ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES

 

 

DATE:            October 20, 2005

 

PRESENT:     Audrey ConnerRosberg                               Ben Marschke

                        Keith Edgerton                                            Randall Gloege

                        Bruce Brumley                                             Matt Redinger

                        Brittany Lane (student)                                 Curtis Sherrodd (student)

                        Mary Susan Fishbaugh (ex-officio)               Tasneem Khaleel (ex-officio)

 

ABSENT:       Noreen Lee – excused                                Agnes Samples – excused

                        Mark Hardt – excused                                Lorrie Steerey – excused

                        Sandie Rietz – excused                                Paul Bauer – excused

                        Craig McKenzie – excused

                        Lewis Rife (student)                                     David Garloff (ex-officio)

                        Joe Michels (ex-officio)                                John Cech (ex-officio)

                        Kirk Lacy (ex-officio)                                  Terrie Iverson (ex-officio)

                        Curt Kochner (ex-officio)

 

GUESTS:        Lonnie Schrag                                              Jane Hansen

                        Michael Havens                                           Doxey Hatch

 

PRESIDING: Keith Edgerton, Chair

 

 

Keith Edgerton called the meeting to order at 3:42 p.m. in the Chancellor’s Conference Room.

 

The minutes of October 13 were accepted as presented.

 

I.          ITEMS FOR INFORMATION

 

Item 22  Emeritus Nomination of Dr. Theodore Jensen, Professor, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, College of Arts and Sciences.  For information.

 

Ž Motion by Matt Redinger, seconded by Randall Gloege to accept Item 22 for information.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

Item 76  PSYC 271 Human Relations.  Change course description and prerequisite.

 

Ž Motion by Matt Redinger, seconded by Bruce Brumley to accept Item 76 for information.

 

Michael Havens, Chair of the Psychology Department, stated that PSYC 271 was a general education course 10 years ago.  They have offered it 3 times in the last 10 years with 3 different part-time faculty members and each class was filled.  The Department now has a University Lecturer interested in updating and teaching the course.  Also, Psychology has few 200-level courses, so this would add one more.  The course will be offered every spring and will be covered by existing faculty.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

Item 80 AA in Rehabilitation and Related Services.  Modification of an existing program.

Item 80.a  REHA 497 Capstone in Chemical Dependency Rehabilitation.  New course.

 

Item 13 BS in Rehabilitation and Related Services.  Modification of an existing program (change title of degree).

 

Ž Motion by Matt Redinger, seconded by Curtis Sherrodd to table Items 80, 80.a, and 13.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

Item 18  Certificate in Medical Coding and Insurance Billing.  New program.

Item 18.a  CODE 110 CPT-4 Procedure Coding.  New course.

Item 18.b  CODE 120 ICD-9 Diagnosis Coding.  New course.

Item 18.c  CODE 140 Computerized Medical Billing.  New course.

Item 18.d  CODE 150 Advanced Coding and Auditing.  New course.

 

Ž Motion by Matt Redinger, seconded by Bruce Brumley to accept Items 18, 18.a, 18.b, 18.c, and 18.d for information.

 

Lonnie Schrag, Team Leader of Nursing, Health, and Safety Occupations, stated that medical coding and insurance billing can cost doctors lots of money if not done correctly, as well as possible legal implications.  There is a local and nationwide need for people properly trained in the field.  This new program will be funded by a grant for the first two years, and hopefully after the grant ends it will be self-supporting.  Students who finish this certificate can also go on into the AAS in Medical Assisting.  Some of the courses in the certificate, not including the new ones listed above, will be offered online.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

II.         DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

 

A.  BSLS – 15 credits of upper division requirement

 

Curtis Sherrodd noted that he and Lewis Rife agreed that the BSLS is a good program if it is used as it was originally intended.  In some cases, it is being used as a backdoor, but they don’t know how to fix that.  Adding the 15-credit upper division requirement for the thematic concentration will give this degree additional strength.  It was noted that the students in this program do have to give their thematic concentrations a lot of careful thought, and through that process meet the proposed 15-credit upper division requirement.

 

It was cited that we should put faith in our advisors that they will help the students design an academically rigorous program of study.  We have no control if a student claims to have a different degree than they do.  We should not micromanage this degree or the advisors.

 

Dean Tasneem Khaleel noted that some upper-level courses have prerequisites or sequential courses that may be excluded from a student’s thematic concentration if they have to meet the 15 credits of upper division.  She asked that we leave the BSLS as is for a couple years and see how it works.

 

It was noted that many of the non-traditional students in this program who need to get a degree for their jobs won’t waste time on courses they don’t need.  They will pick the courses they require for their thematic concentrations and get it done.

 

B.  Review of Last Week’s Meeting with Chancellor Sexton

 

It was observed that the Senate wanted to discuss the hiring prioritization process, which is broken, and instead ended up in yet another discussion of budget and what and how much we have to cut.  It’s now late October and we still don’t have hiring priorities.  Our previous Provost, Dr. Park, stated that we cut according to the strategic plan, but that does not seem to be true.  We cut opportunistically.

 

It was noted that once again, the Chancellor did not offer some kind of vision about where we are going now.  The Senate and the Chancellor have both lamented the writing skills of our graduates, but yet the writing courses are all still being taught by part-time faculty.  It was cited that we have to tell the Chancellor when he meets with us that we know the funding model is terrible and we want to talk about other issues.  What we need is an overall, cooperative management/marketing group composed of people from all areas of campus to help craft a vision of where we are going and how to get there.

 

It was cited that the Chancellor is and always has been a conservative financial manager.  He is rewarded by the Board of Regents and the Commissioner’s Office for balancing our budget every year, which he sees as his responsibility.  We must keep that in mind when working with him.

 

It was noted that the pitiful attendance at last Monday’s General Faculty Meeting shows the vicious cycle we are in.  Either the faculty don’t care or they knew what they were going to hear.  In turn, morale suffers.  It was suggested that the Senate take this problem on, as we did with faculty attendance at Commencement, to get more faculty to attend the General Faculty Meeting.

 

It was stated that we should ask the Chancellor for a list, written down and not presented, of what programs he thinks need to be eliminated, changed, and added.  It was observed that if we ask him for that, we should come up with our own list to compare.

 

It was noted that the Chancellor did give us his vision last year, and that was four things:  (1) grow MSU-B Online, (2) start the College of Allied Health Professions, (3) grow the MSU-B Downtown office, and (4) grow two-year education through the COT/Community College.  He has, for the most part, completed these goals.  It was stated that we could ask him what his vision includes now.

 

It was observed that the Senate has to keep in mind that we have different pots of money, and some money can only be used for some things.  They are not interchangeable, which is state law.  Some of our budge requests/revisions were ignorant of this fact.

 

 

The meeting adjourned at 5:03 p.m.

 

rjrm