MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
October 15, 2003
Members Present: Gipp, Marlow, Weaver, Kommers, Schlotzhauer, Monaco,
Leech, Taylor, Howard, Christopher, Jones, Yoo, Becker, Conant,
Bradley, Ashley, Lansverk, Levy, Cherry, Giusti for Kevane, Pratt,
Neeley, Lynes-Hayes, Prawdzienski, Coon, Knight.
Members Absent: Ag Econ, Giroux, McDermott, Schmidt, Jackson, Seymour,
Taper, Chem, Bond, Idzerda, Lynch, Hoffman.
Others Present: Dooley, Fedock, McCleod.
The meeting was called to order by Chair Warren Jones at 4:10. A
quorum was present. The minutes of the October 1, 2003, meeting were
approved as distributed.
Chair's report - Warren Jones.
- The Board of Regents (BOR) will hold a workshop on the MSU
campus October 23.
- The purpose is for the Regents and Commissioner to clarify
internal operating procedures and committees, talk with
invited legislative leaders and make plans with them, review
long-range projections, review the BOR strategic plan for
current relevance, and to prioritize current and proposed
BOR/Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education
initiatives and obligations.
- The primary expected outcome is to establish working
guidelines and priorities for the next 12-18 months.
- Chair Jones and a UM faculty leader will attend the
meeting, which is open.
- During President Gamble's state-of-the-university address, he
mentioned that faculty are addressing issues of retention of
students with high GPA's.
- Chair Jones will meet with Chris Fastnow and Ben Sharp
(Office of Planning and Analysis) and with Courtney Stryker
(Dean of Students' Office) to identify mechanisms to
increase retention of these students.
- An immediate issue is to identify high-GPA non-resident
and resident students who do not return to MSU, discover why
they are not returning, and work with the students to
improve or correct these issues.
- Chair Jones and Assistant Dean of Students Glenn Puffer are
collaborating on issues concerning "I" grade.
- Changes will be made to the I grade form to make it clear
that faculty determine whether an I grade should be given,
not the Dean of Students' Office.
- The current regulation that a student must have completed
3/4 of the class work will be changed to make it fit
practice.
- Don Mathre, Chair of the MSU Benefits Committee, will attend
the November 12 University Governance Council (Faculty Council
and Professional Council) meeting to discuss issues of
TRS/TIAA-CREF and the FLEX credits "penalty" for families in
which both spouses are employed by the university.
- Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns was on campus
yesterday, meeting with various groups. Faculty representatives
with which she met were Warren Jones, Marvin Lansverk, Pat
Lynes-Hayes, Clayton Marlow, and Shannon Taylor. Dr. Stearns is
interested in the shared goverance model developing at MSU and in
the UPBAC process. She is a faculty advocate.
- The University Planning, Budget, and Analysis Committee (UPBAC)
met October 14. The Committee is identifying specific goals
relating to student body size and composition, faculty growth and
compensation, curriculum development, research growth,
partnerships from local to national scale, and infrastructure. A
draft proposal will soon be available for campus-wide comment.
Short-term faculty development program proposal - feedback from
faculty.
- Comments from faculty have been positive.
- Several individuals recommend the call for proposals take place
more than once each year or be on-going, because opportunities
sometimes arise with a short lead time.
- Last year's Professional Development Task Force determined that
there was considerable interest in this type of opportunity
because it allows varied possibilities both in time and breadth.
Traditional sabbaticals appear to have become more problematic
for faculty because it is increasingly difficult to be on leave
for an extended period of time.
- Some faculty see the lack of a buy-out provision a limitation
in the faculty development program, but buy-outs would greatly
lower the number of opportunities available because of the cost.
- Summer semester and breaks between or during semesters might be
times some faculty could take advantage of the program.
- The program is a pilot project, open to adjustment.
UGC Nominating Committee report - Clayton Marlow.
- Four individuals have been nominated for one faculty position
(to be appointed by the President) on the University Faculty
Athletics Committee. They are Susan Dana (Business), Susan
Marshall (Library), J.R. Woodward (Soc/Anth), and George Haynes,
HHD. President Gamble has asked that one name be forwarded to
him as a nominee. However, after discussion, it was agreed by a
hand vote to submit two names to him: Susan Dana and J.R.
Woodward.
- There are two nominations for a faculty position on the
Information Technology Advisory Committee: Richard Wolfe (ECE)
and Gary Harkin (CS). By hand vote, Richard Wolfe's name will be
forwarded to President Gamble as the nominee.
- Dean of Graduate Studies McCleod and Faculty Council Chair
Jones have discussed the position of the Faculty Council/Graduate
Council Liaison.
- They agreed Chair McCleod will attend Faculty Council and
Chair Jones will attend Graduate Council. However, the time
and day of Graduate Council meetings conflicts with Chair
Jones's class schedule.
- David Weaver, Entomology, volunteered to represent Faculty
Council at Graduate Council meetings, and Faculty Council
unanimously supported Dr. Weaver's serving as liaison by
voice vote.
- Graduate Council does not review requests for new courses,
but it discusses policy issues such as deadlines for
submission of dissertations and theses and electronic
dissertation issues. It is a policy-making body with one
member from each college in addition to ex officio members.
The Role of Faculty Council in the Review Process of New Academic
Programs.
- Chair Jones distributed an overview of the issues and three
different proposals for a review process (Attached for members
absent).
- Discussion of the role Faculty Council might best adopt will be
on the October 22 Faculty Council agenda.
Faculty Affairs Committee report - Marvin Lansverk.
- Discussion at today's Faculty Affairs Committee meeting
centered around a proposed Promotion and Tenure timeline,
presented by Provost Dooley (Attached for members absent).
- According to Provost Dooley, the P&T process at MSU works well,
except that the current deadlines are not possible to meet if a
thorough review process is done because of the number of cases to
be reviewed each year. Information collection begins too late in
the year.
- It is suggested by the Provost's Office that external reviews
be solicited over the summer and that departments begin their
work early Fall Semester, giving the University Promotion and
Tenure Committee the winter break to read dossiers.
- Currently, P&T notification is to take place by March 30,
giving a candidate time to file a grievance before the end of the
semester, if the grievant chooses to do so. Is the March 30
deadline necessary? Deadlines that are later may be a
possibility, if notification of the candidate is moved slightly
later than March 30.
- Faculty Council members are encouraged to take the P&T timeline
proposal to their departments for input. Can departmental P&T
committees be configured during Spring Semester? Is it
advantageous to a candidate to move up the deadlines, or does it
give a candidate too short of time on campus before dossiers are
requested?
- The issue will be discussed at the October 22 Faculty Council
meeting.
As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM.
Joann Amend, Secretary Warren Jones, Chair