NORTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY
Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting
Friday, January 7, 2005
[Approved February 4, 2005] 
 

I. Call to Order

1.  The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. by President Wickham in the NET Tower Room.

Council Members in attendance:  Terri Baker (Liberal Arts), 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),  David Scott (Liberal Arts), and Lallie Scott (Liberal Arts).

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

II. Committees and Standing Reports

No other reports were given due to this being a specially-called meeting to deal with only three time-sensitive issues.


III.  Old Business

No old business was discussed in order to focus the brief meeting on only three issues.

IV. New Business

1.  Recommendation to VP Pate that he constitute an ad hoc committee to study a process for electing department chairs and to consider other aspects of the chair positions

Based on discussions in the Council on December 3, 2004 with President Williams, Vice President Pate, and Vice President Cherry concerning the possibility of a task force to develop policies and procedures for selecting department chairs, Council President Wickham had circulated via e-mail a draft of a possible motion in this regard to the Council on Janaury 5, 2005.  Dr. Baker made the motion that the above mentioned draft motion be considered; her motion was seconded by Dr. Glasgow.  The initial draft follows:

"an ad hoc committee or 'Task Force' (which has a 'task' but has no'force') be constituted to consider identifying a procedure to elect departmental chairs, determine the length of time an individual would serve as a chair, provide a way to remove a chair who was not serving the needs of the students (majors) and faculty in the department, and define a workload and compensation commensurate with the position.. This would be a committee of nine (9) members with three (3) identified by the Faculty Council,  three (3) from the Dean's Council and  three (3) from the 'Chairs' Council."

After considerable discussion of the draft motion, the scope of the task force, and precise wording, the draft motion was amended to read as follows: 

We ask that an ad hoc committee be constituted to consider identifying a procedure to elect departmental chairs, define a mechanism for establishing the duties of a departmental chair, determine the length of time an individual would serve as chair, and provide a way to remove a chair who was not serving the needs of students (majors) and faculty in the department.  The committee should also clarify the role and duties of program chairs who serve the departmental chairs.  The committee might also begin to define a workload and compensation commensurate with the positions.  We suggest that the committee have nine (9) members with three (3) identified by the Faculty Council, three (3) from the Dean’s Council, and three (3) from the “Chairs” Council.

The motion passed unanimously. 

Following a discussion of the qualifications for potential Council representatives to the proposed task force, the Council unanimously elected the following
provisional members representing the Delegates of the Faculty Council:
Dr. David Scott, Liberal Arts
Dr. Dan Glasgow, Education
Ms. Harriett Hobbs, Library

Gary Wickham will convey this motion and these provisional representatives to V.P. Pate in a letter.

2.  Faculty Advisory Council (State Regents) and its mission

Gary Wickham is the current chair of the Faculty Advisory Council (FAC) to the State Regents.  He overviewed the advisory role of the FAC and mentioned its stance in favor of shared governance.  He noted that the FAC had listed is primary concern for the current year to be the preparation of students for college and the remediation that is required for under-prepared students.  He also noted that the FAC will with officials from Health Choice in April.

3.  BOROC Insurance Committee

Each BOROC sister school has three representatives on the committee.  Those from NSU are:  Christy Landsaw (Administration), Gary Wickham (Faculty), Lolly Cole (Staff).  They are currently discussing life insurance issues.  He gave a handout containing the following:

During our meeting on December 3, 2004 we talked about possible changes for our Life Insurance.  Listed below are a couple of ideas which Jeanette mentioned.  Please add to the list any ideas you may have.
    1.  Double salary for Life Insurance amount rather than twice salary in thousands.
    2.  Life Insurance would be effective at time of salary increase rather than October.
    3.  Have changes implemented by January 1, 2006.
    4.  Offer additional group life insurance to the employee at the employee's cost.   For example, offer employees up to $100,000 more without a medical exam, and up to $240,000 with an exam.
    5.  Allowing an employee to opt out of coverage if they will be covered by insurance by their spouse or otherwise with the amount of what would have been paid for insurance being given to the employee.

V.  Other Business

It was announced that Dr. Janet Bahr's brother had died.  The Council expressed its deepest sympathy to Dr. Bahr and her family.
 

VI.  Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 3:19 p.m.

Submitted by Chuck Ziehr, Secretary-Treasurer, February 4, 2005.