FACULTY ASSOCIATION MEET AND CONFER
Thursday, September 26, 2002
3:00 p.m.
CSU 285
(Administration Chair)
NOTES
Attendance:
Faculty: Georgia Holmes,
Roger Severns, Paul J. Hustoles, Ron Browne, Pat Earle, Barbara Keating,
Jim Kapoun, Donald Larsson, Gregg Marg, Sonja Meiers, Winifred Mitchell,
Richard Swanson, Mary Visser
Management: Richard Davenport, chair, Karen Boubel, Margaret Healy,
Dean Trauger, John Winkworth, recorder
1.
Reorder/Additions
—President Davenport called the meeting to order and asked if there were
any additional items or items to reorder.
No changes were made to the agenda.
2.
President’s
Report (AD) (Standing
Item— President Davenport
reported on a number of ideas and initiatives.
a. Open
Forums:
President Davenport thanked everyone for participation
in the recent open forum. He
hopes to have additional forums. The open forum for the students went quite
well but they were interested more in the present rather than the future
of MSU. We made note of
everything they mentioned and we will be reviewing the list at the next
Cabinet meeting. b.
Proposal for City and College/University Advisory Council:
We have created this Council to focus on issues of mutual
concern, and on issues of civic engagement, that is, significant issues we
can work on together. Membership
consists of the presidents of South Central Technical College, Bethany Lutheran
College, and Minnesota State University, Mankato as well as the mayors of
Mankato and North Mankato.
Diversity in the community and transportation are two possible issues for
this group. The Warren Street
project and its impact on campus traffic has caused us to think about Stadium
Road and what we might do to provide greater safety for our students.
c. Campus
Master Plan: President Davenport
reported on another retreat with administrators where they discussed the
Campus Master Plan (see 7c. below)
d. Commission on the Status of Women:
I have asked that this Commission be reinstated.
I have met with the commission and will be asking them
to once again direct their energies to issues affecting the status of women
in our community. Their work
likely will include a survey of current conditions. I will be asking the group
to keep the same membership for two years to get some continuity.
e. Faculty
and Staff Diversity Council:
One of the things I want to do is to create this council
that will help us keep current and aware of issues affecting faculty, staff,
and students from our various under represented groups.
3.
FA President’s
Report (FA) (Standing
Item)— FA President Holmes
reported that she has been talking with Jerry Crest, the chief administrator
at the hospital, concerning changes in the status of health care insurance.
Various local providers are being considered for dropping
from level 1 coverage to level 3.
She also mentioned that the FA is planning various social gatherings
for faculty; informal gatherings scheduled on the last working day of each
month. Russ Stanton, statewide
IFO, has been providing faculty with information on retirement.
When on campus he suggested that the Chancellor’s budget
proposal is too low. At the
State-wide level, there are a number of issues being considered including
the alternate delivery of instruction.
They are also considering the creation of an ethics group.
On another matter she and FA Vice President Severns will
be meeting with Vice President Healy to talk about a number of issues concerning
Human Performance and Athletics.
FA? Is there any new information
on the lawsuit? FA President
Holmes has heard nothing new on the lawsuit.
4.
MnSCU/Legislative
Relations (AD/FA) (Standing
Item)—President Davenport
reported on meetings to look at restoring the HESO (Minnesota Higher Education
Services Office) money, including State work study.
He is scheduling meetings with the Legislators to talk
about a variety of issues, including possible various building projects.
He is hearing considerable concern expressed about the
Phase 3 funding. Every legislator
has expressed me that we are going to get the Phase 3 building.
But we must take the Campus Master Plan into consideration.
We have other capital needs and we will need to make a
choice about our top priority in October.
FA?: What is the status of HESO and where is this headed?
Senior Vice President Boubel responded to the concern about
the loss of support for Minnetex.
Dean Roca has been quite helpful in articulating our needs.
Don Larsson indicated that we need publicity about the
HESO hearings so that we have the opportunity to provide input on the importance
of this program. There is
uncertainty about what will happen next.
5.
Senior Vice
President’s Report (AD)
(Standing Item)— Senior Vice
President Boubel reported that Article 22 meetings with faculty are underway.
The staffing process in Academic Affairs is also underway
with departments providing their staffing needs to their Deans.
On the 9th and 10th of October the
Deans will meet to discuss the college staffing requests.
Following these presentations, Senior Vice President Boubel
will be making decisions on staffing for FY2004.
She also announced the appointment of three new directors:
Professor Stewart Ross for Faculty Development, Professor
Jasper Hunt as Honors Director, and Professor Warren Sandmann as Assessment
Coordinator. All three are
.50 FTE reassigned time positions.
6.
Budget
(AD/FA) (Standing Item)—
Vice President Trauger reported that the Budget Sub will be meeting next
week. Included on the agenda
are: Information on the closing
of fiscal FY02, non-salary carry forward balances, tuition income for FY2003
that will likely be some 2% higher than planned, and a proposal on the
equipment budget ($1.1 million for FY2003).
FA? What about
summer? Assistant Vice President
Winkworth has that data and will share it later in this meeting.
Senior Vice President Boubel talked about habitability of
classrooms and the plan to use a portion of equipment dollars to refurbish
classrooms. A funding cycle
for this is being considered.
FA? Summer expenses for next
summer will increase with the advent of the career steps. How will this
be handled? Assistant Vice
President Winkworth will talk about this later in the meeting.
FA? Back in
the 1980s we separated out big and small purchases.
Are we dealing with this where we can submit larger requests
that cannot be handled by smaller departmental budgets?
Vice President Trauger indicated this is part of the equipment
proposal.
7.
Recurring
Items (AD/FA)—a.
Consultants:
A summary of FY2002 consultants was distributed.
Vice President Trauger reported that we can provide more
detail when needed about any particular items.
Please send him an e-mail with these requests.
b. Administrative
Searches:
A one-page summary of administrative searches was distributed
and discussed briefly by Senior Vice President Boubel.
Five searches are listed.
Campus interviews of four candidates for the position of
Assistant Vice President for Facilities begin on October 1.
c. Campus
Master Plan:
President Davenport reported that he held another retreat
with administrators with a focus on the larger Campus Master Plan as well
as the plans for campus housing and plans for improvements in the Centennial
Student Union. We need to communicate
the findings of the Campus Master Plan and get reactions from the community.
What academic buildings should we add?
And at what locations?
President Davenport said the Master Plan was expensive and he is interested
in summarizing it to share with the campus.
The planning firm that worked on the Master Plan will be
helping us with the next phase which will include the development and distribution
of an expanded executive summary.
I have appointed a small group to work on developing a way to communicate
the findings of the Master Plan (Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Mark Johnson, chair, Dean Terry Flaherty, Assistant Vice President Larry
Kohanek, and Assistant Vice President John Winkworth).
d. Accreditation
Update:
As requested at the last Meet & Confer, Senior Vice
President Boubel distributed a summary of program accreditations.
Whenever possible accreditation reviews will serve as the
program review. When there is
a ten-year review cycle, there will be a midway five-year review.
Program review is done on a departmental basis.
The process includes external reviewers paid for by Academic
Affairs. The program reviews
are intended not so much as an accountability report as a developmental
report. Program review has
been suspended for some time, primarily because of conversion to semesters.
In the past some comments have been made that nothing happens
with the completed reports and recommendations.
Don Larsson stated that our approach appears to be in synch
with NCA direction—moving away from the “bean counting” emphasis.
The next draft of the changes in NCA guidelines goes to
college and university presidents for their review with the changes scheduled
to take effect in 2004-05. It
appears that our Article 22 and Program Review procedures are in line.
FA? Program
Review can serve to get the attention of the administration when we talk
about problems, yet these kinds of statements aren’t particular helpful
with NCA. Do we need to pull
our punches because of this concern with NCA?
Don Larsson:
There needs to be some sensitivity to these kinds of issues.
NCA is designed to be a reflective, self-evaluative process
but the criteria also need to cover a wide range of institutions.
Senior Vice President Boubel stated that we need to have
honest comments in program review.
Integrity is now an important part of program review.
FA Vice President Severns reported that for us in the College
of Business, this is a moving target—AACSB rules are changing; ethics is
much more important. AACSB
is putting more emphasis on objective assessment.
Assessment is a growing area of emphasis on campus as well.
e. Parking:
. Vice President Trauger
stated that the parking advisory committee will be meeting soon.
The FA rep will bring up the fact that the faculty gold
permit priority process was a one-year pilot, and there is a strong interest
in making it permanent. If this
kind of a recommendation is made at their first meeting, Vice President Trauger
will forward it to President Davenport for his action.
8.
Article 22
(FA)—FA President Holmes
referred this item to FA Secretary Paul Hustoles who distributed a revised
version of Article 22 from the new Agreement.
He called attention to two points:
1. Article 22 is intended to be a self-evaluative instrument
for the faculty and that it is not being used this way in some colleges;
and 2. changes have been made in the language (see page 99).
A suggestion was made by the Administration to have a small
group work on the FY2004 personnel calendars.
The FA will consider this proposal.
9.
Responses
to FA Questions (AD)—a.
Data Regarding Students’ Dropping of Classes:
Vice President Healy distributed a one-page summary prepared
by Registrar Dave Gjerde.
