The University of Oklahoma (Norman campus)

Regular session – September 13, 1999 - 3:30 p.m. - Jacobson Faculty Hall 102

office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206 phone: 325-6789 FAX: 325-6782

e-mail: facsen@ou.edu web site: http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/

The Faculty Senate was called to order by Professor Hugh Benson, Chair.

__________________________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Announcements:

Senate members for 1999-00 and schedule of meetings

Faculty Senate and General Faculty parliamentarian

1998-99 annual council reports

Appointments to councils/committees/boards

Disposition by administration of Senate actions for 1998-99

Resources in Faculty Senate office

Search committee, College of Business dean

Faculty/staff picnic

Reception for Provost Mergler

1999-00 Campus Departmental Review Panel

Senate Chair's Report

Election, councils/committees/boards

__________________________________________________________________________

 APPROVAL OF JOURNAL

The Senate Journal for the regular session of May 3, 1999, was approved.

A list of the Faculty Senate members is attached (Appendix I). The new members were introduced at the meeting.

The regular meetings of the Faculty Senate for 1999-00 will be held at 3:30 p.m. on the following Mondays in Jacobson Faculty Hall 102: September 13, October 11, November 8, December 13, January 10, February 14, March 20, April 10, and May 1.

The Senate Executive Committee elected Prof. Peter Kutner (Law) as parliamentarian of the Faculty Senate and General Faculty.

The compilation of the 1998-99 annual reports of University councils was mailed August 6 to the Faculty Senate members and to chairs/directors and deans to make available to the general faculty. Copies are available from the Senate office.

The 1999-00 list of faculty appointments to committees was mailed to the general faculty August 26.

The summary record of the disposition by the administration of Faculty Senate actions for September 1998 to August 1999 is attached (Appendix II).

Academe and the University budget are available in the Senate office.

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee nominated Professors Trent Gabert (Health & Sport Sciences) and Lex Holmes (Economics) for the faculty-at-large position on the search committee for the dean of the College of Business. President Boren selected Prof. Holmes to serve on the committee.

The faculty/staff picnic will be held on Saturday, October 30. Further information will be distributed later.

All faculty are invited to attend a reception to thank Provost Mergler for her support for the University Libraries on Thursday, September 23, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the University Club of the Oklahoma Memorial Union.

The following faculty will serve on the 1999-00 Campus Departmental Review Panel: Owen Anderson (Law), Herman Curiel (Social Work), Jack Jordan (Art), Misha Nedeljkovich (Journalism & Mass Communication), Grayson Noley (Educ. Lead. & Policy Studies), Nim Razook (Marketing), Bret Wallach (Geography), and Pat Weaver-Meyers (University Libraries). The panel also will include four deans. Twelve units in humanities and social sciences will be reviewed this year.

The Senate agendas and journals will be distributed electronically now. Recipients will be notified by e-mail that the agenda or journal is on the web page. Those who prefer a hard copy may contact the Senate office.

Usually, the President gives a State of the University address at the first meeting, but he is unable to attend until November. Also, the orientation that is often held at the first meeting was done at a separate meeting.

Prof. Benson discussed a few of the things that happened over the summer. The OU Regents approved the post-tenure review policy in the form described at the May meeting. The first round of reviews will take place this year. The Regents approved the creation of the research professor position that the Senate approved last year. The president was able to find room in the budget for an average 3% raise for faculty, staff, and graduate assistants. The raise goes into effect in October. Prof. Benson met with Provost Mergler, Assistant to the Provost Greg Heiser, and student government leaders to discuss an alternative to a dead week proposal. The students are aware of the difficulty of having a dead week, given State Regents’ policy concerning the length of the semester. The students now are considering various alternatives and may bring a proposal to the Senate in the next few months. Three finalists for the Vice President for Research and Graduate Dean position were selected by the search committee. Kingsley Haynes was on campus September 7, Larry Lemanski will be here September 16, and Lee Williams will interview September 21. Prof. Benson said, "This is an important decision for all of us, and I encourage you to come to the meetings to express your views to the candidates."

Turning to issues facing the Senate for this year, Prof. Benson said salaries for faculty, staff, and graduate assistants must, in his view, continue to be a high priority, and we must continue to re-enforce this point. Salary increases should not be thought of as what gets funded if we can afford it. Salaries should be considered a "cost-to-continue." New faculty members are being hired at reasonable salaries. However, some of the strides we have made in faculty salary have put pressure on compression and inversion problems. He encouraged the senators to poll their colleagues about the salary issues that are important and voice their views at the meetings. The Executive Committee has the opportunity to give input to the President and Provost on which salary priorities-- merit, across-the-board, and/or compression/inversion--are important to faculty.

