or without students will be affected. The drafting committee is open to suggestions. Dean Sara Zeigler will be serving on the drafting committee and comments and/or questions can be forwarded to her.
The Provost and Senator Noblitt plan to meet soon to discuss a variety of issues and initiatives underway to address faculty workload. The Executive Committee hopes to bring forth updates on these initiatives in the coming months and to make sure that faculty are directly involved in these discussions.
The Deans are currently reviewing the lecturer/senior lecture evaluation process. Current policies related to tenure and merit simply do not address the situation adequately. Some departments rely heavily upon lecturers and need to share their insight into improved systems of evaluation. Departments are encouraged to speak with their college deans about this issue.
REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Frisbie
At its April meeting, the Board considered tuition and meal plan rates for 2011-12. The Board could not act on the rate recommendations because the CPE had not yet set increase limits for the state schools. The Board authorized its Executive and Academic Affairs Committee to act on its behalf after the CPE took its action. The Committee met
on May 3 to approve tuition increases of 5% and meal plan increases of 3.75%. EKU’s instate, full time tuition for two semesters is $6960 in 2011-12.
The Board heard several reports concerning the financial health of the institution. The Chairman of the Foundation Board reported that the EKU endowment has grown to $48M. Financial markets continue to bounce around, so growth was tied to increases in gifts, which are up 30% and number of donors, which are up 2%. Vice President
Newsom reported that EKU was on solid footing as it neared the end of the fiscal year and was on track to exceed budget predictions for tuition revenue by $1-2M. This was largely driven by increased revenue from online courses.
Dr. Robert King, President of the CPE, visited and described the CPE’s new strategic initiative to the Board. CPE will emphasize four broad areas: college readiness; student success; research, economic, and community development; and efficiency and innovation. This will be actuated by applying metrics to the state institutions.
The Board also learned about the 2011-2015 EKU Strategic Plan, which emphasizes four major goals: maximize student success; build and sustain the University’s capacity for excellence; create and maintain an inclusive, equitable, and diverse environment; and collaborate with regional community partners to promote academic achievement, economic development, and quality of life.
In action items, the Board approved the budget guidelines used in developing the 2011-12 operating budget for the university. The operating budget this year is $233M, which represents a 6.9% increase over last year’s budget. The budget included $12M in new monies that were available for strategic spending. $1.1M of these funds went to offset increases in fixed costs. Another $2M is funding increased benefit costs that the university faces. $2.6M was allocated to fund faculty and staff pay increases. $2.3M was put toward scholarships and financial aid, to offset the tuition increase and to create a $1.2M contingency fund within the financial aid/scholarship line. $264,000 was available for strategic initiatives. Of this amount, $220,000 has been allocated to Enrollment Management to fund an international recruiting initiative, put in place an enrollment/revenue management system, and to continue the predictive modeling work begun last year by Noel-Levitz. $17,000 of the strategic initiatives money is funding increases in faculty promotion rates (to $1800 for promotion to assistant professor, to $3000 for promotion to associate professor, and $4500 for promotion to professor).
On the academic side, the Board learned of a new cooperative program with Morehead and Hazard CTC to coordinate course offerings in Hazard, Jackson, and Manchester which will allow students to move from an associate degree program to completion of a baccalaureate program in general studies. The Board approved 39 curriculum revisions, new certificates, and new minors. It also approved catalog language changes related to readmission to the university and minimum academic standards. It approved a 3 + 2 plan for graduate studies under which an undergraduate student can take up to 12 hours toward a graduate degree while still an undergraduate. The student may double-count up to nine of those hours.
The Board will next convene for a regular quarterly meeting on September 28.
PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice
Senator Vice shared the statistics below to show what the overall retention rate is for students who entered EKU without developmental needs as compared to those that entered with developmental needs. As can be seen, there is still much work to be done before EKU can achieve its retention goal of 75% by the year 2015.
|
Year |
No. Of Freshmen with No Develop-mental Needs |
Percent of Total |
Retention Rate |
No. Of Freshmen with One or More Develop- mental Needs |
Percent of Total |
Retention Rate |
Overall Retention Rate |
|
2011-2012 |
1,623 |
63.2 |
|
946 |
36.8 |
|
|
|
2010-2011 |
1,475 |
56.9 |
72.8 |
1,118 |
43.1 |
55.5 |
65.3 |
|
2009-2010 |
1,457 |
56.8 |
73.0 |
1,107 |
43.2 |
60.2 |
66.6 |
|
2008-2009 |
1,600 |
64.1 |
74.2 |
897 |
35.9 |
58.2 |
68.3 |
In response to the national and state shortage of workforce in the Science, Technology/Engineering, Mathematics, and Health related (STEM-H) fields, and to comply with Kentucky Senate Bill 1 (College Readiness), Eastern Kentucky University has established the EKU STEM-H Institute. The EKU STEM-H Institute will focus on improving the teaching and learning in STEM-H fields from elementary education through graduate school by focusing on outreach, teaching, professional development, and research.