She summarized the results and responded to questions.
Included were the following questions:
How many students drop and add classes or withdraw during
an academic term? What is the
pattern of drops during the course of the term?
She indicated that limitations of the data base make it
difficult to answer some of the longitudinal questions.
FA?: What
about overload students, those registered for more than 18 credits—
how many end up dropping below the banded level?
A very small number was the response.
A 42% drop classes seems high.
It is most likely that the majority of these students are
making changes in their courses because about the same percentage of students
add one or more courses. FA?
What about administrative drops?
Our selective administrative process does improve initial
attendance. It seems to have
worked well and it has a spreading effect improving attendance in other classes
that are not part of the limited administrative drop process.
FA? What about
the % dropping without refunds.
Data are somewhat duplicative and the two groups of data representing
the different time periods during the term cannot be added.
Students within the banded tuition range do not usually
drop below the bottom of the band.
FA? How many students
are we suspending because of their failure to meet the completion percentage?
We will need to check with Assistant Vice President Hersrud.
FA? What is
the average student credit load?
About 14 credits and the average credit hour load has been increasing.
Vice President Trauger doesn’t believe there is a significant
difference between the number of students dropping courses before banded
tuition and now. The pre-banded
drops created a significant workload for staff in the Business Office.
Students have been increasing the number of credits taken
which should shorten their time to graduation.
FA? Are we
in the range of peer institutions?
Vice President Healy reports we are about at the top approaching
60% graduating after six years.
b. Space Utilization—Morris
Hall:
Assistant Vice President Winkworth distributed a one-page
diagram of the second floor of Morris Hall.
He proceeded to describe the plans for utilization of the
space as soon as the current occupants leave and relocate in their new offices.
The latest estimate for occupancy in the new spaces in
Highland is the middle of October.
Based on what we currently know:
MH 267 becomes an office for Faculty Development; MH 213
is scheduled to return to its original use as a classroom, we hope in time
for the spring term; MH 215 remains a conference room for the College of
Business; MH 217 A,B,C,S and 215 S will be used for the remainder of the
year by TA’s and adjuncts who are teachers of record; and MH 265 will be
used for the remainder of the year by English TA’s.
The future status of MH 266 is uncertain. Staff in the facilities
area will be checking on the feasibility of converting MH 265 to a classroom.
The permanent uses of these spaces, with the exception
of 267 and 213, have not been decided.
There remains the possibility of using some of this space for temporary
relocation when Phase 3 funding becomes a reality. Remodeling of the classrooms
on the first floor of Morris is underway with the hope of having them available
for the spring term. Barbara
Keating reminded the Administration of the need to move SBS departments
out of the lower level of Armstrong.
This has been a problem for a long, long time and something needs
to be done. President Davenport
believes we need a number of new buildings including at least one large classroom
building.
10.
Summer Session Appointment
Guidelines (AD)—
Assistant Vice President Winkworth distributed the proposed 2004 Summer
Assignment Guidelines that require Meet & Confer review, and three documents
for information: The FY2003
Summer Expenditure/Income Analysis, Income Distribution, and the FY2004 Summer
Allocation. This past summer, undergraduate credit hours were 3.5% higher
than those of the previous summer, and graduate credits were 9.28% higher.
Unclassified allocations for next summer have been increased
10% in recognition of the increased salary costs.
11.
Discussion of University
Priorities (AD)—
Time did not permit the discussion.
President Davenport suggested that we bring this agenda item back to
the next meeting where we set aside more time for this discussion.
Forty-five minutes to one hour will be set aside, near the
top of the agenda, for this discussion at the next meeting, 10 October 2002.
12.
Cost Allocation Legislation
(AD)—Vice President
Trauger described the legislation and summarized the ways in which MSU is
affected. He passed out copies
of a MnSCU procedure 7.6.1 Competition with Private Sector.
Details were discussed at the Budget Sub Meet & Confer.
An additional document describing impacts will be distributed
to department chairs. The
legislation will most directly affect copy shops and printing.
We now are required to have charges that cover all costs.
We will be providing separate allotments for printing ($450,000).
Details are being worked out.
Departments will have the option of getting the work done
either on campus or off, depending on price.
Vehicle charges are affected as well; however, we shouldn’t
see a large change in vehicle rental rates.
13.
Leveraged Equipment
(AD)—Assistant Vice
President Winkworth distributed a three-page summary of our purchases using
dollars supplied by MnSCU through the Legislature that matched dollars contributed
by various business partners.
The Office of
the Chancellor plans
to make available for new proposals any dollars that have not been allocated.
The meeting ended
at 5:03 p.m.
Next meeting: Thursday, October 10; 3:00 p.m.; CSU 285