WSU FACULTY SENATE MEETING

   September 8, 2003               

 

Senators Present:            Sara Barbor, Tamara Berg, Danning Bloom, Matt Bosworth, David Bratt, Marianna Byman, Darrell Downs (sabbatical leave), Mark Engen, Pat Ferden, Peter Henderson, Kelly Herold, Matthew Hyle, Colette Hyman, Joe Jackson, Mary Kesler, Cindy Killion (sabbatical leave), Peter Miene, Bill Ng, Troy Paino, Susanne Smith, Jo Stejskal, Cathy Summa, Bruce Svingen.

Senators Absent:            Yogesh Grover, Christa Matter (resigned).

Others Present:            Ruth Forsythe, Michael Hofland, and Tim Donahue.

 

 

I.          Call to Order

 

Mary Kesler called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m.                                         

 

 

II.            Approval of minutes of April 14, 2003 Senate Meeting

 

S. Smith/S. Barbor moved to approve minutes of 4/14/03 as written.

Motion Carried.

 

 

III.                                                                               Agenda Additions/Revisions and Approval:      

 

NB-M:                           Enrollment Limits

NB-N:                           Rochester Meetings

NB-O:                           Teacher Education Unit Appeals

NB-P:                            MnSCU Sexual Violence Policy

NB-Q:                           Assessment Day

 

C. Killion/C. Summa moved to approve agenda items.

Motion Carried.

 

 

IV.                                           President’s Report      

 

Mary Kesler

9/07/03

The first IFO Board meeting will be held September 18 and 19. Bruce Svingen will attend in my place, since I plan to attend my daughter’s wedding in San Francisco.

Some of you have been hearing in the Leadership Retreat and elsewhere about a “new university.” We have been assured that this will be brought to the first Meet and Confer.

I have attended two IFO Meet and Confers with the Chancellor since the middle of August and will summarize them for you. The two messages we keep repeating are:

1. Let campuses do their own decision-making.

2. Bring any issue that affects faculty to Meet and Confer.

The good news:

1. The budget situation looks like it may be stabilizing, which may mean no “un-allotments” this year.

2. WSU’s Pasteur remodeling project is the MnSCU Board’s second highest priority, after the HEPR category (repair and replacement projects).

Ongoing issues with MnSCU:

1. Salary equity study - MnSCU insisted that any monetary settlement of this would have to be negotiated. We insisted that the contract language was negotiated in 1994(!) and further negotiation was not needed. I think we got the message across to them that this issue has led to considerable distrust of MnSCU because of the apparent delay. There have been meetings lately to get the monetary settlement in action.

2. Acceptable Use Policy (MnSCU Policy 5.22) - The computer use policy being developed seems to put limitations on academic freedom. This is also an issue where campuses had their own policies and now MnSCU wants a system-wide policy. They are saying it is needed for their internal audit.

3. Center for Teaching and Learning Survey - This may be coming to you soon, after we asked MnSCU for a delay. This is the one given to faculty at two-year institutions and to all campus administrators last year. MnSCU thought it would be good to get it to faculty “before their teaching started” at the end of August.

4. MnSCU has selected Desire2Learn as the course management platform they will support. This means they will pay for the site license and provide training and expertise for this one only. (According to Ken Graetz, WSU already has a Blackboard site license and does not need to convert.)

5. Non-resident, non-reciprocity tuition is being discussed in the MnSCU Leadership Council (all presidents). Currently, some institutions make their own decisions about what level of tuition to charge these students. We again encouraged local decision-making.

6. Hazardous waste violations among MnSCU institutions - There were 17 total violations on MnSCU campuses during the MPCA and OSHA campus inspections. MnSCU will be contacting each campus to find out our procedures for handling hazardous waste. They will be developing a system-wide policy to keep the fines for these violations to a minimum. Faculty will be a part of this.

7. Health insurance issues will clearly be a major obstacle in this year’s negotiations. AFSCME Council 6 will complete voting on September 30, with a recommendation from their leadership to reject the proposal.

 

 

V.         Review of Meet and Confer Notes of April 21, 2003.

 

Additional Notes:

1.         Academic Calendar was withdrawn in the summer by the administration but they will be re-bringing it back at the first Meet and Confer in the fall.

2.         B. Ng noted that “Administrative Addition” should be “Administration Addition.”

 

Meet and Confer Notes received by Senate.

 

 

VI.            Committee Reports

 

COM-A.  A2C2

 

No report.

 

 

 

Com-B.  Graduate Council (3:07 p.m.)  Ruth Forsythe

 

R. Forsythe reported that Graduate Council recommended to approve several English Department graduate courses that included 1-credit research components, thesis option and thesis without additional course work option for within the Masters program.

 

Recommendation approved by Faculty Senate.

