Minutes for May 2, 2016

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, May 2, 2016 in the Perkins Building, Quads A/B. Senator O'Brien called the eighth meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The following members were absent:

T. Giles*	S. Hunt*	D. Mohallatee*^
E. Morrett	N. Powell*	H. Taylor*
J. Varela-Ibarra*^

^* Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT Melissa Vandenberg attended for D. Mohallatee
^ ALT Erik Liddell attended for J. Varela-Ibarra

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Senator O’Brien welcomed approximately 100 faculty who attended as guests for today’s meeting.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

The April 4, 2016 minutes were approved as written.

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT: Senator Benson

The last month has been difficult as we have grappled with budgetary uncertainties. For the fiscal year beginning July 1 we are facing a 4.5% reduction to recurring base appropriations. This is over $3 million. Our estimated liability from the increase for KERS contributions is $2.7 million in fiscal year 2017 with an estimated additional $200,000 in fiscal year 2018. That is nearly $3 million over the biennium. That’s just KERS, that’s not KTRS. Federally mandated changes to benefited workers and the university’s obligations are estimated to be $1 million. But we will not know for certain what our institutional liability is until July. Our increased institutional investments for financial aid are approximately $2.8 million. Fixed and unavoidable costs will increase by $1.5 million next year. So in the aggregate the total budgetary impact for 2016-2017 is approximately $11.1 million. Last week the Board of Regents approved an increase to tuition which will net an estimated $3.8 million. So the net budgetary impact for 2016-2017 is approximately $7.3 million.

The unenviable task now is make strategic and budgetary decisions which will impact lives and careers and partners and families and most importantly students. A campus wide budget review committee has been form which will begin work immediately. The academic committee will be chaired by Provost Janna Vice, but will also include the faculty senate chair, the deans, the chair and the Chairs Association, faculty regent, and the president of the Student Government Association.

The staff committee will be chaired by Vice President Laurie Carter and will consist of the vice presidents, athletic director, staff regent, chair of the staff council, and the SGA vice president.

The task of the Campus Budget Review Committee is to review all of the relevant data, and make recommendations to the President’s Council, who will then take those ideas to the Board for consideration for the next few months. The Board of Regents is planning on holding three meetings between now and July 1st. As always, these meetings are open to the public.

To keep the campus community as up to date as possible, a note was distributed this morning which summarizes what happened at the Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting.

In times such as these, it is important to remember that what all of you along with your staff colleagues do here makes a difference – many times a life-changing difference.

Consider just a few examples this year of student success:

• Allia Vaez, a chemistry (pre-med) major is the first and only student-leader intern selected by the Global Citizenship Alliance. She will join just a handful of other students from around the globe this summer for the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria.
• Symone Purcell, a biology (pre-med) major, learned recently that she was one of only 30 American and European university students and recent graduates selected for the prestigious John Lewis Fellowship. As a result, she will travel to Atlanta this summer to participate in the Humanity in Action Program, which is designed to educate, connect and inspire the world’s future leaders in the fields of human rights and social justice.
• Kara Canterbury, from Mount Vernon, enrolled at EKU five years ago only to prove to her family that college was NOT the place for her. Yet there she was two weeks ago at the Assembly to accept a College of Health Sciences Dean’s Award for her impressive record of academic achievement and service. Already, she has circled the globe to serve children and others in such diverse places as Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, Romania, Ukraine and Russia.
• Andrew Stofleth, a former Marine who graduated last December with a degree in public relations. Andrew spoke eloquently about how our faculty together with the leadership skills he gained through his experience in Phi Kappa Phi had helped him grow into a better professional.

It’s not just the support of faculty and staff that makes these student success stories possible. In the months and years to come, private support, too, will play an increasingly large role in making our students’ wildest dreams come true. Below are a few private contribution highlights:

• $1 million gift from Maribeth and Louis Berman to support a combination of academic and student-focused initiatives.
• The programming and operation budget at our new Student Success Center, designed especially to help our first-generation and minority students, is funded by a $500,000 gift from Paul and Deborah Chellgren.
• An anonymous couple, both of whom graduated from Eastern, bequeathed a total of $1 million to support scholarship funds in elementary education and art.
• These gifts and pledges, together with donations raised during the last fiscal year, total over $12.7 million and represent the most successful two-year period of private fund raising in EKU’s history.

Lastly, a shout-out to Dr. Beth Polin, professor of management, whose research on apologies with a team of two Ohio State professors has garnered considerable media attention in recent weeks.

GUEST SPEAKERS:

LMS Evaluation Update. Matt Winslow gave an update on the LMS evaluation.

Three companies have come to campus this spring to demo their products: Canvas, Brightspace, and Blackboard. Any faculty that weren’t able to attend the demonstrations may review the information available online at lmsreview.eku.edu.

The next phase of the process is called “Sandboxing”. “Sandboxing” means that a course can either be created from scratch or in some cases, imported from Blackboard into the new system to see how well it transfers over. Any faculty who would like to participate in this phase, should contact Dean Betina Gardner and she can set up an account on any or all of the three systems reviewed. Piloting of the systems will begin this fall. It’s undetermined at this time whether the piloting will be on just one system or more. That decision will be based on faculty feedback on the three demos.

Campus Safety & Security Consultation. Bryan Makinen announced a new initiative on campus. The University has recently engaged with a third party, CMTA in Lexington, to provide an independent assessment of campus emergency action procedures and response protocols as well as to perform an independent assessment of our fiscal infrastructure, existing security infrastructure, and all campus properties. CMTA will be on campus to perform these assessments over the course of the next year.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Policy 8.3.4 – Response to Bullying or Harmful Conduct. Senator S. Hunter moved approval of Policy 8.3.4, seconded by Senator Turner. Motion carried.

Information Technology Committee Motion. Senator Smith moved approval, seconded by Senator Hale. Motion carried. The information will need to be presented for approval at the faculty-at-large meeting in August after convocation.

Rules Committee Motion 1. Senator Neugebauer moved to adopt motion 1, seconded by Senator Skubik-Peplaski. Motion carried. The information will need to be presented for approval at the faculty-at-large meeting in August after convocation.

Rules Committee Motion 2. Senator Neugebauer moved to adopt motion 2, seconded by Senator Smith.

Senator Neugebauer stated if approved this will provide a more efficient process for implementing Senate business. Once the Senate approves a motion, if it requires faculty-at-large approval, it will be posted for a 30-business-day comment period. If there is a petition of ten percent of the faculty, a faculty-at-large meeting will be scheduled to review and vote on the motion. Otherwise, the motion, once approved by Senate, can be implemented immediately after the 30-day waiting period.

Motion carried. The information will need to be presented for approval at the faculty-at-large meeting in August after convocation.

Transparency Committee Motion 1. Senator Givens moved approval, seconded by Senator Fitch. Motion carried.

Transparency Committee Motion 2. Senator Ciocca moved approval, seconded by Senator Hale. Motion carried.

Transparency Committee Motion 3. Senator Swain moved approval, seconded by Senator Mason. Motion carried.

NEW BUSINESS:

Rights & Responsibilities Committee Resolution on Faculty Dismissal at EKU. Senator O’Brien reminded that the resolution is presented as a motion from the Rights & Responsibilities Committee and therefore does not require a second.

Senator Houston moved to strike the third and fourth "Whereas" statements, seconded by Senator Wygant. Motion failed.

Senator Irvin moved to add the word “perceived” before “lack of trust” in the third “whereas” statement, seconded by Senator Sommer. Motion failed.

Senator S. Hunter moved to strike the third “whereas” statement, seconded by Senator Smith. The motion carried with a vote of 28-21 and 6 abstentions.

The original motion, as amended, carried.

Report from Council on Academic Affairs - Senator Vice 

New Program

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

1. Minor in Financial Services

New Concentration

College of Business and Technology
Department of Applied Engineering and Technology

2. Applied Engineering and Technology Management M.S. Adding a New Concentration in Agriculture Operations and Management

Program Revisions

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

3. Risk Management and Insurance B.B.A. – add two courses (RMI 382, 462) to the list of major electives to be available in the RMI major.
4. Risk Management and Insurance B.S. – add two courses (RMI 382, 462) to the list of major electives to be available in the RMI major.

