November 18, 2020 Minutes

A printable PDF of this information can be found here.

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

November 18, 2020

3:10pm-4:30pm

Webex

1.       Meeting was called to order at 3:10pm

2.       Approval of FS Minutes from October 28, 2020

a.       Julie Ruff moves to approve. Tomas Gedeon seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

3.       Information Updates:

a.       Joint Academic Governance Steering Committee-Steve Swinford

i.      Emeritus Revisions 11/12/2020-On the Faculty Senate website

1.       Two changes: On Faculty Senate Website

a.       Removal of “use recreational facilities at a reduced rate”

b.       request office, laboratory space, and/or secretarial help, as available. Since the resources of the various departments vary, no university-wide policy can guarantee access. Such accommodations Office and laboratory space may be extended to emeritus faculty consistent with the university Space Management Policy and with the understanding that the instructional, research, and service requirements of the tenurable faculty have priority.

i.      Michael Reidy: Department of History feels they could give Emeritus faculty a reduced rate if they want to. Undermines their ability to have office space.

1.       Michael Brody: Policy says that all faculty would be considered. Felt the university couldn’t make that decision. Leaves it to the discretion of the department. Not intended to usurp the authority of the dept to offer it to the Emeritus faculty.

2.       Ed Schmidt: Feel centralization is a terrible mistake. Taking it away from the Dept is a bad idea. They are best advised for making decisions for individual people in their dept.

3.       Michael Brody: We will have another conversation at JAGS on this and will bring resolutions back to the senate.

4.       Provost Mokwa: Gym access decision came down from the state. It did not come from our university. All institutions were told to stop allowing past employees to have a reduced rate at facilities that are paid for by the student’s fees and are for the students.

All space managed centrally because we need to our best to use the space available and to it’s greatest potential. Still have to go through Space Management committee and follow policy.

ii.      Retention, Tenure and Promotion Rights & Responsibilities 9/29/2020

1.       One addition: Only tenured faculty with previous experience serving on a primary or intermediate review committee may serve on the URTPC.

b.       Fall Commencement-Moved to virtual format

i.      Sunday, November 22nd at 11:00am

c.       Last Senate meeting of the Fall semester: 11/25/2020

i.      Potential for meetings to be called in December 2nd and 9th?

1.       Hope we don’t have to meet, but things change rapidly, and we don’t know what might come up that we may need to talk about.

2.       An emergency meeting may be called, if necessary.

d.       Athletics Update (George Haynes, Leon Costello and Camie Bechtold)

i.      Want to thank faculty for all of the support they have given athletics this semester.

ii.      Most unusual semesters athletics has faced, ever.

1.       Spring Semester Student-Athlete average GPA:  3.52

2.       Highest Team GPA - Alpine Ski (men and women):  3.874

3.       All teams over a 3.0 average in the Spring Term Students continue to adjust

4.       Federal four-year average graduation rates for student-athletes recently released. MSU is at 67% for student-athletes and 56% for student body

5.       Uptick of those struggling mentally

a.       Change

b.       Unknown

c.       Some adapt better than others

d.       Aaron Grusonik is a good resource for student athletes who are struggling

e.       Many athletes that have had close contact and quarantining, etc. They are to contact their faculty directly if that is happening.

f.        Students may be struggling with new format of courses.

6.       Only competition was women’s cross country, so there shouldn’t be any absences due to that. May have an uptick in the Spring.

7.       COVID protocols: The risk levels are as defined by the NCAA

a.       Basketball:  Testing 3x per week  (Indoor Sport - High Transmission Risk)

b.       Football:  Testing Weekly (Outdoor Sport - High Transmission Risk)

c.       Volleyball:  Testing 50% weekly given requirement to compete and practice in masks per Big Sky Conference (Intermediate Risk)

d.       Track and Field:  Testing 50% weekly (Intermediate Risk)

e.       Tennis, Golf, Cross Country, Skiing:  Test upon return to Campus after Break (Low Risk)

iii.      Partnership with Bozeman Health to oversee healthcare of student athletes. One provider takes care of all of their athlete’s health needs.

iv.      Buildings are monitored.

v.      New building by stadium

1.       Privately raised dollars

2.       Benefit for all of our student athletes

3.       Football will move over there and it gives more room to other athletes.

4.       Academic center has better access, more hours to come and get help

vi.      Hopefully, basketball will start soon

vii.      Volleyball was moved to the Spring so that space is being used for classes right now.

viii.      Michael Brody: How can we tune in to sports this coming Spring? Will we see a live game again? That is the hope, but if not all of our games (basketball and football) will be on the radio. Conference has a partnership with Pluto TV, so get look into that. Others should be on TV or streamed. More info on that will come out.

ix.      Playing the same teams (in some cases) play the same team back to back for COVID reasons.

x.      Julie Ruff: Temp and symptom checks as they come into the gym. Are they rapid testing three times a week? All are screened, but testing depends on their sport. Indoor high-risk tests 3x week. Volleyball will play with masks, so they are being tested once a week.

xi.      All students have the option to opt out without losing their spot.