 

 

Com-C.  Government Relations

 

D. Downs reported the following that the next State GRC meeting will be this Thursday and Friday.

 

 

Com-D.  Personnel Policies and Grievance

 

No report.

 

 

Com-E.  Committee on Committees 

 

The following IFO member names (forwarded by their respective departments) for IACUC:

 

Biol - Fran Ragsdale, Robin Richardson

Psyc - Rich Deyo, Kerry Williams

Phil - Kevin Possin (Don Schneid as backup)

 

The following IFO member names (forwarded by their respective departments) for IRB:

 

Biol - Pat Hartkopf

Coms - Rita Rahoi-Gilchrest

Psyc - Carrie Fried

HHP - Brian Zeller

 

C. Killion/M. Byman moved to approve the above IRB and IACUC members.

Motion Carried.

 

 

Need to appoint someone on the State Salary Equity committee

D. Bratt/D. Downs moved to appoint C. Summa.

Motion Carried.

 

Two other statewide committees also require members:

The DCR committee and the Multi-cultural issues committee

B. Ng/B. Svingen moved to refer to Committee on Committees for solicitation and recommendation to Faculty Senate.

Motion Carried.

 

 

Note:   Committee on Committees will be doing a fall solicitation.

 

Com-F. Negotiations

 

Senators were reminded that documents could be found at http://www.ifo.org/Agree05/neghome.htm 

Matt Hyle reported:

1.            Negotiation team met only once with MnSCU team this summer.

2.         No progress.

3.         No money proposed from MnSCU.

4.         Until MnSCU knows Health Insurance package, no real interests in bargaining.

5.         Health Insurance...see Item NB-E.

 

Senate Questions/Comments:

1.         Until a new contract is implemented, only faculty who is eligible for career steps would receive an increase.

2.         To be asked at Meet and Confer: Whether WSU faculty who are due career steps have received the appropriate increase?

 

 

VII.      Old Business

 

None.

 

 

VIII.    New Business

 

NB-A.            Election of FA Secretary and Treasurer (3:03 p.m.)

 

B. Svingen/C. Summa moved to nominate (and to close nomination) Bill Ng as FA Senate Secretary for 2003-2004. 

Carried by Acclamation.

 

M. Hyle/B. Svingen moved to nominate (and to close nomination) Darrell Downs as FA Senate Treasurer for 2003-2004.

Carried by Acclamation.

 

 

 

NB-B. Adoption of Rules of Order (NB-B) (3:04 p.m.)

 

M. Kesler proposed the following Robert’s Rules of Order for 2003-2004 Faculty Senate meetings:

 

1. We follow Robert's Rules of Order, except that some of the items listed below are adaptations or variations thereof.

 

2. Discussion of a motion is limited to a maximum of 20 minutes unless a motion to extend discussion is made, seconded, and approved.

 

3. Calling "Question" does not cut off debate--it is simply a statement that the speaker is ready to vote. In order to cut off debate on an issue, a motion to "move the previous question" or "cease debate" must be made, seconded, and passed by a 2/3 vote.

 

4. The FA Constitution states, "Decision of committees responsible to the Senate may be altered by the Senate by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds (2/3) of those Senate members present and voting." We take "decision" to mean "recommendations." We take "committees responsible to the Senate" to mean both standing committees and ad hoc committees of the Senate, but not All-University committees or task forces. And we take "decision . . . may be altered by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds" to mean that a 2/3 majority of Senators voting is required either to amend or to reject a recommendation of the committee. That is, it is just as difficult to change or delete a part of a Senate committee's recommendation, as it is to reject an entire recommendation.

 

5. The phrase "2/3 majority" means "2/3 majority of those voting." "Majority" means "majority of those voting." An abstention is not a vote.

Thus, for instance, if 25 Senators are present and 4 abstain, then a simple majority is 11 (that is, more than half of the 21 who voted) and a 2/3 majority is 14 (that is, the vote is considered to have been 14-7).

 

6. We do not allow voting by proxy.

 

7. A motion fails on a tie vote.

 

8. The President or other presiding officer may (but is not required to) vote in order to create a tie vote on a motion (thereby defeating the motion) or in order to break a tie vote.

 

9. Some sorts of motions are supposed to be un-debatable, but we sometimes debate them anyway. When our error is pointed out, sometimes we correct ourselves and sometimes we don't.

 

10. Any procedural ruling of the President or other presiding officer can be overruled by a simple majority of the Senate.

 

 

Faculty Senate adopted the above WSU Faculty Senate Rules of Order for 2003-2004.

 

 

NB-C. Introduction of New Senators (3:04 p.m.)

 

New senators (Peter Henderson and Tamara Berg) were introduced.   (Peter Henderson and Tamara Berg)

Meeting schedules of Senate, Meet and Confer, and A2C2 were in Senators= packets.

