ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES

 

 

DATE:            March 15, 2007

 

PRESENT:     Sandie Rietz                                         Bruce Brumley

                        Audrey ConnerRosberg                        Lorrie Steerey

                        Johanna Mitchell                                   Gershon Bulgatz

                        Noreen Lee                                          Craig McKenzie

                        Tedee Cuomo (student)                        Alicia Esteves (student)

                        Tasneem Khaleel (ex-officio)                George White (ex-officio)

 

ABSENT:       Agnes Samples – excused                    Mark Hardt – excused

                        Rakesh Sah – excused                         Keith Edgerton – excused

                        Matt Redinger – excused

                        David Garloff (ex-officio)                      Gary Young (ex-officio)

                        Mary Susan Fishbaugh (ex-officio)        Karen Heikel (ex-officio)

                        John Cech (ex-officio)                          Terrie Iverson (ex-officio)

                        Stacy Klippenstein (ex-officio)

 

PRESIDING: Audrey ConnerRosberg, Chair

 

 

Audrey ConnerRosberg called the meeting to order at 3:45 p.m. in the Bridger room.

 

The minutes of February 22 were accepted as presented.

 

I.          ITEMS FOR INFORMATION

 

Item 39  BSEd Double Major in Elementary Education and Reading.  New program.

Item 39.a  Teaching Minor in Reading K-12.  Modification of an existing program.

Item 39.b  BSEd. Double Major in Secondary Education and Reading.  New program.

 

Item 48  AAS in Radiologic Technology.  Modification of an existing program.  REVISED.

Item 48.b  RAD 101 Radiological Technology I.  Change course description.

Item 48.c  RAD 102 Clinical Radiology I.  Change credits and course description.

Item 48.d  RAD 104 Principles of Radiographic Exposure.  Change title to Introduction to Radiologic Science and change course description.

Item 48.e  RAD 110 Radiation Physics and Biological Principles I.  Change title (remove I) and course description.

Item 48.f  RAD 152 Clinical Radiology II.  Change credits.

Item 48.g  RAD 251 Radiologic Technology V.  Change credits.

Item 48.h  RAD 271 Transition to Radiologic Technologist.  Change title to Registry Review and change credits.

Item 48.i  RAD 105 Introduction to Radiologic Technology.  New course.

Item 48.j  RAD 155 Radiographic Critique.  New course.

Item 48.L  RAD 182 Clinical Radiology III.  Change credits from 4 to 7.

 

Item 50.b  STAT 241 Statistical Methods.  Change course description.  REVISED.

 

Item 51  Teaching Minor In Spanish (K-12).  Modification of an existing program.

 

Item 58  EDCI 303 Teaching Mathematics in the Elementary School.  Change corequisite.

Item 58.a  EDCI 304 Teaching Science in the Elementary School.  Change corequisite.

 

Ž Motion by Bruce Brumley, seconded by Lorrie Steerey to accept Items 39, 39.a, 39.b, 48. 48.b, 48.c, 48.d, 48.e, 48.f, 48.g, 48.h, 48.i, 48.j, 48.L, 50.b, 51, 58, and 58.a for information.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

II.         ITEM – SECOND READING

 

Item 63  Academic Senate Bylaws, Article IV, Section B 3. Budget Committee.  Modifications to membership.

 

Ž Motion by Bruce Brumley, seconded by Johanna Mitchell to accept Item 63 on second reading.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

III.       ITEM – REVISION/ADDENDUM

 

It was noted that the Health Administration Program modified their program last fall as Item 33.  Recently they discovered two errors in the required courses.  They wish to add HADM 307 Health Informatics (3 credits) and exchange HADM 496 (3 credits) for HADM 490 (6 credits).  The result is no net change in required credits.

 

Ž Motion by Lorrie Steerey, seconded by Bruce Brumley to accept the addendum to Item 33.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

IV.       DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS

 

A.  Discussion of the Academic Calendar:  Provost White

·        Permanent University Day in Spring Semester

·        Convocation Falling on a Finals Day

·        Professional Development Day in Spring Semester: 

 

Provost White stated that students have asked for a permanent University/study day at the end of the spring semester.  In the spring semester we have many Monday holidays, and convocation also falls on the Friday before commencement.  This sometimes results in a calendar crunch that means no University day.  At times the last day of finals week and convocation sometimes fall on the same Friday.  Faculty have to choose between giving a final and attending their college’s convocation.

