Minutes for March 7, 2016

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, March 7, 2016 in the South Ballroom in the Keen Johnson Building. Senator Day called the sixth meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The following members were absent:

A. Collier*	B. Dyer	I. El-Amouri
D. Embury	D. Givens*^	S. Hoose
P. Kopacz*	D. Mohallatee	E. Morrett
T. Reed	K. Smith

^* Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT John Taylor attended for D. Givens

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Senator Day welcomed the students from JOU 401 Public Affairs Reporting to the Senate. The students will be tweeting at #EKUfacultysenate.

Senator Day announced that the Payroll department and University Counsel have redrafted the Event Speaker Agreement form and removed the objectionable portions. Now if an event speaker thinks they need liability insurance, it’s up to them to make that determination. There may still be minor revisions made to the form.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The February 1, 2016 minutes were approved as written.

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Benson

EKU and public higher education in Kentucky are campaigning to stave off cuts to appropriations that would endanger our ability to provide the academic programs and support services students need and deserve. The university presidents met with both House and Senate leadership last week. In addition, each campus president presented to the Post-Secondary Budget Review Subcommittee. EKU’s presentation is available for review at:

http://president.eku.edu/sites/president.eku.edu/files/files/
Presentations/EKU%20Budget%20Presentation%20
Feb%202016.pdf

As state resources continue to dwindle, donations for the first six months of this fiscal year are well ahead of past performance. Private gifts and pledges for the current campaign total $11.5M which is a 40% increase in the last four months alone.

There will be a budget forum tomorrow in Brock Auditorium at 3pm for the campus community. The forum will be videotaped and a link will be made available after the forum for those unable to attend.

More than 1,200 individuals have signed up for the EKU version of the LiveSafe mobile safety app since its launch last month. The app is available for use by the whole campus community, including parents and visitors. It’s available for download on both the Apple and Android platforms.

Check out the latest edition of the alumni magazine available from the new alumni website. The magazine was developed completely in-house this year.

Upcoming spring semester events:

• The Idea Festival, April 21-22 at the EKU Center for the Arts, will be headlined by two prominent keynote speakers: Jad Abumrad of NPR’s Radio Lab and author Rich DeMillo, noted for his work on the transformation in higher education.
• On April 30, EKU will host the first-ever game design conference in Kentucky. The event, to be held in the Perkins Building, is a celebration of game developers from the Midwest and southeastern U.S. and an opportunity for them to network with leaders and peers in the field of game design and development.
• Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas will hold its annual supply chain conference and awards event at the EKU Center for the Arts on May 24. More than 500 leaders representing some 250 global suppliers, as well as approximately 100 global Hitachi leaders, are expected to attend the conference.

It’s not just our programs that continue to distinguish themselves on a national stage: individual students are doing the same. Meghan Smith, a sophomore marketing major from Berea, recently received a $10,000 prize for winning an episode of “Cake Wars” on the Food Network. Another student, Mekaella Vailu’u, an ASL and English interpretation major from southern California, is now interning as an interpreter at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The documentary film, “The Essential Eastern”, will air on 10 occasions on KET and KET Kentucky from March 28 through April 18.

Provost Janna Vice will retire at the end of June after 40 years of service. Dr. Vice’s contributions will remain an important part of our institution’s history and her outstanding work and unfailing optimism have done so much to enrich it. An announcement will be sent later about a retirement reception for her.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

LMS Evaluation Update.  Dean Gardner reported that four demonstrations for Canvas were scheduled last week for faculty, staff and students. The video and an evaluation form are available on the LMS Review website for those who were not able to attend.

Demonstrations for Blackboard are scheduled for March 24 and 25. A reminder email will be sent out prior to the next demos.

Faculty may want to check with colleagues at other universities in the state to see how well they have transitioned to a new LMS. Murray and the University of Kentucky have selected Canvas; and Murray has already migrated fully.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Policy 4.3.13 – Course by Special Arrangement. Senator O’Brien moved, seconded by Senator Thieme, to approve Policy 4.3.13. Motion carried.

NEW BUSINESS:

Policy 4.6.13 – Adjunct Faculty. Policy 4.6.13 was presented for a first-read only today and will return for action in April.

Policy 4.6.2 – Affiliated Adjunct Faculty. Policy 4.6.2 was presented for first-read only today and will return for action in April.

