DRAFT - NOT APPROVED
NORTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY

Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting
Friday, March 4, 2009

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by President Craig Clifford in SC147.  There was ITV access at Muskogee, Broken Arrow and Tahlequah.

Council Members in attendance: Sarah Brick Archer (Library), Ernst Bekkering (Business & Technology), Ron Cambiano (Education), Denise Deason-Toyne (Business & Technology), John Diamantopoulos (Science & Health Professions), Chris Garland (Liberal Arts), Allen McKee (Optometry), Amy Aldridge Sanford (Liberal Arts), Dan Savage (Liberal Arts)

Council Members in attendance in Broken Arrow:   Jennifer Edwards (Liberal Arts), PJ Gorden (Business & Technology), Buster Hall (BA), Rhea Johnston (Education), Rick Williams (Education)

Council Members in attendance in Muskogee: 
Guests: Diana Mashburn (Science & Health Professions), Lori Murray (Science & Health Professions), Joyce Van Nostrand (Science & Health Professions), Karen Wood (Science & Health Professions)

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

Invited Presentations

[Council will set aside time at the first of each meeting to visit with President Betz, VP Academic Affairs Bigbee and/or VP Administration Cherry should they be able to attend.] - Minutes are listed in agenda order, topics were covered in a different order in the meeting.

A. Committees and Standing Reports

    1. Minutes of  2/6/09 meeting

         Minutes accepted as presented.

    2.  Spending Report

          We received a $700 rollover from last year.

B . Old Business

    1.  General Education Task Force - Update (Sanford)

               The committee is meeting weekly now and working on the last content area.  There will be town hall meetings to discuss their suggestions.

    2.  Selection of Department Chairs - (Clifford/Bigbee)

          As appointments take place, this will be monitored.

    3. Circle of Excellence Committee appointments - (Clifford)

          The committee has been appointed and nominations have been collected.  We should recommend a location for the bricks in the new Centennial plaza design.
         
    4.  Office Hour Proposal for Faculty Handbook - (Garland/Deason-Toyne)

            The new draft proposal from the working group was discussed.  One grammatical change was made.  There was a vote in favor of the amendment.

    5.  Department and College Restructuring Task Force - (Bigbee)

          This topic will be addressed as we prepare the self-study for the Higher Learning Commission visit.  We will remove this item from our agenda.

    6.  Inclement Weather Policy Task Force - (Clifford)

          We should revisit this issue and look at a task force in cooperation with Laura Boren's office.  This will probably be solved by the end of the year.

    7.  Enrollment in online classes - (Clifford)

          There will be feedback soon on how that worked.  The largest class size is 70-75 students.  There are two classes offered per college with some assistance to the professor.

    8.  Study Days vs. dead week Task Force - (Clifford)

          Clifford is looking for volunteers for this task force.  Current student government leadership is amenable to changing the current practice.

C.  New Business

    1.   Concern about Post Tenure Review process (Scott)

          Some Department Chairs have issued information about reviews.  There is a question about two versus three year timing.  There was discussion about the format of the review, and the confusion in using the Boyer model.  Most supported using the areas of Teaching, Research and Service rather than the portfolio model.  Some areas use their yearly faculty activity reports and add to vitas each year.  There is some discontinuity in the times for review.  The system should be workable and there should be consistency in processes across colleges.  Clifford will get members of a working group together.

    2.  Course Assignment Process - Bait and Switch

          There is a report of an instance where a faculty member was asked to teach course xyz and then later was told to teach a different course.  There was not a choice and the course involved driving to another campus to teach.  The net outcome is that the pay for the one course does not equal the cost of teaching it and there was no choice in the matter.

    3.  Campus Cell Phone Policies posted on FC website
      
            Secretary, Linda West, compiled a group of policies used on NSU faculty syllabi concerning cell phone use in class.  These can be drawn from for faculty to add to their syllabi.

    4.  University Assembly Notes posted on FC website

             Secretary, Linda West, took notes at the last University Assembly and they are linked from the Faculty Council website.  The next University Assembly will be at the end of the month in Broken Arrow.

D. Other Business
  
    1.  Founder's Day
      
             Classes will be canceled for the afternoon.  Anyone who wants can attend.

    2.  May 1st Inauguration
      
             Similar class cancellations will happen.  There was discussion of what Faculty Council should do to honor the Inauguration.  There was a motion made that Faculty Council supply a floating amount of money depending in how much is still needed to fund the 100 Centurion Scholarships for March 6th.  The motion was made by Deason-Toyne, seconded by Aldridge Sanford and the motion passed.

    3.  Faculty Evaluation scores tied to GPA scores

             There was discussion of whether GPA of students should be factored into faculty evaluation scores.  These scores affect merit pay in colleges and student grades may or may not affect how the students rate the instructors.  These evaluations are used in the retention decisions for non tenured faculty, also.  There is a need to establish the correlation between evaluation scores and the GPA of the class.  The timing of the evaluation may make the grade correlation irrelevant.
      
Announcements:      

        April 3 next meeting.  May 6 with be the last meeting of the semester. 
        We will be holding elections soon.  We will also have Appellate elections in April and will need help manning the tables.

E.  Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:06 p.m.


Submitted by Linda West, Secretary-Treasurer
4/2/2009