Faculty Senate Minutes October 28, 2009

posted on December 01, 2009 14:56

October 28, 2009
Black Hills State University Faculty Senate Minutes
Meier Hall Rm. 127

Members present: Randy Royer (Pres.), Laura Colmenero-Chilberg (Secretary), Jim Hesson, Mary Jones, Parthasarathi Nag, Gina Gibson, Chen Wu, Leonard Jacobs

3:17 PM -- Senate called to order. Agenda was approved with minor changes (Hesson moved to approve and Nag seconded the motion). Minutes were approved with minor changes. (Jones moved to accept. Nag seconded the motion)

Old Business
• Randy Royer and Jami Stone met with President Schallenkamp and Dr. Myers.
o Salaries and Other Compensation: The president reported that salaries would probably be frozen for a second year and that the Faculty Salary Enhancement fee may be distributed. A discussion of how it was bad form to raise parking and health fees during a salary freeze was held. In addition, individuals who earned Exceeds Expectations on last year’s PSE will receive no benefit from this performance excellence except for use on promotion and tenure packets.
o Curriculum Process: Discussion was held about the practice of some programs skipping the departmental review segment of the curriculum process before curriculum proposals are passed onto the College Curriculum Committees. It was pointed out that this is a continuing problem that has been addressed for many years, and still it continues.
o Classroom Technology: Failure to communicate with faculty who use existing technology when upgrades and equipment changes are made was discussed. This led to a meeting with Warren Wilson who recognized the communication problem. Randy Royer suggested that a list of equipment by room be developed for faculty use.
o Student Opinion Surveys: Kristi Pearce has been invited to a future Faculty Senate meeting to talk about the topic. President Schallenkamp indicated that if faculty propose an alternative nationally normed student opinion survey that it could be taken under consideration.
o Plus or Minus Grading: President Schallenkamp indicated that this was not an option suggesting that it would result in dropping GPA’s, fewer graduate school acceptances and awards, etc.
o FS Committee Assignments: Randy Royer attended the Presidential Advisory Committee. They discussed the strategic plan and who had responsibility for the action items. Faculty mentoring is also part of the strategic plan, and Randy Royer is on that subcommittee. Increasing Student Satisfaction and Academic Success is an additional subcommittee on which Randy Royer serves.

New Business
• Randy Royer has been in an email discussion with other faculty presidents across the state. They have been discussing the IDEA student opinion survey. The question, “How exactly do the surveys improve student learning?” was discussed, and the two were seen by many to not work together. Untenured faculty are concerned about doing poorly on the IDEA survey and its possible career-related consequences. Some professors create their own more useful surveys and also use those. A major portion of the discussion centered on the question, “If the IDEA is used only for 30% of the teaching section of the PSE, specifically what is used for the other 70%?” There has not been a sufficient answer to that question from the administration at this time.
• Terry Hupp visited to talk about technology in the classroom. He provided a list of equipment found in each classroom, talked about replacement schedules and explained that faculty computers are under Fred Nelson’s authority.