Minutes for September 9, 2013

Program Revisions

College of Arts and Sciences

1. Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Spanish
   To change the core courses requirements for the program, require a "C" grade or higher and include SPA 492 as an exit requirement.
2. Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Spanish/Teaching
   To remove the department proficiency exam requirement from the core requirements, change the language to specify "three hours from 405, 406, or 407 ..."

College of  Education

3. Early Childhood Special Education (BS)
   Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education
   • Dropping SED 341 (Applied Behavior Analysis course) and using the SED 590/790 course (which covers the same content) in order to be more cost effective.
   • Adding CDS 525 to the core courses.
   • Moving SED 104 to Element 6 to keep the program at 120 hours after adding the new course.

College of Health Sciences

4. General Dietetics (BS)
   Add NFA 303 Nutrition Education and Counseling as a core course in the General Dietetics Program and drop FCS 303 from the General Dietetics Curriculum
5. Physical Education (MS)
   Drop NFA 717 and replace with PHE 717

College of Justice and Safety

6. Criminal Justice (BS)
   Increase elective hours in the BS degree to 27 and decrease the hours of supporting course requirements to 9.  Change the required elective courses to choose from each of three areas and the supporting courses to choose from courses in the School of SSEM.

University Programs

7. General Studies (BS)
   To add GSD 399 as an option to fulfill the ACCT requirement and to add GSD 399 as an option to fulfill the Exit requirement (substitute for GSD 450) requirement (substitute for GSD 450).

Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-7, seconded by Senator Corley.  Motion carried.

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Pressley

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met on Monday, August 26th to set the agenda for the September Faculty Senate meeting.

Dr. Sherry Robinson gave an update on the policy website and several policies that are up for review this year. The policy website now contains all of the new P&T forms and current language as it relates to the P&T process.

The Provost's Council passed the Lectureship Policy 4.6.10 on August 7^th with one change. The AAUP statement that included the timeline for notice of non-reappointment to Lecturers was deleted. The 30-day policy comment period will end on Saturday, September 14th. To view the policy draft or to make comments, visit www.policies.eku.edu/policies/30-day-comment. President Benson will review both the Faculty Senate version and the Provost’s Council version.

Drafting teams are currently in place for the policies on Termination of Faculty (4.6.16), Post Tenure Review (4.6.7), and Faculty Workload (4.7.3).

The General Education Committee met on Thursday, August 29^th and discussed possible items for review during this academic year. No action items were presented. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 12^th at 2pm.

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Thieme

The Board met on June 14 at 1 p.m.

• President Whitlock thanked the Board, EKU, and employees for allowing him to serve as the eleventh president of EKU. The Chair of the Board acknowledged President Whitlock and the President was given a standing ovation by members of the Board and all other persons present at the meeting.
• Janet Craig, Chair of the Finance and Planning Committee, presented the committee report to the Board. The one action item brought to the Board, from that committee, was the recommendation to approve the adoption of the 2013-2014 Budget for the University and Model Laboratory School. Faculty Regent Thieme made a motion to eliminate/suspend the Auto Registration item in the Budget for all employees and keep the parking fee at $30 for students. The motion failed (6-2). Given the failure of the proposed amendment, the original motion to approve the Budget passed by a vote of 7-1.
• The Executive and Academic Affairs Committee provided its committee report. The nine action agenda items were presented to the Board. All nine items passed by unanimous vote (except for the Personnel Action item - by law, the Faculty Regent is not permitted to vote on Personnel Actions and must abstain from this vote; however, the Staff Regent and Student Regent can vote on Personnel issues).
• Madelyn Street (Student Regent) and Gary Abney (Board Member) were provided Resolutions of Appreciation for their service to the Board. Gary Abney was granted Board Emeritus status.

The next meeting is scheduled for October 28.

Senator Thieme urged senators to become more vocal on important issues and to find a way to make their voices heard. She suggested one approach might be to create a work group of interested faculty who could review current issues and report their findings back to the full Senate.  Senator Vice voiced her support for the work group.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice

The table below shows the unofficial enrollment data as of September 5, 2013.  (Official numbers won't be posted until October 15th.)

Provided by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness

Dr. Dee Fink, international author and consultant in higher education, will be on campus in February to meet with deans and chairs regarding how to expand efforts for faculty development. Interested faculty will also be invited to his workshop on course design. The exact date is still being determined.

A researcher from the Education Advisory Board will visit campus in late October to meet with the Implementation Team, chairs, and others interested in the current trends and threats in higher education for schools like EKU.

The 2nd Annual Assurance of Learning Day is scheduled for Friday, September 27.

As a result of continued focus on student success, a 4-Week Progress Report will replace Early Alert this Fall. This report will provide an opportunity for instructors to indicate problem areas in attendance and quality of work and/or participation. The deadline for reporting is Sunday, September 15. This report is important particularly for 100- and 200-level courses. The link to submit class reports will be found in the Faculty Services menu of EKUDirect.

