March 11, 2020 Minutes

A printable PDF of this information can be found here. 

Faculty Senate Minutes

March 11^th, 2020

SUB Ballroom D

3:10-4:30pm

I.            Call to Order

a.       Meeting was called to order at 3:11pm

II.            Approval of the February 26th meeting minutes

a.       moves to approve. Izurieta Clemente seconds. None opposed. Approved.

III.            Informational Items

a.       COVID-19 Update and Q&A-Provost Mokwa

i.         Provost Mokwa:

A.      Many meetings regarding this

B.      Continuity of operations plans in case of emergencies

C.      Working on a website with a contingency group since Friday

D.      Working with the community so we all are all on the same page

E.       Close contact with experts in the field

F.       We are watching what’s going on. Taking our cues from other universities.

G.     Want to make sure we are making decisions that are keeping the best interests of our community at the forefront

H.      Team is meeting almost hourly

I.        Decided it was time to put our plan out there

J.        NCUR enrollment cancellations are going up by the minute

K.      Have now decided to cancel NCUR.

L.       Notices on International Travel to countries that have that higher level of warning, 3 or 4. China, South Korea, Italy, etc.

M.    Still have students out there in semester long study abroad situations. Keeping a good eye on them.

N.     Keeping an eye on the students in level I areas

O.     Preparing to take courses online if we find we are unable to meet face to face. We will not cancel courses, we will continue them online. It seems more and more likely that that is what is going to happen.

P.      Website full of resources for getting your courses online launched today

Q.     If you are ready to do that now, go ahead.

R.      We have been given permission to move all courses online without having to go through ‘workflow’ for approval.

S.       Hope is by the week after spring break, everyone is ready.

T.       We have next week off. And the Thursday and Friday of the next week were already non-workdays for NCUR.

U.     Want everyone to take part in all trainings, etc. so we are ready to go that next Monday.

V.      We can’t make the call

ii.       Questions:

A.      If we go all on line, is campus effectively shut down?

1.       Campus will not shut down. We will have students living here.

2.       Many details to work out. Guidelines will be coming out.

B.      Duke is online. Research courses, graduate level, are still happening on campus.

C.      The sooner the info comes through, the better to communicate to faculty.

D.      What about:

1.       Summer Session?

2.       Commencement?

3.       Double A basketball?

4.       Pow Wow?

5.       Rodeo?

E.       Who knows what will happen in another 24 hours?

F.       A Montana woman has tested positive. She is out of state. They still don’t’ know if she contracted it in Maryland, or while traveling.

G.     We will have students that won’t return after break.

H.      Students disperse and then bring back whatever they get while their home. Maybe right after spring break is the best time.

I.        What will we do if you work one on one in practice module with music students who are blowing through an instrument? Can they come to campus and practice?

1.       We would rely on experts on the hygiene aspect, but also people from the school of music. Talk to your colleagues and share information. Learn from each other. This is all real time.

2.       We are breaking new ground, every day now.

J.        What about labs?

1.       We will be putting up guidelines on the website.

2.       There are options. There are things you can do.

Ø  Videotaping information, sharing data

3.       240 institutions are beginning to transition online

4.       As of now, we haven’t made the decision to move fully online, but it is probably just a matter of time.

K.      Please visit the ato.montana.edu/learneverywhere website.

1.       There are a lot of helpful tools and resources available.

2.       Tried to make it as concrete and clear as possible.

3.       We have struggled trying to figure out how to deal with labs.

Ø  Not everyone is an expert in music, or chemistry, etc. Please seek those people out and glean information from them and others.

Ø  Want to reinforce the value of communicating with your colleagues.

Ø  Think of the objectives of your degrees and other programs. How do we meet those objectives through an online platform?

4.       As we get information, we will share it.

L.       If we move to fully online, would that be for the remainder of the semester? Can we go from fully online BACK to face to face?

1.       Don’t have that info right now. Great question.

2.       There will be students who will be sick and come to class or need to be quarantined. They may decide not to come back and want to continue online.

3.       We need to provide the opportunity to all of our students.

4.       Don’t think that this will be over by May 10.

M.    Has the university stepped up their disinfecting of the spaces and surfaces?

1.       Yes, they have.

N.     Sounds like it is inevitable. We can use Webex for course work. Haven’t used it for 35 people before. We will have people who can help us with the resources.

O.     Would there by financial resources available if needed to expand our online capabilities? We know we will have to expand our bandwidth and move some resources around.

P.      What about students who don’t have computers at home? Have had students ask about that. Was surprised that this was an issue.

1.       We need to deal with that.

2.       We need to find out what tools our students need/have, etc.

3.       May have to set up some sort of computer labs.

4.       If they aren’t on campus, we need to think about those students. Some don’t’ have internet either.

Q.     Nursing and Education have students out working in clinics and schools. Eventually we will need a policy that accommodates those students as well. Not sure how we’ll deal with all of that.

R.      Nursing is asking students to NOT deal with patients that require them to wear a mask. Save the masks for those who need them. Following agency protocol. Asking agencies to help them limit student involvement. Missing operating room and other experiences.

1.       Need to think about plans and procedures for those coming back from spring break and then taking their germs back into the elementary schools, or hospitals

S.       What have students been told at this point?

1.       Similar email was sent to students. Accommodating absences. If you are sick don’t come to class. If you are guaranteed, you will not be punished for that.

2.       An email, similar to what you got today will hopefully go out tomorrow.

T.       Do you think the university would ask students not to come back at all?

1.       We made the point that if they have traveled to any of the level three areas that they need to quarantine

U.     Need to reiterate that we will do whatever we can to get them through their classes.

V.      Are there dorms staying open during the break? What if they don’t want to go home to Seattle, for example?

1.       They can stay in the dorm for no additional cost.

W.    Can we not have a hard stop for when grades are due?

1.       We need to do everything we can to stick to the Registrar’s schedule. That benefits the students as well.

2.       These things can change at any minutes. Don’t want to panic. This is a fluid situation.

X.      Provost Mokwa: In all the years of MSU, this has never happened. Thank you all for hanging in there.

Y.       If you have more questions. Please use the suggestion section on the website. ato.montana.edu/learnanywhere

iii.      Existing practices of taking info back to your entities are going to be even more important than usual. Please take this info back to your entities.

iv.     The more messaging we can get out there and the more misunderstandings we can dispel, the better.

v.       Many moving parts in the decisions being made.

vi.     If we don’t get to your questions today, there will be a FAQ section to the informational webpage

vii.    (Please see Public Comment from ASMSU rep in the Public Comment section of the minutes.)

b.      Faculty Delphi Survey-Michael Brody

i.         An email from Colin Smith came out with a password to get into the survey.

ii.       Two critical things:

A.      Anonymity: Set up non-user affiliated accounts. ID’s are associated with a random number and not your name. That’s why you need special credentials to get into the survey.

B.      This is between us here at Faculty Senate: What you are saying in the survey, is meant to be between us in Faculty Senate. This to help the Senate do the work they need to do better.

iii.      Are we in Executive Session? Do we need to keep the fact that we are doing this secret? No. We are not in Executive Session

iv.     When you go into the survey, there will be a homepage with three links to discussion areas.

A.      What do you think about in relation to your work?

B.      What do I do? Ex. Think globally, etc.

C.      What values guide your work? Ex. Collaborative, transparent

v.       The first round of the survey is open now and will be open for two full weeks. Will check in at the end of those two weeks to see if anyone needs more time.

vi.     Will take results and turn them into ‘round two’ of the survey.

vii.    Appreciate your cooperation in this. This gives us an opportunity to better understand each other and better understand where we all fit in.

viii.  It works like a D2L discussion. You can comment on others comments, etc.

ix.     If you are stuck, email Michael Brody and Eric Austin and they will help get you unstuck. 

x.       Whatever is important to you is what we want to understand. Once we figure out how to scale this up and bring it to the faculty as a whole, we can survey everyone.

IV.            New Business

a.       Courses-Use the links to review the proposals. If you see any issues with these, let Eric or Michael know.

i.            CSCI 347: Data Mining

ii.            EDEC 260: Administration of Early Childhood Programs

A.      Seems like the right thing to do

iii.            EMEC 466: Acoustics, Engineering and the Environment

b.      Course Changes

i.            EDU 370: Integrating Tech into Education

A.      May ask for a syllabus to see why it is changing credits.

c.       Course Deactivations

i.            BFIN 441: Advanced Analysis of Financial Statements

ii.            EDU 397R: Methods: K-8 Social Studies

iii.            EDU 496: Methods: K-12 Modern Languages

V.            Old Business

a.       Life Scholars Program-Christy Sofianek

i.         Tomas Gedeon wants to express his support for the Life Scholars Program

ii.       Hongwei Gao: If I had to do more work to support this program, I would.

iii.      Bradford Watson: Is also in support. Center for Faculty Excellence has the ability and resources to help faculty who want to engage in the.

