September 27, 2005
OFFICERS: Judy Kilborn, Annette Schoenberger, JoAnn Gasparino, Andrew Larkin
IFO BOARD: Jayantha Herath, Andrew Larkin, Annette Schoenberger; Negotiator: Bill Langen
BUSINESS: (Unit Representative) P.N. SubbaNarasimha; (ACCT) vacant; (BCIS) Susantha Herath, Ray Tsai; (FIRE) William Hudson; (MGMT) Larry Roth, vacant; (MKGB) Rajesh Gulati, James C. Johnson
EDUCATION: (Unit Representative) Stephen Hornstein; (CFS) Fati Zarghami; (CEEP) Nona Wilson, Robert Murphy; (HRESS) Mark Moore, Caryl Martin; (HURL) Michael Tripp; (LDR) John Rapp, Frances Kayona; (IM) John Theis; (SPED) John Hoover, Dory Beutel; (TDEV) David Heine, Geoffrey Tabakin, Ramon Serrano
FINE ARTS & HUMANITIES: (Unit Representative) Frances Condon; (ART) Nancy Weston; (CDSI) Margery Whites; (CMST) Scott Wells, Dan Wildeson, David Warne; (ENGL) Judith Dorn, vacant, Jim Robinson, vacant; (FORL) Gloria Melgarejo, Bill Langen; (COMM) vacant, vacant; (MUSIC) Marion Judish, Mark Springer; (PHIL) Yiwei Zheng, Carla Johnson; (THFD) Debra Leigh
SCIENCE & ENGINEERING: (Unit Representative) Balsy Kasi; (AVIA) Steve Anderson; (BIOL) Oladele Gazal, Heiko Schoenfuss, Matt Julius; (CHEM) Mahin Sadrai, Becky Krystyniak; (CSCI) Andrew Anda; (EAS) Tony Hansen; (EE) Ling Hou; (ETS) Tony Akubue; (ME) Steve Covey; (MATH) Dale Buske, Steve Walk, William Branson; (NURS) Sue Herm; (PHYS) Kevin Haglin; (STAT) Leonard Onyiah, John Gammell
SOCIAL SCIENCES: (Unit Representative) Mary Clifford; (CMTY) Rona Karasik; (CJUS) vacant, vacant; (ECON) Ming Chien Lo; Orn Bodvarsson; (ES) Robert Johnson; (GEOG) Ken Wong; (HIST) Mark Jaede; Robert Galler; (POL) Steve Frank; (PSYC) Leslie Valdes; (SW) Sandra Chesborough; (SAN) Tracy Ore, John Alessio; (WS) Elizabeth Berila
SPECIAL SERVICES: (Unit Representative) vacant; (OAA) vacant; (COUN) vacant; (LR&TS) Chris Inkster, Sandra Q. Williams, Tom Hergert; (MEN’S ATHL) vacant; (WOMEN’S ATHL) Jenifer Odette
1. Call to order at 3:25 PM.
2. Approval of Minutes
a. Faculty Senate Minutes of September 13, 2005 (FS 092705 2.a)
Motion to approve Faculty Senate Minutes of September 13, 2005—(Larkin/Gasparino). Passed
b. General Education Minutes of September 12, 2005 (FS 092705 2.c) – for filing—filed.
3. Treasurer’s Report—Report will be given at the first meeting of the month. Andrew Larkin resigned from his temporary position as Treasurer and nominated Robert Johnson to replace him for the rest of the year. Robert Johnson for FA Treasurer will be item 1 on the Consent Agenda.
4. Consent Agenda
General Education: Larry Roth (COB)—There is still one opening.
Task Force on Student program completion—Kilborn asked for volunteers and explained the importance of the committee. If Senate members are interested, or know someone in the FA who might be interested in the Strategic Planning Committee, they should give their names to Theresia Fisher.
First Year Experience Advisory Committee: Rodney Dobey
CARE: Debra Leigh
General Education: Judy Litterst
Admissions and Retention: Stephen Jenkins
IFO Board Representative to Review Manufacturing Engineering Centers of Excellence Proposals: Jayantha Herath—There is still one opening.
FA Treasure: Robert Johnson
Kilborn announced that ballots are being made for search committees at this time, the ballots will go out tomorrow, and they need to be returned by next Wednesday. She announced that the COB needs to put forward their names for their Dean search committee.
Motion to approve the Consent Agenda—(Schoenberger/Ore). Passed
5. Call for new agenda items—none.
6. Announcements—Nametags will be available next week, please notify Monica at the FA office, via email, if you need one.
a. Doctorates—There will be a meeting tomorrow, September 28, 2:00-4:00 PM, in the Oak Room, with Mitch Rubinstein from MnSCU. Kilborn encouraged Senate members to attend the meeting.
b. Negotiations Report/Action Report—Langen stated that he emailed a negotiations report to Senate and they should have received it. The IFO and MnSCU Negotiations Teams met on Friday, September 19, and there was a offer pending. MnSCU appreciated the IFO’s efforts at that point and they anticipated that the IFO had more room to come down than they had to come up. Both teams want to move forward more substantially. The IFO Team made a major change in their economic proposal with dramatic new language changes. MnSCU responded with an array of language changes and a package deal that strayed from the usual package deal, with 1% in the first year and 1% in the 2nd year. The IFO came back with a way that was fair and feasible that included workload reduction. MnSCU responded with a revision in workload reduction, giving the Provost discretion, which the IFO Team thought was a “poison pill.” There are no meetings scheduled at this time. Kilborn added that the MnSCU Team is very concerned about the workload of Deans, but could not acknowledge the IFO Team’s workload issues. She added that accountability equals workload, and merit pay encourages accountability. Action was discussed and there were some questions and suggestions for Langen. Langen discussed workload issues and discretionary money, along with Deans. Langen encouraged Senate to communicate with the Chancellor’s office any concerns and/or input that they may have.
Motion to move the agenda to the 3:45 PM time definite item 7.b—(Karasik/Larkin). Passed
7.b Time Definite: 3:45 -- Draft Proposal for Public History Task Force (FS 042605 8.a; FS091305 7.b)—Kate Gill arrived and discussed the need for a Public History Task Force. She has spoken to student government but has not heard from them if they want representation. There was discussion about the task force and Schoenberger asked about the term limits, and Kate Gill pointed out the provision for procedures of the task force members and she suggested a term of perhaps two years. Schoenberger asked Senate to thank Kate Gill and they gave her a round of applause.
Motion to support the Draft Proposal for Public History Task Force—(Schoenberger/Kasi). Passed
c. Searches: Search Firms—Schoenberger informed Senate that the name of the search firm for the Affirmative Action Search is CIZEK, which she believes is from Phoenix. Kilborn said that the other search firm, which is currently being bid on, will be used for both Student Life and Development and the Deans. The process of bidding was discussed. There was discussion about search firms, how they are hired, and being on committees that hire search firms.
7. Unfinished Business
a. Academic Bill of Rights—This item has no name on it. Condon explained the initiative by conservative groups led by David Horowitz and she stated that Senate does not have a position on this item at this time.
Motion to strike the Academic Bill of Rights from agenda—(Frank/Onyiah). Passed
b. Time Definite: 3:45 -- Draft Proposal for Public History Task Force (FS 042605 8.a; FS091305 7.b)—This item was moved after item 6.b, above.
c. Academic Freedom Committee Report—This will be discussed at the next Senate meeting.
8. New Business
a. Motion from Teacher Development (FS 092705 8.a.1, 8.a.2, 8.a.3, 8.a4)—Kilborn discussed the four items in the packet. She discussed the survey and the problems that arose in the COB. She pointed out that also in the packet there is an apology and this apology was also given orally on Friday. Meet and Confer discussed the motion on Thursday and the action that was agreed on was to convene the Task Force on Diversity Education, which was set up nearly two years ago. Rex Veeder sent out an email today about the task force. Kilborn asked for questions and comments and she stated that Senate needs to decide what they want to do, and she said that Senate needs a joint effort to resolve this. There was discussion about the number of hours spent on this issue and the need for change and consequences. There was discussion about the task force and that it never had convened. It was noted that there has been 1B1 investigations about the inappropriateness of the survey and there are other investigations being done.
Motion for the FA Senate to support the Motion from Teacher Development—(Johnson/Ore). Passed
There was discussion for and against the motion. It was noted that this is the first step but not enough. Teacher Development tried to get 100% support for the motion, and they got very close to 100%, however some abstained because they thought the motion drafters went too far and some thought it was not near enough. Hoover noted that Special Education also drafted a motion similar to Teacher Development.
Motion for the FA to soundly condemn the expressions of hatred and bigotry expressed in the COE Dean’s Evaluation 2004-05 surveys and reported in the COE Evaluation of the Dean External Evaluation Report—(Johnson/Jaede). Passed
There was discussion about the polarization in the COB and the way the survey was administered, and how exercising freedom of speech sometimes creates a hostile work environment.
Motion to amend Motion for the FA to soundly condemn the expressions of hatred and bigotry expressed in the survey and reported in the External Evaluation Report by adding that the FA requests the Administration’s Legal Counsel to assemble all the relevant state statutes and university policies regarding harassment in the workplace and the creation of a hostile work environment and to assure the university community that the university intends to enforce these statutes and policies promptly and rigorously—(Langen/Onyiah). Failed
There was discussion about the amendment and taking action against fellow-faculty or the Dean. There was discussion about the Dean creating a hostile work environment/climate by not acting appropriately and promptly. 1B1 investigations were discussed. It was noted that Administration said in Meet and Confer that they were investigating the survey and they told the EC that there were problems with the administration of the survey. Administration was very careful about what they would say.
Motion for the FA Senate to support the Executive Committee’s concern regarding the publication of the evaluation of the COE Dean and direct the Meet and Confer Team to convey our grave concern to Administration, and to ask the Administration to advise the University community on what action they will take in response—(Jaede/Sadrai)— Passed
Motion to close the debate on the Motion for the FA Senate to support the Executive Committee’s concern regarding the publication of the evaluation of the COE Dean and direct the Meet and Confer Team to convey our grave concern to Administration, and to ask the Administration to advise the University community on what action they will take in response—(Schoenberger/Tripp). Passed
Langen advised that he would like to resubmit his motion as a separate motion after this motion is finished.
Motion to that the FA requests the Administration’s Legal Counsel to assemble all the relevant state statutes and university policies regarding harassment in workplace and the creation of a hostile work environment and to assure the university community that the university intends to enforce these statutes and policies promptly and rigorously—(Langen/ Schoenberger). Passed
Langen discussed his motion and there were some questions.
There was discussion about 1B1 investigations and where they come from: the MnSCU Board of Trustees policies.
Motion that the FA Senate directs the Executive Committee to find out whether a 1B1 investigation or similar official action is appropriate in this case and to report its actions back to Senate—(Jaede/Frank). Passed
Kilborn will keep this on the agenda for next time to report back any progress on the motions.
b. Attendance Policy—not discussed.
c. Recruitment and Retention—not discussed.
d. Uniform Start Date (FS 092705 8.b)—not discussed.
e. Summer Session (FS 092705 8.e.1; FS 092705 8.e.2)—not discussed.
f. Space Assignment Policy (FS 092705 8.f)—not discussed.
9. Adjournment at 5:09 PM.