The
Regular session –
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 Aimee Franklin, Chair.
PRESENT: Ahmed,
Apanasov, Asojo, Atiquzzaman, Baer, Bass, Blank, Bradshaw, Conlon, Cox-Fuenzalida,
Dial, Eodice, Franklin, Gan, Grasse, Hahn, Kent, Kershen, Kimball, Lauer-Flores,
Lifschitz, Mitra, Morrissey, Moses, Moxley, Muraleetharan, O’Neill, Palmer, Reeder,
Russell, Sadler, J. Schmidt, Stock, Strauss, Tabb, Trafalis, Vehik, Verma, Wallach,
Williams, Yi
Provost's office representative: Heiser
ISA representatives: Cook, Hough
ABSENT: Deacon,
Jean-Marie, McDonald,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Faculty Tribute
Committee nominations
Digital tenure dossiers
Posting course materials to learn.ou.edu
UOSA elections
RecycleMania
Retirement presentation and panel discussion
Remarks by Wellness Coordinator
Remarks by Associate Provost and Integrity Council
Senate Chair's Report:
Faculty death
Textbooks
PACWI conference
Budget
Retirement management committee
Faculty Senate Apportionment for 2010-13
Smoke/Tobacco-Free Campus
2013-14 Academic Calendar
Research Council charge
Concealed Carry on Campus
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Prof. Yi suggested that the
last paragraph, the ninth sentence, of the February Senate Chair’s Report should
be clarified. Prof. Franklin suggested
that the language should reflect contributions to OTRS as well as defined
contribution plans and should read, “OU pays all of the contribution to the
defined contribution plan. For some
people it is retirement
contributions are up to 20 percent of their salary.” The Faculty Senate Journal for the regular
session of
The Tribute to the Faculty
will be Thursday, April 1, at 3:30 p.m. in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Fred
Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
Nominations for faculty to
serve on councils, committees, and boards are due to the Faculty Senate office
by March 12. Prof. Franklin suggested
that individuals might want to volunteer for more than one committee because
there could be a need in one area but not another.
President Boren approved the
Faculty Senate’s endorsement to move to electronic tenure and promotion dossier
submission and review, provided the proper security provisions and adequate
central administration support are in place (see 12/09 Faculty Senate
Journal). He also approved the Faculty
Senate’s proposal that would require faculty to post syllabi and recommend the
posting of course materials on the course management website (learn.ou.edu) or
to post a link for the materials on there (see 2/10 Faculty Senate Journal). Prof. Franklin noted that the recommendation
will take effect in fall 2010. IT will have
instructions on learn.ou.edu that will make it simple for people to post their
syllabi.
“The UOSA Election Board
wants to inform all the faculty and staff of the upcoming Spring UOSA Elections
(March 30-31). It is important that all of the faculty and staff do not send
emails on behalf of the candidates. It is also imperative that you do not [act
on behalf of a candidate] while on duty as an employee. If candidates ask to
campaign in the classroom, it is up to the professor's discretion if he/she
allows the campaigning. If permitted, campaigning is only allowed before or
after instructional time. Under no circumstance can campaign materials be left
in the classroom. Violating any of the
campaign rules will directly affect the candidates themselves. Please adhere to
the rules provided above to enable the student body to have a successful and
fair election.” UOSA Election Board
OU is competing
in RecycleMania, a national
recycling competition and waste reduction initiative. Recycle your paper, plastic, aluminum, and
cardboard on campus to participate. All
OU faculty and staff are invited to take a quick survey March 2-4 about recycling practices and preferences
for a chance to win $500 in Sooner Sense, donated by Housing and Food
Services. The survey can be accessed at https://elearning.ou.edu/TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=3KI7o72L6om5K. See http://www.ou.edu/recyclemania for more details and for information
on OU’s sustainability efforts.
The
Mr. Rollins distributed a handout
showing what has been accomplished and what is planned. Health screenings are scheduled for April
26-30. The program will be the same as
last year. He will send postcards
requesting people to RSVP. Appointments will
run from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. the entire week, and they also will take
walk-ins. Screenings will be held on the
Weight Watchers at Work began
in September. Over 250 employees from
the three campuses participated last year.
