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The meeting was called to order at 3:10 pm. Sixteen senators were present.

The agenda was approved unanimously as distributed.

Minutes of the 4/3/17 senate meeting were unanimously approved as distributed.

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President Sipes announced that the next day at 11am would be the nomination meeting for several positions including senator at large, faculty appeals, tenure and promotion, and faculty recognition committees.

Diane Snow was introduced. She will be working as an enrollment management consultant. She sought faculty volunteers for scholarship and admission appeals committees. Erin Gilliam volunteered for admission appeals and Marlin McKay for the scholarship committee.

President Sipes reiterated from the previous senate meeting that the Executive Committee is seeking individuals to serve on two ad hoc committees, one of which will examine current Faculty Handbook and Senate Constitution policies and seek to clarify and harmonize these policies where needed.

The second ad hoc committee will examine the various resolutions of late, namely those authored by Cary Nelson, Mary Pat Wohlford, the FCC, and Senate Ex Comm and synthesize a document to be taken to the Board.

A motion to extend time for 5 minutes passed was at the request of FCC President Roosevelt Shelton.

Dr. Shelton inquired about a resolution about shared governance that came from Mary Pat Wohlford. He wanted to know when President Sipes received it and whether it was submitted to President Thompson. Conversation ensued regarding which specific document Dr. Shelton had in mind. There was not consensus on which document was the object of discussion. A guest reiterated the question of whether or not an item that fit Dr. Shelton's description had been presented to President Thompson. President Sipes replied there was not.

Chair Moffett explained that Dr. Jackson had met with APC to discuss three possible calendar changes: altering the fall semester start date (which has already been enacted for fall 2017); making Founder's Day a day of service with no course meetings scheduled; changing Thanksgiving Break to a full week, either by shifting Fall Break days to that week or simply adding on two more academic holiday days. Chair Moffett encouraged the group to send thoughts to him so that they could inform APC's decision about whether or not to take action on these proposals.

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APC met with the Registrar, Ms. Bivens, to gain her feedback on this action item from last time. She said it would increase the workload for her office but the benefit to students would outweigh this extra work.

The item passed unanimously.

There was more discussion on this item. Whereas the Registrar did not have suggestions for improving the previous item, for this one she told APC that she would prefer to see courses canceled at least two weeks before the semester begins, and she would also like it to be clear whose job it is contact students. APC attempted to reflect those concerns in the proposal. Chair Rye suggested a friendly amendment that included Area Coordinators to the list of individuals contacted when a course is canceled. Another friendly amendment, by Chair Andries, made it the Registrar's duty to inform students of canceled courses rather the advisor's.

Time was extended for 2 minutes to complete the vote.

The item passed unanimously.

Chair Andries explained that he was asked to hold on to this item; that is why its number is so much earlier than other items Senate has reviewed recently. The item replaces HIS 103 with a course on African American History, HIS 108, in the Liberal Studies Core. Professor Erin Gilliam added that the course will make KSU's curriculum consistent with other HBCUs, and she stressed that the department is not doing away with Western Civilization; students will still have the option to take that course.

The item passed unanimously.

WYS Interim Chair Dr. Cynthia Shelton explained the WYS program changes, which entailed updates on final projects, foreign languages, orientation, seminars, and preceptorials. She told the group that come fall KSU will have French, Portuguese, Chinese, and German as foreign language options. These courses will be open to every student. The instructors will obtain through variety of means: Fulbrights, grants, and a partnership with Georgetown College. Dr. Shelton discussed the program's new curriculum ladders and noted that Honors will entail only first and second year courses; students will then matriculate on to their majors.

A motion to add 5 minutes passed unanimously.

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Dr. Shelton added that there will now be 300 level courses that will allow instructors to offer special topics. Greek and Latin will stay on the books, but no one has taken Greek in years and few students choose to take Latin. Neither language will be offered in the immediate future.

The item passed unanimously.

Stephen Ulrich filled in Chair Glass. He explained that the committee had no action items. It continues to work on the tenure and promotion section of the Faculty Handbook and most recently were reviewing benefits and the definition of workload. The committee has about 20 pages of the Handbook left to go. Conversation ensued about the status of Post Tenure Review and tenure-seeking candidates. It was unclear where the process was at present.

Chair Rye explained that BASC offered this resolution for review since the end of academic year is coming up. Budget hearings have proceeded and it’s assumed a preliminary budget will be handed off to the new president. BACS believed that the return of a dean system was still being discussed; this resolution was intended to send a message that the committee did not support that action.

A guest suggested BASC look like at other universities of KSU’s size. Deans would be helpful since the VPAA has many chairs to report to her, which hasn’t been very efficient. Chair Andries added that he felt there needed to be another level of mediation between the VPAA and Chairs. Chair Rye responded that since the university has only 1,600 students, deans are unnecessary. Universities of this size typically don’t have deans. President Sipes suggested the item go back to committee.

A motion to extend time for 5 minutes passed unanimously. The quorum was checked; fifteen senators were present.

Chair Rye discussed the recent Lexington Herald-Leader article on the money spent by the KSU Foundation on a separate PR firm, which has been paid $85,000 over the past year. It is unclear how the Foundation money is accessed and by whom, although it was observed that the Foundation is a private entity and can spend the money as it wishes. Chair Rye responded that the concern is that individuals who give money thinking it will be spent on student scholarships might not realize it is being spent otherwise.

The Faculty Regent was not present.

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No other business was conducted.

A motion to adjourn carried at 5:09 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Joe Moffett, Faculty Senate Secretary

[Unanimously approved, as distributed, at the 5/1/2017 Faculty Senate Meeting]