Minutes for May 4, 2020

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, May 4, 2020 via Zoom. Chair Ciocca called the eighth meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The following members were absent:

^* Indicates prior notification of absence to the Faculty Senate Secretary
* ALT Matthew Howell attended for A. Cizmar
* SUB Cynthia Frazer attended for M. Powell

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Senator Wilson moved approval of the April 6, 2020 minutes as written, seconded by Senator Fleischer. Motion carried. (YES = 43 votes | NO = 0 votes | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See Also:  Individual Votes)

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT:  Senator McFaddin shared the following in his written report to Senate.

Ordinarily this time of year is the most optimistic and celebrated time on a university campus. This final week of the semester, as we traditionally recognize the achievements of the academic year and congratulate our newest class of graduates, is indeed typically filled with much “pomp and circumstance”. To say this year will be different is a glaring understatement. The conditions we find ourselves in to close this semester are certainly unprecedented and will be marked in history as one of the most disruptive periods to education.

There is no question the sudden transition to remote learning came with great trepidation. We have faced both success and shortcomings of our expectations for how we could maintain teaching and learning remotely. The question remains, how will this permanently change what has historically been the “traditional” college experience. With the majority of EKU summer courses already delivered through online instruction, we have the next few months ahead to evaluate future terms by weighing the public health environment, state and federal guidelines or mandates, all in concert with the evolving needs and resources of our students, faculty and staff. With so many variable and unknowns, I would implore each one of us to focus our time and attention on what we can control and how we respond to these uncertainties.

Among the many lessons that will be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic include the need for adaptability in instruction. The sudden redesign of education delivery demands that we become more flexible, more resilient and above all else more responsive. While we fully expect to return to campus this fall with a comprehensive plan of action, there is no way to fully forecast what crisis or challenge may be beyond the horizon. What we know, is that we must continue building on the idea that our learning environments should be adaptable to face a variety of external factors. At any moment, our traditional campus or workspace could become inaccessible. What does this mean for EKU? First and foremost, it is not a call for a full departure from our traditional pedagogies. However, it is a demand for techniques to supplement and support classroom education when the classroom is no longer a physical space, but a virtual one. Adapting classroom material into comparable and supplemental online experiences via instructional design principles will serve as another set of tools in our toolbox. These preparations will allow us to meet students where they are and offer flexibility should remote learning be required, requested or even the preferable method of delivery.

With this being the final report of the semester, I do not want to let the opportunity pass to recognize faculty excellence. Below are just a few of the latest achievements of faculty:

• Dr. Walter Borowski and Dr. Carol Sommer have earned the highest honor for teaching excellence bestowed by Eastern Kentucky University being named the 2020-22 Foundation Professors
• Dr. Guenter Schuster is the latest recipient of the prestigious Rowlett Award
• Dr. Daniel Roush has received a Fulbright Scholar award for Fall 2020 for a research project in support of Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) interpreter training
• Dr. John White has received a Fulbright Scholar Award for a 2021 study of “The Rise and Fall of Pantelleritic Magmatic Systems: Volcanic Periodicity, Rapid Differentiation, and Extreme Fractionation” in the Strait of Sicily.
• Dr. James Maples, earned a 2019 Climber Advocate Award from Access Fund

NEW BUSINESS:

Q & A from the Administration. In his written report to Senate, Chair Ciocca shared a compilation of questions received from faculty for the administration.

In response, Senator McFaddin shared the following:

