Fall 2007 Meeting Minutes

September 4, 2007 Block 1,  Meeting 1

The University of Montana Western

Faculty Senators attending: Sheila Roberts, Ermek Nurkhaidarov, Jim Sethi, John Hajduk, Bethany Blankenship (for Diana Francis), Delena Norris-Tull, Jeri Bonnin

Ex Officio members attending: none

Agenda Topics:

1. Call to Order: 3:35

 2. Approval of Minutes: Approved

 3. Unfinished Business:

 A. Faculty Senators from Business, Jim Sethi; English, Diana Francis; and ENVS, Sheila

Roberts; are all continuing.

 B. Candidates for the At-Large Senator include Gary Frey, Megan Chilson and Mike Morrow. The Senate will create a ballot with a write-in opportunity for additional interested faculty members. The voting will be conducted through Cathi Love’s office.

 C. The Chancellor will be asked to indicate approval of all sections of the F.S. Articles except those mentioned in his notations so the business of the F.S. can move ahead. John and Delena will work on the Honorary Degree protocol.

 D. The meeting schedule for the 2007/2008 academic year is as follows:

            Sept. 4 and 17, Oct. 1, 15 and 29, Nov. 12 is Veteran’s day – school closed, Dec. 3 and 17. All meetings after this one will be held in the STC Board Room

 E. If we use the Bylaws approved by the faculty, Appendix C, the first three Senate Committees below will have four faculty members; one each from Education, Business/Technology, Humanities/Social Sciences, and ENVS/Mathematics. Specific changes therefore would be as follows:

Academic Admissions and Standards: Ask Jenny Peterson to step down. Keep Else (Bus./Tech) Bullard (educ.), Kirkley (ENVS/Math), Janus (SS/Hum)

 Advising: Keep Eudaily (SS/Hum), Wingo (Educ.). Add Bus,/Tech and ENVS/Math

 Curriculum: Keep Morrow (ENVS/Math), Jones (Bus./Tech.), decide Eudaily or Hajduk (SS/Hum). Need Educ.

Although doing so will require an amendment to the Bylaws to become a permanent change, we would like the Vice Chancellor to appoint one member from every academic department (as defined for Senate representation) to the General Education Committee. If that is done, this committee would be:

General Education: Keep Reiten (educ.), Blankenship (English), Ulrich (Fine Arts). Add representatives from Bus./Tech and ENVS, Math.

ECOS will request  the Vice Chancellor to follow the guidelines established by the new Bylaws this year, since they were not listed in the Chancellor’s areas of concern. ECOS would then request department chairs to forward names for the committees. The request will include a reminder of the new Articles concerning the sharing of departmental duties.

4. New Business

A. Election of officers waits until we have the at-large member. The ECOS will be elected at the next Senate meeting.

B. Jeri reported on the Local Executive/Senior Staff Meeting from Aug. 31, 2007. Kent Ord presented the marketing plan for Western. Handouts and Posters requested from the Printing and Graphics Center have been stopped for non-compliance to new rules. Templates will be developed for faculty use to expedite the process.

Jeri also attended the Senior Staff meeting. The BOR is considering a Summer Institute on assessment for faculty members. The Banner Transfer Module must be initiated soon. Faculty assistance is needed to develop transfer procedure. Upward Bound will not be continuing on our campus.

 C. Senators were charged with compiling a list of issues to address this year. These will be forwarded to Sheila.

 D. Brief discussion concerning the Community Listening Sessions, Oct. 23-24. No decisions.

 E. A volunteer is needed to serve on the ad hoc commencement committee.

5. The Good and Welfare/Question and Answer

Adjourned: 5:17

  Submitted by: Jeri W. Bonnin, Recording Secretary

Faculty Senate Minutes

Sept. 17, 2007  Block  1 Meeting 2

STC Conference Room

The University of Montana Western

Faculty Senators attending: Sheila Roberts, Ermek Nurkhaidarov, Jim Sethi, John Hajduk, Diana Francis, Delena Norris-Tull, Jeri Bonnin, Randy Horst

Ex Officio members attending: Chancellor Dick Storey, Vice Chancellor/Provost Karl Ulrich

Agenda Topics:

1. Call to Order: 3:32

 2. Approval of Minutes: approved

 3. Communications: none

 4. Reports of Committees

A. Articles and Bylaws subcommittee and discussion with the Chancellor. Went through changes with    Administrators present.

