Minutes for November 7, 2022

The Faculty Senate of Eastern Kentucky University met on Monday, November 7, 2022 via Zoom. Vice Chair Kay called the third meeting of the academic year to order at approximately 3:30 p.m.

The following members were absent:

^* Indicates prior notification of absence

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:

Sinator Winslow moved to approve October 3, 2022 minutes as written, seconded by Senator Buck.  Motion carried.   (YES = 50 votes | NO = 0 votes | ABSTAIN = 1 vote) (See also:  Individual Votes)

REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT:  David McFaddin

Homecoming
This Homecoming, more than any of our recent Homecomings, had a special energy. Alumni came back to campus from across the country for exciting events like the Family Dog block party, football game and gatherings amongst academic communities. Thank you to everyone who came out to make Homecoming 2022 so special.

Mark your calendar: Next year’s Homecoming Weekend will be October 13-14, 2023.

Fall Commencement Planning
Fall Commencement will be held Saturday, December 3, 2022, at Alumni Coliseum. The ceremonies will take place at:

• 9 a.m. for Colleges of STEM, Business, and CLASS
• 1:30 p.m. for the Colleges of Criminal Justice and Safety, Education and Applied Human Sciences, and Health Sciences.

Due to crowd control and operational processes, there will be no graduation receptions held in Alumni Coliseum after the December graduation ceremonies. If you wish to have a reception, please note the following:

1. Must be held off of Alumni Coliseum property
2. Must be sent to Conferencing and Events via 25Live for approval: https://conferencingandevents.eku.edu/reservations-general-information
3. Due to the lack of student workers available, the setup and equipment will be limited. Please be prepared to handle any event-related activities with staffing within your department.

Faculty Lunch and Learn
The October Lunch and Learn has been our most successful of all of our campus engagement events. Colleagues have brought forward thoughtful issues paired with recommended solutions leading to stimulating conversation.

One outcome now under review by the Provost is the length of the semester and the correlation between lack of time between sessions and the mental health of faculty and students. Please watch for an update by the Provost on this topic.

Facility Improvements and Movement
Over the course of the next year, there will be significant investments in campus thanks to the historic asset preservation funding from the 2022 General Assembly. Here are some upcoming projects that might impact you or your colleagues:

• University Drive - There will be intermittent road closures due to the steampipe replacement project.
• Commonwealth Hall - Some departments are permanently moving to Commonwealth to provide improved office space, while others are moving into this space temporarily while their respective offices are under construction.
• Model Laboratory School
• Alumni Coliseum

If there is an issue in your building, please contact your building supervisor to ensure timely repair. If there is an unavoidable delay in repair, the building supervisor will be notified and informed of the reason.

President’s Excellence Awards
The 2023 President’s Excellence Awards nomination application will be opening next week. Please consider nominating a deserving colleague you work with who positively impacts the work you do, the lives of our students and the effectiveness of EKU. A link will be provided in EKU Today.

Upcoming Legislative Session
This year is a non-budget year for the General Assembly, but that does not mean we do not continue to advocate for EKU. This year, we are laying the groundwork for legislators to understand how EKU, through policy and financial support, can be the Commonwealth's partner by addressing the:

• Nursing shortage
• Teacher shortage
• Pilot shortage
• Mental health among student populations
• Students impacted by the East Kentucky flooding

In addition, we will be highlighting future budget requests including our #1 priority, an academic complex.

Upcoming Events

• Faculty Lunch and Learn - November 9, 2022, at 12 p.m. - Case Dining Hall
• Thanksgiving Dinner - November 22, 2022, from 5–7:30 p.m. - Case Dining Hall
• EKU Closure for Thanksgiving Holiday - November 23-25, 2022
• Colonel Conversation - December 1, 2022, at 3 p.m. - Crabbe Library
• Board of Regents Meeting - December 1, 2022
• City of Richmond Parade - December 2, 2022 - Parking at Alumni may be impacted
• Commencement - December 3, 2022

Questions and Answers after Report

• Senator Winslow asked if EKU received any Covid-relief funds, and if so, what are the plans for the funds?
  
