Minutes for September 10, 2012
The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, September 10, 2012, in the South Ballroom of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Pressley called the first meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.
The following members of the Senate were absent:
| A. Back | M. Farley | L. Heath |
| D. Miller | J. Palmer*^ | J. Pogatshnik* |
| R. Sharp* | J. Wang* | W. Zhuang |
*Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT Matt Winslow attended for J. Palmer
Visitors to the Senate: Rick McGee, Council on Academic Affairs; Sherry Robinson, Provost Office; Marc Whitt, Public Relations
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The May 7, 2012 regular and organizational minutes were approved as written.
REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Whitlock
Senator Whitlock just returned from attendingthe 12th annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards (EIEA) program which was held at The Center for Rural Development in Somerset earlier today. One of the highlights of the program was when EKU graduate Betitala Sinda Mbala was recognized as the winner of the 2012 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards (EIEA) Collegiate Business Concept Challenge.
The Board of Regents will meet on Friday, September 28 and one of the items on the agenda will be the upcoming presidential search.
Eastern’s first Assurance of Learning Day is scheduled for Wednesday, September 26. Faculty will have an opportunity to participate in workshops and meet with colleagues to discuss discipline-specific issues and ways to move forward to ensure student success. Senator Whitlock stated that in simplified terms, two of the most important components to consider is curriculum mapping and the whole concept of vertical alignment.
On Friday, Senator Whitlock will speak for the last time during his presidency to the Council on Postsecondary Education on Eastern’s progress around the performance metrics in the state strategic agenda. The report which will be presented is based on last year’s data with the prior year serving as the baseline. The report shows that EKU is doing well in terms of degree productivity, but there is room for improvement in retention and five year rates. Also, the number of transfers from the community college system has decreased. However, it should be noted that in the last year great strides have been made in reducing the number of hours needed to graduate in several programs, online enrollment has grown 28%, the number of first time graduate students increased significantly, and four-year graduation rates are up a full percentage. In addition, grant and contract activity is outstanding. Once this year’s data can be included in the report, there should be noticeable improvement. Senator Whitlock plans to verbally share this information with the CPE.
Two significant housing projects underway right now should help make EKU more attractive to students in terms of the kind of housing opportunities that they want. One is a 350-bed project on Kit Carson. The other is the private development on the corner of Barnes Mill and Lancaster which will house 550 commuters. An added bonus will be the overhead pedestrian walkway which is included in this project.
State finances continue to run ahead of budget. The bad news is that for every $1 above the budget there is demands for at least $5. The Governor’s Task Force on Tax Reform has been hearing the common story everywhere that the tax code needs to be modified. There’s just so much of the contemporary economy that goes untaxed in Kentucky, and consequently the part of the economy that is taxed is having to carry the whole load.
Senator Whitlock will have to miss the October 1 Senate meeting. He will be attending the annual Washington Center function in DC. Eastern is one of the significant participants in that operation which places college students in internship opportunities in the nation’s capital.
Senator Whitlock must leave the meeting a little early today to catch a presentation across campus on an exciting way to breathe life into the Planetarium very economically, make it a money-maker, and a remarkable instructional tool. This is part of some pro-bono work that Microsoft is doing around some really powerful software. Microsoft’s goal is to inspire people to become software engineers, and this is one of the things that they’re using to accomplish that.
NEW BUSINESS:
Senate Involvement in Presidential Search. Senator Pressley asked the Senate to be thinking of ways for more faculty involvement in the presidential search.
Senator Frisbie stated that the Board has released a request for proposals for search firms that will help identify a pool of candidates to consider. The Board will meet on September 28 to review the proposals received and will meet again on October 12 to interview selected search firms.
Senator Frisbie stated that as the Board hasn’t met yet, it might be helpful if the Senate could provide ideas on how university input could best be achieved.
Comments and/or questions can be emailed to Senator Pressley or Senator Frisbie.
Senate Sponsored Legislative Forum. Senator Day moved to approve the Senate’s sponsoring a campus-wide Legislative Forum, seconded by Senator Maloley. Motion carried.
Senator Day asked for volunteers to serve on an ad hoc committee to work on coordinating this event. Anyone interested in serving should contact him or Senator Pressley.
Informational Technology Committee Election. (5 vacancies) The following members were nominated and accepted by acclamation. Senators Velotta, Kilgore, Chandra and Mahaney.
