Meet and Confer Notes - Approved
1/15/2009
Administration: Provost Spitzer, Wanda Overland, Larry Chambers, Kristi Tornquist, Judith Siminoe, Diana Lawson, Steve Ludwig, Mitch Rubinstein, (Patty Dyslin – notetaker)
Faculty: John Palmer, Mark Jaede, Joann Gasparino, Judy Kilborn, Robert C. Johnson, Balsy Kasi, Michael Tripp
Approval of Minutes: 12/18/2008 – approved
Unfinished Business:
1. E-mail as a Means of Disseminating Information to Employees (AD – 3/13/2008)
FA: I will make sure that Senate deals with this although we have some doubts about getting a forum at Senate on Tuesday for a variety of reasons. There are a number of faculty that are traveling to Washington that day for the historic event. The consulting firm is on campus and the search committee meeting with the consultant overlaps with Senate so that pulls a bunch of senators out. This will be an item of high priority as will the Religious Observance document.
2. Evening Class Meeting Dates for 2009-2010 (AD – 12/18/2008)
FA: I have the vague recollection that there was going to be an update that included Friday dates. Am I right about that?
AD: Yes.
FA: I see that Mitch has a handout. We will take it to Senate. I don’t expect it’s going to be a problem with that. They’re chomping at the bit. Mitch has been getting inquiries from people who want to know about the 2010 and 2011 calendars. I don’t know why that’s happening now. I’ve sent them to the task force.
AD: The task force has been looking at this. I need to consult with the Provost on this. It will be coming out, I hope, by the end of the month.
FA: Okay.
AD: At least make some substantial progress by the end of the month.
FA: Do you have any further comments about the meeting dates or evening classes?
AD: We’ve added Fridays. This is the first time we’ve done this so I hope we’ve taken into account various things like Spring term because the last day is April 30th because Graduate Hooding takes place on Friday, May 7th so that accounts for the fewer number of classes there. I hope I’ve taken into account all of the other corresponding changes in dates in the Friday schedule accounted for here.
FA: Thank you. You are an optimist – or whoever wrote this is an optimist. The very last line talks about the precinct caucuses that are tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, February 2, 2010 and that a firm date will be available by March 1, 2009. You are really optimistic about the actions of the legislature.
AD: I think this is a matter of state law.
FA: The legislature can change anything at any time. (laughter)
AD: That’s true. This is what is posted on the Secretary of State web-site.
FA: Okay. Thank you.
New Business:
1. Prerequisites
Fa: My people have received the document that you provided me on the listing of which departments are checking prerequisites. Judy, if you could…
AD: Not so much checking prerequisites, but using the ISRS system to check perquisites.
FA: This is really helpful information to have. I guess I was hoping that Sue would be here for a question. Last time we talked about prerequisites checking, if you recall, she was saying that she thought the system would be robust enough to turn everything on. A lot of departments asked that prerequisites checking be turned off because when it had been turned on the system had gone down. I was kind of wondering how things stood now.
AD: She didn’t imply in any way at all that we’re having any problem with it and that the system is working universally.
FA: So your understanding is if departments are worried because of past experience we should go forward with confidence?
AD: Yes. (laughter) I will get back to you if that is not the case.
FA: Thank you.
FA: There is some confusion about how the actual standard for checking is programmed into the system. What I learned working with an individual case is that decision appears to come out of the department offices.
AD: What decision?
FA: The decision of what actually is checked – the criteria.
AD: The department notifies Records and Registration as to which courses should have prerequisites checked.
FA: Yes.
AD: That information comes from the departments to Records and Registration and they implement it.
FA: Yes. That’s what I understand although I don’t believe that the majority of the faculty understand because faculty often get surprised – as I think was this case – where suddenly there were students who triggered the point.
FA: What triggered this question was that we had Freshmen showing up in 400 level courses that have prerequisites.
AD: Was the prerequisite check on for those courses?
FA: I’m not sure. It says here that we only have three on and I can go back and double-check. Knowing that the system is now robust, maybe the department will make different choices about whether to turn it on or not. Because last time, when things melted down, it really created serious problems – especially for high enrollment courses. I’m suspecting that the three that we have turned on are those three high enrollment courses that blew up essentially when prerequisite checking was turned on.
FA: What I will do is go back to Senate and let Senate know the information that you’ve provided and provide comment about the fact that the decision of what ends up in the computer comes out of the department so that they realize that it’s not something being imposed by the Office of the Registrar. In this case they’re a servant for what the departments need to have done.
AD: In all cases.
FA: I don’t know Michael, if I would go that far.
AD: It is a service office.
2. Cell Phone Dead Zones (1/15/2009)
FA: We received a copy of some communication between a faculty member and Steve Ludwig about the fact that there are a number of spots on campus where a number of cell phone providers effectively don’t work. Therefore the Star Alert System, which seems like a fine idea, could not work on much of the campus if in effect there is no cell phone service there. We wanted to inquire about the possibility – can something be done so that there would be broader, better cell phone service available on campus in the interest of making that system provide better information for safety.
AD: There are a number of mechanisms the Star Alert System is one, for contacting folks if there is an emergency. I do understand that not all cell phone systems work at every location on campus. That’s really a factor that’s controlled by the cell phone companies rather than by the university. We really can’t dictate to them. I suppose we could ask them if they could expand their service, but that’s not in our purview necessarily to do that. Some cell phone companies have better cell phone service around campus than others. I don’t know what we can do beyond that other than to informally tell certain folks that the cell phone system that I use pretty much works all over campus.
FA: It may be that a distinction between which works and which doesn’t has to do with who has a transmitter tower on or near campus. I don’t think that we’re trying to say that it’s the responsibility of the university to provide cell phone service. But it may be within the power of the university to invite, to negotiate, and who knows, maybe even to collect some revenue from an entity that was placing an antennae on campus.
AD: I think that is the case with the one company that is the official communication company being used by the university which does have a tower on campus. Providing that kind of access to a multitude of companies would be problematic
FA: In the name of safety I think that’s what this alert is about, to provide a means for people to be informed when an emergency takes place on campus. Is it possible that we can ask someone with some technical background to explore the ways in which a variety of cell phone users can be called on an emergency basis? So we’re sitting here speculating with no basis, no understanding of the possibilities. If someone could investigate and bring back a report to us outlining what can or cannot be done to meet the needs of all subscribers, or here are some work-arounds, or here are some possibilities. That seems to be the most reasonable approach if we are concerned about informing people of any imminent dangers on campus.
AD: I think that you raise an interesting point. It would be impossible to accommodate every cell phone service that’s available in the area on campus. That’s one of the reasons we have redundant mechanisms to notify people. If you’re in a building you’re not going to hear an announcement in the quad that comes out of the loudspeaker. But you would have access, if your cell phone works or if you have a computer on your desk you can get computer notification, or voice mail. Steve can talk to this more fully. We’re talking about dead zones or about the official provider.
FA: Are students in any way encouraged or informed about these dead zones or about the “official” provider? I’m thinking when my son went to school.
AD: It’s not an official provider in that we advocate that particular companies be used.
FA: When my son went to school the mail provider was there during orientation days providing information about cell phone accounts. It was pretty clear that was the provider that gave the best reception in all places in that school. I understand that there may be a problem our doing it, but if we allowed that provider to provide information to students so that they would be better informed… We actually had a conversation about this in my class the other day because one of the things we’re looking at is one of the web pages that mentions Star Alert. A lot of students said “I don’t get access” here or there. Actually, that was part of the conversation in the class because they were being encouraged to sign up for that and they’re saying “why?”
FA: I would like to just follow-up here. I was making a suggestion and making a request that we have someone look into technical options for solving the problem – not to hash the problem around; but to say: if the purpose of the system is to provide early warning to people, that we find a way for that to happen. I’m imagining a case of Virginia Tech where something is happening on campus and the alert has gone out and someone is in a regular classroom without a computer and they’re not being informed because their cell phone is not getting a signal. My question is: how do we get suggestions for solving the problem and not beat the problem around?
