APPROVED 28-0-0
03/29/12
FS #7
UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE
February 23, 2012
3:30 p.m. HMSU Dede III
Present:
Absent:
Ex officio:
Deans:
SGA:
Guests:
S. Lamb, R. Baker, S. Buchanan, J. Buffington, J. Conant, B. El Mansour, C. Fischer,
E. Glendening, R. Guell, L. Hall, D. Hantzis, M. Haque, T. Hawkins, N. Hopkins, J. Hughes,
B. Kilp, J. Kuhlman, C. MacDonald, T. McDaniel, A. Morales, C. Olsen, T. Sawyer,
G. Stachokas, B. Yousif, K. Yousif
K. Bolinger, N. Corey, C. Fischer, R. Goldbort, R. Johnson, K. Kahanov, K. Kincade,
T. Mgutshini, L. Walton
A. Solesky (P.T. Advocate)
President D. Bradley, Provost J. Maynard
A. Comer, K. Brauchle, R. English, J. Gatrell, M. Miller, J. Murray, C. Tillery,
L. Maslanka, SGA VP
B. Coldren and A. Hay (Registration & Records); Y. Peterson (Applied Health); S Powers
(Academic Affairs); D. Quatroche (Element, Early & Special Ed); L. Spence (Information
Technology); J. West (Chem/Pys & FAC)
I.
Memorial Resolutions: None.
II.
Administrative reports
President Bradley:
a. D. McKee, (VP Business Affairs/Finance) and I were in Indianapolis. Though the 120 credit
hour degree will become a reality and the 30 credit hour transfer block for Foundational
Studies is very likely to be a reality, the remainder of legislation involving higher education will
not pass. The 120 rule does not speak to implementation. This is left up to the commission.
b. The commission has set up a college completion council. There are seven Presidents plus
membership from the private and proprietary schools. The goal is to double post-secondary
credentials awarded each year by 2025. That would imply 120,000 certificates, associate
degrees or bachelor degrees would be granted each year. The number is currently 60,000.
There are current only 80,000 high school graduates per year and that number is shrinking.
c. Dr. Guell’s Musing referred to the requirement that universities offer every required course
every semester. While that is a bad idea, it was offered by the student representative to the
commission and is unlikely to be struck.
d. The affordability taskforce steering committee will begin to meet again next week. We will be
looking at policy changes that would take board action, policy not requiring board action,
policies that will need a greater depth of study.
Provost Maynard:
During the fall semester, the academic community spent considerable time and energy
discussing student success. A large portion of that effort was focused on our grading system and
our standards for academic dismissal of first semester freshmen.
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Late in the semester (December 2011), the faculty senate approved a change in the standards for
academic dismissal of freshmen. With that approval, action was initiated to develop a plan of
action to work with students who would be impacted by the new standards.
It is clear that there was some confusion or different interpretation on the academic status of
students who were permitted to enroll for the spring semester. It is important that this question
be studied and the confusion resolved.
I am asking that Chairperson Lamb present this question to the Senate Executive Committee and
to make an appropriate recommendation for action that will be presented to the Board of
Trustees for final approval.
This review, recommendation, and action needs to take place this semester in order for a
recommendation to go to the BOT in May. Below please find the recommended policy statement
that I am recommending: RECOMMENDED POLICY STATEMENT: (I know the first part has been
approved).
Modify the Freshmen Dismissal Standards from 1.0 or less to .85 and delegating to the
academic units the authority to extend probation to students who earn a GPA of .85 or less.
III.
Chair report – S. Lamb:
My report will be very short. I am pleased to say that we did receive an additional report
from Jennifer Schriver concerning all things retention at a recent Executive Committee meeting.
Her comments were appreciated and were extensively reported in Executive Committee
minutes. R. Guell during the 15 minute discussion period will also be reading a prepared
comment concerning retention issues. He finds himself being positive about the efforts being
made (which is unusual for an economist.)
As you may know, and as the provost mentioned, standards for the remission and retention of
students is under our primary authority. As explained when a first semester freshman received a
GPA of less than .85, he/she could be readmitted under special probationary status, and if the
student did enroll., that student did not have the burden of having on his/her record a first
dismissal. The removal of the dismissal was a change in policy not vetted through the Faculty
Senate. At our next Faculty Senate meeting (March 29), we will either endorse this change or ask
under our primary authority venue that it be reversed. This concludes my report.
