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Kentucky State University Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes September 4, 2020 Submitted by Danny Collum, Secretary

1. Call to Order

Just after 9 a.m.

2. Approval of Agenda [5 minute time limit]

Agenda was unanimously approved as presented by the president.

3. Approve Meeting minutes from 8/21/2020 [5 minute time limit]

Minutes of the August 21 meeting were unanimously approved as submitted.

4. Faculty Senate President Report [10 minute time limit]

Senator Keeler reported that President Brown has tasked the Green and Gold Commission to collect feedback from students, faculty and staff about the effectiveness of health and safety measures regarding Covid-19. Noted that some students are not following the rules, and there have been some complaints of contractors on campus without masks. On specific questions raised by faculty senators, Keeler was told that faculty should request Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from the provost's office. There are also free masks available at the guard post at the main entrance to campus. To report witnessed non-compliance he referred to the procedures laid out in the "Breds Back on the Hill" document posted on the school website. Keeler will follow up directly with President Brown on faculty questions about adequate ventilation in some buildings and classrooms.

Motion was approved to add 10 minutes for the president's report.

Question was raised by a senator about procedure for changing class from in-person to online. Answer was that faculty should submit a note to their dean, and the dean should ask the registrar to make the change. Question was raised of what faculty should do if some students are simply not responding to the question of whether to put the class online. Judgement expressed by the faculty senate president and other senators was that if a majority of students consent to the change it should be made.

Regarding the Provost Search Resolution authorized at our last meeting, President Brown has drawn up a list of names for a search committee and will send invitations next week. The committee will take it from there. On tenure and promotion, Keeler reported that the Board of Regents has allowed faculty to postpone going up for tenure and promotion for one year, due to the Covid-19 emergency. A new calendar for those who do choose to go up this year will be coming soon.

5. Update from Academic Affairs and Assessment/IE activities [10 minute time limit]

Academic Affairs asks that faculty be aware that approval of new programs must go through the state Council on Post-secondary Education (CPE). Director of Institutional Effectiveness urges faculty to be about the business of “closing the loop” on the 2019-2020 assessment process with evaluation of results and measures for improvement. I.E. is setting up a Microsoft Teams site for those documents that will be available to all faculty.

6. Distance Education update by Dr. Dailey [10 minute time limit]

Dr. Michael Dailey gave a review of recent developments in distance education starting with the emergency transition in March. We developed an online training for faculty with synchronous sessions. All those sessions had at least 30 attendees, some had up to 60. 272 KSU courses were reviewed for compliance with recommendations for online courses and more than 200 were found to be hitting all the marks. One hundred faculty are now registered with Quality Management, compared to 30 before the emergency. To prepare for the return this fall, Faculty Champions were designated to set the agenda for future training. Faculty are using the resources Distance Education has offered to improve online teaching and learning, and the data shows this.

7. Academic Policy Committee report [15 minute time limit]

a. Distance Education Policy Action item

Committee Chair, Senator Buddhi Gyawali, presented the revised Distance Education Policy for Senate approval. He noted that APC worked with Dr. Dailey to clarify some of the language and definitions in the policy statement before approving it. Senator Keeler noted that the Distance Education Policy has now been through the APC twice.

A motion to approve the policy was made and seconded. The Distance Education Policy was approved unanimously.

b. Academic Integrity Statement Action item

Senator Gyawali next presented an Academic Integrity statement that could be incorporated into syllabi and included in handbooks. Questions were raised by senators about enforcement of the statement. What happens if students violate it. There were also questions about where the statement would go. There is already an academic honesty section in the student handbook. Senator Keeler suggested that the statement should go back to the APC to consider these questions, and Senator Gyawali agreed.

8. Curriculum Committee report [20 minute time limit]

• a.Action item 20-21-1 Course change proposal by Criminal Justice to change CJE 495 Special Topics in Criminal Justice: Criminal Justice Reform to CJE 420 Seminar in Criminal Justice Reform
• Passed unanimously.
• b.Action item 20-21-2 Program change proposal to make CJE 420 Seminar in Criminal Justice Reform as a core course in Criminal Justice major, replacing CJE 415 Seminar in Criminal Justice.
• Passed unanimously
• c.Action item 20-21-3 Course change Proposal by Performing Arts to change all major applied courses (MUA 161, 162, 261, 262, 361, 362, 461, & 462) to variable credit hours. The lower hour numbers will be for BA and non-performance majors. The high hour numbers will be for performance majors.

