Faculty Senate Minutes January 27, 2010

posted on January 31, 2010 12:38

January 27, 2010
Black Hills State University Faculty Senate Minutes
Meier Hall Rm. 127

Members present: Jami Stone (VP), Laura Colmenero-Chilberg (Secretary), Jim Hesson, Parthasarathi Nag, Gina Gibson, Chen Wu, David Crawford, Sasha Pursley, Leonard Jacobs

3:15 PM -- Senate called to order. Agenda was approved (Hesson moved to approve and Jacobs seconded the motion). Minutes for the 12/09/09 were not available and their approval was tabled until the February meeting

Old Business
• Parking Lot: Discussion was held about handicapped parking spaces, ticketing cars which take up multiple spaces, the dangers of a parking lot where the only way to exit is by driving backwards, and the possibility of free parking during a salary freeze.
• Sexual Harassment Training: Questions were asked about the necessity of annual training on this topic. If there is a problem with certain individuals, it should be addressed with that individual.
• BHSU Bookstore: The bookstore would like faculty to know that book information would be information will be available for students online 2-3 weeks before the semester starts.
• FS Committee Assignments: Gina Gibson was appointed as Faculty Senate member to serve on the General Education Committee.
• IDEA: Several issues were raised about the IDEA evaluations: they cost a huge sum of money to use each year, the direction sheets for the three colleges are not the same, BOR universities do not use the information as intended by the company (not to be used punitively or for salary determination), and that older evaluations provided much more specific and useful information for improvement of learning in classes.

New Business
• Meeting with President Schallenkamp and Dr. Myers: Randy Royer and Jami Stone met with President Schallenkamp and Dr. Myers on December 11, 2009.
o Salaries and Other Compensation: The president indicated that salaries were frozen but that the Faculty Salary Enhancement Fee had been collected. She stated that asking that this fee be distributed was not her place and that Faculty Senate should work for this. Senators questioned why advocating for salary for her faculty was not her place. Student Senate would also look into why this fee had been collected and not distributed.
o Evaluation of Administrators: The possibility of using a form of the IDEA evaluations for administrator evaluation was discussed. Dr. Myers indicated that they were still investigating this.
• Sabbatical Leave Requests: These were reviewed.
• Curriculum Proposals: MUS 185 on a no-credit recital attendance class was reviewed.