October 28, 2020 Minutes

A printable PDF of this information can be found here.

Faculty Senate Minutes

October 28, 2020

3:10pm-4:30pm

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

II.            Approval of FS Minutes from September 30, 2020

a.       Tomas Gedeon moves to approve. Michael Walach seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved.

III.            Information updates:

a.       Senate Representative for Space Management Committee

1.       Thank you, Amanda Blaker, Gallatin College

b.       Fall Commencement (11/22/2020) Update

1.       There will be two ceremonies in the Stadium

2.       You must RSVP in order to get admission ticket

3.       No lining up to greet or congratulate students, distance, stay in seat

c.       Last Senate meetings of the Fall semester: 11/18 -graduates conferred and 11/25-wrap up course approvals

1.       Would rather not meet over Snowmester

d.       Accreditation (Provost)

1.       Culmination of the work of many committees on campus

2.       How do we, as an institution, “close the loop” on institutional effectiveness?

3.       Interviewers were quite impressed-working groups, task forces-examining what we’ve learned and how we can use those lessons learned to make improvements going forward.

4.       They will issue a report after we fact check the draft.

5.       Then goes to NWCCU commissioners. They will vote on that report and send the final report to us.

6.       Michael Brody: Appreciate Tami Eitle’s work. Really worked hard and did a good job. We are all going to miss her. She is going to IUPUI

7.       Would also like to thank Rachel Anderson

e.       Salary Update (Provost)

1.       Any raise has to be approved by the BOR and Commissioner of Higher Education.

2.       Continuing to move forward with are Merit, Market and Equity raises. Got approval from Commissioner’s office that we can move ahead with that process. Dean’s are creating prioritized lists.

3.       2% for all TT Faculty will also be moving ahead. Will show up in January paycheck.

4.       Questions:

A.      Rob Maher: Organizationally, who or what oversees the process? There are a number of offices involved. Planning and Analysis gets us the names and numbers and info for comparisons. MM&E has input from the deans and is reviewed by HR.

i.            Metric 3.3.3-Looking at the data, we are now below 80%. We are going backwards and making to headway. Who is looking at this, noting we aren’t making progress and what are we going to do about it? Looking at rank, continue to struggle to keep up with our Full Professors. Want to increase our raises at promotion from Assoc Professor to Full Professor. Hiring moratorium put a hold on those conversations. Would like to make that argument. We are hovering along, but not making good progress to 80% of our peer averages.

f.        Bimonthly Payroll (Jeanette Grey Gilbert, HR)

1.       Have been talking about this transition for many years

2.       Four campus effort

3.       Bozeman and Havre are the only campuses that are still monthly

4.       By early next year we will all be on the same cycle-aligns with the state of Montana

5.       Benefits far outweigh any difficulty. The only difficulty will be the transition itself

6.       Will really help those when first hired. Some have to wait 6 weeks for their first paycheck.

7.       February 27 will be first day of our bi-weekly pay cycle

8.       First paycheck on the new cycle will be on March 24th. Check will be 8 days after pay cycle.

9.       Fiscal Year faculty will look a little different than Academic Year faculty

10.   Bi-weekly is different than bi-monthly

11.   All deductions will be taken out of every paycheck

12.   Full year pay cycle will be 26 pay cycles

13.   Significant transition. Wanted to get through the transition before looking at letting academic year faculty chose to get paid over 26 paychecks instead of 20.

14.   Great info on website https://www.montana.edu/biweekly/ Includes a salary calculator and pay calendar.

15.   Extension helped with info video. Is on the website.

16.   Questions:

A.      Will we get (full month) paid on March 11th and then get another (bi-weekly) check on the 24th ? Yes.

B.      Your HR business partner is a good resource for any help.

IV.            New Business:

a.       Course and Program Approvals-Undergrad-Spring 2021 (First Reading)

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

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

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

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

b.       Course Changes-Undergrad

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

c.       Programs-Undergrad

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

d.       Grad Council-Programs (First Reading)

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

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

e.       Faculty Senate Webpage: https://www.montana.edu/facultysenate/upcoming_meeting.html

V.            Old Business:

a.       Undergrad Courses (Second Reading)

1.       AHMA 220: Phlebotomy (10/6/2020)

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

3.       BIOB 441: Advanced Eukaryotic Genetics (10/6/2020)

4.       CULA 280: Senior Practicum (10/6/2020)

5.       HSTR 475: Public History Lab (10/6/2020)

VI.            Senate Discussion: Task Force: Spring 2021 and Beyond

a.       Large Lecture, Laboratory, Blended, Freshman Seminar and GTAs

b.       Task Force members and Invited Faculty

c.       Focus Groups Draft Notes posted in Faculty Senate D2L

d.       Do the results reflect you experience and conversations with colleagues?

e.       Task Force Stage 1 Recommendations

f.        Things to do for and with faculty; see page 2

1.       Recommendations have been entered into the D2L Brightspace for Faculty Senate-see below the agenda

A.      There will be financial commitments with gear up and going forward

B.      Did focus groups

C.      Received expectations from the Provost

D.      Highlighting mental health help, etc.

g.       Technical-Colin Smith

1.       Did a lot of work over the summer thinking about what this would look like

2.       Getting audio and video equipment so everyone can use WebEx. Not as popular with those courses that aren’t lecture based.

3.       Currently identifying best way to spend funds that have to be spent by end of year. 30-50 classrooms, $700,00.

4.       Instructor and student audio should be captured to have proper discussion. Managing that in a hybrid course, requires a lot of instructor mediation (reiteration). Freshmen seminar is primarily discussion based and the equipment we had did not work for them. We need to find a better way for that.

5.       Incorporate PTZ Pan, Tilt Zoom cameras that sit in the back of the classrooms. Student presentations then wouldn’t be tied to a small webcam.

6.       Can also be used for lecture capture.

7.       Using contract labor to try and get it done as quickly as possible .

8.       Michael Brody: Faculty appreciate your work Colin.

h.       These we have accomplished; see below

VII.            Senators Open Discussion

a.       Julie Haggerty: Faculty Senate position on health and equity issues in the pandemic. Thinking about how we can continue to look out for each other for our long-term wellbeing. We are in this together. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VRRWCO1xjHqTdXFm1pxuHqZDA1DVVZZIn2SjN_9quJA/edit?usp=sharing  

1.       The issues: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/science/covid-universities-women.html

2.       Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists: COVID-19 has not affected all scientists equally.

A.      “A survey of principal investigators indicates that female scientists, those in the ‘bench sciences’ and, especially, scientists with young children experienced a substantial decline in time devoted to research. This could have important short- and longer-term effects on their careers, which institution leaders and funders need to address carefully.”

i.            Based on a survey of 4,535 academics from across the world and representing multiple disciplines.

ii.            Myers et al. 2020. “Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists.” Nature Human Behavior Vol 4: 880-883. See also: Andersen JP, Nielsen MW, Simone NL, Lewis RE, Jagsi R. Meta-research: is Covid-19 amplifying the authorship gender gap in the medical literature? DOI: abs/2005.06303 (preprint). [Google Scholar] Amano-Patiño N, Faraglia E, Giannitsarou C, Hasna Z. Who is doing new research in the time of COVID-19? Not the female economists. May 2, 2020. https://voxeu.org/article/who-doing-new-research-time-covid-19-not-female-economists

3.       MSU/Montana’s demographics increase risks of inequitable outcomes …

A.      “I think it is important to shine as much light as we can on faculty of color, researchers who work and help us strengthen our relationships with Montana’s tribal communities, and the Native communities themselves that make MSU possible in the first place and that are really being hit hard by covid.  [the language] ‘who are caretakers of elderly relatives and/or elderly community members”—’… applies to multiple faculty members in my department.’

i.            Native American Studies Faculty Senate Rep.