4.       Business:

a.       Graduate Degree Approval (Tony Campeau)

i.      Total graduates: 1,089 this fall 1,012 last fall

ii.      This is a symbolic part of the commencement exercise

iii.      Info is in Knox folder

iv.      Three potential posthumous degrees are being postponed until they can have a ceremony

v.      Tomas Gedeon moves to approve. Ed Schmidt seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

b.       Course and Program Approvals https://www.montana.edu/facultysenate/upcoming_meeting.html

i.      Undergraduate Courses (Second Reading) If no concerns, will be approved at Steering next week.

1.       AHMA 221: Phlebotomy Clinical Training (10/20/2020)

2.       LS 305: Ways of Seeing (10/15/2020)

3.       HSTR 367: Nazi Art and Propaganda (10/27/2020)

4.       AGSC 402: Enhancing Women's Roles in Agriculture and Natural Resources (10/27/2020) 

ii.      Course Changes

1.       HORT 105: Introduction to Horticulture-Title Change (10/20/2020)

iii.      Programs

1.       CBL: Informatics: The Human Side of Information (10/21/2020)

iv.      Undergraduate Courses (First Reading)

1.       Spring 2021

a.       BIOB 104: Scientific Thinking (11/10/2020)

b.       EFIN 305: R Lab for Financial Engineering I (11/10/2020)

c.       GDSN 265: Quickfire Course (11/13/2020)

2.       Fall 2021

a.       CHMY 332: Honors Organic Chemistry I Lab (11/6/2020)

b.       LSCI 111: Informatics: The Human Side of Information (11/10/2020)

c.       LSCI 121:Digital Information Literacy: Library Research Skills (11/10/2020)

d.       LSCI 151: Algorithmic Awareness: Media Literacy in the Age of Algorithms (11/10/2020)

e.       LSCI 235: Service Design: A Human-Centered Framework for Empathy and Innovation (11/10/2020)

f.        LSCI 321: Metaliteracy: Critical thinking and collaboration in a digital age (11/10/2020)

g.       LSCI 342: Data Curation for a Data-Driven World (11/10/2020)

h.       LSCI 410: Data Modeling and Databases for Cultural Heritage and Non-Profits (11/10/2020)

i.         LSCI 470: Ethics and Privacy in the Age of Big Data (11/10/2020)

i.      Part of Informatics program we approved earlier

ii.      Scott Young: 16 credit UG Certificate

iii.      Focuses on human side

iv.      Investigate the was info and info tech is used by people in social systems

v.      Social impacts of information

vi.      Students will have a set of adaptable skills for the workforce

vii.      Enhance or augment a student’s primary field of study

viii.      Complimentary with many different majors and degree programs.

ix.      Looking to Fall 2021

x.      Second reading will be next meeting, then approved to following week at steering

v.      Graduate Council (Second Reading) Well vetted by UGC. If no concerns these will be advanced by Steering next week.

1.       Programs

a.       MHS-CERT: Mental Health Support Graduate Certificate (10/25/2020)

b.       TBD-MS: Master of Science in Cybersecurity (10/26/2020)

2.       Courses

a.       Spring 2021

i.      AGSC 541: Plant Breeding & Genetics (11/9/2020)

ii.      BIOE 585: Exploring Biology for Teachers (11/10/2020)

iii.      BIOO 560: Plant Metabolism (11/11/2020)

iv.      ENGL 560: Foundations of English Education (11/9/2020)     

b.       Spring 2022

i.      BIOB 530: Plant Biotechnology (11/9/2020)

ii.      ENGL 561: Introduction to Research in English & Literacy Studies (11/9/2020)

5.       Senators Discussion with Provost Mokwa

a.       It’s been a tough hall and we are nearing the finish line.

b.       Conferring degrees of graduate is my favorite part of these meetings

c.       Have been working on assessments, annual review and Promotion and Tenure

i.      Annual reviews

1.       Formative types of assessment by Department Heads

2.       Important in understanding interactions with faculty. Recognize stumbling blocks over the last year. Help faculty overcome and work through those issues.

