Minutes of the Wichita State University Faculty Senate
Monday, October 24, 2011
CH 126 3:30 pm

Members Present: Barut, Besthorn, Bolin, Bryant, Celestin, Close, Decker, DeSilva, Hull, Driessen, Hemans, Horn, Jacobs, Klunder, Kumar, Lewis, Matveyeva, Miller, Mosack, Pulaski, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, M. Smith, Skinner, Solomey, Thompson, Yeager, Yildirim
Members Absent: Adler, Carruthers, Gibson, Mandt, Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, Russell, P. Smith
Members Excused: Henry, Johnson

Summary of Action:
1. Accepted the proposed revisions to 2.15 WSU Policies and Prodcedures

I. Call to Order:
President Steven Skinner called the meeting to order at 3:30pm

II. Informal Statements and Proposals:
Senator Hemans thanked President Skinner and the KBOR Council of Faculty Senate Presidents for their candid discussions with the Kansas Board of Regents regarding the transfer and articulation policies that are currently under development. Senator Hemans thought that those discussions have had an impact on the direction of the work in progress by the KBOR Transfer and Articulations Committee (more in the President's Report below).
President Skinner introduced Darren Beckman, chair of the SGA Campus Issues Committee. He thanked the president for the opportunity for a SGA representative to attend the Senate meetings and indicated that someone from his committee would be attending all meetings.

III. Approval of the Minutes
Two spelling errors in the minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting of October 10, 2011 were pointed out to the secretary. Senator Ross move to accept the minutes as corrected, a number of senators seconded the motion. The minutes were approved with no dissent.

IV. President's Report
President Skinner made the following announcements:
1. Members of the Kansas Board of Regents are meeting at WSU today and tomorrow (October 24 and 25). The members of the Board discussed the WSU presidential search process during the meeting this morning (Oct. 24, 2011). The essential elements of the process include the following: Regents are committed to naming the right person for the particular environment at WSU; the members of the search committee will be identified by November; the committee will have 10 to15 members; Regent Christine Downy-Schmitt and KBOR President Andy Tompkins will serve on the committee (Downy-Schmitt is a WSU alumni and a strong supporter of higher education); approximately four diverse faculty members will serve on the committee; a search firm will be hired to work with the committee and in hopes of expanding the candidate pool; approximately 10 to 12 candidates will be interviewed by the committee in the February timeframe; four to six candidates will be invited to the campus for interview in the March timeframe; and three to five candidate names will be forwarded by the committee to the Regents for final selection in the April timeframe.
In addition, four members of the Faculty Senate Executive met with the Board during Lunch today. The Regents were primarily interested in the challenges faced by the faculty. The meeting went well.
General education will be the topic of discussion during tomorrow's KBOR meeting on campus.
2. Transfer and Articulation. In a continuation of Senator Hemans' earlier remarks, President Skinner informed the Senate that the Transfer and Articulation policies were a hot topic at the KBOR meeting in Topeka. He was confident the COFSP made an impact on the Board during their breakfast meeting. He indicated that they had emphasized the importance of faculty input on any KBOR policies that result from the work of the committee and that faculty concerns would be addressed.
3. The Faculty Senate Planning and Budget Committee will be sending a Request for Proposals to the faculty and staff regarding the issue of student retention and success. The Provost's Office will provide approximately $100,000 funding the initiative with an anticipation that five to ten proposals will be chosen for funding.
4. President Skinner reminded senators that the General Education Worksheets are due this Friday (October 28, 2011).

V. Committee Reports
Senator Ross, chair of the Rules Committee, reported that the College of Health Professions senators were in the process of filling the senate and committee vacancies in their area. He urged the Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences senators to assist in recruiting colleagues to fill vacancies in their areas, especially senate openings. The following senate committee vacancies exist as of today's meeting:
Education -- Admissions/Exceptions, Faculty Affairs
Engineering -- Admissions/Exceptions
Fine Arts-- Undergraduate Research
Health Professions -- Admissions/Exceptions, Undergraduate Research
LAS Humanities -- Academic Affairs, Undergraduate Research
LAS Math/Natural Sciences -- Faculty Support, Honors (1yr), Academic Affairs (1yr)
LAS Social Sci. -- Academic Affairs, Admissions/Exceptions, Rules (1yr), Scholarship/Student Aid

VI. Old Business
A. Proposed revisions to 4.13, Policies & Procedures (2nd reading)
The proposed changes to Section 4.13 of the University's Policies and Procedures were considered during this second reading. The proposed changes were recommended by the University's attorney to bring the section into alignment with Section 8 of the Kansas Board of Regents Procedures and were discussed during the October 10 Faculty Senate meeting. Copies of the current Section4.13, marked-up copy showing proposed changes, final copy of the section after proposed changes, and KBOR Policy 8 were made available on the Senate website following the first reading. President Skinner invited Ted Ayres to attend today's meeting, but he could not. He did agree to meet with the Senate at its next meeting if requested. During the interval following the first reading President Skinner sought clarification from Mr. Ayres of the meaning of the term “adoptive placement” found in the KBOR Policy 8 addition to Section 4.13. Mr. Ayres sought the counsel of the KBOR staff. A written explanation was received that indicated that the term “adoptive placement” was to be interpreted to refer to that interval of time that a child resides with the adoptive parents prior to formal completion of the adoption process. It was suggested that this explanation of “adoptive placement” be included in the revision of section 4.13. Senator Klunder suggested that part 5. of the proposed revision of Section 4.13, pertaining to the granting of tenure to new faculty hires, should include language such as “with the approval of the home department” relative to “exceptional cases” being granted tenure to new hires who have not completed a probationary period at an academic institution. President Skinner agreed to modify the document to include such language, as well as include an explanation of “adoptive placement' and bring the document back for a third reading.

VII. New Business
A. Hire-a-Shocker
– Jill Pletcher, Director of Career Services
President Skinner introduced Jill Pletcher, Director of the Office of Career Services, to speak about her request regarding the “Hire-a-Shocker” service provided by the office. She gave a brief explanation that her office would like to create a database of all faculty names, campus phone numbers, and email addresses so that they could email notices of upcoming events coordinated by her office that may be of interest to specific segments of the faculty population. She assured the senate that her office would be selective in their distribution of information and that there would be no mass distribution of irrelevant information to all faculty members. She also assured the senate that the database would not be available to anyone beyond her office. Her presentation prompted few questions from the members of the Senate and President Skinner thanked her for her time and told her that he would get back with her later with the decision of the Senate. After her departure Senator Klunder asked President Skinner to confirm the fact that a faculty member could opt-out of being a part of the data base. President Skinner agreed to confirm that point and bring the request for approval back to the Senate at the next meeting.
2. Correction to Section 2.15 of WSU Policies and Procedures regarding “Chair Policy and Procedures” - During the discussions of the last Senate meeting concerning this particular section of the Policies and Procedures it was pointed out that in a few cases units of the University that would generally be referred to as departments were called “schools” and these schools were headed by “directors” rather than by chairs. In the period since the last Senate meeting President Skinner drafted a two word addition to the title of the section and a one sentence addition for the first paragraph of the Section 2.15 to clearly indicate that this section pertained to directors as well as chairs. President Skinner's proposed changes, endorsed by the Executive Committee, were that the title be changed to “2.15/ Chair and Director Policy and Procedures,” and the one sentence insertion was “Throughout this section, any reference to “chair” also applies to directors, and any reference to “department” also applies to schools.” 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 with the second reading passed with no dissent, as did the original motion from the Executive Committee.

VIII. As May Arise - none
IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:06 pm.

Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate