Draft to be approved 12/5/12

    Metropolitan State University of Denver

 Faculty Senate

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

3:20pm – 4:50pm

Tivoli 320 A, B & C

 

MINUTES

-----------

 

Attendees:  Baldwin, Bagwell, Bahl, Bernhardt, Beery, Bisio, Bonham, Butler, Butnor, Carnes, Collette, Corash, Davinroy, Davis, DelCastillo, Dormer, Duburguet, Ethier, Flemon, Gatlin, Gibson, Glatz, Grady-Willis, Haga, Hallam, Hasley, Hathorn, Hill, Hoffman, Holloway, Hutto, Izurieta, Jacobs, Jayasanker, Jiang, Johnson, Karris, Kleinfeld, Klimek, Komodore, Krugman, Lamb, Liu, Londen, Louden,  MacDonald, Malpass, Matthews, Medina, Monico, Odell, Ortiz, Pantos, Pleis, Posey, Pytlinski, Reid, Reimer, Rogers, Ropp,  Rucki, Sahami, Schatz, Seeley, Shopp, Sidelko, Simpson, Wagner, Wanberg, Weber, Worster, Zeiler, Zhang, Zhu  

 

I.                    Call to Order and thanks to Provost Golich for providing extra nice snacks.

 

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

 

   A Vote was called to approve the minutes of 10/31/12.

   The Minutes were approved.

 

III.              Announcements/Updates

-           There is a vacancy on General Studies Committee (EC Appointment). Please contact President Sahami, if interested.

-            SCoB still has vacancies on Senate Committees, please contact Senator Pleis. If Business senators are unable to fill these slots, the SCoB Caucus should meet to decide to go outside of the Senate for service.

-           The Senate Rules Committee needs to appoint a Parliamentarian. Please contact the chair of Rules, Senator Ropp, if interested. 

-           There are two appointments to the new ASA Committee, a Policy implementation committee. Please contact President Sahami, if interested.

-           The Non-Resident Student Policy Committee.

-           Two senator representatives are needed for the newly formed Advising Council http://www.msudenver.edu/senate/assets/pdf/attachm/111412/Academic_Advising_Council_4.pdf

-           The Transfer Student Taskforce is being headed up by Randy Hyman and needs one senate representative.

-           Faculty Marshals are needed for the Fall Commencement http://www.msudenver.edu/senate/assets/pdf/attachm/111412/FA12%20call_to_marshals_email.pdf

 Senator Krugman, Hospitality, Tourism and Events-Lead Faculty on Commencement Committee, solicited faculty participation for the Fall Commencement.

-           Senator Ropp, Elections Committee Chair, sent an All Faculty Constitutional Amendment Vote for changing of the institution’s name and new senators (Article III). Please remind department faculty members to vote.

-           The Senate Diversity Committee will be administering the second Faculty Climate Survey in the Spring of 2013. The survey helped identify several very useful issues that launched policy change. Please look for this item in the mail.

-           The Last Grade Stands Policy will begin in the Fall of 2013.

 

IV.           Committee Report:  - FS Curriculum Committee  – Sen. R. Hernandez-Julian http://www.msudenver.edu/senate/assets/pdf/attachm/111412/FSCCReportNovember142012.pdf

 

Report to Metropolitan State College of Denver Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee

November 14, 2012

 

Unless otherwise noted, packets are approved unanimously.

-LAS 1213-6: SABS now SOAN

Sociology, Anthropology, and Behavioral Science is now Sociology and Anthropology

-LAS 1213-8: Psychology

Course modifications to Senior Experience courses

-LAS 1213-11: MTR 1400

Course Modifications to Weather and Climate

Continuation of NPS Designation

-LAS 1213-20: Modifications to ENG 4640

Changes to course description and course content

Continuation of Senior Experience Designation

 

 Senator Hernandez announced that the report had a small mistake: the last item was on previous report so should be ignored.

 

  A discussion was called. 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 report on behalf of the Senate.