AD: We are not using cell phones as a single method of communication – it’s one of many and none of them is absolute in its coverage. We’ve proposed cell phones, voice mail alerts, e-mail alerts, web page display, announcements over the carillon on top of Sherburne Hall, announcements in buildings that would have public address systems, which not all do, phone trees to call places and tell people and sirens for some purposes. So there are several methods of informing people. We do not provide cell phone service. We do not know where the dean zones are. The dead zones, as far as I know, vary by provider and there’s all manner of providers of the service. What we did was we put out a bid for services to use cell phones maintenance – the maintenance system of the university. As part of that process we requested service as best they could provide within reason. There is not 100% coverage for cell phone guaranteed anywhere on campus. It can be discontinuous – either in tunnels or basements and certainly inside the tv studio which is designed to prevent RF frequencies from going out. We don’t know where all the dead zones are for all the various providers and we did not seek a cell phone service to encourage or provide to students on campus. I think that may be possible. We’d have to consult with the State about that. This provider does provide some kind of a discount to State employees for personal service, but as the market has changed and costs decline on instruments and services, long-term contracts have not shown, in many cases, to be a very economical program. Many of our students come with cell phone service that they’ve had since their parents gave them a phone. It’s one of many methods. We can’t publish the dead areas because the dead areas vary by vendors and there are many vendors that come and go from the market. The vendor that we use for maintenance purposes is not 100% coverage either. Also, we don’t expect that students in classrooms will have their cell phones turned on. In fact, faculty, often I believe, discourage cell phones because of the disturbance it can cause in class. If there were suggestions from Andy that we could accomplish, I don’t know how we would establish for all the various vendors where the dead zones are or aren’t and there is no vendor that provides 100% coverage.
FA: Maybe we could deal with this more productively if we were clear that this is not about blaming the administration or thinking in some way that you’re negligent in your efforts to provide safety for our students or faculty. This isn’t about that in any way. I do think that we have a problem here. It’s a problem as it regards to safety and it’s only going to be more of a problem. We just had that Tech Day – right? – and we were talking about all the uses of wireless communication, among other things, for pedagogical purposes and for social networking and all that sort of stuff. It is only going to be more of an issue in terms of the life of the university as a whole, including safety issues. And while it is not the responsibility of the university to provide cell phone coverage, nevertheless, the university will work better and our lives will all be better if we have better cell phone coverage. Is there anything that we can do, and this is a technical question to which I certainly don’t have the answer and I doubt that anyone in the room has the answer, the particular solutions like let’s put a tower on top of Sherburne. That may not be technically feasible – I don’t know. But would it not be worth entering into some kind of an intentional inquiry to see what we can do? Because it is a reality that lots of us are experiencing that there are more dead zones here than there are in most of the other places we go. At least that’s my experience and it seems to be the experience for many of our students. It’s not because anybody’s doing anything wrong, we just have a lot of big buildings.
FA: If I understand what Steve said, we have redundancy so I decided to test redundancy. I don’t have a sophisticated cell phone. I can’t get text messages. I do have a personal digital assistant that gives me, through the campus network, real time access to e-mail. So if in the case of being concerned about an event happening and I have my device turned on, it’s going to alert me that I have a message, and in alerting me that I have a message, that would work wherever I could get a signal on my particular personal digital assistant. There are other redundancies. I think that the other concern that we have is to say: is this the best that we can do in how we respond to the safety needs of our students. It may be that since we can’t assure a cell phone signal on campus that those who sign up for text messaging through their cell phone be given a disclaimer that they realize that the system is only going to be as good as the coverage of their cell phone provider. At least then they won’t have the false assumption that having signed up for Star Alert that they’re going to get messages through the Star Alert system on the phone.
FA: Since redundancy is good, I want to repeat for a third time that we ask someone or some group to explore the issue and bring back some possible was to approach it. That’s all I’m asking. I’m not addressing any of the other issues about providers, redundancy or other things other than to say: is there a way to have safety alerts put out to people so that they can receive them in a manner that would be useful should we have, heaven forbid, an emergency that requires this type of alert.
AD: I would say that we can certainly look into that possibility.
FA: Thank you.
3. Clearing of Handicapped Ramps (1/15/2009)
FA: I just want to give Steve the heads-up that I gave his name to a student. I came in on, I guess it must have been Monday afternoon, I went to the elevator and there was a handicapped student, in a wheelchair, who had just really struggled in. He was really exhausted and he just said “Are you a faculty member?” and I said “Yes.” He then asked who he would call to let them know that people who are doing snow removal are putting snow on handicap ramps. He lives on campus. He was having serious trouble getting across. Then I went into my class, in which two people were on crutches, and another person was limping and saying that he was going to join them soon, and they were complaining about the same thing and iciness also. But when the snow is being put on handicap ramps is a particular concern for me and I know that you would share that concern. I do want to let you know that he said it was happening pretty much across campus. He’s in a wheelchair so if the ramp’s blocked he has to really struggle.
