Minutes of the 红领巾瓜报 Faculty Senate
Monday, October 24, 2011
CH 126 3:30 pm
Members Present: Barut, Besthorn, Bolin, Bryant, Celestin, Close, Decker, DeSilva, Hull, Driessen,
Hemans, Horn, Jacobs, Klunder, Kumar, Lewis, Matveyeva, Miller, Mosack, Pulaski, Rillema,
Rokosz, Ross, M. Smith, Skinner, Solomey, Thompson, Yeager, Yildirim
Members Absent: Adler, Carruthers, Gibson, Mandt, Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, Russell, P. Smith
Members Excused: Henry, Johnson
Summary of Action:
1. Accepted the proposed revisions to 2.15 WSU Policies and Prodcedures
I. Call to Order: President Steven Skinner called the meeting to order at 3:30pm
II. Informal Statements and Proposals:
Senator Hemans thanked President Skinner and the KBOR Council of Faculty Senate Presidents
for their candid discussions with the Kansas Board of Regents regarding the transfer
and articulation policies that are currently under development. Senator Hemans thought
that those discussions have had an impact on the direction of the work in progress
by the KBOR Transfer and Articulations Committee (more in the President's Report below).
President Skinner introduced Darren Beckman, chair of the SGA Campus Issues Committee.
He thanked the president for the opportunity for a SGA representative to attend the
Senate meetings and indicated that someone from his committee would be attending all
meetings.
III. Approval of the Minutes
Two spelling errors in the minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting of October 10, 2011
were pointed out to the secretary. Senator Ross move to accept the minutes as corrected,
a number of senators seconded the motion. The minutes were approved with no dissent.
IV. President's Report
President Skinner made the following announcements:
1. Members of the Kansas Board of Regents are meeting at WSU today and tomorrow (October
24 and 25). The members of the Board discussed the WSU presidential search process
during the meeting this morning (Oct. 24, 2011). The essential elements of the process
include the following: Regents are committed to naming the right person for the particular
environment at WSU; the members of the search committee will be identified by November;
the committee will have 10 to15 members; Regent Christine Downy-Schmitt and KBOR President
Andy Tompkins will serve on the committee (Downy-Schmitt is a WSU alumni and a strong
supporter of higher education); approximately four diverse faculty members will serve
on the committee; a search firm will be hired to work with the committee and in hopes
of expanding the candidate pool; approximately 10 to 12 candidates will be interviewed
by the committee in the February timeframe; four to six candidates will be invited
to the campus for interview in the March timeframe; and three to five candidate names
will be forwarded by the committee to the Regents for final selection in the April
timeframe.
In addition, four members of the Faculty Senate Executive met with the Board during
Lunch today. The Regents were primarily interested in the challenges faced by the
faculty. The meeting went well.
General education will be the topic of discussion during tomorrow's KBOR meeting
on campus.
2. Transfer and Articulation. In a continuation of Senator Hemans' earlier remarks,
President Skinner informed the Senate that the Transfer and Articulation policies
were a hot topic at the KBOR meeting in Topeka. He was confident the COFSP made an
impact on the Board during their breakfast meeting. He indicated that they had emphasized
the importance of faculty input on any KBOR policies that result from the work of
the committee and that faculty concerns would be addressed.
3. The Faculty Senate Planning and Budget Committee will be sending a Request for
Proposals to the faculty and staff regarding the issue of student retention and success.
The Provost's Office will provide approximately $100,000 funding the initiative with
an anticipation that five to ten proposals will be chosen for funding.
4. President Skinner reminded senators that the General Education Worksheets are
due this Friday (October 28, 2011).
V. Committee Reports
Senator Ross, chair of the Rules Committee, reported that the College of Health Professions
senators were in the process of filling the senate and committee vacancies in their
area. He urged the Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences senators to assist
in recruiting colleagues to fill vacancies in their areas, especially senate openings.
