April 22, 2020 Minutes

A printable PDF of this information can be found here.

Faculty Senate Minutes

April 22, 2020

WebEx Meeting

3:10pm-4:30pm

I.            Call to order

a.       Meeting was called to order at 3:10pm

II.            Approval of April 8, 2020 minutes

III.            Interim Senate Processes-Reminder

a.       Only Senators or alternates may participate unless recognized by the Chair or Chair Elect

b.       Email or Text Keely if you’re calling in

c.       Mute your microphone

d.       Discussions – synchronous and asynchronous

e.       Voting

IV.            Informational Items

a.       Student Survey Results-Chris Fastnow and Dean Adams

i.            Invited all the students to respond. Wanted them all to have the opportunity to respond. 20% response rate

ii.            Pretty flat across the categories

iii.            Other services: nearly half of responses were neutral. About 42% were positive.

iv.            Highest concern is their family’s health and economic wellbeing as well as their own

v.            Fewest were worried about their own health and their course work

vi.            1/3 of students responded

vii.            All have been impressed with what the faculty

viii.            Some said they had a hard time finding a good workspace, even in their own home.

ix.            Suggestions:

A.      Would like a recording of synchronous courses in case they have issues with their technology during the course.

B.      Organizing course details and changes in one place, not multiple areas.

x.            Questions:

A.      This is from the first week of classes going online and there was a lot of correction that happened that first weekend. Will there be a follow up? Yes, although it won’t be exactly the same survey as the first one.  We will be sending the second survey to a sample of students rather than all of them, and there will be some minor changes to the questions so that they are relevant at this point in time. 

B.      Do we have data on how many students who don’t have access to technology? There a handful of students that said they didn’t have a computer. There are some available for loan. Some don’t have a printer/scanner and cannot print out assignments.

C.      Can I share this information with the department for discussion? You can share with your faculty. Chris will come visit, if you would like.

D.      Slides from this presentation are in the FS D2L shell

E.       How do students feel about using TechSmith? 57% of students said they used it but cannot speak to if they have had issues.

F.       Students are missing their campus community.

xi.            Dean Adams: Want to thank all of you. There are a lot of inspiring and innovative things happening. Considering all the best practices, but also looking for the gaps. Working on a faculty survey. Please continue to go to the learnanywhere website. It is updated regularly. Updates should be at the top of the page for a while and then will be put in order. You can come to CFE individually at any time. Some may need help with course evaluations this time around, as they are not going to the department head this time. CFE is there to help you, one on one. Peer leaders: you are either one, or you have one. Don’t forget to use your peers as a resource. CFE tries to send emails out on Tuesdays.

A.      Questions:

1.       Are there things online now that I can look at on alternate learning assessments? Yes, there is a link on the website, or you can reach out directly to CFE.

2.       Having issues with academic misconduct, as have others. Can CFE help? Have posted something on an integrity statement but have been in regular discussions about other monitor systems and the accessibility restrictions for students that goes along with those. Will continue getting info out on that.

xii.            Discussion section on our D2L. You can have more discussion there.

b.       Graduate Programs, Student and Research Plans-Craig Ogilvie

i.            Grad School needs your input. Thank you for your time today.

ii.            Context: Contingency planning

A.      University is planning for up to 20% budget reduction

B.      Not holding some graduate courses could provide departments some savings

C.      Faculty and departments are in the best position to know which courses could be placed on hold

D.      Reason for planning now, even in incredibly busy, stressful times

1.       Placing registration holds on courses early; students can be placed on waiting list

2.       Faculty input more likely

3.       Plan now rather than rush closer to Fall

iii.            Proposed process (I of III); input/suggestions?

A.      Department heads submit a plan by May 15(?) for _up to_ 20% of their Fall graduate courses to be not taught in Fall 2020

1.       In two categories; first 10%, next 10% of courses.

B.      The maximum of 20% matches one budget reduction scenario.

C.      Choice of which courses are included in 20% rests with the department.

1.       Independent study, research credits etc. are excluded.

D.      The idea is not all departments will be asked to submit a 20% list

1.       E.g. if a dept has 90% of their courses with an enrollment of 8 or more, they will be asked to identify only 10% of their courses to be not taught in the Fall.

