The
Regular session – March 9, 2009 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail: facsen@ou.edu web site:
http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Cecelia Brown, Chair.
PRESENT: Ahmed,
Apanasov, Asojo, Atiquzzaman, Basic, Bass, D. Bemben, M. Bemben, Blank,
Bradshaw, Brown, Brule, Buckley, Clark, Conlon, Forman, Franklin, Grasse, Greene,
Hahn, Horn, Kent, Livesey, McDonald, Miller, Milton, Morrissey, Moses, Muraleetharan,
Riggs, Rogers, Russell, Sadler, Schmidt, Strauss, Striz, Tan, Trafalis, Vehik, Verma,
Vitt, Wyckoff, Yi
ISA representatives:
Bondy, Cook
ABSENT: Eodice,
Graham, Hawthorne, Kershen, Lifschitz, Rambo, Reeder, Weaver
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Faculty Tribute
Ed Cline faculty development award recipients
Committee nominations
Campus recycling efforts
Library task force report
Web-based course evaluation system
Bicycle resolution
Final Exam Preparation Period/Pre-finals week
Senate Chair's Report:
Student Information System – OZone
Campus Campaign
________________________________________________________________________________
The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of February 9, 2009 was approved.
The Faculty Tribute will be
held on Thursday, April 23, at 4:00 p.m. in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Fred
Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
The Faculty Senate is pleased
to present the Ed Cline faculty development awards for 2008-09 to Mohammad
Alhawary (Modern Languages, Literatures & Linguistics/International
& Area Studies), Hester Baer (Modern
Languages, Literatures & Linguistics),
Teresa Bell (Modern Languages, Literatures & Linguistics), Johanna Cox (Music), Marcia Haag (Modern Languages, Literatures & Linguistics), Chad Kerksick (Health & Exercise Science), Ryan Long (Modern Languages, Literatures
& Linguistics), Namkee Park (Journalism
& Mass Communication), Jonathan Ruck (Music), and Laurel Smith (Geography/Honors).
The call for volunteers for
councils, committees and boards was sent to faculty, chairs/directors and deans
on February 9. Nominations are due to
the Faculty Senate office by March 11.
Prof. Brown asked the senators to consider serving on the Faculty
Appeals Board.
Mr. Bill Henwood, Physical
Plant director, discussed the campus recycling efforts. He introduced Sue-Anna Miller, assistant director
of the Physical Plant, who oversees recycling, and Greg Brezinski, who manages
refuse and recycling for the Norman campus.
Recycling began on the Norman campus in 1990. In 1998, it was expanded by including the
University housing area and by adding some other recyclable products. For the 12 months ending February 2008, we took
8.6 million pounds of refuse to the landfall.
For the 12 months ending February 2009, we took 7.7 million pounds to
the landfill, a reduction of 10 percent from last year to this year. For the last 12 months, we recycled 1.6 tons
of paper, plastic and aluminum, an increase of more than 28 percent over the
previous year. The products that are recyclable
are aluminum, #1 and #2 plastic, white paper, mixed paper, cardboard,
newspaper, toner cartridges, rechargeable batteries, pallets, phone books and
tires. Phone books are recycled only once
a year because of the avenues for recycling the books. Fleet services recycles Freon and motor oil, and
landscape debris is hauled to the city’s compost facility.
Recycling containers for
paper, plastic and aluminum are located near the main entrances of academic
buildings. Desk-side containers are
available in three different sizes and can be delivered. For paper that is sensitive in nature, units
can request lockable bins, and Recycling can send the documents through its new
industrial-size paper shredder.
Recycling provides larger bins in high traffic areas and for oversized
materials. Information about the
containers is at physicalplant.ou.edu. Not
only is sensitive paper shredded; any paper deposited to a recycle container is
sorted and shredded before leaving campus.
The program is funded from the sale of recyclable materials. For fiscal year 2008, recyclables sold for
approximately $122,000, and landfill tipping fees were reduced by $27,000. With the economic decline recently, we have
held some recyclables until the prices go back up. For more information, individuals may contact
Mr. Brezinski at 325-8068, Ms. Miller at 325-6445, and Mr. Henwood at 325-6211. Mr. Henwood reminded the group that RecycleMania
was going on. It is a national
competition and OU’s first year to participate.