IV.
Support Staff report – None.
V.
SGA Report by SGA Vice President, L. Maslanka:
Thank you Chairperson Lamb. Good afternoon President Bradley, Provost Maynard, Faculty
Senate, and all others in attendance today. We are now progressing towards the end of another
great year. Even though the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter and is hibernating,
everyone continues to be making progress towards their yearend goals. Don’t let this weather
hinder you from striving to do your best. I would like to commend you for your efforts so far this
semester in helping make ISU a remarkable place to attend school. Please continue these efforts
as Indiana State persists to develop and become the better choice for students to pursue their
academic dreams.
a.
SGA continues to play an active role in students’ lives as it should. The most noticeable
thing we have been doing lately is ramping up the student section at basketball games to
help support our fellow Sycamores. Without a winning environment to perform in, our
teams might as well be playing another road game. Our last home game and the biggest
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b.
c.
VI.
game of the year is on Saturday February 25th, where our Sycamores will be playing
Creighton on the real ESPN. There is no specific theme for the game but please wear our
school colors and help promote this event as much as possible. This group of seniors
deserves a ruckus crowd in the box that rocks, also known as the Hulman Center. SGA has
set a lofty goal of trying to set a student record for attendance at this game, and with the
right attitude and advertising we strongly believe this is an achievable desire.
The senate has met twice since the previous meeting and has made big strides to shaping
a better student body. They recently passed my nominations for our Board of Elections
and have also decided on a chair. By doing this we are staying on schedule for our Spring
Election. This election is appearing to be one of the biggest elections ISU SGA has had in
many years. This is a very exciting aspect that we believe an active approach taken by this
administration has caused many more students to participate in SGA events. I am very
proud of how well both SGA units have worked together to improve student life.
We have recently finished our new organization funding process. This online process
through the ISU Treehouse should make everything operate more quickly and efficiently.
Those are just a few things that SGA is doing so far this semester. If you ever have any
suggestions on how things can be improved in student life please don’t hesitate to
contact us. We would like to thank you for your hard work so far this semester, and
please continue to make a difference in students’ lives. Whether you realize it or not, a
faculty member can make or break a student’s day. Thank you.
Special Purpose Advocate report: A. Solesky – No report.
Note: S. Lamb: I am pleased to report on the progress made concerning a couple of
salary issues that were brought to our attention by B. Kilp. The first issue relates to one
year faculty as well as two year faculty or more on rolling contracts. Two year contract
faculty were to have been receiving a minimal of $36,000. Some were not. One year
faculty were to have been receiving a minimum of $30,000. Some were not. When this
was brought to the attention of the Provost, he adjusted salaries appropriately.
Also, there were some faculty who were classified as full time faculty because they were
teaching 12 hours or more even though they were hired as adjuncts. This year they found
out they were no longer had insurance even though they were doing the same job as last
year. The Provost addressed this issue positively as well. I want to express my
appreciation .
VII.
MOTION TO APPROVE the Minutes of January 26, 2012. (C. MacDonald/N. Hopkins; vote: 25-0-0)
VIII.
15 Minute Open Discussion
a. N. Hopkins: Regarding letters from President to faculty on Promotion & Tenure are not out yet;
they should have gone out by February 13. (no reversals-missed deadline.)
President: Some did go out. If anyone is concerned, I did not reverse any the provost’s
recommendations. I apologize if the February 13 deadline slipped by me.
b. S. Lamb: I was asked to read the following by a faculty member:
I take Lipitor (brand name drug) 20 mg drug made the Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. For 90 days’
supply last December I paid around $110.00 at my local CVS. The patent for the particular drug
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expired end of December 2011 and generic brands are now available. Pfizer makers of Lipitor
wants to keep their loyal customers and are offering a co-pay card for a month’s supply for $4.00
conditional upon participating pharmacies. Last week when I went to my local CVS pharmacy, was
informed that they no longer can give brand name drugs unless I get a new prescription from my
Doctor. I showed my co-pay card to CVS from where I get my drugs on regular basis and they said
they will participate provided my Insurance companies agree. Accordingly, I called the Doctors
office and explained that I have a $4.00 co-pay card from Pfizer for Lipitor and my co pay amount
will be much less than the generic brand and they sent CVS a new prescription for LIPITOR. I called
our Staff benefits and they advised me to get in touch with Medco. I called Medco and explained
as to why I still want to stay with Lipitor and the $4.00 copay.
