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Senators Ibukun Amusan (Math & Sci) Ken Andries (AFE) Nancy Capriles (BSS) Rene Desborde (Business) Gary Elliott (WYS) E Maheteme Gebremedhin (AFE) Caroline Gibson (FIAR) Cindy Glass (BSS) William Graham (EDU) Robert Griffin (FIAR) Buddhi Gywali (AFE) Dantrea Hampton (Library) Jens Hannemann (Comp Sci) Ashok Kumar (at large) Vikas Kumar (AQU) A Li Lu (Math & Sci) Rebecca McCoy (Nursing) Joe Moffett (LLP) Narayanan Rajendran (at large) Rita Sharma (Math & Sci) Reba Rye (at large) Kimberly Sipes (at large)

Peter Smith (LLP) Stephen Ulrich (PUA, CJ, SW) A Changzheng Wang (at large)

Ex Officio Members and Guests

Candice Jackson (VP Academic Affairs)

Chandee Felder (Senate Admin)

Tierra Freeman (BSS)

Elgie McFayden (Faculty Regent)

James Obielodan (Grad Director)

Donavan Ramon (WYS)

Cynthia Shelton (WYS)

James Obielodan (Grad Director)

Jennifer Miles (Distance Education)

John Sedlacek (AFE)

Mara Merlino (BSS)

The meeting was called to order at 3:14pm. Fourteen senators were present.

The agenda was approved unanimously.

The Minutes for the 10/31/2016 meeting were approved unanimously as distributed.

Faculty Senate President Sipes reported that a new Senate Parliamentarian would need to be elected since Alice Collins has left the university. Chair Andries nominated Dantrea Hampton, who accepted. With no other nominations, President Sipes asked for a motion to close nominations, which passed unanimously. Senator Hampton will serve as the new Senate Parliamentarian.

President Sipes also noted that Dr. Thomas has sent the Committee Book. Committees will meet soon. President Sipes pointed out that the book contains a method to evaluate committee participation. Some items in the book are highlighted in yellow, indicating that committees still need members. Those from APC who volunteered for Academic Appeals (Nancy Capriles and Caroline Gibson) have not been added yet. There is also a new committee (Facilities Management). Faculty Affairs Committee is also new and will work with the University President. Several members of Senate noted the overlap between this committee and that which is already done by PCC. There was also discussion of the membership of the committee: two senators and five faculty at large. A senator suggested that four of the slots should be filled by members of standing Senate committees and the other three could be faculty at large. This way there would be a direct line of communication between Senate and the President's Office.

Since some committees need to have members elected, such as Faculty Appeals, President Sipes noted that Senate needs a Nominating Committee. Ken Andries agreed to chair. Ashok Kumar also agreed to serve.

President Sipes reported that President Thompson said faculty did not have to wait for the final version of the Strategic Plan to be printed and permitted her to send it out immediately.

President Sipes reminded everyone that textbook orders needed to be in by Tuesday, 11/15. Only a third of courses have been reported so far. A senator asked if students have given feedback on ebooks. President Sipes asked Jennifer Miles, who replied that new course surveys might offer a way to gather student feedback. The new IDEA system will have a polling option, and she reminded Senate of the training sessions for the system.

A senator asked about open sources. President Sipes responded that they still need to be noted on book order forms.

Chair Moffett shared that at its last meeting APC focused on three main issues. One was reviewing the Attendance Policy as it stands in the current catalogue. This policy was introduced in the 2015-2016 catalogue but is already out of date (it references CAPS) and was never passed through the regular channels (ie, APC and Senate). The committee is working on a policy that takes the best parts of this policy and integrates them with the previous one.

APC also looked at a draft of a proposal from CC that would address the problem of how transfer credits relate to IGS courses. Chair Andries of CC has also been working on a realignment of the Liberal Studies Core, and that document was also reviewed by APC to offer feedback to CC.

APC is working on an action item to address the issue that students who had taken remedial courses can no longer repeat them to improve their GPAs. APC is working to clarify how the proposed policy would work with Math courses. Chair Andries pointed out that the policy on limiting repeats is a problem, especially where Math is concerned, and suggested APC consider that issue in its proposal.

Chair Andries noted that this course helps fulfill the request from CPE that all public universities offer a general education statistics course. It will not serve as a pre-requisite for any other Math course. In the spring it would be offered as dual credit course and then at the university in fall 2017. President Sipes pointed out that other state universities have a similar course. A senator asked how the course can be taken without Algebra, and a senator from the division proposing the course noted that students must have a 19 ACT subscore to take the course; those without it will take MAT 171 first. Chair Glass asked why this course is four credits; her son had taken the course at EKU for three credits. President Sipes answered that the course includes a lab. Chair Glass expressed concern that the extra hour may further hamper student progress.

A guest noted that some majors require a 300 level stats course and wondered to which major this course applies. Chair Andries responded that this course will not replace other stats courses. A senator added that this course looks similar to existing courses. Another senator explained that this course will not go into as much depth on concepts as existing courses.

