Faculty Senate Minutes
Monday, March 13, 2017
Clinton Hall 126, 3:30PM-5:00PM
Senators Present: Ahmed, Anderson, Babnich, Bryant, Castro, Chand, Close, Cramer, Decker, Dehner, English, Ewing, Hendry, Hull, Keene Woods, Johnson, Mosack, Muthiacharen, Myose, Price, Pulaski, Rife, Rillema, Rokosz, Ros, Shaw, Shukaev, Solomey, Taher, Walker, wehebe, willis, Yildirim
Senators Absent: Asaduzzaman, Barut, Birzer, Brooks,Chopra, Deiabel, Koehn, Kreinath, Lancaster, Mahapatro, Moore-Jansen,
Summary of Action:
1. Accepted - The Bachelor of Applied Arts (BAA) Degree Proposal
2. Accepted 鈥� Continuation of the First Year Seminar on a Pilot Basis for the 2017-2018
Academic Year
I. Call to Order 鈥� Meeting called to order at 3:31PM by President Yildirim
II. Informal Statements and Proposals 鈥� None
III. Approval of Minutes
1. Minutes of the February 27, 2017 meeting were accepted as presented.
IV. President's Report 鈥�
1. President's Budget Advisory Committee
i. Presented the process on how to submit proposal or ideas to the committee
ii. Encouraged faculty to submit ideas and proposals through the portal
2. Teaching Advancement Committee
i. Members of the committee are comfortable with the ranks and general requirements
to move from one rank to another. The committee is still working on policies and by
mid-April should have a document to the senate.
3. Teaching Effectiveness Committee 鈥� SPTE
i. Teaching effectiveness committee has met twice. Dr. Charles Bursal provided the
committee with an overview of the SPTE. There is an on-going discuss regarding whether
the needs to be a change to the SPTE process with a look toward possibly administering
the SPTEs online. If you have questions, please e-mail President Yildirim.
4. Faculty Senate Planning and Budget Committee
i. The Faculty Senate Planning and Budget Committee is trying to identify programs
that WSU currently does not offer that could increase revenue. In addition, the committee
is generating questions to ask the President's Budget Advisory Committee.
ii. The committee would like to hear feedback from faculty, so e-mail President Yildirim
with ideas, questions and concerns.;
5. Weapons' Policy Act 鈥� House Bill No. 2220
i. FYI - Weapons' Policy Act - House Bill No. 2220 鈥� is currently in the legislature.
This bill bans postsecondary institutions from 鈥渁dopting or enforcing any policy,
resolution or regulation, 鈥overning the ownership, possession, storage, carrying,
manner of carrying or transporting of concealed handguns or ammunition, or any component
or combination thereof.鈥�
6. YMCA - (see As May Arise)
V. Committee Reports - None
VI. Old Business
1. Bachelor of Applied Arts degree proposal 鈥� 2nd Reading: Senator Jeff Pulaski, Interim Director, School of Art, Design and Creative Industries
asked for questions and comments on the proposal. The following comments, questions,
and concerns were noted:
i. Q: Is this an exception or change to the General Education requirements? R: Asking
for this an exception, not trying to establish a precedent.
ii. Procedural question 鈥� on the Faculty Senate webpage under the charges listed
for the General Education Committee, charge #5 states: Recommend changes to the program
when necessary. Proposed changes will be considered by the Faculty Senate, major changes
shall automatically be sent to the General Faculty for approval. Q: Does this represent
a major change or something else? R: Given that we have some exceptions this does
not rise to the level of a major change. It is a new sequence, but not changing the
structure and the spirit of general education is kept.
iii. Comment: We need to streamline the process instead of slow it down, this fits
into a format that we have already made use of.
iv. Comment: As the original general education process unfolded it went before the
full faculty. In general, the GenEd Committee is in favor of the proposal; however,
the sticking point is the general education requirements. The program drops 12 credit
hours from general education.