The Senate will send the Chancellor and the appropriate Vice Chancellor a copy of recommendations, signed and dated by F.S. Chair

Motion: Bylaw 4 Section C Add “the general education committee wherein all departments are represented an exception to the above.” Chancellor and VCAA agree. All committees with the exception of the General Education Committee will consist of 4 faculty members. Seconded. Passed.

John and Delena will rewrite articles and decide which must be voted on. The updated Bylaws will be emailed to F.S.

B. ECOS – need for BOR representative. Sheila, as acting chair, has other obligations and cannot go.

            Issues: transferability of credit. Other issues will be forwarded to Jeri, who will be attending the

BOR meetings on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

5. Report of the Chancellor

            *Emailed AAUP article about academic freedom.

            *Ag conference on hold. Focus energies: Research day, alumni weekend, Windows on Western.

*New gifts: Amberly has gotten a gift from Quality Supply for 25K for Biology. Another gift with no   

      designation for 35K will go into LACE.

* will work on brand steering committee again. Some replacements needed for members who are no longer here.

*Budget for BOR meeting is ready. Sent copy via email.

*President Denison will be here Oct. 31. Will meet with F.S. at 3:30 & Department Chairs at Roe

      House.

*Chancellor sent the draft of the Campaign and asked for comments. There will be a meeting of entire campus on Oct. 12 concerning this. We will bring it to the departments to see what support is there.

    Report of the Provost

*Program review is to be done every 7 years. Everything at option level and above and minors not associated with a major are programs. Related areas are not programs.

6. Unfinished Business

            A. Election of at-large member will be held this week. Cathi will have the ballots in her office.

            B. Appointments to Senate committees

                        Academic Admissions and Standards Committee – OK as revised

                        Advising Committee – needs nominations from Bus/Tech and ENVS/Math

                        Curriculum Committee –Linda Reiten will be from Educ.

                        General Education Committee –Bus/Tech will be Margareta Knopik. Need ENVS/Math

            C. Community Listening Sessions, Oct. 23-24 – not discussed

7. New Business – not discussed

            A. Program review – some questions for the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor

            B. Personal mail policy and its administration on our campus. Is this settled?

8. The Good and Welfare/Question and Answer

Submitted by: Jeri W. Bonnin, Recording Secretary

 Adjourned: 5:06.

Faculty Senate Minutes

October 1, 2007  Block 2, Meeting 1

The University of Montana Western

Faculty Senators Attending: Jim Sethi, John Hajduk, Robin Wingo (for Delena Norris-Tull), Randy Horst, Diana Francis, Ermek Nurkaidarov, Mike Morrow, Sheila Roberts, Jeri Bonnin

Ex Officio members attending: none

Agenda Topics:

I. Call to order: 3:35

II.   Approval of minutes: Approved

III. Unfinished Business

A.     Welcome Mike Morrow, At-Large Senator

B.     Election of Senate officers: Chair – Sheila Roberts, chair, Vice Chair – Delena Norris-Tull, Recording Secretary – Jeri Bonnin .

C.     Discussion of changes to Articles/Bylaws. We’ll have the final version next week to discuss and consider tabling.

D.     Still have some committee appointments to finalize this week. Individual emails will go out as reminders. Appointed Linda Lyon to Advising Committee, Linda Reiten to Curriculum, Margarita Knopik, Sean Eudaily and Ermik Nurkhaidarov to General Education.

E.      Program review discussion. Senators will bring questions received in email up to the departments for comments. The list will be finalized at the October 29^th meeting then will be addressed to the VCAA at the December 17^th meeting.

F.      In addition to a full discussion of issues related to program review, department representatives suggested these items to address in this academic year:

1.      Extra resources are needed to fully implement X-1 model. For example, department may not have sufficient funds for extended field trips. How can we acquire adequate vehicles and drivers for field trips?

2.      Athletic students are missing class under the Hold Harmless Policy, but some aspects of this need clarification, especially for newer faculty. For example, are practices covered by the policy? Do we need to clarify exactly how much accommodation is required and how it should be offered? How much missed class is acceptable?

3.      Faculty development funds are depleting every year. Faculty members don’t have the time and resources to attend important events in their fields.