Department of Aviation

5. Aviation B.S. – Add two alternative General Education E-1C courses to the BS Aviation Supporting Requirements, i.e., CMS 100 OR EES 250; Insert BIO 301- Human Physiology as an OR alternative to MGT 300/301 in supporting course requirements; Add AVN 490-Airline/Jet transition as a senior capstone course.

College of Health Sciences
Department of Environmental Health Sciences

6. Master of Public Health M.P.H. – Remove dropped course EHS 845 from curriculum; Editorial change: EHS 740 should be EHS 840; Add new course EHS 835 to EHS and IH Concentration; Remove SSE 815 and 822 from approved electives; Adjust required hours and free electives.

College of Justice and Safety
Department of Fire Protection and Para-Medicine Sciences

7. Fire Arson Explosion Investigation B.S. – Remove FSE 225, 300W and 320, PLS 375, and OSH 261 from the FAEI curriculum; add FSE 496 Capstone course.

Pending Action Item

First Read

The following item was reviewed by the Council on Academic Affairs in April 2016. This item is being submitted to the Faculty Senate for a first review on May 2, 2016.

8. Graduating GPA Protocol Revision
   Proposal: The institutional GPA will be the single determinate for graduation.
   Current practice requires students, staff, and advisors to check two separate GPAs for graduation eligibility.

On behalf of CAA, Senator Vice moved approval of items 1-7.  Motion carried.

Item 8 was presented as a first read only and will return to the Senate for action later.

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

REPORT FROM SENATE CHAIR: Senator O'Brien

April has been a very busy month. Many thanks to Dr. Richard Day for his guidance, support and ongoing assistance with the leadership transition here in the Faculty Senate and on the Executive Committee (XC).

The Executive Committee has been very active, often behind the scenes, during this critical time. As we all know, the Kentucky legislative process, during a legislative session with a budget attached is always full of passion and uncertainty. As a result, I did send out a mass email to faculty to alert all faculty of the need for a potential Special Meeting. That need has since ceased, and the May 4th Special Senate Meeting is cancelled.

Much of the work of the Executive Committee during the month of April would change as a result of new details that came forward on a daily basis. The XC met with the President for our monthly meeting. He shared with us as a group knowledge known on that day. As the budget unfolded, pressures mounted, and actions were taken, the XC conveyed their dismay with the process to both President Benson and Chairman Turner. The Provost Search Committee co-chairs were named, an example of shared governance.

Members of the XC met with the Instructional Technology team to explore purchase of a clicker system for voting during the next academic year. Training needs will be addressed.

Faculty are invited to submit their interest in serving on the Ombuds Policy Drafting Team. This is a direct response from the passage of the April 4, 2016 Resolution from Rights and Responsibilities Committee.

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Day

The Board of Regents met on April 27, 2016 and will meet again on May 25, 2016 to hear more updates.

By then the increased costs for KTRS should be known. Also, Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate will have ruled on the Attorney General’s suit against the governor by then. (That's potentially worth $1.5 million to EKU.) Perhaps there will be a better estimate of the costs of changes in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by then too.

The President’s report to the campus on April 28th was very complete and the President set forward a series of decisions that get us on track for greater faculty input.

Check out Bill Robinson’s excellent reporting on student reaction to the tuition increase in the Richmond Register. He captured, quite well, the variety of sentiments on campus.

Early efforts to explore possible areas for cuts gave the impression that Instruction was the only area of the budget being seriously looked at. Academic Affairs was first off the mark implementing our dismissal policy...and trying to do so before faculty got off campus for the summer. That process begins with the Deans collecting data on possible areas under consideration. That data was specific. On the other hand, the only information about cuts on the administrative side available at that time was that everything was being looked at.

The hiring freeze, and a call to slow down the process was implemented, but policy dictated that Lecturers had to be informed of any dismissals by April 15th, and so a number of letters to our Lecturers went out 18 hours before the freeze – and worse, a number of Chairs were caught unaware--that made anticipated cuts to faculty and programs feel eminent.

This situation highlighted the need for the university to adopt a “pink slip” policy, something the Senate should consider next year. (Pink slip policies in the K-12 world allow schools to inform employees under a one-year contract that their positions are under review and could be eliminated. It buys time for the institution to deal with unknown budgetary conditions while still informing the employee in a timely manner.)

