Minutes for November 7, 2011
The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, November 7, 2011, in the South Ballroom of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Noblitt called the third meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.
The following members of the Senate were absent:
| A. Back | M. Bhandari | D. Whitlock* |
| L. Heath | A. Kipp* | M. Martin |
| D. May | T. Nowak | J. Pogatshnik* |
| G. Purdue* | C. Sommer*^ | Z. Zhang* |
*Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT D. Thomas attended for C. Sommer
Visitors to the Senate: Kimberly Hale, ASLIE; Rick McGee, Registrar; Sherry Robinson, Provost Office; Garett Yoder, General Education; Sara Zeigler, University Programs
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The October 3, 2011 minutes were approved as written.
REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Whitlock
Senator Whitlock sent his regrets for missing the meeting, but he is engaged in good work on behalf of the Commonwealth and EKU.
Senator Whitlock shared the following in his written report to the Senate.
Kentucky is one of seven states invited to participate in the College Readiness Partnership project, a joint venture of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the State Higher Education Executive Officers, and the Council of Chief State School Officers. A leadership team for each state has been formed. Kentucky's team is Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, Council on Postsecondary Education President Bob King, and EKU President Doug Whitlock. The focus of the various leadership teams' work will be the implementation of the new core curriculum requirements.
Rikkyo University, generally regarded as one of Japan's most prestigious institutions, has agreed to lift its moratorium on new institutional partners and to execute a partnership with EKU. Initial collaborations will be between Rikkyo's College of Business and the School of Business in EKU's College of Business & Technology.
EKU's institutional scholarship program is being restructured. This new program has been designed to 1) grow enrollment, 2) increase Net Tuition Revenues, and 3) increase enrollment of students more likely to persist and succeed.
Marketing efforts are being consolidated to focus on the mission statement in the new strategic plan, to brand EKU as a school of opportunity, and with a message centered on the success of our graduates and students --"You can get there from here." The opportunity brand will not be limited to "open admissions," but rather on opportunity "writ large." This will include addressing the value added of an EKU education and the doors to success it has opened for our graduates and students.
Earlier today, President Whitlock attended a state presidents' meeting in which a good part of the discussion was focused on funding for the coming biennium. The priorities continue to be the protection of institutional funding base, maintenance and operation for new facilities, performance funding in the second year of the biennium, and a planned approach to capital requests. The new science building phase II remains the top capital project for EKU.
Later in this meeting, the Senate will be reviewing the recommendations of the General Education Committee for restructuring the general education program. Provost Vice's initial charge was twofold: 1) to make recommendations that would bring our general education program into compliance with the requirements of House Bill 160 and 2) to find a way to maintain the unique "Eastern Experience." Under the able leadership of Dr. Garrett Yoder, the committee has done a remarkable job in addressing this charge. While the proposal may not suit everyone, it is important to approach the discussion with a compromising spirit for the greater good of the students and the University. A decision needs to be reached so that the revised general education program can be presented to the Board of Regents in January.
On Veteran's Day (11/11/11) there will be a program on this campus that will be replicated in essence on at least 182 campuses in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The names of those who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan will be read. Our featured speaker will be LTG (ret.) Bob Yerks. At 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. here) there will be a synchronized moment of silence at all places of observance. This is an initiative that was begun at EKU and which has taken on national significance and scope.
While EKU was not selected as a debate site for the presidential campaign next year, President Whitlock expressed his appreciation for the effort our team made. It was a learning experience and an honor to have been considered.
NEW BUSINESS:
Senate Vice Chair. Senator Day recently submitted his resignation as vice chair.
Senator Frisbie nominated Senator Pressley for vice chair. The election will be held at the December meeting.
Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Senator Vice
Program Revisions
- African/African-American Studies Minor and Certificate
Add new writing-intensive course, AFA 202W - Minor in Industrial Technology
Change the name of the minor to Applied Engineering Management; drop the three-credit requirements for AEM 238; reduce the number of credits required to obtain the AEM Minor from 21 to 18 credits; drop the three-credit QMB 200 option from the list of prerequisites for AEM 202. - Minor in Quality Assurance Technology
Add one three-credit alternative: STA 585 (Experimental Design) to AEM 530 (Design of Experiments) - Public Relations
Add PUB 410S (Social Media & Public Relations) to the “Supporting Course Requirements” for the Public Relations major - Business and Marketing Education/Teaching (B.S.)
Drop CCT 201 as a “Major Requirement” for Business & Marketing Education/Teaching majors and add CCT 300W in its place - Admission Requirements/General Information in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology
Catalog Corrections for introductory sections of graduate catalog (Section I, II, II and IV) for both the MA: Mental Health Counseling & MAED School Counseling with the removal of MA in Human Services degree from department. Also remove Praxis as admission requirement, revise MAT requirement and correct an error in required course designation for MA in Mental Health Counseling (COU 849 instead of COU 814) - Master of Arts in Education - Reading/Writing
Revise the Master of Arts in Education – Reading/Writing program to meet KY EPSB requirements for the Literacy Endorsement - Clinical Laboratory Science (B.S.)
Revise the program title from Clinical Laboratory Science to Medical Laboratory Science and revise all CLS and CLT course prefixes in the program to MLS and MLT - Clinical Laboratory Technology (A.A.S.)
Revise the program title from Clinical Laboratory Technology to Medical Laboratory Technology; revise the CLT prefix to MLT in the Program requirements section; revise CHS 105 to EMC 105 based on prior revision to EMC 105 - Associate Degree Nursing
Discontinue the Associate Degree Nursing accelerated option for LPNs; revise course prefixes and requirements within the Nursing ASN program - Nursing (B.S.N. Second Degree Option)
Replace the current NSC 252 course (3 credit hours) with the new NSC 262 course (4 credit hours) and change the total curriculum requirements to reflect the additional hour in the new course (i.e., total curriculum requirements from 79-80 hours to 80-81 hours) for students in the second-degree BSN option - Nursing Pre-RN (B.S.N.)
Correct the prefix for CLT to MLT and CHE 107 lab to CHE 105L
Action Items
Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-12, seconded by Senator Smith. Motion carried.
Senator Vice moved approval of item 13, seconded by Senator Smith.
Senator Lowry moved to amend as follows, seconded by Senator Spock:
That the distinction be retained within the new Element 5 (Social and Behavioral Sciences) between courses offering a historical perspective and those with a more contemporary focus:
- Those courses currently in Block VA (History) shall be included in Element 5A (Historical Perspective), and those in Block VB (Social and Behavioral Sciences) shall be included in Element 5B (Social and Behavioral Sciences).
- Where courses currently in Element 5B appear already to incorporate a historical perspective or new courses are developed with such perspective, their departments shall be encouraged to put those courses forward through curriculum channels for transfer into Element 5A.
The majority was in favor of the amendment and the motion carried.
Senator Hayes moved to amend as follows, seconded by Senator Nelson.
Divide Element 4 (Natural Sciences) into 4A, 4B, and 4A/B where 4A represents a course in the life sciences, 4B is a course in the physical sciences and 4A/B are integrated courses covering both physical and life sciences. Students would need to take one from A and one from B OR two from A/B.
With a vote of 31-23, the amendment to the main motion carried.
Senator Frisbie moved to amend as follows, seconded by Senator Shordike:
Under the Diversity of Perspectives and Experiences element change the following areas to:
Philosophy of P&E Element
The purpose of this requirement is to expose the student to perspectivesfromthat encompass other organisms, cultures, and/or historically marginalized groups (within the U.S. or elsewhere).
As a general principle, the material of the courses would require students to study the differences that have set groups apart from one another and develop a greater capacity for intellectual open-mindedness. Examples would include, but are not limited to, courses that address intersections of race, ethnicity, language, gender, culture, class, age, sexuality, ability,and or religion,and/or humans with other organisms.
