Draft to be approved 2/20/13

    Metropolitan State University of Denver

 Faculty Senate

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

3:20pm – 4:50pm

Tivoli 320 A, B & C

 

MINUTES

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Attendees:   Badwan, Bagwell, Bahl, Balogh, Beery, Bisio, Bonham, Butler, Butnor, Carnes, Collette, Cook, Corash, Davinroy, Davis, DelCastillo, Denn, Duburguet, Dyhr, Ethier, Evans, Flemon, Forgash, Gibson, Ghosh, Gibson, Giordano, Glatz, Grady-Willis, Graves, Gurka, Haga, Hagen, Hallam, Hasley, Hathorn, Hernandez-Julian, Hill, Hoffman, Holloway, Hutto, Izurieta, Jackson, Jacobs, Jayasanker, Jiang, King, Kleinfeld, Klimek, Komodore, Krasner, Krugman, Lamb, Liu, London, Lubinski, Lyons, Malpass, Matthews, McKenzie, Monico, Mowder, Murphy, Odell, Ortiz, Pantos, Pleis, Preuhs, Reid, Reimer, Rogers, Ropp, Rother, Rucki, Sahami, Sauer, Saxe, Schatz, Sgoutas, Sidelko, Simpson, Stephens, Svonkin, Toubia, Wagner, Wanberg, Weber, Zeiler, Zhu  Guests:  Ayesse, Daughtrey, Root

 

I.                 The Meeting was Called to Order

 

II.               Approval of Previous Meetings Minutes (at Senate Website), VOTE.

 

  The Vote was called to approve the minutes of 12/05/12.

  The minutes were approved with a vote of 43 to 1.

 

III.            Announcements/Updates

-           The A+ grade did not show up last time on Banner is now available from this semester  forward

-           Faculty Senate Teaching Excellence Awards are accepting applications.

 

 Senator Davinroy, TEA Chair, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, outlined the nomination and application process. Nominations are due 2/21/13 and self-nominations are accepted. The Committee needs three members.

 

-           Service Learning Mini-Grants are now available from the Applied Learning Center

 Secretary Rucki gave details on the $500 Mini-Grants that must be spent this semester.

-           Faculty Climate Survey will be initiated by the Faculty Senate Diversity Committee for Spring 2013.

-           There will also be an All Campus Climate Survey conducted in 2013.

-           The Transitions Task Force is having an Open Forum starting next week. Please see the flyer on the table or President Sahami’s recent email with information from Dr. MacKenzie.

-           President Sahami gave an update on the Tenured Rights Task Force. The Task Force is waiting for the two General Counsels, Goldhammer and Martinez to review the language after which it will be brought to the Senate.

-           There was a Summer Pay Policy that was circulated last week and it has become very controversial.  At the last Executive Committee meeting the policy review was charged to the Senate Welfare Committee. The Senate Welfare committee had been working with the Provost on a summer policy. But at the end of last year and throughout the summer, an Ad Hoc Committee was put together by the Provost without any Senate representatives and this policy was developed. President Sahami had heard from faculty who had issues with this new policy.

 

 Senator Fleming, Budget Committee, commented from the floor and reminded President Sahami that they had been charged to do an analysis specifically about money saved by the reduction that totaled less than $50K.

 

 Senator Hagen, History, believes that this issue is time critical and a 6% reduction for faculty would hurt significantly. She proposed a motion that the Senate Executive Committee be given the authority to act in the Senate’s stead because waiting two weeks too long.

 

 Senator Flemon, Chemistry, seconded the motion.

 

 President Sahami thanked Senator Hagen and he asked the Welfare Committee Chair if the committee could have more information for the Executive Committee to review at next week’s meeting.

 

 Senator Matthews, Welfare Committee Chair, Music, answered that the Welfare Committee was meeting on Friday and would do their best to have something ready for next EC. 

 

 Senator Bisio asked if the discussion could be extended on this issue.

 

 President Sahami noted that this item was not formally on the agenda but if there was a motion it could be done.

 

 Moved by Senator Fleming and Seconded by Senator Schatz.

  

 A Vote was called to Suspending Agenda to have discussion.

 With a vote of 62 to 7 the Senate voted to suspend the agenda.

 

 Senator Bisio, Journalism, spoke to the events surrounding this policy change. (Notes provided electronically by speaker)

 

Provost’s Plan:

·         Went to a conference and found like universities using this structure­–“like” universities not listed

·         Faculty at $75,000 or less – 9 hours at 25% of base

·         Faculty at more than $75,000 – 6 hours at 25% pay

·         Summer classes will be 8-week sessions

·         Summer class will have 25 students to make, or average 25–if a lab has 15 then another classes must have 35 students to make to average 25

·         Last summer it was 12 students to make

·         More than doubled for this summer to make

·         In fact, compared to Fall and Spring semesters, summer class size is an increase of 19%

·         Do more with less

·         So…

·         At nine hours– this is a 75% load, in half the time for 25% of your salary.