AD: I appreciate having a student call me or e-mailing is certainly helpful. In the past we’ve heard that there have been locations, due to changes in configurations in who is doing it. It’s unusual to hear that this is happening across campus. We do have some problems clearing the snow because the city plows the streets and they do that on their own schedule and that cuts off the curb cuts which are also ramps and we try to keep up with that. Sure, give the student my name. In general, if there is a specific location that would be helpful. To say they’re all bad all the time, it’s a little harder. If that would be the case, that would be peculiar. We’ll take a look. We’ve had issues in specific places.
FA: This is a person who lives on campus and travels as much as he can off of the streets. This was a conversation that we had as we were going into class.
AD: In B-51?
FA: Yes, in B-51.
AD: Okay.
FA: Should all of the inquiries go to you?
AD: Typically Dave Lee would be the person. He’s responsible for the snow removal and he’s the buildings and Grounds Supervisor.
AD: It would be important for specific areas to be reported.
AD: The ice was a particular problem because as it came down it froze, and with the cold, the salt doesn’t work. That particular ice storm has been a struggle to get cleaned up after.
FA: Actually there were two students already on crutches and the one who reported he’d fallen reported that he’d fallen twice. Both times were on the stretch between Miller Center and B-51.
FA: We did have a staff member that fell and was taken to the hospital somewhere over by Brown Hall.
AD: Yes.
FA: City streets around campus are not getting sanded.
AD: I have also noted that around town there has been less sanding than is typically done. We meet with the city regularly, the Public Works Director and the City Engineer and we talk about that.
AD: I would just note having been on several different campuses during winter periods that the snow removal here is more effective and more efficiently done than on many other campuses. We can always make it better.
FA: I would certainly agree with what you’ve said. I don’t know if it’s this particular winter with the conditions that made it difficult to take care of the ice. But I’m wondering if there’s more sanding that we can do. The students who were complaining are in an upper division class. Their perspective was they think we’re doing less with sanding on the walks here. I don’t know if it’s just a perception or if it’s true.
AD: I don’t know for certain. We’ve been doing about the same amount of sanding but we’ve had these frequent snows. Every time you remove the snow you remove the sand then you have to go back and replace the sand. The snow removal staff has been going around and trying to scrape as much of the snow off as they can – which is a slow way of getting the snow off when it’s compacted or frozen and that also removes the sand. It’s been a difficult winter. I’ll have a visit with Jim and Dave Lee about it generally. And I’ll look forward to getting information from the student about areas that are a particular issue.
FA: If I see that student again I’ll follow-up with him.
FA: I would.They think we’re doing less sanding on the walks.
AD: Often if we know there is an individual need, we can make sure that snow removal staff know that they need to take particular care because there is a person in a chair that needs to be accommodated. Sometimes we talk to them about routes. I look forward to the call and we can work through this. Dave Lee might shorten the chain for some of them some of the time.
FA: Thank you.
FA: Is there anything we can do about the slippery streets on campus?
AD: I can talk to the City about it, but with these temperatures it’s not going to melt any snow.
FA: I’m talking about crossing to Miller Center from Public Safety. It’s like an ice rink.
FA: Streets on campus, as far as I can tell, have not had any treatment. They have plowed it but they have not put salt on. Salt doesn’t work at these temperatures. But maybe the City has just decided not to use sand. Sand would provide the traction that we’re looking at.
AD: I’m going to call the City. I noticed it kind of casually that they haven’t been sanding recently. I will ask them if they’ve made some kind of decision due to weather and frequency of snow storms. Again, I’ve noticed that there has been almost no sand used in the city let alone the campus.
FA: The problem is that I do a lot of walking around campus and I need to cross city streets. It is very treacherous at times.
AD: Yes.
FA: And this is Spring Semester – right? (laughter)
AD: All month. (more laughter)
FA: Thank you.
3. Late Withdrawal Form Modification
FA: The request as it came to us seemed to come with a question about whether on not this needed to come to Meet and Confer. Our reaction is that we do want things like this to come to Meet and Confer because of the potential impact that changes to a form like this may have on faculty. But this particular change is one where the purpose is clear. It’s obviously beneficial and we don’t want to slow down the process of implementing it.
AD: We’ve modified it since then.
FA: In that case all bets are off. (laughter)
FA: When Mark brought this to our Executive Committee we didn’t have a copy of the changed form, we only had the old form.
AD: It’s the statement at the top of the form just under the heading. It’s advice to international students.