The following senate committee vacancies exist as of today's meeting:
Education -- Admissions/Exceptions, Faculty Affairs
Engineering -- Admissions/Exceptions
Fine Arts-- Undergraduate Research
Health Professions -- Admissions/Exceptions, Undergraduate Research
LAS Humanities -- Academic Affairs, Undergraduate Research
LAS Math/Natural Sciences -- Faculty Support, Honors (1yr), Academic Affairs (1yr)
LAS Social Sci. -- Academic Affairs, Admissions/Exceptions, Rules (1yr), Scholarship/Student
Aid
VI. Old Business
A. Proposed revisions to 4.13, Policies & Procedures (2nd reading)
The proposed changes to Section 4.13 of the University's Policies and Procedures
were considered during this second reading. The proposed changes were recommended
by the University's attorney to bring the section into alignment with Section 8 of
the Kansas Board of Regents Procedures and were discussed during the October 10 Faculty
Senate meeting. Copies of the current Section4.13, marked-up copy showing proposed
changes, final copy of the section after proposed changes, and KBOR Policy 8 were
made available on the Senate website following the first reading. President Skinner
invited Ted Ayres to attend today's meeting, but he could not. He did agree to meet
with the Senate at its next meeting if requested. During the interval following the
first reading President Skinner sought clarification from Mr. Ayres of the meaning
of the term 鈥渁doptive placement鈥� found in the KBOR Policy 8 addition to Section 4.13.
Mr. Ayres sought the counsel of the KBOR staff. A written explanation was received
that indicated that the term 鈥渁doptive placement鈥� was to be interpreted to refer to
that interval of time that a child resides with the adoptive parents prior to formal
completion of the adoption process. It was suggested that this explanation of 鈥渁doptive
placement鈥� be included in the revision of section 4.13. Senator Klunder suggested
that part 5. of the proposed revision of Section 4.13, pertaining to the granting
of tenure to new faculty hires, should include language such as 鈥渨ith the approval
of the home department鈥� relative to 鈥渆xceptional cases鈥� being granted tenure to new
hires who have not completed a probationary period at an academic institution. President
Skinner agreed to modify the document to include such language, as well as include
an explanation of 鈥渁doptive placement' and bring the document back for a third reading.
VII. New Business
A. Hire-a-Shocker 鈥� Jill Pletcher, Director of Career Services
President Skinner introduced Jill Pletcher, Director of the Office of Career Services,
to speak about her request regarding the 鈥淗ire-a-Shocker鈥� service provided by the
office. She gave a brief explanation that her office would like to create a database
of all faculty names, campus phone numbers, and email addresses so that they could
email notices of upcoming events coordinated by her office that may be of interest
to specific segments of the faculty population. She assured the senate that her office
would be selective in their distribution of information and that there would be no
mass distribution of irrelevant information to all faculty members. She also assured
the senate that the database would not be available to anyone beyond her office. Her
presentation prompted few questions from the members of the Senate and President Skinner
thanked her for her time and told her that he would get back with her later with the
decision of the Senate. After her departure Senator Klunder asked President Skinner
to confirm the fact that a faculty member could opt-out of being a part of the data
base. President Skinner agreed to confirm that point and bring the request for approval
back to the Senate at the next meeting.
2. Correction to Section 2.15 of WSU Policies and Procedures regarding 鈥淐hair Policy and Procedures鈥� - During the discussions of the last Senate
meeting concerning this particular section of the Policies and Procedures it was pointed
out that in a few cases units of the University that would generally be referred to
as departments were called 鈥渟chools鈥� and these schools were headed by 鈥渄irectors鈥�
rather than by chairs. In the period since the last Senate meeting President Skinner
drafted a two word addition to the title of the section and a one sentence addition
for the first paragraph of the Section 2.15 to clearly indicate that this section
pertained to directors as well as chairs. President Skinner's proposed changes, endorsed
by the Executive Committee, were that the title be changed to 鈥�2.15/ Chair and Director
Policy and Procedures,鈥� and the one sentence insertion was 鈥淭hroughout this section, any reference to 鈥渃hair鈥� also applies to directors, and
any reference to 鈥渄epartment鈥� also applies to schools.鈥� After limited discussion, Senator Lewis moved that the Senate dispense with the second
reading of the motion, and Senator Ross seconded. The motion to dispense with the
second reading passed with no dissent, as did the original motion from the Executive
Committee.
VIII. As May Arise - none
IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:06 pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate