FA Home  >  Executive Committee  >  Minutes — 10/28/04
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, October 28, 2004
CSU 285
Approved Minutes

In attendance: Stephen Bohnenblust, Roger Severns, Paul Hustoles (recorder), Barbara Keating, Don Larsson, Dick Swanson, Don Descy, Theresa Salerno, Bill Dyer, Christophe Veltsos, Ron Nickerson, Jim Grabowska, Judith Luebke, Mark McCullough, Marie Pomije. 

The meeting was called to order at 3:04 p.m.

1.    Minutes of October 7, 2004— Severns/Nickerson moved to approve.  Passed.
   
2.    Call for Additional Items/ Reordering of Agenda
a.  Bohnenblust: Coaches’ contract will be added as 8h. 
b.  Larsson: Add Accreditation to our discussion items.

3.    President’s Report
a.    Free Speech/Work Environment Retreat (Old Main Village, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Friday, November 5)—Bohnenblust: I still have a couple of individuals that have not responded.  Dyer are you coming?  Dyer: Yes.  Severns: Blom has suggested that we get there early so we can start promptly at 9:00 a.m.
b.    Spring Retreat (January 13, 2005)—Bohnenblust: Do you want to have this as just the Executive Committee, or do we want to bring in the Submeets?  Dyer: I think the Exec would be sufficient.  Pomije: I concur.  Dyer/Severns moved to keep this to the Executive Committee.  Nickerson: I wouldn’t want to keep them out of the lunch.  Bohnenblust: We need a set number, that might be hard.  Passed.
c.    FA Spring General Meeting (Wednesday, February 16, 2005 @ 3:00 p.m. OR Tuesday, February 22 @ 3:00 p.m., Ostrander)—Bohnenblust: Any preferences as to the date?  Nickerson: Feb. 22 is Washington’s Birthday.  Bohnenblust:  Feb. 22 it is.
d.    Equity Raises—Bohnenblust: We have had a long-standing equity issue.  We finally got something negotiated.  There ended up being 28 individuals who got one or more steps.  When we broke it down by gender, it was 24 to 4 in favor of males.
e.    DRAFT Calendar for Spring 2005 (distributed)

4.    IFO Task Force Appointment (Information Sent Forward to State for a; b; c for selection)
a.    IFO Nursing Online Taskforce - (3 faculty from the system) - AH&N - Norma Krumwiede; Sandra Eggenberger
b.    IFO Nursing Education Council - (5 faculty from the system) - AH&N - Norma Krumwiede: Patricia Young
c.    IFO Faculty Teaching Award Design Taskforce ( 4 faculty from the system) - A&H - Karen Boubel; Stewart Ross
d.    IFO Business Practices Alignment Study Group (1 Needed from each university)(HOLD)
e.    IFO Action Committee (1 Needed from each university)
Bohnenblust: We are putting forth more nominees than most other campuses.  We also have Colin Wightman’s name coming forward for the Business Practices committee.

5.    2004 Spring Election Unfilled Committee Positions
a.    College of Business - General Education (2 Year Term)

