NORTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY

Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting
Friday, April 30, 2008

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by President Craig Clifford in BT220.  There was ITV access at Muskogee, Broken Arrow and Tahlequah.

Council Members in attendance: Ernst Bekkering (Business & Technology), Ron Cambiano (Education), Denise Deason-Toyne (Business & Technology), Jennifer Edwards (Liberal Arts), Chris Garland (Liberal Arts), Harriett Hobbs (Library), Alan McKee (Optometry), Dan Savage (Liberal Arts), David Scott (Liberal Arts for Aldridge Sanford)

Council Members in attendance in Broken Arrow: Rhea Johnston (Education), Pamela Louderback (Library), Rick Williams (Education)

 Council Members in attendance in Muskogee:

Council Officers in attendance:  Craig Clifford (President), Linda West (Secretary/Treasurer).

Invited Presentations

[Council will set aside time at the first of each meeting to visit with President Williams, VP Academic Affairs Bigbee and/or VP Administration Cherry should they be able to attend.]

A. Committees and Standing Reports

    1. Minutes of  3/28/08 meeting

         Deason-Toyne made a motion that the minutes be approved as presented.  It was seconded by Hobbs and the motion passed.

    2.  Spending Report

          Recent or proposed expenditures include a trip to Broken Arrow by Clifford to monitor the Appellate election, $315 for brick engraving still pending and additional funds to update plaques for the Circle of Excellence.

B . Old Business

    1.  General Education Task Force - Update (Sanford)

                Deason-Toyne reported that the committee wrote a letter to VP Bigbee outlining results from the survey of what students need to know.  Cambiano recommended that the committee look at adding a theme from the American Democracy Project.  The idea of civic engagement should be part of the general education philosophy.

    2.  Circle of Excellence Awards (Clifford)

                The presentation was made Thursday to the winners for 2007/2008: 
                            Katy Ellis, Teaching,
                            Jon Shapiro, Research
                            John Diamantopoulos, Service. 
                Congratulations to these accomplished faculty members.

    3.  HB 2513 (Clifford)

                Our resolution was communicated to interim president Cherry.  The issue is dead so far this year.              

C.  New Business

    1.   Resolution welcoming Dr. Don Betz (Clifford)  See Attachment

                 Cambiano moved that the resolution be passed with minor corrections.  The motion was seconded by Deason-Toyne and the motion passed.

    2.  Appellate Committee Election Held (Clifford)

                 Clifford will report the ballot count to VP Bigbee who will then announce the results.

D. Other Business

    1.  Committee assignments

Names were suggested for membership to various committees as representatives of the Faculty Association.

    2. Faculty Council Recommendations for Promotion and Continuing Employment

            The committee report has been given to VP Bigbee.

    3.  Faculty Evaluation for Online Courses Not Secure

            a.  The lack of security for faculty evaluations made using Blackboard was noted.  A faculty member was able to register an evaluation in their own course and in another faculty member's course.  There were questions raised about who sees the information before it is given to administrators.  It was also pointed out the ITV instructors do not have evaluations.  It was agreed that any online evaluation needs to be a secure system.

            Bekkering moved that "We ask the administration to throw out the results of the Spring 2008 online faculty evaluations because they were not secure.  We encourage Academic Affairs to work toward a secure system for this valuable evaluation tool."  Garland seconded and the motion passed.

            b.  Faculty Council discussed the new online learning system and expressed the need for the two systems to be run parallel to be able to move courses.  Bekkering made the motion that "Administration make sure adequate funds are available for a parallel system."  It was seconded by Deason-Toyne and passed with one abstention.

    4.  COLA Hiring Committee

            Savage expressed concern over a recent hire.  The position was advertised only on Highered.com and was not in the Chronicle.  There were eleven applicants, however only 2 or 3 were qualified.  Only the top applicant was invited.  The Dean said that there wasn't money avalable for more ads or interviews.  It was noted that this implies that hiring new faculty is not important.  This does not seem to be the best way of bringing in the best people.  Science brings three candidates in and the college pays for additional ads.  It was recomended that we investigate where decisions are being made, compare colleges and recomend ways to get good applicants.  Some colleges have specific guidelines.  Savage will help work on this this summer and it will be discussed next year.

    5.  Selection of Department Chairs

            Scott asked if there had been a followup to this recommendation made by Faculty Council (10-7-05)  The policy does not appear to have been adopted.

    6.  Faculty Travel

            Faculty Council made a resolution about supporting student travel through Faculty Development funds earlier in the year.  What are the results of that resolution?

E.  Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m. 

Submitted by Linda West, Secretary-Treasurer
6/9/08