2004 – 2005 Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

Colorado State University - Pueblo

August 30, 2004

The regular meeting of the Faculty Senate was held on Monday, August 30, 2004 at 3:00 p.m. in the Ethel Arthur Conference Room – Library 106.

Members Present: Eleni Adrian, Ahmad Ahmadian, Janet Barnett, Ian Brennan, Sandra Bonetti, Collette Carter, Jude DePalma, Carol Foust, Neb Jaksic , Carol Loats, Tim McGettigan, Janet Nichols, John Ryan, Wolfgang Sauer, Paul Sefcovic, Bea Spade, Dan Sullivan, Ted Taylor, Michael Wakefield

Members Absent:  David Keplinger,  Marilyn Lucero, Moussa Diawara, Karen Yescavage

Guest Present:  Renee Drabier, Russ Meyer

Ex-Officio Member:  Barbara Montgomery

Parliamentarian: Keith Sinkhorn

I.                     CALL TO ORDER

President of Faculty Senate Dr. Carol Foust called the meeting to order at 3:05 pm.

II.            APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA      

Without objection the 8-30-04 agenda was approved.

III.           APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Minutes for the 2003 – 2004 and 2004 – 2005 4/19/04 Faculty Senate meetings were approved without changes.

IV.                 INFORMATION, DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS

A.                  Faculty Senate President – Dr. Carol Foust

Dr. Foust’s report discussed the following topics:

·         Welcome to the Senate and guests.

·         Reminder to review the Action Agenda and make comments for any changes.

·         The Faculty Senate website has been updated with new roster, action agenda, and 03/04  Senate Report of Activities.

B.                   CSU-Pueblo President – Dr. Ronald Applbaum

Dr. Applbaum’s report discussed the following topics:

·         Current Budgetary Predictions. At the CSU system staff meeting last Friday predictions were that there will be

         a deficit somewhere between $150 and $200 million.  Some of the deficit may impact higher education.

·         CSU-Pueblo Enterprise Status. The CSU system as a whole will go forward with obtaining the enterprise status,

        following CU, which achieved the enterprise status this year. Such a status will give us more control over the

        tuition structure and bond issues.

·         Capital Construction Funds and Tuition Restructure. Next week we will make a presentation to the BOG for the 04-05

        year. If our proposal passes we will present it to CCHE. We are trying to prepare as much as we can for the College

       Opportunity Fund (vouchers) for the next year.

·         New Funds. There are two earmarks at the state level. Sen. Campbell is sponsoring the Western Forensic Institute with

        $3 mil. and  Representative McGinnis is sponsoring the Nursing project with $500,000. Funding chances are much more

        likely if the requests are approved before the end of the year since the sponsoring legislators leave office at the end of the

       year.

·         Enrollments.   Fall 2004 enrollments are currently up approximately 3%.  Hopefully the increase will hold through census.

·         New Positions. Director of HR and Director of Campus Diversity position are in the interviewing stage. Executive Director

       of Foundation is a position that will be filled by an experienced fund raiser.

C.                   CSU-Pueblo Provost – Dr. Barbara Montgomery

Dr. Montgomery’s report discussed the following topics:

·         Open Meetings. Two open meetings with faculty will be scheduled to talk about recently e-mailed draft document on

        enrollment management.   A web-page will also be available for faculty to make comments or suggestions.

·         Library Task Force- The task force submitted their report last April.  Dr. Montgomery, Dr. Drabier, and Rhonda Gonzales

        will talk to faculty about their concerns and ideas.

D.                  COC – Dr. Janet Barnett

·         2003-2004 Administrative Evaluations Report. Dr. Barnett presented the report to the Faculty Senate. Any faculty with a

        desire to examine the report will be able to do so by contacting one of the senators.

·         Report on Election of Grievance Mediation Board Faculty –at-Large representative.  Dr. Jay Brown was elected to this

        position with a term ending in September 2006.

·         Confirmation of Dean Appointments to University Boards. There were five boards to be confirmed. Dr. Barnett made the

        motion (Dr. Jaksic seconded) to confirm all the names identified. The motion carried.

·         Elections of CAPB, APSB, FCC and Gen Ed Senate Representatives.

o        CAPB: There were two nominees, Dr. Ted Taylor and Janet Nichols. Janet Nichols was elected to the position

        of Senate Representative for CAPB.

o        APSB. Paul Sefcovic was elected to the position of Senate Representative for APSB.

o        FCC. Nominations were needed for one or two senate representatives: one to serve as an FCC representative

       to the Senate Executive Committee and another to serve as an FCC representative on the Budget Board; or a

       senator that would be willing to serve on FCC, the budget board and senate executive committee. There were no

       nominations. Dr. Foust made the motion (Dr. Taylor seconded) to ask absent senators to volunteer

       (response required within a week), and then if there are no volunteers, to open the position for budget board to

      faculty-at-large.

o        Gen Ed Board. Dr. Foust nominated Dr. Sauer. He was elected by acclamation to the position of Senate

        Representative for General Education Board.

E.                   CAPB – Janet Nichols

·         There was no report.

F.                   APSB  - Paul Sefcovic

Mr. Sefcovic’s report discussed the following topic:

§         Chair of the Committee.  The committee will meet this Friday to select the Chair.

G.                   Faculty Compensation Committee.

·         There was no report.

H.                  Faculty Handbook Committee.

·         There was no report.

