Minutes of the 红领巾瓜报 Faculty Senate
Monday, November 28, 2011
CH 126 3:30 pm
Members Present: Adler, Besthorn, Bolin, Bryant, Celestin, Carruthers, Decker,DeSilva, Hull, Driessen,
Gibson, Hemans, Henry, Horn, Jacobs, Klunder, Kumar, Lewis, Matveyeva, Miller, Moore-Jansen,
Mosack, Pulaski, Rokosz, Ross, Russell, Skinner, M. Smith, Solomey, Thompson,l Yeager,
Yildirim
Members Absent: Barut, Mandt, Mukeerjee, P. Smith
Members Excused: Close, Johnson, Rillema
Summary of Action:
1. Endorsed the resolution on Scholarly & Professional Integrity Training Requirement
for Graduate Students and sent to a General Graduate Faculty meeting for acceptance.
I. Call to Order: President Steven Skinner called the meeting to order at 3:30pm
II. Informal Statements and Proposals:
President Skinner announced that the Senate Holiday Celebration has been planned
for Monday, December 12, 3:30-5pm.
III. Approval of the Minutes
The minutes of the November 14, 2011, meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved
with no dissent.
IV. President's Report
President Skinner provided the following information to the Senate:
1. Kansas Board of Regents
Council of Faculty Senate Presidents provided a statement to the Kansas Board of
Regents clarifying its position on transfer and articulation issues under discussion
by the committee. It appears that the committee is confused with respect to what it
hoped to accomplish. At this point the committee is trying to have the KBOR institutions
agree to 45 hours of general education courses that can transfer seamlessly between
the institutions. Senator Hemans, a member of the T &AC, said that these 45 hours
of courses have already been identified within the existing transfer agreements between
the institutions.
2. Presidential Search Committee
The members of the Presidential Search Committee have been announced. The search
committee is considering scheduling meetings with several on-campus groups during
the week of January 16-20. They hope that most of the faculty will be available to
meet with the search committee and the head of the search firm. They believe input
from faculty is very important.
President Skinner suggested that it might be a good idea for the Senate to consider
a forum as soon as possible with the three WSU faculty members on the search committee.
3. Facilities Proposals
The facilities proposals from each of the colleges have been posted on the provost
website. The Planning and Budget Committee is currently evaluating the proposals.
4. Sections 4.13, 4.14, of the University Policies and Procedures
The Executive Committee is re-examining Sections 4.13 and 4.14. There appears to
be some confusion regarding the alignment of the WSU policy and that of the KBOR.
The Executive Committee will work with the University鈥榮 attorney, Ted Ayres, to be
certain that our revised version of the WSU Policy and Procedures will be compatible
with the KBOR Policies.
5. Miscellaneous Matters
a. Section 2.15 of the University Policies and Procedures has been corrected as agreed
upon in previous meetings.
b. The student and staff telephone directory is only available online; that is, the
printed version has been discontinued as a cost savings measure.
V. Committee Reports
Senator Ross, chair of the Rules Committee, asked the senators from LAS to remain
after the Senate meeting for a short caucus to discuss a strategy for filling the
multiple LAS vacancies on the Senate committees.
Senator Caruthers nominated Senator Ross to serve on the University Task Force to
develop a Branding Marketing Campaign for the 鈥渆xperience based education鈥� at Wichita
State. The motion was seconded and Senator Ross was selected unanimously.
VI. Old Business
None
VII. New Business
Scholarly and Professional Integrity Training for Graduate Students - Abu Masud,
Associate Dean of the Graduate School, presented a resolution developed and endorsed
by the Graduate Council. Essentially the resolution would require every graduate student
to complete training in scholarly integrity during the early part of their graduate
studies. Areas to be addressed during this training should include the following as
a minimum: research misconduct, responsible authorship of publications, conflict of
interest and commitment, and ethical issues regarding research data acquisition, management,
sharing and ownership. The Graduate School would provide guidance regarding topic
descriptions and expectations, but each of the departments offering graduate degrees
will be required to develop their individual plans for providing this training. This
is a topic that has been discussed during two other Senate meetings this year, and
the real issue at this point was how to proceed and who has the authority to accept
or reject the resolution. Senator Lewis moved that the Senate approve the resolution
and the motion was seconded by Senator Caruthers. After lengthy passionate discussion,
Senator Hull offered a friendly amendment to the motion that changed the wording of
the motion to 鈥渢he Senate endorses the resolution and asks the Graduate School to
call for a General Graduate Faculty Meeting for deliberation and voting on the resolution.鈥�
Both Senator Lewis and Caruthers accepted the friendly amendment. The amended motion
was passed with only one dissenting vote.
VIII. As May Arise
As a result of the debate associated with the Graduate School's resolution on Scholarly
and Professional Integrity Training, especially over the key issue of 鈥渁uthority to
approve,鈥� several members of the Senate voiced an opinion that the Senate should have
a discussion on the 鈥渁uthority鈥� of the Faculty Senate.
IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:40 pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn