Minutes for November 12, 2012
The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, November 12, 2012, in the South Ballroom of the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Pressley called the third meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.
The following members of the Senate were absent:
| M. Farley | C. Hagan | L. Heath* |
| E. McClees | M. Roberts | L. Summers* |
| A. Thieme* | J. Wang*^ | W. Zhuang* |
*Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT Marco Ciocca attended for J. Wang
Visitors to the Senate: Melinda Compton, Provost Office; Tina Davis, Registrar; Rick McGee, Council on Academic Affairs; Nancy McKenney, Library; Wayne Reynolds, AET; Sherry Robinson, Provost Office; Tim Ross, AET; Lori Wilson, Chemistry; Garett Yoder, General Education
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The October 1, 2012 minutes were approved as written.
REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Whitlock
The University presidents will meet Wednesday in Frankfort for a regular monthly meeting. State Budget Director Mary Lassiter has asked to address the group.
Jim Clark, Executive Director of Government Relations, has asked to be released from his position so that he can focus more attention on the budget for the e-campus programs. A search is underway to fill that vacancy.
Joseph Foster, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, has accepted a similar position at a private institution in Washington, D.C. He will be leaving EKU in early January.
According to the Military Times, EKU has once again been voted the best place in America for veterans to study. EKU has had steady growth in veteran enrollment in the last couple of years. In Fall 2010, there were 500 veterans enrolled at Eastern. That number has now increased to just over 1200.
A team from AACSB has been on campus this week to evaluate the status of programs in the School of Business for re-affirmation of accreditation.
Senator Whitlock will not be at the December Senate meeting. He and his wife Joanne will be leaving on November 28th for Tokyo to attend the Board of Directors meeting for the American Committee for KEEP (Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project). No university funds will be used for the trip; it is totally a personal expense.
The Commencement speakers for December’s graduation exercises will be Mr. John Hardy Tribble and Dr. Joseph Hamilton.
Revenues from the online courses have exceeded projections and the additional funds have been distributed to the colleges.
NEW BUSINESS:
Academic Credit Policy 4.2.3. Senator Pogatshnik moved approval of the Academic Credit Policy, seconded by Senator Frisbie. Motion carried.
Motion Opposing Motor Vehicle Use & Travel Requirement Regulations. Senator Pressley introduced the proposed motion for discussion. (supporting docs: letter 1, letter 2)
Senator Pogatshnik announced that the drafting team is in the process of updating both regulations based on the Senate’s recommendations from the October meeting. As such, Senator Pogatshnik suggested postponing further discussion of the proposed motion until the revised regulations are available for review. Senator Whitlock assured the senators that the revised regulations would come back to Senate for further deliberation before coming to the President’s office for approval.
Senator Kopacz moved to table further discussion until the December Senate meeting, seconded by Senator Nowak. Motion carried.
Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Senator Vice
Program Revisions
College of Arts & Sciences
- Minor in Archaeology
add two new courses to the program - Associate Degree in General Studies - Anthropology Concentration
Revise description to include two new options.
College of Education
- Master of Arts in Teaching - Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education
Replace CDF 747 with NSC 700.
College of Health Sciences
- Recreation and Park Administration - B.S. - Recreation Management and Programming Option
Add REC 480, and change REC 450 to 450W.
Information Item
- General Education Program Revision, Elements 4A and 4B
CAA Motion: Strike the restriction on repeated courses from other institutions replacing grades earned first at EKU. Motion carried. - Comprehensive Associate Degree Requirements Revision
Revise the minimum semester hours required at EKU from 16 to 15 hours. For any associate degree programs requiring greater than 60 hours, require the 25% standard as the minimum semester hour requirement at EKU.
Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-4, seconded by Senator Smith. Motion carried.
Items 5 and 6 were presented for information only and will return next month for action.
GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Pressley
The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met on Monday, October 29th to set the agenda for the November Faculty Senate meeting.
Dr. Sherry Robinson shared two policies that are ready for vetting (Academic Credit Policy and Evaluation of Non-Tenured Track Faculty). The Executive Committee was in agreement to list the Academic Credit Policy on the November Senate agenda. There were several issues raised concerning the Evaluation of Non-Tenured Track Faculty policy. Dr. Robinson agreed to make revisions and bring the policy back to the November Executive Committee meeting for further review.
Two consultants from Academic Search (Drs. Appleberry and Hauser) will meet with the Executive Committee on Monday, November 12th to explain how the presidential search process will work and to answer questions. Other faculty forums will be held on November 12th and 13th.
A letter expressing concerns about the presidential search committee from the Chairs Association, and the Executive Committee of Faculty Senate, was sent to the EKU Board of Regents on Friday, November 2nd. The letter and the response from Board Chairman Gary Abney were included in the Senate packet.
On Thursday, November 1st, Senator Pressley met with the efficiency consultant from Jim Fisher and Associates to answer various questions about faculty, staff and students at EKU. The report from this consultant will be available by the end of the calendar year and will be used to assist EKU’s next president with various decisions.
The Task Force met on Thursday, October 25, 2012. The Task Force heard presentations from Erin Barnett, Associate Director of First Year Courses, and Nickole Hale, Associate Director of Academic Initiatives in Housing. The two presenters gave overviews of first year student success courses, and living learning communities respectively.
Like several groups on campus, the Task Force was asked to be a part of the forums with Academic Search this semester. More information will be provided on the time, location and date of the forums.