6.    Confirm/Selection/Replacement Appointments
a.    Policy Consultation and Approval Committee (1 More Needed)—Bohnenblust: We have already appointed Keating.  Do we want a general announcement or do we want someone from the Exec Committee?  Since no one is interested, I will put out a call.
b.    International Programs Committee (1 Faculty Member Needed)—Bohnenblust: I haven’t sent out a general announcement yet.  Grabowska expressed interest.  Bohnenblust: I will share the committee charge with you.
c.    Diversity Curriculum Committee (5 at large needed)—A&H - Gwen Griffin; Martine Harvey; Matthew Sewell; Julie Kerr-Berry; SBS - Barbara Carson; Luis Posas; Gen Ed Representative: Kellian Clink; UCAP Representative: Marie Pomije.  Keating: It is unfortunate that only two colleges are represented.  The two from SBS are very good.  Larsson: All four from A&H are fine people too.  Keating/ Grabowska moved all six names.  Passed.
d.    AH&N Dean Search Nominations—Dental Hygiene - Lynnette Engeswick; Family Consumer Science - Susan Fredstrom; Human Performance - Mary Visser; Nursing - Donna Brauer; Recreation, Parks & Leisure - Jim Petersen; Speech, Hearing & Rehabilitation Services - Bruce Poburka; Health Science needs representation.
e.    SBS Dean Search Nominations—Anthropology - Paul Brown; Economics - Ved Sharma; Ethnic Studies - Yueh-Ting Lee; Geography - Martin Mitchell; History - Chair of Department Fall - Gretta Handke/ Spring - Ernie Grieshaber; Political Science & Law Enforcement - Avra Johnson; Psychology - Rosemary Krawczyk; Social Work - Robin Wingo; Sociology & Corrections - Steve Vassar; Urban & Region Studies - Perry Wood or Janet Cherrington-Cucore; Women's Studies - Maria Bevacqua—Bohnenblust: We need to select one from  Urban Studies.  Severns/Grabowska moved to approve Jan Cherrington-Cucore.  Passed
f.    Free Speech/Work Environment - A&H - James Dimock; SBS - Doran Hunter
g.    Diversity Commission - Hanh Phan and Jackie Lewis—Bohnenblust: This is a change.  Wayne Allen asked to add another member as did Scot Olson.  Keating/ Hustoles moved to approve both.  Passed.
h.    Institutional Review Board - SBS - Annelies Hagemeister;
i.    Nominations & Election Chair Spring 2005 - AH&N - Jim Petersen

Hustoles/Keating moved the rest of the slate.  Passed.

7.    Reconfirm Appointments
a.    Bookstore Advisory Committee - A&H -  John Lindberg - Lib/Unaf - Victoria Peters
b.    Parking Advisory Committee (Reconfirm) - Lib/Unaf - Victoria Peters
c.    IFO Governmental Relations - Clark Johnson; Stephen Woehrle
d.    IFO Ethics Ad Hoc Committee - Craig Matarrese
e.    IFO Budget - Colin Wightman (HOLD)
f.    Institutional Review Board - 3 Year Term - AH&N - Patricia Hargrove; Educ - Diane Coursol; SBS - Barry Ries; SET -Christopher Conlin
g.    Academic Standing Committee AH&N - Carol Brown

Severns/Grabowska moved the slate.  Passed.

