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Faculty Senate
Minutes of the Faculty Senate meeting October 15, 2008
The regular meeting of the 2008-2009 Faculty Senate was called to order at 3:30 p.m. by President Art Sanders. The following senators were present for all or part of the meeting. Allen, Bohorquez, Chesnut, Cramer, DeWitt, Dore, Gilbert, Harvey, Houle, McCrickerd, Mosser, Nelson, Parsa, Reincke, Sanders, Van Wyke, Vitha, Walker
Absent: Alexander, Cravero, Esposito
The September 2008 minutes were accepted.
Report from President Maxwell - No report presented due to his travel schedule.
Report from Provost Troyer
The current economic news and what consequences it may have on Drake are the current topics for Drake’s Senior Advisory Council (SAC) noted Provost Troyer. As they carefully monitor the situation now, they find they are not able to use the same former indicators to easily make decisions for the future. The January Board of Trustees meeting is when basic budget principles (tuition/salary) will be presented for the 09-10 year, yet that is a long time before the Fall 2009 term begins.
He emphasized that the University is in good shape. President Maxwell will be sending a general note to the campus as this is a topic of concern for our community individually and as a whole.
Two questions were asked of the Provost concerning the upcoming budget and capital campaign. The Provost indicated that he felt it was too early to answer at this time. Drake’s situation is better than other private colleges yet the overall situation continues to change. Concerning the campaign, the Provost only indicated that the campaign may be lengthened.
Senator Houle asked about undergraduate admission plans at this point. Provost Troyer indicated that there are a number of options being considered, but that it is too early in the recruiting calendar to really know what next Fall will bring.
Senator Vitha stated that he appreciated that there is a pedestrian street light at Carpenter and 31st. Provost Troyer indicated that Drake had paid for that, not the City of Des Moines. Senator Vitha stated that the email transition was seamless for him and he appreciated that too.
Report from President Sanders
--President Sanders noted that Senators have a copy of the approved athletic schedules distributed to them today. No action is required. Senator Allen noted that several teams are gone seven to ten days during the spring semester and wondered if that was higher than in the past. Senator Chesnut, who serves as the Faculty Athletic Representative, stated that a multi-year comparison is made when the schedules are reviewed.
--He confirmed that SAC has spent serious and detailed time reviewing the economic situation. He too, believes that Drake is in good shape at this time.
--The standing Committees of the Senate are fully staffed with only two Chairs yet to be appointed. He noted that there is a discrepancy in the web description concerning the University Hearing Panel (UHP). President Sanders will ask the UHP to meet and chose a chair from among the faculty.
-- President Sanders noted that the Faculty Roles survey was sent via blueView to all faculty, and there had been only a few replies even though the Arts & Sciences Dean had distributed the document via his department chairs. President Sanders’ original intent was to have the survey sent to faculty as an email attachment, but the permission to send an all-faculty email was only recently granted to the Senate Secretary. President Sanders desires that privilege, too, for the Senate’s President.
Old Business –
-- The Faculty Senate Vice-President position was filled, via nomination and Senate acclamation, by Phil Houle.
Upon proper motion and second, Senators Houle and Cramer moved from the table Motion 09-02
Approve changes in the alcohol policy (Appendix A; Student Handbook).
Dean of Students Sentwali Bakari was called to address the Senate. He reviewed the changes which various Senators had suggested and has been positively reviewed by Drake’s legal counsel. The changes are an enhanced title and enlarged violation description in paragraph four.
The motion passed on a voice vote
Senator Reincke asked if there will be a tracking system to know if this policy is used. Mr. Bakari indicated that such records are kept. He continued by thanking the Senate for their help and this will now be presented to the Board of Trustees in 2009, either in January or April.
New Business –
Upon proper motion and second Senators McCrickerd and Vitha moved Motion 09-03
Disband the Instructional Policy Technology Committee (ITPC)
Senator Gilbert moved and McCrickered seconded an amendment:
While the Faculty Senate endorses the abolition of the Instructional Policy Technology committee, we simultaneously note that the Strategic Plan calls for the formation of a Campus Technology committee. We ask that President Maxwell appoint a significant number of Faculty of Instruction to this Committee, and that the Committee consult with the Faculty Senate before it recommends significant budgetary or operational policies that might impact the academic mission of the University.
Senator Houle stated that he was willing to support dropping the Senate committee. The use of technology in the classroom is past being new, and it is now much more a part of the whole infrastructure. Senator Gilbert noted that some policies in the past have not included significant faculty input and thus he was presenting this amendment. Provost Troyer offered that the Stategic Plan committee will be broad based with representatives from across campus.
Senator Gilbert stated that he believes that an important phrase in the amendment is the “consult with Faculty Senate”. Provost Troyer reminded the body that major technology decisions, such as blueView, are taken to the Budget Committee.
Senators McCrickered and Chesnut spoke in favor of faculty being involved without that involvement being onerous or burdensome.
With a voice vote, the amendment passed.
