The University of Oklahoma (Norman campus)
Regular session – October 10, 2011 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail: facsen@ou.edu website: http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Georgia Kosmopoulou, Chair.
PRESENT: Adams,
Apanasov, Ayres, Baer, Bemben, Bergey, Buckley, Burns, Chang, Chapple, Chiodo, Cox-Fuenzalida,
Devegowda, Ellis, Fagg, Grady, Gramoll, Hahn, Jean-Marie, Keresztesi, Kimball, Klein,
Kosmopoulou, Leseney, Loon, Marsh-Matthews, McPherson, Minter, Morvant, Moses, Nelson,
A. Palmer, G. Palmer, Park, Ransom, Soreghan, Stoltenberg, Tabb, Taylor, Vehik,
Verma, Williams, Wydra, Zhang, Zhu
Provost's office representative: Mergler
Graduate College liaison: Griffith
ISA representatives: Cook, Hough
ABSENT: Morrissey,
Moxley, Natale, Stock, Xiao
________________________________________________________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Tobacco-free campus committee
2011-12 Academic Program Review Committee
Oklahoma Women in Higher Education conference
Benefits:
defined contribution plans management
Museum of Art website for faculty
Remarks by vice president for Research
Remarks by director of Museum of Art
Sooner Ally
Institutional Review Board electronic submission system
Election, councils/committees/boards
Senate Chair's Report:
Unit representation on Faculty Senate
Faculty issues and concerns
Parking for faculty on game days
Ozone, information technology issues
Security scans of computers
Tobacco-free campus
Work-life balance discussion
________________________________________________________________________________
The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of September 12, 2011 was approved.
President Boren appointed the
following faculty to serve on the committee to make recommendations on
implementing a policy for a tobacco-free campus: Cecelia Brown (Library & Information
Studies), Michael Givel (Political Science), and Hank Jenkins-Smith (Political
Science).
The following faculty will
serve on the 2011-12 Academic Program Review Committee: Michael Biggerstaff (Meteorology), Aimee
Franklin (Political Science), Kae Koger
(Drama), Jeff Schmidt (Marketing & Supply Chain Management), David Schmidtke (Chemical, Biological & Materials
Engineering), and Alan Velie (English). The panel also will include Associate Dean
Rich Hamerla (Honors College), Associate Dean Barry Weaver (College of Earth
& Energy), and Graduate Council representative Kimball Milton (Physics
& Astronomy). The units to be
reviewed are Chemistry & Biochemistry, Educational Leadership & Policy
Studies, Educational Psychology, Instructional Leadership & Academic
Curriculum, Law, Liberal Studies, International & Area Studies, Native
American Studies, and Women’s & Gender Studies.
The Oklahoma Women in Higher
Education conference will be held Friday, November 18, at the University of
Central Oklahoma. The keynote speaker
will be Dr. Patricia Cormier. Further
information is available at www.okwhe.org.
During the transition to
Fidelity Investments for the defined contribution plans, account balances in
TIAA-CREF will not be transferred to Fidelity unless the employee elects to
transfer them. However, as of October 31,
future contributions must be directed to investments in the Fidelity lineup.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of
Art added a new page to their website specifically for faculty: http://www.ou.edu/content/fjjma/getInvolved/ou-faculty.html. The page has
information about resources at the museum, how to schedule a class visit, and
upcoming events. Jessica Farling, Coordinator of Academic Programs, is
available to help instructors get in touch with museum staff members, create a
tour that meets their curricular needs, or hear their new ideas. Contact her at
jrfarling@ou.edu or 325-5990.
REMARKS BY VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH
KELVIN DROEGEMEIER
Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, Vice President
for Research (VPR), provided an update on research activities (slides available
from the Faculty Senate office). On
September 22, the annual state of Norman campus research was held (see http://vpr-norman.ou.edu/presentations/state-norman-campus-research-2011). Challenges
to research and creative activity include a flat or declining federal agency
research budget, retaining our best and brightest faculty, and making sure
teaching and research are synergistic.