Policy 4.6.14 – Evaluation of Adjunct Faculty. Policy 4.6.14 was presented for first-read only today and will return for action in April.

Information Technology Committee Motion. Senator Shi suggested postponing discussion on the motion until April since the committee chair was unable to attend the meeting today.

New Faculty Resource for Alternative Instruction. Senator Carpenter introduced a new resource, the Academic Continuity Plan, which will help faculty develop alternative means of instruction for unexpected schedule interruptions. The ACP website is in the early stages of development but there are already several teaching samples available as well as tips and tutorials for incorporating technology into the classroom.

Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Senator Vice 

Program Revisions:

College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Chemistry

1. Chemistry B.A. - Remove BIO 100 in the Supporting Course Requirements for Chemistry Teaching.

Department of Government

2. Political Science B.A. - Add two new courses to the diversity requirement, POL 346 and 356.

Department of History

3. History B.A. - Add 3+2 Accelerated Degree Program.

Department of Physics and Astronomy

4. Physics B.A. - Add PHY 211 as a required core course for all physics majors, allow engineering physics majors to earn credit toward completion of their program for PHY 411 or PHY 412, remove EET 305 as an option for engineering physics majors, and adjust hours as necessary.
5. Physics/Teaching B.S. - Add PHY 211 (4 credits) as a required course for physics teaching majors, reducing the number of optional hours in the core from 14 to 10.

Department of Psychology

6. Psychology B.S. Forensic Psychology Concentration - Replace PSY 466 with PSY 566. PSY 466 is being dropped and replaced with proposed new course PSY 566.
7. Specialist in Psychology Psy.S. School Psychology Program - 1) Add PSY 864 "Child Psychopathology” as a required course, Change the required Educational Foundations from 9 hours to 6 hours, Remove the specific Education Course options and replace with 6 hours of College of Education Electives: SED 775, SED 778, SED 790, 800, and EMS 842.
8. Doctor in Psychology Psy.D. - Correct typographical errors in program description; remove PSY 827(1) from Core Courses and add PSY 818 and 863; adjust total degree hours.

College of Business and Technology
Department of Accounting, Finance, and Information Systems

9. Accounting B.B.A. - Replace ACC 350 in curriculum with new course, ACC 251.
10. Certificate in Accounting - Replace ACC 350 with new course, ACC 251.

College of Education
Department of American Sign Language and Interpreter Education I

11. American Sign Language (ASL) Studies Minor - Clarify grade and GPA requirements; Add courses as elective options; Remove courses that are no longer being taught
12. American Sign Language (ASL) and English Interpretation B.S. - Revise language related to transfer policy to reflect change in ASL 210, and the addition of ASL 105, 106, and 205; Add “Overall GPA” and ASL 106 to the admission criteria and increase the grade requirement of ASL classes from a “C” to a “B”; Increase the grade requirements for skill-based ASL courses and increase the requirement to have a 2.75 GPA (previously 2.5) in the Retention and Progression in the Major section. (Also an editorial change to the course title of “ITP 470 Pre-Practicum” to “Practicum I” and “ITP 495 Practicum” to “Practicum II”.); Update the “Major Requirements” section to add new courses and to remove other courses; Add the requirement that students must take the SLPI/ASLPI assessment before graduating. 
13. Deaf Studies B.A. - Add ASL 106, and 10 hours of participation in Deaf community events; add the new Deaf Studies ACCT course; add the grade requirements for graduation from the program. Remove the level requirement for SLPI or ASLPI language assessments; add new courses, remove some courses; Under Total Hours, add a note regarding the University upper division requirement.

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

14. Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) - School Medial Librarian - Change course requirement from LIB 863 to LIB 841

Department of Special Education

15. Master of Arts in Education (MAEd) - Communication Disorders - Include CDS 720 as a core course for Communication Disorders Program

College of Health Sciences
Department of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing

16. Master of Science in Nursing M.S.N. - update update the language of the admission GPA Criteria for the Master of Science in Nursing program.

Department of Environmental Health Science and Medical Laboratory Science

17. Environmental Health Science B.S. - Indicate EHS 300 Water Supplies & Waste Disposal has changed to EHS 300W –writing intensive course, Add EHS 345 Advanced Industrial Hygiene to Core, Add GEO 353 Geographic Information System to support, Add GEO 100 to Support as it is a pre-requisite for GEO 353, Decrease Free elective hours.