• We will not be returning to normal operations on May 11. We will likely not return to a phased in approach until at least the first of June and then it will probably be primarily for staff positions, if approved by the Governor’s office.
• We have a Pandemic Response Team that has been working since the first week of COVID-19 impact, which is led by Bryan Makinen. That group has been meeting weekly.
• We also have launched an instructional and core academic mission working group co-chaired by Sara Zeigler and Elizabeth Ballou.
• We are starting the process of purchasing and replacing much of the PPE that was donated at the beginning of the pandemic. This would include non-medical grade masks and gloves.
• We are working closely with the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, both of which are developing testing and tracing protocols.
• It is fully our intention if at all possible in a safe and appropriate way for us to be open in the fall bringing students back to campus in a face-to-face manner. Obviously, we will be working with state and federal guiding authorities as well as our own health officials.
• Please be mindful of thinking about how to make your curriculum more resilient to perhaps not just COVID-19 but for any other safety concerns or natural disaster that may occur or even for any particular need that you or a student might need that would require instruction in an alternative way.
• We need to be thinking about having conversations with our chairs and deans about alternative instruction for course work for those faculty or staff who have concerns about returning to work during these uncertain times.
• We are currently working with the NCAA and the OVC as it relates to an anticipated date for student athletes to return to campus. We do not have a confirmation on fall sports but as soon as the NCAA and the conference make a recommendation, we will share that information. But the Athletic Director has his own COVID-19 response team and so they are working with the student athletes from afar and we will evaluate where that goes as to where it relates to fall sports with a lot of guidance from the NCAA and the OVC.

Senator McFaddin shared the following budget information.

• Sixty positions have been furloughed. Those were identified through the respective departments as positions that were most impacted by the COVID-19 social distancing requirements. These are primarily public-facing positions across campus where we’re not able to conduct public activities. We tried to identify positions that were not appropriate for telecommuting nor could those individuals be shifted to other duties that could be accomplished during this period of time.
• The financial impact to the institution for this year was about $7M which happened in the span of about 2 ½ to 3 weeks. Approximately $6.4M of that was housing and dining credits and refunds that were credited back to students. Another $700,000 was NCAA distribution of funds that were supposed to come to the Athletic department in the form of our NCAA participation for the basketball tournament.
• Last Thursday we received a note from the Governor’s office that there is going to be a 1% cut to higher education along with the rest of state government this year. So that’s another $660,000 that we will need to send back to Frankfort prior to July 1.
• Enrollment for the fall semester is tracking at about %7 down. That represents approximately a $7M to $8M loss in enrollment revenue.
• We are also seeing a catastrophic impact to the Kentucky economy as it relates to COVID-19. Kentucky businesses reported April 15 to May 15 that their sales were down 40%, and the state is now projecting a $500M shortfall in revenues. This could result in a substantial budget reduction in our general fund appropriations beginning July 1 for the FY21.
• We are having conversations with the federal delegation about another distribution of CARES funds that could perhaps be used to support the higher education institutions. As it relates to CARES, there has been two segments of funding that have come to the University. The first was $5.2M in the student assistance fund. Those funds have been received and we anticipate awarding of those funds to start as early as tomorrow. All but approximately $600,000 will be awarded in the first round; and we hope to use the remainder of that through the summer and into the early fall to help students who may have additional needs.

In response to questions raised concerning Academic Affairs, Senator Pogatshnik shared the following:

• There have been several inquiries asking for research students to have access to labs. It would be prudent not to plan for students in the labs during the first half of summer I session.
• If employers are accepting students for internships and are following the protocols, we have been permitting that. However, given that we are under a state of emergency, there are instances where our insurance won’t cover somebody going into an internship position. In those cases, the internship must be halted. We are working with Bryan Makinen’s group in terms of internships, labs, and non-standardized courses to get some type of clarification. It will probably be early June or July before we have a determination.
• In answer to the question about using student evaluations as teaching evaluations, we are planning to collect that data this year. However, we do not plan to use them in P&T circumstances. 
• The same goes with tenure leniencies. A task force of deans is looking at that now. A working draft will be presented at the deans meeting on Wednesday. The expectation is that if this continues on into the fall, we will have to make accommodations in terms of allowing folks some flexibility in P&T decisions and how the coronavirus is going to impact us.
• When pass/fail was early announced by other institutions as soon as we got into coronavirus, we had a discussion on this at the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. Based on that discussion, I felt confident that students and faculty would be able to adapt to this environment and that the broad use of pass/fail grades wasn’t really necessary. I was also concerned about how pass/fail grades might be viewed by graduate schools which could have a negative impact on students. After hearing from a number of students who raised legitimate concerns, we put together a team of administrators, faculty, and a staff person to review the issue. They came up with a list of recommendations; but at the end of the day we decided to go forth with the A, B, C, pass/fail system. Choosing this system included the following benefits: easy to implement; can be applied consistently, does not add burden to faculty at a stressful time; and maintains the prerequisite or program retention requirements where “B” or “C” grades are required to progress on to the next course or in the program. In addition, using “P’s” instead of “D’s” minimizes the impact on a student’s Academic Standing.
• Additional information will be provided to the deans on Wednesday regarding the appeal process to go from a “C” to a pass. As requested by Senator Gremp, I will recommend to the deans that the appeals process should probably start with the department chair rather than the faculty member, which was previously discussed.
• The Provost office is reviewing all purchase requests that are being made right now. I urge you to save and hold off on some expenses that are non-essential at this time so that we can employ people and keep them in their jobs and serving students for another year.