Senator Houle stated that the important elements are that central IT (information technology) knows what is happening in the units and vice versa and that the strategic plan coordinates the use of technology across campus.
With a voice vote, Motion 09-03 passed as amended
Senators Parsa and Chesnut moved and seconded Motion 09-04:
Continue the Campus Council for another two years (08-09, 09-10)
Senator Reincke feels that is has been a positive forum to hear common issues, such as the current economic situation, last year’s Darfur resolution, the academic calendar and the student handbook. Senator Walker stated that she felt was a positive forum for the students.
With a voice vote, the motion passed
The Senate moved itself into a Committee of the Whole to facilitate the last agenda item.
Discussion Faculty Roles and Time
Changing Faculty Roles: All of the roles that faculty play, as teachers, scholars, and members of the University community, seem to take more and more of our time.
Can the University better adjust to the changing nature of faculty roles?
Senator Sanders opened the discussion stating that the ‘role’ faculty are playing is changing and what it takes to be a creative person/scholar needs to be reviewed along with the role within the campus community. He cautioned that the discussion was not to focus on any individual situation but rather on the tensions and stresses of the current time. He noted that not many faculty returned the survey, only 18, so there was no real data to bring into the discussion. Senator Sanders indicated that of the surveys returned research and scholarly activities were noted as the most stressful.
He posed the following question:
Are there ways in which the policies of the university make lives difficult for faculty?
Senator Harvey asked to hear from Senators who have been at Drake for a few years. She specified “what feels different to you?” Senator Sanders noted that teaching takes more time. He included that even though the teaching load may be the same but the preparation time for a semester long class takes more time. The development and execution of student outcome learning takes time. He continued that research expectations are higher and those activities to be qualities activities this takes time. Knowledge is more specialized and yet a person must know a little about a lot of topics to produce quality results. Also, this institution has an expectation of shared governance and participation takes its time, too.
Senator Reincke noted that departmental administrative duties take time. This includes the effort spent to evaluate younger faculty, monitoring and mentoring individuals through the tenure process, working with Admissions in the recruitment process, even high school juniors, plus retaining student commitments.
Senator Nelson stated that for him it is an issue of the fracture of time and how the time is blocked out for any one task. The sciences seem to have five day course preparations with labs. Senator McCrickerd agreed that a greater amount of time which go into a class for a teacher and a student. She encouraged that the discussion include credit hours and seat time. Senator Nelson noted that seat time is a concept which is not easily changed. He noted that the Senate did eliminate a committee today but emphasized it is easier to create rather than to get rid of a service.
Senator Gilbert noted that the social aspect which was present in the past is not presently the same. The only time we get together is at committee meetings. Senator Bohorquez noted there is a change in how much time students spend in research and that involves faculty time, too. It is harder to get grants and need to write more grant proposals. Senator Cramer wondered is the stress to do the research or the stress of not getting to do the research.
Ms. Gretchen Olson contributed that as Drake places a campus wide emphasis on globalization education, is a time consuming effort for faculty, potentially even years of preparation. There is a great reward to be received but it is not an easy undertaking.
Senator Nelson asked if it would be possible to have TA (teaching assistants) for some classes. Would this take some stress off the faculty that teach a large class or would there be a way to gaining assistance for some exams. Senator Reincke noted that having an assistant can add work to the faculty member such as preparation and supervision of the assistance. Senator Chesnut wanted the discussion to think about how the large sections have grown in number and the stress which this places on the instructor. Senator Vitha noted that he has compared his teaching load by capacity and there are more students now within his workload.
Senator Allen proclaimed that email is a stressor. Senator Walker noted that emails have an expectancy of immediateness.
Senator Allen noted that as a University we have been reluctant to establish professional staff for some basic advising functions. Some of her advisees come to see her and some do not. She indicated no interest in losing the mentoring contact with students. She did mention interest in consideration being given to advisees having a different path for routine questions. There were other Senators who noted a difference between advising contacts with students and the mentoring function.
Senator Allen continued that a lot of time is spent keeping current with her professional material. It has become very time consuming to remain competent let alone at the cutting edge in content and delivery. The pace at which information is available and “put out into the world” is different than in the past.
Senator VanWyke noted that time is spent doing career counseling for their students. She indicated that they do ok with internships but it the career mentoring is time consuming.
Senator Vitha wondered who places the demand for productivity. There is the drive within us to want to be an expert and the external forces to handle what needs to be done to be that expert. He asked if there was a model on campus to share where units (department or deans) have created methods to allow certain faculty to be given time to focus for a couple of years on their scholarly work and then rotate to focusing on service opportunities. Associate Provost Sue Wright noted there was a conversation several years ago about setting out a three year rotations for faculty/departments.
Senator Sanders indicated that the Senate Executive Committee will talk about how we will proceed with this topic. Perhaps a forum or process to gather more input.
The Senate comes out of the Committee of the Whole.
Faculty Senate ended at 5:00 p.m. Nancy Geiger, Secretary
