As presented by Chair Andries, and after brief discussion and clarifications of specifics, the following Action Items were all approved unanimously.
FSCC# 15-16-28. Creation of a course, AFE 215-Agribusiness Management, that will be an elective in the AFE degree.
FSCC# 15-16-29. Delete MAT 095, MAT 096 and MAT 097 from the KSU Catalogue.
FSCC# 15-16-30. Adjust ART 306 Studio Arts to be repeatable for credit up to 5 times instead of 3 and make this change to the KSU Catalogue.
Chair Kumar reported the committee was contacted by a tenured faculty member who was given a copy of a termination letter by the VPAA with 10 days to resign, but with neither a signature nor date. The faculty member met with the PCC to discuss the situation. The faculty member has retained an attorney who is handling the situation with the administration. Currently, the faculty member is still in his/her position and teaching. The PCC discussed the appropriate possible actions by their committee and the Senate considering this is technically a confidential personnel issue. A non-Senator pointed out that since this is a personnel issue we must stick to issues of policy violations and not enter discussion on specific of allegations and rebuttals.
A Senator suggested that it is important for faculty to attend Board meetings to make our presence known and to hear what is discussed.
The PCC presented a list of recommendations to improve the Post-Tenure Review process. A Senator asked if Chairs have been reviewed under the Post-Tenure process and President Smith said he would inquire of the administration which ones have been reviewed. A discussion ensued regarding who owns the responsibility to set guidelines and a schedule for improvement for any faculty member who rates “does not meet expectations” in any category and to specify that on the resolution. President Smith suggested that it should be the Tenure and Promotion Committee.
The recommendations passed unanimously with the friendly amendment to #8....A list of tasks and deadlines should be set for these candidates by the Post-Tenure Review Committee.
APC Chair Joe Moffett reported that the committee is working on an administrative student withdrawal from classes policy. VPAA Brown-Wright was supportive of the concept and will do some research. Chair Moffett will meet with the financial aid director to determine potential repercussions, and with CAPS staff regarding their role in the process. They hope to have a draft proposal at the next full Senate meeting. A Senator suggested they look at how such a policy will work with the current attendance policy. President Smith said he was told that an attendance policy should be in his syllabi.
The committee is looking at policy relating to grades earned by high school students in dual credit classes and if they could be handled differently when applied to the college transcript. Should a high school student who makes a D in a duel credit class be barred from admission to the university because