Question: do the Smart Boards work? Griffiths responded that the boards are working but many of the connections are RGB, not HDMI. Maybe in the future, we can get the connections all uniform. A Senator noted that in some rooms there is a Smart Board, but a power cord is nowhere to be found.

The committee discussed the proposal to change the current faculty evaluation calendar to a calendar-year rather than an academic-year format. This change would allow faculty to report the activities they've done in order to apply for merit pay. The committee members wanted to know President Brown's vision for what the criteria would be in terms of merit pay, and how that will be connected to the current faculty evaluation process.

KSU Police Chief Barbara Hayes came to the committee meeting to discuss the parking issues. Hayes noted that the department has been understaffed and they didn't have ticket books. They will soon have interns to help issue tickets, and hopefully the parking enforcement problems will lessen.

Committee member Mara Merlino will continue to work on the Coordinators Survey.

9. Academic Policies Committee: Chair Marlin McKay reported on the following issues:

Moffett added that he met with President Brown after meeting with the committee. He asked the President about the merit pay idea. Providing the caveat that he cannot speak for the President, Moffett stated that Brown said the intention is to initiate faculty merit pay. He recognizes the need to augment low salaries, and that this would be a short-term way of dealing with some salary issues. Moffett asked Brown if the merit pay would go to the salary-base or be a bonus. Brown suggested it would be a 1-2% addition to the base, to slowly increase a faculty member's base pay if the faculty member is meritorious year after year. Brown said there would be lots of conversations about how this pay could be calculated, and that Faculty Senate can help this process by changing the evaluation calendar. Moffett noted to Brown that Area Coordinator pay was also a way to augment salaries, and Brown was open to this suggestion.

A Senator thanked PCC for reaching out to the Chief about the parking issue. A committee member replied that the Chief implied that the issue is not really resolved: the police department is still gelling, and we’ll see changes in the number of officers, the budget, etc., but she is aware of our concerns.

Question: how can we get the word out to faculty and students when they close off parking spaces? Gibson replied that the KSU Police do have a strong presence on Twitter/Facebook. A committee member added that they would send this issue to the Chief, asking that such parking changes be posted in the campus PR announcement.

Attendance was low for the committee’s first meeting of the semester, so they didn’t move forward on any issues.

The proposed academic calendar drafted by committee member Jason Keeler parallels the current calendar, except that the semester would end before Thanksgiving. The committee members were asked to field their department chairs on this issue. It had been brought to the committee's attention that some other institutions end their terms before Thanksgiving. Considering our difficulties with teaching after Thanksgiving, the idea was that we'd start a week earlier and end before Thanksgiving. This change would solve the issue of the post-Thanksgiving dead weeks and allow students to work over break. This change would also allow for Winter Terms and Maymesters. The proposal was supposed to be sent out to the department chairs. McKay noted that he will get this sent out.

Moffett said that this idea has come from both the President and the Provost: classes would begin the Wednesday or Thursday of Encampment Week. The committee suggested graduation could be the Friday before Thanksgiving. This schedule would allow us more time for Winter Term.