As a group, they lost 2,600 pounds or an average of 11 pounds per person. The program did so well that Weight Watchers
is interested in finding out what we did that could increase participation in
other organizations. The University is offering
an incentive by paying half the fee.
More information about the program is available at http://healthysooners.ouhsc.edu/.
The annual report for 2009 will
be ready in the next two weeks and will be sent to the Faculty Senate and Staff
Senate to distribute. It will include the
employee assistance program utilization, the biometrics screening utilization, aggregate
data on what our campus looks like as a whole, information regarding
satisfaction and customer service, and the number of pounds lost. Prof. Mitra asked whether any of the data
would be split into different groups. Mr.
Rollins replied that some reports will be more detailed; others will just have
aggregate information.
The first annual 5K Fun Run
and 1K Walk will be held the first weekend in September. Employees can participate as teams or
individuals. Mr. Rollins welcomes
suggestions on ways to make it a larger scale event. The Health & Exercise Science Department
held a 10K race on March 6, and 250 people participated. Mr. Rollins said he would like to beat that
number. He could put together walking
groups and running clubs to prepare for the annual event. It will be a good opportunity for people to
work toward a fitness goal. Prof. Moses suggested
a bicycling event. Mr. Rollins said he
is considering a bike event next spring.
Mr. Rollins distributed a
flyer about the Employee Assistance Program (http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/Happy
to be me.pdf). He said with the difficult
economy and possible changes with the university, he wanted people to know
where they could go for help. The
program is through Magellan Health Services and is available 24 hours a day/7
days a week. Faculty and staff can encourage
another employee to contact the EAP. It
is a free service for all university employees.
They do not have to be part of the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, and
it is in addition to what takes place at Goddard. Questions or suggestions may be sent to Mr.
Rollins at brollins@ouhsc.edu.
Associate Provost Greg Heiser
explained that the campus-wide integrity system has been in place and largely
untouched since the early 1980s. For the
2008-09 academic year, 225 cases went through the system; 37 cases were
contested and went to a hearing. Those
numbers have not changed much for a while.
In the late 1990s through the early 2000s, with the cohort of students
who had Internet access through their high school years, we started to experience
an upswing, peaking in 2004 with approximately 400 cases. Following some changes in the system, we went
back to around 200 cases, with 20 going to a hearing. For 2008-09, there was a noticeable uptick in
the number of contested cases. So far for
2009-10, 132 cases have been filed. Mr. Heiser
said his other title is director of Academic Integrity Systems. He introduced assistant director Breea Bacon,
as well as Elizabeth Miracle and Zekiel Johnson, from the Integrity Council, a
student group that assists the provost with academic integrity issues. He noted that the Integrity Council had changed
its name from Honor Council because it was getting confused with the Honors
Council of the
In terms of numbers, OU has
about 20,000 students on the Norman campus, about 200 cases of academic
misconduct annually, and about 20 contested cases that go to a hearing. Mr. Heiser said we should focus on fairness,
transparency, and clarity at each of those levels. For the cases that go to a hearing, we need a
system that is fair and clear and that gives no particular group of students
any kind of advantage. It is easy for
people to focus on the hearing issue. Most
faculty members do not file charges unless the evidence is quite clear, and in
most cases the students take responsibility for their actions. Many times, students may be unclear about the
rules of plagiarism. Most students think
of themselves as people with integrity.
We could do more to get the word out that integrity really matters. The message has a lot more resonance when it
comes from students primarily.
Ms. Miracle, vice chair of the
Integrity Council, said she runs the membership drive. She asked the faculty to encourage students
to apply for the council. She also
handles the day-to-day work within the council and facilitates the peer education. Mr. Heiser said a program was started this
semester called DYUI – Do You Understand Integrity – for students who are found
guilty of academic misconduct. Ms. Bacon
said the program was modeled after a program at the University of California-San
Diego. It is a five-class seminar that
explores the deeper concepts of academic integrity. The first class is on plagiarism. The remaining classes include defining
academic culture, reenacting an academic misconduct hearing, and doing case
studies. They are putting together a
program, “What I wish I would have done before coming to OU,” to present at
Mr. Heiser pointed out that
students often assume they already know about integrity. What they learn as undergraduates will form
the basis for them to learn about professional integrity codes if they go to
graduate school. Graduate College Dean Lee
Williams has been working on research ethics.
