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