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Kentucky State University Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes December 3, 2021 Submitted by Danny Collum, Senate Secretary

Meeting called to order with a quorum at 9:01 a.m.

Agenda approved unanimously.

Minutes of the November 12, 2021 Senate meeting approved unanimously.

The OSHA COVID 19 vaccination or testing mandate deadline has been extended to January 19, 2022 pending court consideration of the mandate.

New CDC guidelines call for vaccinated people who have been exposed to COVID to be tested five to seven days after exposure.

Regarding the Omicron variant, we don’t’ know what we don’t know. Assumption is that it will be more transmissible. So far it seems to produce milder cases, but we don’t know. Travel guidelines for upcoming holidays are changing daily, so be aware of this and check.

In the 2021 fall semester, KSU had 74 student cases of COVID 19. This is compared to 115 cases in fall 2020. Among employees, there were 21 in fall 2021, compared to 19 in fall 2020.

Continue to wear masks and be vaccinated and boosted if you aren't yet.

The president reminded us of the Faculty Senate purpose stated in our constitution and of the email and phone number for COVID 19 information: covid19@kysu.edu and 855-598-2246.

In the Senate president's meeting with the provost, they discussed student course evaluations, which are now open, preregistration for Spring 2022 and the Academic Affairs strategic plan.

The Senate Executive Committee worked on getting all Senate business onto Microsoft Teams and discussed possible repercussions of the Omicron variant for faculty work.

Schedule reminders: Classes end today, finals end December 10, grades are due December 13. Spring classes start January 15, 2022 and resume after the January 17 Martin Luther King holiday.

One acting president began by expressing appreciation for the work of faculty. She noted that the assessment of KSU operations that had been ordered by the governor was delivered November 5, and the Board of Regents has begun responding to it. On December 2, the board approved a freeze on new personnel and equipment. KSU has also entered an agreement with The Registry. That organization will provide an interim KSU Chief Financial Officer when Greg Rush returns to CPE at the first of the new year.

Responding to student concerns about housing, she noted that housing wasn’t prepared at the start of the fall semester. She also noted that many students still have account balances. She reported that the KSU Foundation is helping over 100 students close their financial gap. The Green and Gold Commission is updating COVID-19 guidelines for spring 2022. Also, KSU recently hosted a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative and the Kentucky state agriculture commissioner.

January encampment will be two days, January 10-11. Also, events for state legislators are planned February 10 and 24.

A senator asked the acting president about this year's tenure and promotion process. She assured faculty that deadlines will be met.

Another senator asked about the $7 million structural imbalance identified in the CPE report. What is it, and where did it come from?

Acting President Stamps replied that the figure was an estimate. She wasn’t sure of all the details behind it yet, but that CFO Greg Rush is working on it.

A senator asked whether KSU had distributed its HERF (federal pandemic relief) money. The acting president said that a majority of qualified students have received grants and that Greg Rush is looking at other possible uses for that money.

The board met yesterday, and Ed Fields joined as staff regent. The presidential search committee is working to develop a profile of what we need, using public forums to get input from the campus and broader community. The profile will be complete by December 17. There will be a March 2022 deadline for applicants. Interviews will start in late March, and the process will be complete by the end of April.

Work on the new dorm is moving on well. It will be ready for students starting January 2023 and the university's first payment will be in March 2024. It will have rooms for 410 students and a 300 person dining room.

The board discussed the purpose of Hillcrest, the presidential residence. This discussion will continue at the March meeting.

The board approved agreements and contracts for dorms and hotels for spring 2022 and with The Registry for providing an interim CFO. A review of all university policies and procedures is ongoing.

A senator commented that there was a need for a central location for all university policies and procedures, and Regent Walston agreed and noted that the university counsel will bring a plan for this to the March board meeting.

A guest spoke to thank Regent Walston for bringing up the matter of grant indirect cost reimbursement with the board. This guest also asked what is the “structural imbalance” previously discussed. Regent Walston said that it is the difference between revenue and spending.

