Senator Valentine reported that PCC is looking again at Handbook policy on hiring of deans and evaluation of chairs. Questions that have arisen include: How are chairs reviewed? Do they use Interfolio? Does Human Resources have rules for chair reviews? PCC will also be considering and making recommendations about the use of “interim” and “acting” titles for academic administrators and the difference, if any, between “directors” and “chairs.” The committee has divided up these issues for information gathering and will look at them at its next meeting. Also at the next meeting, the PCC will discuss a faculty mentoring program.
Senator Novelo reported that the committee met January 29 and discussed three topics: (1) Ongoing evaluation of remote learning needs. Information from fall semester was very limited. What comes next? Dr. Dailey will join BASC to discuss this. (2) A survey of classroom resources to identify classroom needs, especially in the areas of technology, office equipment, and COVID-19 safety. Senator Ballard-Kang is working on that. (3) Policy for indirect costs from grants. The committee will investigate whether we need a revised business policy that will require deans to have a plan in place for use of indirect costs to support faculty research. One member of BASC also wanted to raise the question of whether KSU could implement “plus” and “minus” grades in our system.
Regent Moffett reported that the Board of Regents met last week for five hours. Informational items before the board: An audit has been done for the university. Audit is still needed for the KSU Foundation. The board looked at a fall D-F-W report. Freshman students had a 40 percent D-F-W rate. An administrator brought data to the board with D-F-W rates for individual classes that included faculty names. Fall-to-spring retention was 90 percent. Fall classes were 147 face to face, 154 hybrid and 296 online.
In an action item, the board approved President Brown's performance review done by the Association of Governing Boards.
Regarding D-F-W rate, a senator commented that we faculty need to look at what are the vulnerabilities in our student profile and how we can tie the needs of our students into our research.
A senator who teaches math noted that in College Algebra, one of the classes which often has a high D-F-W, students who attend 60 percent or more of the classes tend to pass. She wondered if there is any way to quantify that in the statistics that go to the board?
Regent Moffett noted that D-F-W is being reported annually to the board since the specific request of a former board member.
A guest asked if confusion around the P/F policy, which may have led to students with “D” grades getting “F” when they expected to get “P” may have added to the number of “F” grades in the fall semester.
a.. Dr. Reilly- Faculty Ombudsman was not present, and so no report.
No other business.
Meeting adjourned at 10:30 a.m.