The
Regular session – September 14, 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 Aimee Franklin, Chair.
PRESENT: Ahmed,
Apanasov, Asojo, Atiquzzaman, Baer, Blank, Bradshaw, Buckley, Conlon, Eodice, Franklin,
Grasse, Hahn, Jean-Marie, Kent, Keppel, Lauer-Flores, Lifschitz, McDonald, Miller,
Milton, Morrissey, Moses, Moxley, Muraleetharan, Palmer, Reeder, Rogers,
Sadler, J. Schmidt, R. Schmidt, Strauss, Tabb, Taylor, Trafalis, Vehik, Verma, Weaver,
Williams
Provost's office representative: Mergler
ISA representatives: Crites, Hough,
Smith
UOSA representatives: Johnson
ABSENT: Bass,
Cox-Fuenzalida, Deacon, Dial, Kershen, Kimball, Russell, Wallach,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Senate members for 2009-10 and schedule of meetings
Faculty Senate and Regular Faculty parliamentarian
2008-09 annual council reports
Faculty membership on committees
Disposition by administration of Senate actions for
2008-09
Resources in Faculty Senate office
Wellness screenings
Search committee, Law dean
OZONE implementation
University Women’s Association event
2009-10 Welcome
UOSA database of tutoring services
Benefits
Senate Chair's Report:
Desire2Learn roster
iThink photo roster
Book recycling
NCAA principles
Baseball scoreboard
Flu procedures
Emergency procedures
Retired faculty death
Budget
Joint meeting with UOSA and Staff Senate
Faculty salaries on federal grants
Research
Issues for 2009-10
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A list of the Faculty Senate
members is attached.
The regular meetings of the
Faculty Senate for 2009-10 will be held at 3:30 p.m. on the following Mondays
in Jacobson Faculty Hall 102: September 14, October 12, November 9, December 14,
February 8, March 8, April 12, and May 10.
The Senate Executive
Committee elected Prof. W. Murray Tabb (Law) as parliamentarian of the Faculty
Senate and Regular Faculty.
The compilation of the 2008-09
annual reports of University councils was e-mailed July 31 to the Faculty
Senate members and to chairs, directors and deans to make available to the
general faculty. The reports are
available online at http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/cnclrep09.htm.
The 2009-10 list of faculty
appointments to committees is available on the Faculty Senate web site at http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/commem09.htm.
The summary record of the disposition by
the administration of Faculty Senate actions for September 2008 to August 2009
is attached.
The Chronicle of Higher
Education, Academe, and the Norman
campus budget are available through the Senate office.
Wellness screenings will be
held in October for the Norman campus faculty.
Breion Rollins, health and wellness coordinator, will send further
information, or visit http://healthysooners.ouhsc.edu/.
The Faculty Senate Executive
Committee nominated two faculty members for the faculty-at-large position on
the search committee for the dean of the
The next implementation of
oZONE (Banner) will take place in late September. For more information, see http://www.ou.edu/portal/home/new_home_page.html
for the archived alerts and http://www.ou.edu/portal/home/FAQs.html
for FAQs targeted to faculty and staff.
The University Women’s
Association registration event will be held on September 20, 2:00 p.m., in
Wagner Hall. Female faculty members or
spouses of faculty members are welcome to attend.
Prof. Franklin explained that
the Faculty Senate serves as a conduit of information, bringing information
from colleagues but also conveying information to the people who will be
impacted. The Faculty Senate reviews the
various functions of the University and any matter affecting the welfare of the
University. Subjects for review or
legislation can come from any member of the University community. The senate has four standing committees:
The Faculty Senate office
created a listserv of the Big XII senate/council chairs so Prof. Franklin is in
communication with her counterparts to find out their issues and share
information. The senate
Prof. Franklin introduced the
new members of the Faculty Senate, the staff representatives from the
Informational Staff Association – Margaret Smith, Sue Crites, and Dan Hough –
and Zekiel Johnson, representing UOSA.