4.       Faculty Senate Response

A.      Faculty Senate informal data collection on faculty concerns re: health & safety & ongoing discussions betw. steering and family advocate re: professional concerns

B.      Open discussion at Faculty Senate on 10/14/20

i.            Perspectives shared from Art & Architecture, English, Math, Earth Sciences, Business, Chemical Engineering

C.      Drafting, with faculty input, of memo to administration with two requests

D.      Today: share the contents, discuss, entertain motions to endorse as is, with edits, or refer for further discussion with faculty; or reject

E.       https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VRRWCO1xjHqTdXFm1pxuHqZDA1DVVZZIn2SjN_9quJA/edit?usp=sharing

5.       Communication of a centralized and coordinated response to faculty-specific COVID issues.

A.      A single person/entity whose responsibility it is to list on a single website all policies and practices related to faculty activities affected by Covid-19 and to answer faculty questions related to them … and report to Faculty Senate on topics such as:

i.            Assessment practices (and any COVID-specific adaptations)

ii.            COVID-specific adaptations to faculty workload policies and expectations 

iii.            Access to protective health measures specific to COVID-19

iv.            Personal protections available to faculty

6.       A formal initiative to monitor and evaluate effects of the pandemic on faculty performance, and mitigate disparities, to include:

A.      ongoing data collection and analysis

B.      a coordinated effort to develop and/or implement policies that directly acknowledge and mitigate the risk that faculty who are women and/or parents of young children, people of color, or members of other underrepresented groups will experience greater professional setbacks from the pandemic than their counterparts.

1.       Things we’ve heard

A.      Concerns about continue and immediate health risks-surviving

B.      Longer term issues with respect to COVID 19 disruptions could contribute to a slump in faculty performance.

i.            Sets back the incredible progress we’ve made in diversity and inclusion of our faculty.

ii.            We’ve worked so hard to get these wonderful faculty members.

iii.            Study on female research faculty who have children at home.

iv.            Pay particular attention to  “…..who are caretakers of elderly relatives and/or elderly community members…”

v.            Faculty Senate informal data collection on faculty concerns re: health & safety and ongoing discussions between. Steering and family advocate re: professional concerns

vi.            Open discussion at Faculty Senate on 10/14/2020

vii.            Drafting, with faculty input, of memo to administration with two requests

viii.            Communication of a centralized and coordinated response to faculty -specific COVID issues

Ø  A single person/entity whose responsibility it is to list on a single website all policies and practices related to faculty activities affected by COFID and to answer faculty questions related to them… and report ot Faculty Senate on topics such as;

·         Assessment practices (and any COVID specific adaptations)

·         COVID specific adaptions to faculty workload policies and expectations.

ix.            Need for campus community to take seriously the inequitable progress in faculty performance

Ø  Ongoing data collection and analysis

Ø  A coordinated effort to develop and/or implement policies that directly acknowledge and mitigate the risk that faculty who are women and/or parents of young children, people of color, or members of other underrepresented groups will experience greater professional setbacks from the pandemic than their counterparts.

2.       Comments/Questions

A.      Tomas Gedeon: Different types of evaluations. Role and Scope is clear. We don’t want to change that now. How would this mean regarding that? How do we compare one faculty member and their family to another? Faculty can postpone their P&T clock. Annual report: write down what your difficulties have been? Take those things into account. Should be able to “opt out” of using the annual report (evaluation).

B.      Andrew Hill: Great ideas that have been put together. Given that changing assessments might be hard with R&S, we could make resources available for helping faculty get through issues such as childcare, etc.

C.      Colter Ellis: Thank you Julia and Dana for putting this together. Faculty in my dept are experiencing this. What can we do? and not “What are the barriers”. What is asked for in this document is modest.

D.      John Thompson: How will Gianforte’s win affect us? How much damage he could do the university system?

Ø  See below

E.       Amy Thomas: Important questions, but let’s come back to what we have in front of us. Protection for everything. Haven’t seen anything like this in front of Senate before. Very important. Would like to move forward. What do we do next?

Ø  Susan Dana: Impact on faculty is significant in the short and long term. We as FS have a responsibility to make sure we understand those impacts and have plans for them. Don’t know if this doc should be a resolution, or a request to administration to address the issues.

Ø  Julie Haggerty: We have choices. Just getting this info into the minutes. Hard to know how people feel if they don’t comment or give feedback. This is a more formal way to show support, if FS vote on them. Someone could move to endorse this, but would like you to share it with your faculty. It is adequately generic. It is not a specific policy proposal.

