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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Thursday, November 10, 2005
CSU 204
Approved Minutes

In attendance: Stephen Bohnenblust, Roger Severns, Paul Hustoles (recorder), Stewart Ross, Georgia Holmes, Don Descy, Daardi Sizemore, Theresa Salerno, Wayne Allen, Jean Haar, Gerald Schneck, Barb Bergman, Evan Rusch, Ron Nickerson, Brock McMillan, Jim Grabowska, Penny Knoblich, Marie Pomije.

President Bohnenblust called the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m.

1.    Minutes of October 22, 2005—Grabowska/Nickerson moved to approve.  Passed.    

2.    Call for Additional Items/ Reordering of Agenda—none

3.    President’s Report
a.    Delegate Assembly Delegates (19 including the FA President and 3 IFO Reps)—Bohnenblust: This is coming up in March.  This is where we develop the resolutions for the contract.  It is important that we participate.  Sizemore: How many do we need?  Bohnenblust: It’s in the 40s.  Contractually, if you are a delegate you have Friday off but this goes on to Saturday too. Grabowska: Even more than the language, if there are issues that are particular to our university then we need us there in a block in order to advance our ideas.
b.    IFO/MnSCU Contract—Bohnenblust: We had a meeting on Tuesday and we have one tomorrow.  Rod Henry (the IFO lead negotiator) will also be there. Our voting is on 16 November 2005. We will talk about how to deal with absentee ballots later. Grabowska: The burning issue of the Tuesday presentation was the Health Assessment.  Nothing else really came forth.  Bohnenblust: We had a relatively small number which is generally a good thing.  
c.    Minority Faculty Meeting (Monday, November 14, 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., CSU 201)—Bohnenblust: Minorities will self-identify. This is an opportunity to discuss whatever they want to talk about.  Any report will come forth as an aggregate, not as an individual thing.  You are welcome too.
d.    IFO State Office—Bohnenblust: Wil Harri and Frank Conroy are no longer working for the state IFO.  Pat Arsenault will take over their duties. We are looking at how the office is going to be organized.  We will move on that.  Holmes: Is that the Exec Committee?  Bohnenblust: A subgroup is talking about it and suggestions will come to the IFO Board.  Ross: Who is doing Harri’s work?  Bohnenblust: Cindy Finch is doing some of these things.  We have done an audit.  We have worked with a computer company.  We have parceled it out.  Holmes: Did they hire an accountant?  Bohnenblust: Not as of yet but we are looking at a firm.  Holmes: As far as disbursing checks?   Bohnenblust: This isn’t rocket science.  Finch knows how to do this.  
e.    Diversity Commission will host Open Forum: Diversity Commission Report, on November 16, 2005 from 12:30-2:00 p.m. at Ostrander Auditorium The report is available for review at www.mnsu.edu/diversity/reports.html—Bohnenblust: You are encouraged to attend.  Sizemore: Is this the one the student’s don’t like?  Bohnenblust: No, that’s the Campus Climate Survey. This is a variety of things.  Look at the recommendations.  We have to move on things rather than just talk about them.  

4.    FACULTY ASSOCIAITON COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT (REMAINING FROM 2004-2005)
a.    College of Business Needs Representation on the following: General Education; Institutional Review Board
b.    International Programs Committee (1 Faculty Member Needed)

5.    IFO Appointments
a.    IFO Budget Committee—Bohnenblust: I am the board liaison and the rep to MSU.  I did talk to Gregg Marg and he is willing to serve as the MSU rep.  Hustoles/Severns moved to approve Marg as the MSU rep.  Passed.

