August 23, 2001 Meeting of the Mesa State College Faculty Senate

MEMBERS PRESENT:  Tom Acker, Barbara Borst, Jim Buckley, Mike Gizzi, Phil Kavanagh, Doug O'Roark, Eric Schruers, John Sluder, Gayla Jo Slauson, Cindy Thomas, Brian Udermann, Russ Walker, Carrie McVean Waring, Mary Zimmerer

GUESTS:  Jim Brock, Morris Brown, Sam Gingerich, Bryan Howard

The meeting was convened at 3:30 pm by Senate President Doug O'Roark.

I.  Meeting Minutes

Draft minutes of the May 3, 2001 Senate meeting were not yet available for approval, so action was deferred until the September 7, 2001 meeting.

II.  Report on the June FACT and Trustee Meetings

Mike Gizzi, Gayla Jo Slauson, and Russ Walker reported on the June 7-8 FACT and Trustee meetings.

The Faculty Trustee rotates to Metro State College for the 2001-02 school year.  Metro faculty elected Gene Saxe, a long-time FACT member, as Trustee.

The FACT Chair rotates to Adams State College for the 2001-03 school years.  FACT elected Ed Crowther, the Adams Faculty Senate President, as chair.

FACT met directly with the Trustees for the first time this year.  FACT members expressed their desire to meet more frequently with the Trustees.  The new FACT chair will work to develop more of a problem-solving partnership between FACT and the Trustees.

The Trustees met with seven Mesa faculty members for an informal discussion.  MSC faculty talked about the evolving nature of our college and encouraged the Trustees to approve President Mike Gallagher's request to increase the Mesa salary pool by an additional 1% through reallocation of internal funds.  The Trustees approved the salary request in their meeting the next day.

This year's Office of State College Faculty Professional Development Conference will be September 28-29 in Frisco and will focus on active learning. 

III.  Student-Published Information on Courses and Faculty

ASG President Bryan Howard reported that ASG has discussed developing a public evaluation and assessment of courses and faculty.  The students felt that asking for semester-end course and instructor evaluations to be made public would not be particularly informative and could be divisive.  They proposed instead that faculty be requested to provide a profile of each course.  As a point of departure, the profile could include information such as that often provided on a course syllabus.  President Howard pointed out that students are most often interested in how the course is conducted (e.g, lecture versus discussion) and the method of grading (e.g., exams versus papers).  Senate will discuss this proposal at future meetings.

IV.  Human Subjects Committee and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

Senate President Doug O'Roark reminded Senate of a campus-wide email sent by President Gallagher over the summer.  In order to comply with the federal requirement for a "standing administrative contact point", the Human Subjects Committee and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee now report directly to the college president rather than to the Faculty Senate.  President O'Roark asked senators to check with their departments and report back at the next meeting on any issues related to this change. Cindy Lueb, our Director of Sponsored Programs, will attend a future Senate meeting to discuss other changes to research oversight dictated by federal requirements.

V.  Academic Master Plan

Vice President of Academic Affairs Sam Gingerich distributed the August 2001 version of the Academic Master Plan and noted that the administration had added a couple of goals (including periodic review of low-enrollment programs) since Senate last reviewed the plan in May.  He requested that Senate discuss the plan for approval at its next meeting.  He emphasized that the plan is a "living document" that will be reviewed and updated annually.  The plan will be posted on the college Web site, and Jim Brock will send out an all-campus email announcing the plan's availability for campus-wide review.  Faculty are requested to provide comments to their senate representative.  Staff are asked to provide their comments to Doug O'Roark.

VI.  Draft Guidelines for Tenure Portfolios

President O'Roark distributed general guidelines drafted by the deans for preparation of tenure portfolios.  The purpose of the guidelines is to establish a more uniform presentation of materials submitted by faculty.  Faculty can deviate from the guidelines (within the constraints of the MSC Professional Staff Policy Handbook, Section 9) as appropriate in order to present their best case for tenure. 

Questions were raised as to whether these were truly guidelines rather than requirements, and whether they should be approved as requirements.  Sam Gingerich noted that the Faculty Senate has the authority to change the guidelines to requirements.  He expects that similar guidelines will be drafted for promotion portfolios and comprehensive evaluations.  Senate will discuss this issue further at its next meeting.

VII.  Meetings with Local Members of the General Assembly

President O'Roark asked the Senate if there was interest in meeting with Representatives Berry and Smith and Senator Teck.  It was decided to invite each to a separate meeting of the Faculty Senate for an update on legislative issues affecting MSC along with a question and answer session.

VIII.  Four-Year Graduation Plan and the Common Core

President O'Roark distributed a letter from CCHE Executive Director Tim Foster to Mike Gallagher and a copy of MSC's draft Four-Year Graduation Plan.  Foster's letter described a bill passed by the General Assembly earlier this year (HB01-1263, sponsored by Representative King).  Among other topics, the bill addressed the degree to which students have the opportunity to complete their bachelor's degree in four years.  In response, the MSC administration has drafted a Four-Year Graduation Plan.  Under this plan, students who meet several conditions will be guaranteed that the courses they need to graduate in four years will be available, or that appropriate substitutions will be made.  Sam Gingerich estimated that only 100 to 125 MSC students would be affected each year.  This plan will be discussed in future Senate meetings.  Doug O'Roark encouraged senators to review the plan carefully.

HB01-1263 also requires that higher education institutions establish a "common core" to facilitate course transfers.  This requirement appears to be at odds with the equivalency matrix approach required in HB01-1298, a bill sponsored by Representative Berry.  Sam Gingerich noted that the common core and transferability will be the topic of the upcoming Faculty-to-Faculty Conference.

IX.  Other Issues

President O'Roark asked the Senate to identify other topics or issues of interest to them for possible future discussion.  Those issues included:

The apparent emphasis on use of technology versus the actual availability of technology.

Tuition waivers for faculty dependents, and the ability of faculty to take classes.Changing the performance evaluation period to coincide with the school year instead of the calendar year.

Possible distribution of faculty pay checks over a nine month period instead of an eleven month period.

The determination of faculty salary raises effective August 2001.  Doug O'Roark said that he would invite the deans to explain to the Senate their approach to determining raises.

A motion was made at 5:00 pm to adjourn (Walker/Sluder).  The motion was approved.