Draft to be approved on 11/2/11

The Metropolitan State College of Denver

 Faculty Senate

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

3:20pm – 4:50pm

Tivoli 320 A, B & C

 

MINUTES

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Attendees: Ahsan, Akrabova, Aubrey, Bahl, Baldwin, Balogh, Bisio, Brodersen, Capps, Collette, Cook, Corash, Curran, Davinroy, Davis, Delaney, Denn, Doe, Drake, Duburguet, Dyhr, Elkins, Ethier, Evans, Flemon, Forgash, Fustos, Ghosh,  Gibson, Graves, Grevstad, Gurka, Hallam, Hancock, Hasley, Hathorn, Hernandez-Julian, Holloway, Hutto, Izurieta, Jackson, Jacobs, Kent, King, Kitzman, Kleinfeld, Klimek, Kottenstette, Kuhlmann, Liu, London, McDonald, Matthews, McKenzie, McVicker, Meloche, Murphy, Odell, Ortiz, Padilla, Pozzi, Preuhs, Pytlinski, Reimer, Rengers, Reyes, Rissman, Rogers, Ropp, Rucki, Sahami, Saxe, Shopp, Sidelko, Snozek, Stephens, Sundeen,  Szypulski, Vowles, Wanberg, Weber, Wotkyns, Yeh, Zajdowicz Guests: Golich, Johnson-Ferrell-Jones,  Nowkhandan, O’Neal

 

I.                      Call to Order

 

II.                Approval of Previous Meetings Minutes (at Senate Website), VOTE.

 

  Vote called to approve minutes.

 There is a new Mac and iDevice friendly version of the minutes available at the website that will allow the use of iPad, iPhone, etc.

  Minutes are approved.

 

III.             Announcements/Updates

-          Both the SCoBs and SPS still need RTP Alternates. Other options available to fill these hard-to-fill seats include going outside of the Senate or outside of the school.

 

-          The Elections Committee will be holding an electronic election for the vacant FACT seat. President Sahami gave a summary of the responsibilities of this position.

 

-          The Homecoming Committee needs a Faculty Senate rep. If interested, please email President Sahami.

 

-          The faculty contingent for the Tenure Rights discussion group was finalized and reported to the Provost on 9/19/11 and to the President on 9/23/11. The faculty members are: Ellen Slatkin, President of the union, Dr. Saxe, senator and lead plaintiff, President Sahami, and Vice-President Worster. The administrative members are Provost Golich, Deputy Provost Torres, Dean Foster and General Counsel Martinez.  The Provost will chair the group and the President will give the charge.

 

-          At the last Executive Committee the role of the FSSAC was discussed. The committee’s current members and previous committee participants attended. The FSSAC is looking at evolving its role and structure. President Sahami gave an overview of the concerns.

 

IV.             Committee Reports: 

 FS Curriculum Committee – Sen. R. Hernandez-Julian (Document Attached as: FSCCReportOctober192011.pdf)

 

(Details pending)

 

 Senator Hernandez called for discussion. There was none.

 

Curriculum approved unanimously by the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee is automatically approved by the Senate unless there is a question posed by a Senator on the Senate floor.

 

 President Sahami accepted the curriculum report on behalf of the Senate.

 

V.                 PRESENTATION and QUESTIONS:  Faculty Evaluation Questions from FS: GUEST: Provost V. Golich  [Time certain: 7.5 min. Presentation+ 7.5min. for questions] (http://www.mscd.edu/senate/assets/pdf/responses2-fs-fetf-q101911.pdf)

 

 Provost Golich gave an overview and outline of the guiding principles behind the answers given in the attached document.

 

 Senator Kent, Anthropology, commented on three points: that there are reports of frustration with Digital Measures and it needs to be looked at over the course of time; his preference for using practices that are well considered instead of using best practices; and whether there was going to be any increases in 2012.

