Black Hills State University Faculty Senate Minutes- November 18, 2009

posted on November 20, 2009 12:34

November 18, 2009
Black Hills State University Faculty Senate Minutes
Meier Hall Rm. 127

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

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

New Business
• Faculty mentoring programs were discussed. Since this is part of the university strategic plan, a committee has been formed to plan this with HR researching best methods. What we have had at BHSU in the past has been very informal and much more along the lines of orientation. Cross disciplinary programs not tied into evaluation were identified as most useful.
• Dr. Kristi Pearce was invited to Faculty Senate to discuss the IDEA evaluation process. Concerns were voiced about student perceptions of how the instrument was to be used as a punitive measure. Dr. Pearce indicated that IDEA says the instrument should not be used for evaluation of faculty, although that is how it is used in the BOR system. She also reported that IDEA says it should not be given in every class every semester, a policy proposed by a past student BOR member and adopted by the BOR as a whole. Since the IDEA evaluation is supposed to be used for only 30% of the teaching evaluation, Dr. Pearce indicated that she felt an initiative should come from Faculty Senate on how the remaining 70% of the teaching evaluation should be assessed, and she indicated that the administration believes shared governance is of value. Also discussed were the varying rates of understanding by department chairs of how the instrument was to be used appropriately, e.g., low response rates should not be used in the evaluation, slow return of results to faculty members, a limitation of its impact on the PSE to only 30% of the total teaching evaluation.