Minutes for April 3, 2017

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, April 3, 2017 in the South Ballroom in the Keen Johnson Building. Senator O'Brien called the seventh meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The following members were absent:

R. Baggett*	R. Carpenter*^	M. Benson*
Z. Eser*^	G. Hunter*^	M. Irvin*
K. Liddell*	B. Mahaney	N. Player*
B. Polin*	H. Taylor*

^* Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
^ ALT Julie Hensley attended for R. Carpenter
^ ALT Ahmed Elnahas attended for Z. Eser
^ ALT Barbara Szubinska attended for G. Hunter

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Senator Slusher moved approval of the March 6, 2017 minutes, seconded by Senator N. Powell. Motion carried. (YES = 46 votes | NO = 2 votes | ABSTAIN = 0 votes) (See Also: Individual Votes)

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT:  Senator Benson

Senator Benson shared the following in his written report to Senate.

• Mock Trial Team
  For the third consecutive year and fifth time in seven years, our mock trial team is among only 48 teams nationwide to qualify for the American Mock Trial Association national championships, to be held this year in Los Angeles.
• Prestigious Internship
  Congratulations to junior Dalton Stanley, who accepted a prestigious supply chain internship with Domino’s regional office in northern Kentucky. 
• Faculty/academic program highlights:
  • 2017-19 Foundation Professors are Dr. Kelli Carmean, in the Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Social Work; and Dr. Kevin Minor, in the Department of Criminal Justice and Police Studies.
  • Dr. Alice Jones, Department of Geosciences, who researched, wrote and will perform a one-woman play about the lives and contributions of two underappreciated scientist sisters from almost a century ago, Lucy and Annette Braun. The curtain rises on “Sisters of the Mother Forest” on Wednesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. in Pearl Buchanan Theatre. 
  • Dr. Ginny Whitehouse, professor in the Department of Communication and newest Fulbright Scholar, will teach journalism in Bulgaria. 
  • Retired WEKU reporter/producer Ron Smith earned a Fulbright Scholarship to Pakistan. 
  • Sandy Martin was honored at the recent Championing Women’s Athletics luncheon. Coach Martin is the only coach in Ohio Valley Conference history to win Coach of the Year awards in three different sports: women’s golf, tennis and track and field/cross country.
  • Our game design program was recently ranked 47th worldwide by The Princeton Review. Congratulations to Gaming Institute Director Dr. George Landon and other faculty for this amazing achievement. 
  • Our Safety, Security and Emergency Management program has renewed its agreement with the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center to provide credit courses in the CP-12 safety program.
• Scholars Week 
  Scholars Week is April 10-14. See a full schedule of events at ekuscholars.eku.edu. 

• Student Spotlight: Stephanie Ramos

• Faculty Stipend Increase for Summer Teaching

GUEST SPEAKERS:

Ombud Minute. Ombud Beck announced that the discussion today would focus on neutrality and impartiality. According to the Code of Ethics of the International Ombudsman Association, the ombudsman is a designated neutral and remains unaligned and impartial. The ombudsman does not engage in any situation which could create a conflict of interest.

Ombud Beck announced that the Ad Hoc Ombud Framework Committee is in the process of drafting a charter for the Office of the Ombud. Ann Cotton and Rick Mott are co-chairing the committee.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Senator El-Amouri announced that the 40th Annual Employee Recognition Luncheon is scheduled for April 19 at 11:30am at Elmwood Estate.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

Provost Search Update. Senator Corley announced that the search process is on schedule. From a large candidate pool of almost 70 candidates, the committee reviewed records of academic leadership and progression through academic and administrative ranks as well as records of tenure, teaching and scholarship. This process narrowed the search to eleven candidates for skype interviews on March 28 and 29. The resulting list of four finalists will be invited to campus for interviews.

The four finalists are Dr. Scott Furlong, the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Dr. Murray W. Nabors, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Missouri Western State University; Dr. John Omachonu, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Kennasaw State University in Georgia; and Dr. Christa Slaton of the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University.

Policy 4.1.11 – Awarding Incomplete Grades. Senator Smith moved approval of Policy 4.1.11, seconded by Senator Mason. Motion carried.(YES = 53 votes | NO = 1 vote | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See Also: Individual Votes)

NEW BUSINESS:

Nominations for Senate Chair. Senators Hunter and Winslow were nominated. The election will occur during the organizational meeting in May.

