The
Regular session – May 3, 2004 - 3:30 p.m. - Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail:
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Mike McInerney, Chair.
PRESENT: Abraham
(2), Barker (1), Bozorgi (2), Bradford (1), Brown (0), Burns (1), Caldwell (3),
Davis (1), Dewers (3), Dohrmann (2), Forman (1), Frech (2), Halterman (2), Hartel
(3), Havlicek (1), Hayes-Thumann (1), Henderson (2), Houser (1), Kauffman
(2), R. Knapp (0), Liu (3), Marcus-Mendoza (1), McInerney (0),
Megginson (2), Milton (0), Newman (4), Pender (2), Rai (2), Rupp-Serrano (1),
Russell (2), Scherman (3), Sharp (0), Striz (0), Watts (0), Wyckoff, (1) Yuan
(1)
Provost's office representative: Mergler
ABSENT: Baldwin
(3), Biggerstaff (1) Brady (2), Catlin (3), Cintrón (2), Devenport (3), Driver
(1), Huseman (2), C. Knapp (2), Mendoza (2), Penrose (3), Raadschelders (3),
Ransom (2), Schramm (1), Sievers (3), Wheeler (3)
[Note:
During the period from June 2003 to May 2004, the Senate held 9 regular
session and no special sessions. The
Figures in parentheses above indicate the number of absences.]
________________________________________________________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Schedule of Senate meetings for fall 2004
Summary of Speakers Service program
Faculty retirees
Good practice for courses and programs
Academic integrity
Senate Chair's Report:
NEH awards (scholarship/fellowship leaves)
Bicycle policy
Junk e-mail
Health insurance
Athletic Department Self Study
Faculty Senate reapportionment and charter
Salary program
Certificates of appreciation
Election, councils/committees/boards
Election, Senate standing committees
Election, Senate Secretary and Chair-elect
E-mail notification
Resolution of Appreciation to Prof. Mike McInerney
________________________________________________________________________________
The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of April 12, 2004 was approved.
The
regular meetings of the Faculty Senate for fall 2004 will be held at
3:30 p.m. in Jacobson Faculty Hall 102 on the following Mondays: September 13, October 11, November 8, and
December 13.
Summary
of the activities of the Senate Speakers Service for the past year: From May 2003 to April 2004, the Faculty
Senate office arranged for 53 faculty and staff to give 110 talks to 52
organizations in 22 communities throughout the state. The Faculty Senate and the University
sincerely appreciate the members of the Speakers Service who share their
expertise and knowledge with the people of
Prof. McInerney congratulated the senators who received awards at the faculty tribute
April 13: Professors Brady,
A
list of the faculty who retired during the past academic year is below. The Faculty Senate thanks these faculty
members for their dedication and contribution to our community. Prof.
McInerney said, “We will miss them and certainly appreciate all their
efforts throughout these years.”
|
NAME |
DEPARTMENT |
RETIREMENT DATE |
CAME TO OU |
|
Bert, Charles |
Aerospace & Mech. Engr. |
5-1-04 |
1963 |
|
Evans, Rodney |
Marketing |
1-10-04 |
1970 |
|
Faulconer, James |
Music |
7-1-04 |
1972 |
|
Fletcher, John |
Botany & Microbiology |
6-1-04 |
1969 |
|
Fung, Bing-Man |
Chemistry & Biochemistry |
8-16-04 |
1972 |
|
Gross, David |
English |
7-1-04 |
1973 |
|
Horrell, James |
Finance |
6-1-03 |
1974 |
|
Lee, Lloyd |
Chemical Engr. & Mat. Sci. |
2-1-04 |
1976 |
|
Lujan, Philip |
Communication |
7-1-03 |
1977 |
|
Sloan, Stephen |
Political Science |
6-1-04 |
1966 |
|
Smith, Patricia |
Educational Psychology |
11-1-03 |
1989 |
|
Swisher, Robert |
Library & Info. Studies |
1-1-04 |
1979 |
|
Whinery, Leo |
Law |
8-16-03 |
1959 |
|
Whitely, William |
Management |
1-1-04 |
1980 |
|
Wieder, D. Larry |
Communication |
1-1-04 |
1975 |
President
Boren approved the document on good practice for courses and programs, which
was approved by the Faculty Senate at its April 12, 2004 meeting (see 4/04 senate
journal).
Prof. McInerney explained
that student government had approved an academic integrity statement and formed
an honor council to promote good practices in taking exams and writing
papers. Honor council member Pal
Randhawa thanked the Faculty Senate and Provost leadership for their
support. He said the new integrity
statement was the product of many students’ hard work over the past three
years. The purpose of the honor council is
to publicize academic integrity, serve as a bridge between students and faculty,
and educate students on the nature and meaning of academic misconduct. Council members will serve as substitute
members of academic misconduct hearings at the request of a college. The honor council is meant to supplement, not
replace anything the university has in regard to academic integrity. Honor council member Amber Khan talked about some
of the ideas for promoting academic integrity next fall. They plan to talk to students in Gateway and
other classes to help them understand the purpose of the honor statement and
council and to explain that this is a student-led initiative. Other ideas include holding an Integrity Week
next year with prominent speakers and activities. Mr. Randhawa added that various universities
use resources, such as integrity CDs and case files, to show situations where
students are tempted to cheat and the consequences when someone cheats. A web site will be further developed this
summer and will provide various resources for students. The council would like to talk to
international students to explain what constitutes academic misconduct in the
“The
executive committee discussed the proposed new option for leaves with pay to
accept an award (e. g., a scholarship or fellowship). This option covers
the situation when the award is made directly to the faculty member. The
suggested practice would be to have the faculty member sign over the award to
the University. The faculty member would then receive full salary and benefits
from the University. Generally, these awards are much less than the full salary
and benefits. The University would provide the faculty member documentation of
the contribution to be used when the faculty member files his/her taxes. This
route would probably require the submission of Schedule C on business expenses
by the faculty member so that the faculty member does not pay additional taxes.
There was some discussion about a minimum dollar award needed to receive full
compensation from the University. Wording has been added to include approval by
the respective department. The concern is to ensure that the teaching needs of
the department are met. The executive committee approved this as an interim
policy. The Provost Office will help draft wording for amendment to the Faculty
Handbook, which the Senate will address next year. There is not enough time to
get the amendment drafted and discussed this year.
“Last
meeting, I mentioned that the University is drafting a policy for abandoned
bicycles and for appropriate use of bicycles on campus. The bicycle use policy
would require registration of bicycles that are used on campus and stipulates
the appropriate places to park bicycles, e.g., in racks by buildings. We had
concerns about the cost and frequency of registration. You would need to
register the bicycle once and there would be no charge to the faculty for
registration. Also, the policy would not prevent faculty from bringing their
bicycles into their offices. I told Associate Vice President for Administrative
Affairs Burr Millsap to go ahead with this policy.
“We
have had a lot of comments about junk e-mail. I asked Professor Fran Ayres, who
is head of the Information Technology Council, to look into this. The Information
Technology office informed her that the Outlook software with the new version
of Microsoft Office has a very good filtering system. Also, the e-mail software
that comes with OSX for Macintosh has a very good filter.
“We
met with President Boren last week and got his assurance that the executive
committees of the Faculty and Staff Senates would be involved in the
discussions about the decision for the health insurance provider over the
summer. In addition, he assured us that both executive committees will be
involved, along with the appropriate councils and committees, in formulating
the future retirement plans if House Bill 2226 passes and OU and OSU are allowed
to opt out of Teachers Retirement. The
new leadership and I will meet with Julius Hilburn and Nick Kelly next week
about these issues.
“The Employment Benefits Committee is reviewing the
proposals for the health and dental coverage from vendors other than
HealthChoice. Julius Hilburn made a
presentation in our general faculty meeting last week. Aetna was viewed as offering more value than
the other applicants for health insurance; however, all quotes were higher than
the current provider. So there is no
magic bullet.
“Prof. Dan Gibbens, our NCAA representative, has
made available copies of the self study report on the athletics department. We
have a hard copy in our office.
President Boren would really encourage input on this. I think they would like the input by early
June. Prof. Gibbens sent an e-mail to
everyone through OUMM, so you can take a look at this rather extensive report (http://www.ou.edu/studyrpt).
“The general faculty meeting did not have a quorum,
so we did not vote on the amendments to the faculty senate charter or
reapportionment. The Senate office sent
out an e-mail to faculty to vote on these two issues. So please vote and if you get three other colleagues,
then we will have more than our quorum, which is 161. You can either vote by just responding back
to the e-mail or if you want to maintain anonymity, then you can put it in a
hard copy and send it back to the senate office. [Note:
The faculty voted to approve the charter 138-23-2 and to approve the
reapportionment 141-16-6.]
“I
have had some questions about the salary program. President Boren has agreed to
have a pool of funds sufficient to provide on average a five percent raise for
faculty and staff. He had an open meeting, primarily with students, last week to talk
about the tuition and fee increases. The executive committee discussed with him how to
allocate these funds. We felt that there should be a cost of living component
so that all faculty and staff receive some increase in salary. We also
mentioned that issues of merit and compression/inversion are serious issues
affecting faculty morale and retention. Thus, the salary program should also
address these issues. The exact percent allocation is still in debate but may
be half to cost of living and half to merit/compression/inversion issues. This
is consistent with the recommendations of the Budget Council, except that the Budget
Council recommended a minimum $1,000 raise for all employees. I think the president said
he could meet this recommendation. The Provost has found $500,000 to address severe
compression and inversion problems in three units on campus. This source of
funds is in addition to the pool of money for the salary program. The units
have had historically high program reviews, been highly productive in all
areas, have had difficulties in retaining and attracting faculty, and the
salaries of the entire unit are severely compressed/inverted compared to their
peers and the Big 12. The funds in the salary program that would have been used
to rectify the problems in these units can now be allocated to solve other
merit/compression/inversion problems in those colleges. I think that the salary
program is a start in the right direction. I am pleased that the faculty and
staff will receive raises in a difficult budget year, especially considering
that we are not likely to get a large increase in funding from the state. If
you have any questions, we will be happy to discuss this.
“I
would like to thank Ms. Lauren Hake, who has been a student employee in the
Senate office for four years. She gets to collect data, search the web and do a
lot of the stuff that I don’t like to do. She has been a great help to Ms. Sonya
Fallgatter and me and the other Senate Chairs. She will be graduating in May
with a degree in Special Education and will complete her student teaching in
the fall. We will miss her greatly and certainly wish her the best. Please let’s thank Lauren.
“I
would like to offer a special thanks to the members of my Executive Committee
who suffered through some long agendas and far too many stories on the south
side of
Certificates of Appreciation
were presented to the following outgoing senators who completed full three-year
terms (2001-04): Michael Abraham, J.
David Baldwin, Jim Davis, Roger Frech, Austin Hartel, Roy Knapp, Kimball
Milton, Jody Newman, Judith Pender, Scott Russell, and Don Wyckoff. Certificates also were presented to other
senators whose terms expired and to the outgoing members of the Senate
Executive Committee.
The Senate approved the Senate
Committee on Committees' nominations for end-of-the-year vacancies on
university and campus councils/committees/boards (attached). The names of the remaining volunteers will be
forwarded to the president to consider for the appointments he makes.
The Senate elected
the following faculty to fill vacancies on Senate standing committees:
COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES
Continuing members: Keith Gaddie (Political Science), Ellen
Greene (Classics), S. Lakshmivarahan (Computer Science).
To replace Connie Dillon (Educ.
Lead. & Pol. St.) and Valerie Watts (Music), 2004-07 term:
Jane Magrath (Professor of Music, B.M. Wesleyan
College, M.M. North Carolina, D.M. Northwestern, at OU since 1981)
Al Schwarzkopf (Associate Professor of Management
Information Systems, B.A. Vanderbilt, Ph.D. Virginia, at OU since 1970)
FACULTY COMPENSATION
COMMITTEE
Continuing members: Eric
Anderson (Art), Darryl McCullough (Mathematics), Fred Striz (Aerospace &
Mechanical Engineering).
To replace Roy Knapp
(Petroleum & Geological Engineering), 2004-07 term:
Tyrrell Conway (Associate Professor of Botany &
Microbiology, B.S., Ph.D. Oklahoma State, at OU since 1999)
To replace M. Chris Knapp
(Accounting), 2003-06 term:
Richard Marshment (Professor of Regional & City
Planning,
FACULTY WELFARE COMMITTEE
Continuing members: Bob
Dauffenbach (Management Information Systems), Pat Weaver-Meyers (University
Libraries).
To replace Donald Pisani
(History) and Lee Willinger (Accounting), 2004-07 term:
Tom Burns (Associate Professor of Sociology, B.S.
Maryland, M.S. Delaware, Ph.D.
Sheena Murphy (Associate Professor of Physics &
Astronomy, B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Cornell, at OU
since 1995)
To replace Myron Pope (Educ.
Lead. & Pol. St.), 2002-05 term:
G. Lee Willinger (Stambaugh Professor of Accounting,
B.B.A. Ohio, M.B.A. Oregon, D.B.A. Florida, at OU since 1990)
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 2004-05 term, 3 vacancies
To replace Jim Davis (Journalism & Mass
Communication), Roy Knapp (Petroleum & Geological Engineering), and Avi
Scherman (Educational Psychology):
Steve Bradford (Saxon Professor of History, B.A.
Wisconsin, M.A., Ph.D. Chicago, at OU since 1994)
Neil Houser (Associate Professor of Instructional
Leadership & Academic Curriculum, B.A. Westmar College, M.A. California
State, Ph.D. Washington State, at OU since 1996)
Meg Penrose (Associate Professor of Law, B.A. Texas at
Arlington, J.D. Pepperdine, L.L.M. Notre Dame, at OU since 2000)
Prof. Roger Frech (Professor of Chemistry &
Biochemistry) was elected Secretary, and Prof. Roy Knapp (Mewbourne Professor
of Petroleum & Geological Engineering) was elected Chair-Elect of the
Senate for 2004-05.