8.    Discussion Items
a.    SCTC Meeting next Thursday—Bohnenblust: They are looking at becoming a community college.  They are looking for a letter of support from us as a major stakeholder.  Any questions we need answered?  Keating: Are they adding to their mission or are they changing it?  We have been hearing for years about training the work force.  What is their motivation for this?  Larsson: The two years have been hit by a decline.  Second, the AA degree will give their graduates better access to the market.  I don’t think they will have much of an impact on us.  In addition, they are an open admission college.  I don’t see any real losses for us.  Nickerson: The biggest question is, What they are going to do to meet their gen ed curriculum?  Severns: One of the big things we have to watch out for is articulation agreements.  But we have dealt with this with other community colleges before.  Nickerson: But the other community colleges started as community colleges.  They didn’t have to ramp up to our level.  Bohnenblust:  I did have a conversation with IFO President Nancy Black about this.  One of her concerns was offering courses at different levels with the same name.  Also SCTC has some faculty who have less than bachelor’s degrees.  Are they going to meet these standards?  Dyer: How quickly are they going to do this?  Bohnenblust: We think 2005.  Keating: What is their current proportion of adjunct vs. full time faculty teaching gen ed and how many faculty have training in the discipline that they are actually teaching in?  They might be going to the lowest common denominator.  Pomije: As far as their students being certified to teach, we have the ability to not count some classes towards the teaching license.  McCullough: We have some MSU professors teaching there right now, are we concerned that it would be a drain on us?  Bohnenblust: That’s an appropriate question.  Severns: The reverse is also true.  Some of our people are teaching classes here that they need for their programs. 
b.    Differential Tuition (Attached)—Descy: Last week, at the task force meeting, we heard that an application has gone through.  Severns: Last year we came up with a plan at Meet and Confer.  We recently got together and found some things we had neglected.  This is coming.  Bemidji now offers something like 20% of their classes in extended campus and they are all on differential tuition.  We decided we needed to charge a committee as being the gatekeeper.  The place we thought made the most sense is the Distance Learning Task Force.  But the committee hasn’t met yet.  Or we could charge LTR.  Descy: They aren't interested.  The Task Force will cease to exist in a month or so, but it might transform into an advisory committee.  Severns: It would be my recommendation that this become a permanent committee or submeet.  Keating: Every time we discuss this, we need to mention the impact this has on some of our students.  We are all desperate for money and this becomes another pot.  Whoever becomes the gatekeeper, I hope they remain aware of this.  Nickerson: If we are going to consider off-campus undergrad, we can’t forget the Gen Ed Committee as well.  Severns: UCAP is part of the process.  Pomije: Only if they are new courses.  Grabowska: I thought gen eds would not be included in this.  Nickerson: The language does not say that.  Bohnenblust:  UCAP, you only want to deal with new courses, right?  Pomije: Right.  We don’t have the expertise to review tuition charges.  Nickerson: Neither do we in Gen Ed.  Bohnenblust: Should UCAP or Gen Ed do anything at all with this?  Pomije: Even if courses went to UCAP, it could still go to a new committee.  Nickerson: In a couple of the proposals that we have so far, the new course has come married to the tuition request.  Pomije: When we get a new proposal, we have always been very careful not to contradict Gen Ed.  We could treat a differential tuition proposal in the same way.  Bohnenblust: What we will have to do is to create another group to deal specifically with this.  Severns: The Graduate Committee felt capable of handling this.  It was at the undergrad level that there was a challenge.  Nickerson: How do we deal with questions of tuition anyway?  Bohnenblust: That’s an administrative issue.  Nickerson: How’s this different?  Bohnenblust: Do we want to leave this as an administrative issue?  Grabowska: I would want some faculty oversight.  Descy: But what would this have to do with the Extended Learning Task Force?  Severns: Look at #1, that speaks to this.  It is right out of the extended learning guide.  Bohnenblust: It is imperative that some kind of recommendation comes out of that Task Force to deal with this.  Nickerson: Then that group would have to bring in the Graduate Committee.  Severns: It would also go though the Budget Submeet.  But we haven’t officially charged any committee yet.  Bohnenblust: We may end up having a Distance Learning Submeet.  I would assume that the next step would be for Severns and Descy to coordinate our efforts in this regard.  Nickerson: If it is new curricula, we need to make sure they don’t sidestep the UCAP or Gen Ed Committees.  Bohnenblust: I don’t think there is an issue here.  