Minutes for the meeting of the Faculty Senate

May 11, 2015

Senators present:Ahmed, Barut, Bergman, Brooks, Bryant, Castro, Celestin, Chang, Decker, Dehner, Horn, Houseman, Huckstadt, Hughes, Jin, Johnson, Klunder, Lu, Mason, Moore-Jansen, Mosack, Muthitachareon, Rillema, Rokosz, Ross, Shaw, Trechak, Walker, Yildirim

Senators absent:Adler, Baker, Hanawalt, Hull, Huansicker, Perry, Ramanan, Taher, Thiessen, Woods, Yao, Yeager, Yu

Senators excused: Close

Summary of Action:
A. Accepted Committee Appointments (see Committee reports)
B. Accepted four new Senators
C. Accepted the appointment of New Ombudsperson


1. Call to order at 3:30 pm by President Mehmet Barut.

2. Approval of the Minutes of the meeting April 27, 2015

3. Informal Statements and Proposals
鈥 Recognition of Senator Walter Horn for his many years of service to the Senate and the University.
鈥 Appreciation expressed for the leadership of Senate President Mehmet Barut.
鈥 Wade Robinson, VP of Student Engagement, provided resources regarding the process for handling sexual assault on campus. These resources included a memo distributed on campus in Sept 2014, a copy of the Q and A from the Office of Civil Rights with regard to Title IX. Attention was drawn to p. 29 F-4 on Off-Campus Conduct, and a copy of the Student Code of Conduct, with attention to p. 11 on Sexual Misconduct.

4. Committee Reports
A. Rules, Peer Moore-Jansen, Chair
鈥 Nominations to fill faculty senate committee vacancies presented and the following were approved:

Faculty Affairs Pina Mozzani
General Education George Dehner
Sue Abdinour
Natalie Grant
Library Chase Billingham
Semih Tartaroglu
Rules Carolyn Shaw
Hussein Hamdeh
Undergraduate Research Dinorah Azpura
Susan Sterret
University Exceptions Deepak Gupta
Sarah R, Taylor


Vacancies remain for the Faculty Support committee (from Education), and the Scholarship Committee (from Humanities)
B. Library Committee Annual Report was received (no action items needing approval).
C. Planning and Budget Committee - reported by Mehmet Barut
鈥 Expectation of 5% tuition and fees increase (combined)
鈥 Assumption that there will be no budget cut from the State
鈥 Salary increase of 1% expected, to be applied to the base salary mid year with 2% increase. Faculty must complete FAR to be eligible.
鈥 University considering an additional $1/credit hour fee for technology and $1/credit hour for transportation (to offset shuttle costs).
鈥 Considering additional Program Fees in health care and engineering. These must have 'high demand' and 'high costs' to be approved.

5. Ombudsperson
鈥 Will Klunder re-elected to serve a three year term.
鈥 Victoria Mosack and Bob Ross continue to serve.
鈥 Appreciation expressed to these individuals for their service in this capacity.

6. President鈥檚 Annual Report of Work by the Senate in 2014-15
鈥 Received Updates/Briefings
One-Stop 鈥 Janet Brandes
Phased Retirement - Tony Vizzini
Campus Safety - Wade Robinson; Sara Morris; and Glendon Miller
Alternative Credentials - Richard Muma; Mark Porcaro; Susan Norton
Young Professionals of 成人头条 - Suzy Finn
Student Early Alert System - David Wright
SGA Tobacco Free Initiative - Matthew Conklin
Initiatives to advance strategic planning goal # 7 鈥 Deans
Kognito Overview 鈥 At-Risk for College students/faculty Training - Maureen Dasey-Morales
Strategic Planning and WSU Ventures 鈥 Cindy Claycomb
鈥 Endorsed/Approved/Acknowledged
Alternative Paths for Credentials 鈥 Endorsed by Faculty Senate
鈥 Guidelines are being drafted by the Academic Affairs Committee
Online Procedure Manual by Online Advisory Group
Social Media Implementation Policy 鈥 Approved by Faculty Senate
Tobacco-Free Campus Resolution by SGA 鈥 Endorsed by the Faculty Senate
鈥 We raised concerns, discussed, and offered input
Weapon鈥檚 Policy/ Concealed Carry
Pregnancy-illness and tenure/promotion issues for faculty
Provisional Admissions & Automatic Expedited Exceptions
Performance-based funding
Transfer and Articulation as well as concurrent enrollment
Trends in university workforce towards a higher percentage of non-teaching professionals and administrators
Implication of block grant reallocation
Institutional support for development of online/hybrid courses
Implication of potential tuition freeze

鈥 Issues for the Coming Year
Revisit Tenure and promotions policy
鈥 possible adaptation of Boyer or UniScope models
Revisit Intellectual Property policy
Implications of a prospectus for each program
Implications of multiyear contracts and titles for NTT faculty
Revisit policy on Department Chair to incorporate Department Head definition and implications

鈥 Thanks expressed to all outgoing Senate members, the Executive Committee team, and to Bardo, Vizzini and the Deans.

7. Election of four new Senators
鈥 Nick Solomy (Math- Physics), Sam Yeager (Hugo Wall School), Judith Babnich (Performing Arts), Masud Chan (Management)

8. As may arise

9. Adjournment at 4:00 pm