CALL TO ORDER
Ron Hammond called the meeting to order at 3:09 p.m.
GUIDELINES FOR APPROVING MINUTES
Sandy Vogel went over new guidelines for the approval of minutes. The idea is to streamline, focus on content and substantive issues instead of grammar, spelling, and other technical considerations. She asked senators just to e-mail suggestions in these areas and she will take care of them.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
Forrest Williams moved to approve the April 25th minutes and the motion was seconded by Stacy Waddoups. Voting was unanimous and the minutes were approved.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW FACULTY SENATE SECRETARY
Sandy Vogel introduced LeeAnn Asay as the new part-time faculty senate secretary. She was formerly employed by the University of Utah School of Medicine and came highly recommended. She will be working 1:0 -5:00 p.m. daily in the senate offices AD 211f,g and will primarily assist the Executive committee but also some committee chairs.
INFORMATION ITEMS
Faculty Senate Web site: Sandy Vogel reminded senators about the Faculty Senate web site and encouraged senators to look at the additional information that has been placed there. Most things being considered by the senate are on the web. If senators are aware of something that needs to be on the web site, let Sandy know and she will give it to the webmaster.
Policy Tracking Sheet & Prioritizing Policy Motion: Jill Jasperson introduced a policy tracking sheet. This will be a good way of keeping track of where each policy is at any given moment. A motion was made by Jill Jasperson to also prioritize policy so it can be handled expeditiously. Policies will be assigned either a Priority 1 - These significant policies directly relate to faculty, classroom issues, students or quality of faculty work experience; Priority 2 - These less significant policies indirectly relate to faculty, classroom issues, students, or quality of faculty work experience; or, Priority 3 - These policies do not relate to faculty, classroom issues, students, or quality of faculty work experience. Phil Gordon seconded the motion. Voting was unanimous in favor.
Leave of Absence Policy: Corey Callahan from Human Resources said that the policy is at President's Council and that the changes that have been made don't affect faculty greatly. A change that has been made is Birth Leave. It has always been policy, but for some reason was left out and has now been added back in. Ron Hammond asked Corey to read the policy: "Upon adoption or birth of the employee's child, the employee, whether male or female, will receive 10 working days, the faculty 70 hours, staff 80 hours of paid leave." The next change is the sick leave incentive -sick leave can be converted over to vacation leave. Upon termination, you can be paid for vacation leave provided you were employed March 1st. One more item - the college pays you while you're out on jury duty so any money the court pays you should be reimbursed to the college. Ron Hammond invited Corey to come back to the next Senate meeting so that the Sick Leave/Vacation Conversion can be put on the agenda as an information item and explained in more detail.
Constitutional Revision: Ernie Carey presented the Constitution for consideration and adoption. He would like to consider it for approval on a paragraph by paragraph basis. K.D. Taylor made the suggestion that it be looked at section by section rather than paragraph by paragraph. Paul Bean said that if the Senate did that, they would need to throw out the Roberts Rule for the Constitution. The major difference in the Constitution is that information will be moved to bylaws, and the Constitution will only contain things to keep the Senate running. The Constitution Committee wants to make it a growing, dynamic document. Any reference to committees has not been changed. Changes can be made at the committee level and then brought back to the Senate for approval. Change should be looked at with scrutiny. Mention was made of who should be in the Senate and who should not. If your department isn't listed in the constitution, you shouldn't be there. Faculty can be elected from the department to represent entire school. Italics in the yellow handout represent a change. Ron Hammond asked the Senators to take copies back to their department and discuss it with them. A motion was made by Eldon Greenhalgh to put it on the agenda next time as an action item. The motion was seconded by Paul Bean.