Another major issue for this year is intellectual property. Vice President for Technology Development Skip Porter will be at the October Faculty Senate meeting to present his version of the patent and copyright policies. The main discussion of his version will be at the November meeting. This is the biggest issue that the Senate will face this year. A number of interests need to be protected, such as teaching, non-funded or less fundable research, basic research, and faculty, university, and state financial concerns. The State Regents may have a November deadline for these policies. He encouraged the senators to review the policies that the Faculty Senate approved last spring, which are on the web. Prof. Russell asked whether Vice President Porter planned to revise the policy significantly. If so, it would be useful for the Senate to get the proposal before the meeting. He also asked whether we had a committee to help review the proposal. Prof. Benson said he had explained to Vice President Porter that the Senate would discuss the policy after the Senate had seen it for a month. Prof. Benson will ask the task force that put together the Faculty Senate policy to review the proposal and make a recommendation. The Senate does not have to take a vote unless this body has seen it for a month. Prof. Kunesh said the Senate should have the right to discuss changes in the policy it passed. Prof. Russell commented that the administration should not want the policies to go to the regents without some level of Faculty Senate endorsement. These policies can have far-ranging impact on the way we conduct business. Prof. Schwarzkopf pointed out that part of the complication is that the State Regents have set a November deadline for receiving patent policies from state colleges. Prof. Mergler clarified that the regents have requested intellectual rights policies. Prof. Benson said no useful dialog or vote could take place at the same time at which the Senate receives the report. Prof. Sutton noted that the patent policy under which we are still operating is not as favorable to faculty as the one approved by the Senate. Prof. Benson will report these concerns to Dr. Porter.

The final issue facing the Senate is funding priorities, including salaries; information technology; library; increase in faculty positions; space for research, teaching, and offices; employee benefits; start-up costs; and recruiting graduate students. This is a zero-sum game. It is not likely that all of those things will get increases in funding. The President and Provost want to know what the faculty view is on these funding priorities. Prof. Benson encouraged the senators to ask their colleagues about these priorities. Also, he encouraged senators to send in other issues that should be addressed this year.

Prof. Kenderdine announced that the September 9 New York Times had an article about a new Internet venture, called studentu.com, that is hiring students to take lecture notes and post them to the web. So far, only four classes at OU have notes posted, but there have already been some serious repercussions, particularly from faculty who teach courses where they share their thinking on new ideas and research that they are doing or where they express professional opinions about geopolitical situations. The issue is who owns the intellectual property rights to class notes, to what extent we give students a license to use those notes, and how far that license may go. Some faculty members in the Business College are including a statement in their syllabi that students have a license to use the notes but not reproduce or distribute them without prior permission.

Prof. Kunesh mentioned an article in the September 10 Norman Transcript concerning the condition of the state teachers’ retirement system. By the year 2010, our retirements will be in serious jeopardy. He said we should work cooperatively with our administration, other state colleges and universities, and public schools and have a standing or special committee look into cooperative efforts with colleagues around the state and encourage the legislature to address the issue as soon as possible. Prof. Russell added that when the cap is removed in 2002, we will pay 7% on all our earnings. For some, that will more than double their contribution to OTRS.

The Senate approved the following nominations of the Senate Committee on Committees to fill vacancies on Faculty Senate, University, and Campus Councils, Committees and Boards.

To replace Jayne Fleener, 1999-00 term

Ed Cline (Mathematics)

To replace Richard Marshment, 1997-00 term

Trent Gabert (Health & Sport Sciences)

To replace Roger Rideout, 1997-00 term

Katharine Leigh (Interior Design)

To replace Cameron Wesson, 1999-01 term

Frank McQuarrie (Instr. Lead. & Acad. Curr.)

To replace Susan Caldwell, 1997-00 term

Karen Hayes-Thumann (Art)

To replace Ed Marek, 1999-00 term

Robert Rundstrom (Geography)

To replace Bonnie Konopak, 1996-00 term

William Ortiz-Leduc (Botany & Microbiology)

To replace Ko Yukihiro, 1996-00

Avi Scherman (Educational Psychology)

To replace George Emanuel, 1998-02 term

Ed O’Rear (Chem. Engr. & Mat. Sci.)

To replace Dave Egle, 1998-02 term

Farland Stanley (Classics)

To replace Bill Patten, 1998-01 term

Rich Mallinson (Chem. Engr. & Mat. Sci.)

To replace Shane Moriarity, 1999-02 term

Robin Overmier (Library & Info. Studies)

The meeting adjourned at 4:12 p.m. The next regular session of the Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, October 12, 1999, in Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.

____________________________________

Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator

____________________________________

William H. Sutton, Secretary

Appendix I

The University of Oklahoma (Norman campus)

* New member ** Re-elected member

Appendix II

*Full text of recommendation can be found in Faculty Senate Journal for date indicated at left