For the 2011-12 academic year, the STEM-H Institute will be housed in the Office of Graduate Education and Research and will be directed by Dr. Jaleh Rezaie, Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Research.
Following is a list of student success collaborative initiatives:
- Noel-Levitz’ analysis and predictive modeling
- Revision of Scholarship Tuition Model
- MAP Works (Early Alert Measure for Residential Students)
- Degree Works Audit System (Direct Path to Degree) (A critical initiative for effective ADVISING)
- Smooth Transition for Transfers – HB 160
- The Urgency Team – Contacts with not-yet registered students who were eligible to return to EKU.
- Academic Practices Aimed at Student Success
- Use It or Lose It (First-Day Disenrollment)
- Early Alert Retention Survey
- The Party is Over (First-Time Freshmen Mid-Term Grade Review)
As of Summer 2011, the e-Campus Center formerly established in the College of Justice and Safety has become the Office of e-Campus Learning for all Eastern's current and future online programs. Tim Matthews has been named Executive Director of e-Campus Learning. Dr. Fred Kolloff will serve as Director of the Instructional Design Center.
Online General Education offerings provide a unique feature of EKU's Online Model. Dr. Stephen Sumithran will serve as the e-Program Coordinator for the General Education and Supporting Courses that support e-Campus programs. In this capacity Dr. Sumithran will serve as liaison to department chairs and faculty who develop and teach online general education and supporting courses for e-Campus.
The Professional Flight option in the Aviation program prepares students to pursue careers in the aerospace industry. Over the past 18 months, EKU has taken over the complete operation of the Professional Flight program. This includes performing all flight operations, acquiring aircraft, scheduling of maintenance, and hiring of flight instructors.
Initiatives are also underway to enhance the experience of the program and EKU. These initiatives include:
- Developing a learning community for the flight students.
- Working with housing to establish the "Flight Deck" for those living in the dorm.
- Introducing students to flight instructors and airport operations in an Orientation session.
The Aviation Program has made great progress over the past 18 months and, with the leadership of the new Chief Flight Instructor, Mr. Ralph Gibbs, will continue to grow and improve.
Lunch with the Faculty Senators will continue again this year each Wednesday following the Senate meeting. The first lunch and discussion will be after October's meeting.
Senator Smith moved, seconded by Senator Summers to extend the meeting. Motion carried.
FINANCIAL PLANNING/STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL: Senator Noblitt
As was reported earlier, the Financial Planning and Strategic Planning Council will be meeting soon as a joint committee.
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:
New Senator Orientation Committee. Senator Pressley announced that the new Senator Orientation session is scheduled for Monday, September 19 at 2:30 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge.
Ad Hoc Committee on Computing. Senator Smith reported that the committee was initially charged with investigating administrative rights for computing purposes for faculty.
IT understands the need for faculty to have administrative rights and are working on a process (yet to be determined) to request administrative privileges on PCs.
A set of possible solutions was discussed to address concerns. However, any of the mentioned options will need to be fully tested and vetted before implementation:
- Option: Grant admin rights with justifications (need to determine who will approve and under what circumstances)
- Option: Two accounts where one secure and one with admin rights
- Option: Unix approach for "run as" elevated rights (non-interactive admin login)
One caveat is if administrative privileges are granted and malware becomes a problem, administrative privileges will be removed from the local machine. So faculty need to understand the responsibility assumed with administrative rights.
A combination of mentioned options might be possible to address the diverse needs of faculty.
Items were discussed where faculty involvement is needed to help with various items:
- Beyond Trust – Beta Test: Need faculty volunteers to beta test the third party software for secured PCs (October).
- Faculty Laptop Secure Configuration – Beta Test: Need faculty volunteers to check out computers from IT that have been configured as “secured PCs” so they can try the configuration to help identify issues (October/November)
- Faculty Laptop Equipment Testing: An RFP will be issued this fall and potential vendors will submit evaluation equipment for review. The proposed equipment will be made available for faculty to review and supply needed feedback. Need faculty feedback on PC and Apple evaluation samples (November/December). Decision must be reached by the end of the calendar year.
Senator Smith stated that there are additional issues that have been identified as the committee has moved through this process, and that it may be necessary to covert the ad hoc committee to a standing committee so those issues can be addressed.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Senator Noblitt reminded the committees to meet soon and elect chairs. Committee charges will be distributed soon.
ADJOURNMENT:
Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 5:35 p.m.
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