Nominations for Senate Vice-Chair. Senator Ciocca was nominated. The election will occur during the organizational meeting in May.

Policy 4.7.4 – Faculty Grievances. Vice Provost Robinson presented Policy 4.7.4 as a first read today and will be presented for action at the May 1st meeting.

Policy 4.4.2 – Intellectual Property. Vice Provost Robinson presented Policy 4.4.2 as a first read today and will be presented for action at the May 1st meeting.

Motion on Voting Eligibility for Senate Representation. Senator Turner presented motion 1 as a first read today and will be presented for action at the regular May meeting.

Motion on Voting Clarification on Senate. Senator Skubik-Peplaski presented the motion for a first read.  Based on discussion, Senator Skubik-Peplaski withdrew the motion for further review by the committee.

Report from Council on Academic Affairs. Vice Provost Sherry Robinson presented the materials for approval.

Policy Proposal - Action Items
Policy Revision 

1. Continuing Enrollment Policy Revision - Graduate School

Curriculum Proposals - New Program
College of  Education
American Sign Language and Interpreter Education

2. M.A. in American Sign Language (ASL) Studies

Program Suspensions
College of Health Sciences
Health Promotion and Administration

3. Minor in School Health, P-12 Teaching

College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences
Communication Studies

4. Minor in Advertising

Program Revisions
College of  Education
Special Education

5. B.S. Communication Disorders - increase the number of hours required for admission to undergraduate program to 40 hours.
6. B.S. Communication Disorders - add a criminal background check as a contingency of admission and prior to enrollment in CDS 374.
7. B.S. Communication Disorders - add a requirement for students to earn at least a “C” in CDS courses.
8. B.S. Special Education Teaching - Changes to the program are necessary due to course number revisions. There is one change in credit total for middle grade area of emphasis.

General Studies
Associate of Arts in General Studies

9. Associate of Arts in General Studies, New Concentration - Add a concentration in Informatics to the Associate of Arts in General Studies degree.

College of Health Sciences
Family and Consumer Sciences

10. B.S. Child and Family Studies – revise some concentrations in the major; revise supporting course requirements; revise professional education requirements; decrease free electives; changes total hours required to complete degree.

Health Promotion and Administration

11. Minor in Community Health Education Non-Teaching - Revise the name of the minor from Minor in Community Health Education (Non-Teaching) to Minor in Public Health, and reduce the number of hours in the minor from 30 to 18.

Recreation and Park Administration

12. B.S. Recreation and Park Administration - add an accelerated pathway 3+2 Dual Degree BS in Recreation and Park Administration.

College of Justice and Safety
Safety and Security

13. M.S. Safety, Security, and Emergency Management - Remove one class (SSE 885) from the core and replace with another (SSE 880).

College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences
Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Work

14. B.A. Sociology - Drop requirement of minimum of three hours from SOC 420, 425, 463, 465; increase electives to 15 hours, 12 of which must be upper division hours.

Communication Studies

15. Minor in Visual Media - Broadcasting and Electronic Media (BEM) Broadcast News Concentration and Journalism (JOU) are merging and course prefixes are changing. Therefore, the minor needs to be updated to reflect these changes.

English and Theatre

16. B.A. English - Redesign and streamline the English major to reduce barriers to entry, increase flexibility for majors to choose a focus within the discipline, and reduce the hours to graduation. The Theatre concentration and minor have already been replaced by a certificate program. Remove the other concentrations, and merge the sub disciplines into one unified curriculum. The new major will require 21 hours of common courses and 18 hours of electives that allow majors to focus their studies on literature, creative writing, or technical writing.
17. Minor in English - Replace ENG 302 with ENG 310 in the requirements.

Government and Economics

18. B.A. Globalization and International Affairs - Update program to reflect revision of International Studies Minor (revised to Globalization and International Affairs Minor), add courses that align with program objectives, and remove courses no longer offered.
19. B.A. Political Science - Revise the core course requirements for the major, introducing a subfield distributional requirement for upper division courses and eliminating the major diversity requirement.

Interdisciplinary Programs

20. Minor in Asian Studies – Remove GEO 347 from electives.
21. Minor in International Studies - Rename Minor in International Studies to Minor in Globalization and International Affairs; Revise curriculum; Move minor from Interdisciplinary Programs to the Department of Government and Economics.