 

V.               PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION and VOTE: Proposed Service Learning Designation Form – Sen. R. Hernandez-Julian  and Sec. S. Rucki http://www.msudenver.edu/senate/assets/pdf/attachm/111412/Service%20Learning%20Designation%20Proposal.pdf

 

 Secretary Rucki introduced the two questions to be discussed:

 

1.      Whether the Senate supports the creation of Service Learning Designation in principal.

2.      If supported the first, then who should make the recommendations to the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee. The two options is the faculty from the Applied Learning Center and the other is the Multicultural Committee.

 

 Secretary Rucki defined Student Learning and revisited the motivation, benefits and outcomes for implementation.

 

 Discussion was called.

 

 Senator Medina, Modern Languages, had done service learning at Metro and agrees that Metro should not pass up the opportunity to acquire the designation.

 

 Senator Hernandez supports creating a service learning designation.

 

             A vote to support the creation of a service learning designation vote called.

 

             The question passed with a vote of 59 to 8.

 

 The second question discussed was who should make the recommendation the FS Curriculum Committee on whether the packet should receive SL designation. ‘A’ is the Faculty at the Applied Learning Center and ‘B’ a committee of the Faculty Senate.

 

 Senator Hernandez recalled that the Executive Committee was evenly split over the issue. From his perspective of the Purple Book and Faculty Senate Curriculum Committees, he liked the idea of the Applied Learning Center being the source of the recommendation. Their recommendation is ‘A’.

 

 Senator Worster, Music, supported ‘B’ from his three years on the Multicultural Committee.  The workload in committee can take on the additional task and that curriculum is the province of the Faculty Senate. He strongly recommended option ‘B’.

 

                  A=Faculty with the Applied Learning Center

                        B= Committee of the Faculty Senate: Multicultural

           

                  The vote was 29 to 37 = B, Committee of the Faculty Senate: Multicultural

 

VI.            PRESENTATION and DISCUSSION: New Hiring Requirement Forms – Welfare Committee

 Senator Matthews introduced the discussion of the plan to remove Appendix A from the Handbook and announced that the document was slated to be voted to be removed at the Board of Trustee meeting on 11/29/12. The committee is tasked with shaping the future location and process for revision for this document.

 

He described the draft of the updated form and the procedure for these changes.

 

 A discussion was opened.

           

             Senator Hagen, History, reiterated her concerns about Appendix A being taken out of the Handbook. She asked if this new document will be a policy or a guideline and if it is a guideline it does not have the force it would have when it resided in the Handbook.

 

             Senator Matthews asked Senator Hagen if she could suggest a better way to handle that issue.

 

             Senator Hagen answered that she believes it has to become a policy and that is the only way to protect faculty from capricious levels of review.

 

             Senator Matthews admitted that he was unsure how it would become a policy.

 

             President Sahami spoke to the goals of the Provost surrounding this and other documents and that the ASA Implementation Committee is being formed to develop a Provost ASA policy manual and Appendix A is expected to reside there and it would be a policy.

 

             Senator Hagen worried about timing with RTP in process at this time to have something taken out of the Handbook before it becomes policy.

 

             Senator Matthews admitted that he agreed with Senator Hagen but did not know how there was a way to prevent the Trustees from taking that action.

 

             Senator Hagen suggested that the Faculty Senate ask that the item not be removed until it becomes expedient to do so and not in a review cycle.

 

             Senator Matthews asked Senator Hagen if she was making a motion.

           

                         Senator Hagen answered she was making a motion.

           

                         Senator Matthews seconded her motion.

 

             President Sahami opened the Senate floor for debate and asked Senator Hagen to restate the motion.

 

            Senator Hagen made the following motion:

           

             The Faculty Senate requests that the Board of Trustees remove this from an action item from their agenda until such time we have completed a review cycle and not remove critical material from the Handbook until it is expedient to do so.