Faculty Summative Evaluations: Damon Bahr talked about addendums to the evaluation. 1) Concern about the whole notion in general; 2) One faculty was concerned about what "fair" really means. Jim Blankenship said his student council had the same concern - they felt that "fair" was a perception question. As a whole though, the student council felt the evaluation was a good tool; 3) It would be nice for the student to indicate how many times they had made contact with the faculty member; 4) It seems the answers to the demographic questions about the course is known without the student having to decide if it meets required or GE requirements; 5) A self-assessment of their class standing might prove interesting; 6) How are the students absent on the day of the evaluation to be included; 7) Does this course interface with college expectations; 8) Have you had this instructor for another course; 9) How often have they missed class. There were concerns about non-traditional student status, level of attendance, anticipated grade, number of hours of homework and whether the course was an elective. In summary, is the department ok with the instrument as it is, if not, change it, add items and let Damon know. We want to work on this quickly so it can be applied next semester. David Manning said that the evaluation needs to be used so we really know what may be wrong with it. Dr. Stoddard mentioned that some reporter wanted to see the evaluation from another school - many of the institutions release responses to their evaluations. Dr. Stoddard would be opposed to releasing anything. It was moved that this be made an action item at the next Faculty Senate meeting.
Year Long Time-Line for Senate: Grant Richards alerted committee chairs that the Senate wants to get a goal/time-line from the committees to put on the web site. The Senate would like to be able to see what everyone is working on and who is doing what, so efforts can be coordinated.
Non-Senators who wish to address the Senate: Ron Hammond wants them to clear it with the Executive Committee prior to the Senate meeting so their items can be put on the agenda. This is a privileged floor and would like the proper channels gone through if people need to address the Senate.
Political Action Committee Report: Lowell Glenn gave a summary of their first meeting held September 1, 2000. Students have arranged for a debate between Bill Orton and Governor Mike Leavitt on October 18th at noon in the ballroom. Students plan to have a booth in the hall for voter registration, etc. The next meeting will be held on September 22nd in BU238. A suggestion was made to get Jim Blankenship (Student Government) on the agenda next time.
ACTION ITEMS
Workplace Violence: Jill Jasperson brought up problems that her committee had with the policy - 1) I.A. "On premises" - needs to address off campus teaching experiences; 2) I.C. "Zero tolerance" - does not really mean zero tolerance. There is a 1-4 times tolerance; 3) II.B. "If you see or hear a commotion or disturbance near your work station, do not try to intercede..." - will faculty/students do this? Will they be in danger of liability if they do help? Sandy Vogel brought up the issue that the Legal Department has asked that the policy be vague to avoid possible liability. Jill made the motion that the policy be sent back to Val Peterson to rework those issues. Laurie Wood seconded the motion. Voting was unanimous.
BOARD OF REGENTS
Dr. Lucille Stoddard was asked by Ron Hammond to comment on the Board of Regents that will be at Snow College this week. Dr. Stoddard said there were a few issues that were important: 1) property leases; 2) the budget; 3) request that the Earth Science degree will be a four year degree. The first priority of the budget is the compensation issue. They are going to make a very strong bid for salaries across the board. Tuition increase is a reality for UVSC. We got their attention when we lost five adjunct faculty the day before school which meant that we could have lost 800 students, maybe more. Dr. Stoddard mentioned the Governor's announcement on CSIS on any technology from certificate up. They're going to put $8-12 million up-front money, so the CAO's will be putting some initiatives together to get that funding. UVSC is poised and in a perfect position for that because we are moving in the new building next Fall.
Committee Chair Reports and Year-Long Goals
Budget Committee: John Balden reported that UVSC has been invited to be part of a Consortium with SUU, Dixie, and Snow colleges. There was some discussion as to whether the Consortium will be beneficial to UVSC. He will keep the Senate up-to-date on the committee.
Faculty Development: Forrest Williams reported that the committee will meet the 3rd Tuesday of every month.
Curriculum Committee: Joe Strange said the committee has two goals - 1) To move the curriculum through the committee quickly and efficiently and asked the faculty to please be patient; 2) Looking hard at de-centralizing the curriculum process. They would like to separate it by school and let the Faculty Senate be the clearinghouse.
Tenure Committee: K.D. wants to have a training meeting for faculty deans and chairs.
Personnel & Elections: Laurie Wood had to leave early and asked to let the Senate know that her committee is doing fine.
Faculty Merit: Doug Miller said their committee should have a proposal before too long.
Academic Standards: Paul Bean said they're dealing with a lot of students who are very forgetful (forget to finish paperwork).
ADJOURNMENT
At 4:48 p.m. Paul Bean moved to adjourn the meeting. John Balden seconded the motion. The move passed.
