FInal Copy approved 9-8-05
Meet and Confer
May 12, 2005
Admin: Roy Saigo, Michael Spitzer, Lin Holder, Diana Burlison, Larry Chambers, Roland Specht-Jarvis, Kristi Tornquist, Rex Veeder
Faculty: Annette Schoenberger, Judy Kilborn, JoAnn Gasparino, Susan Motin, Steve Hornstein, Donna West - Notetaker
Meet and Confer Notes of March 31, 2005 - Accepted
Meet and Confer Notes of April 14, 2005 - Accepted
Meet and Confer Notes of April 28, 2005 – Not ready to accept.
Unfinished Business
1. Internal Audit (FA) (4/22/04)
This topic was skipped over.
2. Revision of Curriculum Process: Assessment (Admin) (11/4/04)
FA: I’ve got some things to say. The committee has created a website with proposed changes. This address has been distributed to faculty, and they are waiting for their responses; so we’re expecting something in the fall. I sent this address to you. It’s got proposed changes to the curriculum forms on it, the old forms, frequently asked questions, sort of an explanation of the curriculum process from the point of view of the committee with little hints to make things go better.
Admin: We’ll look at this -- thanks for putting it up.
Admin: That’s real progress. The process we have is pretty old. The sooner we can get a formal recommendation back from you, the better -- I’m sure we can do it. It just needs to get done.
FA: What we’re planning on doing is giving faculty the chance to respond; and then after the first or second meeting of the FA next fall, we’ll have something for you.
Admin: The curriculum process is fairly detailed, the forms, and then the flow chart with the process on paper….do you think you’ll be able to make a recommendation on all three?
FA: The forms for sure – I’m not sure about the process.
Admin: That’s a good start – thanks.
FA/Admin: We’ll jump over to #5.
3. Weekly Schedule: 2 hours free for committee work (FA) (12/16/04)
4. Update of the Affirmative Action Manual (FA) (2/24/05)
5. International Studies Committee motions re: Budgets Economic Viability (FA) (3/31/05)
FA: We were waiting – we were going to have a meeting.
Admin: Right -- we’re scheduling that meeting. The information has gone out to members of that committee.
6. Strategic Planning Positions (Admin) (4/15/05)
Admin: We’re cruising along at warp speed!
(Handouts were distributed)
Admin: We met on 4/15 and want to move ASAP. This went to the senate and to me and because of issues dealing with negotiating new positions, we have restructured the original version – it becomes closer to the request you made. If you read this and if it meets your approval, I’ll send out an e-mail to faculty ASAP.
(A brief caucus was held.)
Admin: This was done today – we’ve called different people, and this is the best that was done.
FA: This is very close to what the request was, so we want to say yes, go ahead.
Admin Steve, it’s going to start snowing, and we’ll be snowed in for three weeks! (laughter!)
Admin: I’ll release this document this afternoon.
FA: I wish there were a Senate meeting….
FA: We have a couple of comments.
FA: Number one -- we’re worried about secretarial support. We think if you put anyone in this position without adequate support, you’re setting them up to fail. We think you need to have adequate support.
Admin: How about a desk? (laughter!)
FA: The other part is we’re very uneasy about moving assessment which is primarily about academic issues out of the academic Provost’s office. We’re “a lot uneasy” about doing that and not sure….. we’re wondering why you did this.
Admin: There’s a dotted line to the VP’s office – there will be a lot of communication, and I’m sure we can all cooperate.
Admin: Will there be an “interim-interim” person? Is Lisa going to be out for a while?
Admin: No.
Admin: Thank you very much. This was a very complicated issue, but we got to where we needed to be.
New Business
7. Interim Dean in the COSS timeline (Admin) (4/28/05)
FA: I was supposed to ask this question at the last Meet and Confer. Is the expectation it will be complete?
Admin: I hope by end of next week.
FA: That’s what I was telling people.
Admin: What if he changed his mind?
(laughter!)
FA: Then, I’d be in trouble!
FA: How are all of the other searches going? Do we know anything?
Admin: Almost.
FA: Will we be informed by next week?
Admin: Yes.