We are in the benchmarking division, not actually competing, but as of
the first week of March, we were in the top 25 percent of all participants and
top in the Big 12.
Prof. Miller asked whether
paper towels were recycled. Mr. Henwood said
paper towels are trash that goes into the landfill, but a large proportion of the
towels and toilet tissue are made of recycled material. Ms. Miller added that the fiber in a recycled
towel is already broken down to such a point that it cannot be further recycled. Mr. Brezinksi noted that no one will take
it. Mr. Henwood said we would buy 100
percent recycled towels except the custodial division does not have the budget
to do that. He said he would further
investigate whether the towels could be recycled. Prof. Strauss suggested that better
information should be given out on when phone books could be recycled and where
they should be taken. He asked if there
was a way to recycle old textbooks that publishers had provided to professors. Mr. Henwood said he would see if Recycling
could collect the used books. He
explained that the Refuse and Recyling office only had six people to handle everything. Prof. Greene said it would be useful to put additional
recycling bins in the larger classrooms.
Mr. Henwood said they should be able to do that. Prof. Moses pointed out that bathroom towels could
be replaced with electric dryers or alcohol wipes. Mr. Henwood said the Physical Plant had
recently installed new pull-down towel dispensers. Dryers have a significant energy cost, so
there is a trade off. Pull-downs use no
electricity or batteries and use less paper.
Prof. Moses said high speed hand dryers are supposed to use less energy
than anything else and could be installed in new construction. Mr. Henwood thanked the group for its input
and promised to provide feedback to Prof. Brown.
Prof. LeRoy Blank, chair of
the library task force, said the task force was charged with looking at where the
library was, where it is now, and where it ought to go in the future. The task force worked on this assignment for over
two years. The original charge was to
look at a time frame of approximately five years. It turned out to be more convenient to look
at a decade, specifically 1996-97 through 2006-07 because of the ARL (Association
of Research Libraries) statistics that were available. The report is available at http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/LTF_Final.pdf.
The library was viewed 10
years ago as a location that housed fundamental sources of knowledge. Many of the people who now utilize the
library do not even visit; they do everything online. Over the last decade, there was strong growth
in library holdings and in materials expenditures. We have moved up substantially in the ARL
ranking. Progress was achieved because
of the commitment of Provost Mergler and President Boren. The President made a $1 million a year commitment
for ten years. As a result, our ranking
is up considerably compared to the other 10 reporting institutions in the Big
12. We originally wanted to meet or
exceed the ranking of
The task force recommended
the following for the next decade (2009-19):
1) Continue President Boren’s program of supplementing the libraries
budget $1 million per year above costs.
While the current economic conditions may preclude the full supplement
in the next year or two, the task force expects a lot of progress in the next
decade. 2) Pursue endowment and one-time
funds for a variety of projects. 3) Move
some books and monographs that are not heavily used to off-site locations and
utilize the vacated space for learning centers.
4) Establish approximately 25 new library positions in the next decade. 5) Pursue digitization projects. The Western History, Bass, and History of
Science collections are spectacular and need to be shared online. 6) Engage users in initiatives. Faculty could help solve some of the library
problems, for example, the increasing cost of materials. Faculty members seem to be willing to pay any
price for the materials they need for research.
Professors should accept a minimal amount of money for editorships, stay
away from publishing companies who are trying to make a profit off of them, try
to publish online in journals that are inexpensive, and respect those journals when
making personnel decisions. Prof. Blank
thanked the committee members for their efforts and input. He said it is important for everyone to make
a major commitment to help the libraries maintain or increase their
status.
