NORTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY
Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting
Friday, March 4, 2005
[Approved October 6, 2005]
I. Call to Order
1. The meeting was called to order at 3:12 p.m. by President
Wickham
in the NET Tower Room.
Council Members in attendance: Renee Cambiano (Education),
John Diamantopoulos (Science
& Health Professions), Dan Glasgow (Education), Harriett Hobbs
(Library), Peggy Kaney
(Library), Rick Matzen (Science
& Health Professions), Jeff Miller (Optometry),
Latricia Pack (Optometry), Lallie Scott (Liberal Arts), Jon
Shapiro (Business & Technology), and Bruce Tibbetts (substitute for
Terri Baker, Liberal Arts) .
Council Officers in attendance: Gary Wickham (President),
Andrew
Vassar (Vice President), and Chuck Ziehr (Secretary-Treasurer).
Guests in attendance: None.
II. NSU Administrative Officers
[Beginning with this meeting the Council will set aside time
at the first of each meeting to visit with President Williams, VP
Academic Affairs Pate and/or VP Administration Cherry should they be
able to attend.]
Vice President Pate expressed his regrets for not being able to
attend the meeting; he is assisting his daughter to move from Tulsa to
Birmingham, Alabama.
III. Committees and Standing Reports
1. Minutes of the February 4, 2005 Faculty Council meetings were
corrected and unanimously approved as corrected.
2. Treasurers Report
The Faculty Council account currently has an unencumbered balance of
$6,996.31. This includes some additional money that was
carried-over from last year's budget.
3. Faculty Welfare Committee Report
This will be later in the context of item 3 under Old Business.
IV. Old Business
1. Letter to Dr. Pate RE: Motion about Electing Department Chairs
Council President Wickham had received a memo from Dr. Pate in which he
indicated that he anticipated that President Williams would convene the
task force the week after Spring Break.
2. Award for Previous Faculty Presidents
Council President Wickham stated that he hoped to have a ceremony for
presenting these awards this semester.
3. Faculty Dining Room in the Cedar Room
There has been low attendance since the Cedar Room has been re-opened
for faculty use this semester. The few faculty using the facility
reported good interaction among the colleagues there from across
campus. Council President Wickham had received an e-mail from a
faculty member who expressed support for the use of the Cedar Room, but
noted that there had been problems with a lack of drinks and ice in the
room (as promised would be there). Wickham forwarded the e-mail
(with the faculty member's name removed) to Lynn Howard and Kim Cherry.
4. Plagiarism
a. Draft statement regarding plagiarism -- no
report.
b. New Software Available by License Through
Teaching and Learning Center
Anyone interested in using the
software should contact the Center.
5. Transportable Hard Drives
Two 20 GB flash drives are available from the Council for faculty use
(contact Wickham to check out one of the drives).
6. Getting Assessment of Previous Motions Passed by Faculty
Council -- no report or action.
7. Support for Higher Education Bond Issue
Council President Wickham reported information shared at last night's
meeting of the Faculty Advisory Council of the State Regents for Higher
Education. The Regents staff reported that was still some
negotitating going on between Republicans and Democrats in the Oklahoma
House regarding the higher education bond issue; they were concerned,
yet hopeful. Faculty were encouraged to support the bond issue in
communication with their representatives.
8. Circle of Excellence
a. Respone This Year
There were a total of 79 persons nominated (with some persons being
nominated in more than one category). There were 61 nominations
in teaching, 20 in service, and 16 in research.
V. New Business
1. Finding Officers for 2005-06
No candidates have been identified so far.
2. FAC Visit with OTRS Director
The Director of the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System, Tommy Beavers,
met with the Faculty Advisory Council of the State Regents for Higher
Education (on which Council President Wickham serves). Mr.
Beavers encouraged faculty who are nearing retirement to request OTRS
to develop a prospectus of options regarding the individuals
retirement. He noted that the online calculator was not
accurate. Call or e-mail for an accurate assessment of
options. The OTRS is to get 5% of net state lottery
proceeds. OTRS pays out about $600 million per year in benefits;
its assets are $7.5 billion. Unfunded cost of living adjustments
by the state legislature have been a problem. The system is only
47% funded.
3. Recommended Faculty Association Constitution Changes
The Constitution Revision Committee composed of Mayrene Bentley, Mike
Sharp, Jon Shapiro, and Gary Wickham had decided to recommned a series
of by-laws rather than a complete revision of the constitution at this
time.
a. Draft By-Law Suggestions
The following proposed by-laws were presented for informational
purposes that this time. Recommended revisions that were
mentioned during discussion are noted in red.
By-Law I - Role of the NSU
Faculty Association
The NSU Faculty Association, acting through its officers and Council,
will represent faculty interests in any work-related matters pertaining
to the role of faculty members on any campus of Northeastern State
University.
By-Law II- Historian/Archivist
The President shall appoint a Historian/Archivist from among the
Association membership who will keep a database of records relevant to
the organization. These will include: 1) a history of motions
made and
passed by the Council Delegates; 2) summaries of open meetings held
with University Administrators with lists of questions and answers; and
3) other data as supportive of the good of the Faculty.
By-Law III - NSU Faculty Council Membership
Members of the NSU Faculty Council shall hereafter be referred to as
Delegates. Each College and the Library will automatically have 2
Delegates on the Faculty Council. Therefore, each College and the
Library shall select, from among its membership by simple majority vote
of those full-time faculty voting, two Delegates to serve as
College/Library representatives to the Faculty Council. The faculty
roster base for each academic entity represented is defined as 15
faculty members. Each academic unit also will elect an additional
Faculty Council Delegate for each group of 30 faculty, working
exclusively in that unit, over the base of 15. Furthermore, the
Muskogee and Broken Arrow campuses will each have one Delegate on the
Faculty Council. Such a person must have the majority of his or
her
workload at the site represented and will serve regardless of his or
her College or Library affiliation. These Delegates will be elected by
simple majority of those full-time Faculty who have a majority of their
workload either at Muskogee or Broken Arrow. The Northeastern
Faculty
Council shall determine in the by-laws to this Constitution those
entities eligible for representation on the Council and in what years
each entity shall select its Faculty Council Delegates.
By-Law IV - Terms of Office of NSU Faculty Council Officers
The terms of all officers shall commence one week before the first day
of classes in the fall semester following the April election.
By-Law V - Vacancies of Offices
If a Delegate vacates his or her seat, the President of the Faculty
Association shall inform the Dean or Director of the academic unit, as
well as the faculty members in the academic unit, of the need to fill
the vacancy. Following the election of a successor, the Dean or
Director and/or the remaining Delegate or Delegates shall inform
the
President of the Faculty Association and Council of the selection.
If officers are not elected in April for any reason, the Council
Delegate with seniority in total years of service as Delegate
on the Council shall
be President until a new President is elected. The delegate with
second seniority in total years shall be the Vice President until one
is elected, and the delegate with third seniority in total years shall
be the Secretary-Treasurer until one is elected. If there is a tie in
seniority of service as a delegate, the person with the longest tenure
at NSU shall take office. Delegates temporarily serving as
officers
under these terms shall retain the right to make motions and vote on
motions.
By-Law VI - Cycle of Election of NSU Faculty Council
Delegates
(Modify 4.2 By-law 2)
The College of Liberal Arts, the College of Education, the College
of Optometry, and
NSU-Muskogee shall elect their Faculty Council Delegates in the
Fall of
the odd-numbered years. The College of Business and Technology; the
University Libraries, the College of Science and Health Professions, and NSU-BA
shall elect their Delegates in the Fall of the even-numbered
years.
[As revised by Council, December 4, 1998; titles corrected March 2002]
By-Law VII - Dues
Each two years, at the time of the election of the NSU Faculty
Association (Council) officers, the Council shall place on the ballot
an amendment to this constitution regarding the payment of dues by
Association members.
By-Law VIII - Standing University Committees
The Faculty Association President, acting with the input of the Faculty
Council Delegates, shall appoint two members to the New Faculty
Orientation Committee each year in May.
By-Law IX
An NSU Faculty Member may receive a Circle of Excellence award one time
in his or her career. Once a Faculty Member wins an award in any
category, he or she is retired from competition for a further award in
any category.
The by-law prompting the most discussion was VII-Dues. The was
discussion about what the amount should be, but no consensus was
reached. Bruce Tibbets noted that OEA dues are $360 per year and
provides legal assistance when needed; he stated that NSU faculty could
join OEA. It was suggested that Association dues be voluntarity,
at least initially.
b. Is There a Need for a Faculty Vote?
By-laws can be approved by a vote of the Council. A revised draft
of the By-laws will be circulated to the Council prior to next month's
meeting, and vote will be taken then.
4. MS Office for Work and Home
It was noted that faculty may check out a CD from Micromputing Servies
and install MS Office at home as per an NSU site license.
5. Return of Faculty Evaluations
Council President Wickham had received an e-mail that was sent to him
and Dr. Pate from John Yeutter in which Dr. Yeutter remarked that the
results from student evaluations of faculty from the Fall 2004 semester
were not received in the deans' offices unti February 24, 2005.
These were not received in a timely fashion and prevented the results
from being used to improve classes for Spring 2005. Wickham noted
that Dr. Pate would address this issue in the April meeting of the
Council.
VI. Other Business
1. Former Vice President Howard Injured
Council President Wickham reported that Jim Howard was hospitalized in
serious condition following an auto accident.
2. Concern about the D, F, W policy
There was discussion about a memo sent to deans from Enrollment
Management regarding concern about faculty members who teach classes in
which 40% or more of students received a D, F, or W. The 40%
figure seemed too arbitrary and did not take into consideration that
nature of the course or the student pool who might be attracted to a
particular class. The memo noted that something should be done
about classes that exceed the 40% level, but what should be done was
not noted. Delegates noted that the new (in the last couple of
years) late withdrawal date for automatic W's appears to have
significantly increased the number of students withdrawing from
courses. The Council recommended that a holistic approach/policy
be developed to address this issue.
3. Next Counci Meeting
Council President Wickham noted that the next regularly-scheduled
meeting of the Council was set for April 1 when neither he nor Council
Vice President Andrew Vasser could be here. Lallie Scott moved
and Dan Glasgow seconded that the Council's April meeting be postponed
until April 8. The motion passed unanimously.
VII. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.
Submitted by Chuck Ziehr,
Secretary-Treasurer, April 8, 2005.