MINUTES – Revised Draft 11/15/05
Of the University of Central Oklahoma
FACULTY SENATE
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Education Building, Room 106
CALL TO ORDER
President
Roberson called the meeting to order at 2:08 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Members present (23): Senator Beasley, Senator
Bizé, Senator Boling, Senator Cochran, Senator Dickson, Senator Dowdy,
Senator Eckard, Senator Ferguson, Senator Hartmann, Senator Holt, Senator Law,
Senator Lucas, Senator Mock, Senator Montes, Senator Roberson, Senator Rooker, Senator
Singer, Senator von Minden, Senator-Elect Voth, Senator Wallo, Senator Webb, Senator
Wright, Senator Zhu.
Members absent (11): Senator Bird, Senator Hepner,
Senator Hickman, Senator Martin, Senator McNeiland, Senator Moyers, Senator
Nelson, Senator Smith, Senator Waters, Senator Youll, Senator Zhu.
Recognition of visitors to the Senate: Associate Vice
President LaGrow, Assistant Vice President Jerry Legere, Dr. Wayne Stein, Senate
Student Secretary Ashley Meade.
APPROVAL OF THE September 15, 2005 MINUTES
The
minutes were approved without emendation.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORTS
President’s Report:
President
Roberson elicited a nomination for Senator Jill Rooker to become a member of
the Faculty Grievance Board; Senator Webb made the motion. There was no discussion and the motion
was approved unanimously.
President Roberson also
entertained a motion from Senator Webb to suspend the rules for the purposes of
introducing a new bill, as the author of that bill, Dr. Wayne Stein, was in
attendance at the meeting. As there
was no opposition to the motion, the bill was introduced. Senator Webb noted that the bill, FSP 2005/2006-06,
had unanimous support from the Personnel Policies Committee. The bill addresses some of the problems
encountered by graduate teaching assistants (with full teaching
responsibilities) who do not have faculty ID cards.
President Roberson noted
that his official report is available on-line at the Senate website. He chose, however, to highlight a few
items from his report.
·
The Tenure and
Promotion Task Force is continuing its work to revise and update the
guidelines.
·
UCO has now
gained legal ownership of its own logo; university merchandise may soon be
available at local retail outlets.
Vice-President’s
Report:
Vice-President
Beasley announced that the next deadline for submission of bills to the Senate
would be November 3, 2005.
Reporter/Historian’s
Report:
Reporter/Historian
Hartmann noted several changes to the Senate website. Committee reports will soon be available
online. Unless otherwise requested,
“archiving” of reports will be the norm, with each new report as
the one readily available. There
will also be a “President’s Page” added to the website.
Secretary/Treasurer’s
Report:
Secretary/Treasurer
Law reported that the Senate had $9,095.00 in its account. The previously mentioned salary
confusion for the Senate Student Secretary has finally been straightened out.
President
Roberson noted that expenditures would be needed to run the annual College Bowl
next Semester.
Parliamentarian’s
Report:
Parliamentarian
Mock announced the completion of the special election in the College of
Education and Professional Studies.
He proposed a suspension of the rules for the purposes of confirming
Senator-Elect Bonnie Voth as a member of the Senate. There were no objections and the Senator
Voth was unanimously approved.
President
Roberson noted that Senator Voth would be assigned to the Academic Affairs and
Student Relations committees of the Senate.
UNIVERSITY-WIDE COMMITTEE REPORTS
Academic Affairs Council:
Senator
Montes: the committee report will be available online. He highlighted several motions have been
proposed by the Curriculum revision Taskforce:
·
Motion 1 calls
for a single committee to be assigned all proposals that have a graduate level
component.
·
Motion 2 expands
membership on the Council from 2 to 3 elected representatives per college.
·
Motion 3 would
require that members have previous experience either on the Council or on a
college level curriculum committee.
·
Motion 4
establishes the responsibilities of the committees in regards to the course
proposals.
Senator
Montes also noted that, to date, there were 55 proposals before the Council.
Alliance for Institutional Advancement:
Senator
Law: the Alliance has not been called into session since January 2004.
Alumni Association Board of Directors:
Senator
Webb: no report.
Benefits Committee:
Senator
Bizé: no report. The
committee will not meet until January 2006.
Bold Committee [ad hoc taskforce]:
Senator
Montes: an initial organizational meeting has taken place. The BOLD initiative is essentially an
adult degree completion program.
Concerns were voiced about academic rigor of the initiative.
