MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES March 5, 2003 MEMBERS PRESENT: Young, Gipp, Sherwood for Giroux, Kommers, Schlotzhauer, Metz for Linker, Leech, Dodd for Taylor, Howard, Stewart, Jones, Nehrir, Conant, Weaver, Amend, Locke, Levy, Bogar, Jelinski, Pratt, Fisher, Lynes-Hayes, Prawdzienski, Kott for Knight. MEMBERS ABSENT: Morrill, McDermott, White, Anderson, Chem Engr, Yoo, Lefcort, English, Bond, Idzerda, Lynch, Kempcke, Hoffman. OTHERS PRESENT: Bandyopadhyay, Fedock. The meeting was called to order by Chair Richard Howard at 4:10 PM. A quorum was present. The minutes of the February 26, 2003, meeting were approved as distributed. Chair's report - Rich Howard. - Two Faculty Handbook amendments proposed to the administration are being discussed with Legal Counsel Leslie Taylor. - Role, Scope, Criteria, and Procedures (Section 620.00) gives faculty the option of being evaluated using the document in effect at the date of hire or using any approved departmental document in effect up to the time of review. - The concern of the administration is that if two faculty within a department are reviewed at the same time, using different documents, a legal case could be made, if one decision is negative, that different criteria were used for the reviews. - During discussion by the Council, the point was made that this approach (allowing different documents to be used) was recommended to a department by Legal Counsel through Vice Provost Fedock during the last review cycle. Why is this now not advisable? In addition, the Provost and AA/HR Director were in attendance at Faculty Affairs Committee meetings when the proposal was discussed, and no mention was made of a possible problem. - It was suggested that if the issue cannot be resolved in a way acceptable to both Faculty Council and the administration, Legal Counsel be invited to Faculty Council to discuss it. - Conciliation and Grievance Complaints - Deadline for Filing (Section 1312.00) allows a faculty member to file a grievance until October 1, if notification of a negative decision is made less than thirty days before the end of the contract period. The Faculty Affairs Committee is asked to add a sentence making it clear that this does not extend the contract for an additional year. - The Board of Regents met March 3. - The search firm for the Commissioner of Higher Education has interviewed individuals across the state regarding challenges in higher education. Some of the more negative statements have been removed from the draft by the Regents. - Chair Howard will bring the statement of challenges to Faculty Council when it is in final form. - The new Commissioner will be a CEO with the UM and MSU presidents reporting to him. - The proposed salary range for the new Commissioner is substantially less than the salary for similar positions in surrounding states and may impact the filling of the position. - The task force working on transferability of courses across the university system made a presentation. - Deputy Commissioner Joyce Scott chairs the task force, and John Amend is one of the two faculty members on it. The other is from UM. - Student regent Hur presented a proposal to the Regents for a common course numbering system. There was little support from the regents as a whole, or from the transferability task force, and the proposal is no longer on the table. - The transferability task force is recommending common numbering for most core courses, to be worked out by faculty across the university system, by discipline. Because of the cost of doing this, Regents' interest in pursuing the issue at this time seems to be waning. - The results of surveys of transfer students indicate that transferability is not of great concern to them. - University Governance Council Nominating Committee is soliciting nominations for faculty and professional vacancies on university-wide committees. Vicky York chairs the committee. - Faculty Council elections will be taking place shortly in departments where terms end. - Greg Young, Department of Music, has been selected as the Assistance Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. He assumes the position July 1. Faculty Affairs Committee report - Walter Metz. - Jack Jelinski moved approval of the addition to Faculty Handbook Section 812.00 (Responsibility of the Candidate to Submit Dossier). The motion was seconded and carried. The amendment will be published in the STAFF BULLETIN for input by faculty. - Jack Jelinksi moved approval of the addition to Faculty Handbook Section 840 (Review of Academic Administrators), with the following amendments: Remove "When appropriate" from sentence two; change the three 'should's to "shall"; add "regularly" after 'opportunity' in the first sentence; and remove from the phrase 'confidentiality of the faculty member's input' the words 'the' and 'member's'. The motion was seconded and carried. The amendment will be published in the STAFF BULLETIN for input by faculty. - Additions to Faculty Handbook Sections 210 and 622 (Role of Faculty Serving as Department Head - Primary Administrator) were discussed. - It was agreed the Faculty Affairs Committee should make some slight modifications so it is clear that a department head does not have two votes, both as a faculty member and as the primary administrator. Informal input and formal voting responsibility by faculty serving as department heads need to be defined. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary Richard Howard, Chair