Admin: The other position we need to address is the AVP for Academic Affairs. One of the difficulties, as I see this, is that to have somebody in there ASAP, I can’t wait until fall to do a search. There are two many things needing to be addressed in the summer and on an ongoing basis I’m reluctant to request a search committee since I know it would be hard to accommodate it at this point, so I’m somewhat stuck unless I make an appointment.
FA: We’ve been thinking about this. This is the latest we’ve had a Meet and Confer.
Admin: There is a question in terms of process. You’re thinking interim now, but I’d recommend starting the search process by mid fall for a permanent person.
Admin: The only problem I see is North Central. You might want to consider if you have a strong person and no objections, making this a two-year appointment.
Admin: One year before the visit will be pretty tough.
Admin: It makes sense to me to continue the appointment through the NCA because it would be difficult to switch during that time period.
Admin: You might want to make two one-year searches -- you could “piggy back.”
Admin: I think the length of the appointment is a secondary question after the mechanism for appointing. If we can do one first and then talk about the other….
Admin: Are you thinking about an interim search?
Admin: In order for the search, we need to have a search committee; and I’m hearing it should be an appointment and not necessarily a search and to have some consultation. Then, after the first year, even if the appointment is for two years, we could then search for a permanent person to start the following year.
FA: I don’t see how I can get a search committee. I’ve been getting them pretty fast, but I need a Senate meeting, and there won’t be one.
Admin: Most of these people serving on these committees have had their right arm bent behind their shoulder blades!
FA: We’ll understand if you’ll appoint someone.
Admin: Did we agree to two-year terms?
Admin: Up to two years.
Admin: Whether one year or two years – it’s secondary.
8. Strategic Planning Academic Distinction (FA) (4/28/05)
FA: I’m passing out a document that was generated and approved by Strategic Planning and just approved by the FA, so we have the first phase. You have a document which includes a lot of process points for moving forward. On the back page, you have definitions. We have performance and progress indicators – we don’t have enough data to write these. Once we finish this step, we’ll move to the actual performance indicators; but it was a unanimous vote.
FA: Basically, this is getting base-line data so we know where we’re at. We have two people in Senate who specialize in teaching strategic planning, and they thought this was pretty good -- Larry Roth and Subba.
Admin: Larry Roth agreed? (laughter!)
FA: They thought this was appropriate, so we got an “A” from them!
Admin: They’re easy graders!
(Laughter!)
Admin: I’ve seen drafts of this as it has developed and sat in on Strategic Planning meetings, and I agree this is a big step forward; and I applaud Faculty Senate and the faculty.
FA: Next year, we have a lot of work to do in gathering the data…..
Admin: Isn’t that what the new people would do?
FA: Yes.
FA: We started with the hardest section, and other themes will be easier to work with besides this one. The fact Lisa has been involved means it will be a step up for next year, too.
9. Grade Appeal Policy General Guidelines (FA) (5/12/05)
FA: A student came to Senate and told us what problems they saw with the implementation of the Grade Appeal Policy, and the senators agreed. They referred this issue to the FA Academic Affairs Committee, and they‘ve been meeting twice a week for the last month working on this issue. They brought this document to Senate and would like for this to be on the website with the Grade Appeal Policy. Currently, the title on the website is “Grading Appeals Policy,” and they would like it to read “Grade Appeal Policy” -- changing the title on the website and putting this document on the web.
Admin: This document is not a policy but rather procedures on how to implement them, so on this page is a little misleading.
FA: Yes, this isn’t a policy -- it’s the guidelines for the Grade Appeal Policy.
FA: I don’t know why it ended up looking this way. When you read the Grade Appeal Policy, there is more information to help you do this well. If you want slight changes, I can put you in touch with the person(s) responsible.
Admin: I’ll bring this to Academic Affairs Council for our senate to vote on.
FA: One of the students’ major concerns was the initial contact, and they felt there was a serious power differential; and this process would have various ways of contacting the instructor as well as a facilitated conversation, and they felt this would even out the differential. They were concerned that students wouldn’t initiate the conversation if they had to have a face to face interaction.
Admin: With this, the committee has no way to change a grade.
Admin: They never have.
Admin: It is pointed out under the section entitled Instructor, item #5 -- I’m not sure that you don’t want to add this sentence about retaliation.
