Minutes of the 成人头条 Faculty Senate


Monday, March 3, 2014
CH 107 3:30 pm

Members Present: Barut, Brooks, Bryant, Celestin, Decker, Hanawalt, Horn, Hull, Johnson, Klunder, Lewis, Matveyeva, Moore-Jansen, Mosack, Perry, Pile, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Taher, Thiessen, Yildirim, Yu

Members Absent: Anderson, Bergman, Castro, Driessen, Hamdeh, Kagdi, Kreinath, Lilu, Lu, Miller, Oare, Trechak, Yeager

Members Excused: Baker, Close, Houseman

Summary of Action
1. Proposed Honors College Baccalaureate 鈥 approved proposal for the creation of an Honors Baccalaureate to be conferred by the Honors College
2. Proposed revisions to WSU Policy & Procedures 5.06 鈥 Approved amendment to the revisions.
3. Include service as a member of the SGA Election Commission an additional duty of the President-elect of the Faculty Senate

I. Call to Order
President Victoria Mosack called the meeting to order at 3:30pm.

II. Informal Statements and Proposals
WSU Foundation's Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign 鈥淚 Heart WSU鈥 -- President Mosack introduced Krista Voth, Annual Fund Director for the WSU Foundation, and asked her to provide some details about the 鈥淚 Heart WSU鈥 campaign. Ms. Voth encouraged all senators to be supportive of the faculty and staff giving campaign with their personal contributions as well as promoting the campaign to their colleagues. She reminded the Senate that this was an opportunity to 鈥済ive back鈥 to the University by contributing to an aspect of the University that 鈥測ou love鈥. The contribution can be directed to a specific area on a list provided by the Foundation, or to an area that was not a part of the list. No fees are deducted from the donation. Last year 20% of the faculty and staff contributed, with the College of Heath Professions leading in terms of percentage of participation. Contributions will be accepted anytime before June 30, and one time donations or payroll deductions are allowed. Contributions to the unrestricted Annual Fund last year was $650 thousand. Ms. Voth praised the work of the 20 student volunteer who called on the alumni for contributions.

III. Approval of the Minutes
The minutes of the January 27, 2014, and February 10, 2014, meetings of the Faculty Senate were approved as written.

IV. President's Report
President Mosack reported on the following three items of interest to the Senate:
A. KBOR Social Media Policy
The Kansas Board of Regents established a work group to make recommendations for a revision of the existing policy regarding 鈥渋mproper use of social media鈥. WSU representatives to the work group are President Mosack, and Richard Muma, associate vice president for academic affairs. The work group has written a draft of a recommended revision of the current policy, adopted by the KBOR in December 2013, and is now seeking feedback from the entire university community. The draft is available for review and comment at: /j/?2783. Feedback will be received from March 3 through Friday, March 28.
The following is a condensed summary of the key points of the draft:
The Kansas Board of Regents supports the responsible use of existing and emerging communications technologies, including social media, to serve the missions of Kansas universities. Each university shall adopt guidelines to advise all university employees on the responsible use of social media.
Social media is defined to be any 鈥渇acility for online publication and commentary鈥.
The guidelines shall make clear that 鈥渢he improper use of social media鈥 does NOT include the following content: academic research and other scholarly activities; academic instruction; statements, debate, or expressions made as part of shared governance; or, communication that is consistent with First Amendment protections which is otherwise permissible under the law.
The guidelines shall remind employees that content on social media may violate existing law or policy and may be addressed through university disciplinary processes IF it: intentionally directs or incites violence; violates existing employee policies addressing professional misconduct; discloses without lawful authority any confidential student information, protected health care information, personnel records, personal financial information, or confidential research data.
The guidelines shall assure employees that they have the right as well as the responsibility to speak on matters of public concern as private citizens, free of any institutional censorship. However, if they choose to do so they should be accurate, exercise appropriate restraint, show respect for the opinions of others, and indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.

B. President Bardo's University Update
President Mosack provided the following summary of President Bardo's address of February 24, 2014:
The University is in the process of creating an "Innovation Campus" (IC) of four new buildings at the mid-southeast part of the campus. The first phase will be the construction of the TECH 2 Building on the site now occupied by the Wheatshocker Apartments (to be removed in August 2014). This new IC will allow the University to join into public and private partnerships which will create new funded research opportunities and new technology, jobs and internships. Outside companies will have the opportunity to build infrastructure on the WSU campus
The University has seen a significant increase in high school senior applications for admission during the fiscal year to the point that President is comfortable in predicting an increase of more than 600 in enrollment this fall, relevant to last fall.
The Virtual One-Stop for advising and enrollment will be operational by the second semester of 2015.
C. RFP from the Tilford Commission
An invitation was emailed to the faculty inviting faculty members to apply for a stipend of $4,000 to develop a new diversity-related course, or to modify an existing course to enhance its diversity content. In addition to the stipend, successful applicants will serve as Fellows of the Tilford Commission for the 2014-15 academic year. Full-time faculty at the rank of instructor or higher and full鈥毭劽猼ime unclassified professionals who have a 50% or greater teaching appointment are eligible to apply. The deadline for submission of the proposal is March 14, 2014.

V. Committee Reports.
Senator Mehmet Barut, Chair of the Rules Committee, announced that an email was being sent to the faculty for nominations for Senate committee positions. He urged all senators to volunteer for committee assignments and to encourage their colleagues to serve as well.

VI. Old Business
A. Proposed Honors Baccalaureate
鈥 2nd reading
Mary Walker, Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, and Kim Engber, Dean of the Honors College, fielded questions from the Senate during the second reading of the proposal from the Honors College seeking Faculty Senate approval of an Honors Baccalaureate degree to be conferred by the Honors College. Eventually several different tracts will be available for honors students to pursue, but at this time only the 鈥淟eadership鈥 tract has been developed to the point of being offered in the Fall semester of 2014. The Leadership tract will serve as an example of the remaining tracts to be available at a later time.
At the first reading of the proposal a number of issues were raised and addressed by the supporters of the proposal.
Several additional questions were raised during the time of this second reading and those were answered to the satisfaction of the majority of the members of the Senate. The vote to accept the proposal, as written, was passed with only one dissenting vote.
B. Proposed revisiouns to WSU Policy & Procedure 5.06: Resolution of Internal Disputes --2nd reading
The University attorney, Ted Ayers, agreed to accept the removal of the only obstacle to passage that was raised during the initial first reading of the proposed change of the policy. The offending sentence could have explicitly prevented a colleague of the faculty member from taking notes during the grievance hearing. The policy was amended by removal of the sentence, and the Senate voted unanimously to approve the policy.

VII. New Business
SGA Request 鈥 The SGA requested that the Senate appoint a senator to serve on the SGA Election Commission as a non-voting, ex officio Election Observer. Senator Ross moved to expand the duties of the president-elect to include this membership. The Senate voted unanimously to accept the motion
.
VIII. As May Arise - none

IX. Adjournment
President Mosack adjourned the meeting at 4:06pm.

Submitted by Walter Horn
Secretary of the Faculty Senate