Wichita State University Faculty Senate meeting  Monday, March 10, 2008

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Bolin, Brooks. Campbell, Carruthers, Celestin, Close, Decker, deSilva, Gordon, Hager, Hamdeh, Hershfield, Ho, Klunder, Lancaster, Liera-Schwichtenberg, Miller, C. Moore-Jansen, P. Moore-Jansen, Myers, Myose, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Roussel, Russell, Smith-Campbell, Spurgeon, Thibeault, Turk, Uhing, Vanderburgh, Yildirim

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Byrum, Coufal, Craig-Moreland, Duncan, Forlaw, , Hemans, Jarnagin, Ravi, riordan, taher,

MEMBERS EXCUSED:   Hathaway, Scherz, Schneegurt, Yeager

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS: 

Summary of Action:   
  
   I.       Call of the Meeting to Order:  The meeting was called to order by President Carruthers at 3:30 pm

II.      Informal Statements and Proposals:  

Moment of silence for the son and daughter-in-law of Prem Bajaj who died in a plane crash recently.

Question about validity and implementation of SPTE.   In Business, SPTE reports are not being kept confidential, in clear violation of policy.  Discussion about issues relating to SPTE and IDEA; Roy Myose and Bill Vanderburgh are working on a white paper on student ratings in light of two recent campus workshops.  Provost Miller should be informed of the violation of confidentiality (is it also a violation of federal law regarding opening someone else’s mail?).

Worries about emails from Bobbi: Are the minutes not being linked anymore?  Plus-minus survey link was also not live.              

III.  Approval of the Minutes:      
Minutes of February 25, 2008, accepted as corrected (Hathaway--excused)

IV.  President's Report:                 

Recent changes to policy regarding hires without a search—Provost Miller will change the language to make clear that hires without searches are NOT tenure track.

Ted Ayers will discuss XF policy with Executive Committee; more news soon.

KBOR meetings in the near future will be discussion tuition increases and budget caps, including faculty salary raises, but no solid information until after May 13.  Budgeting is prioritizing the tuition increases this way: faculty salaries, technology, libraries, graduate assistantships.

       V.   Discussion on Future Directions of the Faculty Senate

“Spring Cleaning”: Informal discussion of plans for Senate activities for the remainder of this year and into the future.

Appearance of “top down” governance.  Upper administration has worries about confidentiality, faculty who have personal rather than general interests, and the problem that the Senate cannot act quickly enough to be involved in some decisions.  Need a clearer definition of “shared governance.”  Provost suggests having a small group of faculty to meet with him to stay ahead of these things rather than only acting after the fact.

What would you propose for solutions/concerns about what is going on at WSU?

Note, rumor Mill is wrong about Provost driving move toward plus-minus grading; it was a Senate-originated proposal from last year that took time to wend its way through the process.

Worries expressed about the intensity of the exchanges on the Senate floor.  Senator Gordon recommends that we be “more Zen,” not assume a paranoid position, be genuinely curious, aware that many situations are genuinely ambiguous, take time to consider things carefully, be willing to compromise boldly.  Find commonality with each other in order to present the strongest face to administration.

Rumor mill says Senate is not truly involved in governance process, is not consulted.  Also, that WSU is administratively top-heavy.  Need more and better data about the loss of faculty lines and the growth of administration; how are individuals counted in each category.  (FTE would be the best measure.)

The bureaucracy/paperwork of filing for grants has become worse, and is inhibiting people from applying for grants.  This must be changed.

It is ridiculously difficult to hire: too many steps, too much paperwork.  Can this be changed?

Does the administration support the Library or not?  Beggs historically has; Libraries is unsure whether Miller is in support.  Nationally, libraries have annual inflation of 12%: this needs to be understood just to keep the status quo, and much more is needed for growth.  Library was told they would get 1+1 money, but now they will not (Pendse spent it all on technology—does he have the authority to make those budgeting decisions?): need better long-term planning.

Discussion of eLearning; must not be mandatory, should be encouraged with release time and good educational technology support.

Why is budgeting so difficult?  Details about, e.g., the amount collected through the technology fee, seem very hard to get.

Why so many expensive consultants?  Why are faculty kept out of the loop on planning for technology spending?

Should the president and provost be required to blog their activities?

Number one issue seems to be worries about (non-)shared governance.  Dialogue needed, and especially information about budget.  How can we vote to dis/approve plans without full information?

Selected admissions—is it working?  (Answer seems to be yes.)

What is the real function of the Budget and Planning Committee?  Should it be a smaller committee?  Perhaps a smaller working group should report to the whole committee?

What is the per-student spending on the libraries comparatively across the state?

We cannot be a serious research university if we do not have release time, etc.  It is impossible to maintain the current teaching loads for many faculty while trying to increase their scholarly productivity.

Do we really encourage scholarly activity?  E.g., the conference office is expensive, difficult to work with, its director overrides faculty expertise, etc.  Make it easier to host conferences here.

Given the emphasis on research, how are MFA faculty to be involved without creating a two-tier faculty system.  Inequity between poorest and richest departments, pure and applied research, science and non-science, funded vs. unfunded, big vs. large departments.  Resources are very badly skewed on our campus—greater equity needed!  Are we keeping track of the inequities; are they getting worse?  Need more transparency within and across colleges.

Need better tracking of scholarships, what they are for, and who gave money for what.  Is it true that we are not giving out all of the scholarships available?  If so, it is a travesty!

The inequity in workloads in different departments across the campus should be corrected immediately.

President Carruthers will have the index card information posted to the Senate website.
     

VIII:   As May Arise:  none
               

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm

Respectfully Submitted,
William Vanderburgh, Secretary