Noel Studio for Academic Creativity

22. Minor in Applied Creative Thinking - Replace JOU 305 Feature Writing with BEM 305W Storytelling & Feature Writing.

Psychology

23. M.S. Industrial/Organizational Psychology - On-campus program is being eliminated and a revised program is being created for eCampus. Credit hours are being reduced from 49 to 36. New courses are being created to ensure that all competencies recommended by The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) are addressed within the 36-hour structure.

School of Music

24. Minor in Music - The prerequisites for MUH 371 have been revised. MUH 272 is no longer a prerequisite for this course so the language for the minor is being revised to reflect the change.

College of Science
Biological Sciences

25. B.S. Biomedical Sciences - Remove the math requirement from the Supporting Course Requirements and place it under the concentration specific Core Requirements; Add EMC 105 as an option for the required medical terminology course along with HSA 200 for the pre-PA concentration.

Computer Science

26. B.S. Computer Science - Revise major requirements to reflect the curriculum changes of many other courses and to add some new courses to the course requirements and correct catalog language.
27. Minor in Informatics - Revise minor requirements to reflect the curriculum changes of other courses, and to add more elective courses to the program.
28. Certificate in Productivity, Innovation, and Technology - Revise certificate requirements to add more elective courses to the certificate program and rename the certificate: Certificate in Informatics.

Mathematics and Statistics

29. B.S. in Mathematics and M.S. in Mathematical Sciences Accelerated 3+2 Dual Degree Program - Replace MAT 815, Real Analysis, with MAT 850, Complex Analysis, as one of the graduate courses that is applicable to the Accelerated 3+2 Dual Degree Program.

Information Items
Office of the Registrar

30. Credit for Cambridge Exams - Following recommendations of professional international accreditor evaluations, EKU will award 3‐4 credit hours for AS‐level exams with a grade of C or above, and 6‐8 semester hours of EKU credit may be given for scores of C or above on any A-Level exam.
31. Eastern Bridge catalog language revisions – add language to clarify the GPA requirement for Eastern Bridge students and add language regarding the Academic Warning process.

Senator Smith moved approval of item 1 (revised policy), seconded by Senator Swain. Motion carried. (YES = 54 votes | NO = 2 votes | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See Also: Individual Votes)

Senator Rothe moved approval of item 2 (new program), seconded by Senator Turner. Motion carried. (YES = 49 votes | NO = 1 vote | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See Also: Individual Votes)

Senator Ciocca moved approval of items 3-4 (program suspensions), seconded by Senator Dyer. Motion carried. (YES = 54 votes | NO = 1 vote | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See Also: Individual Votes)

Senator Dyer moved approval of items 5-29 (program revisions), seconded by Senator El-Amouri. Motion carried. (YES = 54 votes | NO = 0 votes | ABSTAIN = 2 votes) (See Also: Individual Votes)

Items 30 and 31 were presented for information only. 

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

REPORT FROM SENATE CHAIR: Senator O'Brien

Thanks to all senators for relaying information back to departments and bringing forth the concerns of faculty. Many departments are in the process of electing new senators; please meet with them and provide an overview of expectations in preparation for the May meetings.

The Learning Management System (LMS) committee continues to meet. The existing contract with Blackboard will be in its last year during the 2017-18 academic year. According to the recent LMS survey, faculty strongly favored the Blackboard option. The committee is evaluating data (faculty, instructional designers, students, etc.) and terms from the LMS providers. The negotiation of the next LMS contract will be for a shorter time period than in the past (e.g. 3 years). There will be further information shared at the next senate meeting.

Thanks to our President and administration for their consideration about summer salaries. Our Senate Budget and Rights and Responsibilities Committees initiated discussions to bring the issue to the forefront.

The Evaluation of President Benson will take place next year. According to Administrative Policy 8.3.3, which brings us in line with SACS+COC, administrators will be evaluated on a 3 year cycle. The evaluation process will take place during the 2017-18 academic year.

The month of April offers many opportunities for us as teacher/scholars and service/governance leaders. Please join me in continuing to contribute to our EKU Milestone Events during Scholars Week (April 10-14th) and by participating in Pedagogicon 2017. Information is listed on The Noel Studio Website http://studio.eku.edu/.

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Day

The Board of Regents is scheduled to meet on the morning of April 24th. The location and final agenda are not yet determined.