6.    NEW FALL 2005 - APPOINTMENTS
a.    Presidential Scholarship Interview Selections - A&H - Cathryn Bailey; Kathryn Cady; Kimberly Contag; Paul Finocchiaro; Diane Joseph; Julie Kerr-Berry; Mika Laidlaw; Craig Matarrese; Jane McConnell; Doug Snapp; Kristen Treinen; AH&N - Lisa Fleck; Nancy Geistfeld; Kent Kalm; Harry Krampf; Bruce Pietz; Patrick Sexton; Mary Visser; Linda Wenkel; BUS - Ken Anglin; Brenda Flannery; Dan Levin; Claudia Pragman; Mary Rolfes; Paul Schumann; Robert Zelin; EDUC - Peg Ballard; Ron Browne; Julie Carlson; Linda Good; Prudence Gushwa; Jean Haar; Carole Milner; Maureen Prenn; Guynel Reid; Marsha Traynor; Scott Wurdinger; Gail Zahn; Ginger Zierdt; SBS - Wayne Allen; Afroza Anwary; Susan Freeman; Don Friend; Avra Johnson; Rosemary Krawczyk; Joe Kunkel; Paul Mackie; SET - Rebecca Bates; Mike Bentley; Tom Brown; Monica Clement; Mary Hadley; Steve Kipp; Penny Knoblich; Mary Ann Lee; Allison Mahoney; Jeff Pribyl; Beth Proctor; Ann Quade; Danae Dorr-Quirk; Jim Rife; Terry Salerno; John Thoemke; Trent Vorlicek; Youwen Xu; Mark Zuiker
b.    Bookstore Advisory Committee - A&H - John Lindberg; Alternate - Lib/Unaf - Victoria Peters
c.    Search Committee for Director of Development SET- SET - Gale R. Allen

Severns/Grabowska moved the slate.  Passed.

