As of 1-8-02
STATUS OF ISSUES BROUGHT TO THE FACULTY SENATE
(September 2001-May 2002)
|
Origin |
Item |
Responsible |
Status |
|
President |
Revise Faculty Handbook concerning internal senior hires and administrative hires. There is currently no process for targeted internal hires for either senior administrative positions or faculty chairs/professorships. |
Faculty Compensation Committee |
FCC recommendations under review by executive committee |
|
Faculty Senate |
Salaries: Compression/inversion of mid-career faculty, salaries below national average, the way to get raises is to get a job offer. |
Faculty Compensation Committee |
FCC recommendations to be voted on by Faculty Senate |
|
President |
Nominate faculty to task force for student retention and advising. |
Roger Harrison nominated. Task force as sub-committee of exec. comm. to study faculty issues. |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Faculty definition--non-tenured or tenure track--e.g. renewable term. Representation for renewable term, interdisciplinary, graduate faculty who are staff or non-OU employees There are a number of non-tenure track faculty who are not represented either on the faculty senate or the staff senate. |
Formed sub-committee with Ed Cline as chair. |
Sub-committee recommendations under review by executive committee |
|
Faculty Senate |
Legislative relations. We are developing initiatives to get closer and more personal relationships with legislators. |
Formed ad hoc committee chaired by Greg Kunesh |
Legislator visits to campus 11/13 and 12/6 |
|
Faculty Senate |
Faculty/staff exercise and wellness facility. |
Scheduled to be a part of the stadium expansion per President commitment. |
President's comment 9/8/01 |
|
Faculty Senate |
Travel per diem. |
Travel per diem rates will now be determined by the GSA rate or federal standard rate |
Complete |
|
Faculty Senate |
Form research policies task force. Policy issues: quicker authority to hire outside contractors, fund junior faculty fellowships with private funds, reinstate senior faculty fellowships (replaced with Presidential Professorships?), raise limit on equipment that needs regents approval, graduate fellowships, research on human subjects, etc. The Research Council feels that they have too much work to add this to their agenda. |
Referred to Research Council. Forming sub-committee chaired by E. Laurette Taylor to establish working arrangements. |
Reviewed issue with Lee Williams. |
|
Faculty Senate |
White paper on on-line class notes. |
Information Technology Council |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Pocket directory for hand-held palm for OU. Include departments and administrative offices in the on-line phone directory. |
Information Technology Council |
|
|
Info. Technology |
E-mail policy. Privacy, ownership, etc. |
Information Technology Council |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Cost of local phone service for faculty (switch to cell phones). Phone charges, especially international long distance, are much higher than commercial rates. Why? |
Information Technology Council |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Revive Campus Planning Council. The campus planning council has had little business and no input to long range planning for campus facilities. |
Schwarzkopf |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Revise Faculty Welfare Committee/Faculty Compensation Committee charges. Roles and needs have changed. |
FWC and FCC |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Make a Faculty Welfare Committee member an ex officio voting member of Employment Benefits Committee (or handle internally). Need to assure that changes in benefits are also considered by the senate. |
Welfare Committee. Currently not an issue since David Carnevale is serving on both committees. |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
OU Child Care facility. Very high quality child care is scarce. This is a retention issue for both faculty and students |
Under review by Faculty Welfare Committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
High out-of-pocket health expenses. |
Faculty Welfare Committee |
Surveyed faculty and staff |
|
Faculty Senate |
Form benefits oversight committee. Promised by Brian Maddy |
VP for Administration |
|
|
Provost |
Feedback on accreditation study. |
Re-accreditation team on campus the last week of October. |
Complete |
|
Faculty Senate |
Provost's policy on spousal hires and targeted hires of minority faculty. |
|
Reviewed with provost. Suspension of central funding is temporary. Existing funds allocated to this year's raise. |
|
Faculty Senate |
Tuition/fee waivers for employee dependents. Has been requested a number of times. |
Staff Senate proposal included in 12/01 Faculty Senate minutes |
Under review by administration. Estimated cost: $100,000 |
|
Internal Auditing |
Revisions in IP policy. Add a review committee reporting to the regents. |
Executive committee |
Approved by OU Regents 12/01 |
|
Faculty Senate |
Deadline for adding a course. Shorten the time for students to freely add/drop from two weeks to one week at the beginning of the semester. |
|
Approved by Faculty Senate |
|
Faculty Senate |
Tenure for faculty who are half-time. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Substantive issues concerning discrimination/harassment grievance policy. |
Rick Tepker and Legal Counsel to propose language |
Proposed language under review by executive committee |
|
Faculty Senate |
Social Security numbers on grade sheets. Concern about identity theft. |
Information Technology Council |
|
|
Provost |
Form task force to revise policy on classroom behavior (including cell phone usage). There is currently no guideline in the Faculty Handbook that specifies faculty rights or process for controlling disruptive behavior such as cell phone use in class. Suggest that faculty include a statement in the syllabus. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Difficulties in obtaining sufficient number of textbook for classes. |
Executive committee |
Met with bookstore |
|
Faculty Senate |
Faculty governance in Tulsa. |
Executive committee |
Tulsa's proposal under review by executive committee |
|
Faculty Senate |
Student/faculty ratio. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Better perks needed: free tuition and fees for family, free or reduced fees to campus facilities (Huston Huffman, golf), larger discounts to events, free parking. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Greater publicity of OU as a research facility. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Graduate students: resources for recruiting, competitive stipends, fellowships, library materials. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Establish an honor code that students will conduct themselves in an ethical manner concerning homework, exams, attendance, etc. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
Physical plant, e.g. broken elevators. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
OTRS "tax" should be explained during recruitment of new faculty. |
Executive committee |
Benefits office prepared a document for search committees that explains employee benefit contributions |
|
Faculty Senate |
Make faculty aware of instructional services available, e.g. word processing, graphic design. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Faculty Senate |
No coordinated effort to purchase media. |
On agenda for the executive committee |
|
|
Acad. Prog. Council |
Policy on approving on-line courses |
Subcommittee of Acad. Prog. Council |
|
|
Faculty Senate/NCA |
Deadline for notifying tenure candidates should be revised in Faculty Handbook |
Executive committee |
Revision to be voted on by Faculty Senate |
|
Faculty Senate |
On-line test files |
|
Faculty may remove exams by contacting SIN |