FA: Oh….
FA: I wonder if we’d rather revise the words “to change a grade” to read “improve a grade” because it negates the potential for retaliation.
Admin: It’s a grade appeal – the student won’t appeal to have the grade lowered.
Admin: Yes, but at any time the instructor has right to change…..
FA: If in the process of re-looking at the grade, they realize the grade is lower and change it -- it’s not retaliation.
Admin: You often find it was added up wrong.
FA: I never do this!
Admin: I think that has to account, in part, for the power differential -- we spend time telling students professors act ethically. Sometimes just reassuring them is enough.
FA: If you see something you think needs changing, please let us know.
Admin: I think I see a couple of things that might contradict the policy.
Admin: Under Student, item #3, “the student has the right to contact the Student Government Association Academic Affairs Committee…” Is this the student from the committee?
FA: My understanding is the Mediation Coordinating Committee has agreed to train students to be facilitators so they feel they have support and can be given advice.
Admin: I’m concerned if the Student Government Association Academic Affairs Committee doesn’t have a trained member, then who do they call?
FA: They made a commitment to do that.
FA: Chris Inkster is the chair of our Academic Affairs Committee.
Admin: But this refers to the student Academic Affairs Committee.
FA: Right, but these are things the Academic Affairs Committee put in at the students’ request.
Admin: I’m just concerned that if they solely focus on the Academic Affairs Committee of the Student Government and there is nobody trained, it doesn’t give them another alternative.
FA: They did talk a lot about the Mediation Coordinating Committee, and there is a class going to be taught this summer for students to learn mediation techniques; and I’m assuming the Student Government Academic Affairs Committee would be the contact point for these facilitators. They did this policy in an amazing amount of time and spent a lot of time – it doesn’t mean it’s perfect, but they did a lot of coordination and discussion with other people, and I’m assuming they’ll appreciate our responses.
Admin: We’ll go over this carefully at Academic Affairs Council and will give you feedback.
FA: The faculty and students were clear we need something like this.
Admin: We’re not arguing that.
Admin: I think it’s great stuff!
FA: I think something like this could actually help eliminate problems -- it’s a very clear statement.
Admin: The next thing with regard to students is the general curriculum process and grade appeals…..
FA: It has the ability for neutral help in that.
Admin: I think the structure allowing for a student advocate is really good – it has never been clearly stated and will give Student Government something to think about regarding these issues.
10. Coaches Calendar for evaluation (Admin) (5/12/05)
Admin: We distributed and met and conferred regarding the calendar, but we didn’t include this schedule for coaches – a calendar for all personnel actions depending on the status of the individual. I think you’ve seen this but I’m distributing this as a formality.
FA: This is a repeat.
Admin: But it has been adjusted.
FA: If there is anything wrong with the dates, we don’t want to know!
(Laughter!)
FA: Mark and I looked at these dates for the coaches.
Admin: If there are any errors, please let us know; but I think these are all correct.
Admin: I’d like to get this up on the web.
FA: Would you check with him -- I thought one was not on a first (of the month), and I thought one was in the middle of the month; but I can’t find the notes I was taking regarding that.
Admin: Yes. If we have to change that, and we will.
FA: There is also the 20 days -- if they go into extra post season, then they get extra time….
Admin: OK.
Admin: I gave you a memo from President Saigo regarding the appointment for a Fixed-term faculty member in the Accounting Department where searches were conducted, and the department is recommending that a faculty member who has completed four years in the same position be appointed for a fifth year, and it will be accepted if we met and conferred.
FA: Thank you.
Admin: You’re welcome.
Admin: I think in several areas during this academic year, such as the guidelines provided on the Student Grade Appeal, and the Strategic Planning Committee on Academic Distinction, we’re making good progress to move the university forward; and I’m thankful for the assistance faculty provided for the NCA accreditation – all of the names are in for the search committees, so I’m looking forward to continued cooperation and collaboration, and I thank the FA.
FA: I would request the record reflect the many years of contributions from Lin Holder.
(Lin Holder was acknowledged by the Administration and the Faculty at this, her last, Meet and Confer.)
FA: It has been very clear this year that our interests have been listened to and that changes have been made, and I really appreciate this. It has been a great year.