Mr. Heiser believes we need something like that at the undergraduate
level. Ms. Miracle added that she serves
as a student member of the hearing boards and, along the faculty on the board,
decides whether misconduct has occurred and what the sanctions will be. Mr. Heiser said it is crucial to get the word
out about integrity. In the past, the
council has had events such as integrity week, where they challenge students
about what they know. It can engage
students if they think of themselves as someone who might be called on to be a
judge and to have policy ideas on what the university ought to be doing in this
area.
Mr. Heiser said he had some
concerns about where the system is going.
Partially as a result of social forces and market pressures, students might
not be aware that certain things count as academic misconduct, for example,
signing a classmate as present, working together and turning in substantially
the same paper, and copying from Wikipedia or the textbook. The system is extremely adversarial; it tends
to pit faculty against students and vice versa and has faculty taking the role
of prosecutor. Students and faculty are confused
as to whom they are supposed to talk. Mr.
Heiser showed a diagram of our current system compared to what the students
would like to propose. The student
proposal appears to be simpler. It
begins when the instructor files a charge when he or she believes there has
been misconduct. The student goes to the
Student Conduct Office (formerly Campus Judicial Coordinator) and may then go
to UOSA general counsel for help with his or her case. The Academic Misconduct Board will hear the
case, and a recommendation will be made to the college(s) and to the
Provost. Our current system is complex. The proposed system would allow anyone to report
misconduct through the Integrity Council.
Mr. Johnson added that the Integrity Council is having discussions with
UOSA general counsel and with the UOSA director of academics on how to
formalize the new process to make it simpler for students to understand. Ms. Miracle commented that she, along with
Mr. Johnson and Ms. Bacon, went to an academic integrity conference in October
and got to see how the systems at other schools work. It started a dialog on how to improve our
system. Mr. Heiser said he would like a
sense of whether the faculty thinks this is a reasonable direction.
Prof.
Prof. Palmer noted that a lot
of faculty members are hesitant to turn students in because of our current
system. With a more streamlined system,
the number of cases may go up. Mr. Johnson
said the council is trying to create a culture of integrity on campus, which
involves educating students as well as making it easier for faculty file
charges and for students to go through the charges. Hopefully, programs like DYUI will educate
the student body.
Prof. Kershen mentioned that
after Prof. Franklin talked about the Turnitin program last fall, he made it
mandatory for submissions to a journal he runs.
Very few reports came back with any problems, but there was one
significant case. The Law school has a
strong integrity system, and the incident was dealt with in an appropriate
manner. When faculty members find
something significant, they have to be willing to fail a student on a paper or the
course. It has to have a
consequence.
Prof.
Prof. Tim Ragan, retired
faculty in Educational Psychology, passed away March 7. His funeral will be on March 11.
Boomer Sooner textbooks has offered
an inducement to instructors if they will require their students to purchase certain
textbooks or instructional material. The
provost reminds instructors that they cannot compel students to buy books at a
certain place, and faculty should not get any remuneration in helping them in
that decision.
The Provost’s Advisory
Committee on Women’s Issues and OU ADVANCE, which is an NSF-funded grant
project, are having a presentation on April 1 at 1:30 called, “Are Women
Faculty Just Worrywarts?: Accounting for Gender Differences in Self-Reported
Stress.” Everyone is invited to attend.
State legislators signed a
budget bill that addresses the current fiscal year. For 2010, higher education will take an
overall 3.5 percent cut. Legislators
were able to achieve this by borrowing from the state Rainy Day fund as well as
using federal stimulus dollars. Other
state agencies are experiencing larger cuts, perhaps 10 percent or larger. Although legislators tried to protect
education, the outlook still looks bleak for FY11. Revenues are down about 30 percent from the
estimate. They agreed to take $223
million from the Rainy Day fund and use that to start the budget process next
year. They still report a $1.2 billion
deficit that they have to close next year.