Pomije: At what time is it timely to recommend this as a true submeet?  Why does the Distance Learning Task Force make the recommendation and not us?  Because there is already a proposal in the pipeline that we shouldn’t hold up.  Nickerson: We once said that we weren’t going to deal with this until the mechanics were in place.  We are close to doing this.  Descy: The policy is in place for graduate courses.  Are we going to cut the undergrads?  Bohnenblust: Can the Distance Learning Task Force get us a recommendation by November 11th?  Severns: I will go to their meeting on the 9th and we will bring something to our next Exec meeting.  Nickerson: Maybe we should separate the graduate from the undergraduate part.  Bohnenblust: Please make that note.  Severns/Nickerson moved that the Graduate Committee would be the gatekeeper for graduate differential tuition proposals.  Passed.  Bohnenblust: Then on November 11, we will look at the undergrads.  What about “package” courses?  Descy: This came out of the same meeting.  This kind of thing is already being done at Bemidji and St. Cloud.  There are some faculty who make $65 per credit per student.  In theory, this is one way to put courses online (document distributed).  Some people are making a lot of money.  This is just a point of information.  Bohnenblust: Is this a proposal?  Descy: No, Kathy Trauger passed this out as current policy.  McCullough: Would this include adjuncts?  Doesn't Extended Learning do a lot of customized training?  Bohnenblust: This looks like something we ought to look over and find out how this is working at other places.  Dyer: So the university gets the tuition beyond the  $65?  Bohnenblust: Yes.  Dyer: Is anyone doing this here?  Descy: There is one proposal.  Swanson: Warning—anytime you are making money, the university will want a cut.  Bohnenblust: I will ask about this at the state meeting.
c.    M&C - Changes pending in Spring Commencement—Larsson briefly described the new idea for this spring, which separates the graduation into three ceremonies.  Severns: How far is this along?  Hustoles: It is happening this year.  Bohnenblust: We will put this on Meet and Confer.   
d.    Family Weekend (October 29 –31)—Larsson: This weekend, there is a weekend event run by Student Affairs.  Saturday is not a duty day.  It will run on a volunteer basis.  We would want people to address this.  Student Affairs is perhaps not aware.  Bohnenblust: We will add this to Meet and Confer.  Swanson: We might have to be careful about duty days.  We have flexibility now.  Larsson: If they want to make this a meaningful experience, then faculty should be a part of this.  Hustoles: The point is that this was announced with “faculty involvement” and they never even asked us about this.  Larsson: And the larger issue is the need for coordination.  Bohnenblust: We will bring this to Meet and Confer. 
e.    Tuition Waiver for International Students/Out of State Students— Bohnenblust: Should we have the same criteria for international students and for out of state students?  Keating: To get one of these waivers, don’t they have to make themselves available to the community?  Descy: There is some volunteerism needed to get into this.  Nickerson: Then why not wave out of state tuition altogether?  McCullough: Doesn’t Moorhead wave all out of state tuition?  Dyer: Is this coming from athletics?  Bohnenblust: No.  Is this something we want to ask about at Meet and Confer?  Swanson: Why is this on our agenda?  Bohnenblust: It was brought to my attention.  Pomije: But this could be a diversity issue too.  Maybe the reason is related to philosophy and not economics.  Severns: If it’s diversity, do we want to consider out of state students who would add to diversifying our pool?  Bohnenblust: We need to find out what our university policy is.  Keating: And what percentage of students does this include?  Bohnenblust: We will ask some questions at Meet and Confer.     
f.    Pay for Performance (Attached)—Bohnenblust: This may be a very real issue that we might have to face.  This is similar to merit pay.  We might want to not reject this out of hand.  Most of our accreditation requires us to document accountability and learning.  If we are doing this job already, and if the pay for performance is a value-added approach, this might be all right.  Grabowska: This also deals with bringing people from the business sector into the teaching pool.  Bohnenblust: This document is a K-12 thing.  But we talked about this as something that may happen.  Pomije: Waseca is doing this now.  There is an opportunity for us to help.  Grabowska: It already exists, it’s called Rapid Response.  Pomije: I’m not sure that’s what VP Olson is proposing.  Severns:  One of the concerns with this is that they came up with cutting the number of ed courses that the “professionals” would have to take in order to teach. 
