NORTHEASTERN STATE UNIVERSITY
Minutes of Faculty Council Meeting
Friday, March 2, 2007

A.  Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by President John Yeutter in SL129.  There was ITV access at Muskogee, Broken Arrow and Tahlequah.

Council Members in attendance: Ernst Bekkering (Business & Technology), Jennifer Edwards (Liberal Arts), Harriett Hobbs, (Library), Rick Matzen (Science & Health Professions), Alan McKee (Optometry), John Milbauer (Liberal Arts), Bill Rosener (Business & Technology), Thomas Salmon (Optometry), David Scott (Liberal Arts), Lallie Scott (Liberal Arts),  Dan Sisk (Science & Health Professions), Denise Deason-Toyne (Business & Technology)

Council Members in attendance in Broken Arrow: Mayrene Bentley (Liberal Arts),  Pamela Louderback (Library), Marilon Morgan (Education), Joan Wipf (Education)

Council Officers in attendance:  John Diamantopoulos (Vice President), Linda West (Secretary/Treasurer), John Yeutter (President).

Guests:   Dalton Bigbee (VP Academic Affairs), Tim Foutch (Assistant Vice President: Administration), Eddie Griffin (Director, Athletics), Andrew Vassar (COLA)

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.]

Eddie Griffin and Tim Foutch presented a new venture from the NSU Athletic Association.  It is a way to raise funds through the NSU Foundation.  It is a self-funding Assistance Plan with a death benefit.  Members must be members of the Athletic Association and pay a fee to join.  When a member of the plan dies, each member contributes a sum toward the death benefit.  There are currently just under 100 members of the NSU plan.  There is no pre-screening and no age qualification for membership.

Vice President Bigbee took part in the meeting agenda.

A. Committees and Standing Reports
     1. Minutes of February 2 meeting. 
Minutes of the February meeting were reviewed and a correction to sentence structure was made.  Matzen moved to approve the minutes as corrected, it was seconded by Deason-Toyne.  The motion passed.

    2.  Financial Report
No change since last report.

B . New Business
    1.  Shared Governance Issue: Schedule Changes
   
       There was concern about the way that the Administration introduced dead days for next semester.  It was wished that faculty had more input into the decision and it was questioned whether to keep it in the future.  Faculty Council had reviewed the Student Government proposal last year and were surprised to find out about the change in the newspaper.  We do support time for students to study, but object to the lack of notification to faculty of the change.  VP Bigbee said we would see how it goes this time.  Any faculty member with issues can meet with him.

    2.  Honors Program: Request for Instructor Evaluations for all honors classes

There are ten General Education core classes for honors students.  Karen Carey would like to request that all of these classes be evaluated.  Honors students would like to give feedback to teachers about what worked and did not work in these classes.  Staffing of these classes is made at the Department level.  David Scott moved to approve the motion, Lallie Scott seconded and after discussion the motion passed with one opposed and one abstention.

    3.  Peer Review Proposal (see http://arapaho.nsuok.edu/~yeutter/faculty/)

There were objections to using the same process for tenured faculty, adjunct and instructors.  The process would be a burden on reviewing faculty.  It was intended to help with the problem of tenure decision surprises and help heterogeneous departments that meet only to review tenure decisions.  It would also help with the large number of full time non-tenure track faculty who get no review except by the Department chairs.  Pros and cons of the proposal were discussed.  This is a serious issue.  It could provide support for faculty when there are conflicts with chairs.  It could be used on a trial basis for improving teaching.  There is a need for a committee to fine tune the proposal.  Milbauer volunteered to be on the committee.  The concept is supported and needs more study.
          
C.  Old Business

    1.  Open Meetings Policy (see attached)

          The proposal has been pared to just include University Standing Committees.  There is already a webpage for these committees and one person adds information to the page.  Committee chairs can send meeting dates and links to minutes for addition to this page.  Yeutter will survey the chairs for the April 13th meeting.

    2.  Administrative Restructuring Review (see attached)
   
         The Chair's Council has looked at the original proposal.  They wanted it to be broader.  Lallie Scott proposed that there be a faculty member and a chair or Dean from each college affected and two program chairs/coordinators on the committee.  It was amended to include anyone else who wanted to join.  VP Bigbee reported that the committee should be appointed by the President.  He will take the proposal to him.        

    3.  Circle of Excellence

        There were 40 nominations received.  All colleges and the Library were represented.  Edwards will replace Lallie Scott on the committee.  It was reported that last years winner, Martha Parott has won the DiVinci award.        

     
    4.  OTRS
      
         Current legislation is at:  http://www.ok.gov/TRS/documents/2007%20TRS%20Legislation%20Master%20List%20(Introduced).pdf

          We have not been able to get a date for Tom Beavers to speak.

    5.  Nominations for 07-09 officers

           Some names have been mentioned.  Anyone interested should contact Yeutter.

D. Other Business
      
       1.  There was a question for VP Bigbee about pay schedules for faculty.  He stated that there is a nationwide trend against the idea.

E.  Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.

Next meeting, Friday, April 13, 2007, 3:00 p.m.

Submitted by Linda West, Secretary-Treasurer
4/12/07, corrected and approved 4/13/07