Faculty Senate Minutes

Monday, November 14, 2016

Clinton Hall 126, 3:30PM-5:00PM

Senators Present: Ahmed, Asaduzzaman, Babnich, Bolin, Brooks, Bryant, Castro, Chand, Chopra, Close, Cramer, Decker, Dehner, English, Weing, Hendry Hull, Keene-Woods, Kreinath, Johnson, Lancaster, Mahapatro, Moore-Jansen, Mosack, Myose, Price, Rife, Rillema, RJokosz, Ross, Shaw, Walker, Willis, Yildirim

Senators Absent: Anderson, Barut, Birzer, Pulaski, Shukaev, Solo,ey, Taher, Wehebe
Senators Excused: Koehn

Summary of Actions:

1. Accepted appointment of University Libraries Susan Matveyeva to the Faculty Affairs Committee

I. Call to Order 鈥� Meeting called to order at 3:30PM by President Yildirim

II. Informal Statements and Proposals 鈥� None

III. Approval of Minutes
a. Minutes of the October 24, 2016 meeting were accepted with noted additions.

IV. President's Report
a. A meeting for faculty with the first candidate for Vice President of Administration and Finance will take place on Friday, November 18th from 10:00-10:30 in the Morrison Hall Boardroom
b. President Bardo will hold a University Budget Townhall meeting, Friday, November 18th at 2:00PM in the CAC Theater
c. The Kansas Board of Regents meeting will take place at Emporia State on November 16th. Faculty Senate President Yildirim will attend.
d. President Yildirim will create an ad hoc committee to discuss the Academic Honesty Policy and the creation of a WSU central repository. President Yildirim is looking for three or four faculty members to volunteer for the committee.
e. President Yildirim stated that faculty concerns regarding parking were heard by President Bardo and he would like to hear more from faculty. Faculty were asked to send any feedback on parking to President Yildirim.
f. A proposal to the Koch Foundation from the College of Business led to some discussion on whether or not the Koch Foundation would have control over hiring business faculty and/or instruction. The question was raised as to whether or not the faculty senate can be involved in the process. Provost Vizzini stated that he did not know. The proposal to the foundation was to support an institute. Provost Vizzini will include information at the next monthly update.
g. Evidence (in the form of an e-mail from a faculty member to President Yildirim) that minorities were being harassed by fellow students on campus following the election led to the following discussion and comments:
i. Provost Vizzini stated if any faculty member is aware of student misconduct to report it to student conduct. WSU embraces academic freedom and freedom of speech.
ii. Regarding students who are being harassed off campus, General Counsel Moses stated if it is a viable criminal threat it should be reported to local law enforcement.
iii. Senator Price commented that hate speech needs to be addressed, but he also raised the question - if WSU were to make a statement regarding had hate speech, it would help or does it stir the pot? Senator Castro suggested that departments and the institution use positive statements and messages rather than punitive ones.
iv. It was noted that if a student is assaulted/harassed, that faculty have a responsibility to report it to the Title IX office/university police.

V. Committee Reports
a. Rules Committee 鈥� The following nominee was confirmed: Faculty Affairs Committee: Susan Matveyeva, University Libraries to replace Lorraine Madway.

VI. Old Business
a. General Counsel David Moses, Weapons Policy 鈥� General Counsel Moses reviewed the need for and the development of the Weapons Policy. WSU will present its Weapons Policy to the Governance Committee of the Kansas Board of Regents at the Wednesday, November 16th meeting. A copy of the draft can be found on the university website: /weaponspolicy
i. Unique to the WSU draft is Paragraph 14 which gives the university president discretion regarding identifying areas on campus that are not public areas. The hope is to prohibit concealed carry and just have signage, for example, beyond the lobby of the Child Development Center.
ii. KBOR has made it clear that we are not able to prohibit concealed carry in the classrooms or in faculty offices; however, faculty will have the opportunity to have secure storage in their office.
iii. The university is not going to have any permanent adequate security measures buildings; however, the university can limit conceal carry in certain parts of buildings, for example Counseling and Testing Services and temporary adequate security measures.
iv. There was no change to the existing policy regarding knives.
v. The policy committee used current military and NRA guidelines and best practices regarding holsters.

VII. New Business
a. Senator Shaw, Chair of Rules Committee, Recommendation regarding the Grievance Pool (the document can be found on the Faculty Senate website--Agenda 11-14-16).
i. General discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of probationary faculty in the grievance pool.
ii. Senator Castro put forward an alternate proposal to not prohibit probationary faculty from being in the grievance pool. Senator Shaw stated this would be too great a change from the original proposal, the current proposal would need to be rejected and a new proposal submitted.
iii. A second reading will take place at the next meeting.

b. Senator Shaw, Chair of Rules Committee, Recommendation regarding expanding the Membership of the Faculty Senate (the document can be found on the Faculty Senate website Agenda 11-14-16)
i. Presentation of the proposal to modify the membership language to include 鈥渢emporary faculty, probationary faculty, tenured faculty, contingent unclassified professionals, provisional unclassified professionals, and regular unclassified professions. These employees all have the e-class designation of FA or F2.鈥�
ii. Senator Close stated that the Elliot School strongly supports this proposal
iii. The impact of the proposal would be 7 new senators.
iv. Departments can extend their voting membership.
v. In the case of Dismissal for Cause, teaching UPs would fall under the UP policy.
vi. Regarding Committee service, teaching UPs could not serve on the Rules Committee, Faculty Tenure and Promotion Committee, Faculty Support Committee or University Tenure and Promotion Committee.
vii. General discussion and comments from senators related to the difficulty getting faculty to serve as senators, the current imbalance due to lost faculty, adjuncts who teach semester after semester, and the possible change in adjunct expectations as the WATC-WSU merger moves forward.
viii. A second reading will take place at the next meeting.

c. Molly Gordon, Assistant General Counsel - Accessibility changes that will impact classrooms and teaching
i. Assistant General Counsel Gordon shared that WSU and the National Federation for the Blind have an agreement that WSU will be fully compliant with all ADA requirements.
ii. Currently an Accessibility Committee has been formed and Assistant General Counsel Gordon would like a faculty representative on the committee.
iii. Four years from now (2020) professors and faculty will have accessible materials for students. Various training and workshops will be rolled out and there will be different projects along the way;
iv. Online course/materials are not in an accessible format, the hope is that faculty will lean toward accessible textbook. Question: Are we hoping to put pressure on publishers to print/produce accessible materials? Response: Yes, that is the long-term goal.
v. Question: Will there be an increase in services/materials/help from the Office of Disability Services? Response: Disability services currently works with students on campus, we (WSU) are trying to be proactive. A web server to caption video has been purchased, but we will need to train faculty and edit transcripts, there will be ways to upload video to do this and Disability Services has purchased software that reads text.
vi. Several senators commented and raised concerns about the potential impact on a faculty member's ability to remain spontaneous in teaching, and the impact on good pedagogy, while accommodating for the needs of all students. The Faculty Senate will continue with the discussion.

d. Stan Henderson, Senior Enrollment Management (SEM)Consultant, AACRAO 鈥� Strategic Enrollment Management. Since the SEM Plan was unveiled in August, SEM Consultant Henderson has been working with Senior Associate Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Management Rick Muma to help departments and colleges examine recruitment and retention.
i. Currently, four campus SEM workshops are being offered to the campus community.
ii. SEM Consultant Henderson has worked with the College of Engineering, looking at recruitment and retention, and the challenges faced by first generation college students who make-up 45% of the WSU student body; the College of Education, on how to make scholarship opportunities more available to students; and he will be working with College of Liberal Arts and Sciences on the culture of enrollment.
iii. Senator Johnson raised the concern that all students will be advised through One-Stop and the possible impact on retention, as students would not have contact with faculty. Associate VP Muma stated that activities for students to interact with faculty were being built and he clarified that One-Stop advising will be for first year advising and students will be moved back to their colleges after second semester advising is completed.

e. Innovation Campus, John Tomblin, Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer. Vice President Tomblin stated that in addition to linking to the university's vision and mission statement, the Innovation Campus is designed to promote the startup of businesses based upon new ideas, support existing business growth in the region and grow a workforce for the future to serve both (Vice President Tomblin's PowerPoint will be available on the Faculty Senate website.) Of note were the following:
i. the physical size of the university will double;
ii. the only two buildings the university has money in are the Engineering building and the Business building, the remaining structures will be public/private partnership buildings with a ground lease and tenants;
iii. Starbucks to open by February 2017;
iv. new recreation and wellness facility will be built;
v. Airbus has signed a 20-year lease with an additional 10-year option;
vi. businesses must sign an applied learning agreement; and
vii. companies are looking for individuals with experience and the Innovative Campus provides a low cost workforce and student experience at the same time.

VIII. As May Arise - None

IX. Adjournment 鈥� at 5:14PM