Report from Council on Academic Affairs. Vice Provost Robinson presented the following materials. 

Senator Bishop-Ross moved approval of items #1-3, seconded by Senator Woodruff. Motion carried. (YES = 47 votes | NO = 0 votes | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See Also:  Individual Votes)

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Marion shared the following in his written report to Senate.

The next Board meeting is planned for June 4, 2020. The meeting may occur via Zoom in accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order and the Attorney General’s opinion on how to conduct open meetings in this environment.

Moving forward, I’m reminded of our institution’s mission and the legislature’s stated purpose for our university and the other universities around the Commonwealth. No matter what change may bring, may we look to our mission and our historical unchanged statutory mandate that pre-dates 1942 for guidance in how to proceed. As a public institution that receives substantially less public support than in previous decades, we are more dependent upon enrollment than ever before; however, negative shifts in either category will impact us. The taxpayers through the state government provide the university with over $60 million. More uncertainty than usual remains in how our current state budget will be impacted and/or modified by our current and future events. The state budget director’s recent quarterly economic report presents potential impacts on this fiscal year and beyond. Without any additional federal intervention or state legislative action to raise state revenues, our university budget will rely even more on enrollment along with other institutional measures if we are to maintain.

Moving forward, adaptation with an intentional effort to be nimble while protecting the health and safety of our community will impact our ability to weather these times or to even excel in this landscape. If you have suggestions on processes that would better enable us to adapt while supporting shared governance in such a way, please let me know.

As we carry on, may we keep the 60 furloughed EKU community members and their families in our hearts and on our minds as they endure through the challenges associated with the recent changes in our university’s operations due to the current pandemic. University leadership made additional strides to ease this experience as much as possible by applying for the enhanced unemployment benefits for them through a group application on their behalf. Additionally, the administration coordinated a plan that ensures these folks would retain their health insurance and tuition benefit through the duration of that challenging time. The term has brought many challenges including the losses of two of our dear faculty colleagues and dear friends. As I messaged the whole university community last week, may we all strive to bring the kind of loving light that both Dr. Sheila Pressley and Dr. Sherwood Thompson provided to us.

Please know you may reach out to me anytime. As senators, your perspective is particularly valuable to me in my role. 

REPORT FROM PROVOST: Senator Pogatshnik shared the following in his written report to Senate.

Many thanks to all of our faculty, both part time and full time, who have met the extraordinary challenges caused by the corona virus pandemic. What all of you have accomplished has been truly remarkable and a point of pride that will remain long after the current crisis has passed.

As far as questions about the Fall semester, the President has established a Contingency Planning group to look at possible scenarios for the start of classes. Faculty are encouraged to send comments to Dean Sara Zeigler, who is co-chairing the committee. While our hope is that we will be able to operate with students and faculty on campus, we also are committed to the safety of all. Faculty need be prepared for what we could face in the Fall term. Specifically, every faculty member should develop contingency plans for offering robust online courses and/or hybrid in some or all of the Fall term to be able to respond to whatever we may face with regard to the corona virus pandemic. It will probably be mid-June to early July before a final decision is made – much depends on what happens during the next few weeks.