Last year was a very good year in terms of research. The NOAA Cooperative Institute was renewed
($75 million over a five-year period), a $25 million GEAR-UP grant was awarded
by the Department of Education, a $10.7 million grant from the Intelligence
Advanced Research Project was received, and the Corix
Institute for sustainability research was created. Strategic initiatives started in 2003 are
making a very substantial difference in our yearly expenditures. It is not all about money. Our faculty members have won Guggenheim
fellowships, Fulbright scholarships, Lew Hunter award, and Golden Palm award,
published articles in Nature and Science, and produced numerous books and
journal articles. These activities show
the breadth of scholarship across all disciplines. Last year, when we were well into the Aspire
2020 planning activity, Dr. Droegemeier said he wanted to create a center to
help faculty members be successful in scholarship regardless of their
discipline. He wanted to enhance the
visibility of research and incentivize and reward success in very tangible
ways. Most of the goals have been
achieved. Fourteen challenge grants,
providing up to $100,000, were funded. The
Center for Research Program Development & Enrichment was created and is
growing. The research liaison program
was launched. A new incentives and
rewards program is being created. The
Research Council portfolio was overhauled to make it more responsive to faculty
needs. The VPR created a faculty awards
program. He is trying to build our
undergraduate research program and help with start-up packages for new faculty
hires. Aspire 2020 has been under way
for about 18 months. For each one of the
three strategy areas, Dr. Droegemeier indicated the progress that had been made. A two-year assessment will be done in the
spring.
The role of the Research
Council is to evaluate and support proposals that are submitted and to be an advisory
body to the president and the VPR on research matters. Dr. Droegemeier created an ad hoc committee
to review the funding portfolio and compare it with other institutions. What the committee found was the programs
were confusing and too prescriptive. The
committee made a lot of suggestions, which the council has been discussing. The Research Council came up with a
streamlined portfolio: junior faculty fellowship
program, book publication subvention program, travel support, and the faculty
investment program (FIP), which will contain all other funding opportunities and
will have a budget $5000 higher than before.
The FIP does not require faculty to obtain external funding as a goal, and
requests can be made for course release.
The Center for Research Program Development & Enrichment (CRPDE),
led by Alicia Knoedler, can help faculty develop
competitive proposals. In developing the
concept of the new Research Council portfolio, Dr. Droegemeier had a lot of
discussion with various groups. The Research
Council will vote October 17, and the new program will be rolled out in
November.
In addition, the Research
Council has developed a conflict of interest policy for reviewing
proposals. In the past, the council has
operated with integrity but without a formal policy. To be consistent with national norms of
ethical behavior and to be able to defend its recommendations for funding, the
VPR and the council thought it was important to create a formal policy. The key points are Research Council members
may not request council funding during their term of service, and they must
recuse themselves if they believe their participation would compromise the
integrity of the process. Faculty who
submit a proposal will have to disclose a potential conflict. Two council members will review each proposal,
and at least one reviewer will have to be un-conflicted and familiar with the
topic area. Non-council members who know
the subject matter may be asked to review a proposal if a conflict exists (but
they would not vote). Those who receive
funding would have to agree to review three proposals within a two-year period if
asked. The proposed process would mean
the council would be operating with the highest levels of integrity. With the help of the CRPDE, faculty members
are likely to submit more competitive proposals.
Prof. Nelson noted that some
additional criteria are used at the national level (e.g., co-authoring a paper,
co-organizing a symposium). Dr. Droegemeier
said the council members want to operate with the proposed criteria first and
then re-visit the issue to decide if they want to do more. Prof. Grady asked if the council would require
an outside reviewer for the FIP and if that reviewer would be at the meeting. Dr. Droegemeier said the council could ask
for an outside reviewer if no member is familiar with the subject matter or if
a member familiar with the subject is conflicted. Non-Research Council reviewers would not be
at the meeting and would not vote but could call in to participate in the discussion. They would be given guidelines on how to
review a proposal. Prof. Jean-Marie
asked whether the faculty would be given more information about the programs
contained in the FIP. Dr. Droegemeier
said each program would have its own page.
