Minutes for October 3, 2011

Curriculum Proposals

1. Master of Science in Nursing
   Add professional work experience to the admission requirements

Action Items

2. Independent Study Courses, Curriculum Guide Edit

3. Additional Employment for Graduate Assistants

4. Credit by Examination Revisions

Senator Vice moved approval of item 1, seconded by Senator Pogatshnik. Motion carried.

Senator Vice moved approval of item 2, seconded by Senator Shordike. Motion carried.

Senator Vice moved approval of item 3, seconded by Senator Pressley. The majority were opposed and the motion failed for lack of support.

Senator Vice moved approval of item 4, seconded by Senator Frisbie. Senator Vice noted that in number nine on item 4, the word "not" was erroneously left out. It should read "will not receive". Motion carried.

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Noblitt, Chair
The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met last month to set the agenda for the October Senate meeting and to plan future actions for the upcoming academic year.

The Executive Committee heard a presentation by E.J. Keeley and Provost Vice on current processes under development to analyze faculty workload and department productivity. While this work is still in the preliminary stages, the committee felt it necessary to give early feedback to the workgroup. The committee plans to review these efforts in early 2012 and will report further to the Faculty Senate at that time.

The Executive Committee reviewed several policy proposals that are in various stages of the policy development process. Many of these policies have been added to committee charges for future review and study. The next proposed policy which is expected to come to Faculty Senate for review is the Policy on Faculty Authored Texts.

Faculty Regent, Malcolm Frisbie, reported that the Board of Regents plans to hire the Pappas Consulting Group to assist in the evaluation of President Whitlock. The Executive Committee will work with the Board of Regents to design an appropriate assessment instrument, but will ultimately conduct a separate evaluation of the data gathered in the review.

The Executive Committee reviewed a set of proposed charges for all standing faculty senate committees. These charges will be sent to all members of each standing committee as a starting point for their work this year.

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Frisbie
At the September 28 meeting, the Board welcomed two new members: Janet Craig, an attorney practicing in Lexington, and Rachel Mollozzi, the student body president. Craig Turner, Steven Fulkerson, Virginia Underwood, and Deborah Newsom were re-elected as vice chair, secretary, assistant secretary, and treasurer for the Board. Gary Abney continues as Board chair.

The Board heard several reports concerning the financial health of the institution. In addition, VP Newsom reported to the Board that so far this year, revenues are down slightly from budgeted amounts. This is expected because enrollment is down 1.5% relative to last year. The decrease in revenue should be largely offset by a decrease in expenditures (for example, through a decreased financial aid burden), also driven by a smaller enrollment.

The Board received the yearly audit for 2010-2011 from the Crowe-Horwath accounting firm. The University was given an "unqualified opinion" – in other words, everything looked good to the auditors. The auditors were very complimentary and only offered two minor suggestions for modified internal procedures.

VP Conneely provided an update on Enrollment Management. Enrollment Management has established a goal of increasing enrollment by 2000 students by 2015. Within this overall goal, Enrollment Management has identified five specific objectives and six "dashboard" measures to monitor its progress toward the goal. Enrollment will need to grow primarily from three populations of potential students: out-of-state students, underrepresented groups, and transfers. Enrollment Management began implementing some strategies last year, utilizing $200,000 in additional budget appropriations. Some of these efforts include adding two new personnel in Admissions, which, in turn, is allowing Admissions to improve its "customer service", particularly in management of communication with prospective students and their parents, and to add a new recruiting region. Admissions is also becoming more strategic in targeting its recruiting to geographic areas with expected high payoff. Marketing has begun reformatting its materials and rethinking how it uses those materials. For example, it is creating smaller and less expensive brochures for widespread distribution and restricting distribution of its "big book" to those who follow up after initial contact. Some of this strategy is being driven by suggestions from Noel-Levitz, a consulting firm that has been working for EKU for about a year. They have developed for us, and are helping us implement, a predictive modeling program. Director of Fiscal Effectiveness Fister and Budget Director Neubauer presented new models for financial aid and tuition structure. Utilizing the Noel-Levitz predictive model, and working from projected budget needs, EKU is considering establishing dollar amounts (as opposed to percentage of tuition) for financial merit aid based on ACT scores and high school or transfer GPA. One advantage to this approach is that it would allow recruiters to tell prospective students at recruiting fairs and other venues what scholarship money is available to them without requiring students to submit an application and waiting for a scholarship decision. A closely linked effort on another front will be to rethink the tuition structure.

