May 1, 2019 Minutes

Faculty Senate Minutes May 1st, 2019

SUB 233

3:10pm-4:30pm

I.             Call to Order

a.       The meeting was called to order at 3:10pm

II.            Approval of the April 24th meeting minutes

a.       No corrections to the minutes

b.       David Parker moves to approve. Julie Ruff seconds. None opposed. Approved.

III.             Informational Items

a.       Commencement this weekend

1.       Please RSVP, registration closes midnight Friday

2.       It is imperative that faculty members RSVP in order for us to set enough chairs to ensure that you are all seated together at the front of the arena.

3.       http://www.montana.edu/commencement/facultymarshal.html

b.       VPR-GEED Search

1.       Position Description is live: https://www.greenwoodsearch.com/montana-state-university

2.       Please share with colleagues at other institutions

3.       Consider nominating someone

4.       Submit nominations to: bettyasher@greenwoodsearch.com

5.       Search Committee-OCHE says that administrative searches cannot have more than seven members. Hope to have candidates on campus mid-summer.

A.      Abbie Richards (Committee Chair), Chair of Faculty Senate and Associate Professor in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

B.      Sreekala Bajwa, Vice President of Agriculture, Dean of the College of Agriculture, and Director of the Montana Agricultural Experimental Station

C.       Mark Jutila, Regents Professor and Department Head of Microbiology and Immunology

D.      David Miller, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

E.       Suzanne Held, Professor, College of Education, Health and Human Development

F.       Liz Shanahan, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

G.      Sarah Shannon, Dean, College of Nursing

IV.            Old Business

a.       None

V.            New Business

a.       Election of University Athletics Committee faculty representatives

1.       Bill Brown, Business

2.       Katie Ivester, Gallatin College Mathematics

3.       Ed Dratz moves to approve. Keven McPhee seconds. No discussion. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

b.       Conferral of Degrees & Posthumous Degree-Tony Campeau Registrar

1.       RSVPs for graduation are necessary due to the increase in students graduating

2.       Degree candidates for your review in the Knox folder

i.            Total number of expected graduates: Summer/Spring combined is 2368

ii.             Spring is 2169 and Summer is 199

iii.            2018 the numbers were 2171 total, Spring 1991 and 180 for Summer

iv.            Number of expected Spring undergraduates: 1667. (In 2018 it was 1551)

v.             Number of expected Spring Masters candidates: 259 (in 2018 it was 242)

vi.            Number of expected Spring doctoral candidates: 80 (in 2018 it was 50)

vii.            Number of Spring Gallatin College candidates: 163 (in 2018 it was 162)

viii.             Number of expected summer associate degree/cert candidates: 26 (in 2018 it was 11)

ix.             Students seem to be graduating quicker than in the past

3.       These candidates completed two-thirds of their credentials as required and a family member will receive the diploma on behalf of the student

i.            Posthumous degree, Jack Steele, Bachelor of Science in Chemical engineering

ii.             Posthumous degree, Geir Stoner- Bachelor of Science in Economics

4.       Honorary Doctorate, Sheila Stearns

5.       Ask for a motion to recommend that the President of Montana State University confer the appropriate degree upon these candidates, with the above stated verification and certification.

6.       Tomas Gedeon moves to approve. Ryan Anderson seconds. No discussion. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

VI.            Public Comment

a.       Colin King-CBN Student

1.       Handed out a copy of the letter that was in the Chronicle

2.       Handed out a few copies of the petition and the signatures

3.       Made a short statement including a summary of the letter and expressing their disappointment with the President’s letter of response

b.       David Parker-Political Science-Can someone fill us in on what is going on?

c.       David Roberts-Ecology-Find it is disconcerting that Faculty Senate has not been engaged significantly up until now. May be the most important issue in the last decade and we did not get to deliberate on it.

d.       Tomas Gedeon-Is there more information you can give us? Chair and Chair Elect have been working with the CBN folks in talks toward a resolution. Nothing is over, or lost. What is our role at this point, as a body?