President Roberson invited
Associate Vice President LaGrow to speak to the matter. She said that the initiative comes from
Chancellor Risser. It is estimated
that 60,000 Oklahomans have at least two years of college but no baccalaureate
degree. President Roberson, having
seen the official Regents’ PowerPoint presentation on BOLD, clarified
some proposed requirements. Of
particular concern is the notion of granting credit for job experience.
Budget Task Force:
Senator
Hepner: Senator Hepner was not at the meeting; there was no report.
Building Committee:
Senator
Law: the committee has forwarded its recommendations to President Webb. David Stapleton, the Director of
Architectural and Engineering Services, told the committee that – start
to finish – it usually takes 5 to 7 years to bring a project of this size
to completion.
Continuous Improvement
Team:
CIT Facilitators, Former Senator Donna Kearns (not
present) and President Roberson: unfortunately, this subcommittee is meeting at
the same time as the Senate.
CIT Prospective Students, Vice President Beasley: this
subcommittee met last week. A new
desk will be added to the area occupied by Enrollment Services to help
facilitate the needs of transfer students.
Procedures and timelines for enrollment of transfer students are also
being improved.
CIT Technology, Senator Dickson: no report. The Senator again lamented the lack of
clarity in regards to how the final report of the subcommittee was arrived at.
CIT Development/Continuing Education, President
Roberson: Senator Holt has agreed to replace President Roberson on this
subcommittee. A dedicated webpage
is apparently under development.
The subcommittee is also entertaining recommendations concerning the
fees charged for the Wellness Center.
President Roberson announced that Senator Webb will be crafting a
proposal to grant Faculty free access to the Wellness Center.
Distance Learning Task Force:
Senator
Hartmann: the Senator apologized for leaving his notes in his office. He will provide a later report.
Faculty Merit Committee:
Senator
Lucas: tomorrow will be the first meeting of the committee. President Roberson asked about the
rumors that monies for Faculty Merit had been reduced. Associate Vice President LaGrow said
that the account had been allocated $10,000 this year. Senator Law, having served on the
original Senate committee that crafted the Merit Credit proposal, expressed
concerns about this reduced allocation; the university had agreed to fund this
program with $18,000 per annum.
Associate Vice President LaGrow said she would look into the matter.
Faculty Enhancement Center Advisory Board:
Senator
Youll: was not at the meeting; no report was given.
Faculty Handbook Editorial Board:
Senator
Montes: the board had an introductory meeting at 1:00 today. A hardcopy of the proposed Faculty
Handbook was distributed. The
college deans have made several proposals that may be taken up by the
board. Some of these issues may
require appropriate action from the Senate.
Grade Appeal [ad hoc taskforce]:
Associate
Vice President LaGrow noted that a review of procedure is currently
underway. University Legal Counsel,
Dr. Brad Morelli, is having several issues clarified by the Regents
office. Recommendations of this ad
hoc taskforce will be vetted by the Senate.
Globalization Task Force:
Senator
von Minden: the task force met yesterday.
Egypt is being considered as next year’s highlighted country for
the Passport UCO series.
Graduate Council:
Senator
Rooker: the council met last Tuesday.
Research Day will be November 11th; 15 institutions will be
represented and there were 482 abstracts accepted (124 from UCO).
Information Technology Advisory Board:
ITAB Faculty Advisory/Strategic Planning, Senator
Dickson: no report.
ITAB
Academic Affairs Group, Vice President Beasley: no report.
Outreach Committee:
Senator
Montes and/or Senator Webb: no report.
Parking Task Force:
Senator
Bird: the Senator was not at the meeting; Senator Mock stated that there had
been no meeting.
Research Advisory Council:
Senator
Ferguson: the council has not yet met.
A request for information about the Council’s meeting schedule has
been sent to Dr. Garic.
Tenure and Promotion Task
Force:
President
Roberson: the task force is hard at work.
The President asked Senator Mock for his assessment of the progress
being made; Parliamentarian Mock said that work on the forms associated with P
& T were “tricky,” as they needed to be flexible enough to
accommodate the needs of all of the colleges. Senator Wallo observed that P & T
considerations for this year loomed on the immediate horizons of our
calendar. President Roberson said
that the initial problems of the task force have been overcome, and that the task
force is “within two feet of the Rubicon.”
SENATE STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIR REPORTS
Senate Executive Committee:
President
Roberson: committee members met on October 4th to discuss a variety
of issues.