Senator Pressley stated that there is one position still vacant on this committee. The election for this position will be listed under unfinished business on the October agenda.
Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Senator Vice
Program Revisions
College of Arts and Sciences
- English B.A.
Add ENG 300S to the program curriculum - Physics B.S.
Revise program to add the new course PHY 406, drop PHY 100, 306, 308, and NET 399, adjust number of free electives, and make appropriate Catalog text changes to reflect the new General Education elements. - Clinical Psychology M.S.
Substitute PSY 838 (new course) for PSY 843 in the M.S. in Clinical Psychology program.
College of Business and Technology
- Risk Management and Insurance B.B.A.
Delete insurance electives: APS 351, 465, FSE 221, 361, 366, TRS 342, FRM 352 from major requirements - Risk Management and Insurance B.S.
Delete insurance electives: APS 351, 465, FSE 221, 361, 366, TRS 342, FRM 352 from major requirements.
College of Education
- Master of Arts in Teaching
Update Field Experience requirements; add new course EGC 840. - MAEd Library Science
Offer both initial and additional certification options for earning certification as a library media specialist. The program hours have been reduced to 30-36 and dual certification options have been added. The dual certification options are existing endorsements within the College of Education. - Learning and Behavior Disorders Graduate Certificate
Remove SED 793 from the required courses.
Action Items
Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-8, seconded by Senator Summers. Motion carried.
Senator Vice moved approval of item 9, seconded by Senator Adams. Motion carried.
GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Pressley
The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met on Monday, August 27th to set the agenda for the September Faculty Senate meeting and to plan future actions for the upcoming academic year.
The Faculty-at-Large approved the Promotion and Tenure Policy 4.6.4P on August 14th and President Whitlock approved it on August 15, 2012. The Board of Regents will vote on the policy at the September 28 meeting. If approved by the Regents, the effective date of the policy will be August 2013.
The new P&T Policy requires the formation of a new Appeals Committee. The members of this committee will need to be trained for their new duties. Trainings for colleges and departments will also be needed so that everyone will be informed.
Policies that are currently in the review process include Evaluation of Non-Tenured Tenure-Track Faculty, Lectureship, Evaluation of Non Tenure-Track Full Time Faculty, and Faculty Authored Texts. Additional policies that may be reviewed in the near future are Tenure for Model, Post Tenure Review, Evaluation of Academic Administrators, Termination of Faculty, Prior Learning, and Student Attendance.
The Faculty Taskforce for Student Retention met for the first time on Thursday, September 6, 2012. The charge of the taskforce is two-fold and it includes understanding faculty roles and responsibilities, and communicating what recommendations faculty members have as they relate to student retention. The next meeting will be on September 20, 2012.
Some committee charges were given this summer to accommodate time sensitive meetings and issues, but a formal list of charges will be sent to all members of each standing committee once the Executive Committee approves the charges. Those charges will be included in the next Executive Committee Report.
REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Frisbie
The Board met on June 28 and dealt with several financial matters. Representatives from Crowe Horwath, the firm that will be performing the university’s external audit again this year, gave a report which detailed their timeline and procedures for carrying out the audit.
In the financial update for 2011-12, Acting VP Barry Poynter anticipated that there would be a $3-4M deficit at the end of the year, which would be covered with $2M from the contingency fund and $2M in deferred maintenance. This would leave about $3-4M in the contingency fund. Since the June meeting, the books have been closed on 2011-12, and the financial picture ended up being stronger than VP Poynter had projected. Looking ahead to 2012-13, the budget situation remains critical. VP Poynter and the financial team will closely monitor revenues and expenditures in various categories (e.g., part-time/summer faculty, financial aid, benefits, athletics, enrollment, overloads/overtime) and will provide quarterly reports to VPs so that adjustments to spending can be made throughout the year.
Tom Coffey, a member of the EKU Foundation Board, gave a report on the Arlington Association. Recent changes at Arlington are having a positive effect on its operation. In January 2012, Arlington operated at a $30,000 per month loss. With the suspension of restaurant operations and other changes, Arlington has been able to turn the deficit into a $15,000 per month surplus, as of April.
The investment firm of Hirtle Callahan talked about their investment philosophy and strategy used in managing the Foundation funds. It appears that they have a sound, data-informed approach that predicts risks and returns associated with different investment vehicles to guide their decisions about placement of EKU’s assets.
