4.3 B Full Faculty Senate Meeting and All-­‐Faculty Forum, August 19, 2015
Highlights: -Approximately 60 faculty were present plus the Senators -Maggie Vaughan presented on upcoming changes to CNU website and creation of an intraweb -Issues for 2015-2016 Senate: how to get the 75/25 ratio; departmental eval-4s; Annual review proposal to use .25 increments; IDEA best practices and how else to evaluate teaching; Budget Advisory Committee memo can be revised; address curricular efficacy and efficiency; final exams policy; University commitment to Title IX; questions regarding use of Follett for books for classes
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4.3 B Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, April 24, 2015
Highlights: -Vote on Parental Leave Policy: policy approved
Note: Year 2015 is not on the actual document. It was determined based on file name and location of file on the Faculty Senate website.
4.3 B Faculty Senate Minutes, April 17, 2015
Highlights: -Introduction of Visitors: Dr. Ann Mazzocca, CISS Chair, and Ms. Lorraine Hall, Assistant to Provost -Committee for IDEA Survey Support: has recommendations for best practices for use in evaluations; concern that students submit electronic versions for wrong class as seen by comments - if students let Lorraine Hall know she can correct it; 2 weeks is standard at most schools -Election results for SEC given -University EVAL-­‐4 Review: serving as a rater during llc assessments should be a highly valued activity under Service -Emeritus: Hibler, Teschner, Manton, Chaney, Gordon, and Lopater approved -Handbook Proposals #1-­‐11: proposals were discussed and voted upon -Parental Leave Policy: is section 2.2. enforceable? section 2.3 doesn't fit with policy? section 4.3 problematic if more than a semester needed for medical leave? -Final Examination Schedule and Policy: Revised draft presented -Child Care: no need for a center; need viable child care options; highlights from survey presented
4.3 B Faculty Senate Minutes, March 20, 2015
Highlights: -Finance and Audit: University is doing well financially; audit of department charge cards showed several incidents of incorrect usage; disabling of email accounts for individuals who leave the University; auditing of the study abroad program planned for the future -Academic Affairs: Luter Dean search progess; Summer Scholars program; new parental leave policy and the lecturer proposal discussed; Reaffirmation of the business degree; faculty waiting to publish until the last few months of their tenure process; CNU has a new diversity director; there is a diversity working group; student equality and diversity council has also been formed; Safe Zone training -Student Life: CNU sponsors 23 varsity sports; 8% of student-athletes were on the Dean’s List in Fall 2014; had a GPA of 3.0 or higher; overall GPA is 2.91; discipline statement that all athletes sign; fall 2015 freshmen enrollment goal is 1225; Fall 2014 freshman 95% returned for spring semester; -University Advancement: two more years remaining in the Capital Campaign; Lighthouse fund -Elections: ballot for University standing committee seats is almost ready to go out to faculty -Academic Standing Committee Updates: Title IX working group to come up with a comprehensive policy related to Title IX; Additional training related to Title IX will take place next academic year; information on 1990 CLERY act to be distributed; IDEA committee has created a document to help all evaluators in their work; considering what other instruments that we, as a faculty, would like to include as part of teaching evaluations; LLC suggests handbook changes that attempt to guarantee that future student assessment results be kept separate from faculty evaluation -Handbook Proposals: Provost, ViceProvosts, and the Deans reviewed the suggested handbook changes and have questions; UDC should be considered a curricular committee; administration had additional suggestions regarding wording for the Council on Health Professions Preparation; Provost has voiced that he would prefer to keep the IDEA committee as being a Provost appointed committee; one of the appointees to the FRC committee continue to be made by the Provost instead of the Faculty Senate; revised version on the wording for the Honors faculty to be included in the faculty handbook suggested; Prestigious Scholarships Committee (PSC) suggested changes; allow three consecutive two year terms on the UCC; Faculty Senate recommends that all committees need some form of training; committees begin to create guiding documents for the workings of their committee; UCC committee itself recommended that department chairs not be allowed to serve on the UCC -administration suggested that we reconsider this suggested change; Provost suggest's suggested changing the name of the University Assessment and Evaluation Committee to the University Assessment Committee -Lecturer Proposal: proposal to include language that Instructors at CNU can negotiate their years of service as Instructors at CNU toward the length of teaching requirements written for Master/Senior Lecturer status; Many concerns voiced at the town hall meeting addressed the tenure /lecturer ratio at CNU; resolution on matter passed; adjunct usage discussed; class size expanding discussed; departmental EVAL-4 discussed; discussion of lecturer research requirement; need each department to come up with more specific evaluation standards for lecturers
4.3 B Faculty Senate Minutes, February 20, 2015
Highlights: President's Report: HR is conducting a search for the person who will be responsible for faculty recruitment; at the PAS meeting President Adamitis discussed feedback on the lecturer proposal; other topics covered - Faculty Governance; Tenure-Stream vs Restricted Lines; Conversions -Lecturer Proposal: discussion of pros and cons; straw poll in favor of it; tenure-stream/restricted ratio and potential threats to tenure were discussed; proposal does not apply to Instructors; should consider ways to recognize highly successful Instructors; lack of clarity regarding performance expectations for restricted faculty; evaluation standards for Master and Senior lecturers need to be developed; how the hiring credentials for tenure-stream factor into the Lecturer proposal; pay bumps need to be somehow codified within the proposal; Senate gave recommendations regarding proposal
4.3 B Faculty Senate Minutes, January 16, 2015
Highlights: -President’s Report: Michelle Moody has been appointed Director of Title IX and Equal Opportunity; Human Resources will now oversee the application process for faculty recruitment; Faculty perceive a lack of trust in departments to make hiring and staffing decisions; The Provost, in consultation with Deans, has decided not to provide additional data regarding AR scores -Unfinished Business: Committee on Committees presented Handbook changes that reflect their earlier recommendations; Summary of those changes was presented; the Senate made edits to proposed changes; voted to approve -Committee Updates:Faculty Mentoring Committee expressed concerns about the IDEA -Town Halls on New Lecturer Proposal to be held -Faculty Development Grant Committee Report: no viable rubric in place for the evaluation of faculty development grants; Are lecturers and instructors able to compete with faculty with less teaching load?; recommended revision of the budget portion of application -Faculty Senate in closed session -IDEA: reviewed reports on IDEA; wide variety of practices among faculty members regarding incentives; discussion of the use of IDEA for formative and summative assessment; IDEA Committee is currently working on guidelines regarding best practices for using IDEA -Final examination policies: Listed issues about final exams that will then be discussed in February meeting -PBK report: General requirements for students to qualify for PBK given; “values-based” requirements for PBK were given; Problem areas for CNU to work on were given; One of CNU’s strengths: our area studies minors; Things that the PBK committee can do NOW were listed; Things that the administration can do were listed; Athletics issues as related to PBK given
4.3 B Faculty Senate Minutes, November 21, 2014
-Discussion about faculty dependent scholarship -President's Report: CNU has created a public health team; Faculty President Adamitis attended a Faculty Senate of Virginia meeting; moving the time of AR's and/or DRC's so that there would not be overlap between the two review periods at the department level; Summer Student Assistant's Research program could be very beneficial to the faculty; The Senate encourages the administration to continue allocating sufficient funding to the library so that we may build the research collections; Increasing library holdings will also strengthen our next application for Phi Beta Kappa; AAUP report on faculty salaries in Virginia - CNU has low ranking; Chronicle Almanac salary numbers compare well with the national averages -Child Care Committee: first draft of a child care survey needs feedback; -Religious Diversity and Dialogue Committee.: Student groups include - Faith Seeking Understanding, the United Campus Ministries and Rumi Forum sponsored group; Senator Timani provided information on his monthly seminar on scripture reading; Senators expressed additional suggestions about religious diversity on campus -Academic Standing Committee Updates: UGRC has developed their own committee handbook, it is a good model for other committees; LLC has requested that a faculty senator attend their December 5 meeting; The two week period for the DRC should be moved back by one week