 

Staffing Pattern Book–2011-2012:

·         Used an arbitrary annual salary of $90,000

·         Found 33 administrators making more than $90,000

·         Just these 33 administrators account for $3,767,883 in annual salaries

·         Doing the math– total divided by 6 equals $627,980.50, or $628,000

·         $628,000 is needed to fund these 33 administrators for two months during the summer

·         Put into another context–this means that campus-wide, the university must fill 31 class with 25 students just to pay these 33 administrators–no money goes to faculty

 

Proposal:

·         40% of administrators go on a 10-month contract.

·         Their salary divided by 12–monthly x 2

·         Two months salary subtracted from their annual base

·         If 40% of the above mentioned 33 administrators went to 10-month contracts that would be a savings Summer 2013 of $1,507,153

 

IV.           Committee Report:  - FS Curriculum Committee (Documents Attached as: FSCCReportJanuary232013.pdf and FSCCReportFebruary62013.pdf)

 

 Senator Hernandez reviewed the submitted reports.  

 

Report to Metropolitan State College of Denver Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee

January 23, 2013

Unless otherwise noted, packets are approved unanimously.

 

SCOB

12134

 

ACC

Update to Accounting course.

 

SCOB

12136

 

ACC

Modifications to Accounting Minor.

 

SCOB

121310

 

ACC

Small modification to Accounting Major

 

LAS

12137

 

MTH

New CS course and Program Modifications

 

LAS

12139

 

BIO

Changes to Program Language and New Course in Paleobotany

 

LAS

121324

 

ARTH

Modifications to Women, Art, and Gender Politics

 

SPS

12136

 

CJC

Modifications to Criminal Justice Program

 

SPS

12137

 

HPS

Modifications to course in Kinesiology

 

SPS

121313

 

IND

New Internship course in Industrial Design

General Studies Designations:

 

ARTH

2380: Approved for AH designation

 

February 6, 2013

 

Unless otherwise noted, packets are approved unanimously.

 

SCOB

12133

 

MKT

Course modifications.

 

SCOB

121311

 

ACC

Modifications to Accounting Certificate.

 

SPS

121314

 

HSP

Archiving of minor.

 

LAS

121322

 

PSY

Course modifications. Approved subject to minor revisions.

 

LAS

121328

 

EAS

New course, course modifications, and changes to major. Approved subject to minor

revisions.

 

LAS

121342

 

BIO

Course modifications.

 

SPS

12138

 

HPS

Modifications to Dance Minor. Dance is no longer a concentration, but a separate minor.

General Studies Designations:

 

MKT 2010: SBS II Approved unanimously.

MKT 2010: GD Approved unanimously.

 

 Discussion was called by President Sahami. There was no discussion.

Curriculum approved unanimously by the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee is automatically approved by the Senate unless there is a question posed by a Senator on the Senate floor. 

 

 President Sahami accepted the report on behalf of the Senate.

 

V.                 FIRST READING of MOTION TO CHANGE BY-LAWS and DISCUSSION: Changes to Multi-Cultural Curriculum Review (MCCR) Committee section in By-Laws - MCCR Committee (Document Attached as: Change of Committee to include Service Learning Designation.doc)

 

 Senator Carnes, Chair, Multi-Cultural Review Committee, outlined the new proposed name change from the Multi-Cultural Curriculum Review Committee to the Academic Designation Curriculum Committee now that Service Learning Designation responsibilities have been added to the committee. He asked for any questions.

 

 Senator Flemon, Chemistry, asked why the name change is needed. He did not support the name change.

 

 Senator Butler, Human Services, spoke to her department and they had similar concerns about the name change would shift the function and they suggested that the name be both the Multi-Cultural and Service Learning Designation Committee.

 

 Senator DelCastillo, Chicano/a Studies, agreed that the name should not be changed.

     

VI.           PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION and VOTE*: A Resolution to Support the Legislative  Bill Banning Concealed Weapons in University Buildings - Sec. S. Rucki and GUEST: Dr. A. Graves (Document Attached as: Concealed Weapons Resolution.docx)  

 President Sahami discussed the fact that the Board of Trustees would be meeting on Thursday where they will be taking up the issue of Representative Levy’s Bill that is going up before the State Legislature to ban concealed weapons inside university buildings. Secretary Rucki and Graves have been in contact with Representative Levy’s office and will be presenting this information.

 

  Secretary Rucki explained how they approached the writing of a resolution for a piece of legislation that has not yet been presented. But since it was time-sensitive, they found the old AHEC policy before the court case and reviewed their language. So, the resolution was written in support reverting to the old AHEC policies and supports any legislative agenda that will allow AHEC to do that.

 

 President Sahami opened the floor for discussion and pointed out that this item was time-sensitive and the President had asked him if the Senate had taken a position on this because the President wanted to announce at the Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday. So, President Sahami asked the Senate if they were comfortable with the role as senator to vote in the stead of their department. He asked for discussion on going on the record before the Board of Trustees meeting and asked if there were anyone who objected to voting in this meeting. There were no objections. He called for further discussion.

 

 

  Senator Hasley, CIS, asked for the definition of ‘weapon’ and if pepper spray would be considered a weapon.

 

 A Vote was called to support Senator Levy’s Bill and support language to ban concealed weapons in University buildings.

 

 The Resolution passed with a vote of 55 to14.     

 

VII.        PRESENTATION and DISCUSSION: Course Audit Policy - Academic Affairs Committee with GUEST:  Mr. G. Root Committee (Document Attached as: Course Audit Policy.docx)

 Senator Izurieta, Chair, Academic Policy Committee, Modern Languages, invited Greg Root, Assistant Director of the Access Center to comment.

 

 Mr. Greg Root, Assistant Director, Access Center spoke to encourage the passing of the proposed Course Audit Policy in spite of the fact that it could prevent a specific student population from potentially attending Metro. He believes that Metro must specifically design programs to serve this population correctly.

 

 President Sahami asked for discussion.

 

 President Sahami asked to confirm that faculty can still allow audits of their classes.

 

 Senator Izurieta thanked Greg Root for his comments.

 

 Senator Izurieta read the language of the policy into the record:

 

1.       Auditors must be admitted students.

2.       Auditors may not pre-empt students who wish to take the course for academic credit.

3.       Audit requests are subject to seat availability and maximum course enrollments, and will not be processed until the day after course waitlists have been absorbed (see the Procedural Calendar at Document3  http://www.msudenver.edu/MetroCal/tools/acal.jsp for current semester dates). Prior to that time, auditors may attend class pending final verification of available seats.

4.       Auditors will be charged for and must pay applicable tuition and fees in full at the time of formal enrollment according to the first column of the Tuition and Fees Table www.msudenver.edu/studentaccounts/tuition_dates_deadlines/index.shtml.

5.       Auditors must adhere to the University’s Student Code of Conduct.

6.       Faculty, departments, and programs may deny audit requests.

7.       Auditors do not receive academic credit.

8.       Audited courses cannot be converted to “for-credit” courses, and “for credit” courses cannot be converted to audited courses.

9.       Auditors are not allowed to submit assignments or exams, and will not receive feedback on their work from the faculty.

10.   Auditors cannot request the faculty to modify course materials or instruction, with the exception of ADA accommodations.  Auditors who require ADA accommodations must first register with the Access Center. (www.msudenver.edu/access)

11.   CU Denver Pooled, CCD Pooled or CCD Inter Institutional courses cannot be audited at MSU Denver.

 

  President Sahami asked if the Senate was ready to vote.

 

 A vote was called to approve the Course Audit Policy.

 With a vote of 54 to11 the Senate approved the policy.

  

VIII.     PRESENTATION and DISCUSSION: A Discussion of the Automatic Inclusion of Written Comments on SRIs -FS RTP Committee (Document Attached as: SRI-presentation.pdf )

 

 Vice-President Ortiz, RTP Committee, informed the Senate that for the first time student narrative comments were seen this semester in the portfolio review cycle. She explained the committee’s goal was to share what their experiences with these comments and to make faculty aware that this was happening. She reviewed a slide presentation that showed the new form that had the text input field.

 

  She read some of these anonymous sample comments.

 

 Some of the concerns that the committee discussed were:

 

What is the process to remove process or to appeal it?

There might be potentially libelous comments.

The data may or not be that reliable.

Are these artifacts permanently attached to faculty records?

Who has access to comments?

 

The RTP committee was uncomfortable with seeing these comments and the significant negative biased that was attached with this. The committee asked for feedback from the departments.

 

 Senator Holloway, RTP Committee Chair, recalled the training on submitting portfolios and that they were designed for faculty to ‘put their best foot forward’ and this was not helping faculty.

 

 Senator Hagen, History, was on the Faculty Evaluation Task Force when this evaluation for SRIs came through and the implementation intent of the committee was that nothing other than the numbers was to go forward. Comments were exclusively for the faculty members’ eyes alone.

 

  President Sahami commented that he was the other Faculty Senate representative on that committee and agreed that that was exactly his recollection. He reread the language in Chapter V and it lists the comments as an optional thing to be put into artifacts so they were not mandatory.

 

 Vice-President Ortiz reminded the Senate that only Section 1 is the concern. Section 2 and 3 of the SRI document are completely private.

 

 

 President Sahami confirmed that there were no others waiting to comments. He had a request from a non-member to speak.

 

 A Vote was called to suspend the Senate session to allow a visitor to speak.

 With a vote of 57 to 8 the Senate voted to suspend the session and allow a visitor to speak.

 

 Simon Ayesse, Senior Student at Metro who works with the Student Success Program, spoke about the student role and that students are not qualified to evaluate instructors just to give feedback and that he would hope any feedback student’s provide is being taken in that context.

 

 The Senate was called back into session.

 

 Senator Bagwell, Human Services, asked how it had happened that these comments were appearing.

 

 Senator Grady-Willis, African and African American Studies, commented that this topic was brought up to LAS Department Chairs and there was unanimous opposition which was convene from the LAS Dean to the Provost.

 

 President Sahami commented as well about a call he received from inside the LAS Chairs Meeting.

 

 Senator Hagen, History, concluded that if this is being done it is by administrative fiat and it goes completely against the Evaluation Task Force. She was on the Task Force for over two years. She knows what was being discussed and she knows what was passed and the intention of it. She recounted that a junior colleague that was going up for tenure this year and was told in the dossier workshop that he had to put comments in.

 

 Senator Krugman, Hospitality, Tourism and Events asked what the next steps were.

 

 Senator Schatz, Psychology, asked if there was any written language that the evaluations would not be included.

 

 Senator Hathorn, Psychology, spoke from her background and that there is no way to disregard this information and the likelihood that it will negatively impact faculty is high.

 

 Senator Matthews asked if there was any way for a vote to be taken today.

 Senator Hagen, History, reminded the Senate that the Post-Tenure Review documents are going forward and this makes the issue time-critical.

 

 Senator Holloway agreed with Senator Hagen and that the RTP policy is not to look at the comments.

 

  A question came from the floor if the comments were in the Post-Tenure review documents.

 

 Senator Hagen called for a Resolution from the Faculty Senate call for this policy cease and desists immediately, no comments should be required, and that the disinformation should be halted immediately.

 

 President Sahami made an amendment that all future changes to the evaluation process go through the proper Handbook vetting and not be made by fiat

 

 Senator Bagwell proposed that this be applied to across the board and not just for post-tenure track.

 

 The amendments were accepted by the original author of the motion and the second.

 

 Senator Rucki read the resolution into the record:

 

The Faculty Senate resolves that the written SRI comments stop being included in review portfolios and that all future handbook changes be put through the Handbook change process.

 

 Senator Hagen injected that the wording expressly say post-tenure review.

 

 Resolution was re-read into record:

The Faculty Senate resolves that the written SRI comments stop being included in review portfolios and that all future handbook changes be put through the Handbook change process.

 

 Senator Hernandez commented that some faculty may want to use the comments so the wording should say ‘automatically included’.

 

 President Sahami confirmed that the changes were accepted by first amender and the second.

 

 A comment came from the floor from Senator Preuhs.

 Senator Balogh answered Senator Preuhs’ question that faculty can include good comments.

 

 A Vote was called to approve the resolution to cease using SRI written comments in review portfolios.

 With a vote of 71 to 1 the Senate approved the resolution.

 

IX.           PRESESENTATION and DISCUSSION: Federal Credit Hour Regulations and Syllabus Forms - FS Curriculum Committee with GUEST: Dr. C. Daughtrey. Documents Attached as: 1.27.13_Credit_Hour_Revisions_in_Purple_Book.docx, Independent study syllabus form draft 1.27.13.docx and Regular_Course_Syllabus_Form 1.28.13 draft with instructions.docx) Policy.docx)

 Senator Hernandez reviewed the Purple Book changes and forms.

 

 Vice-President Ortiz asked what if the course required face-to-face, hybrid, and online contact and how many syllabi must be completed for it and would a Banner course title different from the actual title be a problem?

 

 President Sahami asked about putting the federal guidelines for definitions for credit hours in the course syllabus and if there were any schools that did that.

 

 Clay Daughtrey, Purple Book Chair, responded that putting the federal guidelines in could save time explaining and help with filling out paperwork.

 

 Senator Hernandez commented that if a motion came forward to remove the definitions he would take that back to the Curriculum committee.

 

X.               Adjournment  

   A vote was called to adjourn.

  The Meeting was adjourned.

*-Time sensitive vote to endorse resolution for requested input to February 7th Board of Trustees meeting