Efforts to enhance the success of students in developmental math classes are paying off. In Fall 2012, MAT 090 and MAT 095 were each divided into three one-credit modules, with students progressing from one module to the next upon successful completion of each module. Two-semester pass rates for MAT 090 and MAT 095 climbed to 91 percent and 83 percent, respectively, for 2012-13. Further, 23 of the 24 students enrolled in MAT 095 this summer passed all three modules, and the remaining student needs only to pass the third module. Similarly, 13 of the 15 students in MAT 090 this summer passed.

Math faculty continue to assist more than 50 high schools throughout the region in designing and implementing transitional math courses to help students prepare for college courses. That initiative has resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of students requiring developmental math courses when enrolled at the University and a significant cost savings for students and their families.

Academic Advising and Enrollment Management continue to make progress on improving academic advising:

• Professional advisors from across campus have developed a common occupational definition and job description, which is applicable to all EKU professional advisors, to create common job expectations and professional development curriculum for professional advising.
• Members from the Education Advisory Board have met with most department chairs to review curriculum milestones impacting student success. Advisors will be able to appropriately guide students in majors and course selections as the Student Success Collaborative is fully implemented.
• The University Advising Office, with the assistance of the college advisors and the pre-professional advisor, helped students to confirm or change their major during the summer orientation events.
• University Programs, First Year Courses, The Center for Career and Co-op, and University Advising are working together to enhance the career component of the GSD 101 orientation course in order to assist undecided students in selecting a major. The ground work and redesign is in the final stages, and the initiative will begin this Fall.

For the first time, EKU is implementing a coordinated tutoring model this Fall. As a result of seeking the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) tutoring certification process of Academic Readiness and Testing is reviewing the existing tutoring structure to determine how best to strengthen, expand, and coordinate tutoring services across campus. CRLA credentialing is open to EKU tutors who undergo ten hours of specialized training a semester.

Accudemia tutoring software is live this Fall, which provides the following benefits:

• Faculty and advisors can refer students for tutoring services online
• Students can schedule tutoring appointments online
• Student use of tutoring services can be tracked

Student Accounting has simplified the billing statement to make it easier to read. It is also now provided in a PDF format, so students can easily share it with their parents, and includes a copy of their current class schedule for reference.

Student loan interest rates for the coming school year have now been set. Undergraduates can take Federal Direct loans at an interest rate of 3.86 percent, which is a drop from 6.8 percent. Direct loans for graduate students decreased from 6.8 percent to 5.4 percent, and PLUS loans decreased from 7.9 percent to 6.4 percent.

The Campus Food Pantry is on track to open this October. The Pantry is a collaborative effort with Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, and Enrollment Management to provide dry and canned goods for students on campus who are struggling with issues of hunger. A campus apartment on the first floor across from the Student Recreation Center is being cleaned and readied for the project. Food donations were collected from the residence halls at the end of the term, and will be sorted and moved to the apartment soon. A partnership has been formed with Anthony Lowery at God’s Outreach of Madison County to collaborate and ensure an adequate supply of food is available through-out the year. A foundation account is being created to allow for donations, and a board is being established to guide the efforts and ensure long-term success.

On August 19 and 20, University Advising launched its inaugural Ask Me! Campaign to welcome new freshmen and returning students to “Colonel Country.” Over 200 volunteers from various departments and student organizations were located at twelve strategic locations across campus to welcome students and provide directions.

Faculty senators will again be invited to lunch each Wednesday following Faculty Senate meetings. However, the lunch with Senators is canceled this week due to a meeting in Louisville with the Chief Academic Officers of the state universities.

STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION:  Sarah Carpenter

Student Government is working on the following initiatives this year:

1.  Increase campus involvement.
   1. Encourage students to attend events by offering prizes at the end of the year to whoever attends the most events
   2. Create a spirit day during the week to wear maroon to show school support
   3. Encourage students to trade in shirts from other schools to receive an EKU maroon shirt. Whoever attends the most events will win prizes at the end of the year.
   4. Working with the Homecoming Committee to develop more student traditions.
2. Unify the four branches of student government for better transparency and work on recruitment through rebranding
3. Improve working relationship with administrators, faculty, and staff.
4. Improve the campus dining experience
   1. Work with Financial Affairs and the Colonel Card office to establish the Colonel Cash program.
   2. Establish different food options for students with special dietary needs.
5. Improve shuttle service for students
   1. Working with different groups on campus to help determine what students really need in a shuttle service
6. Hold a fall campus safety walk to identify areas of concern
   1. The goal is to have greater faculty, staff, and administrator participation so that concerns identified are more likely to move forward.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS: