Minutes
Faculty Senate Meeting
Emporia State University
6 March 2001

Members Present: Achleitner, Akers, Camara, Chamberlin, Fowlkes, Fox, Ghosh, Hoy, Johnson, Kantamneni, Keith, Krows, Landis, Lovett, Lyman, Manning, Mehrhof, Mingenback, Moore, Pelsma, Piper, Robbins, Robinson, Schwenn, Simpson, Smith, Starr, Tidwell, Toadvine, Williams, Wyatt
Members Absent: Kuehn, Mullins, Webb
Liaison: absent
Substitutions: Mel Storm for Webb
Visitors: none

  1. Call to Order: President Wyatt called the meeting to order at 3:34 in the Kanza Room of the Memorial Union.

  2. Announcements of Attendance: See above

  3. Approval of Minutes: It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of 20 February 2001 as posted on the web site. Motion passed without corrections.

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  4. Announcements:

    1. ASG Vice President Justin Manning: Vice President Manning reported that ASG will hold elections from 12 through 14 March 2001. There will also be a Campus Safety Walk to express student concerns with safety issues.

    2. Vice President for Academic Affairs John Schwenn: Vice President Schwenn reported that President Schallenkamp's speech to the General Assembly is on the web. Vice President Schwenn distributed a survey to get feedback from faculty about what items in the budget should be held harmless and what could be cut. He also mentioned that some positions and activities of the university are not funded from the state's general use fund and thus are not affected by the budget. Comments should be sent to Vice President Schwenn by next week.
      Vice President Schwenn distributed the latest copy of the performance indicators. There may be some additional changes to these. Next week (14 March) they will be distributed at the Council of Chief Academic Officers (COCAO) and then the week after (21 March) they will be sent to the Board of Regents.
      Vice President Schwenn announced that having the the Principles of Learning Test (PLT) as a graduation requirement is currently being sent through curricular review.

    3. Faculty President Gary Wyatt: President Wyatt reported that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee had examined a Faculty Satisfaction Survey that is currently used at KU. People from KU report that the survey has been very useful for administrators and faculty at KU. President Wyatt reported that committee chairs have a copy of this survey and that interested senators could get copies from them.
      FSR 00010 – Resolution to Request Curricular Review for the Principles of Learning Test has been sent to Vice President Schwenn and to Dean Mehring of the Teacher's College. Faculty Senate Executive Committee discussed the budget and there was a general agreement that cuts would likely need to come from a selective hiring freeze and utility conservation. He also reported that the Policy & Procedures Manual was discussed at the last meeting and that work on this document will be progressing. Vice President Schwenn is chair of that committee. A nominating committee for the 2002-2003 President of the Faculty will be formed. The Board of Regents meets next week and if you have any issues that you would like discussed, then send them to President Wyatt. The next meeting of the Faculty Senate is 3 April 2001 and after that there are only two more meetings.

  5. Committee Reports:

    1. Academic Affairs (Lovett): Senator Lovett reported that Academic Affairs agreed to leave FSB 00009 -- Prerequisite Option for Enrollment in Internet Courses unchanged.

    2. Faculty Affairs (Simpson): Senator Simpson reported that Faculty Affairs is continuing to work on an ombudsmen policy and a second bill that addresses the issue of privacy of the promotion and tenure documents. President Wyatt has some new information about the ombudsmen process at KSU, which he will forward to the committee.

    3. Committee on Campus Governance (Akers): Senator Akers reported that they have completed a review of the Computer Advisory Committee, the Satisfactory Academic Progress Committee and the Performing Arts Board. COCG will send a report to the President Schallenkamp soon. In response to a question, Senator Akers said that she would also send a copy of the report to the Faculty Senate.

  6. Old Business: none

    1. FSB 00009 – Prerequisite Option for Enrollment in Internet Courses. Senator Lovett reported that Academic Affairs had discussed this bill at their last meeting and did not see the need for any amendments. Vice President Schwenn distributed a handout from Life Long Learning, with the suggestion that if we modify the process for enrollment, then we will not need this bill. For example, all online courses are listed as arranged, but will have a stated start and finish date. Student support for online courses will be put on a web page so that students are better informed. Some procedures will have to be changed to implement these policies, such that in the future advisors in the departments and the Student Advisory Center will not be able to enroll students in these courses, but instead students must be sent to Life Long Learning. It was suggested that perhaps a hold could be placed on the enrollment of student who did not have an e-mail address. It was mentioned that on-campus students take online courses and that these procedures would require a second form. President Wyatt reported that he had received an e-mail from Professor Ed McGlone and that McGlone does not object to the bill, but sees the test as superfluous, and he suggested that only the e-mail was needed. This bill puts the onus on the faculty to develop a test and perhaps another bill might be needed. It was also mentioned that these courses get over-enrolled as somebody seems to open sections without the permission of the instructor. Again, everybody denied ever having done this. President Wyatt summarized the main ideas as he sees them as; 1) students must have an e-mail address, 2) the course should not be over-enrolled, and 3) students should go through Life Long Learning. Further discussion centered around if this bill should be amended, how these objectives could be met, and whether a bill that reinforces external policy is needed. There then followed discussion on the student competency sections of the course, such that does a student know how to use e-mail and how to use a computer. The self-assessment test from CETECH might be a possible solution. It was mentioned that SLIM has some sort of pre-test for its students. The intent of the bill is to give as much flexibility to faculty as possible, and this might be accomplished in a variety of other ways. There followed a discussion on tabling the bill and what kinds of information would the Senate need to make a decision about the bill. It was suggested that John Ziegler could provide some information. It was also mentioned that, for the fall semester, only 2% of students either dropped or did not complete online courses. Senator Tidwell moved to table the bill. This was seconded. Motion passed without any negative votes. The bill can be taken off the table at the 3 April 2001 meeting.

  7. New Business:

  8. For the good of the university:

    1. Senator Akers mentioned that the library has been developing a strategic plan. One issue is access to and use of special collections. She asked senators to send her any information that they have about their needs for special collections.

    2. Some other events were mentioned which will have occurred by the time these minutes are posted.

  9. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 4:10.

Submitted by:

Dwight Moore
First Vice-President of the Faculty

Last updated on 15 April 2001.
Provide comments about the text to Dwight Moore at mooredwi@emporia.edu.
Return to the Minutes of the Faculty Senate.