FACULTY SENATE

February 24, 2016

346 LEON JOHNSON

4:10 PM – 5:00 PM

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY-BOZEMAN, MONTANA

Minutes

 

Members Present: Adams (Art), Anderson (Film & Photo), Arnold (Ag Ed), Berry (CE), Babbitt (Chair), Babcock (Chair-elect), Bolte (Music), Brokaw for Martin (Mod Lang), Downs (English), Gannon (ChBE), Greenwood (Math), Hendrikx (Earth Sci), Herbeck (Ed), Hostetler (GC), Larson (MIE), Lawrence (Bio Chem), Lu (PSPP), McMahon (Ecology), Meyer (Hist & Phil), Olson for Mosley (ARS), Repasky (ECE), Rossmann (Library), Running (Nursing), Scott (Psych), Smith (HHD), Sterman (Library), Swinford (Soc/Anthro), Wiedenheft (MBI), Wilmer (Poli Sci), Zabinski (LRES)

 

Others Present: David Singel, Ron Larsen, Kellie Peterson, Helen Melland, Terry Leist, Martha Potvin, Deborah Haynes, Maureen McCarthy, Karlene Hoo, Lisa Davis, Chris Fastnow, Chris Kearns

 

Chair Babbitt called the meeting to order at 4:10 pm, and a quorum was present. The February 17, 2016 Faculty Senate minutes were approved.

Courses and Programs – Chair-elect Babcock

  • The following undergraduate courses were approved during the Feb 24, 2016 CPC meeting and are posted on the FS web site for senator review:

o   UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

  • LIT 169 IH: Literature as Popular Culture
  • ARTZ 432: Kiln Building Intensive
  • ARTZ 282: Photographic Image and Its Construction
  • MUSI 102: Performance Study
  • COMX 222: Professional Communication
  • EGEN 330: Business Fundamentals for Technical Professionals
  • EMEC 430: Introduction to Combustion

 

Announcements – Chair Babbitt

  • Indigenous People’s Day Resolution is posted on the FS web site and senate will discuss either next week or the following week.
  • The March 2, 2016 FS meeting will be devoted primarily to prioritization discussions.
  • Bern Kohler’s (STEM) membership on the Research Council needs to be filled; senators are asked to canvas their depts. and provide nominees to Chair Babbitt.
  • Call for questions for faculty review of deans; senators should be speaking with their departments and forwarding questions to either their Steering Committee member or to Chair Babbitt; SC will be meeting this Thursday and Friday, of this week, to compile the eight (8) questions (generic questions and questions specific to the college) for the deans’ review. 
  • SAFE - Over the past three years, Montana State University staff and faculty, along with several members of the community, were involved in developing the report of the President’s Commission on Substance Abuse Prevention. This draft report was reviewed widely across campus, in the community, and, ultimately, President Cruzado. The President has asked that we begin addressing the ten recommendations presented in the report.
    • The first recommendation was to develop a coalition that will work together under the leadership of Dr. Chris Kearns, Vice President for Student Success, and Dr. Steve Swinford, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. The new name for this coalition will be SAFE – Substance Abuse Free Environment. The coalition is intended to be a diverse and engaged group of community leaders, campus administrators, faculty, and students working together to identify evidence- based and promising environmental strategies to reduce high risk substance misuse. As a coalition, SAFE will be charged with policy and program development.

Questions may be referred to safe@montana.edu The website is: http://ou.montana.edu/safe/index.html

  • Chair-elect Babcock met with the Planning Council earlier in the day and they would like to provide input to senate.

 