4.      If a minimum of 18 instructional days are critical to maintaining the academic integrity of our courses, and a minimum of four days off between Blocks are essential for both students and faculty to prepare for subsequent courses, then the University should consider eliminating days off in commemoration of holidays that otherwise reduce individual Blocks to less than 18 instructional days (e.g. Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc.)

5.       Given that many of the Related Areas in the various BA programs consist of more credit hours than is true of minors (and some majors) at other institutions, shouldn’t the Registrar be directed to identify Primary and Related Areas as co-majors on forms (such as graduate school applications) that request information using the major/minor terminology?

6.      In order to allow faculty to maintain better communications with their advisees, shall we recommend that WebCT pages be created for each faculty member with advising responsibilities to include mailing lists and other features that will facilitate the advising process (space to post office hours, appointment calenders, etc.)?

7.      Campus support services (WebCT, library, copying, mailroom, etc.) during block break – do these folks realize that most faculty are still on campus trying to do our work?

8.      Review of Curriculum proposal process.

9.      Review the library policy regarding book purchases.

10.  Review some problems created by raising scores for admissions. For example, the math lower level classes are already full.

11.  How can we insure more academic scholarships for all academic degree programs?

12.  What is being done to equalize recruiting for all degree programs?

13.  Is it time for a discussion of the appropriate roll of 2-year programs on this campus?

14.  Is it time to reconsider a Masters degree or two for our campus?

15.  What are we doing to strengthening academic programs?

16.  Do we need to revisit the interpretation of “shared governance?”

17.  Is it time to begin real enrollment management? For example:

                        – Raise standards or demand summer upgrading for unprepared students

                        -- Create a 4-year class schedule with all required classes guaranteed

                        -- Plan ahead for enough Gen Ed classes for freshmen

We will consider the priorities of these issues in a discussion at the October 29 meeting.

IV. New Business

A.     The faculty senate meeting at the BOR in Billings centered around the issue of transferability between campuses. The current policy states that if a student completes the core classes, then it transfers. Some campuses will not transfer “bits and pieces”. Bill MacGregor, working at the commissioner’s office, will ask the F.S. members to get faculty in on councils in each discipline to serve on committees for the task of assessing outcomes. Each campus still has academic freedom – just working on outcomes; not how to get there. The registrars will then put them on the web for all transfers. A steering committee will be formed to guide the process. Those working will be compensated for their time.

     Other issues included Recruitment and Retention: all units are underpaid. There are compression and inversions problems with faculty. Remedial courses across all units are not equal. On some campuses students can earn credit toward graduation while other campuses count these as remediation.

B.     Every department has 2 tuition waiver scholarships. 1 year ½ tuition. Instate incoming new freshman. Remind departments that we still have these.

V. The Good and Welfare/Question and Answer

Adjourned: 5:10 P.M.

Submitted by: Jeri W. Bonnin, Recording Secretary

Faculty Senate Minutes

October 15, 2007 Block 2 Meeting 2

The University of Montana Western

Faculty Senators attending:  Jim Sethi, John Hajduk, Delena Norris-Tull, Sheila Roberts, Randy Horst, Ermek Nurkhaidarov, Michael Morrow

Ex Officio member attending: Chancellor Dick Storey

Agenda Topics:

1. Call to Order: 3:35

2. Approval of Minutes: approved

3. Communications

            A. MUSFAR group discussion.

            B. NCATE Accreditation. Begins October 24-29, 2008. Visits will be made to department meetings to discuss program review and distribute matrices.

            C. Thanks to Chancellor Storey for his memo on compensation.

4. Reports of Committees

            A. Articles and Bylaws subcommittee and discussion with the Chancellor. Revisions will be sent to senators for approval. Will be voted on next meeting.

            B. ECOS: Sheila will be off campus most of Block 3, but will communicate by email. Delena will chair the meetings, Jeri will attend the November BOR meeting in Bozeman.

5. Report of the Chancellor

            A. Biennium Budget Planning

            B. Community Listening Sessions. Faculty Senate and Department Chairs met on Wed. Oct. 31 at 3:30 in the Roe House.

            C. Transferability

            D. Senior Staff and Chancellor’s Council meeting schedules.

            E. Campaign goals to be presented to full foundation board.

            F. Long-range building priorities.

            G. Lifetime Privileges for staff members.

6. Unfinished Business

            A. Personal mail policy.

7. New Business

            A. Discussion concerning academic support services between block times and during block breaks. Chancellor will have someone follow up on these issues.

