MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
                           December 6, 2000
                                   
PRESENT:  Hatfield, Sherwood, Miller, Linker, Leech, Benham, Stewart,
          Larsen, Harkin, Nehrir, Mooney, McMahon, McClure, Levy,
          Bogar, Bond, Myers for Jelinski, Kirkpatrick, Lynch, Fisher,
          Prawdzienski, Butterfield, Scott.

ABSENT:   Young, Morrill, White, Anderson, Kommers, Peed, Howard,
          Jost, Lefcort, Locke, Lansverk, McKinsey, Griffith,
          Carlstrom.

The meeting was called to order by Chair Ron Larsen at 4:10 PM.  It
was determined a quorum was present.  The minutes of the November 29,
2000, meeting were approved with the following correction: Faculty
Affairs report - "Randomly-assigned identification numbers would be
used by faculty for anonymity unanimity and to ensure there is no
duplication of reviews.  It was agreed safeguards for faculty to
remain anonymous unanimous need to be highlighted."

Chair's report - Ron Larsen.
     - Commissioner of Higher Education Crofts is holding a meeting in
     Helena today for statewide Montana University System faculty
     leadership and others to discuss the up-coming legislative
     session.  Although Ron Larsen and John Sherwood were unable to
     attend, Cathy Conover attended from MSU.  There appears to be
     interest in involving faculty from the units of the system in
     legislative planning.
     - Commissioner Crofts will be on campus December 11.  Faculty
     Council members are invited to meet with him at 3 PM in the
     President's Conference Room, Montana Hall Basement.
     - Should there be some response to legislator Balyeat's editorial
     in the BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE to address inaccuracies and
     misleading statements in the article?   Ron distributed a list of
     some points that could be made in such a response.  Volunteers to
     draft a response were solicited, but after further discussion, it
     was agreed UGC Steering Committee will discuss a possible
     response (which would probably be made after allowing
     Commissioner Crofts time to respond).
     - There have been a number of nominations made for faculty and
     department head positions on the Provost search committee.  All
     department head's nominations will be forwarded to the President.
     Nominations are leaning heavily toward the sciences.  Ron asked
     that an effort be made to solicit nominations from the
     humanities.

Faculty Affairs Committee report - Ron Larsen and David Scheerer.
     - The committee has developed a review of administrators which
     can be completed on the web or on paper.  Copies of a memo which
     describes the review to faculty and the administrator assessment
     form were distributed to members present.
          - If the concept is approved, administrators above the rank
          of department head would be expected to post their
          self-evaluation statements on the web.  Department heads
          would be expected to distribute the statements to their
          faculty.  After discussion, it was agreed department heads
          should be asked to post their self-evaluations, also.
          - Each tenurable faculty member would receive a confidential
          ID number which could not be traced back to the individual.
          The review would be conducted by Faculty Council, and the
          only involvement of administrators would be to submit their
          self-evaluations to Ron Larsen for posting on the Faculty
          Council web site and to receive final results of the
          assessment.
          - It was agreed the rating scale should be reversed, so the
          first choice is "strongly agree" and the last choice before
          N/A is "strongly disagree".
          - Harry Benham moved the review of administrators, using
          this format, be accepted.  The motion was seconded and
          carried.
          - Terry Roark and Joe Fedock have seen the proposal and
          seemed to find it acceptable.  The proposal will be sent to
          President Gamble.

WebCT - Kim Obbink and Ritchie Boyd.
     - At the end of FY 2000, the Commissioner of Higher Education put
     money into the Provost's Office budget to support on-line course
     development.  Part of the money is to provide a tool to develop
     and offer courses, support for the tool, and training for people
     using it.
     - The RFP for the on-line courses was distributed in today's mail
     to department heads and deans, and training programs are
     scheduled.
     - The purpose of the tool is for faculty and departments to
     develop and deliver on-line courses on-campus and off-campus.
     WebCT was chosen after faculty and other university
     representatives at the Bozeman, Billings, Havre and Great Falls
     campuses looked at several possibilities.  WebCT has a low
     license cost and low implementation support.  It interfaces with
     Banner and other campus-wide software.
     - Features of WebCT include ability to download a syllabus,
     testing, evaluation, and ability to provide some statistics.
     Faculty may want to think about different ways to assess
     students' work, not just through traditional kinds of tests, with
     on-line courses.
     - To get started with an on-line course using WebCT, the faculty
     member attends an introductory session and receives an ID number
     and account.  Level I and II training are available but are not
     necessary if the individual prefers to use other learning
     methods.
     - The Burns Telecommunication Center and ITC are working closely
     together in training and implementation.  If faculty have
     questions, Ritchie Boyd, BTC, is the contact person.

AJM Johnson Remodel - Tom McCoy.
     - Space issues for Agriculture, Microbiology, Cell Biology and
     Neuroscience have hopefully been settled.  Significant remodeling
     of the AJM Johnson basement will address space issues for Ecology
     and make it possible for the Ecology faculty to all be in one
     area of campus.
     - Windows which are 3x5 feet will be put in the basement.  The
     contractor will be asked to do all jack hammering outside the
     time of 8-to-5, Monday through Friday, to alleviate noise and
     dust problems, but the work will still be disruptive for the
     building occupants.
     - It is hoped the work can be completed between January and
     August, 2001.
     - Funding will come from IDCs.
     - In Cooley Hall, deteriorated lab benches are being replaced and
     adequate fume hoods are being put in place.

Recruitment and Retention Task Force Update - John Sherwood.
     - The task force has been meeting each week this semester.  The
     goal has been to investigate obstacles to recruitment and
     retention of students.  Discussions have been oriented toward
     non-academic issues.
     - Members of the task force and of the seventeen working groups
     were listed.  The working groups will finish their tasks next
     week and prepare a one page list of recommendations for improving
     recruitment and retention that are no-cost or low-cost.

As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:05 PM.


Joann Amend, Secretary                             Ron Larsen, Chair