February 26, 2008
OFFICERS: Judy Kilborn, Annette Schoenberger, Michael Connaughton, Michael Tripp
IFO BOARD: Fred Hill, David Warne, John Palmer
NEGOTIATOR: Bill Langen
BUSINESS: (Unit Representative) Bill Hudson; (ACCT) vacant; (BCIS) Susantha Herath, Ray Tsai; (FIRE) vacant; (MGMT) Larry Roth, vacant; (MKGB) Rajesh Gulati, James C. Johnson
EDUCATION: (Unit Representative) Frances Kayona; (CFS) Fati Zarghami; (CEEP) Bill Lepkowski, Robert Murphy; (HPERSS) Hector Antunez, Caryl Martin; (HURL) vacant; (LDR) John Rapp, Michael Mills; (IM) vacant; (SPED) Kathy Johnson, Janet Salk (TDEV) vacant, Steve Hornstein, Ramon Serrano
FINE ARTS & HUMANITIES: (Unit Representative) vacant; (ART) Nancy Levy, Kathryn Gainey; (CDSI) Rebecca Crowell; (CMST) Traci Anderson, Eddah Mutuo-Kombo, Bruce Hyde; (ENGL) Judith Dorn, vacant, Jim Robinson, Carol Mohrbacher; (FORL) Bill Langen, Luz Triana-Echeverria, vacant; (COMM) vacant, vacant; (MUSIC) Marion Judish, vacant; (PHIL) Susana Nuccetelli, Andy Platt; (THFD) Debra Leigh
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING: (Unit Representative) Balsy Kasi; (AVIA) Steve Anderson; (BIOL) vacant, vacant, Matt Julius; (CHEM) Nathan Winter, Becky Krystyniak; (CSCI) Andrew Anda, Donald Hamnes; (EAS) Bob Weisman;(EE) Sura Lekhakul, Tim Vogt; (ETS) Tony Akubue; (ME) Steve Covey; (MATH) Dale Buske, Janis Cimperman, Carol Theisen; (NURS) Patty Bresser; (PHYS) John Liu; (STAT) Leonard Onyiah, vacant
SOCIAL SCIENCES: (Unit Representative) Robert Johnson; (CMTY) Rona Karasik; (CJS) Mario Hesse, Richard Lawrence; (ECON) David Switzer; Mana Komai; (ES) Kyoko Kishimoto; (GEOG) Ken Wong; (HIST) Mark Jaede; Maureen O’Brien; (POL) Edward Greaves; (PSYC) Marlene Devoe, Jody Illies; (SW) Elizabeth Talbot; (SAN) Mark Muniz, Robert Lavenda; (WS) Elizabeth Berila
SPECIAL SERVICES: (Unit Representative) JoAnn Gasparino; (Academic Support) Geoffrey Tabakin; (COUN) Steve Jenkins; (LR&TS) Chris Inkster, Tom Steman, Tom Hergert; (MEN’S ATHL) vacant; (WOMEN’S ATHL) Jenifer Odette
1. Call to order (3:18)
2. Approval of Minutes
a. Faculty Senate Minutes of February 12, 2008 (FS 022608 2.a.) (Roth/Talbot) passed
b. Executive Committee Minutes of February 19, 2008 (FS 022608 2.b.) (Roth/Gasparino) passed
c. University Curriculum Minutes. Draft Process for Curriculum Approval (FS 091107 2.c.2.) – awaiting legislative version for action. University Curriculum Minutes of January 31, 2008 (FS 022608 2.c.1.); Minutes of February 7, 2008 (FS 022608 2.c.2.); Minutes of February 14, 2008 (FS 022608 2.c.3.) Postponed consideration of these minutes until the next Senate meeting so that all can look at them (Jaede/Schoenberger) Passed
d. Assessment Steering Committee Minutes of February 6, 2008 (FS 022608 2.d.1.) – to file
e. Budget Advisory Group Minutes of February 5, 2008 (FS 022608 2.e.) – to file
f. TLTR Notes for February 8, 2008 (FS 022608 2.f.1.) – to file; Notes for February 15, 2008 (FS 022608 2.f.2.) – to file; Notes for February 22, 2008 (FS 022608 2.f.3.) – to file
g. Division of General Studies (DGS) Committee Minutes of January 22, 2008 (FS 022608 2.g.) – to file
h. Professional Development Committee Minutes of February 14, 2007 (FS 022608 2.h.) (Herath/Hyde) Passed
i. FA Budget Committee Minutes of Friday, February 15, 2008 (FS 022608 2.i.1. and 2.i.2.) (Herath/Hergert) Passed
3. Treasurer’s Report
4. Consent Agenda
5. Special Elections
· Search Committees for MSUAASF Director of International Student and Scholar Services (1 FA representative)
Eungmin Kang (ECON)
Mohammad Mahroof-Tahir (CHEM)
Lakshmaiah Sreerama (CHEM)
· Search Committee for Director of Training (Emergency Vehicle Operators Course Instructor) (a newly constituted MSUAASF position at the MN Highway Safety & Resource Center (MHSRC) (1 FA representative)
Rodney Dobey (HPERSS)
John Palmer (HPERSS)
William Ruhr (MHSRC)
· Associate Vice President Search Committee for Student Life and Development (1 FA representative)
Elaine Ackerman (CEEP)
Robert Reff (COUNSELING)
Karen Thoms (LR&TS)
6. Call for New Agenda Items
· 9.c Interim/acting associate/assistant administrators
7. Announcements
a. Location for next Senate meeting: Cascade on March 18th
b. Military Call-up (FS 022608 7.b.1. and 7.b.2.)
