Minutes of the Wichita State University Faculty Senate
Monday, January 28, 2013
CH 126 3:30 pm
Members Present: Alexander, Anderson, Baker, Barut, Bergman, Bryant, Celestin, Close, Decker, DeSilva,
Driessen, Hamdeh, Horn, Hull, Jacobs, Johnson, Kagdi, Klunder, Kreinath, Lewis, Liu,
Lu, Matveyeva, Miller, Mosack, Oare, Pulaski, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Skinner, M. Smith,
Solomey, Yildirim
Members Absent: Moore-Jansen, Mukeerjee, Toops
Members Excused: Besthorn, Brooks, Yeager
Summary of Action
a. Accepted the proposed revisions to the Repeat Policy from Academic Affairs
b. Accepted the appointments of Animesh Chakravarthy & Nicholas Wyant to the Undergraduate
Research Committee
I. Call to Order
President Bob Ross called the meeting to order at 3:30 pm
II. Informal Statements and Proposals None
III. Approval of the Minutes
The minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting of Monday November 26, 2012, were approved.
https://wichita.edu/?u=facultysenate&p=/m112612/
IV. President's Report
President Ross reported on the following recent activities:
A. December and January KBOR Meetings - The December and January COFSP meetings, in conjunction with the KBOR meetings,
dealt with:
1. Post Tenure Review (referred to Faculty Senate Faculty Affairs Committee)
2. Regent's Professor of the Year (tabled at January meeting of COFSP)
The chairs of the Strategic Planning Committee (Cindy Claycomb and Ed O'Malley) and
several other members of the committee met with the KBOR at the January meeting. President
Ross was very impressed with their presentation as well as the fact that the Board
allowed the group 90 minutes of their time. The members of the KBOR appeared to appreciate
what they heard and encouraged with the direction that the planning was taking.
B. Academic Operations Council – The Council has asked the Faculty Senate to provide some clarification on the matter
of Students “double dipping” to use the same course for multiple requirements on their
plan of studies. The matter has been assigned to the Senate's Academic Affairs Committee
for action.
C. Faculty Salary Spread - Mary Herrin, Wichita State's Vice President for Administration and Finance, and
President Ross discussed this issue again. VP Herrin is reviewing the “salary spread”
requirements, and has indicated that there should be an acceptable solution for this
budgeting issue for most faculty members by the end of the this semester.
D. VPAA Search - The VPAA Search Committee has met three times. So far 25 applications have been
submitted. The Committee will evaluate all applications and narrow the search to six
to eight candidates for further evaluation. They will report their recommendations
to President Bardo in early April. It is expected that the chosen VPAA will be announced
by late April.
E. College of Engineering Task Force - A task force of the Senate Executive Committee (excluding faculty from the College
of Engineering) and two former Senate Presidents (Debra Soles and Chris Brooks) was
formed to evaluate a proposal developed by a group of nine senior faculty members
of the College of Engineering, dealing with the creation of a new Department of Bio
Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering. This task force met approximately
twelve times over the past two months, and interviewed a number of faculty members
and administrators. The central purpose of the review committee was to protect the
rights of all faculty members affected by the proposed reorganization and to assure
that the principles of shared governance are adhered to within the organizational
structure any new department within the College of Engineering. The task force submitted
its recommendations to the President, Interim Provost, the chair of the Department
of Mechanical Engineering, the director of the Bio Engineering program, and the chair
of the College of Engineering committee of senior faculty. The report has also been
posted on the Senates website.
V. Committee Reports
A. Academic Affairs Committee -- Nick Solomey, Chair of the committee, reported on two items that the committee
had completed. The first issue the committee had been asked to consider was the appropriateness
of a student receiving a WSU degree in a major, even though all courses in the major
had been transferred from another institution. After a great deal of study and discussion
the committee discovered that every WSU college, except for the College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, had guidelines that addressed that situation. So the committee
met with the administrative staff of LAS and they agreed to create a college-wide
policy to address the issue.
The second item the committee address was a request from the Registrar's office to
examine and streamline the University's repeat policy. The principal problem with the current policy was the limit of the number of times
a student is allowed to repeat a class. This limit of five repeats could not be effectively
automated within the Banner system, so a great deal of time and effort was being expended
to make sure that the limit of five was not exceeded. Consequently, the committee
agreed to remove the five course limit and developed the following revised repeat
policy (which includes some friendly editorial changes from the floor of the Senate):
1. Any course may be repeated. No course may be attempted more than three times.
For this policy, an audit does not count as an attempt.
2. Any grade received at completion of a repeated class at WSU will automatically
replace up to two previous grade(s) received for that course in computation of the
student's cumulative grade point average.
3. Grades received in courses taken at another institution may not be used to replace
grades in courses taken at WSU. If a student repeats a course at another institution,
the WSU grade will be averaged into the GPA.
4. The department offering a course can approve an exception to the limit of three
attempts. If such an exception is given, only the first two grades for the course
will be excluded from the GPA. All other grades received for that course will be averaged
into the GPA.
5. Courses repeated prior to fall 2013 are subject to the repeat policy in effect
during that catalog year.
6. No portion of the repeat policy may be applied after graduation to courses attempted
prior to graduation.
Repeated courses are identified on the transcript by an extra letter after the grade
as follows:
I included in the GPA
E excluded from GPA
A averaged in GPA but not counted in earned hours
Senator Lewis moved to waive the requirement for a second reading of the proposed
revision of the repeat policy, and Senator Hull seconded the motion. The Senate voted,
with no dissent, to waive the second reading requirement. The Senate then voted to
approve the proposed changes in the Repeat policy. The motion was approved, again
with no dissent.
After the two items of business from the Academic Affairs committee had been concluded,
Senator Johnson asked the Senate to consider the dilemma of those students that have
a severe phobia of a specific required course outside of their major; for example,
the basic skills math requirement of college algebra. This led to a great deal of
discussion, in which most vocal senators appeared to be sympathetic of the student's
plight. Several senators expressed the opinion that students with this sort of problem
could be granted an exception to the basic skills requirement through an appeal to
the Exception Committee. No one was certain about how a student could address the
problem, so President Ross declared that the Senate would investigate the matter and
develop a proposed course of action.
B. Rules Committee – Victoria Mosack, Chair of the Rules Committee, nominated Nicholas Wyant (University
Libraries) and Animesh Chakravarthy (College of Engineering) for membership on the
Undergraduate Research Committee. Both were unanimously supported by the Senate.
VI. Old Business – None
VII. New Business - None
VIII. As May Arise - None
IX. Adjournment
The meeting of the Faculty Senate was adjourned at 4:24pm.
Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate