Minutes of the 麻豆破解版 State University Faculty Senate
Monday, January 28, 2013
CH 126 3:30 pm

Members Present: Alexander, Anderson, Baker, Barut, Bergman, Bryant, Celestin, Close, Decker, DeSilva, Driessen, Hamdeh, Horn, Hull, Jacobs, Johnson, Kagdi, Klunder, Kreinath, Lewis, Liu, Lu, Matveyeva, Miller, Mosack, Oare, Pulaski, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Skinner, M. Smith, Solomey, Yildirim
Members Absent: Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, Toops
Members Excused: Besthorn, Brooks, Yeager
Summary of Action
a. Accepted the proposed revisions to the Repeat Policy from Academic Affairs
b. Accepted the appointments of Animesh Chakravarthy & Nicholas Wyant to the Undergraduate Research Committee


I. Call to Order
President Bob Ross called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm

II. Informal Statements and Proposals None

III. Approval of the Minutes
The minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting of Monday November 26, 2012, were approved. https://wichita.edu/?u=facultysenate&p=/m112612/

IV. President's Report
President Ross reported on the following recent activities:
A. December and January KBOR Meetings - The December and January COFSP meetings, in conjunction with the KBOR meetings, dealt with:
1. Post Tenure Review (referred to Faculty Senate Faculty Affairs Committee)
2. Regent's Professor of the Year (tabled at January meeting of COFSP)
The chairs of the Strategic Planning Committee (Cindy Claycomb and Ed O'Malley) and several other members of the committee met with the KBOR at the January meeting. President Ross was very impressed with their presentation as well as the fact that the Board allowed the group 90 minutes of their time. The members of the KBOR appeared to appreciate what they heard and encouraged with the direction that the planning was taking.
B. Academic Operations Council 鈥 The Council has asked the Faculty Senate to provide some clarification on the matter of Students 鈥渄ouble dipping鈥 to use the same course for multiple requirements on their plan of studies. The matter has been assigned to the Senate's Academic Affairs Committee for action.
C. Faculty Salary Spread - Mary Herrin, 麻豆破解版 State's Vice President for Administration and Finance, and President Ross discussed this issue again. VP Herrin is reviewing the 鈥渟alary spread鈥 requirements, and has indicated that there should be an acceptable solution for this budgeting issue for most faculty members by the end of the this semester.
D. VPAA Search - The VPAA Search Committee has met three times. So far 25 applications have been submitted. The Committee will evaluate all applications and narrow the search to six to eight candidates for further evaluation. They will report their recommendations to President Bardo in early April. It is expected that the chosen VPAA will be announced by late April.
E. College of Engineering Task Force - A task force of the Senate Executive Committee (excluding faculty from the College of Engineering) and two former Senate Presidents (Debra Soles and Chris Brooks) was formed to evaluate a proposal developed by a group of nine senior faculty members of the College of Engineering, dealing with the creation of a new Department of Bio Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering. This task force met approximately twelve times over the past two months, and interviewed a number of faculty members and administrators. The central purpose of the review committee was to protect the rights of all faculty members affected by the proposed reorganization and to assure that the principles of shared governance are adhered to within the organizational structure any new department within the College of Engineering. The task force submitted its recommendations to the President, Interim Provost, the chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the director of the Bio Engineering program, and the chair of the College of Engineering committee of senior faculty. The report has also been posted on the Senates website.

V. Committee Reports
A. Academic Affairs Committee -- Nick Solomey, Chair of the committee, reported on two items that the committee had completed. The first issue the committee had been asked to consider was the appropriateness of a student receiving a WSU degree in a major, even though all courses in the major had been transferred from another institution. After a great deal of study and discussion the committee discovered that every WSU college, except for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, had guidelines that addressed that situation. So the committee met with the administrative staff of LAS and they agreed to create a college-wide policy to address the issue.
The second item the committee address was a request from the Registrar's office to examine and streamline the University's repeat policy. The principal problem with the current policy was the limit of the number of times a student is allowed to repeat a class. This limit of five repeats could not be effectively automated within the Banner system, so a great deal of time and effort was being expended to make sure that the limit of five was not exceeded. Consequently, the committee agreed to remove the five course limit and developed the following revised repeat policy (which includes some friendly editorial changes from the floor of the Senate):
1. Any course may be repeated. No course may be attempted more than three times. For this policy, an audit does not count as an attempt.
2. Any grade received at completion of a repeated class at WSU will automatically replace up to two previous grade(s) received for that course in computation of the student's cumulative grade point average.
3. Grades received in courses taken at another institution may not be used to replace grades in courses taken at WSU. If a student repeats a course at another institution, the WSU grade will be averaged into the GPA.
4. The department offering a course can approve an exception to the limit of three attempts. If such an exception is given, only the first two grades for the course will be excluded from the GPA. All other grades received for that course will be averaged into the GPA.
5. Courses repeated prior to fall 2013 are subject to the repeat policy in effect during that catalog year.
6. No portion of the repeat policy may be applied after graduation to courses attempted prior to graduation.
Repeated courses are identified on the transcript by an extra letter after the grade as follows:
I included in the GPA
E excluded from GPA
A averaged in GPA but not counted in earned hours

Senator Lewis moved to waive the requirement for a second reading of the proposed revision of the repeat policy, and Senator Hull seconded the motion. The Senate voted, with no dissent, to waive the second reading requirement. The Senate then voted to approve the proposed changes in the Repeat policy. The motion was approved, again with no dissent.
After the two items of business from the Academic Affairs committee had been concluded, Senator Johnson asked the Senate to consider the dilemma of those students that have a severe phobia of a specific required course outside of their major; for example, the basic skills math requirement of college algebra. This led to a great deal of discussion, in which most vocal senators appeared to be sympathetic of the student's plight. Several senators expressed the opinion that students with this sort of problem could be granted an exception to the basic skills requirement through an appeal to the Exception Committee. No one was certain about how a student could address the problem, so President Ross declared that the Senate would investigate the matter and develop a proposed course of action.

B. Rules Committee 鈥 Victoria Mosack, Chair of the Rules Committee, nominated Nicholas Wyant (University Libraries) and Animesh Chakravarthy (College of Engineering) for membership on the Undergraduate Research Committee. Both were unanimously supported by the Senate.

VI. Old Business 鈥 None

VII. New Business - None

VIII. As May Arise - None

IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:24pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate