MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES October 15, 2003 Members Present: Gipp, Marlow, Weaver, Kommers, Schlotzhauer, Monaco, Leech, Taylor, Howard, Christopher, Jones, Yoo, Becker, Conant, Bradley, Ashley, Lansverk, Levy, Cherry, Giusti for Kevane, Pratt, Neeley, Lynes-Hayes, Prawdzienski, Coon, Knight. Members Absent: Ag Econ, Giroux, McDermott, Schmidt, Jackson, Seymour, Taper, Chem, Bond, Idzerda, Lynch, Hoffman. Others Present: Dooley, Fedock, McCleod. The meeting was called to order by Chair Warren Jones at 4:10. A quorum was present. The minutes of the October 1, 2003, meeting were approved as distributed. Chair's report - Warren Jones. - The Board of Regents (BOR) will hold a workshop on the MSU campus October 23. - The purpose is for the Regents and Commissioner to clarify internal operating procedures and committees, talk with invited legislative leaders and make plans with them, review long-range projections, review the BOR strategic plan for current relevance, and to prioritize current and proposed BOR/Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education initiatives and obligations. - The primary expected outcome is to establish working guidelines and priorities for the next 12-18 months. - Chair Jones and a UM faculty leader will attend the meeting, which is open. - During President Gamble's state-of-the-university address, he mentioned that faculty are addressing issues of retention of students with high GPA's. - Chair Jones will meet with Chris Fastnow and Ben Sharp (Office of Planning and Analysis) and with Courtney Stryker (Dean of Students' Office) to identify mechanisms to increase retention of these students. - An immediate issue is to identify high-GPA non-resident and resident students who do not return to MSU, discover why they are not returning, and work with the students to improve or correct these issues. - Chair Jones and Assistant Dean of Students Glenn Puffer are collaborating on issues concerning "I" grade. - Changes will be made to the I grade form to make it clear that faculty determine whether an I grade should be given, not the Dean of Students' Office. - The current regulation that a student must have completed 3/4 of the class work will be changed to make it fit practice. - Don Mathre, Chair of the MSU Benefits Committee, will attend the November 12 University Governance Council (Faculty Council and Professional Council) meeting to discuss issues of TRS/TIAA-CREF and the FLEX credits "penalty" for families in which both spouses are employed by the university. - Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns was on campus yesterday, meeting with various groups. Faculty representatives with which she met were Warren Jones, Marvin Lansverk, Pat Lynes-Hayes, Clayton Marlow, and Shannon Taylor. Dr. Stearns is interested in the shared goverance model developing at MSU and in the UPBAC process. She is a faculty advocate. - The University Planning, Budget, and Analysis Committee (UPBAC) met October 14. The Committee is identifying specific goals relating to student body size and composition, faculty growth and compensation, curriculum development, research growth, partnerships from local to national scale, and infrastructure. A draft proposal will soon be available for campus-wide comment. Short-term faculty development program proposal - feedback from faculty. - Comments from faculty have been positive. - Several individuals recommend the call for proposals take place more than once each year or be on-going, because opportunities sometimes arise with a short lead time. - Last year's Professional Development Task Force determined that there was considerable interest in this type of opportunity because it allows varied possibilities both in time and breadth. Traditional sabbaticals appear to have become more problematic for faculty because it is increasingly difficult to be on leave for an extended period of time. - Some faculty see the lack of a buy-out provision a limitation in the faculty development program, but buy-outs would greatly lower the number of opportunities available because of the cost. - Summer semester and breaks between or during semesters might be times some faculty could take advantage of the program. - The program is a pilot project, open to adjustment. UGC Nominating Committee report - Clayton Marlow. - Four individuals have been nominated for one faculty position (to be appointed by the President) on the University Faculty Athletics Committee. They are Susan Dana (Business), Susan Marshall (Library), J.R. Woodward (Soc/Anth), and George Haynes, HHD. President Gamble has asked that one name be forwarded to him as a nominee. However, after discussion, it was agreed by a hand vote to submit two names to him: Susan Dana and J.R. Woodward. - There are two nominations for a faculty position on the Information Technology Advisory Committee: Richard Wolfe (ECE) and Gary Harkin (CS). By hand vote, Richard Wolfe's name will be forwarded to President Gamble as the nominee. - Dean of Graduate Studies McCleod and Faculty Council Chair Jones have discussed the position of the Faculty Council/Graduate Council Liaison. - They agreed Chair McCleod will attend Faculty Council and Chair Jones will attend Graduate Council. However, the time and day of Graduate Council meetings conflicts with Chair Jones's class schedule. - David Weaver, Entomology, volunteered to represent Faculty Council at Graduate Council meetings, and Faculty Council unanimously supported Dr. Weaver's serving as liaison by voice vote. - Graduate Council does not review requests for new courses, but it discusses policy issues such as deadlines for submission of dissertations and theses and electronic dissertation issues. It is a policy-making body with one member from each college in addition to ex officio members. The Role of Faculty Council in the Review Process of New Academic Programs. - Chair Jones distributed an overview of the issues and three different proposals for a review process (Attached for members absent). - Discussion of the role Faculty Council might best adopt will be on the October 22 Faculty Council agenda. Faculty Affairs Committee report - Marvin Lansverk. - Discussion at today's Faculty Affairs Committee meeting centered around a proposed Promotion and Tenure timeline, presented by Provost Dooley (Attached for members absent). - According to Provost Dooley, the P&T process at MSU works well, except that the current deadlines are not possible to meet if a thorough review process is done because of the number of cases to be reviewed each year. Information collection begins too late in the year. - It is suggested by the Provost's Office that external reviews be solicited over the summer and that departments begin their work early Fall Semester, giving the University Promotion and Tenure Committee the winter break to read dossiers. - Currently, P&T notification is to take place by March 30, giving a candidate time to file a grievance before the end of the semester, if the grievant chooses to do so. Is the March 30 deadline necessary? Deadlines that are later may be a possibility, if notification of the candidate is moved slightly later than March 30. - Faculty Council members are encouraged to take the P&T timeline proposal to their departments for input. Can departmental P&T committees be configured during Spring Semester? Is it advantageous to a candidate to move up the deadlines, or does it give a candidate too short of time on campus before dossiers are requested? - The issue will be discussed at the October 22 Faculty Council meeting. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary Warren Jones, Chair