Lately, the state has been getting more revenue from oil and gas than
projected. The Faculty Senate
President Boren agreed to add
a faculty representative as well as a staff representative to the retirement
management committee. Prof. Muraleetharan
will represent the Faculty Senate. This
committee is discussing the third-party vendor and the financial options for
our defined contribution plan
RECOMMENDED
APPORTIONMENT OF THE FACULTY SENATE FOR 2010-13
The apportionment of the Faculty Senate recommended by
the committee (attached)
was introduced in February. The
Prof. Muraleetharan commented
that it might be simpler to increase the total number of senators by one or two
seats. Prof. Franklin responded that such
a floor amendment could be proposed after the first three amendments were
discussed.
Prof. Trafalis, representing
Prof. Palmer introduced amendment
2. Answering procedural questions, Prof.
Franklin said if this amendment was approved, it would strike the original
language as well as amendment 1. After
the senate votes on the amendments, the original proposal as amended would be
voted on. Prof. Adams said the goal was
to ensure that all faculty had a voice and representation. Non-senators potentially cannot speak at the meeting. It was not the intent to eliminate
representation for other areas. The
Liberal Studies faculty actually endorses amendment 3 because it provides
equitable representation for all colleges.
Some colleges are just beginning to add faculty and thus have small
numbers, but they would still like to have a voice. Prof. Franklin summarized that the primary
change is Liberal Studies and Aviation would each have a seat with amendment 2. Prof. Muraleetharan asked about the meaning
of “one seat to each degree-recommending division that has faculty appointed to
that division.” Prof. Adams explained
that Liberal Studies is a degree-granting college but was put in a pool because
of the small number of faculty. Prof.
Franklin said they were put in a pool of 18.8 faculty, including the
Prof. Franklin said Amendment
3 was a technical change to Amendment 2, so it should be withdrawn unless
someone wanted to bring it forward. No
further amendments were made from the floor.
The original proposal, as modified by Amendment 1, which added an ex
officio member for the
Prof. Franklin reminded the
senate that a resolution (attached) was
introduced last month. Prof. Bass asked
about the percentage of faculty and staff who smoke on campus. She said she was worried that a smoke-free
policy would infringe on a person’s rights.
An individual’s break should be his or hers and he or she should be able
to smoke. People are aware that they
should not smoke. Prof. Moses said the
resolution was written to give the administration flexibility in implementing
the policy. It would not exclude
designated smoking areas in certain locations.
Prof. Palmer asked whether the resolution would allow people to smoke in
their cars. Prof. Franklin said it would
be up to the administration to enforce the resolution. She said she had heard that people at the HSC
had a van that drove smokers around. The
motivation was not to tell people they should not smoke; it was to take into
consideration the impact of second-hand smoke and the financial impacts of
smoking on employees. Prof. Verma noted
that the
additional health benefits
would be. Prof. Moses replied that the
National Institutes of Health say heart attacks go down by an average of 17
percent in one year, the largest reductions being in non smokers. Prof. Baer said the current policy is that all
buildings are smoke free, and smokers must be at least 25 feet from an entrance. Prof. Moses said the current policy is not
working well. Prof. Palmer added that it
is not being enforced. The resolution
was approved by a voice vote, with six opposed and two abstentions.
Prof. Franklin said the Faculty Senate Executive
Committee recommended that the academic calendar for 2013-14 be affirmed (attached). The fall semester would start August 19 and
end December 13, and the spring semester would start four weeks later on
January 13 and end on May 9. At some
point, because of leap year, we have to reset and shift a week. Prof. Gan asked if the difference was just
one day – from August 20 to August 19. Prof.
Franklin said that was correct. The
Faculty Senate approved the 2013-14 calendar on a voice vote.
Prof. Franklin explained that the main change proposed
in the Research Council charge would accommodate interdisciplinary areas (attached). The Research Council has two faculty members
in each of six areas and one in Fine Arts.
A faculty member in an interdisciplinary area, such as
Prof. Franklin said the
Faculty Senate
The meeting adjourned at 5:15
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday,
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
____________________________________
Amy Bradshaw, Faculty Secretary