STANDING COMMITTEES:

Academic Quality Committee. For the 2019-2020 academic year, the Academic Quality Committee (AQC) was charged with “reviewing best practices for high enrollment courses which will focus more on sharing some of the most effective methods that can be used to successfully teach large classes, and when it's appropriate to offer them”. The committee had a similar charge last year.

The current AQC requested additional guidance to differentiate the charges of the 2018-2019 Committee and the 2019-2020 Committee. The response was for the Committee to investigate “how prevalent is the use of large classes for Major courses, as opposed to Service and General Education.” The Committee was further instructed to contact representation from the General Education Task force to “discuss if there is a common interest between your findings and the new vision for Gen-Ed”.

General Education Task Force Chair, Dr. Garett Yoder, attended the AQC meeting on October 28, 2019 to discuss the current status of general education revisions. He reported that general education revisions were not at the point of making recommendations to the AQC.

Provost Dr. Jerry Pogatshnik attended the AQC meeting on November 25, 2019. He discussed the charges of the AQC and the General Education Task Force and the 2018-2019 AQC report. Dr. Pogatshnik indicated his position is that decisions regarding who teaches large classes are best left to faculty of those departments. A general education workshop was scheduled for January 2020.

The general education update at the February 3, 2020 Faculty Senate meeting indicated no decisions are anticipated prior to the end of the current academic year.

AQC met on February 10, 2020. At that time Committee members discussed the state of the charge being delayed until additional information is available from the General Education Committee.

Budget Committee. The existing charge for the budget committee was to determine the reason for a discrepancy between the reported subsidy growth for the athletics department as reported to the NCAA and the reported subsidy decrease according to the Strategic Budget Process as reported by former President Benson. It was suggested at the time of the charge being given that some of this could be due to timing issues of reporting over different calendar or fiscal years.

On March 22, 2018 Dr. Benson emailed the campus regarding $25,100,000 in cost reductions due to budget changes for Fiscal Years 2019-2020. The Budget Advisory Committee had proposed $2,025,800 would come from athletics. This was to be driven by “right sizing” the athletic department to be more in line with the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) peer institutions. This included the proposal to eliminate some non-revenue sports.

The reporting of athletic related revenue and expenses are compiled every year by the USA Today. In those filings, the university reports a revenue category of “School Funds” of more than 10 million a year beginning in 2014. In 2016 it increased to $11.6 million and over the next two years grew to $13.1 million and $14.0 million, respectively. 2016 also had a one time student fee of over $1.1 million.

It was determined that the reporting for the NCAA and the state budget follow different conventions. Much of the funding around athletics are transfer pricing agreements on campus. In the example of scholarships, it does not cost EKU the full cost of tuition to provide the educational scholarship even though the full cost of the scholarship is reported. This type of accounting rule is in place as it assists the university and regulators in ensuring compliance with Title IX in athletic support and opportunities.

The next budget year will be very unusual as the NCAA significantly cut expected payouts to all Division 1 institutions which includes EKU. This was due to the CoViD pandemic disrupting the NCAA Division 1 basketball tournament which is a major driver of NCAA revenue.

The committee suggests that a future charge may be to determine how exactly the current pandemic has changed revenue and expenses in athletics. If there is a significant disruption to FCS football, will this result in cost savings with regard to travel and lodging? What is the loss of revenue to EKU due to the loss of summer programs?

Elections & University Nominations Committee. This year, the Elections and University Nominations Committee held elections for university standing committees.

• In April, we sent out a list of vacancies to Meagan Murray in the Office of Institutional Research for the dissemination of self-nomination forms to each college.
• On April 23, the committee verified the nominations and created a ballot of candidates from each college. The ballot was sent to faculty on April 24.
• On May 5, the committee will meet to verify the results and report the results.
• On April 27, we sent out an email to department chairs to report on their departmental elections and submit their senator vacancies. All replacements must be completed by August 31 since the organizational meeting for new senators will take place the first Monday in September. Typically, this meeting takes place in May, but Covid-19 has caused delays in the election process.

