Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
February 15, 2007

Senators: Tim Hatten, Keith Fritz, Bill McCraken, Bill Tiernan, Tim Casey, Maureen Neal, Steve Werman, Jane Arledge, Barbara Borst, Ellie Baldwin, Doug O'Roark, Judy Goodhart, Josh Butler

Guests: Carol Futhey, Cathy Barkley, Steve Murray, Joe Richards

Minutes Secretary: Jessica Cowden

I. ANNOUNCEMENTS

II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to receive the Curriculum Committee minutes from January 25, 2007. (Arledge/McCracken)

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Curriculum Committee minutes from November 16, 2007. (Neal/Werman)
Discussion: There were some concerns about the availability of resources for the addition of an energy management program under the BBA. Joe Richards reported that the Curriculum Committee posed the same questions when the proposal was made and they were assured that there are adequate resources. Tim Hatten added that the new courses would be filled by adjunct instructors from the industry. Casey expressed further concern about the stability of a program staffed entirely with adjuncts and suggested that we rethink our staffing patterns to see if this indicates a growing trend towards adding programs staffed with adjuncts versus tenure-track positions. Werman pointed out that it may be wise to start off a program with adjuncts in case the program does not succeed. Arledge also suggested doing more advanced planning and research to support the addition of a new program that could determine its success ahead of time.

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Curriculum Committee minutes from December 7, 2006. (Tiernan/Casey)
Discussion: Casey had one correction: INTS 101 is actually an introduction to "International Studies," not "Interdisciplinary."

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to receive the Graduate Council minutes from December 6, 2007. (McCracken/Tiernan)

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to approve the Graduate Council minutes from December 6, 2007. (Casey/McCracken)
Discussion: The staffing of the recently added Master's in Education cognate was discussed. The instructors will be made up of some MSC tenure-track faculty as well as .8 adjuncts, many of whom are retired principals and superintendents who are able to deal with the fluctuating schedule demanded by the program.

III. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE UPDATE (HATTEN)

" The primary topic of discussion was program reviews and the roles of the Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate therein, which will be discussed further later in the meeting.
" An expansion of the science building and other conceptual ideas were discussed. Josh Penry is to spearhead the project.

IV. STANDING COMMITTEES POLICY MANUAL

Casey presented the newly drafted policy manual. The purpose of the manual is to give the standing committees a set of guidelines and procedures for operation.
" Casey also suggested further amending the manual by adding a section D to cover non-Senate related standing committees like the Tenure and Promotion Committee and the Human Subjects Committee.
" The manual needs to be adopted with a 2/3 vote, preferably at the next Senate meeting or shortly thereafter in order to clarify the roles of the committees as soon as possible.
" There was also a proposal to expand the Assessment Committee to represent each department as well as accommodate the increased workload.
" Casey welcomed suggestions to improve/modify the manual.
" Arledge asked if the guidelines for the Distinguished Faculty award could be added to this manual or if it would be more appropriate elsewhere.
" Casey suggested adopting the manual and posting it on the web so that as changes are made to the document they can be updated and easily accessed by the faculty.
" The Senate commended Casey, Neal and Butler on their work.

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to receive this draft of the manual. (Arledge/Tiernan)

V. KINESIOLOGY (FRITZ)

The currently policy doesn't allow for multiple activity courses to be used as electives. The Kinesiology Department feels that these courses are valuable and represent a wide variety of activities. They also believe that if these courses were allowed as electives, the increased interest could lead to the addition of new courses. No other department's courses are restricted. A student can take as many dance and theatre classes as they would like, for example, without a limitation on how many will count towards their electives. Arledge pointed out that the two activity course graduation requirement is unusual for most college and clearly demonstrates the College's emphasis and degree to which they value the health and wellness and activity courses.
" Tiernan commented that this proposed change could potentially water down the academic requirements for graduation.
" Dr. Murray pointed out that these courses do confer to the 1/3 academic requirement as prescribed by CCHE. He added that there is no difference between dance courses and activity courses, yet students are allowed to take as many dance courses as they'd like.
" The Senate questioned the role of the Senate in this discussion and wondered if it would be better served in the Curriculum Committee.
" Neal suggested sending this issue to a more appropriate committee for further discussion and potential action.
" The suggestion is to allow one more credit per semester of activity courses to count towards their electives beyond the two that are currently required. Werman suggested that the issue go to the Curriculum Committee since it is a change in electives policy. Fritz suggested that it go to Academic Policies who could further discuss this and send it back to the Senate for the final action.
" Much of the Senate agreed that students should be allowed to take whatever they wish to take to count towards their electives.
" Werman also questioned whether the definition of an elective would have to be modified.

The movement was made, seconded, and passed to refer this issue to the Academic Policies Committee for further study and encourage them to invite Fritz and Murray to present their case and then report back to the Senate. (Arledge/Neal)

VI. ROLE OF THE CURRICULUM COMMITTEE AND FACULTY SENATE IN THE PROGRAM REVIEW PROCESS

Joe Richards explained to the Senate that a change in the Program Review process was instituted last year when the Curr. Committee decided to start bringing in external reviewers rather than solely relying on each program's self-analysis reports. At this point, it now seems redundant for the Curriculum Committee to further analyze the analyses provided both by the external reviewers as well as the self-studies. The Curriculum Committee is in agreement that the only committee that seems necessary to the process in its current structure would possibly be the Assessment Committee.
Werman pointed out that the Curriculum Committee formerly served the purpose of suggesting new goals and items to focus on for subsequent reviews. He proposed that the current structure might be best served by sending the reviews as well as the duty of making suggestions for future improvements to the VPAA's office rather than to the Faculty Senate. Hatten's suggestion was that the Senate treat it as an item for discussion rather than action so that the Senate could add their suggestions and then send it all off to the VPAA's office, which is where it eventually winds up regardless.

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to eliminate the responsibility of reviewing the self-studies and the external reviews from the Curriculum Committee as part of the Program Review process. (McCracken/Arledge)

The motion was made, seconded, and passed to extend the meeting. (Arledge/McCracken)

VII. GRADE CHANGE POLICY
Hatten, Casey and Tiernan met with representatives from Nursing as well as the President, Carol Futhey, Andy Breckel, etc. It was revealed that a member of the nursing faculty changed the grade to an "I" at Breckel's request. There was, evidently, some degree of misunderstanding between Kristy Reuss and Andy Breckel as he felt that he was making the suggestion that the grade be changed and Reuss felt that he was demanding that they make the change.

The meeting was adjourned at

Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Cowden
Minutes Secretary