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Faculty Senate Minutes January 20, 2005
SENATORS: Rich Cowden, Phil Kavanagh, Tim Hatten, Gayla Jo Slauson,
Tony Schountz, Larry Madsen, Barbara Borst, Ellie Baldwin, Jill
Cordova, Bill McCracken, Cindy Thomas, Tom Acker, Tim Casey
MINUTES SECRETARY: Jessica Cowden
GUESTS: Carol Futhey, Duane Hrncir, John Sluder, Hasson Tavossi
I. ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Vice President of Academic Affairs search is under way. The
ten person committee, consisting mostly of faculty members, is chaired
by Kathy Barkley. There are 52 applicants for the position.
The Faculty Senate will need to elect a new trustee representative
this semester as Gayla Jo's term expires.
There will be a presentation at the next Senate meeting concerning
the Western Slope Community College.
The BA in Applied Technology was approved by the Board of Trustees
on January 19, 2005 as a BA in Applied Science and Business Administration.
The degree was renamed in order to better parallel the AA in Applied
Science.
II. MEETING MINUTES
The motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the remainder
of the Curriculum Committee minutes from November 11, 2004 that
were not approved at the last Senate meeting. (Hatten/Thomas)
The motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the Graduate
Council minutes from November 15, 2004. (Thomas/Cowden)
The motion was made, seconded and passed to receive and approve
the Faculty Senate minutes from December 9, 2004. (Cowden/McCracken)
III. REPORT ON JANUARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING (Slauson)
Gayla Jo Slauson recently attended a two-day Board meeting in Denver.
She reported to the Faculty Senate on the following:
The three new Board members, Glen Gallegos, Celeste Colgan and
Norm Franke were introduced.
Cole Wist was elected Vice Chair.
The Board discussed the Handbook issues that the MSC faculty had
brought to President Foster's attention last semester. The Board
is prepared to have the faculty present a few key changes at the
February meeting. They also discussed the need to establish an official
procedure for addressing any further changes to the Handbook on
a yearly basis.
Steve Meyer presented to the Board a list of faculty concerns:
1) Not charging tuition for faculty spouses and children.
2) Frustration with declining numbers of tenure/tenure track positions
vs. adjunct.
3) Concerns about adjusting to Department Heads and the removal
of the Deans.
Slauson made a presentation to the Board suggesting that MSC start
observing Martin Luther King Day.
The Board would like to move toward a per credit hour charge with
no plateau and discussed how soon such a change could be made.
There was some discussion about the number of program additions
vs. deletions, of which there are very few.
IV. MSC STRATEGIC PLAN
Tim Casey reported to the Senate on a number of concerns his faculty
had voiced concerning the Strategic Plan. They felt that it is too
region oriented and that the goal should not only be to train students
to work in the 14 county region, but rather to go farther to work
and/or to further their education after attending Mesa State. They
also questioned the purpose of the document and wanted to know if
it was meant to replace the Mission Statement. Finally, they also
felt that there was too much emphasis on concurrent enrollment as
a means to increase overall enrollment.
The Senate was asked to solicit more feedback from faculty for
further discussion at the next meeting.
V. CONCURRENT COURSES
Vice President Futhey reported that the college is taking a closer
look at who is taking the concurrent courses and whether or not
they need be screened out based on low test scores, etc. They are
also looking at scaling back concurrent course options to general
education and transferable courses.
Casey brought up concerns about the qualifications of the instructors,
the department's ability to determine that, and assessing those
instructors in the same manner that professors are assessed on campus
i.e. evaluations, etc.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:47 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Cowden
Minutes Secretary
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