FA: So this is actually a relatively small change in wording – right?
AD: It’s really not a change to the form. It’s a note.
FA: Right. We understand the importance of that note and want our international students to get it so as far as we’re concerned, that’s good. Please do bring these things to our attention.
FA: A minor point. Will it be underlined and parenthetical?
AD: The underlining is to show that it’s new language.
FA: Okay.
AD: But the italics, I think, would stay to set it off from the rest of the form.
FA: And will the parenthesis remain?
AD: Yes.
FA: Okay. Thank you.
AD: That helps indicate that it is a note and not an integral part of the form.
FA: Thank you.
Progress Reports:
1. Report on Budget (AD – 10/18/2009)
AD: We have one piece of information that we can provide and I’ll ask Steve to speak to it.
AD: Yesterday we were informed by the Office of the Chancellor that the plan for $1.6 million de-allotment for this year is due to them on the 17th of February. We’ll be talking about that and working through it.
FA: The message to place on the agenda for Budget Advisory discussions concerning the uses of carry forward? Dan, I don’t think you were at the last Budget Advisory meeting. The president had talked about, when we asked about carry forward and we talked about the North Branch Teaching Program. He said that this was a broader issue and he felt we need to have a more systematic approach rather than one that dealt with individual cases and that it was to go to the Budget Advisory Committee. I think Dan, our faculty co-chair, is aware that it needs to go onto the agenda.
AD: I spoke to Dan about the agenda previously. I’ll visit with Dan again, certainly.
FA: I’ve been getting some push-back from the actions of deans in response to instructions to look at budgets for the end of this year and into next year. I do know that some deans have informed their chairs of possible actions. Is there going to be a time when it’s formally talked about rather than piecing it together guesswork wise? Today I got a message that said that department chairs in this college will only receive the contractual minimum. Then I also got the message that said in very specific terms what the threshold was for a graduate class and an undergraduate class to go forward next fall.
AD: We are looking at all of those things. We’re looking at reassigned time, we’re looking at chair reassigned time, we’re looking a minimum class sizes. These are all the things that need to be reviewed in terms of being able to achieve a 10% reduction in budget. The minimum goal is to make available sufficient classes for students so that they have classes they can enroll in, in light of the reductions.
AD: Just a point of clarity. Ten percent in State appropriation.
AD: About a 5% cut in our budget.
FA: The way this comes to me as FA President – it’s presented to me, I’m not suggesting that it’s a fact. But the way it is presented to me is that a decision has already been made. You and I had that conversation Monday.
AD: Decisions haven’t been finalized. There are a number of things that are being considered and among them are the topics that you mention, but it hasn’t been finalized. We will continue to look at some of those issues. We want to make sure that we’re consistent across colleges. When we have something to roll out we will share it with the campus and give you a chance to comment so that we can confer on this matter.
FA: I respect and appreciate the desire to include us in the consultation and the desire to be fair across colleges. I’m going to make a nuisance of myself by putting out that we are in the process of drafting schedules for next year right now. Decisions we will make about what we will propose from departments would be informed by information of this type.
AD: We are trying to conclude this as quickly as we can.
FA: I’m assuming that when you say consistency across colleges that you’re referring back to things like base course size to go forward so that there will be a standard course size to go forward that’s consistent across colleges rather than within colleges – or are deans going to be given the autonomy to make decisions about those things?
AD: I don’t think we’re at all talking about standardizing course sizes across the university.
FA: Minimum. Course minimum.
AD: There might be a standardization of minimum class size but there are always the exceptions that can be supported and justified. We will be looking at establishing a minimum class size.
FA: We won’t be finding any revealing or surprising information in today’s newspaper.
AD: I think somebody sent out a copy of that article to me. I read the newspaper when I get home from work rather than before. I have a feeling there’s a misquote in that article.
FA: We’re forewarned.
AD: I think the headline has created concern. In any case, I think it’s referring to the allotment rather than the issues going forward over the next to years. There’s no one here who views a 10% cut in state appropriation… (could not hear the next words of the speaker)
FA: I think it reinforces the point that the sooner the campus community has information the better off we’ll be because right now people will have to rely on this as their source of information about the university’s response as well as whatever… (could not hear the next words of the speaker)
FA: Based on that I imagine we’ll start getting questions about reassignment for research because research is specifically mentioned there. That’s one example.
