Minutes of the 红领巾瓜报 Faculty Senate
Monday, 3:30 pm, February 11, 2013; CH 126
Members Present: Barut, Bergman, Besthorn, Bryant, Celestin, Close, Decker, DeSilva, Driessen, Hamdeh,
Horn, Hull, Jacobs, Johnson, Kagdi, Klunder, Kreinath, Lewis, Matveyeva, Miller, Mosack,
Oare, Pulaski, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Smith, Solomey, Yildirim
Members Absent: Alexander, Anderson, Brooks, Liu, Lu, Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, Toops
Members Excused: Baker, Yeager
Summary of Action
I. Call to Order
President Bob Ross called the meeting to order at 3:34 pm
II. Informal Statements and Proposals
A. WSU Foundation Annual Fund 鈥� President Ross introduced Krista Voth, Annual Fund Director of the WSU Foundation,
to inform the Senate about this year's campaign. The 鈥淚 鈾� Campaign鈥� is underway. Brochures
will be in the mail soon with details. Voth emphasized the fact that 100% of a person's
contribution can be designated for a specific area on campus. Last year 24% of the
faculty and staff contributed to the Annual Fund. Voth distributed the Faculty and
Staff Gift Form and encouraged members of the Senate to contribute and to pass the
word on to their colleagues.
B. Campus Read Initiative 鈥� President Ross then recognized Lyston Skerritt, Coordinator of Student Organizations
and Civic Engagement, who spoke about the 鈥淐ampus Read Initiative鈥� coordinated by
his office. This is an interdisciplinary effort to encourage student critical thinking
and reflection, promote student and faculty interaction, and connect the students
with their community through service learning activities. Two 鈥渂ooks in common鈥� have
been chosen for the fall 2013 program. Flyers containing program goals and learning
outcomes were distributed at the meeting.
III. Approval of the Minutes: 鈥� Minutes of the January 28, 2013, meeting of the Faculty Senate were approved with
no dissent. https://wichita.edu/?u=facultysenate&p=/m12813/
IV. President's Report: President Ross reported on the following recent activities:
A. VPAA Search: There has been significant progress on the VPAA search since our last meeting. The
search committee developed a list of five finalists to be invited for 鈥渁irport interviews鈥�.
These interviews were conducted on February 9th and 10th. Three of the five were chose
for on-campus interviews. Two of the three will be on campus February 19 and 21 and
they will meet with members of the Senate from 1-2 pm in 209 Hubbard Hall.
The third candidate was invited to visit the campus on February 20, but he had not
responded by the time of the Senate meeting.
The first two candidates are: Dr. Dennis Depew, Dean Emeritus and interim Director
of GPRI at Purdue University (on campus February 19) and Dr. Anthony Vizzini, Professor
and Dean College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Western Michigan University
(on campus February 21). (Subsequent to the Senate meeting the third candidate, Dr.
John Koropchak, vice chancellor for research and graduate dean at Southern Illinois
University, agree to visit the campus February 20)
There will be an opportunity for the Senate and the campus as a whole to provide
input to the Search Committee.
B. Policy regarding a Faculty Ombudsperson: A proposal to create the position of a faculty ombudsperson was generated by the
Senate several years ago. For a variety of reasons that policy has never been enacted.
The principal author, Larry Spurgeon, provided a copy of the correspondence files
regarding this issue to President Ross, and President Ross agreed to update the Senate
on the proposal as soon as practicable.
C. The revisions for Faculty Policy Section 4.13 (tenure policy) and 4.14 (probationary period) have been accepted by the President, and are now a part of
WSU Policies and Procedures.
D. The Senate Faculty Affairs Committee is moving aggressively toward developing
a draft of a policy regarding Post Tenure Review.
E. President Ross encouraged senators to persuade their colleagues to take an active
role in self governance by becoming involved in the Senate. Interim Provost, Keith
Pickus, has met frequently with the Senate Executive Committee to gain input and provide
guidance on issues that relate to our work. A portion of the job description for the
new VPAA position is for that individual to be a liaison for the Faculty Senate. The
Senate can define the scope of the role that it will play in issues relating to the
Faculty. This requires an involved, active group.
F. Unless an urgent issue surfaces, there is a strong possibility that the Senate
will not meet again until March 11th, due to the VPAA Search Process,
V. Committee Reports:
Rules Committee - Victoria Mosack, Chair of the Rules Committee, proposed several revisions to the
Grievance Policy (attached to meeting notice and distributed at the meeting). Suggested modifications
to several lines of the current policy were proposed by the Rules Committee. Each
suggested change was considered and voted on separately by the Senate. The revised
policy was then returned to the Rules Committee for their concurrence, and the document
will be returned to the Senate for the second reading and vote.
Doris Chang, Associate Professor of Women's Studies, was nominated for the Humanities
representative on the Academic Affairs Committee. The Senate voted to confirm the
nomination with no dissenting votes.
VI. Old Business: None
VII. New Business: Requirement that students complete the required Basic Skills courses in the first 24 hours of enrollment (brought to the Senate for discussion by the Office of Academic
Affairs) was postponed until a future meeting.
VIII. As May Arise 鈥� None
IX. Adjournment - The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:45 pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate