MUW - Faculty Senate Minutes

Members present: Tom Velek, Pres. (A&S); Bonnie Oppenheimer, V.P. (A&S); Brian Anderson, Sec. (A&S); Jimena Aracena (A&S); Shawn Dickey (A&S); Lea Helen Evans (NSLP); Margaret Mary Henry (proxy for Van Roberts–A&S); Richard Holden (ED/HS); Ellen Jackson (ED/HS); Maggie McClintock (proxy for Dee Larson–BUS); Scott McKenzie (CAI); Glenn Rhyne (BUS); Jim Roth (ED/HS); Cathy Smith (NSLP); Theresa Sparks (NSLP); Cathy Young (LIB)

Name	College	$	Conference	Participation
Peppy Biddy	A&S	150	Principles & Techs. of Fundraising (Indianapolis)	attend
Janie Gregg	BUS	350	SW Assn. of Management (Oklahoma)	present
Carol Grigas	A&S	350	Women & American Empire, 1812-1938 (U.K.)	present
Bonnie Oppenheimer	A&S	254.54	MS Association for Middle Level Education (Hattiesburg)	present
Amy Pardo	A&S	350	SE Women’s Studies Association	present
H. Templeton	NSLP	150	Nursing Informatics (College Park, MD)	attend

* A seventh proposal was rejected unanimously (with two abstentions), because it requested funds for a student trip, which the Senate considered to be outside the parameters of “professional development”.

A. Administrative Council: The Council will expand its membership to include college deans and program directors. This change will allow discussion of issues directly at hand.

B. Academic Council: The Council’s AMP retreat on March 9 produced no significant changes to the document, other than a request for evaluation of graduate programs. Academic departments are requested to submit rejoinders to their programs’ evaluations. The upcoming round of IERs should be driven by budget priorities. The Council also reviewed the policy for faculty salaries (PS 1313) and is developing new standards for the evaluation of faculty.

C. Meeting with Pres. Limbert: Met to discuss gate closing times and Dr. Gingerich’s departure to South Dakota.

D. PIE Council: In two meetings, the Council reviewed the latest results of the ACT survey of student opinions. W student attitudes are a bit more optimistic/supportive than those of peer institutions, and there are no significant differences of opinion between traditional and transfer students. The Council also selected new peer institutions (seven small public universities) for the next round. Enrollment goals (2,413 total) for Fall 2006 were also announced, and Bucky Wesley (VPSS) stressed that a greater effort is being placed on increasing new transfer and new graduate enrollment. The technology plan was reviewed, including the PC replacement plan. Results of the budget process survey were reviewed as well. There has been steady improvement since FY04, with increasing positive evaluation of, for example, the budget’s reflection of MUW’s mission (37 to 54%), ease of understanding budget forms (30 to 41%), and linkage of the budget process to W planning (33 to 53%). A significant decrease was seen only with the statement “I understand the MUW budget process” (45 to 37%).

F. Special Issues Committees: The campus decorum survey is almost ready to be distributed. Discussion: McKenzie–The decorum survey will be loaded onto the classroom climate survey and will be available on-line for both students and faculty. There will be a two-week period in which to respond, and the process is confidential. Velek–I request that you also include a link to the survey in the e-mail text, because attachments often do not open. Let’s aim for a survey “delivery date” of April 20./// A committee of two senators (Velek, Aracena) has resumed its work on the recruitment and treatment of international students at MUW. The committee’s goal is to develop clear action points for the University. Not only is an increase in international enrollment desirable, but the committee will request that the University think seriously about hiring a staffer with specific expertise in visas and other fundamentals of international students.

G. Dr. Gingerich: The Academic Master Plan has been made by and for the academic community. It identifies vital issues and encourages steps to address them. Academic Council will monitor implementation of the AMP, measuring successes and establishing a timeline to clear up conflicts. Program review will be the first step, especially for programs that are not evaluated regularly. Program plans will be drawn up, and Academic Council will feed these plans into the budget process. Some gaps remain: the AMP is silent on graduate programs and the Honors College./// Review of PS 1313 Criteria and Procedures for Faculty Salary Increases is underway, changing language to reflect reorganization. We must remember that recommendations from college deans and program directors for raises are not proportional: money is allocated through deliberation and is not automatically spread evenly across the faculty. The recent $6,000 across-the-board raise for nursing faculty statewide is a wholly different matter, approved in a separate action by the legislature. Discussion: McClintock–What are the criteria for faculty raises at M.U.W.? Gingerich–Deans and directors develop those based on equity concerns and merit considerations. Velek–In my experience, the pool of money for raises has never been distributed in an across-the-board fashion. The Senate will review PS 1313 at the April 28 meeting.

A. Gate Closing: Tom Velek has found Pres. Limbert non-committal on this issue, and he received inconsistent responses from campus police and Perry Sansing (Asst. to the President), who oversees the police dept. Discussion: Gingerich–This matter was discussed by the Cabinet, and they want a formal response from students before proceeding. All security issues must be reviewed by the police, however. Velek–We’re still seeing inconsistency, though. One night recently the gates were open well after 7pm, but they were locked another night when people wanted to get on campus for a Pilgrimage event. Evans–I have also heard of times when disabled students were not able to get through gates. McClintock–In the past walk-in gates were kept open well after 7pm. Gingerich–Those gates are now locked at 7pm after kids from the neighborhood caused some trouble in the Hogarth Student Union.

B. Meeting place/Use for old building: This is the Senate’s second meeting in Martin 201. The specific requests for improvements to Building 65 will be forwarded to Nora Miller (VPFA).

C. IR Surveys: No progress has been made on this issue. Tom Velek has received no response to Senate requests–very similar to the gate closing issue.

D/E. The Senate went into closed session to discuss: 1.) the MSU presidential search; and 2.) The W Foundation and administrative salaries.

A. Advising Overlap: Scott McKenzie stated that CAI had trouble with the advising period overlapping the date when mid-term grades were due. Tom Velek agreed to ask the Calendar Committee about preventing such overlap.

B. CRN Listing: Senators agreed that CRN listings on-line should be alphabetical by course prefix and not by college. VOTE: The Senate voted unanimously to request that the Office of Academic Affairs list CRNs alphabetically by prefix.

C. Senate Officers: The following senators were the sole nominees for Senate offices and were elected unanimously: Tom Velek, President (reelected); Bonnie Oppenheimer, Vice President (reelected); Richard Holden, Secretary.

A. Tom Velek, who has run the Pre-college Enrichment Program since 2004, found out that the administration decided over spring break to eliminate this honors/recruitment program, which was a summer standard at M.U.W. for over 30 years.

B. Cathy Young asked fellow senators for input to expand/focus her presentations to students on academic research skills and use of resources in Fant Library.