Prof. McInerney noted that
the proposed e-mail notification policy (below) was discussed last month (see
4/04 Senate Journal). An addition made
4/19/04 by the Information Technology Council (ITC) policy subcommittee is
underlined.
In order to assure timely and
efficient communication, the University establishes email as an acceptable
means of official communication.
All University students,
faculty, and staff will be assigned an official University email account.
Faculty and staff may assume
that a student’s official University email is a valid mechanism for
communicating with that student. Faculty who rely upon electronic communication
with or between students in their classes will specify their requirements in
the course syllabus.
Disclaimer: Account holders who choose to have email forwarded to
another email address do so at their own risk.
An account holder’s failure to receive or read, in a timely manner,
official University communications sent to an official email account does not
absolve the account holder from knowing and complying with the content of the
official communication.
Prof. Deborah Trytten, Chair
of the ITC policy subcommittee, said the policy was prompted by the provost’s
suggestion that students should be required to check their e-mail. She said the most recent controversy was
whether people should be forbidden from sending confidential information
through unencrypted e-mail. ITC had a
version of the policy that would have required people to use encrypted and
secure channels; however, Legal Counsel did not think it was a good idea.
Prof. Abraham said Legal
Counsel had told him a couple of years ago that faculty could not discuss a student’s
grades with that student via e-mail. Prof.
Fran Ayres, Chair of the ITC, said she thought he could under the proposed
policy. Prof. Abraham said the
explanation given was if a student requested information via
Prof. Knapp said the policy
also discussed official communication with faculty and staff, not just
students. He asked whether that meant
the annual contract from the president could be sent by e-mail. Prof. Trytten said this was not any attempt
to create a paperless university, and she saw no sign that the administration intended
to send important items by e-mail. Provost
Mergler said e-mail would be just one means of communication. The intent is to encourage students to pay
more attention. One example is advisors try
to urge students to get advised and enrolled in a timely manner. She said she did not plan to stop putting on
paper what she currently is.
Prof. Halterman said he was
concerned about the language, “except in circumstances where access to e-mail
is impracticable.” If a student cannot
access e-mail, it should be incumbent upon the student to notify the faculty
member so that some other means can be used for sending information. Prof. Ayres said the policy suggests that
faculty should specify in the course syllabus how they plan to
communicate. Prof. Halterman said the
expectation that e-mail would be read in a timely fashion was also a problem. Prof. Trytten replied that she specifies in her
syllabus that she has a 24-hour expectation.
Prof. Burns commented that it was common for messages to come back as
undeliverable. Prof. Trytten said she
includes a statement on her syllabus that it is the student’s responsibility to
keep his/her OU e-mail account updated. The
motion to approve the policy was approved 19 to 9.
The Faculty Senate approved the following resolution
of appreciation to Prof. Mike McInerney, outgoing Senate Chair:
Whereas, Mike maintained an
effective and amicable relationship with the university administration during
the 2003-2004 academic year,
Whereas, Mike gently guided
the faculty development award program into existence and through its first
award round,
Whereas, Mike has, in our
behalf, encouraged the
Whereas, Mike has, with good
humor and patience, guided the Senate through the adoption of several items
such as a seemingly endless number of and constantly modified policies
involving IT, a Research Council charge change, adoption of good practice for
courses and programs and the usual housekeeping to allow the Faculty Senate to
function,
Whereas, through Mike’s
leadership and efforts the interests of the university faculty were incorporated
into and protected in the revision of the Regents’ Handbook, including complex
issues surrounding renewable term faculty,
Whereas, Mike has worked
diligently to keep the communication with the university administration about
faculty concerns and needs regarding critical issues of salary, health care
plans and retirement programs open and positive and as a result fruitful,
showing that once again Irish heritage can go a long way to save civility, if
not civilization, at OU,
And whereas, Mike discovered
the use of a meeting of the General Regular Faculty to convey current
information about the medical and dental insurance RFP and Oklahoma Teachers’
Retirement to the widest possible faculty audience to assure those issues are
maintained in a vegetative aerobic state; regrettably the faculty proved to be
sessile rather than planktonic, and as a result their attendance was sparse,
Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate expresses its sincere
appreciation to Professor
Prof. Valerie Watts presented
Prof. McInerney with a certificate of appreciation and an engraved clock and played
an Irish lament on the flute. Prof. McInerney
said he certainly enjoyed the year.
Prof. Watts then assumed the office of 2004-05 Senate Chair.
The meeting adjourned at 4:20
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, September 13, 2004, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
____________________________________
Karen Rupp-Serrano, Secretary