Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

September 18, 2001

SC 117

3:00 - 4:25 p.m.

Attendance: Ron Hammond, Karen Dodwell, Mike Shively, Dr. Lucille Stoddard, President Kerry Romesburg, Mark Bracken, Christa Albrecht-Crane, Genan Anderson, Kathyrn Andrist, John Balden, Dahom Bahr, Brian Barthel, Paul Bean, Janet Bennion, Brian Birch, Cris Boggess, Lona Broadhead, Denza Bruss, Mike Bunds, Karin Davidson, Brian Eldredge, Lowell Glenn, Phil Gordon, Eldon Greenhalgh, Gamini Gunawardena, Diane Hartman, George Hickman, Larry Holt, Eric Linfield, Robert Loveridge, Deb Marrott, Rick McDonald, Steve McKay, Anita Musto, Tom Paskett, Connie Reynolds, Hugh Rode, Joe Strange, Renee Van Buren, Darren Wiberg, Carole Sullivan

Absent: Luis Arzola, Lynn Baadsgaard, Mark Bracken, Diana Fallis, Curtis Fillmore, Terry Hill, Cameron John, Masoud Kazemzadeh, Tony LaTurner, Dennis Lisonbee, Gary Noll, Stacy Waddoups

Guests: Kirk Rasmussen, Lisa Lambert, K. D. Taylor

Call to order: Ron Hammond called the meeting to order at 3:05 p.m.

Presentation of 4/24/01 Senate Meeting Minutes: Kirk Rasmussen mentioned that K.D. Taylor passed out the Post-Tenure Review handout and asked that the minutes reflect that change. Also, it was noted in the minutes that we would review that handout in the next Senate Meeting on September 11, 2001. The September 11^th meeting was rescheduled for September 18^th due to the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. on the 11^th. The minutes will be changed to reflect that.

Report from President Romesburg & Dr. Stoddard: President Romesburg talked about the ramifications of the unfinished construction and how it is affecting college revenues. He also addressed budget issues: UVSC lost 2 � % of its funding, but this loss will not affect the merit/bonus program. The new classroom building will still be constructed.

Dr. Stoddard was pleased to announce 56 new and replacement hires. She indicated that the college will be working toward some new four year programs in Philosophy, Music, Dance & Theater, which will take some time to implement. She also praised the work that has been done by the Faculty Evaluation Committee and the Post-Tenure Review Committee.

Ron passed out laminated copies of Robert's Rules to the new senators.

Information Items:

Call for a volunteer to plan the Holiday Social - Ron asked for a volunteer to help plan the Holiday Social. Connie Reynolds said that she would be willing to serve in that capacity.

Faculty Non-Competitive Selection Policy - Phil Gordon presented this new policy to the Senate and the changes proposed by the APAC committee which are reflected in the following issues: 1) "Spouse hires" excludes domestic partners. 2) The restriction that such hires be limited to helping recruit candidates for pre-existing searches excludes the possibility of making such arrangements for existing faculty. 3) Temporary non-renewable and acting appointments seems to exclude the possibility of hiring tenure-track faculty. 4) Most important to the committee was the role of faculty in the procedures. Procedure 2 states that the faculty should be "consulted" prior to the Dean, Chair, VPAA, and HR officer arranging for an exemption to the normal search process. After the exemption is awarded, then the department begins the evaluation process (reviewing the qualifications, etc,). The committee is concerned with the meaningfulness of the first consultation. How are faculty members going to be "consulted" if they are not invited to review the qualifications until four steps later? If the exemption is granted (and the Chair, Dean, and VPAA are presumed to be eager for the hire), will the faculty in the department really be able to say "no" at that point? The committee would like to see a meaningful consultation including at least a good faith effort to circulate the vita to all affected department members explicitly stated early in the document. 5) Procedure 4 implies that the Dean could initiate a request for exemption without the Chair. The committee thinks that request should come from the Chair, or the Chair and the Dean. 6) "Responsibilities" of the VPAA include a statement that "the final decision on exemption is based on the recommendation of the Director of HR." Shouldn't that be based on recommendations from the affected department? 7) The Committee asked about the existence of a similar policy for staff positions. 8) The Senate Executive Committee suggested considering splitting this document into two documents, one on policy, one on procedure. (Procedures would be easier to amend down the road.) President Romesburg and Dr. Stoddard were pleased with the suggested changes and recommended that they be presented to Human Resources. Phil was also asked by Ron to call Nancy Bartlett and ask for the correct policy number.

Presentation of Faculty Evaluation Issues researched by Faculty Evaluation Committee - Damon Bahr spoke about the four variables his committee has looked at and how they effect the summative evaluation tool. He passed out two handouts to the senate for review and suggested that his committee could create an evaluation that would more accurately reflect a teacher's ability. The Committee has conducted research on how to more clearly define a teacher's role and integrate it in the evaluation process. This will be an action item at the next senate meeting being held on September 25, 2001.

Presentation of new Post-Tenure Review Policy C-5.9 - Kirk Rasmussen presented his handout on this policy and said that he has done all the work on it that he can do. After he presented his document there was some discussion about whether or not tenure-track faculty should be part of the peer review process. Kirk felt that they should not be.

A motion was made at this point by Joe Strange to adjourn the meeting at 4:25 p.m. Phil Gordon seconded that motion, and the motion passed. Ron decided to move directly to the allocation of senators for the School of Computer Science and Engineering.

Action Item:

Allocation of senators from School of Computer Science and Engineering - George Hickman reminded the senators of the minutes from February 27, 200, which stated the following: "It was agreed by the senators that it would be a good idea to look at apportionment again in August or September to address the issue of promised contracts. It was also suggested that it would be good to put names with numbers when faculty is counted." George told the senate that his school has 24 faculty and according to the bylaws in the constitution, his school should be allocated 4 senators. Joe Strange moved that the 4 senators be allocated - that motion was seconded. Before a vote could be taken, a motion was made to postpone the allocation of senators for the School of Computer Science and Engineering until the next meeting. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned.

Adjournment of meeting: According to the earlier motion made, the meeting was adjourned at 4:25 p.m.