e.       Tomas Gedeon-what is the state of the situation? Steve Stowers: David Cherry is the interim department head, he is not in the discipline. Tom Hughes and Charlie Gray are both leaving because of this. Two courses in the fall now have no faculty to teach them. Is there a timeline established? It has been requested, with no answer. 5-year guarantee that it will not be put into moratorium. How many faculty are left? 6 in the fall. How are faculty reacting to this? No more assistant professors, last one was just promoted. Seems everyone is considering their options.

f.        Jack Jelinski-Emeritus-Faculty Senate was created to figure out these types of issues. Believe that Faculty Senate to be the advocate for faculty and the advocate for students. If joint governance means that you cannot act as an advocate for your faculty/students than what good is it? Don’t feel that you would alienate the administration. It seems like you all do not care. Why is no one motioning for anything?

g.       Michael Reidy-Seconds what Jack Jelinski said. We used to have input on faculty hires, budgetary issues, etc. In 2014-15 there was a document that laid out Faculty Senate’s responsibilities and faculty hires was on that document. Haven’t seen the document, or know what happened to it.

h.       Michael Brody-Public “question”-What suggestions do the senators have about what we should look at/for in the future? We could get them on record. Michael Reidy-Past incoming Chairs had created a document with the senate- a “plan” on what should be accomplished in the next year.

i.         Teresa Slye-Gallatin College-As a body, we are often put on “hold” when a sub- committee, or steering committee take over. They disappear off of our radar and it’s hard to know what’s happening with it. We look like we’re doing nothing when really we are just waiting for an update/thinking that it is being worked on in a sub-committee.

j.         Susan Dana-asking Michael Reidy about the document he spoke of. He will send it to Abbie Richards to post. It talked about faculty hire data/stats. After a year, came up with 5 points that the faculty thought were important. Student/Faculty ratio, research dollars, Centers and endowed chairs, improving communication with our constituents. We didn’t do it alone. Brought it to the administration. Was under the impression that we were going to move forward with those concerns in mind. We have come up in many of those areas, except student to faculty ratio. Abbie will share the info that she gathered from Chris Fastnow.

k.       Christina Anderson- Can we get the pros and cons from administration and faculty of why we should or shouldn’t dissolve the department? Are we going to continue to work on this after this semester? Would the same outcry happen if they decided to get rid of the School of Photography?

l.         Colter Ellis-Why doesn’t Faculty Senate have this information? There is some data available through Office of Planning and Analysis

m.     Tomas Gedeon-We are missing a “plan”. What is the long term plan? Will it take 10 years? Are we waiting for everyone else to “die off”? There are a lot of rumors. What is the intent? Christina Anderson seconds.

n.       David Parker-Is it appropriate to ask this to be discussed/followed up on with administration at the first meeting in the Fall? Edward Schmidt would also like to hear from the administration.

o.       Leila Sterman-Would also like to hear from the faculty affected by this, as well as the administration. Is there anything Senate could do over the summer in support of the faculty to make the Fall run a little more smoothly? Hard to come up with a plan when you do not know all of the information.

p.       Ed Dratz-Seems like a severe situation, even without knowing everything. Can we schedule a ‘special’ meeting during the summer? Would be a challenge with those who wouldn’t be on contract.

q.       Dave Roberts-Would like to see an opportunity to hear, with clarity, what the status is and what the plan is.

r.        Abbie Richards-Thank you so much for everything you’ve done over the last year. Appreciate everyone’s input and have enjoyed getting to know all of you. Have much respect for my colleagues in the CBN department. Feel free to reach out to Abbie Richards, Eric Austin or Michael Brody over the summer.

s.        Eric Austin-Please recognize the effort and time that Abbie Richards has put in over the course of the last year and the year before that as Chair Elect. Have enjoyed working with Abbie over the last couple of years, and the last three months especially.

t.        Abbie Richards would like to thank Eric Austin for stepping in.

VII.             Adjournment

a.       Meeting was adjourned at 3:58

A printable PDF of this information can be found here.