Scott Ross (Chair), Reba Rye (Vice-Chair), Kristopher Grimes, Abdullah Alhuani, Andrew Ray, Debbra Tate Non-senators: LeChrista Finn (Secretary), Rene Desbordes
Ken Andries (Chair), Kim Sipes (Vice-Chair), Tucker Landy (Secretary), Robert Griffin, Changzhen Wang Non-senator: Dantrea Hampton
Ashok Kumar (Chair), Stephen Ulrich (Vice-Chair), Buddhi Gyawali (Secretary), Zhanping Liu, Nancy Capriles, Rebecca McCoy
Non-senators: Margaret Hecker, Cathy Vedder, Arthur Hayden, Sharon McGee
The resulting Executive Committee for the 2015-16 Faculty Senate is composed of Peter Smith, Kristopher Grimes, Reba Rye, Debbra Tate, Scott Ross, Kenneth Andries, Ashok Kumar, Joe Moffett, and Tierra Freeman. (Officers, Committee Chairs, immediate past Faculty Senate President)
President Smith pointed out that the total number of Senators declined due to reductions in positions. LLP, Whitney Young and the Library lost one Senate position each. He expects several controversies to be “coming our way” and suggested charges to Committees for consideration in anticipation of such:
Look at the Academic Calendar as published currently on the KSU Web site and the discrepancy with previously approved/modified policy that did away with early graduating Senior exams and grades, especially as the newly advertised policy relates to Fall as well as Spring graduates. Was this a Presidential directive?
Look at revised calendar for Tenure/Promotion.
Review the “Dare We Compare” study conducted by the BASC in 2007 and look at the current status of the percentage of the total budget that KSU spends on Instruction. Has it increased or decreased, both since 2007 and over the last year as the budget was balanced? President Smith’s “rough count” is that KSU lost about 20 FTE Faculty positions this academic year.
What is the status of Senate approved Action Items relating to Curriculum? LLP has been trying to move up a new English degree for several years.
Faculty Regent McFadden indicated there will be several “dog fights” ahead this academic year. There was no major action taken in the last Board meeting since it was a Retreat that dealt with strategic planning. He indicated a favorable impression with Dr. Brown-Wright, KSU’s new Vice President for Academic Affairs. He expects that the Tenure/Promotion process will be reopened this academic year, but indicated that President Burse is, “concerned with procedural flaws in the process.” Regent McFadden concurs that there are, “facts too numerous of how the system is flawed and how it has been applied” but gave no specifics. He advocates that faculty evaluations at KSU should be