Carnegie Tier 1 President’s Task Forces

  • Task forces were formed to address MSU’s decertification from Carnegie Tier 1 research designation. The campus has expressed a desire to recapture that designation, but rather than focus solely on being in the “Carnegie Club” MSU would like to strive to become the best research institution it can be. 
  • Three task forces were formed to address the following:
    • Doctoral Students
    • Research
    • Workload
  • Dean Hoo chairs the Task Force for improving Graduate Student Admissions and Degree Completion
    • There are 9 members on committee representing all colleges and are charged with implementing operational tasks.
    • Currently, the committee is gathering data from peer institutions to compare to MSU.
    • The committee has met four times and is trying to understand nuances of all departments.
    • Task force came up with the following recommendations:
      • Would like all departments to have a Graduate Council
      • Recruit grad students fall and spring
      • Not necessarily use GRE as a cutoff for evaluations; focus more on letters of reference.
      • In terms of retention and completion, entering PhD students as cohorts and getting them to take comprehensive exams at approximately the same time as getting them through the
    • Trying to get metrics from departments to compare to KPI; come back and make stronger recommendations as to what make sense. Clearly, departments are different with different practices; some best practices are out there and we can try them. 
    • Discussions ensued:
      • Senator inquired about the Graduate Task Force’s view on Masters Degrees, as that level of graduate program is (a) important to support and production of PhDs and (b) Masters is the terminal degree offered by some programs. Dr. Hoo indicated her strong support of the Masters programs.
      • Senator believes the key to getting quality PhD’s is having lots of quality grad students entering MSU in the first place. There is a direct correlation, in his department, between a competitive stipend and health insurance vs. a non- competitive stipend; MSU is not competitive and the quality of our graduate students has gone down. 
        • Hoo remarked that our competitors are making offers within the month of December timeframe; MSU makes them in March, April, which is too late. We wanted to propose offering signing bonuses. The task force is still working on priorities. Davis, co-chair of the task force, spoke about how stipends are an issue in Math, her department, as well, and acknowledged MSU non-competitiveness. Currently, the committee needs to rank their priorities and stipends will be at the top.
  • Knowing what other universities provide as a stipend would help MSU to include in grants when writing
  • Are there additional resources to address this without a taskforce, since we know that we need to improve our PhD status?
    • The task force helps to strategize and to investigate our capacity. 
  • Having more TA’s available in engineering is critical because if we place students on research grants immediately, it is difficult for them to produce on their research and to write a follow-up grant. Funding such a student their first year would be helpful and productive.
  • Provost Potvin chairs the Task Force for the Workload Analyses Group
    • The group is tasked with analyzing current faculty workloads to review best practices at comparable institutions and to propose policies and procedures. 
    • Group is interested in the balance faculty teaching, research and service, however the group’s focus is on teaching; other task forces will provide data on research and graduate education. 
    • Collecting data from Banner to examine current practices, assignments, SCH, and looking at college/department and university averages. 
    • Examining Delaware data (national clearing house for other institutions) and comparing MSU’s teaching to other comparators. 
    • Percent effort is being examined via annual evaluation cards to see correlations between teaching, percent effort and actual teaching. 
    • Collecting workload policies and documents from comparator institutions:
      • Colorado State (Ft. Collins)
      • New Mexico State
      • Dakota State
      • University of Colorado (Boulder)
      • University of Wyoming
      • University of Idaho
      • University of Oregon
      • Washington State
      • Utah State
    • There are a variety of workload policies and practices; some are at the university levels; some at the departmental; some formalized; some informal; some have none and once MSU comes up with something they would like us to share with them. 
    • Preliminary findings indicate across and within department there is a need for more complete date entry for teachings loads into Banner. Activity insights also need to be recorded as well as recognizing the contributions to graduate and undergraduate student advising.
  • The research task force will present at another time. 

 

Program Approvals

  • BSCD-BS: Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education and Child Services-Child Development Option
    • State of Montana adopted a new early childhood education teaching endorsement;
    • The new Level II (BoR) option will appeal to students seeking teaching careers in Head start, child care, preschool, and K-3 public school classrooms;
    • Linked to two courses already:
      • EDEC 453; P-3 STEAM
      • EDEC 455: P-3 English Language Arts and Social Studies
    • Motion to accept the option > seconded > all in favor > unanimously approved

 

  • FCSI-BS: Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences-Human Development and Family Science-Option
    • Renaming and adding one new class (FSC 260: Middle Childhood and Adolescent Development) are the only modifications to this option. 
    • Motion to accept the option > seconded > all in favor > unanimously approved

 

Graduate Representative Policy – Chair-elect Babcock

  • Grad Council approved a change in their policy that eliminates the grad rep.
  • Major concern from senators was that if the grad rep was removed, would the grad student have protection/support?
  • Dean Hoo has conferred that there is a process for appeals in the Grad School. 
    • A Student Services Manager works directly with any grad student who has issues with their review to enact an appeal process. 
  • Senators would like to ensure that grad students are aware of the appeal process in the Grad School now that grad reps have been removed from the Grad Council. 
  • Two concerns from a senators department:
    • Senator noted that the successes and lack of issues in the review process, up until now, may have been as a result of having a grad rep on the council. 
    • Lesser faculty member on the council may not want to confront a PI or major prof who steers the defense in one direction, or another, for/against, the student. A grad rep would help to mitigate this type of situation. 
  • How does the appeal process work?
    • Depends on the appeal. However, if a student fails their review, it is up to the Grad School to help them through the process. The Student Service Manager reviews what the issues are and establishes a process for the student to appeal, which may mean meeting with Dean Hoo. 
  • Senator suggested that the Grad School offered the choice to have a grad rep, or not, to the grad student.
  • Senator asked if Dean Hoo could draw grad rep from a data base of those who are willing to participate.
    • Dean Hoo stated that the commitment of time and workload would require faculty to sit on four committees. 
  • Motion to pass Grad Rep Policy which eliminates the grad rep > seconded > all in favor > all in favor (13) opposed (11)

 

Planning for Prioritization Discussion – Chair Babbitt

  • Which of the six points in the original prioritization document would senators like to discuss in next week’s FS meeting? What are the most important ones?
    • Define what we mean by a quality education. How do we measure that?
    • Because faculty continually discuss maintaining quality, a senator believes we should be discussing all six points. 
    • What do we, as faculty see as the priorities? They may be something different or something beyond the six points in the prioritization document. 
  • Babbitt asked senators to come with ideas about priorities for discussion next week. The prioritization document is on the Faculty Senate website. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:58 pm.

 

Randy Babbitt, Chair

Michael Babcock, Chair-elect

 

A printable PDF of this information can be found here.