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