Kentucky State University Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes October 30, 2020 Submitted by Danny Collum, Secretary
1. Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 9:01 a.m.
2. Approval of Agenda [5 minute time limit]
Agenda approved as submitted.
3. Approve Meeting minutes from 10/2/2020 [5 minute time limit]
Inaccuracies in “attending” list were noted. Senators Clay, Grimes and Lai should have been listed present. In “guests” Wilfred Reilly and Tierra Taylor were listed twice. Minutes approved with these corrections.
4. Faculty Senate President Report [15 minute time limit]
President Keeler announced that the provost search committee (on which he serves) is meeting today to finalize the provost job description for the position announcement. He also noted that a ribbon cutting for the agriculture program was scheduled for 10:30 that morning as was a university-wide town hall with President Brown for the afternoon. The last Atwood Institute talk of the semester, with Troy Adams presenting, would be at 1:30 Monday.
President Keeler especially drew the attention of the Senate and the entire faculty to the Zoom “chat” for faculty with President Brown next Friday, November 6. President Keeler noted that in a recent presidential forum the president said that all faculty needed to be prepared to teach in-person in the spring semester and that all academic units should come forward with statements of what they will need to allow that to happen. Keeler reported that President Brown seemed to think that, because K-12 schools in our area were going back to in-person, we would need to do so as well.
Numerous concerns about the wisdom of this statement were voiced by several senators. One senator noted that the administration should look at the resolution passed by the Faculty Senate at the beginning of the semester for a complete statement of what's needed. President Keeler affirmed that and urged all faculty to meet in their units and come out with a response regarding what they would need if the university were to resume in-person instruction.
5. Academic Affairs Updates and Gray Associates update [10 minute time limit]
Dr. Schneller announced that the Gray Associates program review reported on at a previous meeting had been delayed, but was still coming, probably at the first of the year. Faculty will be pulled into that process at that time.
6. Academic Policy Committee report [15 minute time limit]
a. APC_20_21_2 Academic Integrity Statement for Testing Center
Senator Gyawali, chair of the Academic Policy Committee (APC), reported that Thea Mason, from the university testing center, had attended the last APC meeting to help with the academic integrity statement that has come up at previous Senate meetings. Ms. Mason explained that the statement was needed for the official certification of the testing center. As part of the process, she needs a statement from our faculty endorsing the testing center statement. Senator Gyawali presented a resolution which makes that endorsement and statement of support, and it was approved by a unanimous vote.