I was told by Medco that if I want to continue using Lipitor I have pay $ 220.00 for 90 days’ supply
(previous amount was $110.00) or I can get the generic brand for $41.00 for 90 days’ supply. If
Medco allows CVS to give Lipitor to me using the co-pay card, then my 90 days’ supply will cost
me only $12.00, whereas the generic will cost me $41.00. I have heard the $4.00 copay is
accepted at Illinois by the participating pharmacies. I am confused why I can’t avail the cost
saving if the manufacturer of Lipitor is willing to pick up the tab to keep their customers.
c. R. Guell: I rise today to offer a concrete suggestion to my colleagues about what you can do
to facilitate student success for all students, not simply those at the bottom end. N. Hopkins
has been justifiably asking where information she has with regard to attendance and
performance can be sent so that action is taken. B. Kilp has been justifiably asking for
information identifying those special probation students. I have been asking for an enrollment
identifier so that I could do my attendance and midterm grade reports more efficiently. In a
recent informal discussion on this matter with the executive committee, I made these
requests to the President and he opened the door by saying “send me the list and I will see
what we can do.” As you can imagine, that list was quickly forwarded to OIT and a response
was initiated. As a result, I have been working with L. Maule, K. Wilkinson, J. Schriver, L.
Spence and others to address these issues. Between OIT, ORR, IR, and CIRT, they are working
on the following:
(1) OIT is working with Blackboard to investigate giving faculty more information about our
students by putting that information into the Blackboard grade center. Specifically, we
hope to upload from Banner an enrollment identifier, college, department, major,
advisor, FR1 through SR2 class status, and academic standing into the grade center in
Blackboard. This will help faculty identify those students in our classes more specifically
and point them to resources that may help them. If successful, we will target this for
implementation in fall 2012.
(2) Developing a thorough use of the Early Warning System that already exists within
Blackboard by identifying high-impact faculty and working with those faculty this summer
to make that system work for their students.
(3) Evaluating tools to assist in taking attendance (“clickers” or “card swipes”), and
investigating the integration of data generated by these tools into Blackboard and/or
Banner in order to streamline attendance taking and reporting. Creating a system
whereby, with faculty consent, data can be harvested from our grade center to feed key
personnel information they need to assist students in a timely fashion. If we consent, that
information could be used by Housing to prod students on attendance. It could be used
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by Student Affairs to inquire about non-academic concerns that might be creating
academic challenges.
I am convinced now, in a way that I was not convinced until recently, that elements within the
administration are working very hard to design an integrated system around student success,
attendance, and early warning. While what I have described are initiatives that are technology
based, there are likely others being piloted and instituted of which I am unaware. That said, I
believe that these Blackboard-centric initiatives are worthy of faculty support and so it is now
incumbent upon faculty to do what we can to make this Blackboard system work by feeding it
the data on student performance. We all assess our students whether it by giving tests or
quizzes or by assigning papers, presentations, or projects. All we need to do now is record
those assessments in Blackboard’s grade center. Doing so will allow the imagined system to
work. To those who currently record their grades in the grade center, there is nothing
additional required of you at this time. To those who do not, CIRT will be offering support
throughout the summer to enable you to transition to that platform. As a final incentive on
this, ORR and OIT are investigating Blackboard capabilities available in an upcoming release
whereby final grades will be posted by faculty in Blackboard and migrated to the portal and
Banner. For many of us, that will remove a step in recording final grades.
Lisa Spence will be speaking to these efforts and others at an upcoming Senate meeting. For
now, if you are not using the Blackboard grade center system, please consider transitioning to
it for your fall 2012 undergraduate courses.
N. Hopkins: I emailed J. Schriver and L. Maule my not attending list. L. Maule tried tracking
them down. The result is that those students simply dropped. While dropping is better than
being given F’s, neither generates progress to degrees. Simply monitoring and informing is not
enough.
D. Hantzis: I am a user of Blackboard and have no issue with what Dr. Guell said on that
except that we need to acknowledge that this would increase in access to FERPA-protected
information that is ordinarily not available to those without an educational need to know.
R. Guell: As you know institutions can define the educational need to know and extend that
in any way they which to their employees. This would be an expansion of our definition.