Mr. Zekiel Johnson,
coordinator for graduation and retention with UOSA, announced that one of
UOSA’s initiatives this year is to put together a database of all the tutoring
services that are available to students.
He asked the faculty to send the names of tutors or tutoring services to
Taylor Huff, UOSA’s director of Academics, at thuff@ou.edu,
so they can be included in the database.
Human Resources Director
Julius Hilburn and Assistant Director Nick Kelly provided an update on various
benefits issues: the status of the 2010
health insurance renewal, retiree medical options, and the administration of
the defined contribution plans.
Mr. Hilburn reminded the
group that we changed from
A committee was formed in
2007 to look at active employee insurance issues and later at retiree medical
issues. The committee has reached some
consensus concerning retiree medical and will issue a final report by the end
of September. President Boren will
provide an opportunity for further campus comment, and a recommendation will go
to the regents, at the earliest in November.
The committee issued a preliminary report in November 2008, invited
campus feedback, and received some thoughtful suggestions. After evaluating the suggestions, the committee
made a series of recommendations that provide the best balance and allow OU to
continue to offer a valuable retiree medical program that can be
sustained.
Over a year ago, President
Boren appointed a committee to look at how to streamline our defined
contribution retirement plans and make them a more valuable benefit. The committee is chaired by Chris Kuwitzky,
Norman campus chief financial officer, and includes Terry Henson, HSC chief
financial officer; Ken Evans, Business College dean; Guy Patton, OU Foundation president,
and Julius Hilburn. A request for
proposal was issued a year ago, and the committee has been negotiating with
various companies to serve as an administrator for the defined contribution
plans. One of the goals is to improve
participant experience and education.
For some employees, all of the options are overwhelming, and they do not
make choices or informed choices. Changing
the administration probably will allow us to add some plan features, such as
loan provisions and hardship withdrawals.
We have to make sure our plans comply with an increased regulatory
oversight, and we want to get the best value for plan participants and the
University. Given the size of the plans’
assets, we should be able to get some reductions in the cost of the services
provided by the companies. The committee
expects to make a recommendation in October/November to President Boren and
share the recommendation with the University community before it goes to the regents. Implementation is most likely April to June
2010. Details will be available as the final
vendors are identified.
Prof. Moses said he
appreciated the work the committee had done on the retiree medical
benefit. Assuming the final report would
be along the same lines as the preliminary report, he had two concerns. First, the proposed plan uses two pieces of data
that he cannot change – his age and the date he came to OU – which put him in what
he calls a caste that he is a member of until he dies. Second, the sharing of sacrifice is very
unequally distributed among the different groups. As a member of group 4, he will have to pay about
80 percent of his retiree medical costs.
If he had joined one or two years earlier, his cost would be
significantly lower. A method of
rewarding years of service, in addition to other factors, would be a fairer
system. Mr. Hilburn said the committee
examined and modeled several alternative approaches, for instance, using service
only, using formulas, and smoothing the difference from one group to the
other. The final report will reflect how
the committee tried to balance those compromises. There is no perfect way to do it. The fact that the committee took almost
another year indicates the members seriously explored other alternatives. Some changes were made based on the feedback. With the growth in expense that we are
facing, there is no way to preserve everybody and have a benefit the university
can afford. There will be opportunities
to comment before the recommendations go to the regents.
Prof. Muraleetharan asked whether
the vendor for the defined contribution plan administration would be selected before
a recommendation is made to the OU community.
Mr. Hilburn said the committee will identify a recommended record keeper
and the structure of the new program and then seek feedback from the University
community. Prof. Muraleetharan pointed
out that the vendor that is chosen might not be able to commit to some valuable
suggestions that the community proposes.
Mr. Hilburn said it would be difficult to get feedback without having a
definite plan design and vendor relationship in mind. He said he would come back to share
additional details when some of the programs are finalized.
The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of May 11, 2009 was approved.
The roster function of Desire2Learn,
the online course management system, is automatically available as the default
to instructional faculty as well as to students. IT staff can change the setting so that just
the instructor and teaching assistants have access but the students do not.