 

Dr. White further noted that Monday-evening-only classes are having difficulty meeting the “Carnegie units” minimum of required seat time.  Because of the holidays and University day, Monday only classes will have to meet an extra 25 minutes.  The question was raised as to whether the Monday evening classes could start earlier.  It was noted that most people taking evening classes are working full time and cannot start earlier.  It was cited that at one time, there was a mandate to start evening classes at or after 6:00 p.m.  Dr. White noted that as long as we are appropriately serving the clientele, a class can be scheduled whenever it is needed.  He is opposed to classes being scheduled arbitrarily so that they cross into several other class time slots.  Dr. White stated that however the department chooses to schedule the extra 25 minutes, we have to be able to show NWCCU we are meeting the Carnegie units minimum.  The extended Monday-only classes would be in Spring 2008.

 

The question was raised as to what alternatives there were to adding 25 minutes to the Monday-evening-only courses.  Provost White stated that the alternative was to shift the entire Monday through Friday class schedule around, and that did not seem feasible.

 

It was noted that a professional day in spring would be appropriate on the Tuesday before classes start.  Most faculty are on campus anyway.  It was cited that the COT already has a spring professional day on the Tuesday before the semester starts.

 

Ž Motion by Lorrie Steerey, seconded by Noreen Lee that the Academic Senate approves a permanent University Day in spring semester, the Friday before finals week.  The Senate further approves that Monday night classes may have to meet an additional 25 minutes, and instructors have the ability to request changes in that class time.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

It was noted that we usually don’t have a University Day in fall semester.  A study day in fall would also be appreciated by the students.

 

Ž Motion by Noreen Lee, seconded by Lorrie Steerey that we find out if we can add a University Day to the fall semester.

 

Ž Motion carried.

 

B.  HB 525 “Intellectual Diversity”

 

Tedee Cuomo noted that the day she spoke to the Senate about this bill (February 22), it was defeated.

 

C.  February 1/March 2 Board of Regents Meeting

 

Audrey ConnerRosberg noted that MSU-Bozeman is having a lot of trouble recruiting and retaining both faculty and staff because of the extremely expensive housing in Bozeman.  They have over 100 open faculty positions because of this problem.  A task force was formed to look at recruitment and retention of faculty and staff for all units of the University System.  There is only one faculty member (the chairperson of the MSU-Bozeman Senate) and there is no representation, faculty, staff, or administrators, from MSU-Billings on the task force.  Dr. White and Dan Carter, Director of Government Relations and Publications, both brought this to the attention of Commissioner Stearns.  Dr. Stearns suggested adding a faculty member from the MSU-Billings COT; however, no additional members have been added at this time.

 

Dr. White noted that the list of people for the task force was approved by the BOR without question.  Dr. White further noted that MSU-Billings identified the shrinking hiring pool as an impending major problem last year, before any of the other units.

 

It was cited that Bozeman faculty have traditionally been paid more than comparable positions at MSU-Billings.  Surely other units, such as Great Falls and Northern, have the same issue.  Dr. White noted that we hired several new faculty last year, and we had to go much higher on salaries to get the people we wanted.  We have the same problem as Bozeman, but Bozeman’s is more exaggerated because of their high cost of living.

 

Dr. ConnerRosberg noted that there is not much else we can do—the first meeting of the task force is tomorrow, March 16.  She also noted that the chairs of the faculty senates wrote a joint letter about the lack of representation on the task force.

 

Provost White stated that the BOR has taken a downward turn in collegiality.  We are the only unit to have all of our new program proposals approved, and that is only because of the good quality work the faculty have done on those proposals.  At this point, when we propose a new program, we have to have the faculty program director present to answer questions.

 

D.  Student Evaluation of Faculty Committee

 

Lorrie Steerey, chairperson of the Committee, noted that the members of the Committee need to either attend the meetings or quit.  She and Michael Campbell, Department of Business Academic Programs, are often the only members to attend.

 

Dr. Steerey observed that it’s not just our student evaluation that needs revising, it’s our whole system of faculty evaluation.  The revision of the student evaluation is probably going to take all of next year.  What we need is buy-in from the administration, the faculty unions, the faculty in general, and the Senate.  Also, the Committee’s reference materials indicate a high-level administrator should be on the Committee as well.

 

It was noted that the Committee needs a commitment from the unions that they will put the evaluation which the Committee develops in the next contract.  Dr. White noted that a commitment from both the union and the administration could be reached at an FACC meeting.  Dr. White also noted that Dean Gary Young (College of Business) would be a good person to serve on the Committee as an administrator.

 

E.  Commendations from Provost White

 

Dr. White stated that he wants to commend both the Academic Foundations Committee and the Senate.

 

Firstly, the AFC has done excellent work designing an assessment component of remarkable quality.  We currently have faculty volunteers who are training with eCollege to use an electronic assessment using the AFC’s assessment matrix.

 

Second, the Senate is to be applauded for the quality of programs we are putting forward to the Board of Regents and for taking on the task of reviewing the annual reports from departments in order to maintain high quality programs.

 

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:52 p.m.

 

rjrm