Executive VP Street reported on construction projects on campus. The new Center for the Arts ($33M) has officially opened. The New Science Building ($65M) has reached substantial completion, and will open for classes in January. The Stratton addition ($5.5M) will be completed by December. The Board approved the sale of bonds ($21M) to construct a new suite-style student housing unit. Financing for this project comes from reserves accumulated within University Housing for this purpose and projected revenue from the housing unit when it comes online.

The Board has engaged the Pappas Consulting Group to help with a review of President Whitlock. The Board anticipates conducting the review similarly to the review it conducted two years ago. The review will include faculty, staff, and student surveys and telephone interviews. The Board is working with the Senate Executive Committee to see that the faculty survey will serve its purposes as well as those of the Board.

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

REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Summers

COSFL met on September 22nd, prior to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education's Governor's Conference on Postsecondary Education. The theme was "Stronger by Degrees".

The majority of the meeting consisted of a discussion surrounding WKU president's attempt at placing term limits on the faculty regents, and campus reports. The faculty senate of WKU has adopted a resolution which states:

Election of the faculty representative to the Board of Regents is a fundamentally important right and responsibility of the university faculty. Applying term limits to the faculty regent infringes on the faculty's right to elect their chosen representative. In the current system, faculty can choose to limit the number of terms served by their elected regent through the election process. Therefore, we strongly recommend that the Western Kentucky University Board of Regents refrain from placing term limits on the faculty regent.

A recommendation was made at the COSFL meeting to support the WKU resolution.The motion passed unanimously. Thus, there is a clear and strong sentiment against term limits for the faculty regent.

Nancy McKenney, Faculty Representative to the CPE, provided a written report covering the CPE's meeting in Frankfort on April 28. The April meeting focused on the area of “College Readiness". Another major action item was the 2011 Tuition and Mandatory Fee Recommendation. A second report by Ms. McKenney, covered the June 10, 2011 CPE meeting which focused on the area of "Student Success".

Elections were made as follows:

Louisa A. Summers, Secretary
Nancy McKenney, CPE representative
President, Peg Munke
Vice-President - Nancy McKenney
Treasurer - Molly Kerby
Webmaster - Molly Kerby

The American Association of University Professors will have a state-wide Board meeting on Saturday, November 19 from 1pm-5pm at the University of Kentucky's library in the auditorium.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice

The first semester for first-time freshmen is pivotal to academic success and graduation. Beginning this fall, all first-time freshmen will have their mid-term grades reviewed by the Office of University Advising and the Registrar. If a student receives all mid-term grades of F, FN, U, or UN (indicating nonattendance and/or failure to meet course requirements), the student will be required to participate in an intervention program that includes the following:

• a study skills workshop
• a student success contract
• a registration hold

Additionally, the students will be moved from a baccalaureate program into the Associate of General Studies major until they have earned a 2.0 term GPA. Students who do not comply with these intervention measures may be academically suspended at the end of the semester.

Many thanks go to the Advising Office and to each EKU faculty member who contributed to the success of the Early Alert Retention System this semester.

Through Operation Veteran Success initiatives and EKU’s national ranking as the number one Best for Vets: College by Military Times EDGE Magazine, enrollment from Fall 2010 to Fall 2011 has grown by 40 percent – from 658 student veterans and military dependents to 919. Retention of the first-time freshman student veterans was 75.1 percent. Even more impressive is the retention of 81.8 percent of the students in the Veteran Bridge to College Success cohort program designed to help retain veterans with college readiness deficiencies. The Office of Veteran Affairs is grateful to the faculty and staff who helped expedite the implementation of this ground-breaking initiative.

Significant improvement has also been made in the recording and articulation of credit for prior military learning and experience. Through a collaborative effort between the Registrar’s office and the Office of Veterans Affairs, student veterans' credit recommendations from the American Council on Education are clearly recorded on the student's DegreeWorks audit, providing a clearer record of the student veterans educational experiences. These joint efforts demonstrate the power of breaking down silos, ceilings, and walls of communications.

Please join the Provost for lunch at noon on Wednesday in the Powell Cafeteria, outside the Faculty Dining Room. Sign in with the cashier at either door.

FINANCIAL PLANNING/STRATEGIC PLANNING COUNCIL: Senator Noblitt

The FPC/SPC hasn't met yet. However, the Financial Planning Council met last month and passed a new tuition scholarship structure.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: