Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

Monday, September 11, 2017 3:30 – 5:00 CH 126

Members Present:Ahmed, Anderson, Asaduzzaman, Babnich, Bailey, Barut, Bukonda, Castro, Celestin, Close, Cramer, Decker, Dehner, Dowling, Dusenbury, Elder, English, He, Hull, Jameson, Jarman, Johnson, Keene Woods, Kreinath, Mahapatro, Markova, Muthiachareon, Myose, Price, Pulaski, Rife, Rokosz, Schwartz, Shaw, Smith-Campbell, Solomey, Sternfeld-Dunn, Tamtam, Weheba, Willis, Yildirim

Members Absent: Moore-Jansen, Taher

Members Excused: Ross

Summary of Action:
• Reviewed and approved new appointments to Rules Committee. (see Rules Committee report)
• Received update briefing from Dr. Bannister on proposed program in Homeland Security and voted to approve this program.


I. Call to Order –President Shaw called the meeting to order at 3:30
• Introduction of new faculty by college deans.
• New Faculty from Libraries, Fine Arts, Graduate College, Fairmount College, Barton School of Business, College of Education and College of Engineering were introduced by their respective deans.
• Break for reception/introductions
3:43 – Resume
• Moment of silence for 911
II. Informal Statements and Proposals
• President Shaw introduced the Executive Committee members and administrative assistant Bobbi Dreiling to the senate members.
• A discussion arose regarding the new four day final exam schedule. It was stated that students seem more stressed out since the schedule was reduced to four days. A suggestion was made that we consider moving back to a five day schedule since we no longer have graduations on Fridays.

III. Approval of the Minutes • Minutes approved were for the May 8, 2017 meeting.and the May 8 Election meeting

IV. President’s Announcements and Report
The following topics related to the senate web page and online resources were reviewed by President Shaw for the Senate.
• Shaw explained that the Faculty Senate is one of three senates on campus. All three are engaged in service to university and participate in the shared governance. She explained that communication has been challenging so every effort will be made to pass information to senators who should share this with their constituents. It was suggested from the floor that a way to improve efficiency of communication would be to make sure that announcements sent by e-mail indicate who is included in the recipient list. This would allow the recipients to avoid duplication when the recipient considers to whom they should forward the information contained in the e-mails.
• Shaw reviewed the Senate web page to show Senators where different information is located on the site.
• Shaw reviewed the “Idea Generator”. The idea generator is available for senators to
• “submit questions and concerns”. The submitted material goes directly to the executive committee who will reply directly to non-anonymous queries.
• Shocker Start (community service). Coordinated by Randy Ware in the Business Advising Center and used to share volunteer opportunities.
• SEAS intervention worksheet (on WSU dashboard) Faculty are encouraged to work regularly on this. Shaw familiarized the Senate with the Early Intervention Worksheet and additional resources for at-risk students.
• Discussed new instructional videos in Bb shells which can be handy for people doing online course for first time.
• Accelerated Degree program (Hanover report)
• 2+2, 2+3 degrees.
• New Fee Structure
• Linked on senate page.

• Town Hall Meeting - Sept 12 @ 11:00 RSC 262 - Grad Fac by-laws. Will cover new bylaws that grad fac will be ask to vote on soon.
• Focus Groups on Student focused university standards (Sept 12, 13, 14 - multiple times) Judy Espinoza – work groups to get ideas about a student-centered campus. Share ideas in 30 minute meetings. Can be found in the training sign-up on my wsu.
• Ad Hoc and Other Committees is a new added tab on senate web page and an effort to track all the committees, members and what they are working on. Advancement for teaching faculty is new
• Academic Honesty – formed last spring. Chaired by Dennis Livesay.
• Faculty Compensation Review – Judy Espinoza is chairing. Looking for pay inequities. Report will be provided by December.
• SPTE Review/ Redesign – provided a report last spring and deciding if the instrument needs to be redesigned. We will hear more from them.
• Text book selection policy - additional members needed – John Jones is chair. Aimed at making materials and signage more accessible and to develop guidelines for accessibility.
• HR committee on Timekeeping and Attendance – impact on graduate students. They are dealing with procedural and technical issues. The faculty representative is Janice Ewing.
• Accessibility committee- big picture committee, room for more faculty members.
• Strategic Planning Implementation committee - Faculty Senate rep needed. The committee willevaluate proposals for applied learning. Cindy Claycomb is chair.

V. Committee Reports

A. Rules Committee - Betty Smith-Campbell, Chair
Confirm new senators:
Thalia Jeffres (Nat Sciences)
Jibo He (Social Sciences) New appointments recommended from Rules Committee-- Amy Ham, Health Professions-- General Education Michelle A dler, Education & Wendy Duesenbury, Health Professions-- Faculty Support, Susan Castro, Humanities --- Rules and Ngoyi Bukonda, Health Professions & T J Boynton, Humanities -- Faculty Affairs. All appointments were approved by verbal vote. Reviewed open vacancies.

VI. Old Business -- None

VII. New Business
• Homeland Security Program
Andi Bannister is new director of program offering a B.S. in Homeland Security and presented a summary of the program and answered questions from the senate. The program is housed in School of Community Affairs. A. Bannister noted that $130 B is available from U.S.. government in strategy and implementation. Many career opportunities in the field. Few programs offered by KBOR schools. WSU would be second school to have this type of program. Working to bring students from Butler. 120 hour degree. Will require two new full time faculty in addition to support from existing faculty and staff. The program will be a complete online program and require no cost for space or budget. Evaluation and assessment will be ongoing to ensure the program is in-step with the field and optimizes student career possibilities/opportunities.

Q- what is student interest level? A – it seems that anecdotally there is student interest on campus, but little hard data is available. A survey was run at Butler which indicated 12 students might be interested in the new program at WSU. Q: Regarding the curriculum course listing – can you require a course on the legal ramifications of homeland security, currently it is an elective? A – yes.
Q: Is there concern as to whether 2 faculty will be adequate? A – two core faculty plus some regular criminal justice faculty and adjuncts will fill anticipated need. Q: Are you planning to fill in with adjuncts? A yes. Q: I thought CJ would only teach one class each in Homeland security. Can these few faculty generate all these online courses? A – yes, will fill in with adjuncts and cj faculty. Q: I don't see how this can be done? Only one applied learning class? A: It’s an online program and we are still working through details, but feel comfortable we can cover the demands. Q: Are the students going through as a cohort to save teaching load? A - Yes. Based on our research we have the sufficient resources and staff to move forward. We will start off the program and build the faculty based on success and needs. Concern raised: There is not enough detail for us to vote on at this time. Q: We don't understand the type of graduates. Will they be agents, policy makers, what kind of jobs will they get? A – state and federal law enforcement, immigration, national security services, are the big areas. This is a more specialized bachelor’s degree responding to current employment demands. This degree will be a springboard to a career in organizations that will supply advanced additional training.
Q: 11 core courses, nine are new courses. So new faculty will only have to teach these nine classes each year? A: The two new faculty should be able to handle it.
Comment: Lots of graduates will go to places like McConnell and stay local. DOD wants this type of degree. There are thousands of jobs across the country, but also graduates could stay local.
Q: Do students have to undergo background check to get into the program? A – No. It’s the responsibility of employer not WSU. We don't do checks on CJ students. Onus is on the hiring agency.
Q Where will the progam be housed? A – online 100% offices will be in law enforcement training building under the auspices of Criminal Justice. First two floors are secure floors. Community affairs floors will be open to students.
Q: Who is going to oversee this? Will the new hires also be chairs of the program? A - No it will be part of Community Affairs but new hires may be qualified to head the program. They will have oversight as needed.
Q will this program be open to international students? A – Absolutely. Open to entire student body.
Q – What happens if you don't make the KBOR deadline? A – Then approval won't make it in time to implement by spring. There is expedited procedure but is problematic – requires annual reports for 3 years. Rick Muma - Not recommended.

Actions taken:
• A motion was made by Senator Smith-Campbell, Senator :Hull , seconded to conduct a vote to decide whether to vote after only a first reading. Result unanimous Aye.
• Voted on program after first reading– Passed with 2 nays and one abstention.
• Comment from floor: Concern was raised about why this has happened multiple times in which the faculty are rushed to vote and don't have time to do a second reading and vote with only five days to make the first reading.

VIII. Visitors
• John Jones - Director of Media Resource Center – Topic: Accessibility
MRC has four groups Instructional design and access, Campus media services, WSU TV and video services team, web service team (new group working on accessibility of online content).
J. Jones - Last spring Molly Gordon discussed WSU’s agreement with National Federation of the Blind (NFB). I’m here to talk about distinction between accommodation and accessibility. Captions for online videos – all major events are now being live captioned. Online video for classes will get automatically generated in Panopto. Any video you create can be captioned. Captions are even accessed by students that aren't hearing impaired, so this provides additional applications and benefits for all learners. Our agreement with NFB asks to make face-to-face interactions accessible as well. It’s less clear what this entails than with online videos. Faculty were surveyed over summer about what accessible face-to-face instruction should look like. This survey will go back out in the next week or so. Most adoptions will be fairly low-level, minimal demands. Things like size of text will be addressed. Examples will be given by signs in classroom next to board. Example - an inch for every 10 feet of audience.
J. Jones displayed good and bad screen reader results. Best results come from a correctly prepared pdf. Correctly-prepared pdf files come from word or PowerPoint documents that make use of the “style” settings.
Questions and Comments from Senate
Q: Can MRC provide a list of supported software? A – that shouldn't be a problem. Quality of screen reader is limited by how the author does or doesn't use “styles”. The plan will be for documents to be reviewed by MRC when it is known there is a student with a disability in the course. You will receive ability ally training – a two hour face-to-face training. In October an online class will be launched.
Q: What is required for faculty? A. Two training sessions are required 1) ability ally either face to face or online and 2) Universal design for learning (online through blackboard).
Q: Why are all training sessions on same day and time? A – you should see that change soon. In addition fo formal training – instructional access and design, will do personalized training. Often will be delivered at unit’s faculty meeting.
Q: What is difference between accommodation and general accessibility? There are document standards for material to be considered accessible. When a student has a unique disability, Disability Services will work to make accommodations.
Q: Do exams that don't ever get posted need to meet accessibility standards? A word document for most exams will probably be sufficient in cases where a student needs special accommodations.
President Shaw: – we can invite John back when needed. He has been very accessible.

IX. As May Arise
Shaw – please submit questions and topics for Bardo’s visit at the next meeting.

X. Adjournment
5:05 PM
RespectfullySubmitted, Doug English, Secretary