The President informed the Board that the University has released two requests for proposals (RFPs). One seeks proposals to help manage a major capital campaign. The other is to attempt to hire a management and efficiency consultant who will help get more bang out of the bucks that EKU has to spend. VP James Street reported that construction of the new residence hall complex is underway. Bids for the construction part of the project were on target. The new facility is scheduled to be ready for use in the Fall of 2013.
In action items, the detailed budgets for EKU and for Model Laboratory School were approved. A large number of curriculum items were approved (86 program revisions, 13 new programs (4 minors, 6 certificates, and 3 options), and four program suspensions). The Board also approved changes to the academic dishonesty policy that included editorial changes to make the policy clearer and language to guide the implementation of the “FX” grade – failure due to academic dishonesty. In addition, the Board approved suspension of the planned increase in ACT score necessary for clear admission. Those were scheduled to ramp up effective for admission in the Fall of 2013. The recommendation coming from Enrollment Management is to develop criteria that better predict prospective students’ readiness for college-level work. These new criteria will likely utilize multiple measures – for example a combination of ACT scores and GPA. The Board was assured that new standards will be in place by fall of 2014. That means that those standards need to be developed during this academic year.
The Board approved the naming of three facilities to honor members of the EKU family: the Dr. William H. Berge Oral History Center in the Library, the Dr. John L. Vickers Green near the former Vickers Village, adjacent to the Center for the Arts and Business and Technology Building, and the Harold Z. Holmes Exercise Physiology laboratory in the Moberly Building. Finally, the Board recognized the contributions of Rachel Mollozzi and David Sloan. Ms. Mollozzi has graduated; the new student regent is Madelyn Street. Mr. Sloan resigned due to his appointment on another board. His position on the Board will be filled by Ms. Janie Miller, who has held a variety of high level positions in state government. VP Craig Turner was reappointed to the Board by Governor Beshear.
The EKU Board will next convene for a regular quarterly meeting on September 28. A special meeting will occur on October 12 to review proposals from presidential search consultants.
REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Summers
There will be an AAUP “Get Acquainted Tea” on Tuesday, September 25th from 3:30-5pm in the Teaching and Learning Center. All faculty interested in learning more about AAUP and the EKU Chapter are cordially invited.
PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice
Senator Vice shared a list of student success initiatives on campus.
- New Model for MAT 090-095 – More than 90 students tested out of Module A, some even moved to Module C.
- Cohort (learning communities) between ENG 101 and GSD 101 – We have 12 cohorts with a total of 168 undeclared students.
- Early Alert – 945 students were alerted. A total of 336 instructors participated in Early Alert, which is the highest total to date for faculty participation.
- Student Success Coaches – 67 administrators and staff are coaching 294 commuter students.
- 4-year Graduation Rate for Freshman Class of 2008 – 19.4 percent compared to 17.8 percent for the freshmen entering Fall 2007. (Our goal is for 45 percent of this class to graduate in six years.)
- The Implementation Team will continue meeting this year.
- The Faculty Task Force for Student Retention had its first meeting last week.
- Departments and Programs have made concerted (even unprecedented) efforts to welcome incoming freshmen.
- Faculty Stars – The complete list of faculty stars who were acknowledged by graduating seniors will be available on the Academic Affairs’ website. Congratulations to those faculty members listed!
- The Math Faculty will be reviewing MAT 098, 105, and 107 as part of its agenda during the Assurance of Learning Day on September 26.
EKU’s first annual Assurance of Learning Day will be held on September 26, 2012. This day will provide faculty the opportunity to discuss student learning in their programs.
In August, chairs were sent an electronic “Care Package” to help faculty plan and use the day wisely. Resource documents linked in that care package were designed to help with specific tasks, such as curriculum mapping and rubric design.
Also, three videos will be available for review prior to September 26. Two of the videos are available now at the following links. The third video will be forthcoming.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUUTKaM19Og – Process of curriculum mapping
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidumx5vll4 – Use of a capstone course to assess critical thinking
Senators are invited to join Senator Vice for lunch at noon on Wednesday, September 12, at the Fresh Food Company. Sign in at either register.
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:Academic Quality Committee. The committee plans to meet immediately after the Senate meeting today.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The orientation session for new senators was held prior to the Senate meeting today. Any new senators who were unable to attend may contact Senator Pressley to receive an orientation packet.
Senator Pressley reminded all committees to meet soon, elect chairs, and send her the names of the new chairs as soon as possible.
ADJOURNMENT:
Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 5:00 p.m.
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