  In answer President McFaddin shared that EKU received funds in 2020 and 2021. All of the funds received were for operational for any revenue lost during that period of time whether through enrollment or through dining, or housing, or other revenue replacement. The amount of money received was far short of the total amount of revenue impacted by the institution or the outlay of costs associated with managing through the pandemic. The more substantial amount of money that came to the institution was a pass through that went through the institution to our student body and was largely based on need for students. The final distribution of student funds went out this week; we have now exhausted the totality of all Covid-related federal funds that were received.

• Senator Hartch asked how and why the decision was made to move the English department out of Maddox?
  
  President McFaddin replied that Mattox Hall will be opened as a residence hall in the fall of 2023. Faculty need to move out of the building by the end of this semester so that renovations can be completed before the start of fall 2023. Provost Zeigler will provide additional information in her report.

• Senator Kelley asked if Mattox goes online as a dorm, will that affect employee parking?
  
  President McFaddin answered that parking lots will have to be reassessed and information should be available sometime during the summer.

REPORT FROM THE PROVOST:  Sara Zeigler

As President McFaddin explained, additional housing is needed for students for Fall 2023 and Maddox will accommodate about 140 beds. We needed a building with showers that wouldn’t have to be re-plumbed, and Maddox is one of the few buildings that has that and still has them in working order. In addition, a large part of Maddox is unoccupied. So renovations could happen fairly quickly and would be relatively cost effective. So, the English faculty will be moving out of Maddox into Miller and Beckham. The English Department is a large department with a lot of people to relocate and there are not a lot of options available because of limited space on campus. In addition, the English faculty place a high priority on being in central campus and being in close proximity to the library and to the Wallace Building where a lot of their classes and activities happen. The Beckham and Miller options seem to be workable, although we are still trying to find a few extra office spaces. Beckham has been freed up by Government moving to the fifteenth floor of the Commonwealth Building. There are also a number of other moves happening. The chairs and the deans have all been involved in those discussions. Some of those are to clear out Memorial Science, which is becoming increasingly problematic to maintain in terms of the moisture and the mold issues. Also, some of it is to unite departments that were once separate departments and are now being merged.

The chairs and deans have received a salary compression model plan that was based on a hypothetical situation. The numbers provided are merely examples and not necessarily actual numbers. The chairs have been given permission to share it with faculty for feedback. For this year's pool, a draft plan was shared with the deans this afternoon that looks at how to distribute the portion of that half million dollar pool that would go to faculty. The plan will be presented at Cabinet tomorrow. An update will be provided probably within the next couple of weeks.

The professional development funds I promised at the last meeting have been distributed to the deans for distribution to the faculty. It was a total of $50,000 additional dollars, and we distributed it proportionally based on the number of full time faculty, including clinical and lecturers in the various units. The deans have been instructed that those funds should be accessible to lecturers and clinical faculty and not just tenured and tenure track faculty.

The next faculty and staff reception is scheduled for Thursday, December 1 at 4:30pm in the Atrium of the Science Building. Retirees have also been invited.

The last Lunch and Learn was really good and helpful with a particular focus on the year round calendar, the tightness of the calendar and how those terms are operating, and possibly the need for both faculty and students to have a little bit more of a break between terms. I'm working with Chair Crosby, Vice Chair Kay and Faculty Regent Marion to get a work group together that will consist of the Academic Quality Committee, as well as some folks from Housing and the Registrar’s office and other areas that are highly affected by the calendar. I'm also waiting for a few nominations from the deans which I expect to have in the next week. So, I will present the group and the charge to the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its next meeting. We'll look at how we can configure things to make sure that we have breaks, and how we can make sure that anything we're doing is pedagogically sound as well.