2.       Low-enrollment threshold of 8 is from Fall 19 enrollment

3.       Depts can review and appeal the Fall 19 data

4.       The maximum amount is 20% of the dept’s grad courses.

iv.            Proposed process (II of III); input/suggestions?

A.      Each course identified by Department Heads, possible actions include

1.       A registration hold, or

2.       Collapsing sections into one, or

3.       Co-convening courses when it makes sense to do so

·         400/500

·         similar courses across departments

v.            Proposed process (III of III); input/suggestions?

A.      Potential criteria to keep courses open for registration are if

1.       The enrollment in the course in prior years is 8 or more students, or

2.       If the course is offered only once every two years, or

3.       A course is a “core” course, e.g. a prerequisite course for all their majors, or serves as the basis for a student’s comprehensive exam requirements, or

4.       A course that leads to specific requirements for professional licensure, or

5.       Is a joint 400/500 course, or a stacked set of courses where two graduate courses meet together, e.g. many studios, or

6.       A course that spans MUS, e.g. material science

vi.            Questions:

A.      If there is a possibility that a department has diverse enough grad courses, and meet all criteria, would they still have to cut? It’s possible that they would not have to cut.

B.      New cohort coming in. Enrollment won’t be clear until end of June. The idea is to base, not on current enrollment, but on historic enrollment. If the option is to put a hold on with a zero cap, you should do it before students register. I know it’s open at the moment, and there will be work to be done, but it’s better to do it earlier than later. This is not a good way to encourage students to go from a master’s to a PhD. This is a contingency plan, and nobody really knows what’s going to  happen.

C.      The faculty that were supposed to teach these cut courses, will the department be determining what will happen to them? Yes.

vii.            Other questions: Encourage you to use the D2L shell. You can also email them to Eric and Michael.

viii.            Please take this back and consult with your faculty and department. Try to get feedback in by end of week, of possible.        

V.            Discussion Item-Upcoming Decisions and Communications

a.       Decisions that need to be made over the summertime. What will classroom spaces look like, etc. Since we don’t have the data we need yet, most of this will happen over the summer.

b.       Please catalog some of the questions you might have. Think about what the timing might be.

c.       Please talk things over with your faculty and departments.

d.       Provost Mokwa has agreed to give us a brief overview of the planning groups and process.

i.            Faculty have been key is us meeting our priorities.

ii.            Created an Incident Command Center when the gym roofs collapsed.

iii.            Put this team into action when we realized we had big decisions to make.

iv.            In the last three days, have been working on restructuring this unit to move into a model that more closely resembles the institutional structure.

v.            Looking to what the environment might look like in the Fall. “The future moving towards us, instead of us moving toward the future.” Need to have scenarios prepared for whichever direction this virus situations moves towards. Governor says we are moving into a phased return. We will also be phasing back into our offices. “Turning a dial, instead of flipping a switch”. How can we prepare for the Fall? What makes us special and what can we do to keep in mind our core principles.

A.      Protect health and safety of our people

B.      Continue to deliver a quality education

C.      Be cognizant of financial issues to protect our employees

D.      Make fiscally sound decisions

vi.            One end of the spectrum mis that business will not be ‘normal’, but it will be as close to that as we can imagine.

Other end of the spectrum would be fully remote instruction in the fall.

vii.            A lot of good ideas and input

viii.            All the groups/teams are working together to build out different scenarios. Need to be cognizant of what the implications of each scenario brings.

ix.            Look for communications from the Provost’s office, and the office of the President. Also, look for communication from the Research office.

x.            Want to be as prepared as possible for whatever comes our way this Fall.

e.       Questions:

i.            Email portal for questions has disappeared. Will there me some mechanism continuing so that we can push questions and share answers? It is a lot of work for someone to respond to each question that comes in and find and answer to each of them. Do not know if Communications will reinstate that. Encourage you to send questions to Department Heads who should send them on to the Dean. Would prefer if we could communicate that way.

ii.            Can you speak to the dates that may be set for making decisions? Am hesitant to set any dates yet. Teams are working on how we may roll our campus back out, as soon as next week, but we are waiting on the Governor’s office, and the word of the Health Department. So many moving parts that it is difficult to set a specific timeline. Perhaps we can come out with something soon when we know more.

iii.            If we are open for business in the Fall, will there be more flexibility for professors who don’t want to teach face to face because they don’t feel it is safe. Would you be willing to accommodate those instructors? Our theme for Fall is going to be “Flexibility”. Don’t know what that will look like exactly but should accommodate different modalities. That flexibility would be better for faculty, and students.

iv.            Need to know our parameters as soon as we can so we can plan accordingly.

v.            Discussion section open on D2L.

vi.            Can send questions to Eric and Michael also.

VI.            New Business

a.       Osher Lifelong Learning Institute-Kim Obbink

i.            Want to echo the thanks to all faculty for stepping up. Everyone is very impressed.

ii.            Wonderlust program offers non-credit courses for community members over 50 years old. iii.            Name not containing “Osher” is non-negotiable.

iv.            Need this to go to the Board of Regents so they can sign off and get it to the Osher Foundation.

v.            They do not have an open call for proposal. We were invited to submit a proposal.

vi.            Would get a one-million-dollar endowment. Would be a second million with grown of the program.

vii.            Questions:

A.      What are the metrics?

·         Increase membership by 6% (have already done that)

·         Increase number and variety of courses (have started that as well)

·         Increase integration with MSU. Faculty on advisory council, increased membership.

·         Increase member involvement in the planning and organizational structure of the program.

B.      Does the foundation set parameters on what the courses can or cannot be? No, they are very hands off. Must carry the Osher name, at an institute of higher education, courses appropriate for people over 50.

C.      Know people who have been a part of these types of courses and feel this is a terrific opportunity for us.

viii.            This is something we need to act on, but it is our first reading. If everyone is comfortable and do not have concerns, we could suspend the rules and act on it today.

A.      Susan Dana: Would love to hear if there are any other questions on this. If they aren’t would like to move to suspend the rules and vote today. We have just one meeting left. Robert Carson seconds the suspension of the rules. Will call for a vote and ask opposed and abstentions first, approval votes last. Only senators and alternates can vote. Oppose suspending rules? None. Any abstain? One. Those who approve? Rules are suspended. Motion to endorse this proposal? Robert Carson moves to approve endorsement. Tomas Gedeon seconds. In the D2L page for Faculty Senate, there is a quiz that is open right now and will remain open for an hour. Three options: approve, abstain, or oppose. Log in to D2L/Brightspace, click on quiz. If you have difficulty, you can email your vote to Eric  or Michael before 5:30 this afternoon.

b.       Courses-See Faculty Senate Website

i.            Courses are posted by semester they are to be offered – Summer and Fall are separate. One course is for Fall.

ii.            Feedback by Friday at 5:00 pm

iii.            Please encourage your colleagues to initiate the proposal process earlier

VII.            Old Business

a.       Faculty Senate Delphi Survey-Stage II-Chair Elect, Michael Brody

i.            About half the senators responded to round one of the survey. From those responses, statements were parsed out. About 140 statements on your experience. They are now in the Delphi Survey D2L shell, (Not the Faculty Senate shell) in the quiz section. Each statement in round two, we would like you to indicate if they are less important or very important.

ii.            Will look at results for each item and will pick the ones that senators most agree with. Please do that in the next two weeks.

iii.            The more participation the better. Will help Faculty Senate Leadership next semester and going forward. Your contributions would be greatly

iv.            Questions:     

VIII.            Announcements and Updates

IX.            Public Comment

a.       Please state your name and affiliation

i.            None

X.            Adjournment

a.       Next meeting, we will have an update on the reconstruction of the rec center. The students have approved using student fees to do that.

b.       We will approve degrees for this semester at the next meeting.

c.       Meeting was adjourned at 4:46pm

Reminder: Next Faculty Senate Meeting

                                May 6, 2020

                                3:10-4:30 PM