MSU-BOZEMAN FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES January 20, 1999 PRESENT: Young, Sherwood, McDermott, Kommers, Neff, Leech, Benham, Howard, Larsen, Jost, Harkin, Nehrir, Mooney, Weaver, Amend, Locke, Trout for Lansverk, Gedeon, Jelinski, Richard Smith, McKinsey, Monahan, Prawdzienski, Butterfield, Scott, Cash. ABSENT: Paterson, O'Neill, Burgess, Anderson, Robert Smith, Duncan, Cherry, Cutler, Martell, Griffith. The meeting was called to order at 4:10 PM by Chair Peter Kommers. A quorum was present. The minutes of the December 2, 1998, and December 16, 1998, Faculty Council meetings were approved as distributed. Chair's Report - Peter Kommers. - Provost Chapman, who has accepted the position of president at NDSU, will leave MSU no later than June 1. - The Board of Regents will meet in Helena January 28-29. - Faculty from MSU campuses will make a presentation about what they do. - Proposed Engineering and Nursing programs at the other units will be discussed. - Updates from the legislature by University Relations and ASMSU are found at MSUinfo on the web. - The administrative review is being prepared for distribution to academic faculty. It is an opportunity to provide constructive criticism to administrators. - The Council received a letter from the Academic Misconduct Policies Task Force. Their discussion was in response to an attempt by students to evade sanctions by dropping a course without the instructor's permission. The Task Force concluded: - The Academic Misconduct Policy is not in immediate need of revision. - Dropping a course is a privilege, not a right. - Students must have the instructor's consent to drop a course. - There will be further discussion of the Task Force conclusions at a future Council meeting. University Governance Council Nominating Committee Report - Alan Leech. - In response to a request from the Provost that he receive more than one nominee for a position, Gary Harkin, Computer Science, has been nominated for the vacant faculty position on the Salary Review Committee. It was agreed Gary's name will be submitted, along with the name of Michael Peed, School of Art, as a nominee for the position. - On January 28, Cable and Wireless will be on campus to give an overview of their services and ask for input about issues for MSU. The meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. - 3 P.M., and lunch will be provided. They would like a couple of faculty to attend. Please contact Alan if you or someone you know is interested in attending. Faculty Affairs Committee Report - Ron Larsen. - The committee has been working on various Handbook changes. Some of them will be brought to Council next week. Discussion with President Malone. - The searches for Vice President for Administration and Finance and for an interim Provost will soon be started. - This is an awkward time of year to begin a search for a Provost. A search for an interim position will probably begin very shortly and a search for the permanent position will probably begin in late summer. The President is leaning toward using a screening or search committee rather than appointing someone to the position. - The search for the VPA&F will begin soon. This position will probably assume greater responsibility for the other MSU campuses than in the past. - A draft paper by President Malone, "The Role and Workload Expectations of Faculty at Montana State University-Bozeman" was distributed. It is a starting point for broader discussion of faculty work load and teaching load. - Teaching load is only a part of work load for faculty. - Teaching load can not be measured by a formula. - President Malone commended Chair Kommers' earlier statement that discussions should take place in Deans' Council which would address the variation among colleges in teaching load. - During discussion, Chair Kommers went on to state that given UPT expectations and the Boyer Report, everyone should have opportunity to be learners and discoverers. How is teaching load applied in an equitable way among the colleges? - This model allows flexibility among colleges. Although there could be deviation from the mean, the mean is still important. - According to President Malone, if work load is micro-managed, quality can soon be left out of the equation. MSU Campuses Strategic Plan.- President Malone and MSU System Coordinator Rolf Groseth. - The draft will be presented to the Board of Regents next Thursday. UM campuses presented their plan late last year to the regents. - This document was derived from strategic planning documents from the MSU campuses. MSU has a Long-Range Plan, and last year's Long-Range Planning Committee Chair participated on the Strategic Plan committee. - The document addresses what the campuses do together. - Dr. Groseth outlined several changes which have been made to the earlier draft because of input from faculty. - Several additional changes were recommended, particularly in the area of distributed learning. It was pointed out there is no discussion of the infrastructure necessary to maintain the campus group through expanding computer services. - Although athletics appears to be a large entity, there is no mention of it in the plan. It is not an activity the campuses participate in jointly. As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:15, with the announcement by President Malone that a campus forum to discuss legislative issues will be held as soon as feasible. Joann Amend, Secretary, and Peter Kommers, Chair