He also noted that Greg Rush's end date as KSU CFO is December 31, 2021.

No update.

658 students have preregistered for Spring 2022 while 900 remained eligible for preregistration, so 60 percent of continuing students have not registered. 500 have balances. This is ahead of last year's numbers, but still not good enough.

The fall career fair got compliments on its COVID preparations. Some said it was better run than the one at University of Kentucky. Thanks to Nurse Todd. Some students got internships on the spot at the career fair and more are coming in. Recruitment Wednesdays with students and employers is continuing with much interest.

The provost thanked the Senate for help with his transition into KSU. He also congratulated Kim Sipes on her retirement.

In Fall 2021, he reported, we had 2279 students enrolled. 442 of these were dual credit high school students. By the end of the semester, 57 percent of our students had paid off their accounts. 50 percent of those are preregistered. In Spring 2022, we will offer 325 face-to-face classes and 308 online.

Low enrollment classes are a problem for us. In the fall, 211 of our 532 classes had enrollments below 12. We need to determine what it really takes for a class to pay for itself and keep our class sizes above that.

Ongoing projects in academic affairs include implementing the DegreeWorks and CourseLeaf software and developing the academic affairs strategic plan. Committee producing a draft strategic plan includes: Shannon Brogan, Mindy Brooks-Eaves, Phillip Clay, Joy Coles, Timothy

Forde, Bruce Griffiths, Kristopher Grimes, James Obielodan, Sheila Stuckey, Gavin Washington and Keith Wicker.

A senator asked the provost what could be done about poor attendance at face-to-face classes. He replied that faculty should follow policy. Students who miss 20 percent of class meetings fail.

The survey on the four-day class schedule is at Institutional Research. Responses will be in by December 14.

APC discussed concerns about faculty elections and agreed that those should go to professional concerns committee. Attendance policy is on the agenda for the next committee meeting.

The provost commented that he will support applying the existing attendance policy.

Senator Grimes thanked him and noted that previous administrations were not always supportive.

A senator commented that we should also look at the number of excused absences for athletics and other activities.

The provost stated that he will meet with the athletics director and other student activities staff about this.

A senator reported that the policy regarding attendance has fallen out of the university catalogue. Another senator noted that conflicting catalogues point to the bigger problem of consistency in policies and procedures.

The provost said that the policy should be in the syllabus template.

Dr. Schneller is coming to meetings as academic affairs liaison in place of Dr. Graves. At its last meeting the committee considered proposals from the business program and sent them back for revisions.

The provost commented that we needed to fill the gap in assessment and Institutional Effectiveness left by Dr. Graves' departure.

The EPAF resolution has been submitted for required approvals. The committee is now working on issues regarding the election process, tightening up those procedures. This started at the November 19 meeting, and an action item will be coming next semester.

Budget and Academic Support Committee Jennifer Ballard-Kang

The committee received an encouraging response from Travis Powell regarding our message about faculty salaries. We will get the new CFO in for a committee meeting ASAP to make sure

the faculty voice is heard in setting budget priorities. We’re especially concerned about the priority of instructional spending, faculty salaries and dealing with the historic underfunding of HBCUs, including Kentucky State.

The BASC report on allocation of course fees has gone to Ms. Jones in finance. Senator Kashan is collecting information on facilities issues at Carver Hall.

At this point a senator raised the need for a coherent single location for all university documents that will allow users to see where policies have changed and why.

Regent Walston stated that he would have Lisa Lang, university counsel, report on this.

The Senate adjourned at 11:11 a.m.

Absent: Fariba Bigdeli-Jahed, Gavin Washington, Noel Novelo, Alexander Lai

Clara Ross Stamps

Lisa Lang

Samantha Todd

Stashia L. Emanuel

Tierra Taylor

Deanna McGaughey-Summers