 

 

NB-D. Meeting to Set Agenda for Meet and Confer

 

M. Kesler related the following points for continuing to have “Meetings to Set Agenda for Meet and Confer” with the administration:

1.            Meetings are open to Senators.

2.         Once times are set, Senators will be notified of date/time/place.

 

 

NB-E.  Health Insurance Proposals (NB-E) (3:25 p.m.)

 

Additional information can also found at the following web site:

 

             http://www.afscmecouncil6.org/claudia/publications/negreps/statenegrep.htm

 

The proposals are being negotiated with AFSCME Council 6.  It was common in past state union negotiations that other unions receive whatever AFSCME gets on health insurance.

 

M. Kesler reported:

1.         Serious increase in co-pays and increase in levels.  If approved, members will have to pay a lot more money.

2.            AFSCME will be voting whether to reject the MnSCU proposal by the end of September.  If rejection, then strike by AFSCME Council 6 can occur.

 

 

NB-F.  Student President Michael Hofland (4:00)

 

Michael Hofland (and Tim Donahue of Student Senate Academic Affairs) related the following to Faculty Senate:

1.         On-line syllabi bank: Not mandatory for faculty.  Help to prevent student stress in signing up for classes and give students a better understanding of what classes is about.  The old “purple” book (of syllabi of no more than several lines) that Student Senate has is neither up-to-date nor informative.   Student Senate will be sending out survey to faculty to ask for input and comments.  Intent of on-line syllabi bank is NOT to have students use it to distinguish between easy versus hard classes.  Bank could be available for registration as a link.

2.         Lobby Day for students is very important and it needs faculty support.  WSU has traditionally won the trophy for having the greatest number of students attending the State Lobby Day event.  Having classes on Lobby Day does not help with student attendance on Lobby Day.

3.         On-line voting for student elections.

 

Senate Comments/Questions:

1.         How extensive should on-line syllabi be?...  Up to individual faculty.  However, perhaps not too specific (i.e. number and date of exams); but certainly more than what it used to be in the purple book.

2.         Should Lobby Day and Assessment Day be on the same day?   Students prefer that the two events NOT be on the same day.  Perhaps these issues should be addressed at the Calendar committee.

 

 

NB-G. FA Elections

 

Since Bruce Svingen (Board member until Aug-04) was elected as WSUFA Vice-President for the 2003-2005 term, FA needs to hold an election for the vacant one-year IFO Board of Directors seat.

 

Also, since Christa Matter has taken employment else where, a one-year Senate seat is vacant.

 

M. Hyle/B. Ng moved to request the IFO Elections committee to process an election for a one-year term IFO Board of Directors seat and a one-year term Senate seat. 

Motion Carried.

 

 

NB-H.  IFO Salary Equity Committee Representative

 

See Com-E.

 

 

 

NB-I.  Approval of IRB and IACUC Members

 

See Com-E.

 

 

NB-J.  Policy on Old Faculty Association Files

 

The following recommendations/policy were made regarding old faculty association files:

1.            Grievance files are in Matt Hyle’s office.  He has been scanning them onto electronic media.

2.         K. Schott has many old files too.

3.         What should we do with old files?

 

M. Byman/C. Hyman moved to have past WSUFA Presidents form an ad hoc committee to discuss (at their leisure) and to recommend to Faculty Senate on what we should do with old WSUFA/IFO files.

Motion Carried.

 

 

NB-K.  Handgun Signs

 

Faculty have been questioning FA Senators on when WSU will be posting handgun signs on campus.   Also, are there language/laws on posting handgun signs?

 

MnSCU has a policy that indicates employees and students may not carry guns into buildings.  Licensed officers are an exception.  However, no language/policy on posting handgun signs.

 

P. Henderson/D. Bratt moved to ask at Meet and Confer when the administration is planning to inform Faculty on when they will be posting appropriate handgun signs.  This issue should also be carried to the State level.

Motion Carried.

 

 

NB-L.  Retirement Workshops

 

Announcement for retirement workshops to be held at WSU:

 

1.         Russ Stanton will be doing a retirement workshop on campus: Sept. 22/23, Monday early morning and afternoon, each for one hour, with rest of times scheduled for individual Faculty.

Tue: pick up any remaining faculty appointments at Winona, then Rochester from 1:30.

 

2.         Mary will be announcing to faculty via e-mail.

 

 

NB-M:  Enrollment Limits

 

Senators informed Senate that a local newspaper reported a WSU article stating a number of 8,000 for future (stable) enrollment and an advertising budget of $150k.

 

Faculty Exec’s will bring this issue of enrollment target and advertising budget to the next Meet and Confer, including request of distribution of adjuncts/fixed-terms (with historical faculty/student ratio data relative to permanent staff) at WSU.