Minutes, NSU Faculty Council, May 7, 2004

A. Message to the NSU Faculty from President Wickham Thursday, May 6, 2004 [These remarks were provided by President Wickham in the meeting's agenda.]

We’re at the end of another academic year, but it was not just another year. The Spring Commencement script lists 19 retirees, but we’re at least at 20 not counting those who retired last Fall. This is a momentous time for those of us who are not retiring. We are losing a tremendous body of knowledge focused on how NSU works. I wish the best to those who are retiring, but the University will miss them dearly.

As I start my second year as President of the NSU Faculty Association, I think I finally have an agenda. Simply stated, I very much would like for the faculty members to have more empathy toward the work done by colleagues in their own buildings and across campus. I would like to have us appreciating each other a lot more. Sometimes, chauvinism about profession, title, and scholarship unnecessarily separate us. While I have questions, I do not have answers.

The faculty at NSU is one large interdependent organism. The outstanding lesson I took from the events of last fall is, as a whole faculty, we don’t know each well. Certainly, we lack the knowledge to speak accurately for our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins in this extended family of scholars in which we work. If you have ideas on how to build bridges between individual faculty or faculty groups, please tell me. We serve NSU, but we also are in the service, and the debt, of one another. This is hard to see because there are very few times when faculty communicate in a professional forum.

The second agenda item that I’m coming to grips with is the thought that our family of scholars is sufficiently skilled to provide contrasting viewpoints on the nature of education today. This includes the circumstances of our employment. Subjects about which we have expert knowledge include: 1) grading; 2) teaching and learning styles; 3) testing; 4) looking at short- and long-term outcomes; 5) understanding tenure at NSU; 6) knowing the processes by which we are evaluated; 7) sharing strategies for dealing with students in, and out of, the classroom; and 8) building extended professional relationships with alumni. Once again, if you have ideas about ways or formats in which groups of faculty could explore such subjects in a critical and collegial manner, advise me.

I know all of us are kept very busy with classes, scholarship and other University-related work, but, if we are so busy that we don’t have the time to get to know one another, what’s the purpose. Our professional lives are not just about linear, chain-of-command, up and down relationships. We need to reach out laterally, to become a part of the whole.

Have a great summer. Please consider my thoughts.

M. Gary Wickham
NSU Faculty Association President

The meeting was called to order at 11:10 a.m. by President Wickham at Carver's Steakhouse and Grill.

Council Members in attendance: Grant Alexander (Business & Technology), Terri Baker (Arts & Letters), Dan Glasgow (Education), Andre Marquis (Social & Behavioral Sciences), Diana Mashburn (Math, Science & Nursing), Rick Matzen (Math, Science & Nursing), Jeff Miller (Optometry), Latricia Pack (Optometry), Jackie Schumaker (Library), David Scott (Arts & Letters), Lallie Scott (Social & Behavioral Sciences), and Linda West (Library).

Council Officers in attendance: Gary Wickham (President), Andrew Vassar (Vice President), and Chuck Ziehr (Secretary-Treasurer).

Terri Baker made a motion and Lallie Scott seconded that the minutes as corrected for the April 2, 2004 meeting be approved. The motion passed unanimously.

In the past month there have been expenditures of $324.56 ($200 operating expenses and $124.56 travel) leaving a balance of $5,142.44. From this balance $1000 will be transferred to the College of Optometry so that President Wickham can use the Optometry credit card for Council expenditures.

Andrew Vassar, Council Vice President and chair of the committee was appointed to the Employee Appreciation Day Committee. He asked the Council for guidance regarding its preference for incorporating Employee Appreciation Day with retirements in the Spring semester or for a new and separate event in the Spring semester focused on retirements and time in service at the University with the original Employee Appreciation Day remaining in the Fall semester. David Scott moved and Grant Alexander seconded a motion to add an event in the Spring semester focused on retirements and time in service. The motion passed unanimously.

a. Bricks
President Wickham will have the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 winners added to the Circle of Excellence within the next month.

b. Circle of Excellence Ceremony: 2003-2004
The Faculty Awards Committee was commended for a nice event honoring this year's winners. A plaque for centralized display has been ordered which will include all past winners and have space for the winners for the next 12 years. Framed certificates were given to all nominees for the Faculty Circle of Excellence this year. Positive feedback was received from many of these nominees who were appreciative for this recognition of their achievements. It was recommended that this practice of commending all nominees be continued in the future.

The recommended guidelines approved at last month's Council meeting will be sent to the Vice President for Academic Affairs with a copy to the Deans' Council.

4. Are there policies that govern when faculty get reimbursed for travel to teach classes?

Gary Wickham e-mailed Dean Jack Haney (NSU-BA) to inquire about travel reimbursement policies; his message read:

I'm writing to ask you a few questions about how faculty members are reimbursed for travel to and from our Broken Arrow campus. The NSU Faculty Council asked me to get information about travel in response to questions posed by our peers. I decided to ask you first because you probably are more familiar with travel issues than anyone whom I know.

