MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
March 5, 2003
MEMBERS PRESENT: Young, Gipp, Sherwood for Giroux, Kommers,
Schlotzhauer, Metz for Linker, Leech, Dodd for Taylor, Howard,
Stewart, Jones, Nehrir, Conant, Weaver, Amend, Locke, Levy, Bogar,
Jelinski, Pratt, Fisher, Lynes-Hayes, Prawdzienski, Kott for Knight.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Morrill, McDermott, White, Anderson, Chem Engr, Yoo,
Lefcort, English, Bond, Idzerda, Lynch, Kempcke, Hoffman.
OTHERS PRESENT: Bandyopadhyay, Fedock.
The meeting was called to order by Chair Richard Howard at 4:10 PM. A
quorum was present. The minutes of the February 26, 2003, meeting
were approved as distributed.
Chair's report - Rich Howard.
- Two Faculty Handbook amendments proposed to the administration
are being discussed with Legal Counsel Leslie Taylor.
- Role, Scope, Criteria, and Procedures (Section 620.00)
gives faculty the option of being evaluated using the
document in effect at the date of hire or using any approved
departmental document in effect up to the time of review.
- The concern of the administration is that if two
faculty within a department are reviewed at the same
time, using different documents, a legal case could be
made, if one decision is negative, that different
criteria were used for the reviews.
- During discussion by the Council, the point was made
that this approach (allowing different documents to be
used) was recommended to a department by Legal Counsel
through Vice Provost Fedock during the last review
cycle. Why is this now not advisable? In addition,
the Provost and AA/HR Director were in attendance at
Faculty Affairs Committee meetings when the proposal
was discussed, and no mention was made of a possible
problem.
- It was suggested that if the issue cannot be resolved
in a way acceptable to both Faculty Council and the
administration, Legal Counsel be invited to Faculty
Council to discuss it.
- Conciliation and Grievance Complaints - Deadline for
Filing (Section 1312.00) allows a faculty member to file a
grievance until October 1, if notification of a negative
decision is made less than thirty days before the end of the
contract period. The Faculty Affairs Committee is asked to
add a sentence making it clear that this does not extend the
contract for an additional year.
- The Board of Regents met March 3.
- The search firm for the Commissioner of Higher Education
has interviewed individuals across the state regarding
challenges in higher education. Some of the more negative
statements have been removed from the draft by the Regents.
- Chair Howard will bring the statement of challenges
to Faculty Council when it is in final form.
- The new Commissioner will be a CEO with the UM and
MSU presidents reporting to him.
- The proposed salary range for the new Commissioner is
substantially less than the salary for similar
positions in surrounding states and may impact the
filling of the position.
- The task force working on transferability of courses
across the university system made a presentation.
- Deputy Commissioner Joyce Scott chairs the task
force, and John Amend is one of the two faculty members
on it. The other is from UM.
- Student regent Hur presented a proposal to the
Regents for a common course numbering system. There
was little support from the regents as a whole, or from
the transferability task force, and the proposal is no
longer on the table.
- The transferability task force is recommending common
numbering for most core courses, to be worked out by
faculty across the university system, by discipline.
Because of the cost of doing this, Regents' interest in
pursuing the issue at this time seems to be waning.
- The results of surveys of transfer students indicate
that transferability is not of great concern to them.
- University Governance Council Nominating Committee is
soliciting nominations for faculty and professional vacancies on
university-wide committees. Vicky York chairs the committee.
- Faculty Council elections will be taking place shortly in
departments where terms end.
- Greg Young, Department of Music, has been selected as the
Assistance Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. He assumes
the position July 1.
Faculty Affairs Committee report - Walter Metz.
- Jack Jelinski moved approval of the addition to Faculty
Handbook Section 812.00 (Responsibility of the Candidate to
Submit Dossier). The motion was seconded and carried. The
amendment will be published in the STAFF BULLETIN for input by
faculty.
- Jack Jelinksi moved approval of the addition to Faculty
Handbook Section 840 (Review of Academic Administrators), with
the following amendments: Remove "When appropriate" from sentence
two; change the three 'should's to "shall"; add "regularly" after
'opportunity' in the first sentence; and remove from the phrase
'confidentiality of the faculty member's input' the words 'the'
and 'member's'. The motion was seconded and carried. The
amendment will be published in the STAFF BULLETIN for input by
faculty.
- Additions to Faculty Handbook Sections 210 and 622 (Role of
Faculty Serving as Department Head - Primary Administrator) were
discussed.
- It was agreed the Faculty Affairs Committee should make
some slight modifications so it is clear that a department
head does not have two votes, both as a faculty member and
as the primary administrator. Informal input and formal
voting responsibility by faculty serving as department heads
need to be defined.
As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM.
Joann Amend, Secretary Richard Howard, Chair