WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
FACULTY SENATE
MEETING MINUTES
September 18, 2002
Taft Botner Room
(Killian 104)
A. Minutes
Corrections:Ý Name of new Registrar is Rob Gabrielsen.Ý
All votes at last meeting were unanimous.
Change from printed agenda
Nominations for the Paul A. Reid Service Award:
Richard Beam and Scott Philyaw
Approved by voice vote.
Malcolm Abel will be the representative to the Athletic Committee.Ý We need only one representative and Chris Cooper has agreed to step down.
Each college must have a representative on the Steering Committee.
Kathy Starr has agreed to represent the College of Applied Science and Kevin Pennington has agreed to represent the College of Education and Allied Professions.
Membership on the Councils is still not clear.Ý Senators were added to the Councils.Ý Each chair will provide a list of members to Nancy Carden. (attachment)
B. Dr. Bardo, Chancellor:
No report.Ý The Chancellor is teaching today.
C. Mary Adams, Senior Faculty Assembly Delegate:
There has not been a meeting since the last report. Mary reminded the Senate about the charge to review the TPR documents.Ý Submit any issues that you wish the Faculty Assembly to discuss to Mary as soon as possible.
D. Lex Davis, SGA President:
No report.
E. Keith Stiles, Staff Forum Chair:
No report.
F. Nancy Dillard, University Advisory Council Chair:
1.Ý There is a task force working on policies related to the issue of use of Social Security numbers. The use of software to create an alternate ID is being explored.
2.Ý Calendar issues were discussed and the UAC recommends the calendar be changed from 16 to 15 weeks.Ý The UAC hopes the Monday classes on Tuesday situation can be avoided.
Ý
G.Ý Newt Smith, Chair of Faculty:
ÝÝÝÝÝ The Chair met with the Board of TrusteesÝ and expressed the concern of the faculty about the budget crisis, issues of curriculum control, salary and benefits. He also reported that although there is controversy among the faculty there is also much positive discussion.Ý Communication about the budget and ìNewswatchî is appreciated.
ÝÝÝÝÝ The Board asked the Chair to comment on the work being done to address the issues in the Bataille letter of March 2002.Ý Work started will continue in the appropriate Councils, Committees and Task Forces.
H.Ý Roll Call
Members present: Abel, M., Adams, M., Atterholt, C., Banerjee, D., Bauer, K. Beam, R., Bell, B., Collings, R., Graham, G., Hale, D., Henderson, B., Kane, H., Kolenbrander, N., Lunnen, K., Mercer, G., Metcalf, C., Oran, T., Pennington, K., Philyaw, A. Proffit, S., Smith, N., Starr, K., Tholkes, B., Vihnanek, E., Wooten, C.
Members with proxies: Caruso (Collings),Mallory ( Bauer), Shults (Wallis), Spencer (Abel)
Members absent: Bardo, Huff, Kneller, Noel, Wallace.
A.Ý Faculty AffairsÝ ( Gael Graham)
ÝÝÝÝÝ The Council elected Gael Graham as chair via an electronic election.
B. Council on Instruction and Curriculum (Scott Philyaw )
The Council elected Scott Philyaw as chair.
1. The Council discussed the calendar.Ý It recommends that all departments review the number of hours for each course and make adjustments where needed.Ý It also recommended not switching class days.
Motion:Ý Reduce the length of the semester from 16 weeks to 15 weeks. Philyaw & Graham
Discussion:
How will we assure there is a final assessment?
Regulations concerning final assessment may be found in the Faculty Handbook 5.11.
The Senate cannot make regulations for the Faculty or department chairs.Ý This control issue belongs to administrators.
Some Faculty need as much time as possible to complete coursework.
Only administrators can enforce the assessment policy.
We must be thoughtful about the number of hours in each course.
We need our calendar to be in-line with other institutions.
What do we tell our neighbors?Ý Why is the shorter year better?
Students need time to digestÝ & think about things and to recharge their intellectual batteries.Ý Faculty need time to do research etc.Ý The intellectual climate of the State did not change when the school year got longer.
Vote: The motion passed.
15 in favor, 9 opposed, 1
abstained
2.Ý Declaration of major
The CouncilÝ recommends students be encouraged to declare a major after completing 60 hours or at the beginning of the junior year.
Discussion:
Students should not be penalized for not having a major.
May declare a major anytime
May declare a major even if not yet accepted into program.
ÝÝÝÝÝ Is advising any part of this?
ÝÝÝÝÝ The advising center is used to help students decide on a major.
C. Council on Student Affairs (Debasish Banerjee)
No report, the Council has not met yet.
A. Old Business
1.Ý Merit Pay Task Force
No report
2.Ý Restructuring Task Force
The AFE, TPR, PTR subcommittee has passed on minimum standards to the Task Force.Ý Things are moving along quickly now.
3.Ý Salary issues.
Data concerning salaries needs to be gathered and studied. Then we can see what needs to be done to achieve parity.
Motion:
Establish a task Force to investigate WCU salaries in comparison with sister UNC and peer institutions.Ý (Wallis & Proffit)
Discussion:
Why isnít Council on Faculty Affairs studying this?
The Council has a full agenda.
Dr. Collings has the CUPA report.
Vote:Ý Passed unanimously by voice.
4.Ý Non-tenured faculty plan.
We will proceed if the legislature passes a budget that allows us to use our local tuition as we have planned.Ý We need to define faculty workload, non-tenured faculty workload.Ý We also need to establish promotion procedures for non-tenured faculty.Ý Some things are defined by code or are in the Faculty Handbook.Ý Things are not clear.Ý We also need to look at what our sister institutions are doing.
B. New Business
There was no new business.
C. Curriculum items
Curriculum items from pages 6,7,8 are deleted from consideration until they pass through the Graduate Council.
Emergency Management
.
Motion: Request permission to plan an Emergency Management BA degree program with the proviso that the plan explains where the program fits in with the University Strategic Plan, Ý(Henderson & Mercer)
Discussion:
There are 42 hours in the major and 36 elective hours in this program.Ý Students should be able to complete in four years.
What is the job market like?
This is a growing area with many jobs available in the private sector as well as with government institutions.
Is this an academic or technical program?
It will be mostly academic with hands-on components.Ý A technical certificate will be part of the area at a later date.
Interdisciplinary courses may be electives.
We have been told we have too many program for our size.Ý How do we justify adding new programs?
We need a mechanism to add courses to the university offerings.
We need to look at new programs and be ready to change.Ý If they fit with the mission of the university we must consider them.
The Strategic Panning Committee needs to look at the way we add new programs.
General Administration will look at this program also.
We are being asked for permission to plan.Ý The procedure is permission to plan, permission to establish, approval by the Office of the President.Ý This may take several years.
We will begin by establishing a certificate program and adding appropriate courses in the Criminal Justice area.
Why do we need a building?
For Hands-on experience, we could do the program without it.
Why not do a concentration first.
That is a departmental decision and could start immediately
Vote:
17 in favor, 2 opposed and 4
abstained.
ÝThe meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM
The meeting adjourned at
Respectfully submitted
Elizabeth Vihnanek