Moffett reported that he'd received an email from Dr. Tierra Freeman regarding the Faculty Peer Evaluation form. The form says "1991" at the bottom – if that's the last time Senate looked at it, it's worth reviewing.
Moffett asked Senator Marlin McKay to report on his proposal regarding faculty accessing their 401K accounts: McKay explained that most first-time home buyers can access their 401K for a down payment on a home. But he learned that at KSU, faculty cannot access their 401K accounts for any purpose. Best practice at other institutions is that employees can access it if they have a hardship of one sort or another, like a medical emergency. McKay has drafted a proposal to send to the Faculty Senate President, The Provost, and the University President, who fully supports the proposal. He asked for faculty support on this issue. There will not be a need to restructure current policies, faculty may choose not to exercise this option, but it should be an available option. Moffett said he would send this issue to PCC.
APC issues: Moffett reported that the Provost had asked if we could think about having more academic terms for credit, such as a May-mester, a winter term and maybe an “extreme spring break.” Moffett said that such terms might be attractive for students trying to catch up or to accelerate their program.
that he has no concerns with the document, and he anticipates it to come back up to his desk.
0 Provost Yates mentioned the need for early grade reporting by the end of week 3. He also mentioned the issues of the fall midterm exam date – there was a desire to move it earlier so it wouldn't coincide with Fall Break/Homecoming. He suggested to move midterms to around week six so that students will know where they are well before the end of the semester. A senator asked about a conflict of Columbus Day, which conflicted with Homecoming. Moffett stated that APC can look at this question of moving exam week up.
As the Faculty Regent, Dr. Elgie McFayden, was absent, University President Brown asked if he could take the Regent's allotted time to speak:
Ombudsman: President Brown stated that he tries to minimize direct interaction with faculty, so any time faculty have issues in their unit, he directed them to go to Professor Will Riley, the Ombudsman. He noted that Riley sits on the University Forum and that he has resolved a number of issues, many of which have been longstanding.
Faculty Salary Survey: Brown said that his office will be reviewing the Faculty Salary Survey that was submitted by Mara Merlino and Buddy Gyawali: “They did a great survey and what we want to do is go through the survey with Will [Will Reilly, the Ombudsman] and get his feedback, and then sometime in September or October, we will be coming back to the Senate for what I will call mediation or arbitration. I think I have a strategy which would ultimately be an across the board adjustment of somewhere between 5-10% [salary increase] to try to redress historic grievances, knowing we need a longer strategy. Then my request would be that we would not have that conversation for about 3 years. Not that Merlin would not go on, but no larger adjustment.”