Chair Rye reported on the meeting Kim Sipes and she had with VP of Finance Kevin Appleton and VPAA/Provost Thomas relating to the Senate's request for budgetary information. Excerpt from Chair's Report to Faculty Senate:
While it was a productive meeting for sharing ideas on the role of BASC in budgetary analysis and decisions, Mr. Appleton did not commit to providing the detailed budgetary information requested by BASC and Senate through BASC 17-18-04. He said, “It is under consideration” and he would let us know, but no timeline was offered. I informed them that a request BASC made to Institutional Research a couple of weeks ago for updated enrollment data has not filled.
Mr. Appleton expressed reservations about the comparative data on Instructional spending at KSU. He questioned the benchmark institutions, as well as what he considered flawed reporting in Functional spending. We informed him that several comparative studies have been conducted: 1.) against CPE's 20 Benchmark institutions, 2.) BASC's identified 20 Benchmark institutions in response to CPE and Baker-Hostetler's concerns with CPE's list, 3.) random small liberal arts colleges generally our size, 4.) sister Kentucky state supported universities, 5.) Other HBCUs, and those which are Land Grant. All comparisons show KSU at the lowest end of the spectrum in Instructional spending. He also suggested that savings must come from looking at efficiency of programs, degree programs, and use of full-time faculty. FY1617 Senate President Sipes pointed out that he will find faculty at KSU more likely to be overextended in teaching load than under.
He said the meeting was a good ‘starting point’ and wanted to follow-up with another. He expressed the opinion that a committee such as BASC, composed of all Faculty, should not have access to such detailed budgetary data. He said BASC is a “special interest” group and faculty more appropriately would serve on a committee with other stakeholders and as such would “take off their hats as teachers”. We pointed out that faculty concerns with instructional support goes well beyond faculty salaries and unit operating budgets, but extend to adequate facility services/staff and expanded IT support/services for instance. We also suggested that the detailed budgetary documents should be public documents and available to all stakeholders, and not just to faculty, and that transparency would be healthy.
Dr. Freeman said the first narrative drafts are due on Wednesday from programs and thanked everyone for patience, with special thanks to Joe Moffett for the example bullets he provided. The Rising Junior exams is still in process. It will be used as a constant measure moving forward.
Rubrics can be entered in the new Black Board shell. Interim Registrar, Yolanda Benson, is helping with updating the catalogue and a team will make sure published policies and procedures are accurate and updated on the KSU Web-Site.
New initiatives for faculty who teach in the Liberal Studies Core were mentioned but no specifics were provided.
Dr. Thomas and Dr. Freeman have been working late on the catalogue and asked faculty to please respond when we get a call of request for changes. The catalogue is 600+ pages long and a long-term goal will be to condense and reduce the size.