I also had a meeting with the outgoing faculty liaison, Beth Polin. John Brent, the Chair of Faculty Rights and Responsibilities joined me for that meeting, as did Richard Crosby and John Dixon. We asked Beth to give us a sense of what kinds of issues had been coming to her in that role, recognizing that not everyone knew about the availability of that role and people might not bring everything to her because she was, of course, a non-confidential source. She identified patterns of activities. Some were focused on mediating departmental issues and conflicts and helping with those kinds of things, and some of it involved individuals who had specific concerns or questions about policies or practices. From there we will meet again and talk about what the needs seem to be. In addition, this will coincide with a revision of the Faculty Grievance Policy which may give us some idea of what kind of role we need--Ombud, liaison, employee relations person, or some combination of those to meet the needs of faculty and staff. Policy Director Lauren Keeler is going to be conducting listening sessions to talk more about the Faculty Grievance Regulation and what kinds of revisions may be necessary for that.

Finally, the Faculty Leadership Institute registration is now open. We've got 60 people who have already registered. If you are interested or know people who are interested, please sign up at: https://fctl.eku.edu/fli. We will have that set of activities on January 27th and February 24th.

We also will have Colonels at the Capitol taking place in Frankfort on February 15th.

Questions and Answers after report

• Senator Brooks asked the Provost to address the concern about parking and Model. Will the building house freshmen and will they be able to bring cars to campus?
  
  Provost Zeigler indicated that we will need to look at the whole parking situation as we move forward and make sure that we don't increase traffic issues around Model.

• Senator Winslow asked if Commonwealth needs to be renovated and if so, what will it cost?
  
  Provost Zeigler answered that there will be minimal renovation needed for the offices in Commonwealth.

• Senator Kay shared a parking concern that was received by Chair Crosby from a faculty member. The number of preferred parking spots has increased which means there are fewer regular employee parking spots available. The employee lot on Lancaster by the pedway was shortened over the summer to add more student parking. Students are also parking in employee spots there. There are some spots on University Drive and in front of the Campbell Building that are no longer available.
  
  Provost Zeigler stated that Bryan Makinen or Courtney Collins would be the right persons to respond to those concerns.

GUEST SPEAKER:

Student Government Association Update. Paige Murphy reported that SGA is currently rewriting their constitution and hope to present a new constitution to the Board of Regents at their December 1st meeting. In the spring, SGA plans to rewrite their bylaws.

GENERAL & STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

REPORT FROM SENATE CHAIR: Senator Crosby

Vice Chair Kay announced that she will follow up on the parking issues. She will discuss the issue with Chair Crosby and make a recommendation to invite Bryan Makinen and/or Courtney Collins to a future Senate meeting to discuss faculty concerns on parking.

Chair Crosby shared the following in his written report to Senate.

The Problem Solvers group (myself along with Regent Marion, Vice Chair Lisa Kay and Provost Zeigler) has met and discussed a number of current issues including recruitment of international students, the moving of faculty offices to create more residence hall rooms for the projected increase in students in 2023 (several members of the Executive Committee are taking a tour of the newer Residence Halls on Friday, 11/4), issues with Watermark (problems adding questions) and ongoing issues related to communication.

I participated, along with John Brent, John Dixon and Provost Zeigler, in an exit interview with Beth Polin regarding the Faculty Advocate position. She was able to give perspective on the pros and cons of the position as it is currently configured and make suggestions for improvement such as having the Advocate (or Ombud, depending on which way we go from here) be the first stop for faculty having issues rather than the last. This might provide better options and solutions for the faculty member. 

The second “Lunch and Learns” was on October 24th in the Regents Dining Room at Case. Attendance was 18, which is an improvement over the first one, and the November 9th L&L has 25 pre-registered. Faculty had many questions and concerns to which the President provided answers and helpful perspectives.

Vice Chair Lisa Kay and I met with Assistant Counsel Lauren Keeler about developing a working/writing group to address the Grievance Committee. We were able to give our perspectives on the past policy and our hopes for the new one. We also had the opportunity to suggest a list of possible names for inclusion in the group.

REPORT FROM FACULTY REGENT: Senator Marion

The Board of Regents has not met since our last Faculty Senate meeting. The last meeting of the Board of Regents was on September 16. The next meeting of the Board of Regents remains scheduled for Thursday, December 1.