A.      As part of the diversity certificate, have worked toward getting these resources where they need to be.

iv.      Franke Wilmer moves to approve. Kevin Amende seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

VI.            Announcements and Updates

a.       Distinguished Lecturer Series. The one that was cancelled (not one of the Provost’s Distinguished Lectures) had a relative effected by the virus and cancelling was a person issue. Don’t know what other decisions will be made. We will have to wait and see. It could happen.

VII.            Public Comment

a.       ASMSU rep: Silas Teasdale-ASMSU Senate.

i.       Wanted to hear what’s going on and provide feedback

ii.     Housing, freshmen and non-freshmen housing: If there are going to be shifts or changes, the students need to know as soon as possible. Spring break might be their best chance to figure things out. Housing in Bozeman is already tough, so everyone will be scrambling.

iii.    If we are going to make big changes and all online courses, students are going to wonder why they need to come back to Bozeman. Can they do these courses from their home state?

iv.  Students are frustrated by the imbalance of communication between students and faculty. Waiting until we make a decision doesn’t make them feel cared for. Students felt that the email today, was very narrow and just brought up more questions.

v.     Students most affected by these changes are the ones most at risk, and “invisible”. These are students who rely on shared housing or public transportation. Not having a laptop is a direct example. These students will struggle and may not be able to keep up or catch up.

VIII.            Faculty Senate Leadership Election (Executive Session)

a.       Nomination and Introduction

b.      Susan Dana nominates Bradford Watson

i.         Bradford Watson: Architect in the School of Architecture. Joined MSU in 2012. Worked in non-profit prior. How do we give empowerment to organizations to those facilities that don’t support themselves? That work helped him with interdisciplinary work. Many different community partners coming together and working together.

ii.       Architects are “expert generalists”. Thrive in facilitator position. Looking to faculty for input and collaboration. See here at Senate how working together, many voices and minds, is such a valuable thing. Embracing the values of shared governance. I was honored to serve as Senator, and to the nomination for Chair-Elect will be taken to heart.

iii.      Michael Brody: Works with Bradford on multiple committees. Insightful and thoughtful. Support his nomination.

iv.     Eric Austin: Echo Michael’s sentiments. Has worked with him on Steering. Appreciate the combination of focusing on how the university operates and the want to navigate that and leverage who is involved in what, etc. That is a balance that is very valuable. Feel he would bring great perspective to the role.

v.       Want to make sure he understands that he needs to be independent and independently discuss his opinions without the influence of Montana Hall.

A.      Eric Austin: It is becoming increasingly apparent that the reality of being Chair/Chair-Elect is that you develop a perspective and an understanding of what the administration is doing and/or going through. It’s almost impossible for the Chair and Chair-Elect to not be influenced by that information. The rest of the senate is where we get that independent voice. Not the Chair and Chair-Elect.

vi.     Michael Brody: Found the experience liberating. Feel he has had MORE voice for faculty than he did before. Nice to know that Bradford has come out of a college that has never been represented in Faculty Senate leadership.

c.       None opposed. No abstentions. Bradford is elected as Chair-Elect.

IX.            Adjournment

a.       COVID-19 issue: Do not know what will happen to our Faculty Senate meetings if we are told we cannot meet as a group. We will look into our options for doing that remotely, if need be. For the time being, please plan to meet.

b.      Michael Brody has been asked to be on the campus wide task force. He will bring a faculty voice to that group. What if everyone comes back and someone is sick? How do we deal with that? How would Bozeman deal with that? This task force has community members on it and ASMSU representation.

c.       Ed Schmidt: Surprised to hear that there wasn’t any faculty on this task force. Now there is only one?

d.      The smaller task force for the online options is all faculty, led by Bob Mokwa and David Singel. The bigger one is made up of representatives of more than 20 campus units. http://www.montana.edu/health/coronavirus/team.html

e.      Meeting is adjourned at 4:33pm

Reminder: Next Faculty Senate Meeting

                March 25, 2020

                3:10-4:30 PM

                ABB 138