 

The motion was restated, revised to end with the words “becomes policy” instead of “is expedient to do so” and Senator Matthews restated his second.

 

 President Sahami asked for any comments on the motion and asked if the Senate was ready to vote.

 

             Re y Hernandez asked if the Senate was voting on the form.

 

 President reiterated that the motion was being voted on.

 

 President Sahami reminded the Senate that it voted several sessions ago to remove that portion out of the Handbook.

 

                         A vote was called on the above motion.

                        A = Yes, in favor of motion.

                        B = No, opposed to motion.

 

 Senator Hagen reinforced that her motion was that Appendix A not be removed from the Handbook “until it becomes a formal policy”. President Sahami clarified that point for the Senate.

 

 President Sahami made an offer to continue the discussion of the motion and assured the Senate that voting was still open and their vote could be revised.

                       

                                     With a vote of 61 to10 the motion passed.

 

 The topic of the Form was reintroduced.

 

 Discussion opened for the form.

 

 Senator Izurieta, Modern Languages, commented that an additional box needed to be added in additional explanation of a negative vote.

 

 President Sahami commented that he saw the parallel with Curriculum and RTP procedures and in both cases the material that moves forward originates in the department, as the sequence of signatures show, change to requirements start in the department and works its way through other layers of review. He asked if this was codified or could this start at the dean or provost level.

 

  Senator MacDonald, Modern Languages, asked that if the process is initiated in the departments does that not automatically make it policy.

 

 Senator Hagen explained the difference is that guidelines can be shifting sands and does not have same weight and she has seen comments written into letters against a faculty member’s tenure and promotion that the Appendix A policy has shown the comments invalid.

 

 Senator Matthews pointed out that the current Appendix A does not have a profile for Category II faculty and this profile needs to be formulated.

 

 President Sahami reminded there were two parts to the charge go the Welfare Committee: (1) input on where the policy would reside; and, (2) designing the process for how the policy can be changed. 

 

 Senator Matthews reiterated this was a progress report to the Senate and a solicitation for information.

 

 Senator MacDonald suggested that people who understand how to see the loopholes could bring that information to the Senate.

 

 President Sahami reminded the Senate that the first section of the Handbook is the contractual agreement and a document that could be used in a court of law to uphold individual rights. And, since the faculty now receives letters, the Handbook is the de facto contract.

 

 Senator Hagen reminded that she voted against Appendix A being moved out of Handbook. But, since the Senate voted to remove it, what remains is for the Senate to protect the current policy while faculty are moving through the RTP cycle and not have it removed from the Handbook until it has an approved contractual destination.

 

 President Sahami asked the Senate to take the draft form back to departments for discussion.

 

VII.        PRESENTATION and  DISCUSSION : Salary Inversion Study- Welfare Committee

 Senator Matthews gave the definition of inversion and that the committee pinpointed that in the same discipline there were seven associate tenured faculty members who were paid less than lower ranked colleagues. This number of inequities in this instance is small enough and the amount of money needed to fix it (to at least $1 more as a baseline) is $5500.

 

 President Sahami discussed how it was possible to have these issues.

 

             Senator Matthews pointed out that the change of CUPA comparative group and it impacted hires that are at 100% and then promoted at 85%. In comparing the old CUPA 90% to the new CUPA group at 85%, 11 disciplines were found where it was not advantageous 6 disciplines a professor is slightly lower

 

             President Sahami served on the CUPA Committee for two years. The new group is much more Metro co-horts that are similar across the board and the new CUPA schools pay higher salaries. Natalie Lutes committed to getting back to 90% over the next five years. A likely future scenario could be a 2% raise plus 1% to get closer to the 90%.

 

 Senator Bonham, Chemistry, reported that at least one field that would still be suffering a drop in salary is Hospitality.

 

 Senator Matthews ended his report with the finding that inversions were not caused by the CUPA change.

 

             A discussion was called.

 

VIII.     Adjournment

 

            A vote was called.

            The Meeting was Adjourned.