February 24, 2021 Minutes

A printable PDF of this information can be found here. 

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

February 24, 2021

3:10-4:30pm

Webex

I.            The meeting was called to order at 3:10pm

II.            Approval of FS Minutes from February 10, 2021

a.       Tomas Gedeon moves to approve. Ed Dratz seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

III.            Information Updates:

a.       Strategic Plan Focus for AY 22/23-Bradford Watson

i.      Responses from Faculty Senate

1.       Goal 1.1 had most number one votes

2.       3.1 second

3.       3.3 third

ii.      Nothing will be decided today, but discussion will continue until a consensus is reached on which ones will go forward.

iii.      Metrics can be found here https://tableau.mus.edu/t/bozeman/views/StrategicPlanCPMetricsOverview/Metric1_1_1?%3Biid=1&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Aembed=y

iv.      Questions: Ed Dratz: How many responses did you get? About 2/3 of senators responded.

b.       Diversity Council- Ariel Donohue

i.      Diversity and Inclusion Efforts.

1.       Not publicly shared at this point-Still finalizing metrics and timelines.

2.       Follow up from our last meeting: Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)

A.      BIPOC Action Planning group

I.      Many long-standing issues are coming to attention

II.      Over 60 actions in the plan-have been prioritizing those actions. Honing it down to three priorities that we will work on as an institution

a.       Develop an undergrad certificate program and/or a minor in Africana Studies by AY 2-23-24-Title of program and type of offering will be at the discretion of the College of Letters and Science-Responsible Individual: Dean Yves Idzerda

b.       Expand and sustain Center for Faculty Excellence trainings around racial equity topics that provide opportunities for ongoing involvement from BIPOC students, using evaluation responses to inform existing training needs.-Responsible Individual: Dean Adams

c.       Submit a formal request for new Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons (DISC) space that supports the vision for expanding DISC services and offerings to more directly support BIPOC students and address issues of racial equity.-Responsible: Ariel Donohue and Chris Kearns.

i.            Feedback has been that these students need a better space.

B.      Questions:

I.      Ryan Anderson: Want to be sure you have student representation. Is there still a student committee?

a.       Has always been a top priority. Want to encourage participation.

b.       Position of Student Director of Diversity in the works.

c.       Have a number of students who sit on the committee.

II.      John Neumeier: What is the racial makeup of our campus?

a.       Unduplicated data (can only identify one race) doesn’t necessarily describe them. Many are multi-racial students.

b.       Duplicated data

i.            200-250 students identify as black-1% black

ii.            750 as American Indian-4-5% American Indian

iii.            Hispanic/Latino population is actually bigger than our American Indian population.

C.      Dean Adams:

I.      Have had a two-part series about weaving racial justice into your course.

II.      MUS

 III.      In May, doing staff retreat. Will lay out programing visually so we can see the gaps and know where we need more offerings.

IV.      “What your student’s want you to know.” Training on racial injustice and equity issues.

D.      Michael Reidy:

I.      23-34 is a long way away. I wouldn’t’ be surprised if we couldn’t get a minor in time. An Advance grant model. Goal would be actual diversity and not teaching diversity. How do you see this going forward?

a.       Would need resources to achieve that goal. Developing new courses, altering existing courses, etc. Will take resources, want to allocate those intentionally. DISC space will incur costs as well.

b.       Have worked hard to gather input. Am hopeful that the resources will follow, as they have before.

c.       Academic Council: Voluntary and Involuntary Leave of Absence Versus Retroactive Withdrawals-Matt Caires & Jennifer Glad

i.      Do not have a presentation on this yet, but we will before the end of the semester.

ii.      Retroactive Withdrawals

iii.      Matt and Jennifer did a deep dive into what rules and regulations there are about addressing the needs of students to take a leave of absence. Process for asking for a voluntary leave of absence and a separate process for enforcing an involuntary leave of absence.

iv.      Next University Council meeting, this will be presented.

IV.            Old Business:

a.       Undergraduate Course and Program Approvals (Second Reading)

i.      CSCI 443: UX Design Thinking (2/2/2021)

ii.      CSCI 445: Human Computer Interaction(2/2/2021)

iii.      EBME 100: Introduction to Biomedical Engineering (2/2/2021)

iv.      EBME 440: Biomedical Engineering Laboratory(2/2/2021)

b.       Graduate Course and Program Approvals (Second Reading)

i.      PhD: Indigenous and Rural Health (2/2/2021)

1.       Vanessa is in attendance if anyone has any questions. 

2.       This will be advanced at Steering next Tuesday

3.       Suzanne Held, EHHD: What is the process for voting on this?

A.      This is the second reading. It will not come before senate again. Will be voted on at steering next week. 

V.            New Business:

a.       Undergraduate Course

i.      EBME 410: Fundamentals of Bioelectronics for Bioinstrumentation (2/17/2021)

ii.      HEE 222: Home School Program Practicum (2/17/2021)

iii.      MCH 109: Mathematics for CNC Machining (2/17/2021) 

b.       Undergraduate Programs: none at this time

c.       Graduate Courses and Programs: none at this time

VI.            Policies from JAGS (Joint Academic Governance Steering Committee)

a.       Policies up for Revision

i.      Consulting Revisions 12/11/2020

1.       Have made good gains on revision. 

2.       Discussed at JAGS 

3.       20%-will not go into the weeds in the policy by trying to define evenings and weekends. Your consulting should not interfere with your university duties. That is a discussion that can happen between the faculty member and their supervisor. 