Since our last meeting, the ad hoc Board of Regents Committee on Governance and Evaluation did meet on October 6, 2022 at the Adams House. An agenda for that meeting is linked here. From that meeting, the committee approved draft procedures for conducting the Board’s annual self-assessment/self-evaluation and the assessment/evaluation procedures for the University President annually and comprehensively in every third year. The documents used for informing that meeting are linked here. The minutes from that meeting and final versions may be part of the December Board agenda.

In addition to these items, the Board has been active in attending a number of events including, but not limited to the following:

(1) Dedication at Homecoming of the performance space as part of the Powell Plaza upgrade
(2) The Homecoming Pioneer Awards Brunch 
(3) Dedication of Kit Carson Commons Scholars’ House with Governor Beshear 
(4) Naming announcement of arena inside Alumni Coliseum as Baptist Health Arena 
(5) Welcoming four-star General James Rainey (Class of 1987) to campus for Veterans’ Weekend 

CPE News:
In regard to information of interest that is being shared by the Council on Post-Secondary Education, the CPE just shared more information on their Higher EdQuity Summit (November 14-15), and while registration is closed, if anyone is interested in attending, persons can contact me and I can help facilitate attendance. The program is linked here: 

The CPE has also recently released all the slides and video recordings of speakers from the Annual Trusteeship Conference available here. Lastly, the CPE has a Higher Ed Matters Podcast specific to Kentucky, with links to podcasts available at http://cpe.ky.gov/news/podcasts.html.

STANDING COMMITTEES

Academic Quality Committee. Senator Sands reported that the committee is working on their charges.

Budget Committee. Senator Yow announced that the committee met via Zoom at 2pm on November 2. Senators Yow and Stevenson were elected to serve as co-chairs this year. The committee also reviewed the charges and assigned specific tasks to each committee member. Future meetings will held on the first Wednesday of each month via Zoom at 2pm.

Elections and University Nominations Committee. Senator Spira stated that the committee met on Monday, October 24. As there are no elections this year, our time will be spent updating our internal procedures

Information Technology Committee. Senator Hight reported that the committee met at noon on Wednesday, November 2. Senators Hight and Fry were elected to serve as co-chairs. 

Faculty Rights and Responsibilities Committee. Senator Brent stated that the committee met on October 18 and again on November 1. Senator Brent was elected to serve as chair. In addition the committee reviewed their charges, discussed the status, and established initial tasks regarding the Grievance Policy and updating their internal procedures. The next meeting is scheduled for December 6th at 1pm.

Rules Committee. Senator Bishop-Ross reported that the committee met on October 12 with Dana Fohl to discuss the changes to part 7 of the Faculty Handbook. During this time, we discovered that the Faculty Handbook had been removed from EKU’s website. As we recognize the importance for having a Faculty Handbook available, we started reviewing other university styles of Handbooks. Most universities seem to have an online document with links to policies. So we are discussing what our Handbook should look like, if it should be for faculty and staff or just faculty, who should be involved in the development process, and who should be responsible for maintaining the document.

All standing committees were emailed to ask for updates to their internal procedures. A couple of committees have already responded that they don’t have any changes. Elections and University Nominations will have major changes this year. I will be working closely with them and the Senate secretary on those updates.

Welfare Committee. Senator Blair stated that the committee met a couple of weeks ago. Human Resources Director John Dixon was in attendance, and we asked him some questions about the changes in benefits such as the tuition waiver as well as future compensation opportunities and other concerns and questions from other faculty members. We also started brainstorming ideas for the next upcoming faculty survey.

Senator Blair thanked everyone who participated in the survey last year. The feedback provided was definitely helpful. In addition to that, we presented that data at the Society for Marketing Advances Conference this past week and it was actually considered for a special issue for the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. We received the highest level of feedback from the reviewers for that process, and we’ll be submitting that over winter break for that special issue.

ADJOURNMENT:

Senator Grabeel moved to adjourn at approximately 4:30pm, seconded by Senator Shaffer.

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