As part of the oZONE changes,
the iThink photo rosters will not be available in the spring but will be back
in the fall. Due to a technical
implementation problem moving from one system to another, the roster will be
down for one semester. Further
information is available at http://www.ou.edu/portal. One of the advantages to oZONE is faculty will
be able to upload grades in the new system.
Grettie Bondy, a member of
the Informational Staff Association, announced last May that the OU English
Club was going to have a book drive. The
donations went to a second use or were recycled. Over the summer, 1,227 books were collected. The English Club will use the proceeds for
local literacy projects.
Prof. Connie Dillon, OU’s
Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA, sent a letter to faculty to
remind them about the NCAA principles.
Faculty members are not expected to make any kind of special
accommodations for student-athletes beyond what the Athletics Department
officially sanctions.
A question was raised in the
May meeting about possible grammatical errors on the baseball scoreboard
related to the song, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Prof. Dillon did some research and found that
the lyrics, “I don’t care if I never
get back,” are historically accurate.
However, “cracker jacks” should be changed to “cracker jack.”
Provost Mergler sent
information to faculty about CDC guidelines and how to handle cases of the H1N1
virus in the classroom. The key is to
self isolate. Instructors should ask
students to stay home if they are ill, and they should not require a doctor’s
note. Faculty members are asked to try
to make accommodations and to use Desire2Learn for communicating course content
(see http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/FluSeason2009.htm). Prof. Keppel asked for clarification about
the doctor’s excuse. Provost Mergler
said she did not want instructors to require a doctor’s excuse this
semester. The health department is not
differentiating between various types of flu, so a student will not know if
s/he has H1N1 or not. Because of the
volume, no doctors’ excuses will be required for this semester and possibly for
the spring. Prof. Franklin said her
understanding is we do not want to compel students to go to the doctor. Provost Mergler added that the CDC does not
want people to go to the doctor if they have standard flu symptoms; otherwise the
health care system would be flooded with people.
Provost Mergler has a link on
her web page about emergency procedures, which includes information on what to
do about disruptive students (see www.ou.edu/provost/procedures). Faculty members have received information
from President Boren about students who are in need of assistance. A brochure called “Helping Students in
Distress: Tips for Faculty & Staff” is available from Counseling and
Testing Services. Instructors are asked
to be sensitive to students who are in need and to be aware of the emergency
procedures.
In August, Prof. Bruce
Granger passed away. He was on the
faculty with the English department 1953-83 and was chair of the Faculty Senate
1962-63. We remember him.
Because of state revenue
shortfalls, the University was asked in August to reduce its budget by $1
million. That did not result in any
immediate problems because the administration had set aside some money. President Boren said he could handle further revenue
shortfalls, provided they are not dramatic.
The legislature is considering whether to call a special session and
whether to tap the Rainy Day fund.
Natural gas revenues are below the projections, and the state is heavily
dependent on natural gas revenues. The administration
is monitoring the situation very closely and developing strategies. Furloughs do not look likely for this year.
In discussions with UOSA and
Staff Senate, UOSA identified academic misconduct practices and policies as a
potential issue on which the UOSA and Faculty Senate could partner. The Staff Senate and UOSA are interested in
working with the Faculty Senate on green issues. The Staff Senate also is very concerned about
the impact of budget reductions and changes to the health insurance benefits
for active employees as well as retirees.
Some changes in federal
funding may make it possible to modify the compensation that professors receive
on federal grants. We might want to ask
the research cabinet and Faculty Compensation Committee to explore what possibilities
exist but try not to create disparities.
Another issue that the Faculty
Senate might want to address is research on campus. An external review team was on campus
recently and made some suggestions about best practices with regard to
research. Vice President for Research Lee
Williams has been invited to come to the December senate meeting to talk about
research and the responsible conduct of research training. Several concerns have been raised about the
content, cost, and requirements of the training.
Other issues can be submitted
to the Faculty Senate office. The senate
The meeting adjourned at 4:37
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, October 12, 2009, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
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Amy Bradshaw, Faculty Secretary