Department of Health Promotion and Administration

18. Public Health B.S. - Revise the program by moving courses between the core courses and the concentration courses; Add a new Pre-Professional Concentration
19. Public Health Accelerated B.S. and M.P.H. 3+2 Duel Degree Program - Revise the undergraduate portion of the 3+2 degree program by moving courses between the core courses and the concentration courses; Add a new Pre-Professional Concentration to the undergraduate degree portion of the BS & MPH Public Health Accelerated 3+2 Dual Degree Program.

Department of Occupational Science and Therapy

20. Occupational Therapy Doctorate O.T.D. - revise admission requirements; revise Program Requirements to reflect changes for accelerated entry from MS to OTD and BS to OTD.
21. Occupational Science B.S. - revise program outcomes
22. Occupational Therapy M.S. - revise admission requirements in various concentrations; update Core Requirements in Post-Professional concentration.

College of Justice and Safety
Department of School of Safety and Security and Emergency Management

23. Homeland Security B.S. - revise program admission requirements; revise core course offerings and supporting courses; revisions provide more flexibility to the students in the core and supporting courses and allows them to better focus on one of the three pillars of the program: disaster management, intelligence studies or security operations (in the form of minors and certificates).
24. Minor in Security Management - Rename the existing minor in Security Management the “Minor in Security Operations”; update Elective course options.
25. Minor in Emergency Management - Rename the existing minor in Emergency Management to the “Minor in Disaster Management”; update course requirements and elective course options.
26. Certificate in Emergency Management - rename the existing Certificate in Emergency Management the “Certificate in Disaster Management”; revise course requirements and Elective course options.
27. Minor in Homeland Security - revise course requirements: replace HLS 225 with HLS 201
28. Certificate in Homeland Security - Revise the existing university Certificate in Homeland Security to reflect changes in BS in Homeland Security.
29. Associate of General Studies (A.G.S.) Homeland Security Concentration - revise course requirements removing HLS 225 and adding HLS 301.
30. Associate of General Studies (A.G.S.) Security Management Concentration - revise Concentration title to “Security Operations Concentration”; list required General Education Courses for students planning to later enroll in the B.S. Homeland Security program.

University Programs

31. Associate of General Studies A.G.S., Anthropology Concentration, Sociology Concentration, History Concentration - Add courses to Anthropology & Sociology Concentrations (by request of ANSW); Revise course numbers for History Concentration to reflect new HIS course numbering.

Program Suspensions:

College of Business and Technology
Department of Applied Engineering and Technology (AETM)

32. Graphic Communications Management B.S. - faculty not being replaced due to retirements, low enrollments, and graduates not finding employment in the field.
33. Minor in Digital Imaging Design - faculty not being replaced due to retirements, low enrollments, and graduates not finding employment in the field.
34. Minor in Web Publishing - faculty not being replaced due to retirements, low enrollments, and graduates not finding employment in the field.

Policy and Processes Information Items:

35. Transcript Notations: Expulsion Language - Proposing the addition of new Catalog language regarding transcript notations for student academic standing. Specific language is being proposed to define expulsion and to clarify that expulsion would be indicated on transcripts.
36. Degree Conferral Dates, Revisions - Add language to the Undergraduate Catalog to indicate the degree conferral date for the Winter Term. Add specific conferral date for the Summer term.

On behalf of CAA, Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-34.  Motion carried.

Items 35-36 were presented for a first reading and will return for action later.

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

REPORT FROM SENATE CHAIR: Senator Day

Nominations will be taken for Senate Chair at the April meeting. Senators are reminded that the Faculty Senate Chair is elected from all members who have previously served on the Senate. This includes new members who are not currently serving but who have served in prior years. If a departmental election is to be held for a new Senator, it should be done before the March 21st meeting of the Executive Committee so that the names of those eligible for Chair can be circulated. This includes Senators whose terms have expired and any who know they will need a permanent replacement for the next year.

Last month Senator Swain raised a new issue for Senate consideration. It appears that some Eastern students have been hired by a website called Study Soup to “take notes” (which in some cases includes actually taking and posting a professor’s actual PowerPoint notes) and posting them on the website for sale. The Executive Committee decided that the best approach would be the drafting of a specific policy that would take into consideration issues related to academic integrity, commercial activity on campus, and copyright infringement. Dr. Robinson will form a drafting team in the fall.

