MSU FACULTY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES November 20, 2002 Members Present: Gipp, Sherwood for Giroux, Engel, White, Kommers, Schlotzhauer, Metz for Linker, Leech, Taylor, Stewart, Jones, Yoo, Nehrir, Conant, McMahon, Sunner for Amend, Levy, Bogar, Jelinski, Idzerda, Fisher, Lynes-Hayes, Prawdzienski, Kempcke, Knight. Members Absent: Young, Morrill, Anderson, Howard, Chem Engr, Lefcort, Locke, Engl, Bond, Pratt, Lynch, Hoffman. Others Present: Bandyopadhyay, Fedock. The regular meeting was called to order at 4:10 PM by Chair Elect Warren Jones. A quorum was present. The minutes of the November 6, 2002, Faculty Council meeting were approved as distributed. Chair's report - Warren Jones. - It was announced at the November 13 University Governance Council meeting that the Provost and Faculty Council Chair agreed to add a Faculty Council member to the Strategic Planning Committee. - Following brief discussion, Sandy Levy, Department of History and Philosophy, was nominated for the position. A show of hands approved the nomination, which will be forwarded to Provost Dooley. - The position will be filled until June, 2003. During Spring Semester, a Faculty Council member will be nominated to fill the position for a full term. - UPBAC will be meeting every week for two hours. - Part of the budgeting process will be to use Key Performance Indicators of academic departments. This process will be discussed in greater depth by Faculty Council when Executive Director of Planning and Analysis meets with Faculty Council December 4. An effort is underway to develop KPI's for non-academic units, also. - Because KPI's indicate efficiency, not quality, other measures will also be used. Measures suggested by UPBAC to use in assessing the priority of a department include program demand; state, regional, and national need; uniqueness in the state or region; G&C activity; contribution to general education; scholarly work; outreach and service; growth policy; and strength or reputation. - During discussion by Faculty Council members, the following points were made. - Student success is as important as demand for the program. - Requirements of one program impact another. - Other measures to be considered include accreditation results, licensing, job placement rate, graduation rate and retention rate of freshmen. - The number of graduate students is included in the KPI's. However, it is unclear how the quality of graduate education will be assessed in the matrix. -"Graduation rate" may not necessarily indicate "program success". - According to Vice Provost Fedock, the ultimate goal of the process is to give UPBAC a way to prioritize for budget setting. - It was pointed out that this process takes into consideration the academic part of the budget only, and the entire university budget needs to be prioritized. UPBAC is responsible for making informed decisions about all parts of the university. Faculty Affairs Committee report - Walter Metz. - The proposed amendment to Faculty Handbook Section 620.00 (Role, Scope, Criteria, Standards, and Procedures Documents) is an addition which reads, "A candidate for tenure will be subject to the department's Role, Scope, Criteria, Standards, and Procedures document in effect at the date of hire. In the event of a change in the department's Role, Scope, Criteria, Standards, and Procedures document, the candidate for tenure will be given a choice of being evaluated using the document in effect at the date of hire or any approved departmental document up to and including the document in effect at the time the tenure dossier is submitted. In any event, the candidate will place the appropriate document at the front of the tenure dossier." - John Sherwood moved the amendment be approved and sent to the STAFF BULLETIN to notify faculty of the proposed addition. The motion was seconded and carried. - The post-tenure review policy will be discussed at the December 4 Faculty Council meeting. - It is anticipated the addition to Faculty Handbook Section 1312.00 (Conciliation and Grievance Deadlines) will be approved at the December 4 Faculty Council meeting. The proposal will then be forwarded to the administration. Report from the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) - Bruce Morton, Chair. - This is a strategic planning committee, charged with planning for the long term, not for the immediate future. It is a subcommittee of UPBAC. - The Provost, as Chair of UPBAC, charged SPC with preparing two documents, a statement of capacity for growth and an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The first iteration of the documents was to be completed in time for UPBAC to use them in their deliberations this semester. To prepare the two documents, the committee used various sources of information recommended by the Provost and other available sources the committee felt were relevant. - Individuals invited to SPC for discussion before the documents were prepared include Ronda Russell and Diane Donnelly (student demographics, recruitment and retention), Bob Lashaway (facilities), Chuck Nelson (classrooms, other Registrar's issues), Tom Stump (auxiliaries), Mark Sheehan (ITC), Bruce Morton (Libraries), Dave Bryant (Extension, outreach), Joe Fedock (growth, summer school), David Dooley (academics), and President Gamble (MSU and MSU "family" issues). In addition, Kathy Attebury and Ben Sharp (institutional research) attended meetings to provide data and other information as requested. Jim Rimpau, Director of Planning and Analysis, began attending meetings after he arrived on campus. The committee has had to rely on individuals familiar with each area for data and interpretation. - It was asked if non-academic areas of the institution are receiving the same scrutiny that academics is receiving. Chair Morton responded that he believes both SPC and UPBAC are looking at all areas of MSU. - Some of Morton's observations: - Everyone needs to be aware that MSU will probably not continue to be the same institution that it is now. This change can come about through inertia or through strategic planning. - It is assumed the state will continue to be less financially supportive. - Anticipated changes are not necessarily bad. MSU can be strengthened if there is a process in place to make fully informed decisions. This doesn't necessarily mean unanimity regarding the decisions. - MSU will be marketed, but how is another issue. It can either just happen or it can be strategically planned. - At the first UPBAC meeting in September, 2001, a vision statement was adopted stating that MSU aspires to be the institution of choice in the Northern Rockies. How is MSU different from other institutions and how shall it be marketed? - In response to a question, Morton stated that the SPC documents are consistent with the Morrill Act. - Regarding recruitment of additional highly qualified students, Morton said that SPC recommended a more selective admission policy, a controversial recommendation in UPBAC. - SPC minutes, agendas, and documents are posted on the web at As there was no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM. Joann Amend, Secretary Warren Jones, Chair Elect