4.       Maintaining the reputation of the university-phrased in a more positive way. 

5.       Health Insurance-is not affected in any way. Policy is talking about liability insurance.

6.       Intellectual property-refer to Intellectual property policy in handbook, and not this policy. 

7.       Ready to entertain a motion if Senators see fit. 

8.       Discussion:

A.      Kevin Amende: ¾ time adjunct had question about section 7 that talks about non-tenure track faculty. It is worded such they do not have to adhere to the 20%. 

I.      NTT and supervisor would have to agree that their institutional work was not affected. 

II.      Bradford Watson: Kevin is correct in his summation.

III.      What FTE do you need to be at to be under collective bargaining agreement? They need to be a .5 FTE or greater.  

IV.      Kevin Amende: Professional Engineers cannot be part of a collective bargaining unit. 

B.      Application for consulting activities-Only required if you are asking to do consulting GREATER than the 20%. 

9.       Ed Dratz moves to approve. Has a much more positive tone. Greatly improved. Kevin Amende seconds. No further discussion. None opposed. One abstention. Approved. 

ii.      Annual Review Revisions 12/30/2020

1.       JAGS did not discuss this at their last meeting. 

2.       Please keep in mind that the annual review always reverts to your departmental Role and Scope. Each department could have different criteria.

3.       How do you appeal if you disagree with an outcome? Still working on that. 

4.       Grievance policy needs to be renewed, so that will be coming up too. According to the policy, you can’t grieve an annual review. 

iii.      Post Tenure Review 12/30/2020

1.       Confidentiality came up at the last meeting. 

2.       Want to get these policies approved before the end of the semester. Will keep you posted. 

VII.            Public Comment

a.       ASMSU-Kirsten Kraske-Proposed resolution

i.      Support Returning to Majority In-Person Instruction

ii.      Students agree and want to support you in this process

iii.      Thank you. We want to build a relationship with Faculty Senate. 

iv.      Will pop it into the Chat if you’d like. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fsH9DB2lMA7QxbVrxWK1Ic686ukkVdHz6SjmUP60kRc/edit?usp=drive_web 

v.      Comments

1.       Michael Brody: We have to follow the Health Departments directives.

2.       Statement about “opting out” of in person is included. 

3.       Ed Schmidt: Bravo! Some will need to opt out for various reasons. 

4.       Do not want to remove anything that was previously online. 

5.       Julia Haggerty: Thank you for coming and we appreciate your reaching out to us. Important to know that Faculty do not decide on modality. That is done by the administration. We did this during a global pandemic, not under normal circumstances. 

A.      We understand that you do not have a choice in modality, but we wanted to reach out to Faculty first. 

b.       Janet Heiss-Arms, Gallatin College

i.      AA and AS programs

ii.      Complete MSU Core specifically designed to transfer into a four-year degree

iii.      Gallatin College is two-year college, but also a department within MSU

iv.      Looking for two MSU faculty members who are interested and willing to serve on the Gallatin College Associate of Arts and Associate of Science (AA/AS) Academic Program Review committee this year. As you may know, Associate of Arts/Science degree students complete the MSU Core and elective/pre-requisite classes designed to transfer into a bachelor’s degree program. The majority of students who enroll with these degrees at Gallatin College intend to transfer to MSU to complete their degree. Here is some additional information about the Academic Program Review:

1.       Who: Two MSU faculty members—ideally one from L&S and one from Business, EHHD, or Health-related programs (Nursing, Human Biology)—these are the colleges/majors where we have a larger portion of students transfer. That said, we're open to any faculty who are interested in learning more about Gallatin College and contributing to improving the program. 

2.       What: Serve on Academic Program Review committee—includes reviewing AA/AS program self-report, meeting with individuals and/or observing classes, then writing a team report analyzing the department’s strengths, weaknesses, and future 

3.       Time: Participation primarily in Spring 2021 with committee report due to MSU in early Fall 2021 

4.       How: Interested faculty members should email me: janet.heiss@montana.edu

VIII.            Senators Discussion

a.       Tomas Gedeon: 

i.      Gratitude to Provost Mokwa for listening to concerns of faculty on scheduling.

ii.      Concealed carry law has passed. Don’t know how much say we have in this, but it could warrant discussion. Is this premature or not?

1.       Have a meeting with OCHE and the Provost in March.

b.       Ed Schmidt: Thank you for clarifying Role and Scope take precedence. However, those documents could contain language that I, or my faculty might disagree with. Not having faculty input, or a right to a meeting, is not right. 

i.      Refer to Role and Scope for criteria on how you are evaluated. Does not trump the entire policy. 

c.       Michael Reidy: 

i.      Also want to talk about gun legislation. Affects pedagogy and curricula. Should make it a line item in next meeting

ii.      Sabbaticals: Should I go to Faculty Affairs? Is that the right venue, or do we add it as an agenda item?

1.       Was discussed with Provost and President. They will not be releasing the numbers. 

d.       Kevin McPhee:

i.      Comment in the bill that was passed regarding education and managing the privilege of handling guns. 

1.       Should be certified and educated in the handling

2.       Fear over potential of students carrying on campus could be alleviate some of the worry. 

IX.            Adjourn

a.       Ed Dratz moves to adjourn. Bradford Watson seconds. Meeting was adjourned at 4:30pm.

REMINDER: Next meeting is March 10, 2021