Passed unanimously.

9. Professional Concerns Committee report [15 minute time limit]

Committee Chair, Senator Monica Valentine, reported that PCC is working on a resolution making recommendations for modes of instruction for the spring semester. Committee also discussed the salary compression resolution, and two committee members were directed to collect the data needed for that resolution.

10. Budget and Academic Support Committee report [5 minute time limit]

Chair Noel Novelo was absent so Senator Fariba Kashan spoke for the committee and reported that, at their meeting, they completed the process of electing officers as follows: Fariba Kashan, Vice-Chair and Senator Jennifer Ballard-Kang, Secretary. The committee had no action items to present.

11. Faculty Regent report [10 minute time limit]

Regent Joe Moffett reported that, at its September 3, 2020 meeting the Board of Regents approved the following action items:

• Corrective action to faculty hires from previous years granting tenure to faculty who should have been hired with tenure - Corrective action to faculty hires from previous years granting tenure to faculty who should have been hired with tenure
• Extension of Tenure and Promotion Calendar for one year (due to the Covid-19 emergency)
• Association of Governing Boards contract for Presidential Review on Dr. Brown (fee of $40,000)
• Organizational charts for university (these have not been published yet, but do include position titles and individual names

• Contracts with Best Western and Holiday Inn for student housing
• Contract with Wild Health LLC testing. This in addition to the Quest Diagnostics contract previously approved. Wild Health will do the on-site testing and Quest will be a backup.
• New Title IX Guidelines (a new mandatory training on this will be coming soon)
• Annual standing line of credit raised to $5 million. According to the Chief Financial Officer, this is not needed now, but is being done as a precaution.

The board also received the following informational items:

Pre-College Academy 2019 Class

32 PCA students (97%) went on to earn a 2.0 or greater GPA 29 PCA students (88%) earned a 3.0 or greater GPA 12 PCA students (36%) earned a 4.0 GPA

Grades Distribution

Comparing Spring and Summer 2020 (with the campus closing) to Spring 2019, the percentage of students earning passing grades was 75.7% for 2020, compared to 79.0% in 2019. “Other Grades” (Incomplete, Withdrawal, etc.) went up by 2%. So, overall, student grades do not appear to have suffered from the emergency transition.

Fall to Fall Persistence

Regent Moffett noted that the decrease in senior return rate is a good thing because it means more students graduated.

Projected Graduation Rates

Enrollment Comparison

A senator pointed out that the low number for 2020 high school enrollment is because of the late start at public high schools. That number will eventually be higher. Also, while due to a lower tuition rate, dual enrollment of high school students is not a money-maker for the university, it is one of important measurements for our state performance funding.

Resident Halls

FY 19-20 Budget

Revenue: $46,714,304 Expenses: $46,296,276 Income/loss: +$418,028

This is better than the projection last reported.

12. Faculty ombudsman report [5 minute time limit]

Ombudsman Wilfred Reilly reported that most inquiries that have come to him since the last meeting have been about Covid-29, and most of the answers to those have been spelled out in the “Breds Back on the Hill” document.

In response to questions from senators, Reilly said that, as of now, there is no way for faculty to know if students have completed their mandatory Covid-19 training. He thinks faculty is supposed to be notified about students quarantined, but, according to senators, this doesn't seem to always happen. Reilly said that these questions will be raised at the next Green and Gold Commission meeting next Monday. He did say that, according to President Brown, 95% of students and employees have completed the training.

13. Other Business [10 minute time limit]

Question was raised by a senator about the future of the IDCR (Indirect Cost Rate) established last year for grants received in academic units. The senator reported that a staff member had told him that policy had been cancelled. Other senators reported that President Brown says that, rumors to the contrary, it is still in effect. Another senator noted that, on the day of the meeting, faculty should have received a salary payment reflecting a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase of 1.86%.

14. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at about 11 a.m.

Attendees

Senators Fariba Bigdeli-Jahed and Jennifer Ballard-Kang were excused.

Guests

John Sedlacek

Debbra Tate Frederick A. Williams Jr. HK Joe Moffett

Ken Andries

Kim Sipes

Kirk Pomper

Michael D. Dailey

Sheila Stuckey

Tierra Taylor

Sharon McGee

Nkechi Amadife