With the passage of Senate Bill 1, performance-based funding cuts in higher education, and the charter school law, Republicans now “own” education policy in the Commonwealth. The governor was also given expanded authority over university boards. Whether this will be a victory for Kentucky students remains to be seen.

The expansion of charter schools, along with a retreat from federal rules governing accountability, a repudiation of common standards, and a generalized disinvestment in education have created a new policy split which has alienated many Democrats. But the new laws are seen as market-driven reform by the Trump and Bevin administrations. Performance funding in higher education can be seen as an extension of this impulse. The upshot of all of this is that EKU and other state universities must remain concerned about declining state support for Kentucky students.

The Board of Regents has proposed some fairly aggressive goals for the president, even pushing him to find an additional $2M in the budget that could be reinvested in top institutional priorities. In the meantime, we learned from Frankfort that our anticipated contributions to the state’s pension system may have been underestimated due to faulty assumptions in the original calculations from the state. What we hoped would be capital for reinvestment could end up being absorbed to cover increased pension contributions.

My hope is that we will be able to identify funds for our top priorities. It has been, and will continue to be my goal to look for opportunities within the budget to raise faculty salaries. One of our highest priorities must be the recruitment and retention of great teachers. In my view, we need to raise salaries to offset recent expenses, and remain on track. But it is way too soon to be optimistic.

The CPE workgroup has capped increases to tuition at 5% for EKU. Our present budget assumes a 5% increase to avoid some number of layoffs. The Board will consider tuition recommendations this spring.

As Dr. O’Brien mentioned in her report, we changed to a three-year cycle of administrative evaluation with revisions to Policy 8.3.3. This makes evaluation of the president due next year. To assure that the public and the university community is well-served, I plan to introduce a Motion to the Board that would call for a review of our faculty and staff survey instrument during the fall, with a faculty and staff review (which follows the guiding principles of the American Evaluation Association) due in March, and a formal review of the President by the Board in May 2018.

REPORT FROM COSFL: Senator Kopacz

COSFL will meet on Friday at 1pm at CPE in Frankfort.

PROVOST REPORT: Senator Vice

• Assurance of Evidence Reports for SACSCOC
  During the weeks of March 6-10 and 20-24, Drs. Tanlee Wasson and Jennifer Wies met with representatives from every unit on campus to give guidance for our follow-up report to SACSCOC.

The on-site SACSCOC team commended the processes EKU has established for continuous improvement. SACSCOC expects now to see the documentation in TRACDAT as evidence that those changes have been implemented. The year in focus is 2015-2016. The units’ Assurance of Evidence Reports are due to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness by Monday, May 1, 2017.

• EKU’s Diversity Plan
  An important part of Kentucky’s plan for improvement is to enhance Kentucky’s diversity efforts statewide. Each school’s draft plan is due to CPE on April 3, 2017. By April 10, each campus will meet with a designated CPE “review team” to consider the draft plan.

In July the final draft will be returned to the CPE review team. When CPE approves the draft, our Board of Regents will be asked to consider the Diversity Plan in the Fall 2017, and the Plan will be implemented in 2017-2018. Our first report to CPE regarding our diversity outcomes will be March 2019.

• University Presentation Showcase
  The 16th annual University Presentation Showcase (UP Showcase), held on April 13 and 14, gives students and faculty the opportunity to share their work with the public.

For more information regarding the UP Showcase, visit http://ekuscholars.eku.edu/submitting-abstract-university-presentation-showcase. To submit a project, go to http://encompass.eku.edu/scholarsweek/. The deadline for submitting abstracts to Encompass was March 10. Projects must be uploaded by April 3.

• Important Dates
  • Wednesday, April 12 - Campus Wide Memorial Service, 4 p.m. Walnut Hall
  • April 10-14 - Scholars Week 2017 (http://ekuscholars.eku.edu)
    • April 13-14 - 16th Annual University Presentation Showcase (http://ekuscholars.eku.edu/submitting-abstract-university-presentation-showcase)
    • April 14, 1-4 p.m. - Assurance of Learning Poster Showcase, Keen Johnson
  • Monday, April 24 - Board of Regents Meeting
  • May 18-19 - Pedagogicon (studio.eku.edu/2017-pedagogicon)
    • May 18, 9-11 a.m. - Dr. Maria Salazar: Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Clasroom, Crabbe Library (1st floor)
      Part of the Provost's Professional Professional Development Speaker Series.
      Register at http://studio.eku.edu/salazar.
    • May 18, 1-4 p.m. - Pre-Conference Workshop, Crabbe Library (1st floor)
      Dr. Maria Salazar:  Leading from the Margins
      Presented in partnership with the ACE Women's Leadership Network
    • May 19 - Pedagogicon, Innovations in Teaching and Learning Noel Studio
      Keynote Speaker: Dr. Melody Bowden: Is Innovation Passe'? - Strategically Balancing Relevance and Quality for Student and Faculty Success
    • May 19 - Poster Showcase in the Noel Studio Greenhouse
  • Lunch with the Provost
    Senate committee chairs and all senators are invited to lunch with the Provost in the Powell Fresh Food Court on April 5 and April 26 from noon to 1pm.