AD: That’s the part that was misquoted. I don’t believe that statement is consistent with statements that the president has made.
FA: I’ve already had a question about that today. So it didn’t take very long.
FA: I recall a statement by President Potter referring to someone else making a request for that kind of action but his reaction did not agree with that recommendation so I was puzzled as well by that.
FA: This will be an ongoing conversation. One I hope that doesn’t play out in the news media.
AD: It shouldn’t.
2. Status of Searches
AD: The searches are all moving forward and are at various stages. As you mentioned earlier there will be a search consultant on campus on Tuesday. There have been other searches – the Vice President for Advancement. The AVP for Faculty Relations search is moving forward. The committee is working on dates for on campus visits for candidates. The AVP for Research and Faculty Development is in progress and the COFAH Dean position has been advertised. The Associate Dean searches are underway. The AVP for Institutional effectiveness – we’ve been asked to provide names for that search committee. I understand that Susan Moss has announced her intent to retire and the president will be requesting names of people to serve on the search committee for the Affirmative Action Officer.
FA: There is one quibble with what you said and that is I’ve had occasion to talk to Associate Dean John Hoover who is the one who is convening the COSS Associate Dean search. He told me that he was waiting to call the group together to receive official notification from Human Resources that he should proceed.
AD: That sounds peculiar. There is a requirement for Administrative Searches for HR to present to the committee. But that’s really up to the committee to schedule the time. It should be among the first things in the process.
AD: There was some concern about whether or not an AFSCME person would be a member of the search and that’s been solved. Someone has been appointed from AFSCME for that search.
FA: So when I’m in the fish hut with John this weekend he’ll tell me that he’s got the okay to have the meeting.
AD: I didn’t know that John frequented fish houses. (laughter)
FA: He does. He has a power auger. (more laughter)
AD: As far as I know, that should be moving forward.
3. Foundations of Excellence (AD – 4/17/2008)
AD: The Dimension Committees are meeting and moving along on schedule and in a positive way. We had a pretty full report last time.
FA: I expect that the next two have not met or are getting ready to meet during this semester?
4. Task Force on Nine-month Appointments (AD – 4/17/2008)
AD: They will be meeting on the 26th of January.
FA: Okay. Thank you.
5. University Scholars and Endowed Chairs (FA – 5/1/2008)
AD: This group will meet sometime in February.
FA: Thank you.
6. Policy on Religious Observances (AD – 4/3/2008)
FA: I will be bringing this to the Senate and will get back to you.
AD: Thank you.
7. Conflict Avoidance Scheduling (FA – 11/06/2008)
FA: you have provided us with language on conflict avoidance scheduling. I trust that what you’re hoping to do is that we would come to agreement on this language so that students are presented with accurate information.
AD: Correct. This was in response to a request from faculty at Meet and Confer. The policy language was drafted and can move forward. The next step would be to bring it to the Student Government. I’m assuming that it will receive your blessing and will move forward since it is the response you requested.
FA: Our lead on this is not with us today. But as I read the language, it does capture what it was we asked to occur. I think it is time for it to move to the Student Group.
8. Number of Post Deadline Use of W each Year (FA – 12/4/2008)
FA: Mitch and I met on the 20th – or sometime in December. I see that he’s got paper again.
AD: It was agreed that Mitch would draft a document that we would look at together about current post deadlines.
AD: As John said, we had a discussion about the nature and scope of the project and that I would put together a first draft, a rough draft of a plan and methodology. This represents as best as I can recall, the discussion. It’s an opportunity to look at all the dimensions of it. If there are any questions we can discuss those further and modify the project from the results of the conversation. I also attached the current Request for Late Withdrawal form along with the policy that appears on the back.
FA: We thank you, Mitch. We’ll get back to you. We’ll continue to make progress handling this topic.
AD: There’s a related point I would like to raise.
FA: About this?
AD: Not so much about this, I will defer to you first, Mark.
FA: It’s not precisely about the document. It’s about sometimes faculty members receive inquiries in forms other than this document that take the form of: has the student attended class after such and such a date? Or we have been presented with documents by students that simply ask us to certify: student did not attend after this date.
AD: That has to do with financial aid eligibility and we need to certify when a student has withdrawn or gotten non-passing grades. We need to certify when their last date of attendance was in relation to whether or not we need to return money to the federal government for that student’s financial aid award.
FA: Okay.