3.       Great resources available through Center for Faculty Excellence

4.       Is not the time for department heads to clamp down and be overly critical of faculty who may not have been as productive this year than past years, for reasons related to pandemic and those that may not be so obvious. How can we as a dept. assist in faculty future endeavors.

5.       Don’t know what Spring will look like but we will work through it.

6.       Questions/Comments:

a.       Presidents form other universities talking about adapting and accommodating. What will the future of academics look like? It takes a village to get through crisis like this. The Task Force was our first step in this.

b.       Ryan Anderson: Activity Insight, would like to see a box for our narratives of what we are doing. The review form could be slightly modified, so that if I opted out the reviewer would know that, and they could write a section speaking to that. A working group from this Senate could be working on this. If they got together, I think it is something we could do in short order.

c.       Julie Ruff: May be valuable to consider some interrater accountability to see if we are treating those from college to college equitably. Contract and time on activities look different than what we are actually doing.

d.       Jack Brookshire: Those teaching in Spring were asked which modality they desired. That was when COVID issues were much different. Would like the autonomy to change modality as makes sense. Are we stuck with what we decided in August?

i.      Provost Mokwa: Annual Review Process will not change. It is formative, based on your past year of production. Promotion and Tenure is a summative process that will not change. There has been a one-year extension on Promotion and Tenure. You cannot change the modality of your Spring course without the approval from your Dean. Use the recommendations and plans from Dept and Colleges to make it clear what modality the courses would be offered in. In open registration period. Students are registering for these courses. We recognize that we need a mix. January 11th is six weeks away, so we don’t know what things will look like then.

1.       Jack Brookshire: That makes sense. Come Jan. 11th. (I was interrupted and did not catch what Jack said)

a.       Big emphasis on Freshmen and Sophomores have in person classes to attend. Students don’t want to come from another state and then end up with all online classes. We need to have a mix.

e.       Tomas Gedeon: 1) Like Ryan’s ideas. Write on your annual report how COVID affected you. Role and Scope is fixed, so at some point that evaluation will happen. 2) Impressed with how we’ve handled this. Thank you to the Administration. The situation we were in in August with 20 cases total, not testing students coming to campus. Will be a different situation come January. Gallatin County tracing is overwhelmed. We will end up with 100’s of students with COVID and we’ll have to go online anyway. We need on campus testing to keep up. Federal government doesn’t look like their coming to help.

i.      Provost Mokwa: The bottleneck in Montana is testing. Our group at Health Partners has done a great job. Quick turnaround tests used for those in residence halls. Gives us opportunity to test those students and minimizing them having to quarantine for days. Have been able to expand the ability of the state to test. Testing center in parking lot by football field. On campus turn around is about 24 hours. In community it’s 5, 6, 7 days. Case management contact tracers working for university and interacting with county and state. Have been able to keep up with contact tracing. Wish we had no cases, but we’ve managed to make it through the semester. What will happen in the spring? If we can expand our efforts and get more support and resources to allow that expansion.

f.        Andy Hansen: We know a lot of universities are testing in different ways: rapid and expanded testing. What is the situation here that does not allow the university to do expanded testing? It is capacity and limits to the number of tests that can be conducted. Lab space, there are three labs with one of them in North Carolina. They are all at a capacity.

g.       Ed Schmidt: Would like to suggest that the restriction to symptomatic students is not appropriate. Biggest transmitters are asymptomatic. Those known to be in contact should be tested, whether symptomatic or not.

h.       Jack Brookshire: Would be nice if faculty had access to the rapid test instead of having to wait 5-10 days for a result.

i.      Provost Mokwa: Understand that. All of the funds and resources that have been put in place to support testing has come from the CARES act. That is very specific to students. Faculty and Staff are to use their provider and health insurance.

i.         Michael Brody: Hope that all can attend FS meeting on 11/25. Send questions to D2L. Attend “Faculty Hour”. Reminder is sent out at those times. Opportunity to bring forward specific requests.

j.         Susan Cohen: Committee working on resolutions among faculty. Susan sent something out she would like you to look at before meeting next week.

ii.      Promotion and Tenure

6.       Senators Open Discussion

a.       Differential Impacts on Faculty and Their Careers: COVID Time and Beyond

7.       Public Comment

a.       None

8.       Adjourn

a.       Julie Ruff moves to approve. Jack Brookshire seconds. Meeting was adjourned at 4:35pm.

Next meeting November 25th, 2020 Webex