 

  Rob Preuhs, Political Science, commented that there is still a lot of uncertainty in for non-tenured/tenure track faculty in terms of the process. Those objective criteria are not addressed by the memo. Digital Measures allows for as much room for ‘fluff’ work, padding dossiers, as there was before. The process makes sense; uncertainly still remains. It creates a perverse incentive to look more to what his profession expects for job security but not necessarily what the college expects.

 

 Senator Doe, English, has a copy of Academic Procedures for How to Get Tenure at Univ of CA at Urvine.  She is currently serving on the Department of English Promotion and Tenure Taskforce where they are evaluating people and looking at the progress of their careers to find that they do not meet the curve of what is now being expected. More is needed than a re-evaluation of procedures and Digital Measures, faculty need a vision—guiding steps to success—for new faculty who were hired to teach when it takes teaching and publishing to succeed.

 

 Senator Hancock, Biology, approves of department level setting of criteria. He suggested that job ad standardization be instituted and job expectations be a part of the evaluation.

 

 Jeff London, CFAC Member, Criminal Justice & Criminology, thanked the Provost for Digital Measures. He acknowledged the work being done on the faculty handbook and the RTP process as ways Metro is enhancing its integrity and increasing the levels of fairness in the workplace. He asked to hear the Provost’s ideas on differential workloads and if that may eventually be offered.

 

VI.              PRESENTATION and DISCUSSION:  FS Charge to Curriculum Committee: (FSIPE #18 Curriculum Policy)  – Sen. R. Hernandez-Julian  

http://www.mscd.edu/senate/assets/pdf/FSCC/11-12-substan-curr-chg-tracking.xlsx

http://www.mscd.edu/senate/assets/pdf/FSCC/11-12curr-d-lines.pdf

 

 Senator Hernandez reported on the Curriculum process and discussed three items:

 

 Timeline and tracking has several existing practices that the faculty may not be informed of:

 

-The Substantive Curriculum Change Tracking document shows the movement after the packet is turned into the dean’s office and assigned a tracking number. Status updates include whether the packet will be reviewed by General Studies, if it is a graduate level course, the dates it enters and leaves the deans office, enters and leaves the FSCC, is presented at the Senate, and is finalized by Academic Affairs. There is a note column on the far right that will show if a packet is approved but awaiting revisions, etc.

 

-The FSCC and General Studies committees have been reviewing packets simultaneously.

 

-Paperless review of packets is the new practice where, as soon as the school committee approves it, the dean’s office will scan in the packet and send it to the Senator Hernandez and he delivers them to the FSCC members.

 

-A Curriculum Deadline document was emailed to the Senate that gives the date when a packet must be turned into the FSCC so that it can be reviewed and completed this year.

 

-To increase communication with school committees Senator Hernandez emails approved minutes of each FSCC meeting and circulates it to the committee chairs of all three of the school committees so they know what is going on with the packets. And the school committees send him their minutes and that gives him a sense of what is coming up and when and what their concerns may be. Soon the school committees will begin to draft a list of revisions or concerns that they had and include them with the packets so when the FSCC reviews it they know what has been looked at and where concerns were so there is no duplication of effort. 

 

New practices to come include:

--A document that will help departments who, due to the change in General Studies language, do not know how to select the designations at the end of their course description so they don’t type in anything.

 

--Developing, with the Multicultural Review Committee chair, a document that gives departments a list of multicultural courses and when they will expire.

 

 The former 2+2 Plan no longer exists but now is a function covered under:

1.      gT Pathways Transfer Guides that give statewide agreements;

2.      RN to BSN Program; and

3.      Memoranda of Agreement that exist between particular departments and community colleges done at the department level and through the dean’s offices but do not go through the curricular process.