Ø  Michael Brody: Won’t meet for three weeks so we have time to take this back to your faculty for feedback.

Ø  Robert Carson: Can we do a “straw poll” now to get an idea of FS support, or lack thereof? COVID has created difficulty circumstances for all of us. Some more than others. Want to insure that people aren’t put in the position to have to chose between their families and their careers-whatever that may look like. Want to protect faculty who are particularly vulnerable.

·         Julie Haggerty: Have heard from junior faculty confused about if it’s appropriate to even ask for Family Medical Leave without jeopardizing their career.

·         Bradford Watson: Have created a poll. 25 votes in favor. None apposed. 11 abstentions.

Ø  Ryan Anderson: BIPOC action plan and if it is going forward or not. Update is due in November. Did the feedback sessions happen? Could Chair and Chair Elect look into where we are on this? Plenty of upsides to doing the right thing. Feel this is one of them.

b.       Differential Impacts on Faculty and Their Careers

1.       COVID Time and Beyond

VIII.            How can we communicate and support each other in Covid time?

a.       Senators’ Hours in Webex: Tuesdays 1-2 PM and Thursdays 11 AM to 12PM

b.       Faculty Senate D2L Brightspace: discussion area for topics of interest

c.       Faculty Senate Email Group: msufacultysenate@montanaedu.onmicrosoft.com

IX.            Public Comment

a.       None

X.            Adjourn

a.       Senators hours are Mondays 1-2, Tuesdays 2-3.

b.       Michael Walach moves to adjourn. Susan Dana seconds. Meeting was adjourned at 4:37

Reminder: Next meeting is November 18, 2020

Task Force Stage 1: Planning Spring 2021 and Beyond

Things to Do For and With Faculty

Easy

-          Make clear at the very beginning and every week of the course student expectations including instructional time and place, assignments. CFE help

-          Be clear with students exactly what they are signing up for and stick to the described delivery mode.

-          Treat suspected Covid cases (quarantine and isolation) as normal sick days, provide content but do not necessarily replicate the class experience, this needs to be clear to students.

-          In blended classes stick to the prescribed schedule of attendance and classes.

-          Use checklist and calendar tools in D2L. (hour training)

o   . https://documentation.brightspace.com/EN/le/checklist/instructor/creating_checklist.htm

o   Video “how-to” for creating a checklist for students in Brightspace by D2L.

o   Video for creating a calendar event and how to use the calendar in Brightspace by D2L.

-          Audio recordings of lecture or class.

-          Clear attendance policy adhering to course modality. Suggested language and Covid-19 examples and non-Covid-19 examples from CFE.

-          Keep digital platforms to a minimum / simple to avoid confusion.

-          Time and effort can be invested prior to the semester to save time and effort during the semester or ease efforts during the semester.

Medium

-          Have and practice self-help strategies: eat well, drink water, meditate, exercise and more love.

-          Enable Webex Education Connector LTI in Brightspace to support scheduling of synchronous meetings and office hours directly from the LMS

-          Encourage student utilization of the Brightspace Pulse mobile application.

-          Online synchronous seminars with breakout groups.

-          Video recordings of lecture or class.

Difficult

-          Design your class as Flipped Classroom, lecture recorded and class time active learning.

-          Design Labs as group work so that small number of students conduct data acquisition (2), other students in group (4) Webex into lab activities, switch hands on and virtual each lab, out of class whole group analyzes data determines results and draws conclusions.

-          Identify and utilize innovative online labs and field trips for virtual experiences

-          Hands-on take home labs.

Task Force Stage 1: Planning Spring 2021 and Beyond

Things we have accomplished

Structural

-          Financial investments into improving the ability to capture higher quality audio and video in small – medium size classrooms in order to support the capture and broadcast of discussions and student comments/questions

-          Closer relationship of CFE with FS.

Process

-          Faculty Focus Groups: Lecture, Lab, Blended, Seminar, GTAs.

-          Provost letter on clarity of blended modality and expectations.

-          Letter directed to GTAs, better communication with GTAs.

-          Mental Health and Other Resources: Information and Access.