By the time the Regents met it was clear some adjustments were necessary. Again, read the president’s message for the details of actions.

The process has slowed down and is entering a phase that promises to be much more transparent. Committees are forming next week to look at specific proposals on both sides of the house – Academic and Administrative.

In other news, the Board voted to extend the President’s contract for two additional years at the same rate of pay – at the President’s request.

The President did mention that the university is taking a strong stance against state grants and contracts that fail to fairly reimburse the university for its costs. In light of substantial cuts to our state allocation since 2008, the university has taken the position that no student tuition dollars will go to support state agency contracts. The Board approved a case-by-case review that could indeed lead to discontinuing certain state contracts.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice

Last month due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict, Senator Vice missed the Senate meeting and the opportunity to share her gratitude in person to Dr. Richard Day for his tenure as Chair of Faculty Senate and to Dr. Amy Thieme for her service as Faculty Regent. Both Dr. Day and Dr. Thieme have served selflessly in their roles and have faithfully represented the interests of faculty and the institution.

The end of the academic year is a fitting time to acknowledge many who have participated in on-campus professional development via the TLC and Noel Studio this year. Here are some of those numbers:

• Dr. Saundra McGuire’s sessions on metacognition
  • Over-capacity of students in Brock—estimated nearly 2,000
  • 322 faculty in the two workshop sessions combined
• Dr. Maria Salazar’s presentation on inclusive excellence
  • 70 faculty campus-wide, plus the faculty in a separate workshop for the College of Education
• Dr. Peggy Maki’s session on assessing 21st Century learners
  • 140 faculty in the two sessions combined
• EKU’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Series on metacognition
  • The last two sessions drew approximately 50+ faculty
• University Poster Showcase had a historically high number for 2016 Scholars’ Week, with a faculty-poster
  • showcase in the works for next year.

In addition to President Benson’s newly formed University Budget Review Committee, Senator Vice has asked a workgroup, led by Dean Sara Zeigler, to review our delivery of General Education

Following are important dates to add to calendars:

All commencement ceremonies will be held in Alumni Coliseum.

1. Spring 2016 College Convocations –
   Friday, May 13
   • 9:30 a.m. – College of Arts & Sciences
   • 2:00 p.m. – College of Health Sciences
   • 7:00 p.m. – College of Business & Technology
   Saturday, May 14
   
   • 9:30 a.m. – College of Justice & Safety
   • 2:00 p.m. – College of Education
2. Monday, May 16—EKU will host a transfer summit for leaders of our closest KCTCS partners.
3. 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.
4. Monday, September 12, 2016 - EKU's SACS-COC Compliance Report is due
5. Friday, September 30, 2016 – Assurance of Learning Day
6. Monday, October 17, 2016 – Annual Institutional Effectiveness Reports, Due Date
7. February 21-23, 2017 – SACS-COC On-Site Accreditation Visit

Senator Vice announced that last Wednesday she agreed to delay her retirement while the search is underway for a new Provost.

REPORT FROM STUDENT GOVERNMENT: Katie Scott

Outgoing President Katie Scott introduced the new SGA President, Collin Potter.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Academic Quality Committee. Senator Howell reviewed the committee charges for the year and gave a brief update on progress made.

As part of their charge, the committee meets with the president and the provost each semester. In their recent meeting, they discussed future charges for the committee.

Next year, the committee plans to meet at least once a year with the president of the Student Government Association.

On behalf of the Academic Quality Committee, Senator Howell moved approval of the resolution for adoption of development programs for online education across EKU.

Senator O’Brien reminded that the resolution is coming from committee and does not need a second.

Senator Mason moved, seconded by Senator Corley, to amend the following statement under “Be it resolved” to:

Motion to amend carried.

The main motion, as amended, carried.

Budget Committee. As a response to the feedback received from the Faculty Budget Feedback Survey, the committee investigated the claims that EKU expenditures represented: disproportionate spending on athletic and administrative salaries, stagnation in full-time faculty salaries, and rising numbers and salaries of contingent (non-tenure track) faculty.

Committee members gathered salary and employment data from EKU’s Office of Institutional Research; EKU Library Archives, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. The committee does not make any recommendations at this time, but this report documents changes in salaries and employee rolls that suggest a number of trends at EKU.