The junior faculty fellowship program is basically the same except the
budget was increased. The book
publication and open access subvention program is available but is a work in
progress. The faculty travel support program
is somewhat similar to the current one-third program. However, in the travel grant program, funds
will be divided equally across 12 months, and proposals may not be submitted
more than two months in advance. In the
past, the funding was given on a first-come-first-served basis, and the funds
were depleted by March. Prof. Burns pointed
out that many disciplines have annual meetings in summer; less money will be available
than in the past. Dr. Droegemeier said
the change may not solve all the problems, but he wants to take this first step
and see how it goes. About $70,000-80,000
was added to the budget.
The Center for Applied
Research and Development was created for applied research and development projects. James Grimsley was
hired half-time to be its director. The CRPDE
has two new staff members: Nancy Devino, who is in Tulsa and can help faculty develop their
research programs and proposals for support, and Todd Fuller, who has a Ph.D.
in English and can help the arts and humanities faculty.
Through the research
liaisons, Dr. Droegemeier is mapping the research and creative activity
thematically. He created two $2500 VPR
awards for outstanding research engagement and outstanding research impact. The faculty leadership academy is intended to
help faculty members develop their leadership capabilities. A lot has been accomplished in the last year
and a half. The emphasis for the next
few years will be on the defense, security and intelligence arena, particularly
for faculty in the humanities, on national centers, on a couple of additional
core areas of interaction with the Health Sciences Center, and on one or two
more research pillars, besides weather and climate. Dr. Droegemeier thanked the faculty for
working so hard. Research is not just
about the money; it is about the scholarly output. Going forward, he wants to unlock the
potential of the faculty and remove the barriers. He needs the good ideas and continued support
of the faculty. Faculty may email any
questions to him.
REMARKS BY GHISLAIN D’HUMIERES, DIRECTOR
OF FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART
Prof. Ghislain d’Humieres
said he has been the director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art for four
years. The new Stuart wing of the museum
will open on October 22. On October 23,
a free community program will feature artist demonstrations and musical
entertainment. Admission is free to the
public both days. The new wing will
house the Adkins collection, the largest collection of western and Native
American art in the country. In addition,
the original 1971 building was rehabilitated, the museum staff now has
administrative offices, and a new library/education room can be used by faculty
who want to teach an art-related class. Prof.
d’Humieres would like to reach out to units that are not art-related and offer
some collaborative programs. For this
reason, he created a new position, coordinator of academic programs, to find
ways faculty members can use the museum in their disciplines. He distributed a calendar of events, which is
online, an invitation to the opening of the Stuart wing, and a flyer announcing
a faculty workshop. He noted that the
museum is part of the OU Arts District.
Almost every night something is going on in the arts district, and many
of the events are free.
Jessica Farling, the new
coordinator of academic programs, explained that the faculty workshops will allow
faculty to learn more about the museum’s permanent collection. On November 10 Prof. Alan Atkinson (Art) will
talk about the Asian art collection and give a tour. Director of education Susan Baley will guide faculty in how to incorporate the
collection into the curriculum. The
workshop is free, but registration is required.
Prof. d’Humieres commented that when Ms. Farling was a student at OU,
she created the Art Museum Ambassador to involve students from every college in
art. Between Christmas and New Year, the
museum is open and free. Prof. Apanasov asked
whether the faculty workshops would be held on Thursday afternoons. Ms. Farling said they could try a different
time if Thursday at 4:00 was not convenient for the faculty. Prof. Moses commented that it is a wonderful
museum, with a lot of paintings from the Taos Society of Artists and other
western art. He asked Prof. d’Humieres
to characterize the size of our collection.
Prof. d’Humieres said we have one of the best collections of Taos art in
the world. Two years ago, the museum received
an additional 4,000 works of art, the Bialac
collection, which is the largest collection of contemporary Native American art
in the country. These collections will
provide endless possibility of study for the students, not only art students. Further information is available at http://www.ou.edu/fjjma.html
Sooner Ally
Ms. Kathy Moxley, director of
the Women’s Outreach Center, said her office provides programming for women on
our campus in areas that disproportionately affect women, such as dating
violence, eating disorders, and wage equity.