Prof. Vitt noted that faculty
members often are after impact factors when choosing journals. He suggested that faculty members who publish
in commercially-owned journals should add a statement to the copyright form to
say they reserve the right to make the graphics available at no cost. Prof. Milton commented that some journals are
open access but the authors have to pay a substantial amount to make that
happen. There are lots of different
models. The faculty has to be aware of
the impact factors. Some prestigious
journals are run by publishers who may not behave at the highest ethical
levels. Prof. Livesey asked whether
national competitive salary levels are considered when someone is hired in the
library. Prof. Blank said the libraries
had not lost much ground over the decade; the salary level is still low. The $1 million annual commitment was not fully
funded every year, and all of the increase went into materials expenditures. Prof. Milton asked about the total number of
library personnel and the percentage increase the recommendation represented. Prof. Blank said the library had
approximately 100 people, so the recommendation would be about a 25 percent
increase. Prof. Miller asked for more
information about the shift to learning centers. Prof. Blank answered that there would be some
open and some closed spaces with electronic equipment where students could do
group research activities. The rooms
would have computer stations or computer access and access to library
materials. Prof. Blank said faculty
members were welcome to write to him if they had any other questions.
Prof. Laurie Vitt said the
primary point of his presentation was to start faculty thinking about
advantages of online evaluations. He reported
that the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) Executive Committee had discussed
online evaluations about six months ago.
Last summer, the college used web-based evaluations for summer courses. Prof. Vitt said a lot of credit should go to CAS
dean Paul Bell, CAS associate dean Kelly Damphousse and to Provost
Mergler. He thanked Prof. Damphousse for
putting together a great deal of background information. We are required to evaluate teaching. Three basic issues are what do evaluations
give us, how are evaluations used within the University, and how are
evaluations done. The first two issues
are highly complex. The issue he wanted
to focus on at this meeting was the third issue – how evaluations are done, paper
versus web based. He suggested that the
goals of an evaluation system are to provide meaningful information about the
quality of teaching, to provide valid information, to maintain anonymity and
confidentiality of students, use staff or faculty time efficiently, and to make
efficient use of class time. He described
the time and costs spent on conducting paper evaluations in CAS prior to fall 2008. The process involved
printing 100,000 forms twice per year, storing them, staff time in CAS and
departments, faculty time, and the initial cost of the forms. Because of the way forms were scanned, the
resolution was low, making it difficult to read many handwritten statements by
students. In addition, because forms
were sorted by faculty first name and returned to CAS as a single large PDF
file after commercial scanning, additional time was involved sorting and
redistributing forms. Moreover, because
forms contain handwriting samples of students, there was no guarantee of
anonymity. In addition, approximately 35
percent of the forms were not used.
Web-based evaluations solve
nearly all of those problems. An online
process reduces turn-around time and costs at a time when budgets are tight,
contributes to the greening of the university, and students can give more frank
evaluations if they are certain of anonymity.
One of the challenges is that the Information Technology office must be
involved in developing a good web-based system.
This has already been done by CAS.
The system, called eValuate, is simple to use and will be used
throughout CAS this semester. Another
challenge is that the response rates usually are lower initially; however, they
go up in time. When computers are
available in the classroom, the response rates can be 85 percent or
better. If a student takes two or three
courses in CAS, all the courses come up together and all of their evaluations can
be completed in one sitting. Instructors
can add their own questions. Nothing
would prohibit faculty from doing paper evaluations in class. Prof. Vitt said it seemed to him that
switching to web based is the way we should be going. The administration is interested, it is being
done already in CAS, and a system is in place.
University-wide application would require interest within other colleges
and a considerable amount of IT time, although eValuate is a nice model for
getting started.
Prof. Schmidt said he has
trouble getting the students in a large class to fill out evaluations even when
they have class time to do it. He was
skeptical that they would fill them out at a computer outside of class. He asked about the response rate so far in
CAS. Prof. Vitt replied that the
response rate was 35 percent. He had
asked colleagues at other universities whether they had web- or paper-based
evaluations, and the overriding comment was it was wise to go web based, given
how web savvy the students are. However,
they were concerned about return rates, as we should be as well. Prof. Miller asked whether the students were restricted
to certain access times, such as business hours, and whether the duration was timed
to prevent students from filling them out quickly and not actually evaluating. Prof. Vitt said the one issue could be solved
if the classroom had computers and students could use class time. Prof. Damphousse pointed out that students
who take online courses typically submit papers after midnight. CAS has not restricted the access time except
that evaluations have to be done in the last 10 days before the last day of
class.
