Minutes of the Wichita State University Faculty Senate
Monday, October 10, 2011
CH 126 3:30 pm
Members Present: Barut, Besthorn, Bolin, Bryant, Close,Decker, DeSilva, Hull, Driessen, Gibson, Hemans,
Horn, Jacobs, Johnson, Klunder, Kumar, Lewis, Miller, Mosack, Pulaski, Rillema, Rokosz,
Ross, Russell, Skinner, M. Smith, Solomey, Yeager
Members Absent: Henry, Mandt, Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, P. Smith, Thompson, Yildirim
Members Excused: Adler, Carruthers,
Summary of Action:
1. Accepted the nomination of Denise Celestin as Senator at Large replacing Hershfield
(1 year term)
2. Accepted the following committee appointments:
Faculty Affairs – Aleksander Sternfield-Dunn,Fine Arts (1 yr. appt)
Honors – Will Klunder, LAS Humanities, (3 yr. apt)
3. Accepted the proposed changes to the Academic Calendar
4. Accepted the revisions to the WSU Policies & Procedures, 2.15, Chair
I. Call to Order: President Steven Skinner called the meeting to order at 3:30pm
II. Informal Statements and Proposals: none
III. President's Report
President Skinner made the following announcements:
1. The AAUP Fall 2011 Kansas Conference will be held on the WSU campus in the Rhatigan Student Center October
22, 2011. All faculty members are encouraged to attend the conference which will begin
at 10:30 am and conclude at 4 pm. Admission is $10 which includes a lunch. Those interested
should sign up at the AAUP website, www.aaup-in-ks.org. by October 22.
2. Members of the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) will visit WSU on October 24 and 25. Arrangements are in progress to schedule a
meeting to discuss the procedure for conducting the WSU Presidential Search. It appears
that this might be set for 9:30 am on Monday, October 24. In addition, four Members
of Faculty Senate Executive Committee will meet with the Regents group over lunch
on the 24th.
3. The General Education worksheets distributed to all department chairs should be returned by the end of October. One
clarification to the instruction is in order. The list of nine outcomes proposed by
the task force should be ranked from 1(the most important) to 9 (the least important).
4. Office for Faculty Development and Student Success is considering developing a
WSU 201 course for new transfer students. The course would be one credit hour and transfer students
would have the option of taking the course or going through the current 6 hour orientation
for transfer students. During the discussion of the new course Interim Provost Pickus
indicated that the WSU 101 course for new freshman would remain optional for the next
several years.
5. The Executive Committee has directed the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs committee to develop a position on the following: a) Dual Major Double Counting, b) Policies
for the Grade of Incomplete, c) Grade Replacement Policies, and d) Hours in the major
requirements. Likewise the General Education Committee has been asked to develop a
policy statement regarding General Education courses being used in the major.
IV. Approval of the Minutes
The minutes of the 2010-11 Faculty Senate meeting of May 9, 2011 and the election
meeting of the 2011-12 Faculty Senate on the same day were approved with no corrections.
V. Committee Reports
Robert Ross, chair of the Rules Committee, reported that the group of at-large senators
nominated Denise Celestin to fulfill the term of the at-large position recently vacated
by Jeff Hershfield. The members of the senate voted to accept.
Senator Ross announced that Will Klunder, LAS Humanities, had agreed to join the
Honors Committee and his appointment was confirmed by the members of the Senate.
Senator Ross also noted that faculty senate vacancies remain in the following areas:
Health Sciences (one two-year term), Humanities (one two-year term), and LAS Social
Sciences(one two-year term). He requested those senators from the areas with vacancies
to help in the recruitment of their colleagues to fill these vacancies.
Senator Ross announced that Aleksander Sternfield-Dunn, Fine Arts, had agreed to
serve as a replacement for Silvia Carruthers on the Faculty Affairs Committee. He
also mentioned there are still some vacancies on some of the Faculty Senate Standing
Committees.