PE & Courses - change the second bullet to:
Courses within content focused on human interactions with other organisms non-U.S. cultures, and/or historically marginalized groups.
General Education Goals Address - change #9 to:
Recognize perspectivesfromthat encompass other organisms, cultures, and/or historically marginalized groups.
The motion to amend failed for lack of support.
Senator Barracca moved to amend as follows, seconded by Senator Schneid:
Remove the diversity block and place three of those hours in Block 3, and the other 3 hours in Block 5.
The motion to amend failed for lack of support.
Senator Eser moved to amend as follows, seconded by Senator Zaragoza:
Remove the 6 hours diversity requirement in Block 6 and replace with 6 hours foreign language requirement.
The motion to amend failed for lack of support.
The main motion (item 13), twice amended, was approved.
As the approved recommendations to the proposal are substantive, the proposal will need to be reviewed again by the General Education Committee and CAA before going to the Board of Regents in January.
GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Noblitt
The Executive Committee reviewed the survey the Pappas Consulting Group used to evaluate President Whitlock in his last administrative review. The Pappas Group was quite pleased with the survey in the previous review. The consultant noted that there were no questions on the previous survey that appeared to cause confusion or conflicting interpretation. The Executive Committee agreed with these findings and suggested only minimal changes in the survey instrument.
The Executive Committee spent considerable time discussing which individuals should receive the faculty survey. Committee members were concerned about making sure that everyone on campus receives some type of survey regardless of their role. Ultimately the committee determined that full-time faculty – including Instructors, Lecturers, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, Professors, and Chairs – will receive the faculty survey. Deans, Vice-Presidents, and other administrators holding faculty rank will receive the staff survey.
The Committee also decided that part-time faculty will receive a separate survey. In previous administrative reviews, part-time faculty did not have the opportunity to participate in the survey. The committee felt strongly that part-time faculty play a significant role in student success and must be given an opportunity to express their opinions. The Committee also agreed that part-time faculty should be surveyed separately so that their opinions can be properly identified. The Board of Regents agreed to cover the additional costs of this survey.
The surveys are scheduled to be launched during the first week of November and remain open for two weeks. The Committee has worked closely with E.J. Keeley to develop email distribution lists for the surveys. The Committee also decided to send an email to department chairs last week announcing the upcoming survey and asking them to remind faculty to turn off any email filters that may prevent delivery of the survey.
The Executive Committee has requested summarized data from the Likert scale items and the unprocessed comments from the open questions for both the full-time and part-time faculty surveys. The Committee then plans to analyze the results, including categorization of open-ended comments, to prepare a report that we will present to the Board of Regents and Faculty Senate in January.
The Executive Committee discussed several upcoming policies. Sherry Robinson presented a draft of the revised Faculty-Authored Text Policy. The Committee hopes to review a revised policy draft next month. The Rights and Responsibilities Committee continues to work on revisions to the Tenure and Promotion Policy. There are tentative plans to host an all-day conference open to members of the campus community to discuss proposed revisions. The Executive Committee agreed to form an ad hoc committee to explore the issue of extra employment for graduate students. The Executive Committee will also be suggesting faculty to serve on the Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Evaluation Policy drafting committee.
REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Frisbie
The next Board meeting will be in January.
REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Summers
The next COSFL meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 21st from 10:30am-2:30pm at the CPE offices in Frankfort.
There are two AAUP (American Association of University Professor) meetings later this month. The first meeting is at EKU in the Teaching and Learning Center on Wednesday, November 16th at 3:30pm. The second meeting is an AAUP Statewide Conference on Saturday, November 19th from 1pm-5pm in the library on UK's campus. The conference is free and all faculty in Kentucky are invited to attend. Please R.S.V.P. by email to nancy.mckenney@eku.edu.
PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice
Last month President Whitlock provided the Board of Regents and the Faculty Senate the information on EKU's performance goals, as negotiated with CPE. Recently CPE distributed the Institutional Performance Scorecards for all the State's four-year institutions. Senator Vice shared a one-page summary of the Scorecards which provided a quick comparison of EKU's baseline and target goals with our sister four-year institutions. The summary is also available online at http://www.academicaffairs.eku.edu/academicaffairsnews/student_success_scorecard_summary.pdf. The complete set of scorecards for individual institutions is available on CPE’s website at http://cpe.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/93E7E1FA-ABC0-43D2-A95B-43AED43949E2/0/7_inst_scorecards.pdf.To be more strategic in student-success efforts, an Implementation Team has been formed. This is a collaborative initiative to unite the efforts of Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Administrative Affairs, and Advancement to enhance Student Success at EKU. The Implementation Team is focused on "discovering silos, ceilings, and walls in order to identify pathways" for students to enter EKU, to persist, and to graduate. Team members include the vice presidents, AVPs, the deans, and the directors in Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Financial Affairs. Chairs, faculty, and students are also represented.
Thanks to the faculty for reporting mid-term grades, 66 first-time freshmen were identified as having received all F's or FN's at midterm. One half of these students had been admitted as Associate of General Studies students. Nineteen reported in the Early Alert Retention Survey. These students are required to participate in an intrusive, retention program. Further data will be forthcoming on these students.
Kentucky has recently been recognized as the fastest improving state in the nation on key higher education performance measures, according to a report by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). The NCHEMS report, "Realizing Kentucky's Educational Attainment Goal: A Look in the Rear View Mirror and Down the Road Ahead" measured Kentucky's improvement from 2000-09. The report ranked Kentucky first in three metrics:
- percent of adults 25-64 with college degrees,
- six-year graduation rates at 4-year institutions, and
- undergraduate credentials awarded relative to the population with no college degree.
NCHEMS also ranked Kentucky second in the nation for percent of adults between 25 and 44 with college degrees and recognized the state for three-year graduation rates at 2-year institutions and for total undergraduate credentials produced.
The full NCHEMS report is available on the Council on Postsecondary Education site at http://cpe.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/81AB2E18-9122-4BAA-86C1-B6804D2CCE9A/0/NCHEMSRealizingKysCollegeAttainmentGoal.pdf.
The QEP showcase will be held on February 7, 2012, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at the Crabbe Library. All EKU faculty and staff are invited to submit ideas for the showcase. One department will be awarded $1,000 from a drawing of all participants. Submission will be accepted until November 18. For more information, visit http://qep.eku.edu/celebration.
Congratulations to Model Laboratory Middle School for ranking second among the state's middle schools, according to results of the most recent Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT). Model Middle's ranking is based on the percentage of Proficient and Distinguished students in reading and mathematics. For more information, visit www.model.eku.edu.
The November Faculty Senate lunch is cancelled this month because of the CPE meeting scheduled for November 9-10.
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Academic Quality Committee. Senators Shordike and Schmelzer will serve as co-chairs this year.
Elections Committee. Senator Day will serve as the chair this year.
Rights & Responsibilities Committee. Senator Palmer reported that the committee has met twice with the Promotion and Tenure drafting team. There are plans to host an all-day conference in January which will be open to members of the campus community to discuss proposed revisions. More information on the forum will be shared when details are finalized. An updated P&T draft will be shared at the December meeting so that feedback can be received prior to the forum.
Rules Committee. Senator Hensley reported that the committee met on October 31 to review the charges for the year.
Ad Hoc Committee on Computing. Senator Smith reported that the RFPs for the faculty laptops have gone out. Information Technology is in the process of installing beta versions of the secured desktop and management services. Any faculty interested in serving as beta testers should contact mona.isaacs@eku.edu.
ADJOURNMENT:
Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 5 p.m.
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