g.    Article 29 (Prior Consideration)—Bohnenblust: Update: this is regarding consideration given to fixed term faculty who were qualified for tenure track openings.  We got something from our IFO staff.  It said that if the fixed term individual was qualified, they would get the job.  The intent was to merge the fixed term with the probationary.  We were upset.  Severns will assist in coming up with draft language to come up with a Letter of Understanding to help define how we are going to define this issue.  Severns: We have been working on language.  Something should be ready to go to MnSCU next week.  Grabowska: Have you looked at federal guidelines, like the Peace Corps model?  Severns: We are looking at similar models.  We are concerned that you could “back door” affirmative action using this idea of prior consideration.  Bohnenblust: This is something that none of us saw except the negotiating team.  Larsson: Staffing requests are coming out soon.  When departments are drawing up their position descriptions, they need to be spelled out very exactly.  Bohnenblust: VP Olson doesn’t like this any more than we do.  We need to get something out by our next Exec Meeting.  Severns: We can get the language down very quickly but I don’t know how long it is going to take to negotiate with MnSCU.  McCullough: I am assuming that there are instances when a fixed term would be teaching service courses rather than what you would have a tenure track person teach.  I would be concerned about what “qualified” means.  Bohnenblust: We are very concerned about this.  Grabowska: Is this a concept that sounds like it is going to be around for several contract cycles?  Bohnenblust: This came out of Wil Harri and Frank Conroy.  We don’t know where it came from.  This is not the only item like this.  Another item was regarding investigative suspensions.  Currently we have 30 days.  The compromise was that it was moved to 20 days and the administration can ask for an extension.  Again, we don’t know where it came from.  Severns: We have a real patchwork quilt contract.  We have LOUs all over the place.  At some point both sides need to come together just to clean up language.  Given the acrimonious history, that might be difficult to do.
h.    Regarding Employment issues for Head and Assistant coaches (document distributed)—Bohnenblust: There is a general concern about how the coaches really fit into the IFO.  And there are other groups like Children’s House, the Counseling Center and the SRCs.  Do we try to retain them as IFO or do we look at the possibility that they don’t really fit the criteria?  Larsson: Have you heard from other campuses about this issue?  Bohnenblust: It seems to be an issue for us and St. Cloud, where coaches are full time.  Swanson: Most couches do teach something here.  Luebke: There is a five-year plan to get them out of teaching.  Bohnenblust: We are phasing them out.  We kicked them out of our department a long time ago.  Luebke: There are also accreditation issues.  Grabowska: One would presume that the coaches have explored forming their own unit.  Bohnenblust: One thing they did many years ago was to give up tenure.  I’m not sure where they would go.  But there is a real possibility that they would want to or be forced out of the IFO.  Luebke: How many positions are we talking about?  Bohnenblust: I don’t know.  Keating: For 20 years there has been a rumor that we would be better off without the contract.  Is this a move from coaches at the bigger schools who want bigger bucks and more flexibility?  But does it mean the coaches at smaller schools would no longer be protected?  Bohnenblust: I don’t know how much of this is from the coaches and how much is from Kevin Buisman.  I did meet with the coaches last year and didn’t get a hint of this.  Pomije: Why don’t we just ask them point blank?  And also ask our sister institutions?  Nickerson: The Children’s House faculty wanted to stay with us.  If the coaches want to go, let them.  Keating: There might be a third option: perhaps they could form their own union and they could affiliate with us.
i.    Learning Commission (Larsson)—Next Thursday, Dr. Robert Appleson will be coming to campus.  At 11:30 a.m. there will be a working lunch period with this body in CSU 284c.  From 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. there will be an open meeting that we are invited to attend.  A survey on faculty governance was distributed for the Exec Committee to full out by Tuesday.  Larsson briefly went through the questions.
j.    Swanson Stuff—Swanson brought up three issues for future discussion.  First regarding health issues.  Second regarding looking at how we can control costs within our colleges.  Third regarding the issue of phased retirement.  He suggested several details. 

11.Informational Items
a.    SCTC Meeting - Thursday, November 04 @ 3:00 p.m.  - Ostrander Auditorium
b.    FREE SPEECH/WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT RETREAT - Friday, November 5, 2004 beginning @ 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon; Lunch beginning at 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. @ Old Main Village.
c.    Next Executive Committee Meeting, Thursday, November 11,  2004 @ 3:00 p.m., CSU 285
d.    First Meet & Confer for Spring, 2005, Thursday, February 03, 2005 @ 3:00 p.m. - CSU 285

The meeting adjourned at 5:07 p.m.

Paul J. Hustoles
Recording Secretary
Return to the beginning

FA Home  >  Executive Committee