MSU FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES January 29, 2003 Members Present: Young, Gipp, Sherwood for Giroux, White, Kommers, Schlotzhauer, Metz for Linker, Leech, Howard, Taylor, Stewart, Jones, Yoo, Nehrir, Conant, Weaver, Amend, Locke, Levy, Cherry for Bogar, Bond, Jelinski, Pratt, Fisher, Lynes-Hayes, Prawdzienski, Kempcke. Members Absent: Morrill, Engel, Anderson, Chem Engr, Lefcort, Engl, Idzerda, Lynch, Knight, Hoffman. Others Present: Bandyopadhyay, Dooley, Fedock. The meeting was called to order by Chair Rich Howard at 4:10 PM. A quorum was present. The minutes of the January 22, 2003, meeting were approved as distributed. Chair's report - Rich Howard. - Members of the Joint Sub-Committee on Education were on campus today. - The Faculty Council Chair and other members of UGC Steering Committee, presented concerns of the faculty that are relevant to the legislature. - The page of information shared with the Sub-Committee was distributed to Faculty Council members present. - Concerns highlighted include erosion of salary and benefits and the need for continuing state support for the Extension Service and the Agricultural Experiment Station. - The university's role as one of the state's major economic engines was also highlighted. - Jim Mitchell, Director of the Student Health Service, spoke to the concerns of professional employees regarding inadequate salaries and the difficulty this creates in hiring and keeping employees. - Richard Stafford, Chair of CEPAC , addressed concerns of classified employees, which also center around inadequate salaries. - A proposal from a sub-committee of the Inter-Units Benefits Committee was discussed. The proposal recommends that university employees making more than $50,000 receive less money for health insurance than they do now, and that this money be added to health insurance premiums for staff who make less than $25,000 and who have dependents. -It was asked why this proposal does not appear to be negotiated through union representation when that appears to be a common route for changes to benefits. - During discussion, it was pointed out that this proposal allows the underlying problem of inadequate funding to be disguised. There need to be long-term strategies to address Montana's non-competitive benefits. - Faculty are encouraged to e-mail their comments to Don Mathre (upldm@montana.edu), Chair of the MSU Benefits Committee and a member of the Inter-Units Benefits Committee. Doug Young is a faculty representative on the Benefits Committee and may also be contacted with comments. Doug will summarize comments from Faculty Council and forward them to Dr. Mathre. - A search firm has been hired to identify candidates for the Commissioner of Higher Education. - Doug Young, Professor in the Department of Ag Econ/Econ, will present information about the economic outlook for Montana and Montana taxation issues on Wednesday, February 12, at 4:00 PM, probably in the SUB. - The presentation will take the place of the regular University Governance Council meeting. - It will be advertised not only to the campus but also to the community. Graduate Studies issues - Bruce McLeod, Dean of Graduate Studies. - Dean McLeod updated the Council on the progress of the electronic dissertation task force. - It is anticipated the option of a paper or electronic dissertation will be available by Fall Semester 2003. - If electronic dissertations work smoothly, electronic Master's theses will be considered. - The positive result of electronic dissertations is that the knowledge presented will be available worldwide. This brings with it an increased responsibility level by the university, faculty, and students to make sure the quality of dissertations continues to be high. - Still to be considered by the task force are library issues such as copyright and long-term storage; ITC issues such as server, backup space, and additional personnel needs; student issues such as formatting and word processing; faculty issues such as advising; and issues that need to be worked out with publishers in cases where chapters of the dissertation are published before its completion. - Electronic submission and electronic distribution will not necessarily occur at the same time, especially in cases where it is in the interest of the student and advisor to delay distribution of information. - As viewed by Dean McLeod, Graduate Council is a policy making body. Course proposals are no longer reviewed by the Council but are reviewed within the Graduate Office. - To increase communication, Dean McLeod recommends that a Graduate Council liaison sit on Faculty Council and that a Faculty Council liaison sit on Graduate Council. - After brief discussion, Craig Stewart agreed to serve the role of liaison since he sits on both Councils until a more formal arrangement can be made. - In response to a question regarding dissemination of information, Dean McLeod stated that all policy changes from the Graduate Office are sent to deans and department heads and should be distributed to faculty from there. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:05 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary Richard Howard, Chair