REPORT FROM STUDENT GOVERNMENT: Collin Potter

• Student Government Association
  • On Tuesday, March 28 the following students were elected to Student Government Association’s Executive Cabinet:
    • Laura Jackson, Student Body President/Regent
    • Ryan Wiggins, SGA Executive Vice President
    • Lucy Giordullo, Vice President for Student Activities Council
  • Student Government Association is selling the “Tradition,” “Pride,” and “History” posters this semester for $25 per set or $10 per poster.
  • Pop-In With President Benson is scheduled for April 11 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on Powell Corner (Naked Man side). This is an event for students to meet with President Benson one-on-one to provide feedback, share ideas, express concerns, and even take photos.

• Student Senate
  On Tuesday, March 28 the following students were elected to Student Senate.

Madison Lipscomb Vyvian Nguyen Rose Pidgorodetska Victoria Tillman Christian Roberts Grant Minix William Davis Joseph Moore Tajana Graves Miles Johnson

Bruce Horseman Nicholas Henderson Theodore Herr William Bramlett Deborah Pullen Austin Thomas Reanne Melhorn Kenneth Hopper Bailey Williamson Brianna Palmer

• Student Activities Council
  • Movie Nights
    • April 7th- “Dr. Strange” (The Ravine - dark)
    • April 29th- “A Dog’s Purpose” (The Ravine - dark)
    • May 4th- “Fist Fight” (Herndon - 8pm)
  • April 13th- SAC Spring Concert – Featuring: Ben Rector – EKU Center for the Arts
  • April 21st- SAC Field Day (IM fields, 11:00 am)
  • May 4th- Midnight Breakfast

• Student Court
  • Student Court is seeking EKU students to be members. Interested students can contact Conner Niceley at sga@eku.edu or Caleb Dunn at caleb.dunn@eku.edu.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Budget Committee. Senator Fitch reported that the committee continues to gather data on salaries for faculty, administration and athletics. The attached document compares mean average EKU faculty salaries to faculty salaries at EKU’s benchmark institutions, as well as Kentucky public universities and Kentucky regional universities. The committee’s next step will be to examine how EKU administrator and athletics salaries compare to the same cohort.

Elections & University Nominations Committee. Senator Mason reported that the election for the part-time faculty representative is in progress. The three nominees are Andrea Wickersham, Julie Smith and Sarah Perez. The election will be on April 5th:

Next, the committee will begin working on nominations of faculty to university standing committees. There are vacancies on four committees: Gen Ed, Library, Research, and Graduate Council. The only change to the process is that all the committees have requested that any vacant seats be filled from within the college that has the vacancy.

Rules Committee. Senator Skubik-Peplaski reminded that two committees still need to submit their revised internal procedures. Once all of the documents have been received and compiled, the committee will submit the internal procedures to the Executive Committee for review.

Faculty Welfare Committee. Senator Zhang announced that a university Ad Hoc Parking Advisory Group has been formed and the Faculty Welfare committee members have been invited to serve on that committee. She encouraged faculty to contact the Faculty Welfare Committee with solutions and suggestions regarding the parking issue and they will share those with the advisory group.

AD HOC COMMITTEES:

Athletics and Academics. Senator Howell stated that the committee continues to meet and discuss issues. The committee is currently reviewing the gender equity plan for intercollegiate athletics.

Senate Transparency. Senator Givens announced that the next meeting will be at 3:45pm on April 11.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Vice moved to adjourn at approximately 4:55pm.

---

click here for printable version of minutes  
(See also:  Polling Results by Motions & by Senator)

You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in installed on your computer in order to view and print a hard copy of the minutes.