On October 15th, the Task Force submitted a report to the Provost on the discussions and recommendations from its meetings. Recommendations include a careful review of DFW course reports, examination of the effectiveness of the University Drop Fee, and a plan for using programs that involve reading- across -the -curriculum.
REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Frisbie
The Board met in special session on October 12 for the purpose of interviewing search consulting firms who had submitted proposals in response to EKU’s rfp. The Board unanimously chose Academic Search.
Jim Appleberry will be the lead consultant from Academic Search. He will be aided by Carrie Besnette Hauser. Dr. Appleberry was present for the interview. As a former university president (of Northern Michigan University) and the former president of AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities), he knows his way around university environments and understands what being a university president is all about. Dr. Hauser’s experience lies more on the development/policy side of higher education. She, among other things, is the former President and CEO of Kaufman Scholars, Inc. and is currently a Senior Fellow with the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation.
Dr. Appleberry said a couple of quite interesting things. First, he noted that a search needs to do two things: 1) identify the next president and 2) prepare the university for the new president. Item #2 requires significant input from the university community. Thus, in his view, the small group meetings and forums that are currently being held are vital to helping the search committee define the needs of the university and the qualities that should be looked for in presidential candidates. Indeed, information developed in these group meetings/forums will become the backbone of the criteria matrix that will be developed against which candidates will be recruited and evaluated. Faculty, staff, and others from the university community really need to participate in the meetings and forums. The continuation of this thought is that as the search proceeds, it is essential that the university community be kept informed and as involved as possible. Until finalists are identified, there must be strict confidentiality about candidates. However, Dr. Appleberry notes the importance of keeping the university community apprised of the search’s progress as it proceeds.
The search committee will meet for the first time on November 13.
One other piece of business that was conducted by the Board was to approve modest increases in admission prices for the Hummel Planetarium. Work has begun there to retrofit the planetarium with new equipment. Essentially the planetarium -- both the true planetarium function and the IMAX-type projection function -- will be achieved using digital projectors being run by a single computer. Admission prices hadn’t been raised in a decade, and will still remain very reasonable. Look for the “new” planetarium to reopen in January.
REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Summers
The AAUP “get acquainted” meeting is scheduled for Wednesday from 3:30pm to 5pm in the Faculty Lounge in the Keen Johnson Building.
PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice
Senator Vice shared a table from the EKU Fact book which shows the 6-year goal for the Freshman Cohort Class of 2009.
While there is still a lot of work ahead, a number of programs are reaching the goal. To view specific programs to see how they are performing, see https://irserver.eku.edu/Reports/Factbook/and https://irserver.eku.edu/Reports/StudentSuccess/.
Dr. Larry Abele, Provost Emeritus at Florida State University, will meet with the Implementation Team in February.
On November 28, the Deans will review the Faculty Task Force’s recommendations along with the Retention and Tutoring work groups’ suggestions.
The Assurance of Learning Day summary report was shared with the senators. The date for the Fall 2013 Assurance of Learning Day is Friday, September 27.
In 2013, EKU will roll out fully online programs for the complete Graduate Nursing Suite, the OTD, and selected options in Education’s Teacher Leader Master’s degree.
A national search is underway to replace Dr. E. J. Keeley. Dean Sara Zeigler is chairing the search.
Join the Provost for lunch on Wednesday, if schedules permit, at noon in the Fresh Food Court just outside the Faculty Dining Room. Be sure to check in with the cashiers.
STRATEGIC PLANNING/FINANCIAL PLANNING COUNCIL: Senator Pressley
The Council met to discuss the current budget, as well as the budget for summer school. The summer school budget should clearly indicate the expenditures and revenues for both sessions, but that has not been the case in prior years. A request on getting better comparison data for summer school was requested.
The current admissions requirements were also discussed, and there was some dialogue on how to recruit students who meet GPA requirements, but who may not meet test score requirements.
STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Academic Quality Committee. Senator Marshall reported that the committee met on October 8th with members of the Faculty Authored textbook drafting team to discuss the issue of the “true cost” of customized textbooks. They provided the Committee with significant data and information of true textbook costs, which may be more expensive to students except for the first buyer. Alternate ways of providing materials to students were discussed, including Blackboard, EKU Libraries, and others. The Committee recommended that members of the textbook policy drafting team present the data to the Executive Committee to determine how to best disseminate this information to faculty.
The next committee meeting will be on November 26.
Informational Technology Committee. Senator Kilgore reported that the IT Committee plans to implement Microsoft Link, an integrated communication package which will integrate voice communication and digital communication. Currently, it is being tested in a couple of departments to see how the system functions.
Rights & Responsibilities Committee. Senator Maloley reported that the committee has developed a survey to solicit information from lecturers and senior lecturers. Deadline for feedback is November 30th. The committee will meet prior to the next Senate meeting to compile the data.
Welfare Committee. Senator Nowak was selected to serve as chair of the committee.
Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Forum. Senator Day reported that the forum is scheduled for November 26th in the EKU Center for the Arts Black Box Theater. Joe Gershtenson will be the moderator for the event. The committee is in the process of developing questions. Anyone with suggestions for questions should contact Senator Day or one of the other committee members.
ANNOUNCEMENT:
Nancy McKenney announced that the AAUP Chapter at Eastern will have an open fishbowl discussion on Challenges to the Professional Ethics of Professors on Wednesday at 3:30pm in the Teaching and Learning Center.
ADJOURNMENT:
Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 4:40 p.m.
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