Wichita State University Faculty Senate meeting Monday, March 26, 2007
MEMBERS PRESENT: Acker, Billings, Brooks, Campbell, Carruthers, Celestin, Craig=Morland, Decker, deSilva, Forlaw, Gordon, Hamdeh, Hathaway, Jarnagin, Lancaster, Liera-Schwichtenberg, C. Moore-Jansen, P. Moore-Jansen,Myers, Myose, Owens, Riordan, Rogers, Rokosz, Ross, Roussel, Schneegurt, Spurgeon, Turk, Vanderburgh
MEMBERS ABSENT: Byrum,
Dooley, Hershfield, Lewis, Manske, Monroe, P. Moore-Jansen, Proctor, Shelly,
Siginer, Taher, Weheba
MEMBERS EXCUSED: Close, Coufal, Elder, Hershfield, Rillema, Uhing, Yeager
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS:
Summary of Action:
1. Accepted Senator
Vanderburgh's amendment to the Faculty Affairs Committee proposal for changes to
the Tenure & Promotion policy.
I. Call of the Meeting to Order:
President Roussel called the meeting to order at 3:30 P.M.
II. Informal Statements and Proposals:
Senator Myose discussed an issue about teacher evaluations, and provided copies
of his statement to the senate. Section 4.22 of the WSU Policies and Procedures
states that “Persons being evaluated shall have access to a copy of raw scores
of any survey used for evaluations.” He said that the SPTE information provided
to faculty does not have raw scores. He asked the social sciences lab about
this and was told that the raw scores information could not be provided to
faculty, in part because of concerns about student confidentiality. Senator
Myose pointed out that the evaluations do not have identifying information
about the students. There was a discussion among the senators about this issue,
and it was noted that IDEA evaluations do have raw scores. There was also
discussion about the different methods for distributing the SPTE packets to
faculty. Some colleges send the packets to college administrators who review it
before the faculty, and faculty in other colleges receive the packets directly,
unsealed. President Roussel was asked to raise this issue with President Beggs,
and to make it an agenda item for a senate meeting.
Senator deSilva raised a concern about the university travel policy, which requires all faculty travel to be arranged through a designated travel agent. He said that he has found travel costs cheaper than that provided by the travel agent but is not allowed to use the lower costs. Other senators provided examples of travel being more expensive through the travel agent than that which could be procured through internet sites, etc. LAS faculty pointed out that their travel is not fully reimbursed, and as a result they are sometimes paying more out of their own pockets than would otherwise be necessary. Others commented that the “gatekeeper” approach may be necessary, but that the senate should look into the issue and explore with administration whether the current could policy be improved.
President Roussel read an email from Betty Smith-Campbell in Nursing, which said that she had seen a notice that international travel funding is no longer handled at the university International travel office, but is to be directed to the department and college.
III. Approval of the Minutes -- Minutes of March 12, 2007, accepted as presented
IV. President's Report:
President Roussel handed out slides from Citizens for Higher Education for a
report to the Kansas Board of Regents in March 2007. The report compares Big 12
institutions for such things as tuition, faculty salaries, etc.
President Roussel also reported on a
proposal from the Regent’s regarding the need for teaching effectiveness
measures. Senators indicated concern, wondering what the motivation was to this
proposal. Concerns were also raised that any method of addressing teaching
effectiveness that suggests the use of one approach across the entire University
is not appropriate, because of the variety of teaching situations encountered in
various departments and colleges.
President Roussel thanked the senators for attending the HLC faculty meeting
today. She noted, however, that an associate vice-president and two deans were
in attendance, and that the administration had stated that this was to be a
meeting between the HLC representatives and faculty only. She has informed the
VPAAR’s office about this. This significantly
hampered free discussion between the team members and the faculty.
V. Committee Reports:
President Roussel said she had asked committee chairs to provide her a brief
summary of the interim status of the committees. She read a brief report from
the Exceptions Committee.
VI. Old Business:
A. Proposed X/F Policy: President Roussel said
that she had found information about academic integrity dating back to 1996.
The Kansas Board of Regents mandated an academic integrity policy at that time.
The WSU faculty senate worked on a detailed policy and in 1998 submitted it to
the VPAAR. Nothing was ever done about it.
In 2002, the
Policy was re-evaluated, and the process of redeveloping the Policy began. When
the current draft of the Policy was sent to the VPAAR’s office, both VPAAR
Miller and University Counsel Ayres had concerns regarding its wording, and
whether it provided for due process. There was a discussion about the
importance of having a system to track what the administration has done with
policies passed by the senate. President Roussel said she would provide this
information to VPAAR Miller, who has a task force working on the X/F grade
policy. There was also discussion about having some of the faculty who worked
on the policy in 1998 to meet with that task force. Senators Campbell and
Lancaster volunteered.
B. Proposed Chronic Low Performance Policy – VPAAR Miller and Ted Ayres will meet with the Executive Committee on April 2 to discuss administration concerns about the current draft. The final draft will come to the senate April 9, for consideration and vote
C. Proposals from the Tenure and Promotion Committee from Faculty Affairs
Committee --
An alternative
approach to the wording in this Policy was suggested. The alternative approach
involves two aspects of the policy. The first relates to the phrase “peer
reviewed”. The alternative wording for this aspect of the policy suggests that
peer reviewed implies that the paper or article has been read and evaluated by
someone in addition to the editor of a journal (but that this review need not be
“blind”). Senator Vanderburgh had two proposed
amendments to the report made by the Faculty Affairs Committee on March 12. The
first one concerned the issue of external reviews and whether the policy should
state that such reviews are typically expected. The senate voted to accept the
amended report.
The second aspect of the policy deals
with whether external reviews are mandatory for cases of tenure and promotion.
The initial phrasing of this aspect of the amendment suggested that the
statement “typically expected” be utilized to indicate the importance of such
external reviews. The phrasing discussed at the current meeting included the
statement that if such external reviews are not provided, the candidate indicate
why they were not. Senators expressed concerns about various aspects of this
issue. The senate voted to accept the amended report. Final action on
these proposals will be at the next meeting.
VII. New Business -- none
VIII. As May Arise --
President Roussel said that the
Kansas Board of Regents has asked her to submit a letter as part of its
evaluation of President Beggs. She asked the faculty for input.
Senator Lancaster reported that there
would be a Math Conference hosted by WSU the weekend of the 31st of
March.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm
Respectfully Submitted
Robert Ross, Secretary