Academic Affairs:
Senator
Montes: there is no report above and beyond what was reported in the Academic
Affairs Council report (above).
Alumni and Community Affairs:
Senator McNeiland: Senator
McNeiland was not at the meeting.
There was no report.
CPP&E:
Parliamentarian Mock: the committee continues to work
on proposals it has been assigned.
FSP 2005/2006-02 will not be endorsed by the committee, due to
conflicting variances in the written descriptions of how Grievance Board
members are appointed.
Information Resources:
Senator Dickson: the
committee has not met yet.
Faculty Welfare and Development:
Senator
Wallo: the committee met on
September 27th and it will endorse FSP 2005/2006-4 Moratorium on Increased Fees for
Parking. Several other issues
are being discussed in committee, including retirement and outside
employment. A meeting with Robert
Epstein, Assistant Vice President of Administration Support Services, is
scheduled for October 28th.
Personnel Policies:
Senator
Webb: the committee has endorsed FSP 2005/2006-06, introduced during the
President’s Report (above).
Research:
Senator
Ferguson: discussions are being held concerning funding for journal
subscriptions; a proposal is being crafted in committee.
Student Relations:
Senator
Wright: the committee met on October 5th to talk about student
safety issues. A “walk”
button has been installed at the Second Street crossing where a student was hit
by a turning vehicle. Senator
Dickson noted that a Vista editorial also recommended that a “no
turn on red” sign also be added to the intersection. Senator Hartmann added that there were
several “crosswalk issues” that needed to be addressed by the
university.
Budget Committee:
Senator Hepner: the
Senator was not at the meeting, but a report will be posted on the Senate
website by Senator Hartmann.
Adjunct Affairs
Committee:
Senator
Law: a written report was distributed to the Senators. It included four major points:
·
Adjuncts are paid
salaries that are considerably less than the mandated minimum salaries
being paid to common ed teachers in Oklahoma.
·
Information
concerning the logistics of offering benefits to adjuncts is being accumulated
from Hiring and Benefits.
·
The
classification of adjuncts as “temporary workers” allows UCO to
avoid offering benefits to adjuncts (as opposed to OU, for instance, where they
are classified as “instructors”).
·
There is
ambiguity in how UCO came to accept the reality of part-time workers
with full-time loads (a substantial number of adjuncts are teaching 12 to 15
hour loads).
Faculty Handbook
Revision Committee:
Vice
President Beasley: the committee is having trouble finding an acceptable time
for its meetings.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
1. FSR 2005/2006-01 Faculty Senate Statement on Ethical
Conduct, Discrimination, and Harassment
Parliamentarian
Mock: A modified version of this bill has been endorsed by the CPP&E
Committee. It is on the website and
will be voted on at the next Senate meeting.
2. FSR 2005/2006-02 To Restrict the Service and Selection
(by election, approval, or Presidential appointment) of Senate appointees to
the Grievance Board and to the Appellate Committee On Dismissal Of Tenured
Faculty Members to Full Professors.
Parliamentarian
Mock: This bill has not been endorsed by the CPP&E Committee. It will not be voted on at the next
Senate meeting.
3. FSR 2005/2006-03 Modify the Faculty Handbook to Limit the Voting for
Chair or Director to Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty in the Department or
School only, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the tenured members of
the school or department prior to each vote for chair or director.
There
is no report on this bill; it remains in committee.
4. FSP 2005/2006-04 Moratorium on Increased Fees for
Parking
A
motion was made by Senator Wallo to approve the proposal. There was no discussion. The bill passed unanimously. Senator Law, the author of the bill,
thanked the senators.
5. FSP 2005/2006-05 Modified Calculation Method for the
UCO Faculty Retirement Supplement
This
bill was withdrawn from consideration due to recommendations from the Budget
Committee.
NEW BUSINESS
Vice
President Beasley formally introduced the new bill mentioned twice above:
·
FSP
2005/2006-06 Support for the
issuing of Faculty/Staff identification cards and Faculty/Staff parking permits
for Graduate Assistants who serve as teachers of record for UCO classes. This bill was assigned to the Personnel
Policies Committee. This bill will
come up for consideration at the November Senate meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Senator
Ferguson noted that National Chemistry Week is immanent.
ADJOURNMENT
Seeing
that there was no further business before the Senate, President Roberson
acknowledged a motion to adjourn 3:51 p.m.
Secretary/Treasurer Stephen
Law revised draft 11/15/05