The sixth meeting of the AY 2015-16 Faculty Senate was called to order at 3:13 pm on Monday, November 16, 2015, Hathaway Hall Room 123. Agenda was approved and the Faculty Senate minutes of November 2, 2015 were approved.
Vice-Chair Rye reported for BASC. The committee has still neither received a line-item budget from the administration nor a response from President Burse to BASC's inquiry regarding the Budget Reduction Plan as it relates to the "General Fund", the "10% headcount reduction" option, and method of FTE calculation as it relates to the budget. The Committee continued discussions on the best solution to this lack of information and alternative ways to acquire the budget. Rye called the Kentucky Attorney General's Office and received information on the processes to file a Freedom of Information Request. However, the BASC is concerned about the negative impact that route will have for the University and still hopes to avoid such. The committee is considering a Senate Action Item that specifies publication of the complete budget, which is the standard for some other state-supported Kentucky universities and colleges. Budgets are generally archived in the schools' respective libraries and/or published on the schools' Web-Sites.
New information that they acquired included the FY13 External Auditor's report (written in June 2014 and presented in Dec 2015). However, they have received no information regarding the FY14 audit and do not know of its status. A Senator raised the question of how often an audit is required. Discussion ensued about the legal requirements and the timeline for work conducted by the internal auditor.
Chair Andries reported that the Curriculum Committee did not meet due to a lack of pending action items and members were encouraged to attend other committee meetings.
Committee Chair Moffett reported that the 2016-17 Academic Calendar needs “tweaks” and they will continue this discussion. They received a second set of data from Institutional Research on Freshmen success rates in on-line verses traditional classes. They have not meet as a committee since receiving the data but through email discussion it seems that the pass rate is very similar. Fewer Freshmen are taking on-line classes but success rates are comparable.
VPAA Brown-Wright requested a meeting to discuss the direction of on-line courses at KSU. She wants recommendations from APC and is concerned about inconsistencies in data to date. A committee member suggested that some may not be under the purview of APC, such as processes by which on-line classes are evaluated and identification of a central figure to oversee the delivery. She said there is some fogginess regarding how the classes are laid out and that there needs to be consistency. A Senator said that instructors have previously gone through training for on-line delivery and is that helpful? She desires a measurable framework for quality, with some variable individual options for how it "looks". 25 have been selected for evaluation. She requested recommendations by December 15, before the January Board of Regents Meeting. She indicated that the University will not move away from on-line classes but aims to improve quality. However, she is adamant about restricting First Year Residential Freshmen's access to on-line classes. She said that success rates are not the only gauge for