8. The Good and Welfare/Question and Answer

Adjourned: 5:00

Submitted by: Jeri W. Bonnin, Recording Secretary

Faculty Senate Minutes Dec. 3, 2007 

Block 4 Meeting 1

Faculty Senators attending: Jim Sethi, John Hajduk, Delena Norris-Tull, Sheila Roberts, Randy Horst, Michael Morrow, Ermek Nurkhaidarov, Jeri Bonnin, Diana Francis

1. Call to Order: 3:36

 2. Approval of Minutes: unanimous approval

 3. Communications:

            Look at calendar for next year to determine when block 3 begins.

 4. Unfinished business:

            Articles went to the departments for comment. Motion on floor that we post the articles as revised for voting by faculty. Seconded and approved. Articles will be posted on the web and a hard copy will be placed in the library. Voting will occur in Cathi Love’s office beginning on Tuesday, November 11, 2007 and ending at 5:00 on Tuesday, December 18, 2007.

            Motion that we accept the F.S. bylaws as amended. Seconded and passed.

 5. New Business:

            Ex Officio non-voting members of the senate can attend any Faculty Senate meeting.

             The Hold Harmless Policy was discussed. Make a class-by-class list for the fall and spring catalogs of classes that cannot be missed or courses that will be scheduled differently from the regular block scheduling. Recommendation for the departments to create their own informal policy manual for Hold Harmless Policy.

             Faculty Development Funds are depleting. Resolution stating F.S. is concerned about this issue will be written and emailed for approval by departments

             The WebCT pages for each faculty member’s advisees has some glitches. Jim Efta needs more information about how this will be used. Still under discussion.

             The Curriculum proposal process should be streamlined. We will be gathering questions for a form to be created to assess which pertinent questions are asked multiple times in the curriculum process.

6. The Good and Welfare/Question and Answer

7. Adjourned: 5:10

Submitted by: Jeri W. Bonnin, Recording Secretary

Faculty Senate Minutes STC Board Room, December 17, 2007

Senators present included Francis, Hajduk, Horst, Morrow, Nurkhaidarov, and Roberts. Gary Frey was introduced as the new Senate representative from the Business Department, replacing Jim Sethi. Richard Storey, Karl Ulrich, and Jason Karch were also present.

1. Minutes approved from last meeting.
2. The University of Montana Western Regents Budget Initiative proposals were presented by Dr. Ulrich and Dr. Storey. They described the process by which the initiatives will be funded or not. This was a point of information that required no Senate action.
3. Commencement committee report suggestions were discussed. For this year the date will be the Saturday after the end of classes, as before, but will be held earlier, at 11:00 AM.  We agreed that the recommendation that all faculty be required to attend is a Faculty Association (contract) issue that requires no Senate action. 
4. Following a discussion and on the informal recommendation of Faculty Senate, the Chancellor approved five working days after the end of a block as the standard period to report grades.  Usually that will be the Wednesday of the following block (with some exceptions).
5. Faculty Senate responded to the Admissions Office’s need for a long-term academic schedule by approving a revised version of the schedule previously submitted by Jason Karch.  Di Francis pointed out that finishing a block on December 23 puts students at risk of driving in bad weather with no opportunity to wait a day and several senators agreed.  Classes in two academic years will begin a week earlier than tenatively scheuled to avoid this problem (2009-2010 will begin August 24^th and 2010-2011 will begin August 23rd).  The corresponding ending dates will be December 16^th and December 15^th.  Senators agreed that the resulting inconvenience of interrupting Block 4 with a week for Thanksgiving vacation is more acceptable than the late finish. The schedule is now set up to (not including) 2015-2016, so that recruiting can utilize the Banner system. Because the present need was for semester start and end dates only, the block dates within the semester will be discussed later.
6. Unfinished Business – John Hajduk reported a suggested revision to Article 1, Section 3. Final wording of the Articles of Faculty Organization, including a slightly revised revision, was approved in discussion with the Chancellor.  That revision will be stated:…In the spirit of shared governance, the Faculty Senate holds the further prerogative of thorough and timely before-the-fact consultation with the Chancellor and Provost in the development of University policy, the administration of the University, and the criteria and process to be used in the selection of academic administrators…The Chancellor will receive a printed copy of the Articles for official approval before it is presented to Faculty for a vote during Block 5.

 Submitted by Gary Frey