The questions are:

1. If a faculty member whose primary assignment is in Tahlequah travels to our Broken Arrow campus to teach, is he/she encouraged to use a University vehicle or to drive their own vehicle?

2. If he/she drives a personal vehicle, how is reimbursement established? Does your office establish a common rate or does the NSU college of origin establish the rate?

3. If a faculty member lives outside Broken Arrow and has a primary assignment at Broken Arrow, is he/she reimbursed for driving to the Broken Arrow campus in their own vehicle?

4. If a faculty member has a primary assignment at Broken Arrow and travels to Tahlequah to teach, how is reimbursement established? Is he/she reimbursed for traveling the distance from their home to the Broken Arrow campus, from home to Tahlequah or from the Broken Arrow campus to Tahlequah? Is this a Broken Arrow campus or a Tahlequah college decision? Do we keep University vehicles at the Broken Arrow campus for this purpose?

In response to your travel questions, I will attempt to provide you with answers in the order you asked them. Whether a faculty member is a "resident" faculty of Tahlequah or Broken Arrow is a governing factor in how the University reimburses them under State guidelines.

1. Tahlequah resident faculty. There is no encouragement one way or the other. The faculty member can use University vehicles or their own.

2. Tahlequah resident faculty. The State and the University has established standard mileage for a trip from Tahlequah to BA and return. Paperwork is filed on this (BA) campus for that trip. In some instances it is started by office personnel on the Tahlequah campus and sent to BA for completion. All travel to and from BA comes out of the BA budget.

3. BA resident faculty. Neither the State or University is allowed to pay for an employee to travel to work.

4. BA resident faculty. Travel to Tahlequah for teaching assignment or other official duties (i.e., department meetings, general faculty meetings) is paid round trip mileage to and from Tahlequah at the prevailing mileage rate. We pay the shortest mileage. Should the faculty live closer to Tahlequah than the mileage back to the BA campus, we will pay the shorter distance. In no event will the reimbursement be greater than the distance to and from BA-Tahlequah-BA. We have three university cars stationed at BA. One of those cars is not road-worthy. Those other two are used by general staff, high school and college recruiting, enrollment, admissions, financial aid, etc. in addition to their availability to faculty to travel to teaching assignments on other campuses. The original use was not for resident faculty use. However, we have opened their use to faculty when not scheduled by others.

I have been somewhat brief in my response. There are always questions about application of policy. Those policies are State and University wide in application. We have one staff secretary responsible for the paperwork. She is in constant communication with the Tahlequah travel department. I sign all travel and attempt to apply policy, rules and procedures fairly and in accordance with policy.

Should you have any other questions or wish further information please call or e-mail me.

5. Faculty Dining Room in the Cedar Room or some other facility

It was noted that such a dining facility would help with campus interviews and conferences. Gary Wickham will contact President Williams, Lynn Howard, and Sodexho.

1. The last date of attendance for flunkees often is the date of the final even though they stopped attending many weeks previously. Can we get this changed? We look as though we fail people who tried.

The new policy for indicating the last date of attendance for students who receive an F in a course was of concern to some faculty members. Gary Wickham will contact Bill Nowlin about this (with a Cc: to Vice President Pate).

2. We need to revisit plagiarism. Two faculty reported plagiarism on the part of student scholars working in an out-of-classroom event. These faculty would like a strict definition of plagiarism to be placed in the catalog. They also would like avenues through which punitive action can be taken against students who plagiarize outside the classroom but while representing NSU.

Considerable discussion about the issue included the need for a statement in the University catalog in order to give credibility to faculty course policies, the need for uniformity of policies, the need for real punitive consequences, and the need for administrative support of such policies. Terri Baker made a motion that was seconded by David Scott to form a plagiarism policy committee. It passed unanimously. The following faculty members were appointed to the committee: Lallie Scott (chair), Andrew Vassar, and David Scott.

3. HEAC Function. A faculty member expressed concern about how HEAC (Human Experimentation Advisory Council) works.

On April 23, 2004 President Wickham received the following e-mail from John P. Yeutter:

Gary Wickham will talk with Craig Clifford, chair of HEAC, about the approval of the specific survey in question.

Campus Parking Committee: Jackie Schumaker, Harriett Hobbs, Ben Kracht, and Carl Farinelli.

Curriculum and Educational Policies Committee: Lallie Scott, Terri Baker, Rick Matzen, and Linda Moss.

Student Conduct Committee: Terri Baker, Dan Glasgow, Andre Marquis, Diana Mashburn, Jeff Miller, Latricia Pack, Lallie Scott, Linda West, Andrew Vassar, and Chuck Ziehr.

A delegate noted that the U.S. flag should have been displayed to the right of the speakers at the Honors Assembly. The chair of the Honors Committee will be informed.

Grant Alexander moved for adjournment; the motion was seconded by Jeff Miller. The meeting adjourned at 1:08 p.m.