MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES December 6, 2000 PRESENT: Hatfield, Sherwood, Miller, Linker, Leech, Benham, Stewart, Larsen, Harkin, Nehrir, Mooney, McMahon, McClure, Levy, Bogar, Bond, Myers for Jelinski, Kirkpatrick, Lynch, Fisher, Prawdzienski, Butterfield, Scott. ABSENT: Young, Morrill, White, Anderson, Kommers, Peed, Howard, Jost, Lefcort, Locke, Lansverk, McKinsey, Griffith, Carlstrom. The meeting was called to order by Chair Ron Larsen at 4:10 PM. It was determined a quorum was present. The minutes of the November 29, 2000, meeting were approved with the following correction: Faculty Affairs report - "Randomly-assigned identification numbers would be used by faculty for anonymity unanimity and to ensure there is no duplication of reviews. It was agreed safeguards for faculty to remain anonymous unanimous need to be highlighted." Chair's report - Ron Larsen. - Commissioner of Higher Education Crofts is holding a meeting in Helena today for statewide Montana University System faculty leadership and others to discuss the up-coming legislative session. Although Ron Larsen and John Sherwood were unable to attend, Cathy Conover attended from MSU. There appears to be interest in involving faculty from the units of the system in legislative planning. - Commissioner Crofts will be on campus December 11. Faculty Council members are invited to meet with him at 3 PM in the President's Conference Room, Montana Hall Basement. - Should there be some response to legislator Balyeat's editorial in the BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE to address inaccuracies and misleading statements in the article? Ron distributed a list of some points that could be made in such a response. Volunteers to draft a response were solicited, but after further discussion, it was agreed UGC Steering Committee will discuss a possible response (which would probably be made after allowing Commissioner Crofts time to respond). - There have been a number of nominations made for faculty and department head positions on the Provost search committee. All department head's nominations will be forwarded to the President. Nominations are leaning heavily toward the sciences. Ron asked that an effort be made to solicit nominations from the humanities. Faculty Affairs Committee report - Ron Larsen and David Scheerer. - The committee has developed a review of administrators which can be completed on the web or on paper. Copies of a memo which describes the review to faculty and the administrator assessment form were distributed to members present. - If the concept is approved, administrators above the rank of department head would be expected to post their self-evaluation statements on the web. Department heads would be expected to distribute the statements to their faculty. After discussion, it was agreed department heads should be asked to post their self-evaluations, also. - Each tenurable faculty member would receive a confidential ID number which could not be traced back to the individual. The review would be conducted by Faculty Council, and the only involvement of administrators would be to submit their self-evaluations to Ron Larsen for posting on the Faculty Council web site and to receive final results of the assessment. - It was agreed the rating scale should be reversed, so the first choice is "strongly agree" and the last choice before N/A is "strongly disagree". - Harry Benham moved the review of administrators, using this format, be accepted. The motion was seconded and carried. - Terry Roark and Joe Fedock have seen the proposal and seemed to find it acceptable. The proposal will be sent to President Gamble. WebCT - Kim Obbink and Ritchie Boyd. - At the end of FY 2000, the Commissioner of Higher Education put money into the Provost's Office budget to support on-line course development. Part of the money is to provide a tool to develop and offer courses, support for the tool, and training for people using it. - The RFP for the on-line courses was distributed in today's mail to department heads and deans, and training programs are scheduled. - The purpose of the tool is for faculty and departments to develop and deliver on-line courses on-campus and off-campus. WebCT was chosen after faculty and other university representatives at the Bozeman, Billings, Havre and Great Falls campuses looked at several possibilities. WebCT has a low license cost and low implementation support. It interfaces with Banner and other campus-wide software. - Features of WebCT include ability to download a syllabus, testing, evaluation, and ability to provide some statistics. Faculty may want to think about different ways to assess students' work, not just through traditional kinds of tests, with on-line courses. - To get started with an on-line course using WebCT, the faculty member attends an introductory session and receives an ID number and account. Level I and II training are available but are not necessary if the individual prefers to use other learning methods. - The Burns Telecommunication Center and ITC are working closely together in training and implementation. If faculty have questions, Ritchie Boyd, BTC, is the contact person. AJM Johnson Remodel - Tom McCoy. - Space issues for Agriculture, Microbiology, Cell Biology and Neuroscience have hopefully been settled. Significant remodeling of the AJM Johnson basement will address space issues for Ecology and make it possible for the Ecology faculty to all be in one area of campus. - Windows which are 3x5 feet will be put in the basement. The contractor will be asked to do all jack hammering outside the time of 8-to-5, Monday through Friday, to alleviate noise and dust problems, but the work will still be disruptive for the building occupants. - It is hoped the work can be completed between January and August, 2001. - Funding will come from IDCs. - In Cooley Hall, deteriorated lab benches are being replaced and adequate fume hoods are being put in place. Recruitment and Retention Task Force Update - John Sherwood. - The task force has been meeting each week this semester. The goal has been to investigate obstacles to recruitment and retention of students. Discussions have been oriented toward non-academic issues. - Members of the task force and of the seventeen working groups were listed. The working groups will finish their tasks next week and prepare a one page list of recommendations for improving recruitment and retention that are no-cost or low-cost. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:05 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary Ron Larsen, Chair