The motion passed with one opposed, no abstentions, and the rest of members in favor.

Chair Andries reported that CC is working on an action item related to IGS and transfer credits. It is also working on a proposal that would align the liberal studies core with the KY Transfer Policy categories. CC has asked for input from APC and the coordinator of IGS courses (Dr. Cynthia Shelton) on the proposals.

Chair Rye discussed enrollment data that had been sent to CPE. She shared the fall 2016 FTE for graduate students (108) and undergraduates (1,266). There are 270 dual enrollment students as well as 10 Donovan Scholars. There are 69 students on the 4.0 GPA scholarship, which Chair Rye said she believes is being phased out. Given these numbers, she wondered how the budget could be balanced, especially since the budget under President Burse had been built around 300 first year students, and this year there are only 210.

BASC has put in a request to CPE for more recent data (last two years if possible) about dollar amounts spent on instruction at public universities across the state.

Chair Rye said that she anticipates having a line item budget to distribute widely. BASC is still waiting to learn how much is spent on consultants from foundation money or otherwise. This should be public information. Faculty Regent McFayden noted that there are detailed reports that should be available.

Chair Glass explained that she could not attend the recent PCC meeting, but President Sipes attended to discuss other ways of looking at scholarship. President Sipes noted the context for this discussion is that PCC is scheduled to offer revised tenure and promotion policies in January. There was discussion in committee about the need for a consistent policy across the university. Some members of the committee questioned whether that is possible since departments can prove vastly different in mission. President Sipes argued that teaching should be evaluated the same way across the board. Service is easier to define across campus; research is one of the more difficult criteria. VP Jackson had suggested looking at the Boyler scholarship model, which is currently used in the Business Department. This model defines scholarship differently, with four main areas: the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, the scholarship of discovery, and the scholarship of teaching. Consistency might be achieved by using this model, but it is broad enough to allow each department to set its own benchmarks within the categories.

Chair Rye pointed out that some universities have research or teaching tracks chosen by faculty. A senator noted that with the Boyler model, one would not need to make such a choice. Conversation then continued about the challenge of evaluating teaching itself.

A motion to extend time for 5 minutes passed unanimously.

President Sipes argued that the important point for the university is to keep the focus on teaching above other criteria. Chair Rye pointed that in the past teaching has been perceived as the primary area of faculty review.

VP Jackson stressed that KSU is primarily a teaching institution because of 4/4 loads. Chair Andries observed that teaching load is different in the College of Ag. A senator responded that this kind of variation is addressed through the Distribution of Effort form. Chair Andries explained that the situation can be complicated since a faculty member in his area may only teach one course, and if he or she is not effective, is he or she then to be reassigned to focus solely on outreach and research? At most other land grant institutions there would be other faculty to make up for an ineffective teacher, but KSU does not have that depth of personnel.

A guest noted that faculty need to have the opportunity to do what they need to do to make students well-prepared; if a faculty member buys out 50% of his or her teaching time with a grant, will that affect the way his or her teaching is evaluated? President Sipes responded that the bottom line is one cannot get tenure at KSU while being an ineffective teacher.

Chair Rye asked if the committee is going to make recommendations on promotion, to which a senator replied it would be. PCC is not ready to do that yet since it is still considering tenure guidelines. Chair Andries pointed out that the tenure guidelines for his area still need to be integrated into the Faculty Handbook.

Dr. Jackson apologized for running late; the Senate meeting conflicted with a President's Cabinet meeting. She reiterated that the Committee Book is published and we need Senate appointees.

She pointed out that the recent state and national elections will mean we need to be mindful of the role of higher education in the state and across the nation. We will be questioned about our graduation and retention rates. Since the fight is out there, it cannot be in here; the threats to KSU and higher education are real. We have much work to complete for reaffirmation. Faculty will be tasked in a way like never before. She stressed that overall faculty are doing good work with grants, scholarship, and teaching.

Dr. Jackson reminded Senate that everyone must have final grades in on time by 5pm so the system can be shut down to roll over. Otherwise, students will have to be given incompletes and there will be paperwork to be completed.

Chair Andries noted that the Committee Book lists some vacancies as general elected faculty. Work to fill those positions will need to be undertaken. He asked by what date that needs to take place, to which Dr. Jackson responded that it should be done by 12/1.

Chair Glass shared with Dr. Jackson the idea that the Academic Affairs Committee could have one member from each standing Senate committee and the rest of the faculty appointments be at large. Dr. Jackson replied that she would send that recommendation along. A guest noted that this committee seems to overlap with PCC. Dr. Jackson responded that she would speak with President Thompson about that issue.

VP Jackson also said that notices had gone out for Post-Tenure Review. Eleven people will be reviewed. Committee members will need to be chosen to review the dossiers. President Sipes added that could be done with the upcoming election.

A quorum was lost at 4:56pm.

Respectfully submitted, Joe Moffett, Faculty Senate Secretary

[Approved by Senate on 11/28/2016]