MSU FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
                            March 19, 2003
                                   
Members Present: Gipp, Sherwood for Giroux, Kommers, Leech, Taylor,
Stewart, Jones, Yoo, Nehrir, Conant, Bradley, Weaver, Cloninger for
Amend, Bandyopadhyay for Levy, Bogar, Bond, Pratt, Lynes-Hayes,
Prawdzienski, Kempcke, Knight.

Members Absent: Young, Morrill, McDermott, White, Anderson,
Schlotzhauer, Linker, Howard, Chem Engr, Locke, Engl, Jelinski,
Idzerda, Lynch, Fisher, Hoffman.

Others Present: Fedock.

The regularly-scheduled meeting was called to order at 4:10 by Chair
Elect Warren Jones.  A quorum was present.  The minutes of the March
5, 2003, meeting were approved as distributed.

MSU Bookstore renovation - Mark Frisby, General Manager.
     - The MSU Bookstore was incorporated in 1931, as a non-profit
     corporation.  The Bookstore moved into the SUB in the 1960's, and
     the textbook area was added in 1976.
     - Bookstore funds on deposit will be used for the $1.2 million
     renovation.
     - The Bookstore will become much more inviting, with better flow
     of traffic, although no space will be added.
     - The renovation is being done in three phases, with the first
     phase well underway.  All merchandise will continue to be
     available during the entire project.
     - It is anticipated the project will be finished by July 31.
     - The MSU Bookstore will continue to be the lowest-priced
     textbook operation in the United States, including on-line
     operations.

Chair's report - Warren Jones, Chair Elect.
     - Roger Rippy, Director of the University Police, has distributed
     a memo explaining the parking fee increases proposed for 2003-04.
     It is proposed that all fees be raised about 5%.  During
     discussion by Council members, several points were made.
          - Regents should be asked to pay attention to the fact that
          in this matter and others, university user fees continue to
          increase at a faster rate than the users' ability to pay.
          - It seems discriminatory for university employees to be
          required to pay parking fees when other public employees in
          the state do not.
          - Faculty lot designations should be implemented.
          - Levels of parking permits should be reallocated, making
          enough more-expensive permits available to fill the demand.
          Then, it may not be necessary to raise fees on all parking
          permits.
          - What is the goal of raising fees?  Is it to reduce demand,
          build additional lots, or maintain current lots at a higher
          level?
          - Although a parking garage could be one solution to the
          demand on parking, it is generally understood that a parking
          garage would be substantially more expensive that the
          current parking arrangement.
          - It was suggested Roger Rippy be invited to Faculty Council
          to discuss parking issues, or that UGC Steering Committee
          prepare a memo to be sent to appropriate individuals stating
          concerns of faculty regarding parking.
     - UPBAC has reviewed the budget amendments, which total $2.1
     million.
          - None of the amendments received an affirmative vote from
          the majority of the committee.
          - The committee is now beginning to discuss what approach to
          use if there are budget reductions.
          - A major concern is the affect upon MSU and UM if the
          regents change the cost-of-education model to support the
          smaller schools at a higher level than the two major
          universities.
     - The Board of Regents is meeting in Helena March 20-21.  One of
     the agenda items is discussion of the above-mentioned model for
     reallocation of funding.
     - The search committee for the Vice Provost and Director of
     Extension is being formed by the Provost.  Faculty Council is
     asked to provide nominees for a Faculty Council representative on
     the committee.
          - Jim Knight and Wayne Gipp were nominated.
          - Shannon Taylor moved the nominations be forwarded to the
          Provost.  The motion was seconded and carried.
     - Faculty governance positions for the coming academic year will
     be filled before the end of spring semester.
          - Because of the increased emphasis put upon shared
          governance by the current university administration, Faculty
          Council members are asked to seriously consider
          participating in university governance through their
          participation as the Chair Elect or as the Chair of the
          Faculty Affairs Committee.
          -  The University Governance Council Nominating Committee
          will solicit nominations for the positions, as well as for
          others.

Faculty Affairs Committee report - Jim Knight.
     - The Committee would like to meet with University Legal Counsel
     Leslie Taylor to discuss the two Faculty Handbook amendments yet
     to be approved by the administration (Section 1312.00 -
     Conciliation and Grievance Complaints - Deadline for Filing and
     Section 620.00 - Role, Scope, Criteria, and Procedures).

Retention issues - Warren Jones.
     - During fall semester, President Gamble met with Faculty Council
     to discuss retention.  At that time, the President stated that
     retention is a faculty issue.
     - To pursue the issue, some questions need to be answered: Why do
     students leave?  Who are they?
     - This semester, Faculty Council Chair Howard, Chair Elect Jones,
     and Dean of Students Courtney Stryker have met to discuss
     retention.
     - Dean Stryker is now considering data needed to gather useful
     information, rather than gathering the information anecdotally.
     Information to consider include student lifestyle, study habits,
     and size of the community from which a student comes.
     - Discussions and information gathered so far indicate that
     faculty do need to be involved in retention, but there are likely
     to be many areas affecting student retention that faculty are not
     able to influence.
     - There will continue to be further discussion of student
     retention.

As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:05 PM.


Joann Amend, Secretary     Warren Jones, Chair Elect