I.                     Gen Ed Board.

·         There was no report.

J.                    Information Technology Board.

Dr. Jaksic’s report discussed the following topics:

·         Current IT Status. The Board requested and received a report from Dr. Drabier on current status of our IT assets. A

        congressional appropriation of $900,000 allowed the University to accommodate all of the full-time faculty requests for

        new computers. This was viewed by the Board as a significant morale enhancement in a year without raises.  Our current

        campus network architecture has been assessed as appropriate and with enough bandwidth for future expansions. The

        bandwidth for outside world (3 T1 lines at 4.5 Mbps total) may need to be increased in the near future.

·         Current Activities. During the Summer of 2004, an upgrade to Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2003 was

        accomplished.  Laying cables within buildings (to 100 Mbps cable capacity) is on schedule.

·         Future Activities. Sixteen high-tech classrooms will be added this year.

K.                  Board of Governors Rep – Dr. Roy Sonnema

Dr. R. Sonnema’s report based on three BOG meetings (5/5/04, 6/22/04, and 8/24/04) contained the following topics:

·         Early Separation Policy for CSU-Pueblo was enacted. Two faculty members and ten staff members separated from the

        University using this policy.

·         New System Real Estate Office. A new real estate office in Denver was approved to handle legal and municipal issues

        regarding real property.

·         Salary Increase. A salary increase of 2% base and 1.5% non-base was approved for 2004-2005 year.

·         Exercise Science Building. On August 24^th meeting  in Pueblo, BOG reviewed plans for Exercise Science Building

        renovations. The cost of needed upgrades climbed up to about $10 mil.

·         Budget Issues. BOG will have a retreat to address the current budget and budget trends.

·         Faculty Satisfaction Survey. BOG acknowledged our efforts and reminded us to check with our HR office for possible

        discriminatory questions.

L.                   CFAC – Dr. Jude DePalma

·         CFAC will meet on September 10^th.

V.                  UNFINISHED BUSINESS

·         none

VI.                NEW BUSINESS

·         Report on the First Year Experience Committee. Dr. DePalma reported on current discussions within this committee.

       The goals are to increase retention and graduation rates. Focus groups were held with students last year to assess

       needs. Several ideas are being considered for implementation.  The committee would like to create learning communities

       by scheduling all first year students for English and Mathematics together in the same time block.  Other possibilities

       are to hire upper class students to act as peer mentors, to have a freshman orientation week, and to increase faculty/staff

      development. To obtain support of faculty, training in advising and other retention strategies may be initiated. Dr. Bonetti

      suggested to limit the class sizes for freshmen. A part of the plan is to apply for a Title V grant (the first draft is expected at

      the end of this fall) to expand ITC role in curriculum and faculty development. Dr. Sauer suggested that we should use our

      students as a resource in helping each other.

·         Call for an Ad Hoc Committee to Clarify Language Concerning APR, Tenure and Promotion.  After a call for nomination,

        only one person volunteered.  Dr. Foust made the motion (Dr. Taylor seconded) to call for volunteers one more time (allow

        one week for responses) and fill the rest of the committee with members appointed by the deans of individual units. The

        motion was carried. A brief discussion about including a dean to help with the questions of this committee followed.

·         Advising Status Report. A discussion of the status report took place.  Dr. Montgomery reported that there is a need for

        faculty feedback to the Advising Council. There is a file in the advising folder on I: drive that needs to be updated.

        Advising efforts are hampered by some units not allowing release time for lead advisors. Some procedural changes are

        implemented in advising students with their Graduation Planning Sheets. The sheets should go through advisors and

        chairs. Individual students will not receive help directly from Records staff. If an advisor has a question, the question

        should be addressed by the lead advisor and/or Chair of the department, first.  Carol Foust had a meeting with Joe Marshall,

        our new Director of Admissions.  EXHPR will be a trial department to begin changing majors in the departmental office with

        a follow up with paperwork to records.  Also, administrative assistants and chairs can be trained to complete queries to AIS

        regarding students in their programs.  Requests for the training should be made through Jennifer Cornelison.

·         Salary Study and New Peers. Dr. Montgomery submitted two reports, “Brief Status Report: Faculty Salaries – Market Study”

        and “Identification of New Set of Peer Institutions for  Colorado State University – Pueblo.” The market study will address all:

        compression and gender/ethnic problems (if any). From 35 promising institutions, a committee identified 17 peers based on

        consideration of numerous factors of importance. These new peers will be used to run regression analysis to determine how

        we compare to the peers.   An analysis using the old peers will also be completed to provide a shadow comparison.  Variables

        such as discipline, rank, years in rank and cost of living will be considered. Dr. Foust suggested that it would be prudent to

        bring the graduate student working on this project on campus to meet with the  FCC.

·         At 5:00 P. Sevcovic made a motion to extend the meeting for 5 minutes.  Barnett seconded the motion, and the motion carried.

·          Work Environment Survey. A pamphlet about faculty surveys from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA

         was distributed.  Senators were asked to review the document and make comments or suggestions regarding the survey. 

         CSU-Pueblo will be allowed to add unique questions to the survey.  Senate will be involved in developing the additional

         questions.  The data will be collected in October.

VII.              ADJOURNMENT

Without objection, the meeting was adjourned at 5:07 p.m.  

Respectfully submitted,

Dr. Nebojsa Jaksic