Faculty Senate Minutes
Monday, February 27, 2017
Clinton Hall 126, 3:30PM-5:00PM
Senators Present: Asaduzzaman, Babnich, Barut, Bolin, Castro, Chand, Chopra, Crameer, Decker, Dehner,
Ewing, Hendry, Hull, Koehn, Johnson, Mahapatro, Moore-Jansen, Mosack, Muthiachareon,
Myose, Price, Pulaski, Rife, Rillema, Ross, Shaw, Shukaev, Walker, Willlis, Yildirim
Senators Absent: Ahmed, Anderson, Birzer, Brooks, Close, Deibel, English, Kreinath, Lancaster, Solomey,
Taher, Wehebe
Senators Excused: Bryant, Keene Woods, Rokosz
I. Call to Order 鈥� Meeting called to order at 3:32PM by President Yildirim
II. Informal Statements and Proposals 鈥�. None
III. Approval of Minutes
1. Minutes of the February 13, 2017 meeting were accepted as presented.
IV. President's Report 鈥�
1. Shocker Start - Designed by Unclassified Senate President Becky North is currently available on
MyWSU under the Faculty/Staff tab.
2. President's Advisory Budget Committee 鈥� President Yildirim reported that the Revenue and Efficiencies Committees will be
setting up a web forum for individuals to submit ideas. An on-campus forum has been
scheduled for March 7th, details will be sent via email. The Priorities Committee
is developing a plan for strategic investments.
3. Teaching Advancement Committee 鈥� The committee met today and discussed how to adapt the tenure and promotion process
as well as ranks to teaching faculty. A presentation to the faculty senate will be
made mid-to late March.
4. SPTE committee 鈥� There were many faculty members who volunteered to serve on this committee. President
Yildirim stated he will try to have one individual from each college as well as one
student representative.
5. Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) Meeting 鈥� The Council of Faculty Senate Presidents met and discussed the following:
i. GED College Credit 鈥� The discussion on this item is beginning at KBOR. It is suggested
that scores above 170 (GED Exam 200-point scale) should receive college credit. Only
6% of students score over 175. President Yildirim stated that the general direction
is that institutions will be asked to recognize the results of the exam.
ii. Continued implementation of credit for prior learning policy 鈥� a final recommendation
will be made soon. All KBOR schools may adopt the same grade of 3 or above. If the
same grade is not adopted, then content areas will need to meet to finalize a grade.
iii. President Yildirim noted that ESU has passed a resolution opposing the 鈥淢uslim
Ban.鈥� The Emporia Faculty Senate has been proactive.
iv. Tuition Models 鈥� There was discussion of whether different tuition models would
increase retention. One idea floated included a flat tuition model where 12-18 credit
hours would have the same cost. This might encourage students to take more credit
hours.
V. Committee Reports - None
VI. Old Business - None
VII. New Business
1. Bachelor of Applied Arts (BAA) - 1st Reading 鈥� Senator Jeff Pulaski, Interim Director, School of Art, Design and Creative Industries
provided an overview of the proposed BAA degree program.
i. The BAA in Media Arts would be one-degree program with four tracks 鈥� audio production,
animation, filmmaking and game design.
ii. Why now? The program has been talked about for years, and there have been numerous
requests from students. Recently the Mindfire Academy lease became available.
iii. The degree is a vocational-oriented degree which prepares students for a career
path. It is technically grounded and there are connections between tracks. The 120
credit hour program consists of 21 credit hours of a common core, 15 credit hours
of electives, 30 credit hours of general education and 54 credit hours in a specific
track.
iv. The 21 credit hours of a common core creates a cohort that would go through the
core and the professional practice courses. The 15 credit hours of directed electives
were meant to be interdisciplinary and allow students to have a secondary concentration
in another area, or possibly a certificate or a minor.
The 30 credit hours of general education are within the HLC guidelines. KBOR has
no minimum number of general education courses, but does have a 45 credit hour transfer
policy. Most tracks in the proposed degree program also have fine arts general education
courses.
v. The proposed program has support from the students in the College of Fine Arts,
the Student Government Association and Academic Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate.
vi. Senator Dehner reported on the vote and discussion that took place at the General
Education Committee meeting. The vote was split. There were two sticking points.
鈥� The first was the 15 credit hours of electives. Initially the electives were not
seen as directed15 hours (revised since the committee discussion). Also15 credit hours
would not get a student a minor.
鈥� The larger issue was the 30 credit hours of general education and the precedent
this would set. With limited exceptions (Mechanical Engineering, online nursing degree
completion, and a since ended paramedic training program) degree programs have required
42 hours of General Education.
鈥� The applied degree is described as a new degree which is designed to be more than
technical training, but less than a broad-based Bachelor's degree. However, the committee
looked at other applied degree programs such as is found in Texas and discovered that
their applied degree programs require 42 general education credits 鈥� although this
standard is mandated by state law.
鈥� The committee felt this was an issue that should go before the entire general faculty
as the general faculty voted on the general education requirements. The General Education
Committee did not feel they were empowered to make the decision.
vii. Following Senator Dehner's comments the discussion continued. Additional concerns/comments
discussed included:
鈥� Whether we can vote to approve and state that the 30 credit hours of general education
is just for this case, in other words vote with no precedent attached.
鈥� Associate Professor in the School of Music Aleks Sternfeld-Dunn and others commented
on the interdisciplinary nature of the degree which was viewed as strength. In addition,
Sternfeld Dunn stated that 鈥淪tudents could go to a community college or technical
college that offer these types of programs, but we want to make a stronger case for
spending two more years and getting a bachelor's degree.鈥�
鈥� President Yildirim asked Dr. Vizzini about pressure from KBOR to have programs
that are 120 credit hours. Dr. Vizzini stated that designing programs which were 120
credit hours would let the Regents know that we were listening to them.
鈥� There was disagreement as to whether this needed to go to the entire faculty for
a vote and how quickly a general meeting could be called if one was needed. President
Yildirim asked President-elect Shaw, Chair of the Rules Committee to look into this.
2. Continuation of the First Year Seminar on a pilot basis for 2017-2018 President-elect Shaw shared survey results from the
fall seminars. A Qualtrics survey and an American Association of Colleges and Universities
(AACU) writing rubric were used as assessments. Overall the survey results were positive
with the exception of note-taking. The rubric scores improved, but the magnitude was
small. Questions/concerns that were raised by members of the senate included:
i. What will happen when we go from optional to mandatory?
ii. It was suggested that the goals be reshaped and more clearly determine what we
are trying to leverage.
iii. What kind of data will show that the seminar impacts student retention? Part
of the evaluation process needs to be correlated with retention
iv. Will we be able to look at the retention rate for this cohort?
v. Need another year of data to make sure it is worth doing.
3. Student Bill of Rights and Book Selection 鈥揚resident of SGA, Joseph Shepard
i. President Shepard thanked the faculty senate for their support and asked that
faculty members adhere to the finals schedule. Students are reporting that they are
not getting enough time in class before the exam.
ii. SGA elections will take place April 3rd and President Shepard asked senate faculty
to encourage students to take part in the election process.
iii. SGA currently has an amendment to the Student Bill of Rights on the floor. SGA
is asking that the President of the university allow the SGA president be present
(at least to listen and observe) at meetings requested by students that directly impact
students. If the amendment passes, President Shepard would like Faculty Senate support
it. Comment from senator: suggested that it should go beyond being an observer to
being a participant.
iv. President Shepard commented that students are having difficulty purchasing textbooks because of the cost. He would like to work with the bookstore and the faculty senate to get books at a reasonable price as well as to figure out how students can find out in advance which texts are required.
4. Academic Affairs Update 鈥� Provost and Senior Vice President Vizzini
i. KBOR nothing additional to report. The governor vetoed the tax bill, but there
is a sense that there is a middle ground and that we will get beyond the financial
concerns.
ii. President Yildirim asked if the BAA proposal would set a precedent and if there
are similar proposals on campus. Provost Vizzini responded that he was not aware of
any. He felt that the BAA would be a good springboard for a career.
iii. Senator Dehner noted that in a previous senate meeting he asked Provost Vizzini
if WSU/WATC merger would come before the senate. Provost Vizzini responded that he
did not see why it wouldn't. When President Bardo was asked he stated it would not
come before the senate and that there were no curricular concerns. When asked where
he stood, Provost Vizzini responded that if there were no curricular concerns he would
back the president.
iv. Q: What is binding between the Administration and the SGA Student Bill of Rights.
Provost Vizzini: The Student Bill of Rights comes from the President and KBOR and
can't be seen as binding. Q: If their resolution is not binding will the President
meet the spirit of the resolution. Provost Vizzini: I don't believe it is good practice
for a body you empower to bind you in power.
v. Q: Is the faculty activity recording changing in 2017? Provost Vizzini: We added
the risk-taking piece. The Faculty Affairs Committee of the senate is looking at the
FAR. President Yildirim noted that there was some concern among faculty regarding
the new portion and it was not discussed in the faculty senate or in the committee.
He expects that Faculty Affairs will discuss the changes and it will be an on-going
three- year process. Provost Vizzini pointed out that we don't ask what have you done
for diversity, it is not covered, but it is part of the strategic plan. Comment: Concern
that we (faculty) are being evaluated on something that we are not sure of 鈥� positive
risk-taking. Provost Vizzini: There is value in the attempt. We do allow for proposals
that are unfunded, but what about all of the other things you do? We wish to applaud
faculty who have tried something and failed. Q: When will the FAR for 2017 be available?
President Yildirim and Provost Vizzini agreed that if significant changes needed to
be made, it could be rolled out in 2018. Comment: It would be helpful if in the next
section examples could be provided.
VIII. As May Arise
1. President-elect Shaw announced that the questions submitted to President Bardo
have been answered. Faculty can access the President Bardo's Q&A from the Faculty
Senate homepage.
2. Channel 12 interviewed Senator Dehner before the meeting.
IX. Adjournment 鈥� at 5:06 PM