Minutes for October 7, 2013

Program Revisions

College of Arts and Sciences

1. Public Administration (MA)
   To waive the GRE requirement for applicants with an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher.

College of  Health Sciences

2. Environmental Health Science (BS)
   To decrease the number of credit hours of EHS 463 from 6 to 3 and change hours in core and free electives

4. Physical Education (BS)
   Decrease the number of credit hours of EHS 463 from 6 to 3.  Change hours in core and free electives.
5. Recreation & Park Administration (BS) - Therapeutic Recreation Concentration
   To add REC 520 to the Therapeutic Recreation option to reflect the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification current requirements.

Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-4, seconded by Senator Day.  Motion carried.

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT: Senator Pressley

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met on Monday, September 23rd to set the agenda for the October Faculty Senate meeting.

Dr. Sherry Robinson gave the following policy updates:

• Drafting teams are continuing to work on the Termination of Faculty (4.6.16), Post Tenure Review (4.6.7), and Faculty Workload (4.7.3) policies. Based on discussions held by the Termination of Faculty drafting team, a Financial Exigency drafting team has also been formed.
• The Executive Committee also reviewed the draft policy on the Faculty/Staff Tuition Waiver, and the Return to Work policy. These policies need further review and editing prior to Senate review.
• Dr. Robinson is working with the Rights and Responsibilities Committee of Faculty Senate, and the Lectureship Policy (4.6.10) drafting team to reach a consensus on the issue of notification of non-renewal for lecturers. While some progress has been made, there are still some areas for concern on both sides of the issue. The Provost Council recommended re-examining the issue through conversations with departments (chairs and faculty), particularly those departments who use lectureships.

Senator Deanna Kasitz is no longer at EKU and cannot serve as the Part Time Faculty Representative. Senator Jacqueline Kohl has agreed to serve for 2013-14 academic year.

Senator Richard Day will again lead the effort to organize a legislative forum this year. He will work with Senator Janna Vice (Provost), Mr. David McFadden (Government Relations) and others to determine a possible theme and agenda for the forum. The date and time of the forum will depend on the availability of the invited panel members.

REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Scarambone

COSFL met on Friday, October 4. The meeting was divided into two main parts—a report from the Council on Postsecondary Education and a discussion on part-time or contingency faculty.

The first part, the CPE report, focused on four main topics.

1. Diversity. CPE is trying to establish a general plan for all universities based on Murray State’s current model. However, they haven’t determined what the definition of diversity should be. CPE will continue those discussions at the November meeting.
2. Deadline to Set Tuition. CPE has decided to change the decision-making deadline for tuition from April to the preceding December to allow more time for implementation for the fall semester.
3. Budget. The budget was broken down into four parts.
   1. College and Career Readiness ($18M reserved). These funds are for underprepared students and reserved for schools with a higher teacher production. The higher the teacher production the more funds awarded.
   2. Research and Economic Development ($15M reserved). These funds are reserved for the Bucks for Brains program with UK getting two thirds and U of L getting one third.
   3. Degree Production ($30M). Funds received will be based on number of degrees awarded. Each degree will carry a certain weight (i.e., Associate = 1, Bachelor = 1.4, PhD. = 1.9. However, if a bachelor’s degree is awarded to a low income minority student who participates in a STEM program, the weight is the same as that of a PhD. So different components can result in a different weight which would affect the level of funding awarded. Concerns were voiced that as community colleges have fewer credits required and therefore award degrees more often that they would receive more money. This will be further discussed at the November CPE meeting.
   4. Adult Learner Initiatives (no amount specified). Basically this is money to develop “free online courses for adults” to better prepare them in math and English for college. This does not replace programs schools may already have in place. If schools are already developing such programs, they may be eligible for some of these funds.
4. Capital Requests ($600M). CPE is changing it from a two-year plan to a six-year plan and have requested $600M over a ten-year period which will be $6M a year for building funds (53% for repairing buildings and 47% for new constructions). Schools have already submitted their priority lists and decisions will be based on those priorities. In addition, CPE is requesting a 6 to 7% increase on funding for the next two years. There is a 20% chance that the increase is approved, a 60% chance that funding remains the same, and a 20% chance that the budget could be cut. CPE meets tomorrow to continue those discussions.

The second part of the COSFL meeting was a discussion on part-time faculty and contingency faculty.

• The main topic was how the new health care law will influence part-time faculty. Other than Murray State, it seems to be a non-issue for most schools.
• There was additional debate on what the COSFL should do about part-time faculty. Some members feel that part-time faculty have little incentive to perform well because of low pay and poor benefits and therefore, students are cheated. Others feel that part-time faculty give more attention to students than full-time faculty and that they are more concerned with student success.
• After a discussion about full-time faculty versus part-time faculty, the conclusion was reached that there is a two-part issue. First, adjunct faculty should be treated better. Second, quality control should be looked at overall, not just for adjunct faculty.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice

As announced last week, President Benson has allocated $1.5M for new faculty lines. The deans established their priorities and then worked collaboratively to develop the following four criteria for requesting new faculty lines:

1. Potential growth.
2. Retention and graduation of students.
3. Accreditation requirements. Some programs have accreditation requirements that pertain to certain faculty/student ratio or program quality
4. Special niche programs.

One of the ways the new faculty lines will be used is to provide more full-time lecturers in English which will help to reduce the number of part-time positions needed in that area.

With the increase of new faculty lines and the reduction of part-time faculty lines, it should be possible to increase the stipend for part-time faculty.

In spring 2014, The Noel Studio and the Department of English will be collaborating in a pilot-type program to provide 10 writing Fellows to work with 10 part-time faculty in English.

The 2nd Annual Assurance of Learning Day was a success. Provost Vice thanked all the deans, chairs, and faculty for their participation.

Provost Vice thanked all the faculty who provided the first official 4th Week Progress Report for EKU undergraduate students and the staff and faculty who followed up the referrals. Registrar Davis reports that the general response far exceeded previous participations for the Early Alert system. Feedback indicates that employing a universal instructor-feedback mechanism, activated early in the term, is welcomed by both students and instructors. Tutoring services received 1,883 referrals from instructors, with over 300 of those being for student assistance in mathematics.

Below are Enrollment Management updates for Fall 2013:

• Freshmen Fall 2012 retention to Fall 2013 is 69.6 percent, up 5.5 percent from last year.
• Average high school GPA increased for the third consecutive year to 3.20 – a 4 percent increase since Fall 2010, when it was 3.08.
• Average Composite ACT increased for the third consecutive year to 21.8 – up from 21.1 in Fall 2010.
• Enrollment of New Freshmen from Kentucky was up 10.8 percent with a 24 percent growth in the number of those students receiving a Merit Scholarship. The largest percentage growth occurred with the highest award given to students with at least a 32 ACT and 3.75 high school GPA. The Excellence Award is up 100 percent from Fall 2012.
• Overall New Freshmen enrollment is up 5.3 percent.
• Increased growth in many ethnic groups enrolled from last fall, including the Latino population being up 7.3 percent and Black or African American student population increasing 3.5 percent.
• Graduate enrollment is up 3.8 percent with New Graduate Student enrollment being up 21.9 percent.

Faculty are invited to attend a presentation by Education Advisory Board researcher Matt Pellish on Monday, October 21, 1-4 p.m., at Perkins. Matt will be presenting the Advisory Board’s national “best practices” research regarding the following topics:

• A Business Model Under Threat - The major themes moving through higher education over the last 12-18 months, mostly focused on the ways in which MOOCs have forced a larger debate around the higher education business model.
• Understanding the Enrollment Downturn - National trends of traditional students have changed in the past few years, with projections having important consequences to regional recruitment, student success, and finances. He will discuss those trends and their effects on college and university enrollment and student success planning.
• Beyond the Enrollment Playbook - With continued competition for the traditional 18-22 year old core undergraduate, institutions must diversify and explore new student populations. This section discusses new sustainable frontiers including: Low Income, High Ability Students; English Language Learners; Community College Transfers; Adult Degree Completers.
• The Online Opportunity - Discussions on demographics, enrollment trends, and new programs inevitably lead to incorporation of additional strategy discussions around Online Education. This section will discuss the planning, costs, benefits, and drawbacks to consider, as well as the infrastructure and planning needs necessary for success in online education delivery in higher education.

Senator Vice shared a handout which provides the context and an update on university policies that are currently in the process of being either revised or developed affecting Academic Affairs and faculty. Those policies include: Post-Tenure Review, Termination of Faculty (new policy), and Faculty Workload Regulation.

The new CPE Program Review is being launched this fall. EKU has 38 academic programs currently under this review. Our approach is to develop and maintain ongoing data-mining tools to aid departments in this systematic review. In collaboration with the deans, chairs, Institutional Research/Effectiveness, and the Data Review Workgroup (which was established to assist with Program Review for the Strategic Budget Reallocation Task Force) a “Departmental Snapshot” has been developed to assist with identifying the productivity of each academic department.

To provide accurate input of each faculty member’s workload, all faculty will be asked this semester to verify a “Faculty Analysis Sheet,” which has been a long standing practice for capturing instructional and reassigned time. This process will allow for an accurate analysis of each department’s faculty workload, which will then be aggregated for the Departmental Snapshot.

Please join the Provost for lunch on Wednesday, October 9, 12-1:00 p.m., Fresh Food Company, Powell.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:

• An initial meeting for the review of the course and facilitator expectations
• The provision of instructions and/or rubrics that guide the fair and equitable grading of course assignments
• Periodic monitoring of facilitator performance
• Periodic feedback on performance with recommendations for improvement
• A facilitator evaluation upon conclusion of the course, administered by e-Campus (if a full facilitator model is used)