The faculty should be aware of increased security measures on campus. One hundred new video cameras are being added to the 183 existing cameras on campus in an attempt to mitigate campus threats and increase security. The new system can hold 30-days of recorded data. Active monitoring of video is possible when necessary but it is not happening routinely.

Look for an announcement soon on the opening of two new residence halls: Martin Hall and an as-yet-unnamed new hall. The two residence halls will house 1,100 students (a net increase of about 100 beds) along with study space, laundry, classrooms, and faculty apartments. The new residence halls are targeted for opening in the fall of 2017.

A field test of eXplorance Blue (an option that could replace IDEA) is presently underway. One hundred ten faculty members are test-driving the system over 310 courses this spring. There is greater flexibility in questions used in Blue and a faculty Question Development Group is presently writing and reviewing questions for the student survey. Blue will return student input data one week after final grades are posted.

The University Assessment Committee has changed its structure. It is now called the Academic Planning and Assessment Committee. The new committee retained its usual faculty membership. The committee is presently conducting in-depth reviews of 150 academic programs, based on the SACSCOC principle of “meaningful change,” which they hope to complete by the end of March. Program coordinators will be asked to review the data during the Assurance of Learning Day in the fall.

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Thieme

Senator Thieme thanked the faculty for the opportunity to serve as a member of the Board of Regents.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice

EKU offered 53 courses during this year’s Winter Term, with classes from every college and University Programs. A total of 278 students enrolled in a variety of classes, including both general education and upper division courses. A number of students were able to complete their graduation requirements during Winter Term.

Thanks to all faculty who submitted a 4th Week Progress Report this semester. There was 81 percent participation for Spring 2016, one of the highest overall response rates to date.

Four EKU faculty members were named 2015 Outstanding Instructor in First Year Courses (FYC) during an awards ceremony held on February 18.

Recipient	Award Category
Krista Kimmel	College-Specific Student Success Seminars
Steve Fohl	Learning Communities
April Barnes	GSD 101
Ashley Sweat	New FYC Instructor

In April, Dr. Peggy Maki will present ways to assess 21st Century students in her workshop, Real-time Student Assessment: Assuring Students’ Equitable Achievement of High-Quality Program and Degree Outcomes. Faculty will have two opportunities to attend this workshop on Monday, April 11 in the O’Donnell Auditorium, Whitlock Building. The morning session will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will be repeated at 1:30 p.m. Pre-register at http://studio.eku.edu/maki-registration.

The EAB (formerly The Education Advisory Board) is hosting two free upcoming webinar opportunities. Anyone interested in participating in these webinars is invited to attend on the dates below.

Defining the Faculty Role in Student Success Part 1 (March 22) 1-2 p.m., Martin Room, Coates Building
How academic leaders can arm faculty with tools to make better curricular decisions, calibrate academic policies to eliminate unnecessary barriers to student persistence, and smooth the transition to new advising models.

Individual Responsibilities to Guide Institutional Change (Defining the Faculty Role in Student Success Part 2) (March 24) 1-2 p.m., Martin Room, Coates Building Strategies to help faculty enhance the learning experience, identify early signs of student risk, and mentor at-risk student populations. The webinar will also look at how some institutions are instilling accountability for student success outcomes among distributed units—a perennial challenge for any central administration.

In Fall 2016, IDEA, our vendor for course evaluations, will partner with Campus Labs to move to a digital only service and will change their pricing structure, more than doubling EKU’s current expenditure on evaluation tools. In response, the Professional Development Workgroup recommended piloting Explorance Blue in 2016 as an alternative to IDEA for teaching evaluations. E-Campus already uses Explorance for course evaluations in online programs. The Explorance Blue pilot is currently underway across campus, with 310 courses and 114 faculty across all five college participating in the trial. Pilot participants will receive their reports within one week of posting final grades. An IDEA/Explorance comparison chart is available in the full Provost report.

Upcoming campus dates:

1. Tuesday, March 8, 3 p.m. – President Benson’s Open Budget Forum, Brock Auditorium, Coates Building
2. April 11-15 – Scholarship Week (See: Schedule)
3. Monday, April 11 – Dr. Peggy Maki, O’Donnell Auditorium, Whitlock Building - Pre-register at http://studio.eku.edu/maki-registration. (See: flyer).
4. Friday, May 20 – 2016 Pedagogicon, Third Annual
   The 2016 Pedagogicon, hosted by the Noel Studio and the Teaching and Learning Center and sponsored by the CPE, is an intensive one-day conference focused on teaching and learning. The conference theme, “Exploring High-Impact Educational Practices Using Scholarly and Creative Teaching,” encourages attendees to examine and highlight those strategies of high-impact educational practices that promote scholarly and creative teaching in highly effective instruction. For more information, go to http://www.studio.eku.edu/2016-pedagogicon.
5. Friday, September 30, 2016 – Assurance of Learning Day
6. Monday, October 17, 2016 – Annual Institutional Effectiveness Reports, Due Date

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Academic Quality Committee. Senator Howell announced that the committee is still seeking faculty feedback on ways to ensure the quality of online teaching, specifically in stand-alone courses. Feedback can be directed to matthew.howell@eku.edu.

The committee met with e-Campus and IDC in February. They have created a number of resources for e-Campus and stand-alone online courses. In addition, they are in the process of developing templates which should make it easier to have quality online courses that meet QM standards.

Budget Committee. Senator Miller reported that the committee continues to view ways to save money on campus and plans to share recommendations with the administration soon.

Elections & University Nominations Committee. Senator Irvin reported that mid-way through the Faculty Regent Election process there were some inconsistencies discovered in the procedural language. Those issues were addressed, new ballots distributed to all eligible faculty, and voting was extended until March 4. The new faculty regent should be announced soon.

Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Senator Mason presented a report of the data collected from the shared governance survey.

Based on the findings, the committee makes the following recommendations:

1. The university administration considers the establishment of a university Ombuds, a confidential, impartial, independent resource to mediate and discuss issues in response to faculty’s expressed concerns in the interest of promoting civility, mutual respect, and ethical conduct.
2. Shared governance at EKU as it relates to all areas including facilities, budget, academics, non-academics, hiring, and evaluations should be clearly defined and posted on the Faculty Senate website.
3. As consistent application of policies are key to building trust, administrators and faculty should institute and employ clear policies on shared governance that are publicly posted and easy to access for all employees in an academic unit (e.g. college and/or department policies on hiring new faculty and chairs, administrator evaluation policies, etc.). These should be consistently applied at all relevant academic levels.
4. In order to encourage increased trust between faculty and administrators, all faculty within an academic unit (e.g. department, college) should be informed of the results of the annual administrator evaluation of their Chair/department head/Dean at the end of each Spring semester. This notification should include general information on the results of the evaluation (i.e. the assessed strengths/weaknesses of the evaluated performance).
5. As faculty voices are vital to shared governance, all university committees (regular, ad hoc, policy drafting, hiring, and advisory) should include a variety of faculty, and their numbers should be fairly balanced with administrator membership.
6. Faculty perceptions of shared governance should continue to be documented and analyzed using empirical evidence. The Shared Governance Survey should be administered to all full-time faculty every three years by the Rights and Responsibilities Committee and results presented to Faculty Senate and the President’s Council within the same academic year.

The committee plans to present a motion or resolution to the Senate by May on the establishment of a university ombudsperson.

Rules Committee. Senator Neugebauer reported that the committee is working with University Counsel to craft new language in part 7 of the faculty handbook to address faculty-at-large meetings.

The committee is also working on additional changes to part 7 of the faculty handbook and should have one or two motions to present at the March Executive Committee meeting.

Faculty Welfare Committee.  Senator Spigelman stated that the committee is still reviewing summer school and summer pay. So the two big issues seem to be the fact that student enrollment is lower for summer school which means there is less money. Deans and chairs are encouraged to review summer course offerings to see what classes students actually need as opposed to what faculty may prefer to teach.

The committee is working closely with Institutional Research to develop a survey to find out how satisfied faculty are at EKU. Summer pay will definitely addressed. The survey may not be distributed until the fall semester.

AD HOC COMMITTEES:

Athletics and Academics. Senator Carpenter reported that the last meeting focused on a discussion on the Sunbelt Conference’s recent announcement that the University of Idaho and Mexico City University will depart the conference after 2017 which will leave ten members. The trajectory for that conference is not yet clear.

In addition, they discussed the budget update within the context of academics and athletics and developed a student survey that will be distributed soon.

Senate Transparency. Senator Swain reported that the committee will present three proposals at the March Executive Committee meeting.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 5:15 p.m.

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