MSU FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES February 20, 2002 PRESENT: Young, Morrill, Sherwood, Engel, Kommers, Peed, Linker, Leech, Benham, Howard, Stewart, Lewandowski for Jones, Ross, Nehrir, McClure/Amend, Locke, Levy/Bandyopadhyay, Bogar, Jelinski, Idzerda, McKinsey for Pratt, Fisher, Lynes-Hayes, Butterfield, Kempcke, ABSENT: Hatfield, White, Anderson, Chem Engr, Mooney, Lefcort, Weaver, Lansverk, Henson, Lynch, Griffith, Carlstrom. The meeting was called to order at 4:10 PM by Chair John Sherwood. A quorum was present. The minutes of the February 6, 2002, meeting were approved as distributed. Chair's report - John Sherwood. - The ombudsman survey is being distributed this week. Please encourage faculty to fill it out and return it. - UPBAC met yesterday to receive a report regarding the budget deficit in the Athletics Department. UPBAC will vote on this proposal after discussing it. - The current deficit is to be paid from contingency funds left from renovating the stadium. The three-year period that these funds had to be kept in reserve has now passed. - Of the $1.5 million in contingencies, it is proposed $1 million be used to cover the existing deficit. - $344,000 would pay off bonds for the sound system and score board. - It is proposed the larger issue, how to keep the deficit from recurring, will be managed in the following way: - There will be a $170,000 reduction in the Athletics Department budget. - Student athletic fees will increase to about the average of Big Sky Conference student fees. - There will be a $1.00 surcharge on tickets for events in the Stadium and Fieldhouse. - A greater effort will be made to increase donations. - $100,000 will be spent to build four additional sky boxes, which will rent for $24,000 per year. Rent will increase on existing sky boxes. - After brief discussion of the budget proposal, Michael Peed moved money not be allocated to build the sky boxes. The motion was seconded. The motion was tabled. - Student enrollment for Spring Semester has been determined. There are a few more students enrolled than projected, but there are fewer non-resident students than last year, so tuition and fees collected is about the same. Update from the Strategic Planning Committee - Bruce Morton, Chair. - The charge to the committee is attached to today's Faculty Council agenda. - The committee has met three times. For now, it meets Mondays and Fridays at 3:00 pm. Monday meetings are work/discussion, and Friday meetings are educational. Individuals are invited to discuss topics in their area of expertise (student demographics, physical plant, etc.). - Representatives from Institutional Research and the Budget Office attend every meeting, to provide information, and Joann Amend provides secretarial support. - The Strategic Planning Committee replaces the Long Range Planning Committee and the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Committee. It is to be a link between strategic planning and resource allocation and as such, reports to UPBAC. - UPBAC and Deans' Council are already working on the FY03 budget, so input into the budget process by SPC will be somewhat limited until the FY04 budget cycle. - SPC will discuss MSU's strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOTs). The first two are internal, the last two are external. Using discussions held during Fall Semester by UPBAC and others as background, SPC will distill three key items from each of the four categories for UPBAC to consider. - Acknowledging the difference between strategies and tactics, how will the division of labor between SPC and UPBAC occur? Bruce responded that "strategic planning" is not the same as "planning". The university must develop a frame of thinking that asks, "What must MSU do to leverage its assets?" Unique opportunities and problems need to be recognized. Biases and preferences are not helpful to the process. - Faculty are able to have input into SPC discussion by reading the minutes, which will be posted at the President's Office (Annual Planning & Budget Cycle) web site, and attending Friday meetings, in particular. All meetings are open and the community is welcome to join the discussions. - Regarding the time frame, the committee hopes to identify the SWOTs within the next month. Academics Subcommittee of the NCAA Certification Self Study - Chris Lamb, Chair, and other members of the subcommittee. - Four areas are being considered during the self study: governance, academic integrity (academic standards and predictors, academic advising, how student athletes handle missed classes and tests), fiscal, and equity/sportsmanship/student athlete welfare. - MSU's student athletes come into the university with high academic predictors and have a high graduation rate. - The subcommittee has met with each head coach and is currently gathering information from faculty: Are student athletes able to pursue majors of their choice and reach their academic goals? Is there erosion of the class day and class week? If so, how does that affect student athletes? - During discussion with Faculty Council, it appeared that for the most part, faculty interaction with student athletes and coaches has been good. Students and coaches keep faculty posted about missed classes, and an effort is made to make sure athletes take missed tests in a way that is fair, although there are occasional problems with this (taking a test under poor conditions on the trip or taking it after returning to MSU with test results already posted). Student athletes appear to be well-disciplined and motivated in their class work, although labs and studios can present a problem for them. Some curricula, such as nursing, architecture and art require time periods in clinical settings or studios that make it almost impossible for the student athletes to attend. Some concern was expressed for the erosion of the class day and class week. - Grade checks do not appear to be annoying to the faculty present. - There was agreement that generally, having student athletes in class is a good experience. There does not appear to be pressure from coaches to give better grades to student athletes. Instead, coaches seem to be proud they can recruit high quality students. Is a few cases, student athletes seem to feel a certain degree of entitlement, but this does not seem to be a significant problem for most faculty. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary John Sherwood, Chair