Minutes of the Faculty Council
October 3, 2005 [as amended, November 7, 2005]
Following
newly instituted procedures, the Recording
Secretary, Leslie Young, a KSU work-study student, first took notes during the
Council meeting on October 3. She delivered them to John Pratte, Council Secretary by virtue
of his being Past Chair of Council, who prepared them as formal minutes He then
delivered them to Robert Hill, Current
Chair of Council, for review and posting on the web. Temporarily, at least,
the Council minutes will appear at http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~rhill/fc05-06.htm. N.B.: Minutes are not official
until they are approved by vote of the Council.—RWH, 10/11/05
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Minutes of
the Faculty Council, October 3, 2005
Senators present: Chris Ziegler (Chair of University Senate), John Pratte (Secretary of Faculty Council), Ken Hoganson (for Dick Gayler, Chair-Elect of Faculty Council), Karen Robinson, Todd Harper, Daniel Sachs, Stephen Hagin, Robert Birrell, Tonya Jones,. Kerwin Swint, Susan Rouse, David Shepherd, Randy Stuart, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, Raynice Jean Sigur, Nancy Prochaska, Robin Cheramie, David Parker, Ulf Zimmermann, R.C. Paul, Solomon Negash, Kevin Gwaltney, Maurice Wilson, Nita Paris, Maureen McCarthy, Alison Keefe, Barbara Blake, Janice Long, Jamie Lee, Paula Jackson, Ardith Peters, Bo Yang, Huggins Msimanga, Victor Clincy, LeeAnn Lands
Senators excused: Ping Hu Johnson
Visitors present: Leslie Young (Recording Secretary of Faculty Council), Doug Moodie (Past Chair, University Senate), Ikechukwu Ukeje (Interim Chair of Elementary and Early Childhood Education), Marjorie Economopoulos (Chair, Secondary and Middle Grades Education), Feland L. Meadows (Goizueta Endowed Chair and Professor of Elementary and Early Childhood Education)
The meeting was called to order at 3:30 p.m. by Dr. Bob Hill, chair.
Bob started the meeting by announcing that we have a new recording secretary (Leslie Young, a work study student) who will record all comments made in Council. He further stated that the duties of Faculty Council secretary will now be handled the past chair, who will edit the recording secretary’s dictation to summarize the happenings of the meeting.
Bob stated that Martha Myers would soon be bringing forth a proposal the UCAC about joint appointment of faculty.
Campus Smoking
Issue
Bob stated that the proposal for the smoking policy announced at the last Senate meeting has raised questions with Harry Trendell about the enforceability of new policy and the lack of resources. He stated that there would be a virtual lock down of the campus on the smoking issue. Nita Paris commented on the lack of additional smoking areas in the proposal other than near Kennesaw Hall. Dan Sacks discussed the need for the placement of smoking areas in places away from the sidewalks and doors (ex. Back of buildings). Kevin Gwaltney proposed having a smoking map posted online for convenience of smokers and nonsmokers.
Faculty Handbook
Revision
Bob Hill summarized discussion from Senate Executive about the need to edit the entire Faculty Handbook and not just Section 5 (Tenure and Promotion). Todd Harper commented on the fact that revisions to Section 5 should drive some changes in other areas. Doug Moody stated that the current handbook has information that is relevant to the entire campus and not just faculty. These sections of the handbook need to be removed and put into a separate University handbook, with the work on revising these sections being given to the relevant departments. The only sections that need to be in the Faculty Handbook are sections 1, 3, and 5.
Susan Rouse commented upon the need to create a conference committee to oversee edits to the draft of Section 5. This committee would have representatives from all parties (teaching faculty, administrative faculty, T&P committee members) and would be able to make very clear edits of draft before the document gets to the floor of the Senate. Bob Hill agreed, and further stated that we (Faculty Council) need an ongoing handbook committee to continue to edit the handbook. Further discussion from the floor commented upon the need to make the conference committee a task force (not permanent) and to give it a clear timeline. The timeline discussed had all edits being proposed before the Nov. 14th Senate meeting, with second reading taking place during the Dec. 7th Senate meeting (this was originally scheduled to be a Faculty Council meeting, but has been changed to a Senate meeting time).
Bob Hill opened the floor to discussion about particular issues with the Section 5 draft. Karen Robinson expressed an interest in seeing a compilation of the issues that have been raised so far by the deans, department heads and other faculty groups. Marge Economopolis from Chairs Council summarized the efforts that they have made in that regard. Most of the discussion in Chairs Council has been about the proposed procedures for T&P instead of other issues, such as the FPA or the decentralized nature of the guidelines. However, they are still at a conversation level and that they don’t have a single voice on this issue. John Pratte stated that the proposed changes are not radical revisions from what is currently done on campus, i.e. the current guidelines are not being followed to the letter of the law, and that the new guidelines are more in step with what is currently being done.
Tonya Jones brought forth several concerns from her department: 1) who will be responsibly to make sure the procedures are carried out 2) does the structure of the college review committee preclude an addition of a representative sitting in ex-officio role, 3) is there a procedure where a college rev committee could ask for clarification, and 4) who has access to the materials the college rev committee has? In reply, members of the task force (Rouse and Pratte) replied that 1) the president and vice-president, ultimately, although if procedures are violated, the university grievance committee can take action, 2) this is not expressly stated, and there needs to be discussion of this in the task force, 3) page 20 of the draft, and 4) another good question that needs to be discussed by the task force.
Karen Robinson asked questions about the requirement for tenured faculty on the committees and the need to go outside the department if there were not enough tenured faculty in the department. She stated a preference for keeping discipline knowledge (the guidelines will now be very discipline specific) on the committees as opposed to getting tenured faculty.
Bob Hill led a discussion on the makeup of the conference task force. It was decided that the group should have no more than 10 members, with a representative from the deans, 1-2 from the department heads, 3-4 faculty and 3-4 reps from the original T&P task force. They will make all edits before the Nov. 14th Senate meeting. The deans and chairs will vote on their own representative. Bob Hill requested that faculty that wished to serve should send him an e-mail.
Kevin Gwaltney put forward a motion to create a standing committee to edit the faculty handbook. The motion died for want of a second.
Presidential
Search Resolution
Todd Harper presented a resolution that would
have the Faculty Council request a change in the procedures of the Presidential
Search Committee. Currently, there will
be no on-campus interviews with the candidates.
The resolution calls for this to be changed so that all finalists for
the position would have on-campus interviews.
Amendments were proposed from the floor (
Suggestions from the floor asked for a statement requesting
greater transparency in the proceedings of the search committee in addition to
the request for finalist campus interviews.
It was agreed that verbiage to this affect would be added. Victor Quincy asked whether this process was
different from the process that has occurred on other USG campuses. John Pratte stated
that over the last several years, he knew of only one presidential search that
did not have on-campus interviews (Secretary’s Note:
Final Motion: Land & Ziegler
IN favor of
resolution: unanimous vote on resolution
The meeting was adjourned at 4:46 p.m.