MSU Faculty Council Meeting Minutes
                            March 21, 2001
                                   
PRESENT:  Sherwood, Kommers, Leech, Benham, Howard, Larsen, Harkin,
          Nehrir, Mooney, Lefcort, McClure, Locke, Bogar, Bond,
          Jelinski, McKinsey, Lynch, Fisher, Butterfield, Scott,
          Griffith.

ABSENT:   Young, Hatfield, Morrill, McDermott, White, Anderson, Peed,
          Linker, Stewart, Jost, Weaver, Lansverk, Levy, Francis,
          Prawdzienski, Carlstrom.

The regularly scheduled meeting was called to order by Chair, Ron
Larsen, at 4:10 PM.  A quorum was present.  The minutes of the March
7, 2001, meeting were approved as distributed.

Chair's report - Ron Larsen.
     - The University Planning, Budgeting, and Analysis Committee
     (UPBAC) report is attached for members absent.
          - All members of the committee are expected to keep the
          welfare of the entire institution in mind.
          - After final decisions are made, all individuals are
          expected to speak with one voice to support the decision.
          - The committee is still working on the list of general
          principles, core values, and university priorities.
     - This is the last day for tenure-track faculty to complete the
     administrative review.
          - So far, 143 faculty have returned 400 reviews.
          - Adjunct and research faculty will have an opportunity to
          complete the review next.
          - Some suggestions for fine-tuning the process were
          suggested.
     - Rich Howard, Jack Jelinski, and Ron Larsen met today to discuss
     a pay improvement plan.
          - The possibility of such a plan was raised at UPBAC.
          - It has been suggested retirement incentives by separate
          from any pay improvement plan.
          - During discussion, it was recommended a non-legislative
          standard for faculty pay (market) be considered.  It was
          noted that a position can almost always be filled, but it is
          difficult to quantify whether the right person was hired for
          the position.
     - During discussion of the proposed workload policy (attached for
     members absent), there was agreement that making the policy part
     of the Faculty Handbook is preferable to its being a university
     policy on the web.
          - It was suggested libraries be added under the Teaching
          Definition as another place teaching occurs.  It was also
          suggested the first part of the Teaching Definition read,
          "Teaching involves all of the following on-campus and
          off-campus activities;"
          - It was suggested the wording of the Research and Creative
          Work Definition be changed to make it clear that not all
          writing/editing of books and articles is research but that
          it may fall under the heading of Outreach and Service,
          depending upon the nature of the editing.
     - John Amend reported that faculty from units of the MSU system
     (with the exception of Northern) met in Lewistown to discuss
     faculty workloads.  This discussion will continue tomorrow in
     Helena.
     - Faculty were told they would receive a report about the affects
     of the faculty line reversion policy and that adjustments would
     be made to the policy, if necessary.  Ron has requested that this
     information be made available.

Report from the SPBC - Peter Kommers.
     - The committee met today to discuss its mode of operation with
     the newly-organized UPBAC.
     - Ralph Brigham, Career Services, will chair SPBC.
     - SPBC would still like to be in the loop of strategic planning,
     if not budgeting, and would like to be able to make
     recommendations on new initiatives, after cost analyses have been
     done.
     - The committee would like to see a culture of strategic
     planning, based on a long range plan, develop at MSU.
     - During discussion by Faculty Council members, it was pointed
     out that there needs to be a mechanism for getting initiatives
     from various groups, such as Faculty Council, to UPBAC for budget
     consideration.

Faculty Affairs Committee Report.
     - Proposed changes to the Faculty Council by-laws were
     distributed (attached for members absent).
          - Most of the changes are a matter of format, updating them
          to current Robert's Rules of Order recommendations.
     - Proposed amendments to Faculty Handbook Sections 472.00 (Right
     to Grieve/Time Limits) and 812.04A (Opportunity for Candidate to
     Respond to a Negative Recommendation...) were distributed
     (attached for members absent).
          - The amendment to Section 472.00 was recommended by Legal
          Counsel Leslie Taylor.  This version of the amendment has
          been approved by UGC Steering Committee.
          - The amendment to Section 812.04A is recommended by the
          Faculty Affairs Committee.
     - There will be further discussion of the proposed amendments and
     changes to the by-laws at next week's Faculty Council meeting.

As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM.


Joann Amend, Secretary              Ron Larsen, Chair