so that it does not overlap with the Annual Review process; CUC supports that end the AR's at the Dean's level; not uniformity in how the three deans share their rubrics; CUC wants all Deans to share it with the chairs; CUC is also exploring the rules for state employees and yearly evaluations -Endowment Agreement for a Faculty Dependent Endowed Scholarship: Various concerns of faculty were discussed; Perhaps tuition waivers for all would be a more sound fix -closed session to vote on Faculty Development Grants and Faculty sabbatical applications -Lecturer Proposal: administration's proposal for new restricted faculty ranks, specifically Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Master Lecturer; proposal did not include a concrete plan for evaluating each of these positions Committee on Academic Standing Committees: many faculty Senators feel that they are not being kept well-informed by committees; need for better faculty ownership on academic committees; committees want to know their responsibilities and to whom they should report Incentives for IDEA: Senators felt it was inappropriate for some faculty to offer extra credit to students for filling out IDEA; If incentives are to be allowed, there must be uniform guidelines in place for all faculty; an easy fix would be to replace this system that we are using with one that forces the students to fill out the form
4.3 B CNU Faculty Senate Minutes, October 17, 2014
Highlights: -Guest: Dr. Geoffrey Klein, Vice-Provost for Research, Graduate Studies, and Assessment -Dr. Klein gave an update on the state of assessment at CNU -search taking place for a new assessment director; plan is to hire someone by mid-November -new triennial schedule for full assessments -assessment of the Area of Inquiries occurs every three semesters with area on a different schedule -UAEC is developing institutional outcomes for this year -questions to Dr. Klein from Senators -Faculty Senate President’s Report: information regarding the budget remains the same; Provost’s Advisory Staff is currently reviewing a proposal to grant lecturers additional titles and extended contracts of up to five years; 32.6% of the faculty holds renewable-contract status; 75% tenure-stream and 25% renewable contract; is there a PBK standard for the ratio? -Committee Updates: Committee on Academic Standing Committees: considering the possibility that the faculty senate take control of faculty appointments to committees; need a plan for 4-college model Child Care Subcommittee: support for pursuing the idea of camps for days when CNU is in session, but local elementary and middle schools are not in session; working on a survey -Endowment Agreement for Faculty Dependent Endowed Scholarship: need based vs merit based vs lottery? -Concern over students completing IDEAs while in the CHEKS - this will be brought to the Provost
4.3 B CNU Faculty Senate Minutes, September 19, 2014
Highlights: -Because the state of Virginia has mandated some funding cuts, Chief of Staff Perry was invited to present a budgeting overview session to the senate -people have asked her in the past how the University can continue moving forward with our building projects even in times of economic stress and have wondered why we cannot redirect some of the building funds toward academics: reason - we have two distinct budgets, operating and capital, and the state forbids transferring funds from one budget to the other -Chief of Staff Perry gave a presentation on the operating budget -University’s operating budget: derives from two sources of revenue: general funds (GF), which come from state tax dollars, and non-general funds (NGF), which are comprised of tuition, comprehensive fees, room and board fees, sales and services, commissions, federal work study and gifts, grants and contracts -operating budget includes: Educational and General (E&G); Auxiliary Enterprises; Student Financial Assistance (Student Aid); Financial Assistance for E&G Services (Sponsored Research) -The GF may be used for Educational and General (E&G) and Financial Aid only -Student enrollment drives the operating budget -Tuition is the largest source of University revenue with GF second, room fees third, and comprehensive fees fourth -Chief of Staff Perry discussed the budget reductions recently mandated by the state: state initially asked us to present a 5% budget reduction plan for next year and a 7% budget reduction plan for the following year; These cuts would amount to 1.3 million and 1.8 million dollars, respectively; Governor McCauliffe assigned different cuts to different schools, with a 3.3% average overall for higher education; CNU has been designated for a 2.3% cut, for an overall $600,000 reduction in funds this year; the 2.3% cut will remain in effect next year as well -Trends in state funding: these funds have consistently been going down for the past several years -All universities in Virginia are supposed to target a no more than 25% out of state student population -President’s Report: President Trible supports the Faculty Senate agenda and commends our attention to increasing communication between the faculty and administration; -The SEC met with the administration one week after our August meeting to review the agenda for the year and begin moving forward on a number of action items -Sponsors for Curriculum - forms have been changed to include this information -request to provide the actual weighted score rather than a rounded score for overall performance was not supported -Senator Barnello proposed that evaluees write in their own weighting at the top of EVAL forms. Senator Busch clarified that indeed any faculty can request an individual specific weighting on the three categories -Action item: Determine a policy designating who is responsible for filling in the weights on EVAL forms -Action Item: Give the CUC a deadline of March 1st for preparing a draft of the departmental EVAL-4. -discussion about EVAL-4 -value that is being given to core advising questioned -Committee on Committees has been formed -Liberal Learning Core Changes -expecting Handbook proposals from Provost Doughty and Quentin Kidd soon re: FMLA and Lecturers -Child care subcommittee: The committee believes that having a child care facility on campus will not be possible in the near future; the subcommittee will be focusing on the camp idea; find out what our neighboring universities do; survey for faculty/staff input -Endowment Agreement: Examples of faculty dependent scholarships at other universities -BOV reports given for Student Life Committee, Academic Affairs Committee, University Advancement Committee, and Finance Committee -Action Agenda to the Provost: the manner of recording student hours needs to be reviewed -Senate Composition from Departments: discuss whether the policy for Senate membership should be changed so that no college may have two members from the same department; Action agenda for this Friday’s meeting with the Provost is to ask more about this issue -Philosophy of Faculty Senate regarding budget cuts: document, Philosophy of the Faculty Senate 2014-2015, was presented then there was discussion about it -Faculty Excellence Awards: recommendation that part time faculty be included in with full time faculty for the purpose of deciding awards -BOV is working on an endowed minority scholarship for CNU students -Look at how part-time faculty are being evaluated
4.3 B Christopher Newport University Faculty Senate Minutes, August 29, 2014
Highlights: -President's Report: CNU faculty are grateful for the recent salary increases; Provost has been working on a new proposal to give parental leave; SEC discussed instituting a new form of contract for restricted faculty; discussion of new titles for Lectures such as Master Lecturers; President Adamitis went to the first Provost Advisory Staff (PAS) meeting; -Summer BOV reports from Finance Committee, Student Life, Academic Affairs; and University Advancement were provided -Faculty Dependent Endowment Agreement: This scholarship is geared solely toward children of full-time faculty; It is the intention of developers of this agreement that these scholarships will be four year awards and that these will not be merit-based awards; Every $50000 will support a $2000 per year scholarship; It was left to senators to propose amendments to the draft -Faculty Senate Schedule for AY-14/15 given -Committee Volunteers and liaison reports -Faculty Development Grant Schedule available -Faculty Senate Goals (A-D) for AY 14-15: Increase faculty participation and leadership in University governance, Ensure clarity, consistency and the implementation of best practices regarding faculty performance reviews and evaluation; discussion over use of IDEA scores; Increase Faculty participation in the curricular process; Enhance the quality of faculty life at CNU; Provost Doughty will provide a proposed new policy on family leave; Child care committee will look to see if there might be innovative ways of partnering CNU with an existing Newport News Child care facility; Senators wonder if we are creating an environment that fosters faculty research? -Annual Review Forms: change from our current half point increment scale to a .1 increment scale -Other business: formal written procedure of evaluation of Lecturers; Senators remain unclear on the potential movement toward a future 70%-30% tenure/restricted split in the faculty; LLC is asked how we can adjust the procedure in the University Handbook in the event of academic policy change; sponsors names need to now be included in all curriculum change proposals; concerns about fall freshmen registration have been voiced by faculty