Prof. Milton said he taught
at
Prof. Livesey pointed out
that for paper-based evaluations, instructors know those students have been in
class. He asked if there was any way to
know that the person at the computer actually came to class. Prof. Strauss said the instructor could add a
question that asks what percent of time the student came to class. Prof. Bass said instructors probably should not
remind students of the grade they expect to get because the purpose is to
evaluate the class and instructor. She was
part of eValuate last summer. In June she
got back 4 out of 40 evaluations with no incentive; in July, with an incentive
(giving 5 points out of 400) she got back 38 out of 40. Since then, the provost has indicated that
instructors are not to offer any kind of extra credit. Prof. Strauss asked how professors find out
who completed the forms. Prof. Vitt said
CAS can provide that information, but the names are not associated with the
evaluations. Prof. Blank said he was
concerned that instructors do not know anything about the makeup of the pools
that are forming the percentiles. Prof. Damphousse
said the college could provide that information. Prof. Miller said a lot of the problems with
validity have to do with self selection.
Professors do not want students who have complaints to be the only ones
who respond. To avoid the problem, the
University could continue to send email reminders until the students comply. Prof. Damphousse replied that the number one
incentive is if students believe their instructors care about it, and
instructors encourage their students to fill them out. Prof. Strauss said he did not want the students
who do not come to class to keep getting email reminders. Prof. Brown said the faculty could send their
concerns and ideas to Prof. Vitt. Because the student evaluation report was for information only, no action
was suggested.
Prof. Brown explained that the
Senate Executive Committee had met with Prof. Kyran Mish about the draft
bicycle plan for the campus and
Prof. Brown said the latest Pre-Finals
Week proposal (attached)
would reduce the amount due in the last week from 10 percent to 5 percent. As a result of a friendly amendment at the
last meeting, part b was added back to the procedures section to give a window
of 30 days. (For the current 2001
policy, see section 4.10 of the Faculty Handbook (http://www.ou.edu/provost/ouncfhb.pdf)
or http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/prefin01.htm.) Prof. Brown asked if there was any discussion. With no further discussion, the Senate voted
against the proposal by a vote of 12 in favor, 19 against, and 3 abstentions. Prof. Franklin moved to change the last
sentence of the current policy to, “This policy shall remain in force until
reviewed no sooner than 2006 2014.” Her motion was approved on a voice vote.
“Brad Burnett, Director of Financial Aid Services, is overseeing the implementation of the new student
system. He gave the Senate Executive
Committee an update on the project last week.
OZone is the portal to the new system, where students will be able to do all their transactions with the
University online. Financial Aid went online recently, and it
went well. This is the first time
students have had the chance to interact with the system. Very soon, with the 2009 intersession, faculty
will be able to enter course grades online, which will save paper and time. Mid-semester grades also will be done
online. It is not clear yet how that
will work, whether it will be direct entry or uploaded from a spreadsheet or
D2L. The Executive Committee meets with Mr.
Burnett quarterly, so Aimee Franklin, Senate
chair-elect, will be keeping in touch with Mr. Burnett over the remaining parts
of the project and will keep the Senate up to date on the progress of the
system implementation.
“Amy Davenport of Recreational Services
contacted me in her role as a member of the Campus Campaign committee.
The committee is seeking auction items for the online auction, which supports
the Sooner Heritage Scholarship, a scholarship fund for children of faculty and
staff members. The auction (see http://www.cmarket.com/auction/AuctionHome.action?vhost=ouauction) will run from March 30 to April 4. Ms. Davenport asked if the Faculty Senate
would be interested in providing something for the auction. Some of Ms.
Davenport’s suggestions were dinner with deans, a car wash by some faculty, a
tennis lesson with a professor, etc. Ms. Davenport thought it would be
fun to tap into faculty talent for this great project. Ideas may be
sent to me or the Senate office.”
The meeting adjourned at 4:50
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, April 13, 2009, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
____________________________________
Paula Conlon, Faculty Secretary