VI. Old Business – none
VII. New Business
a. Graduation requirement for training in “Scholarly Integrity” – Abu Masud, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, provided a followed-up on his
report from last spring regarding responsible conduct of research. He summarized the
recommendations of the September 15, 2011, report of the Graduate Council concerning
“Scholarly Integrity Training Requirements for Graduate Students.” This report is
the results of Graduate Council committee's work of last spring that was motivated
by federal funding agencies moves to require responsible conduct of research training,
recent cases of graduate student plagiarism, and national events that indicate that
graduate students lack full knowledge of scholarly integrity. The committee recommends
that all graduate students should be required to have training in scholarly integrity
during the early part of their graduate studies. Areas to be addressed during this
training should include the following as a minimum: research misconduct, responsible
authorship of publications, conflict of interest and commitment, and ethical issues
regarding research data acquisition, management, sharing and ownership. The process
will be initiated the fall of 2012 for all doctoral students and then for all masters'
degree students the following fall of 2013. The Graduate School will provide guidance
regarding topic descriptions and expectations, but the departments offering graduate
degrees will be required to develop their individual plans for providing this training.
The report generated a great deal of discussion within the senate, but no recommendations
for change or further study were suggested.
b. Recommendation to move fall 2013, 2014, and 2015 academic calendar up one week – President Skinner informed the senate that the current approved calendar
for the fall semesters of 2013, 2014, and 2015 contained ending dates that required
a number of university employees to remain on campus very close to December 25. He
indicated that the university could ask for the dates to be changed to coincide with
the dates approved for Emporia State, Pittsburg State and Fort Hayes State which would
provide an additional week prior to December 25. He sought the senate's endorsement
for such a change. Senator Rillema moved to change the semester start and end dates
as recommended. The motion was seconded by several senators and the motion passed
without dissent.
c. Correction to Section 2.15 of WSU Policies and Procedures regarding “Chair Policy and Procedures”
- President Skinner informed the senate that “extraneous wording” had been included
in Section 2.15 during a revision of the section. The Senate Executive Committee proposed
the removal of the phrase “the committee recommends” and the insertion of the word
“will” from the sentence “Thus, the committee recommends that the following procedures
will be utilized in the selection, appointment, and evaluation of chairs.” so that
it now reads as: “The following procedures will be utilized in the selection, appointment,
and evaluation of chairs.” After limited discussion Senator Lewis moved that the senate
dispense with the second reading of the motion, and Senator Ross seconded. The motion
to dispense passed with no dissent, as did the original motion from the Executive
Committee.
d. Proposed revisions to Section 4.13 of Policies and Procedures (1st reading) in order to conform to KBOR Policies and
Procedures - The proposed changes to Section 4.13 of the University's Policies and
Procedures has been recommended by the University's attorney, Ted Ayres to bring it
in alignment with Section 8 of the Kansas Board of Regents Procedures. Copies of the
current Section 4.13, marked-up copy showing proposed changes, final copy of the section
after proposed changes, and KBOR Policy 8 can be found on the Senate website. Senators
were encouraged to examine these documents and to be prepared to discuss the changes
during the second reading at the next meeting of the Senate. President Skinner agreed
to invite Ted Ayres to attend the next meeting as well.
e. Report on KBOR Transfer and Articulation (TAAC) – Senator Hemans, one of two WSU representatives. reported on the work of the committee.
He represents the faculty of the three Kansas research universities based on nomination
from the Faculty Senate Presidents. This committee is in its second year of developing
a rational and realistic procedure of granting transfer of credit for a class taken
at a Regent's institution at another Regent's institution. The current emphasis on
this, sometimes difficult, process was motivated by a joint request from the State's
community colleges. Senator Hemans, along with Interim Provost Pickus, feels that
this is a very serious matter that must be examined thoroughly and dealt with cautiously.
For those that are interested, all of the documents associated with the work of this
committee are available on the Senate web site - under Current Topics, within the
folder "KBOR Transfer and Articulation Information." Senator Hemans promised to keep
the Senate informed of the action of the committee.
VIII. As May Arise
President Skinner informed the senate that he had been contacted by the Office of
Career Services regarding the “Hire-a-Shocker” service provided by the office. He
agreed to invite the Director of Career Services, Jill Pletcher, to the Senate for
a presentation detailing the service.
IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:52pm.