Another program administered by her office is the Sooner Ally faculty program,
which offers training in ways to make Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and
Queer (LGBTQ) students feel safe, supported and included on campus. Prof. John Covaleskie (Educational Leadership
& Policy Studies) pointed out that he has a widget on his course management
website that indicates he is an Ally. Students
can click on the widget and get information about the program. Ms. Moxley showed a video that gave a brief
overview of the program. She said the
Ally program had been in existence since 2007 and was started because of a perception
gap. LGBTQ students who come here may assume
the campus is hostile. In general, the
experience of LGBTQ students is positive.
The Ally program helps bridge that gap in that it helps educate the
straight community on how to be better allies and it identifies the supportive people
on campus. Training lasts three
hours. Over 500 people have gone through
the training. Together with the faculty
advisory board, she realized that some specific training was needed for
faculty. Dr. Covaleskie said the
faculty-specific training shifted from informational sessions to case studies, focusing
on the kind of issues that the faculty is likely to face. LGBTQ students may have to deal with hostile
situations. It is helpful for them to
know if their instructors are allies. The
faculty-specific training program gives faculty the opportunity to talk with
other faculty across disciplines and brainstorm about appropriate responses to
situations. At this point, the program
is trying to build awareness and encourage faculty to go through the ally
training. Approximately 80 faculty members
have been trained so far. Ms. Moxley said
the program needed allies, especially in the hard sciences. It is a sense of safety, security, and acceptance
when a student knows there are allies in a particular department or college. The next faculty training is November
15. To register, email LGBTQ@ou.edu. A regular Ally
training on the Tulsa campus will be held October 12. If it is successful, Ms. Moxley hopes to
provide a faculty version in the Tulsa area.
Prof. Baer asked whether the
training could be scheduled into shorter time periods. Many instructors have difficulty fitting a three-hour training into their schedules. Ms. Moxley said she would look at breaking the
training into a two-part session or an evening or weekend session. She noted that a regular session would be
held on Sunday, November 20. Prof. Chapple
suggested a hybrid workshop with some face-to-face training and some webinar. Ms. Moxley said she would consider that; however,
the training is very interactive. Prof. Leseney
asked if the center had any materials that that could be taken out on
recruitment trips or sent to prospective students. Ms. Moxley said her office has a brochure
that is LGBTQ-specific and talks about the programs on campus.
Institutional
Review Board’s electronic submission system (iRis)
Ms. Donna Lewis, Compliance
outreach coordinator, discussed the new electronic system (iRis)
for submitting research studies to the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The new system will make it easier to submit
materials, and the turnaround time between submission and approval will be much
quicker. Instead of carrying stacks of
paper to the IRB office, researchers will be able to upload their documents. Initially, the training on iRis was going to roll out on September 20. During testing they found some things that
needed to be optimized. She said she is
hopeful the training will be held the last two weeks of October. The system is role based and will be oriented
to what a faculty member does. The
faculty will do the majority of its work in the Study Assistant section, which
is very similar to the online grant application systems. Various browsers may be used. If a researcher wants to add a new study, the
system asks basic questions and then flows to questions tailored to the
researcher’s specific research. It is an
enterprise application that will work on every OU campus.
Ms. Faustina Layne, director
of the office of Human Research Participant Protection/IRB, added that the new
studies submission will go on iRis first,
and continuing reviews and amendments will be gradually added. There will be different opportunities for
training, not just one on one, but online and departmental training. Ms. Lewis said faculty will be able to get
hands-on instruction with computers. The
in-class sessions will be broken into two separate modules, each one two hours
long. Part one will cover new
applications, how to get familiar with iRis, how to
set up account information, how to customize the system, and how to do basic
interactions with the system. Part two
will cover items associated with the submission life cycle, such as a
continuing review, human research determination worksheet and other
supplemental forms, and a review response form.
Information in parts one and two will be provided as activity packets on
the website, and the training will be broadcast via video hookup. She said she wanted to make this a smooth
transition. The Norman campus will be
trained first. When the system is ready
for implementation, she will send out a notification.