AD: We need to be able to document the student’s last date of attendance. That’s not necessarily related to a late withdrawal.
FA: That’s the case even when a student is presenting that request to me on a form that is simply certify that the person did not attend after a certain date?
AD: What has happened in the past is that in many circumstances a student has registered for classes or courses at SCSU and also has registered for courses at other institutions. Sometimes they attend the other institution and do not inform St. Cloud State that they are no longer attending. Meanwhile their registration is in place. The intent of the form that we had was to allow the students to obtain a signature from the instructor verifying that they hadn’t attended any class at the university and to expedite the Return to Title IV process. Sometimes the student will have attended the first day of class and then stopped attending. We also use the form for that purpose. It’s something that Business Services wanted the Registrar to use.
AD: I think you mean Financial Aid.
AD: Right. But it expedites Business Services’ handling of financial aid issues to have this form. So that was intent. What has happened over time is that a number of students have used that form retroactively and in circumstances other than the primary intention for the use of this form. Sometimes rather than using a late withdrawal form, which is more appropriate, they will use this form as well. We’re working with the Registrar to modify that form and try to limit its use to more appropriate purposes.
FA: If we see such forms in the future should we tell the student: get me the right form?
AD: If it’s appropriate, then we should use that form. Again, the idea was to help students who did not attend St. Cloud State University that term. If they did attend, they perhaps properly should be using the Late Withdrawal Form.
FA: Perhaps?
AD: It’s a murky situation because we’re not entirely clear about the proper use of that form. If a student never attended a class but the student registered, then it might be appropriate to use that form.
FA: I actually have a question about this document. Specifically about the third paragraph, the list of hyphenated items. Does this apply to a withdrawal that takes place during that semester or a late withdrawal that takes place after that semester, or both.
AD: This specifically refers to a withdrawal during the semester.
FA: So if somebody should want to withdraw from my course now and he or she took it in the fall, I would not need to provide a last date of attendance?
AD: It’s a murky situation because we do have situations where faculty members might not be available – likely to occur during the summer, or we’re dealing with an adjunct or fixed-term faculty member who is no longer here.
AD: This is a segue to another concern about grades that are changed after the semester. We have the capacity within ISRS that any time a student’s grade is changed, the faculty member would receive an e-mail notice of the change whether it has been made the instructor, department chair, dean, or academic affairs, in every instance, the faculty would be notified. We haven’t got it turned on because we wanted to meet and confer about it first.
FA: Since a W is not a grade change…
AD: If a grade was changed to W, the faculty member would be notified. This would be a way for faculty members to confirm changes they have made and to question changes made by others. It would let them know that it happened.
FA: So that would include a student who received an incomplete and I submitted the forms and the change took place.
AD: I’m not sure if it applies to an I that you changed. I will have to check that out.
FA: Is this an official proclamation of this policy or do you plan to bring something back to the group?
AD: I brought it here to talk about it to see if you agree or if you want to bring it back to the Senate. We won’t implement it until you say it’s okay.
FA: This is a technical programming choice – either activate the feature or not activate the feature. If the feature is activated it would automatically inform the instructor that something has happened.
AD: Right. Automatically.
FA: Sometimes an incomplete is entered and if nothing is done it automatically turns the grade to an F. Will we be notified of that kind of change?
AD: I don’t think it involves that sort of automatic change. I will have to check on that.
FA: It would help to have a written statement for the Senate. I’m wondering if this is a response to the issue of faculty not being informed of grade changes or is this a new policy.
AD: I think it’s a combination. I found out through inquiry of the process that we have the capability of implementing this change and that it would address that concern.
FA: I know that the Senate discussed this and referred it to Meet and Confer. I do not recall the precise language of that referral. I think that what you’re suggesting is clearly responsive in spirit to the concerns that were raised by faculty members and I too think it would be helpful to bring written information to the Senate. I would expect it to be supported quickly.
AD: I have no problem providing John with a document and will work with the Registrar’s office to include the questions you’ve brought up.
FA: I’m concerned with Mark’s question about what this is in response to. Because if this refers to who has the authority to make changes then I think it would be more of a different kind of response. It depends on how the initial issue was framed… (speaker’s voice dropped and could not hear the entire response)
FA: We have reached the end of the agenda. I do want to indicate to your side that I will be soliciting the six representatives for the task force to study the organization of summer sessions. We are adjourned.
Adjourned - 4:05 p.m.