o Take this information about the rights of those students who are called up for military duty. Keep in mind that the student gets to choose from the options, not the faculty member. (Aside from Annette: it is a good idea to make a note with the student about what the student chooses to do. You can talk to Academic Affairs if either you or the student has questions)
c. Contract Ratification (FS 022608 7.c.1. and 7.c.2.)
o The contract was ratified on all campuses. The Chancellor was not able to organize the promised Board of Trustees meeting but was able to organize a meeting of the Human Resources subcommittee of the BOT. This committee did unanimously recommend approval of the contract to the full Board, which will meet on March 18th to act on contract ratification. The Chancellor had promised to organize a full BOT meeting if we expedited the contract vote. We did expedite the contract vote.
d. Grievance Report
o We are now in a state that we call excessive delay of response to Step 1 grievances. The Designee promised responses by Feb. 22 to three outstanding grievances. It is now the 26th and we still don’t have the responses. We discovered that in one of the instances the Dean is creating an MOA. This is problematic since there has been no mutual dialog. We have clear evidence that individuals other than the Designee are making contact with the system office independently. In one instance a grievant was sent an MOA without the knowledge of anyone in the IFO. The President’s work plan contains an item about improving the grievance process on this campus. Excessive delay of responses and attempting to coerce the grievant into signing an MOA without consultation with the grievance officer/IFO don’t seem to be heading us in that direction.
o There is meeting scheduled on March 14th with President Potter, Rex Veeder, Nancy Jesse, Judy Kilborn and John Palmer to discuss local grievance processes. We are convinced that President Potter wants to improve the situation.
e. FA Elections
i. Positions
§ FA President-Elect
§ IFO Board Member (1) (Nominee: Debra Leigh)
§ IFO Negotiator (1) (Nominee: Michael Connaughton)
§ Secretary
§ Treasurer
ii. Election schedule
§ Deadline for Nominations. March 11, 2008, at noon
§ Ballots due, April 3, 2008, at noon
§ Announce results, April 8, 2008, Senate
f. Delegate Assembly
o We have one opening left for the Delegate Assembly. Those of you who are on the list will be getting an email from Monica asking about meal and room preference. Please respond ASAP, especially on the room preference since reservations need to be made soon.
g. Meet and Confer
a. Administrative Searches
§ The interim/acting assistant dean in COSE was named but has not yet been announced
§ They are nearly ready to schedule on-campus interviews in the search for the permanent dean in COSS.
§ They are starting the search for the permanent associate dean in COSS, and we have requested volunteers for this search, which the administration expects to begin about the time we name a permanent COSS dean.
§ Someone asked if they are starting the search in COSE for the associate dean. We will need to find this out.
b. Naming of the former Business Building: B 51
§ The former Business Building will temporarily be called B 51 after its address until the administration can complete the process of consultation to give the building a permanent name.
§ We tried to get them to call it Area 51; President Potter agreed with this request, but Steve Ludwig said they already had the B for the outside of the building.
§ Too bad the street address wasn’t 52. At least has only 2 factors.
c. COE Realignment
§ Higher Ed will be moving to CEEP
§ The Dean wanted to do more but was not able to since there was little evidence of consultation. Stay tuned.
d. 1B.1 Task Force Interim Report and Action Plan of January 30, 2008 (FS 021208 6.f.4.)
§ President Potter is reviewing the recommendations. He is planning on making some short term changes and is consulting for legal advice on others. Short term changes include reporting lines and location of the Office of the investigator.
e. Diversity Task Force Draft Document
§ The discussion centered on keeping the group small enough to organize meetings yet large enough to be representative. President Potter will come back with a recommendation, probably sometime after his trip to S. Africa.
f. Ethical Standards for Employees
§ Stay tuned for an announcement from MnSCU on Ethical Standards. A new document will be circulating from the Provost to the Deans and Vice Presidents, and this document includes laws that went into effect a few years ago. The MnSCU document isn’t new, but it hasn’t been distributed on this campus.
g. Query about Technology Upgrade
§ How many of you can no longer access your email at home or in your office since the technology upgrade to OutLook? (A dozen people raised their hands.)
§ You may need to re-book mark the HuskyNet page or clear the browser cache.
§ If your book mark is still the old one it will look like you are at the right spot, but it just won’t work.
§ In some instances you may need to call the help desk 8-2077
h. Academic Planning Update (FS 022608 7.g.8.)
§ In the packet is a document describing what happens to the academic plans. Share it with your department, and take advantage of opportunities to give feedback during the feedback times listed on the handout.
8. Unfinished Business
a. Grading Policy – Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee re: Draft Grading System (FS 012908 8.d.)
o This is not back from Academic Affairs yet. The Provost will have to implement the policy. We can suggest changes when the document does come back from Academic Affairs.
9. New Business
a. Consultation and the Contract (FS 012908 9.c. and FS 021208 9.c) Postponed motion from EC is now voted on. (Passed)
b. Student Computer Lab Printers (Luz Triana-Echeverria, FORL)
The FA Senate asks that the default printer setting for printers in the labs be set to duplex/double-sided (that is print on both sides) where possible and that we phase in printers with this capability in all labs. (Triana-Echeverria/Roth)
(Note: some faculty do not allow students to turn things in with printing on both sides so the printers should still be able to print single sided.)
10. Adjournment (5:13)
Submitted by Annette Schoenberger