FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
March 29, 2010
The Pittsburg State University Faculty Senate met 3:00 p.m. Monday, March 29, 2010,
in room 102 Yates Hall with President Dr. Ananda Jayawardhana presiding.
Past Minutes
The minutes of February 22, 2010 were approved.
Announcements
Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs – Dr. Lynette Olson
In Dr. Olson’s absence, Dr. Bill Ivy introduced Dr. Brenda Frieden, Director of the
Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. Dr. Frieden spoke of recent renovation of the
Center at 332 Hartman and encouraged anyone to visit at any time. The Center has a fully
mediated classroom which seats up to 40 as well as a conference room with a capacity of 8
equipped with IDL and ideal for candidate searches. The rooms can be scheduled through
Oracle or by calling her office. Dr. Frieden also shared that the Center has a regularly
meeting advisory board and a strategic plan. Her office also facilitates New Faculty
Orientation and has a small operating budget that could assist in paying for outside guest
speakers of interest. She and her staff have taken on many new initiatives including the
streaming webcast of Fall 2009’s commencement. She encourages input and asked those
present to consider presenting there own areas of expertise through the Center for Teaching,
Learning, and Technology.
Dr. Ivy next introduced Brian Peery, PSU’s Grant Coordinator. Mr. Peery
demonstrated the website that is accessible through the Continuing and Graduate Studies
website with the URL http://www.pittstate.edu/office/grants/. This website provides the URLs
and links to Grant.gov and other important local and state statistics often needed when
completing a grant. Mr. Peery also demonstrated how to sign up for grant email notifications
based on keywords. His services are available to assist with formulating grant budgets,
electronic submission of grants, and as a trained evaluator reviewing any portion of a grant
prior to submission. Mr. Peery would also like to be made aware of grants being solicited to
coordinate efforts and thus avoid competing with each other across campus. He also keeps a
data base of faculty interests and referrals of grant opportunities when reviewing RFPs.
Faculty is encouraged to contact him with any questions pertaining to grant opportunities,
research needed, and grants awarded. He also spoke of the importance of returning a recent
survey to gauge interests.
PSU/KNEA – Dr. Mark Johnson
KNEA held elections and annual meeting. The KNEA website is up-to-date and
provides the list of new officers at http://www.pittstate.edu/audiences/facultystaff/knea/officers.dot Two surveys will be sent to faculty in the near future, one from Dr.
Jayawardhana on behalf of Faculty Senate seeking input on morale and satisfaction and the
other from KNEA on issues to be addressed at the bargaining table.
Dr. Harry Humphries asked if there had been any grievances presented. Dr. Johnson
responded there was one in process. Dr. Johnson continued to encourage faculty with
questions or concerns to call him. Recently he had calls regarding the recently advertised
Associate Vice President position and he learned that it was not a new position only a change
in title with no change in salary. Dr. Johnson stressed Dr. Scott wishes to be transparent and
if there are questions going unaddressed, he would appreciate an opportunity to respond.
STUDENT SENATE – not present
CLASSIFIED SENATE – Mr. Josh Tucker – not present
FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT – Dr. Ananda Jayawardhana
Dr. Jayawardhana spoke to the proposed 5-7% tuition increase for next year and
reminded the group of the need for faculty to be appreciated and compensated for continued
increase in workload.
Dr. Humphries indicated his concern in how PSU was preparing for what he had heard
could be an increase of 400+ in enrollment. Dr. Ivy indicated his expectation would be an
increase of no more than 100-200 new students.
Dr. Johnson reminded the group that there would be a release of first quarter revenue
expected in early April that would assist in making any further tuition increase decisions.
Dr. Humphries recommended that in regard to performance appraisals faculty with
exceptional performance reviews should be recognized in some fashion, possibly in some Ad
Hoc way.
Committee Reports
Dr. Jayawardhana reviewed subcommittee reports as noted in the agenda. He
recognized a change in subcommittee titles needing correction from the agenda to align with
appropriate report. Honors College should be noted as ‘d’ under Committee Reports and
Student Honors Subcommittee header reflects the report listed under ‘e’.
Honors College Subcommittee – reported admitting 36 students to the program for Fall
2010. The 36 are reflected in 12 Presidential awards, 12 University awards, and 12 students
who were invited to participate and receive a $1,000 academic achievement scholarship for
two years.
Learning Resources Subcommittee – reported working on a draft for proposed
changes to Faculty Senate constitution. Committee plans to have available for review before
year end.
Writing Across the Curriculum – Dr. Don Judd
Dr. Judd reported on adding a critical thinking component to ENGL 101 and 299 as
well as the WL courses. He asked that WL faculty attend a critical thinking workshop to be retooled and re-certified to teach WL courses. Those workshops were outlined in a recent
MrBulke and will be held in April, May and August.
Diversity and Multicultural Affairs
Committee in the process of collecting information on materials used in the classroom
and have had several reply to the first call for a response.
Undergraduate Curriculum Subcommittee – Dr. Bruce Warner
Dr. Warner advised the new course UGS 102 Athlete Transitions was created for
incoming student athletes who will also be integrated within regular sections of Freshman
Experience or Transitions. This new 1-credit hour course will provide information athletes
need and will count as elective credit. Dr. Warner moved to approve. Motion passed.
General Education Committee – Dr. Mark Johnson
Dr. Johnson noted a meeting was set for April 14th and that the committee is currently
collecting information and had nothing new to report until the committee meets.
Faculty Affairs Committee
Committee will have a report for the next meeting and continues to encourage faculty
to apply for available funds.