v. Q: Is it a significant change if this will affect less than one percent of the
student population?
vi. Comment: While it is 30 hours of general education, in three of the four tracks,
there are 12 hours of general education in fine arts. We can shift things to get closer
to 42, possibly 39.
vii. Q: Didn't you say this meets HLC requirements? R: The program does meet HLC
requirements, but not WSU requirements.
viii. Q: Was anybody here when engineering put in the revised total, was it state
as precedent establishing or not?
ix. Comment: We are citing previous cases that are precedents and am concerned that
we are establishing a precedent even if we say we are not.
x. Comment: Like the idea and it seems that one sticking point is one track.
xi. Comment: The sticking point is the 30 hours. Audio production would be shy 6
hours of general education.
xii. President-Elect Shaw: We need two votes, one to support this and one to move
the proposal to the general faculty for a vote.
xiii. Comment: Maybe the program should be given to WATC to offer this degree, it
would be innovative for them. R: WATC cannot offer four-year degree.
xiv. Comment: We can't use art history as a general education course in fine arts.
xv. Comment: If within a major, students are taking courses that would count as general
education, can't we count them, to me that doesn't make sense.
xvi. Question called 鈥� 1st ballot 鈥� Vote on the Proposal: To accept the Bachelor
of Applied Arts Degree proposal - Motion accepted.
xvii. 2nd ballot 鈥� Vote on whether to take the Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree proposal
to the general faculty for a vote. Vote tied (16-16) 鈥� Motion failed.
xviii. Dean Miller assured the members of the senate that we will not approve any
other program of this kind. It was suggested that the Faculty Senate should have a
discussion of precedents and this should not be a precedent for any other degree.
2. Continuation of the First Year Seminar on a Pilot Basis for AY 2017-2018: 2nd Reading - Motion by Senator Ross and seconded by Senator Close to continue the First Year Seminar on a Pilot Basis for AY 2017-2018. Motion accepted.
VII. New Business
1. ADA 鈥� Molly Gordon, Assistant General Counsel 鈥� Assistant General Counsel Gordon, Chair
of the Accessibility Committee, provided the following:
i. Almost a year ago a student filed a complaint that materials were not accessible
for blind students. The university chose to avoid litigation and entered into an agreement
to comply with ADA. The agreement gives the university four years to make necessary
changes to comply with ADA regulations.
ii. The first step is to inform faculty that changes are coming, then to make policy
changes needed, implement trainings and to make new hires.
iii. The intent is not to tell faculty how to teach their classes, but to provide
support for faculty.
iv. Course and program audits will be conducted and trainings will soon roll-out.
The training will be fairly broad, identifying what ADA is and what needs to be done
to comply with the law.
v. Assistant General Counsel Gordon commented that WSU could become a leader in this
area. She also invited faculty to attend the Accessibility Committee meeting. The
Accessibility Coordinator is Deltha Colvin.
vi. The goals of the agreement can be found on the Faculty Senate documents page.
vii. Questions and comments included:
1. Are you dealing with Asperger's? - Yes
2. Where are we on converting audio to text 鈥� Working on it
3. Is there a connection with the universal design committee? 鈥� Not a committee part
of Health Professions Strategic Plan
viii. Send questions, comments, concerns to Assistant General Counsel Gordon at:
molly.gordon@wichita.edu
2. Online Learning 鈥� Mark Porcaro, Executive Director of Online Learning 鈥� Executive Director Porcaro
provided a status update for the members of the senate (slides will be available on
the senate webpage
i. In spring there were 107 new online students and in the fall 2017 expecting 335
new online students. Fall 2016 total - 656 students with 3809 credit hours, Spring
2017 - 680 students with 4089 credit hours.
ii. Individuals typically returning adults, usually working, over the age of 25 and
taking care of dependents. They typically take 6 to 9 credit hours per term. This
is the recruitment and market audience. These courses and/or programs are not marketed
to incoming freshmen. The goal is to get new students and to increase offerings.
iii. The new programs are: BGS 鈥� Anthropology, English, Political Science; BS in
Engineering Technology 鈥� Management track; Master of Public Administration 鈥� only
regents school that has this one online; and Masters in Special Education (High Incidence/Low
Incidence/Gifted).
iv. Current Program Funding: 53% of the budget for faculty support, including, design
stipends, direct faculty salaries, paying department incentives to offer online program;
17% of the budget goes to recruiting, marketing; 11% is for course support 鈥� blackboard,
collaborative, Panopto, Brainshark, Zoom licenses, GA support, online writing center,
and GA in counseling and testing; 9% is for student support online learning specialist,
plus advisors; 4% goes to scholarships, and 6% goes to infrastructure to meet HLC
guidelines.
v. Q: How big is the budget? R: Still determining for next year, currently about
3 million.
vi. Q: Is there a good metric to help us assess whether there is a point of diminishing
returns (the online sections impact the on campus sections)? R: We have fully online
students who take 90-100% of their coursework online. Then we have students who take
a course online. About 20% of all credit hours generated are online. We have a lot
of students who are leaving face-tot-face for online, but students don't want to be
forced to take an online course.
vii. Q: Do we have an analysis of drop rates in online courses and campus courses?
R: Don't have that information.
viii. Q: Would it be useful to prioritize who gets into online courses? R: Working
with individuals/departments to work on tracking students by major codes to start
identifying which courses have the greatest demand.
ix. Online learning faculty fellows 鈥� This is our third year and at the suggestion
of the co-chairs we have three groups of faculty learning fellows: a group that has
never taught online, an intermediate group, and an advanced group who will serve as
mentors. The call for applications is still open. Q: Is this open to adjuncts? R:
As long as they are fulltime.
VIII. As May Arise
1. WATC/WSU affiliation 鈥� We will have access to an HLC document soon. President Yildirim asked members of
the senate to read the document (30 pages) over spring break. The senate will have
the first reading and second reading following spring break. Administrative Assistant
Dreiling will send out the link. Senior Associate VP Muma stated that the HLC website
is being built.
2. YMCA 鈥�At last week's forums/meetings the WSU student body did not support the move to put
a YMCA on the innovation campus and support it by increased student fees.
i. The Wednesday forum was well attended by faculty, students and staff, and questions/concerns
related to - return on investment, drop in child care, cost for faculty and staff,
the speed at which the decision was being made (two-week deal).
ii. Student-body President stated if funds were available students would rather see
Heskett Center upgraded.
iii. President's Executive Team (PET) is still pursuing the idea.
iv. President Bardo stated we do not have the money to fund nonacademic buildings.
We cannot borrow any more money. Our current CFI (Composite Financial Index) is 2.3
and Senior Associate VP Muma stated we would like to see it above a 3, if it is less
than 1 then there are HLC implications.
v. Q: Why should students foot the bill for a community facility? YMCAs are more
expensive than Heskett; if I wanted to join a Y 鈥� I would have.
vi. Comment: We need to see more number. Q: When do fees sunset or do they? Comment:
Before we vote on it as faculty we need to have more detailed information.
vii. President Yildirim 鈥� The Y will put in 10 million and the innovation board will
put in 5 million.
viii. Q: Does it matter what we think? It didn't seem to matter what the students
thought. Are we being asked for our opinion or not?
ix. President Yildirim 鈥� At the end it is President Bardo's decision, but we need
to provide feedback.
x. Q: As a state university is this good use of our funds?
xi. Comment: KU and K-State charge more per student than what is proposed.
xii. Q: Do we know what will happen to Heskett Center?
xiii. Q: Will students have to pay two fees? The Y and Heskett?
xiv. Conflicting information regarding the viability of renovating Heskett.
xv. President Yildirim will ask Dr. John Tomblin to present to the Faculty Senate.
IX. Adjournment 鈥� at 5:01 PM