WSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING
December 2, 2002
Senators Present: Danning Bloom, Matt Bosworth, David
Bratt, Marianna Byman, Darrell Downs, Mark Engen, Pat Ferden, Yogesh Grover, Kelly Herold,
Matthew Hyle, Colette Hyman, Joe Jackson, Mary Kesler, Cindy Killion, Daniel Lintin, Peter
Miene, Bill Ng, Troy Paino, Christine Pilon-Kacir (Rochester), Susanne Smith, Cathy Summa,
Bruce Svingen (Rochester), Kerry Williams,
Senators Absent: Sara Barbor, Christa Matter, Jo
Stejskal (sabbatical leave), Alex Yard (sabbatical leave).
Others Present:
Charla Miertschin, Victor Vieth, Helen
Dachelet, Glen Just, and Joe Gow.
I. Call to Order
David Bratt
called the meeting to order at 3:07 p.m.
II. Approval of
Minutes of November 18, 2002 Senate Meeting
C.
Killion/D. Lintin moved to approve minutes of November 18th as written.
Motion Carried.
III. Agenda
Additions/Revisions and Approval:
NB-D: Honorary Degree
nomination
M.
Kesler/S. Smith moved to approve agenda items.
Motion
Carried.
IV.
President’s Report
On 11/19 I attended a meeting
of Rochester faculty with President Krueger. Topics included building remodeling to
accommodate
Health Sciences programs, plans to have Prof. Gander lead UC-R support staff in a
team-building program, new Rochester-area elected officials,
and a speech in Rochester by
the U of M’s new President (at which he said
(a) he valued the U’s
educational partnerships in Rochester and
(b) he did not think Rochester
would be well served by a traditional university).
The latter group has canceled a meeting
and dinner involving campus FA presidents and university presidents scheduled for tonight
in St. Paul.
The IFO Board will meet 12/5-6
in St. Paul
Darrell Downs and I have
attended two meetings of the group charged with making recommendations to administration
about issues involved in the location of the AIS Department faculty
V. Review of Meet and Confer Notes of November 25,
2002
Meet and Confer Notes Received by Senate
VI. Committee
Reports
COM-A. A2C2
I.
Course Approvals
1.
University Studies B Course Requirements
1.
Unity & Diversity: Critical
Analysis
MUS 203
Theory III (4 SH)
PSY 308
Experimental Psychology (3 SH)
2.
University Studies B Flag Courses
1.
Oral
BIOL 307
Cell Biology Laboratory (1 SH)
PSY 309
Experimental Psychology Laboratory (2 SH)
PSY 311
Careers in Psychology (1 SH)
Faculty Senate approved
courses in item I.
Com-B. Graduate Council
Two courses
were recommended for approval from the Graduate Council:
EL 640 (3
sh): Ethics for School Leaders, existing course, proposed with 1 sh decrease.
EL 622 (3
sh): The Principalship, new courses created by banking two existing courses.
Faculty Senate approved EL
640 and EL622.
Com-C. Government
Relations
Darrell Downs briefly reported
the following:
1. The new
legislature has elected many of their leadership positions.
2.
New GR goals were proposed.
B.
Svingen/D. Downs moved to delay remaining GR items until after all other Senate items are
completed.
Motion
Carried.
Troy Paino (and Board Liaison
Svingen) reported on behalf of D. Downs (~6 p.m.)
1.
From GR, that WSU support the Fon du Lac
Tribal College proposal of Fon du Fac separately educating Native American students at the
Tribal College site; i.e. instead of students taking upper level (2+2) courses at Bemidji. However, GR is recommending to the IFO Board that
this situation is unique and that any faculty at the Tribal College teaching upper level
courses must be an IFO member and that this situation is not precedent setting. Eight new faculty could be hired with proper
qualifications. However, the Tribal College
will not seek accreditation of degrees (CC/TC/SU degrees) but can offer them. Ultimately, the IFO does not have any power to
over-rule what the Fon du Lac Tribal College (with federal status, the only Tribal College
in the MnSCU system) to do this.
Having the
IFO state some statement of support is better than being silent. The fact that it is a Tribal College is a unique
enough situation that it shouldn't set precedence for other CC's and TC's.
Board members
Svingen/Kesler, President Bratt, and GR will consider the Senate discussion at the next
Board
and GR meetings.
2.
The IFO will pursue ratification of
the contract by postponing Domestic Partners benefits; chance of any unions getting
ratifications with Domestic Partners benefits is zero!
A window of opportunity now exists for the IFO to pursue ratification by the
legislature by postponing the Domestic Partners and then restart it again at the next
negotiation. This is being proposed at the
next IFO Board meeting.
M.
Hyle/C. Killion moved that if the IFO postpones Domestic Partners benefits, then the IFO
pursue the issue via violation of
the MN Human Rights Act. This should be
presented at the next IFO Board meeting.
Motion Carried.
Com-D. Personnel Policies and
Grievance
Peter Miene reported that upon a vote of 5-2, PP&G
recommended the language in the PQI document (mega-sections and May term) are in violation
of the IFO Master Contract. The memo below
from Frank Conroy stated the violations.
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Jim Pehler, IFO President
David Bratt, FA President, Winona State University
FROM: Frank Conroy, Director of Labor Relations
DATE:
October
28, 2002
RE:
Report of Professional Quality Improvement (Teaching Load)
Task Force B August 22, 2002
This is to advise you that I
have reviewed the above-referenced report and it is my professional opinion that the
recommendations go beyond the local meet and confer concept. While there is a reference to
a statewide MnSCU/IFO Joint Task Force, it should be noted that any recommendation from
either body would be subject to Meet and Negotiate. (See
Article 33 of the IFO/MnSCU Agreement.) We do have a process to deal with issues on
proposals between the collective bargaining sessions, i.e., MOA's and Letters of
Understanding.
As you are aware, we
have had disputes dealing with Article 13, Summer Session, at two of our campuses and as a
result we negotiated a change in the contract language (see attached).
The issue of mega-sections has
been an issue for a number of years, and we have not finalized any standard process as to
class size or compensation. The issue of workload was addressed in the last round of
bargaining; however, the cost became more than a major issue. Therefore, any unilateral
action in this area would be a violation of the collective bargaining process.
The concept of reduced
workload during the academic year and a carryover beyond the 168 duty days is clearly
outside the scope and intent of the Master Agreement, and would be subject to the
grievance procedure. The academic year is defined in Article 5, Section M, and referred to
in Article 10, Section A, Subd. 1. In addition, the provisions of Article 29, Section A,
Subd. 2 would reduce the seniority of any faculty on a reduced contract, which would have
an impact on the career steps in Article 11, Section K.
The above is a brief
overview of some of the issues related to the report and I will gladly provide a detailed
analysis as related to the contract as a whole. There is no simple solution to the issue;
we want to provide quality education to our students and support the faculty we represent.
M. Hyle/P. Miene moved to accept
the PP&G statement of fact (above) and to delay any action until the next Senate
meeting.
Motion
Carried. [10-9]
Com-E. Committee on Committees
No report.
VII. Old Business
OB-A. Final Exam policy
The administration provided a 2nd
draft (11/25/02) of the Final exam policy at the 11/25/02 Meet and Confer.
This 11/25/02 draft agreed with
Faculty Senate’s 10/7/02 recommendations to delete two sentences: "If the final
examination is given, it should be administered during the assigned time during exam
week" and "Exceptions to the final exam schedule must have prior approval of the
college dean."
This 2nd draft
proposed the following statement as a replacement for the two deleted sentences:
"An instructor who wishes to reschedule an exam during final exam
week must receive prior approval from the college dean"
Additionally faculty at the
11/25/02 Meet and Confer made the following points:
1.
This draft would still allow
faculty to give their last exam during the final week of classes without permission from
the administration. This would provide some
faculty the flexibility of using the time scheduled during final exam week for reviewing
tested material.
2.
Faculty can decide on the format
of final exams, such as take-home exams.
Senate discussion/comments of
the 2nd draft of the Final Exam policy:
1.
It is the faculty member’s
right to do whatever they wish with their course relative to the exam schedule, with the
exception of re-scheduling a posted-scheduled-exam during the exam schedule.
K. Summa/M. Kesler moved to
accept the 2nd Draft (11/25/02) Final Exam document.
Motion Carried.
OB-B.
Calendar
B. Svingen and M. Byman, reps on the
Calendar Committee provided the following update:
1.
Longer breaks between semesters raised worries of
retention from the administration...however, there is absolutely no data
supporting
retention issues during breaks!
2.
WSU has one of the shortest breaks between
semesters among comparable schools.
M. Bosworth/B. Ng moved to strongly
support the faculty reps to continue to pursue the 4-week break period.
Motion Carried.
3.
Three grading days at the end of
each semester should be pursued also; again supported by the Faculty Senate.
4.
Should try to spread out non-class
duty days instead of having them all together.
Applause for Svingen!
VIII. New
Business
NB-A. National Center for the
Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA)
(Presentation and Q&A, Victor Vieth, 3:30)
Victor I. Vieth presented the
following information pertaining to the NCPCA:
1.
Vieth is the Director of the
American Prosecutors Research Institute.
2.
Proposing a
partnership w/ WSU (National Trainings, UG curriculum, facility needs).
3.
Why WSU?...see later.
4.
NCPCA founded in
1985 and assists prosecutors
5.
Receive 4000 calls/cases a year
from Social workers, etc.
6.
Best known for training, runs
National Conferences.
7.
“Safety Net” training
presently being done at Ole Miss.
8.
Half a Nation by 2010 (in terms of
training from NCPCA)
9.
WSU was brought on board via a
visit of WSU alum Vieth with WSU officials.
10.
Web sites of NCPCA will be based from
WSU; present NCPCA receives several thousand hits a month.
11.
In the proposal, WSU is to design a
model UG curriculum that adequately prepares WSU grads; presently, most grads are not
prepared to perform work related to Child Abuse cases.
12.
NCPCA will
provide expert advisors/consultants to WSU faculty in designing the curriculum.
13.
NCPDTC will also
provide WSU with resources (materials, curriculums).
14.
WSU is the site? Because it’s the cause, not the location. Once WSU is established, then National
experts/faculty will come within several years; in fact, WSU is the perfect size.
Senate Questions/Comments:
1.
Can WSU's present curriculum be
adapted to fit the new curriculum/resources from NCPCA?...Curriculum is up to WSU faculty.
2.
It appears that the NCPCA
curriculum/philosophy starts prosecution without incorporating family unity...a concern
shared by several faculty.
3.
Faculty resources? Initial start-up budget will be provided via the
$1.4M federal grant. Where is the support for
faculty reassigned time and/or new faculty at WSU?
4.
$1.4M NCPCA funding pending
Congress discussion (may be in January), rest will have to come from private sources.
5.
Present WSU funds will not be
diverted for this project.
6.
Need to hear real answers/figures
relative to allocations of resources.
7.
It was stated that WSU faculty
should be given more discussion time with Vieth; i.e. unfortunately the presentation took
way too long (more than an hour)! Besides,
after awhile, some Senators didn't bother to ask questions fearing that Vieth provide more
exhaustive responses.
8.
Perhaps there should be a
committee formed to study curriculum details and cost requirements.
This item used up so much time that
even the electrical power shorted out in the conference room!...It required two Chemistry
retractable power cords, Tom Hill's constant monitoring of the cords/cables, one Faculty
Senator running back to Pasteur Hall to retrieve the second retractable power cord, the
A2C2 chair to figure out serial connections of the two retractable power cords, and the
use of Dennis Martin's office to keep the lights/electrical-sockets alive for more than 3
hours!...and Dean Gow almost promised part of the $1.4M to Senator Ng for not writing
everything down!
NB-B.
UC-R e-learning Planning
The administration provided a
document stating that UC-R seeks to further develop its strategic direction for e-learning
by doing market research and the development of strategic study groups. At the Dec. 16th visioning session, the
UC-R e-learning team will review baseline data and determine the specific disciplines to
be represented in two strategic study groups. IBM
is the consulting service facilitating the market research and study group activities.
The team would like to request
approval to contact the FA president by e-mail after the Dec. 16th session, who
would then immediately seek discipline specific faculty involvement (over the semester
break).
M. Bosworth/D. Lintin moved to approve
the administration’s request to contact FA president Bratt by e-mail after the Dec.
16th session, who would then immediately seek discipline specific faculty
involvement
(over the semester break), after which
seek electronic approval from Faculty Senate.
Motion Carried.
NB-C. Promotion and Tenure decisions
Upon the Faculty Exec’s
query of the administration at the 11/23/02 Meet and Confer regarding the annual summary
of promotion and tenure decisions from 2001-2002, the administration provided D. Bratt
with a copy of such information.
C. Killion/B. Ng moved to
forward the 2001-2002 annual summary of promotion and tenure decisions (the original copy
with names) to PP&G.
Motion Carried.
NB-D. Honorary Degree nomination
Dr. Stephen Covey has been
nominated to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree at WSU Commencement
Ceremonies in May 2003.
Senate Comments:
1.
Why was the College of Liberal
Arts the only college solicited for comments and why only Chairs/Directors were solicited
for input?...Dean Gow responded that it was due a very short time-line set in WSU
Regulation 3-23.
D. Bloom/D. Downs moved that
Faculty Senate support the nomination of Dr. Stephen Covey for the Honorary Doctorate of
Humane Letters degree, to be given at the WSU Commencement Ceremonies in May 2003.
Motion Carried.
X. Adjournment
Faculty
Senate adjourned at 6:07 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill (the
some-part-of-the-$1.4M-grant) Ng.
Yah right!