 

 The approval process for graduate courses and programs was the final question Senator Hernandez covered. The Purple Book does not make any particular mention of graduate programs because it predates them so graduate courses and programs have been going through the curricular process. Questions that may need to be addressed there:

1.      Should faculty teaching these course be looked at?

2.      Should departments teaching graduate courses have a stronger part in the review of graduate programs?

3.      Is stacking okay?

 

 Senator Hernandez and the FSCC propose that there be a Graduate Curriculum Taskforce formed and charged to develop suggestions/language to propose to the Purple Book Committee. After their approval then the changes will go to the FSCC and then to the Faculty Senate. Whether there should be nine members made up of representatives from the FSCC, the Graduate Counsel, the Purple Book Committee and the Faculty Senate are details that could be discussed at the Senate Executive Committee.

 

Senator Hernandez solicited additional questions. He can be contacted or anyone on the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee.

 

VII.           PRESENTATION and DISCUSSION:  FS Charge to Welfare Committee: Category II Faculty Concerns – Sen. B. Mathews (Documents Attached as: Category II Faculty Survey.docx) http://www.mscd.edu/senate/assets/pdf/cat-IIfac-survey.pdf

 

 Senator Matthews reported that the Welfare Committee have drafted and created a survey to be sent out on Thursday or Friday to Category II faculty regarding the implementation of the new Category II faculty expectations and title.

 

The survey will be active for two weeks and afterwards the committee will look at the data and report findings to the Senate. Senator Matthews asked for input from the Senate. There was no discussion or comments.

 

VIII.        PRESENTATION and FURTHER DISCUSSION on MOTION Clarification and Reclassification of the “NC” – Academic Policies Committee – Sen. G. Denn

http://www.mscd.edu/senate/assets/pdf/committee%20rpts/FSAP_NC101911.pdf

http://www.mscd.edu/senate/assets/pdf/committee%20rpts/FSAPC_101911.pdf

 

 Senator Denn presented an alteration to last meeting’s motion regarding reclassification of the “NC” to incorporate a comprehensive grading policy which had been requested as a suggestion from a taskforce last year and charged by the Executive Committee to the Academic Policies Committee.

 

 Senator Kent, Anthropology, was a part of the deliberations on the Academic Policies Committee last year and knows that these three items impinge upon one another. He suggested that they all be discussed first before voting on any one of them.

 

 Senator Denn reviewed the details of the comprehensive grading policy. He reviewed slides that outlined the original motion, last grade stance policy, and course repetition.

 

 Discussion was called.

 

 Senator Davinroy, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is concerned about special student populations Metro serves and asked if the committee got input from the Access Center or other student support counseling centers about the appropriateness of limiting some students to two times for retakes.

 

 Senator Davinroy was concerned about this policy being linked with Financial Aid.

 

 President Sahami clarified that the policy was not being linked to Financial Aid. Advisors are not informing students that they must pay out-of-pocket for any class taken after the second time.

 

 Senator Davinroy is concerned about the student having to deal with a department chair. He asked if there were any plans to have a student advocate assist the student with the meeting.

 

 Senator Gurka, Math and Computer Sciences, approved of the policy change and asked a question about grandfathering.

 

 Senator Hasley, Computer and Information Systems, approved of the policy but asked about the liability that may be involved. He asked about the wording and whether or not he was reading it correctly.

 

 Senator Klimek, History, commented that class retakes in her department would be dictated by how often the class was offered and the language of the policy was very confusing.

 

 Senator Ptylinski, Art, clarified the intent of the language and when the Last Grade Stance Policy is enacted.

 

 Senator Dyhr, Computer Science, asked a question about the motion on slide #7 in regards to the situation where a student needs a certain grade before they can advance to the next level course.

 

 Senator Hernandez asked about slide #2 and whether active students will have  “NC” that fits the old definition and “NC” that fit the new definition.

 

 President Sahami asked the Senate to take back the comprehensive grading policy changes to their departments for discussion.

 

 Congrats to the Faculty Senate’s Robyn Sherwood who has had a poem published and set to music and will be performed at the King’s Center, Sunday, October 30th at 4pm.

 

IX.             Adjournment

 Vote called.  Senate adjourned.