D. Hantzis: We need to educate faculty what the data mean and what it means for their
responsibility.
A. Morales: I keep hearing about swipe cards. Are we serious about having students swipe in
to classes?
President Bradley: We are committed to making swipe card data available. You could use the
data but would not be required to. I believe that if you hold students responsible, they will be
responsible. Our vision is that in few years this and other data will be widely available and
used by Academic Peer Advocates to prod students. There are issues though. If we have the
data, there are financial aid implications.
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More importantly, we need to understand that there is a paradigm shift underway with
respect to our jobs. We have been in the business of teaching and certifying. We are now
charged with producing certifications cheaply.
L. Spence: We are tracking technological solutions tied to the L. Maule experiments. Whether
it is the PRS clickers or the card swipe, we want to make sure process solutions don’t interfere
with education.
K. Yousif: As with the DWF list, who is going to be looking at this data?
B. Yousif: What proportion of retention problem is solved by attendance?
President Bradley: I would take a 5% improvement in our retention rate.
S. Lamb: I am uncomfortable with the paradigm shift. When students are treated like
children, they behave like children.
D. Hantzis: The Communication department bought card swipes but the integration of the
data is a challenge.
B. Kilp: Music also uses card swipes for events. Does the Student Government Association
(SGA) have a role in prodding attendance?
L. Maslanka, SGA rep: This has never been brought to us; I agree with you.
N. Hopkins: Students will consider card swipes punitive. We should reward students for
success such as giving them tuition breaks based on GPA.
President Bradley: It will be up to individual faculty to establish policies. Housing and Student
Affairs can use the data prod students. It should not be punitive. I will follow-up on the SGA
point. I would say that the African-American Cultural Center students have an effort on this
topic.
C. Olsen: SGA could better and more convincingly that going to class makes it hard to fail. My
own data shows that attendance and turning in all significant assignments explains 90% of
variance in grades.
President Bradley: We are now held accountable or making them successful. If we don’t
grow, or if we do not succeed in this area, our budgets will shrink.
B. El Mansour: We all have individual responsibility to work together to find an institutional
answer.
N. Hopkins: I would like a report from D. Wright and L. Maule about those students who had
a GPA below .85 from their midterm grades.
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R. Guell: One thing that the PRS clickers can do that card swipes cannot is that they can be
integrated into the learning process. They PRS questions can test understanding and not just
attendance.
IX.
Curricular Items:
MOTION TO:
1) Eliminate Geography Program for Teacher Licensure (B. Kilp, C. MacDonald; Vote: 25-0-0.)
2) Eliminate Master of Arts Special Education (B. Kilp, C. MacDonald; Vote: 25-0-0.)
3) Eliminate MS in Family and Consumer Science for Teacher Licensure and Eliminate MA-MA in
Health and Safety for teacher Education (Y. Peterson R. Guell, S. Lamb; Vote: 25-0-0.)
X.
Course Scheduling FAC Item,
MOTION TO APPROVE: (N. Hopkins, J. Kuhlman Vote: 24-1-0.)
The Faculty Affairs Committee finds that the University Handbook places scheduling authority in
the hands of the department chairs and their departments. This authority is subject to university
policies and procedures. However, it is not subject to memoranda, guidelines, or any other
administrative documents which have not been approved by formal university-wide policymaking bodies. We further recommend a faculty-led multilateral review of section 350.2.6 of
University Handbook with the aim of suggesting revisions which will clarify the role of faculty
governance in making University policies and procedures on course scheduling.
J. West: This is in response to the scheduling memo from the summer.
R. Guell: I voted against this at Executive Committee because the sentence from “However” to
“bodies” is needlessly snotty.
T. Hawkins: It needs to be stated.
S. Lamb: It is clear the administration is backing away from that memo.
D. Hantzis: FAC did not intend to be snotty. It was intended to be responsive to the charge. We
also note that the recent scheduling memo did not release chairs from the responsibility in the
memo to clear their schedules with the Registrar.
J. Conant: I am comfortable being snotty. The process was not right. The mandates in the memo
were contrary to good scheduling. Chairs know things that others do not.
C. Olsen: I want to endorse what Dr. Conant just said. Chairs have a complex understanding of
scheduling.
Meeting adjourned: 4:35 p.m.
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