Faculty Senate Minutes December 9th 2009

Faculty Senate Minutes December 9th 2009
Black Hill State University

Members present: Randy Royer (Pres.), Jim Hesson, Mary Jones, Parthasarathi Nag, Gina Gibson, Sonya Pagel, Sasha Pursley, David Crawford, Chen Wu, Jami Stone

3:10 Senate called to order
• Hesson moved to approve agenda, seconded by Nag
• Nag moved to approve minutes, seconded by Gibson
New Business
Randy Royer met with the Academic Council
• Discussed instruction sheet distributed with the IDEA surveys and the instruction sheet with the reference to the information being used in faculty evaluation and promotion will be removed. The IDEA website states that the surveys are designed to use for course and instruction improvement. Dr. Pearce asked the Faculty Senate for suggestions of other national surveys that would be readily available for use at BHSU.
• The Senate discussed the disparity across campus of instructions included with the IDEA surveys at the time of dissemination to students.
• Several questions were raised about how the faculty surveys are calculated in the different departments across campus. Performance based evaluation can be problematic as positions vary so much between departments and faculty members. The IDEA surveys are used very differently across the university system in South Dakota.
• Also discussed were the possible influences on student responses that would skew the results of the surveys as they apply to course and instructional improvement. Those influences included the time the surveys were given, conversations among students prior to filling out the surveys, if the student did not like the subject or instructor, how hard the material was for the course, and how the students perceived their power in the survey results.
• A discussion of suggested guidelines for best administration of the surveys resulted in Randy requesting volunteers to prepare a suggested instruction sheet for use campus wide. Gina Gibson and Mary Jones will complete these guidelines for the January meeting.
• There is also an administrative survey from IDEA designed to assist administrators in reviewing their positions based on input from faculty. Randy shared the website information with the Academic Council. Randy asked for a motion for the Senate to pursue the concept of feedback for administrators in the organizational alignment at BHSU. The motion was made and seconded with a discussion about how the feedback would be used by administration. Seven members agreed with the feedback discussion, one abstained and one, opposed.

Parking
• Pursley pointed out that handicapped parking slots have been reduced with the equipment parked in the faculty parking lot and that faculty and staff are parking in student parking areas. There is concern that accidents may occur with this increased traffic and that no additional handicapped slots have been made available. A suggestion was made that staff in Woodburn park in the Young Center parking lot and all others in the faculty/staff parking lot. There were also concerns about the plans for snow removal during the construction.
Advising
• A discussion about faculty advising brought up the concept of professional advisors. These advisors could cover specific advising, provide consistency for the students, and make decisions about transfers, etc. during the first two years of the student’s program. The student could then possibly be assigned to an advisor in a specific major.
• An advising handbook or document for faculty would be helpful.
Course minor modification
• Motion made by Hesson to approve and seconded by Gibson.
Evaluations and salary
• Discussion about the possibility of averaging salary increases over time when the actual increase is not available. Concern about the impact of the salaries freeze on retirement, the impact on faculty evaluation was expressed by the Faculty members. Randy and Jami will discuss these concerns with the President at their next meeting.
Next meeting is scheduled for January 27th
Meeting adjourned at 5:01
Minutes submitted by Mary L. Jones