Elections & University Nominations Committee. Senator Irvin stated that the committee was charged with overseeing the administration of the faculty regent election. Congratulations to Senator Day, our new Faculty Regent.

The election process underscored the need for clarification of the documentation and procedures associated with the faculty regent election. The committee will be undertaking this charge next year.

Also next year, the committee will continue to review the process for selecting faculty members for university committee vacancies.

Information Technology Committee. Senator Smith stated that the committee’s charges this year were to:

1. survey faculty to identify technology training needs and work with IT to provide them;
2. investigate the current status of faculty development and technology support for instruction and make appropriate recommendations; and
3. investigate technology issues related to effective teaching and learning.

Although only one of the charges prescribed a survey, the committee decided to fold all of the charges into the survey questions to more efficiently investigate them. The report will:

• Summarize the results of the survey
• Outline the ways that the Faculty Senate IT committee, in collaboration with the University Academic Technology Advisory Committee, proposes to address the various issues brought forth in the survey.

Rights and Responsibilities Committee. During the 2015-2016 academic year, the Rights and Responsibilities Committee received the following charges:

• Review and make recommendations regarding any requests from non-Senate campus groups or individuals requesting to establish a formal relationship with the Senate.
• Continue oversight of all policies affecting faculty rights and responsibilities including, but not limited to, Dismissal of faculty; Post-tenure review, Professional Development, Clinical faculty

The progress made on these charges is listed below, as well as the work completed outside of the charges:

1. Rights and Responsibilities welcomed 2015-2016 AAUP representative, Nancy McKenney as ex-officio member of the committee. Approved by Faculty-at-large August 18, 2015.
2. Presented a motion to extend the term limit for elected members of Faculty Senate Section VII. B. 2. f. Elected members shall serve no more than three consecutive full year terms Motion passed, November 2015
3. Analyzed data of Shared Governance Survey. Presented to Executive Committee and Faculty Senate, March 7 2016.
4. Motion to amend Policy 4.6.14 Evaluation of Adjunct Faculty - The adjunct faculty member may submit a written response regarding the feedback to the Department Chair/Unit Head within five (5) calendar days of receipt of the feedback, with a copy to the evaluator, if different from the Department Chair/Unit Head. - Motion passed, April 2016
5. Consider the question: Does EKU need an ombudsperson, and if so, what are the essential elements of such a position? - Presented Resolution for Adoption of a Part-time Faculty and Staff Ombud at EKU - Resolution passed, April 2016
6. Presented Impact Statement for Part-time Faculty/Staff Ombud to Executive committee, April 18, 2016. Two committee members from Rights and Responsibilities will serve on the Ombud Policy Drafting Committee, Fall 2016
7. Present Resolution on Faculty Dismissal, May 2016.

Rules Committee. Senator Neugebauer shared feedback received on the convocation survey.

Faculty Welfare Committee.  Senator Spigelman reported that the University Benefits Advisory Committee has just started reviewing health care benefits and while it’s too early to report much if nothing is changed, health care will increase 11.3% based on the current trend.

Faculty are encouraged to use online health care, when possible.

AD HOC COMMITTEES:

Athletics and Academics. Senator Carpenter and his fellow committee members (Senator Todd Hartch from History; Dr. John Harter, Economics; Senator Matthew Howell, Government; Dr. Wardell Johnson, Exercise and Sport Science;) presented the Ad Hoc Committee’s report on athletics and academics. In an overview of the process, the committee reviewed available media and scholarly literature for background and focused on comparable institutions that have made a transition to FBS. The committee also reviewed available data and trends as well as created surveys to gather additional information.

Senator Howell reviewed and explained the data the committee collected through a series of slides.

Dr. Wardell Johnson introduced the following resolution on the relationship between athletics and academics at EKU.

Senator O’Brien reminded that as the resolution was brought forward by the committee, a second is not required.

Senator Mason moved to amend the resolution to add a "whereas" statement based on the information provided in Table 4 of the full report (see below), seconded by Senator Elliott. Motion carried.

The motion to support the resolution, as amended, carried.

Senator O’Brien reminded that the committee will continue to work on this issue next year. In addition, there will be open forums scheduled at some point to invite comments and questions from faculty and students. 

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 6:30pm.

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