7.    Discussion Items
a.    Upgrade Apple OS to 10.4 both office and home computer—Bohnenblust: This is for Blom.  Hustoles/Schneck moved to approve the purchase.  Passed.  Hustoles/Nickerson moved to purchase the same upgrade for the FA Secretary computer.  Passed.
b.    Sexual Violence Education Coordinator—Bohnenblust: This is coming out of Student Affairs.  They want FA endorsement for this.  Sizemore: Is this a new position?  Bohnenblust: Out of health services. How much information do we want?  Sizemore/Schneck moved to endorse this position.  Knoblich: Is this an office?  A person out of an office?  Pomije: It does say Women’s Center on the list distributed at Meet and Confer. Knoblich: I have run into a challenge with Affirmative Action on issues like this.  Students would go over there and they were told they had to make an appointment.  That is not the best plan.  Schneck: This is different than that.  Bohnenblust: This is separate.  Severns: One could only hope that someone in AA would actually talk to this person.  I could see a challenge with someone getting education from one person and then going to that same person if they had a problem. Bohnenblust: Maybe that’s something that we could request.  I can get back to the faculty members on the group that have developed this and talk about the need for coordination.  Knoblich: It would be my suggestion that someone assist the one person who does it now.  We need someone to take that complaint.  Motion passed.
c.    Admissions (Electronic Vote?)—Bohnenblust: Walt Wolff is finally ready to look at this.  We haven’t looked at this since1993.  The original suggestion was for one FA member and I suggested 3 or 4 so that different constituents would be represented. Sizemore: Does this even apply to graduate students? Schneck/Sizemore moved that up to 4 members be appointed to the Admissions Review Committee.  Passed.  Bohnenblust: Each of the four Submeets need to send a representative (Gen Ed, UCAP, Graduate and Extended Learning).  We will take an electronic vote to expedite. We need this ASAP to get this going.  
d.    Diversity Dinner (November 18, 6:00 p.m., CSU Ballroom)—Bohnenblust: We have been asked if we would be one of the sponsors.  I can go.  Sizemore: It’s a great thing to do.  Grabowska/Hustoles moved to buy a table for $150.  Passed.  Bohnenblust: I’ll send out an email.  If you would like to attend, RSVP.
e.    Health Questionnaire—Salerno: Some probationary faculty brought this up.  Where did it come from?  Is it part of the contract? Grabowska: The increase was negotiated so filling out the form gives you a decrease.  Bohnenblust: A coalition negotiated this.  We did get a letter saying that this will only be used for the stated purpose.  Remember that this info is going to the insurance company.  Sonja Mergers, who is a nurse, thought that this was fine. I am choosing not to do it. There is no consensus. Holmes: I don’t like it either but the Board did request an attorney’s opinion and they said it looked all right.  Schneck: The insurer already knows this information. Salerno: But they are giving this information to some counselor. Severns: There is a box at the end that you can check to ask not to be contacted.  Grabowska: I have been contacted a number of times. They will tell you that you may qualify for some “kind of counseling.”  Schneck: There might be a nurse on the line.  Bohnenblust: It is in their interest to keep us healthy. Salerno: But it doesn’t deal with the issues of wellness or stress.  Nickerson: They spend a lot of money on the brochures.  Our coverage goes down while our contribution goes up. Schneck: I would say that it works if you have a chronic condition.  You can pay from $10,000 to $13,000 out of pocket.  Knoblich: Why is there no data about the costs going up?  Is it prescription drugs?  Are they running more tests?  Or are they just raising the costs?  We can’t do anything about it if we don’t get any information.  They don’t want to give us that information.  Schneck: There was just a speaker last month talking about that very topic.  Pomije: Can this be a Delegate Assembly issue? Yes. Bohnenblust: When we meet in January for our retreat, we will start to discuss these. Holmes: Government Relations could be working on this.  
f.    Absentee Ballot Notice (Attached)—Bohnenblust: we were very liberal with absentee ballots.  Will we accept email ballots?  Hustoles/Grabowska moved to accept absentee and MSU-system-only email ballots.  Passed.
g.    Graduate Issues—McMillan: All of the doctoral guidelines are in the final stages at the MnSCU level.  All the programs that are up for possible doctorals have their guidelines.  It includes a minimum of 72 hours beyond the masters degree. Everyone is in agreement.  Most of their accreditation requirements are much higher than what MnSCU is requiring.  Another thing is that Linda Bear is trying to get a blanket accreditation for system doctoral programs. We are trying to make that not happen. HLC has never done that before.  It will be an institution-by-institution thing. There will be some requirements on the minimal number of faculty in a program, probably a minimum of five doctoral faculty. We are working on guidelines. This will probably mean a reduction in teaching load and a greater scholarship requirement. We assume that students will be accepted in the fall of 2007.  That’s what the Chancellor and the President want to see.  Bohnenblust: If that is an unrealistic date, if we are not ready, we should not bow to that kind of pressure. McMillan: I agree with that. The only problem is that if someone offers it before we do, it is unlikely that we would get it. I have been told by Dean Delgado that we would see one or two by Fall 2007.  We are only thinking about three right now.  We are also talking about continuing enrollment for our graduate students.  Each year the library gets dozens of requests to allow students access to the library but they are not enrolled.  But they get free copies, Mavmail web resources, etc.  They are paying nothing for those benefits.  We want to keep them registered for one hour if they want access.  They also have to register for one hour the term they graduate.  Severns: Is that is a new policy, they will not be allowed access if they are not registered? There will be a continuing enrollment credit in each department. Hustoles: I hope we don’t have to teach that credit. McMillan: No, it would be a dummy credit of some kind.  Bergman: I’ve seen this elsewhere. McMillan: We have a survey out there asking about actual workload issues.  Fill that out.  Grabowska: We need some evidence leading to hard data because this is a non-issue for MnSCU. It is important that we complete the survey.  McMillan: I’m sure the state Task Force will make a recommendation that some compensation be given.  Allen: If students are enrolled the following fall, do they have to register for the summer?  Sizemore: No, only if they are not registered for the fall.  Salerno: If the Nurses can’t handle the students they have now, and we give release for the doctoral faculty, how are we going to handle the shortage in nursing? Those B students are going elsewhere. McMillan: Resources are a big issue. It is going to require additional lines.  As far as I know there is a budget that is tied into a tuition increase.  We don’t want to reduce the services that are already there. Salerno: We are supposed to be looking at quality undergraduate experiences. This year there were proposals that could not be funded at the URC. If you bring those graduate programs, will that take from the undergraduate support?  Bohnenblust: One of the things that we did hear at the state level is that MnSCU will not give money to support these doctoral programs.  Haar: If there is an 8% tuition increase, we can sustain. McMillan: I agree that there are limited resources.  But these are going to happen. Bohnenblust: Let’s make this a Meet and Confer item.  If money goes to doctoral programs it will be taken from somewhere else. Pomije: We cannot pit UCAP against Graduate. Bergman: The library cannot support a doctoral program with the current resources. Haar: Budget is now meeting with Planning because we can’t just keep counting on tuition increases. McMillan: It has been brought to my attention that our President is in a head-to-head competition with St. Cloud’s President. Nickerson: I think there are other ways to enhance graduate education without going to a doctoral program. In many respects we are getting way out in front of where we need to be. I would rather see us put money into our masters programs.  McMillan: The can of worms has now been opened because the Legislature now expects this to happen. There is a draft proposal that has three graduate faculty statuses: provisional, regular and research, who would get some kind of release. Grabowska: This isn’t a surprise. Dean Delgado articulated this at the start of the year. McMillan: The plan is aggressive. I have received emails from faculty who are strongly in favor of this.  Bohnenblust: Can you send out this proposal? McMillan: Yes. Pomije: UCAP is concerned about funding because we have held up programs because of lack of funding support.  McMillan: I think the model that we have is not sustainable.  This has incentive built into it.  Everything we do in graduate education is out of hide. Nickerson: It’s not sustainable at the master’s level and not doable at the doctoral level.  To buy doctoral time down, you are going to cut the undergrad program. Bohnenblust: We will make this a Meet and Confer item. Certainly with the faculty, this would have to come up as a policy.  McMillan: The doctoral programs are all supposed to be self-sustaining.  I think each of them will come forth with differential tuition. Grabowska: We need to include this with the undergrad piece at Meet and Confer too.  Research is not limited to graduate education. Pomije: We have to be very holistic in our approach. McMillan: The research status is not tied to programs but would be open to any faculty. Bohnenblust: This needs to be a comprehensive discussion at Meet and Confer.
h.    Overload Report from Winkworth—Bohnenblust: We found that there were 16 that were over. It didn’t seem to be a big issue: Hustoles: The numbers were so small compared to our total membership, this doesn’t seem to be of concern.