Unfinished Business
Dr. Ivy was asked to speak on how PSU could develop a national scholarship review
similar to what was presented on our campus on February 17th by Dr. Robert Graalman,
Director Scholarship Development and Recognition at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Ivy
recommended that PSU identify 6-8 national scholarships that align with PSU and our
students and seek out the students that would be our best applicants. He also encouraged
that a group be created consisting of 6-8 faculty members to help coordinate the endeavor.
Next the group would need to determine a strategy to identify students from both the freshman
and sophomore classes, possibly create a class to improve student knowledge on current
events and how to prepare for the scholarship application process. We would also need a
process in place to identify competitors and recipients of these scholarships to include in our
recruitment materials. Dr. Ivy added that there is value for the students to apply and go
through the process. He would like to be made aware of any recent awards in order to add to
a website to encourage future applicants.
New Business
Dr. Johnson reported based on the FS officers meeting in Topeka with 12 legislators
on March 18th that at least through September 2010 higher education will be held harmless
due to taking federal stimulus funds because our funding is already at and cannot be dropped
below FY 2006. Unfortunately, that means K-12 will take the brunt of any revenue shortfall.
Dr. Johnson also spoke of the discussion on the possible addition of a sin tax (tax on
sugar, alcohol, etc) that could do harm to other revenue. The group reported to the legislators
on the number of unfilled positions, fewer courses, increase in enrollment and stressed the
point “don’t go near higher ed” when considering future cuts.
Dr. Jayawardhana announced that he had postcards available to anyone who care to
stay after the meeting. He asked that those present consider sending a postcard or email to a
legislator.
Open Forum
Announcements were made pertaining to the visit of Bill Thornton, Secretary of
Commerce on April 8th as well as events in Music, Biology, and Engineering Technology
departments. A diversity roundtable discussion hosted by Student Government and the
Research Colloquium April 20-22 was also announced.
Meeting Adjourned
Motion to adjourn approved at 4:12 p.m.
Senate Members Present
See attached list.
Faculty Senate Home Page address: http://www.pittstate.edu/facsen/
_______________________________________
Debbie Greve, Recording Secretary
FACULTY SENATE MEMBERSHIP
(2009-2010)
May
09
X
X
X
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
March
April
May
X
X
X
X
X
Adams, (Automotive Technology)
X
X
X
Arruda (At-Large)
X
X
Bailey (At-Large) Sabbatical fall 2009
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Book, (At-Large) replacing Degrave fall 09**
X
X
X
X
X
Brannock (At-Large)
X
X
X
X
Childs, (Mathematics)
X
X
X
X
X
Chung, (Biology)
X
X
X
X
Coltharp, (At-Large) Sabbatical spring 2010
X
Cummings (At-Large) Sabbatical fall 09
X
X
X
X
Dalecki, (Management & Marketing)
X
X
X
X
X
Deats(Music)
X
X
X
X
Degrave (At-Large) Sabbatical fall 09
X
X
X
Drew, (Women’s Studies) Sabbatical sp 2010
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Fischer, (Economics, Finance & Banking)
Fogliasso (At-Large)
X
X
X
X
Giefer,(At-Large),replacing Cummings fall 09
X
X
X
X
Harris, (Computer Sci-Information Syst)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Herring, (Engineering Technology)
X
X
X
X
X
Honey, (Construction Technology)
X
X
X
X
X
X
Hudson, (Communication)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Humphries, (Social Sciences)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Jayawardhana, President, (Mathematics)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Johnson, Mark, Past President, (Tech Mgmt)
X
X
X
X
X
X
Judd (At-Large)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Kehle (At-Large)
X
X
X
Klenke (Tech. and Workforce Learning)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Konopelko, (Physics)
X
X
X
X
X
X***
Kucharski, (Art)
X
X
X
X
X
Leiker, (Health, Phys Ed & Recreation)
X
X
X
X
Liebbrand, (Mil Sci) replaced by Shay 10/SP
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
McClaskey, (Nursing)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
McCune, (Axe Library)
O’Bryan (At-Large)
X
X
X
Oldham, (GIT) replaced by Younger sp 2010
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Patrick, (Modern Languages & Literatures)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Polfer, (Accounting)
X
X
X
X
X
X
Rudd, (English)
X*
X*
X*
X*
X*
X*
Shaw, (History)
X
X
X
Shay, (Mil Sci) replacing Liebbrand 10/SP
X
X
X
X
Siam, (At-Large), replacing Viney fall 09
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Spera, (Psychology and Counseling)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Spillman, (Curriculum & Instruction)
X
X
X
Stidham, (Spec. Serv & Lead. Studies)
X
X
X
Stolz, (Women Studies) replacing Drew sp10
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Tankersley, (Family & Consumer Sci)
X
X
X
X
Viney, (At-Large) Sabbatical fall 09
X
X
Younger, (GIT) replacing Oldham spring 10
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Zagorski, (At-Large)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Zegar, (Chemistry)
X
X
X
X
X
Classified Senate Representative
X
X
X
X
Student Government Representative
*Kris Lawson substituted for Judith Shaw at the Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan & Feb meeting. **Rebecca Book will replace Hazel Coltharp
SP/10. Susan Johns Smith, Axe Library attended the Sept & Oct meeting. Robert Walter, Axe Library attended the Nov meeting.
Janice Jewett is replacing Hazel Coltharp in the F.S. Executive Committee SP/10. ***Rhond Shand attended the March meeting.