Information Technology Committee. The committee was charged with the following tasks this year.

1. Continue monitoring Blackboard issues as necessary.
   No specific issues with Blackboard were reported to the committee this year. Committee invited Jeff Whitaker, Interim Chief Information Officer, to provide a summary of the University IT Department’s response to feedback from the 2019 Faculty IT Survey. The committee has been working with University IT department to create a follow-up survey to continue to improve faculty’s IT support. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to be flexible in our instruction in the fall, the committee is going to administer a targeted IT survey to identify specific faculty needs should the University move to fully-online instruction.
2. Monitor technology issues related to PC and MAC users for effective teaching and learning
   No specific issues related to hardware were reported to the committee this year.
3. Continue to provide IT support during Faculty Senate Meetings
   Committee has provided IT support during each meeting by recording the votes and sending the reports to the Faculty Senate Secretary. Turning Point procedures were adjusted when a new Windows 10 machine was used for voting—beginning with the February Senate meeting—to comply with University cybersecurity protocols. Transitioned voting mechanism to Google Forms during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Senate met via Zoom.
4. Coordinate with the Rules Committee to assess and update
   No updates were made to the IT Committee’s operating procedures.

Rights & Responsibilities Committee. During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Faculty Rights & Responsibilities Committee was charged with providing input related to the Political Activity of Faculty policy. The policy was being revised and subsequently became the Campaigning Activity of Employees policy. In conjunction with other university stakeholders, including members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the university counsel’s office, changes to the policy were implemented before submission to the full Faculty Senate for a vote. This policy was ultimately approved by the Faculty Senate at the March 3, 2020 meeting.

Additionally, the committee had several discussions about the faculty grievance policy this academic year. The committee has discussed this issue for the last two academic years. There were concerns that the current policy, including the types of documentation and response allowed in the grievance process. In discussing this policy, the committee invited Joan Beck (EKU’s Ombudswoman) to attend several meetings to answer questions and engage in the discussion. The committee also reviewed several sample policies from other universities to evaluate aspects of those policies which might be useful for EKU’s policy. Important potential changes identified by the committee included:

• Requiring an arbitration process as the first step in any grievance, to ensure that the grievant’s concerns are heard.
• Establishing training for faculty/staff “counsel” to assist in the grievance process.
• Establishing a faculty led grievance panel to work in conjunction with the Office of the Provost.

The committee strongly advises that this policy be submitted for revision in the 2020-2021 academic year.

Rules Committee Report. During Fall 2019, the committee concentrated on the following charges:

During the spring semester, the committee worked on the following charge:

Faculty Welfare Committee. The Faculty Welfare committee pursued three major charges during the 2019-2020 academic year.

• The first of these was to obtain Employee Health Benefits information relevant to the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The committee met with John Dixon and Patty Sallee. Key information they wished to convey included the following:
  • Faculty and staff are encouraged to seek well visits and diagnostic tests. Under the current benefits only surgeries and hospitalizations are counted toward deductible.
  • The highest coverage PPO 1500 plan is not actually more economical in the long run.
  • Blue Mine clinic will be available.
  • A new wellness platform will be initiated and premium credits can be earned. All are encouraged to participate
• The second charge was to investigate the number of faculty who have left the university in the past two years due to budget cuts.
  • The committee emailed HR, completed an open records request, and corresponded with University Counsel. It was determined that no current existing data would provide this information, so this charge was rescinded.
• The third charge of the year was to collect faculty comments related to Policy 4.3.17.
  • All comments were sent to the Faculty Senate Chair, the Policy Drafting Team, and made available to the faculty as a whole.

The committee is scheduled to meet with John Dixon and Patty Sallee again on May 4th to ask questions about health benefits for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. 

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The May organizational meeting has been postponed to the September meeting in hopes that a face-to-face may be feasible.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Pogatshnik moved to adjourn at approximately 4:45pm.

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

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.