8.    Policies up for Review http://www.mnsu.edu/acadaf/Resources/Policies.html
a.  Fire and Safety Policy—Sizemore: We did go through this page by page.  Schneck: The
only mention of people with disabilities is on page 6.  What happens when the elevators are out? Sizemore: There are specific guidelines for people with disabilities.  The Fire Department has said they don’t want just anyone taking people out other than the Fire Department. Bohnenblust: Schneck, do you want to check with Rob McGinn on this?  Salerno: Because we work in a science building we do have smoke in the building.  Occasionally the Fire Department is called and they come into the lab. Sizemore: My understanding is that you call Campus Security and they have a direct line to the Fire Department.  Each building can have its own evacuation policy.  Salerno: What is the policy about adjoining building evacuation?  Sizemore: Almost all buildings are adjoined.  Severns: Be careful about minor inconveniences like you can’t use extension cords.  Many offices are not equipped to carry a major load.
b.    Campus Demonstration—Severns: Don’t we need a representative on this? Yes.  Bohnenblust: Can we do this electronically?  Yes.
c.    Post-Secondary Enrollment—Bohnenblust: This is coming from Extended Learning.  We assume this will be rolled into the overall enrollment policy. Schneck: We were talking about eliminating things like housing and summer enrollment. Bergman: I did have a question about the residence halls.  Do they not have that option?  Schneck: No.  It was an issue of space. Also it had to do with the timing of when the halls are filled.  Bohnenblust: We can sit on this for another meeting.   
d.    Smoking—Severns/Hustoles moved to review this policy in the fall of 2008.  Passed.

10.    Informational Items
a.    Ratification Vote on IFO/MnSCU Contract - Wednesday, November 16, 2005; 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Faculty Association Office, Morris Hall 240B
b.    Second Information Meeting regarding IFO/MnSCU Tentative Contract - Friday, November 11 @ 10:00 a.m., Ostrander - Grabowska/Henry to present.
c.    FA/AD Meet & Confer, Thursday, December 01, 2005 @ 3:30 p.m., CSU Heritage Room (FA Chair/AD Agenda)
d.    FA Executive Meeting, Thursday, December 8, 2005 @ 3:00 p.m., CSU 204
e.    Holiday Gathering - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 (10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m)
f.    FA/AD Meet & Confer - Thursday, February 02 - CSU 204 - AD Chair/FA
Agenda
g.    Faculty Association Retreat -Thursday, January 12, 2006 (Old Main Village)(8:15 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) (8:30 to 9:00 a.m. Coffee/Rolls for all FA Committees & Executive)(9:15 a.m. FA Committees meet until 10:30) (9:15 a.m. Executive Meet without Committee Chairs)(10:30 a.m. Committee Chairs join Executive Committee)(10:30 a.m. FA Committee Complete) (12:30 - Executive Committee Lunch)
h.    Delegate Assembly - Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25, 2006 - Radisson - Roseville
i.    UPDATED Calendar for Spring, 2006 (attached)

The meeting adjourned at 4:38 p.m.

Paul J. Hustoles
Recording Secretary

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