Prof. Ayres said it is
difficult to find the link to the IRB from OU’s home page. Ms. Lewis said the link to iRis will be on the IRB website, but she will try to get it
in other significant places to make it easy to find. There will be a URL for the Norman campus and
one for the Health Sciences Center. Prof.
Taylor agreed that it is difficult to find the IRB page. She suggested that the link be included on
the faculty/staff page. Prof. Griffith said
it would be helpful to have it included in the list on OU’s home page. Prof. Jean-Marie asked whether there would be
a separate URL for the Tulsa faculty. Ms.
Lewis replied that the Tulsa Norman-based people will go to the Norman campus
link, and the medical people will go to the Health Sciences Center link. If someone gets confused, the system will ask
questions that will send the submission to the appropriate campus.
The Faculty Senate approved
the Senate Committee on Committees’ nominations to fill vacancies on university
and campus councils, committees and boards (attached).
“We have made an effort to
provide direct representation in the Faculty Senate for each unit in the
University. If a unit has more than one
faculty senator representing it, we asked that one of the additional senators
accept responsibility for representing an unrepresented unit. We have listed here the senators who will
represent a unit other than their own. Thank
you for your willingness to help.
Classics
& Letters: Dan Ransom, English, djransom@ou.edu;
Communication:
Gus Palmer, Anthropology, gpalmer@ou.edu;
History:
Misha Klein, Anthropology, misha@ou.edu;
History
of Science: Edie Marsh-Matthews, Zoology, emarsh@ou.edu;
Human
Relations: Meijun Zhu, Mathematics, mzhu@ou.edu;
Library
& Information Studies: Anthony Natale, Social Work, anatale@ou.edu;
Philosophy: Liz
Bergey, Zoology, lbergey@ou.edu;
Political
Science: Tom Burns, Sociology, tburns@ou.edu;
Physics
& Astronomy: Donna Nelson, Chemistry & Biochemistry, djnelson@ou.edu.
“We started looking into some of the issues that were brought
up by members of the Senate this year. Some
of them are taken to our standing committees. For example the faculty compensation committee
is looking into the issue of compression/inversion; the faculty welfare
committee is discussing benefits and long-term parking issues.
“There was one issue on parking that
required immediate attention, and that was related to parking at Sarkeys on game days. For
the remainder of this season the parking in the A3 lot that is located south of
Sarkeys will be open for faculty members who are
coming for work on game days, on a first-come-first-served basis, as long as
they show a current parking permit. On
the parking website there is a map that shows the lots that are opened to
faculty and staff members on game days. The link to the map is: http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/Parking%20Services/images/GameDayPrking.pdf.
“The Senate executive committee met this past week
with Loretta Early, the Interim Vice President for Information Technology (IT),
and with representatives from WebComm, the Technical
Project Manager for oZone and the Vice President for
Enrollment and Student Financial Services to talk about IT and oZone and bring to their attention faculty concerns. Here is a link to the OUIT site that might
provide some useful information about how to contact OUIT and get help: http://www.ou.edu/content/ouit/aud/faculty.html. For technical information, please contact Eddie
Huebsch, Assistant Vice President, Technology Advancement, ehuebsch@ou.edu. For concerns about the design and layout of the oZone login and information pages, contact Lindsey Johnson,
Designer, Lindseyj@OU.edu. In addition, the Information Technology Council and
Loretta Early met and decided on a work plan for the three focus areas for the
year, namely, oZONE issues, Research Support and Classroom
Technology, such as lecture capture.
“I was asked about the current policy on computer
scans by a member of the Senate and received the following information from IT. There is a University policy that departments
must get approval to store sensitive or personally identifiable information
(PII) on their computers, such as social security numbers (SSNs) or financial
information, such as credit card or bank routing numbers. IT offers a “Seek-N-Secure” service to any
department that requests assistance in determining whether this type of
information is stored on their departmental computers. Results of the search that will take place
under “Seek-N-Secure” are shared only with the department’s designated
authority. If there are character patterns that indicate the presence of data,
such as SSNs, the department can request further review and additional efforts
to secure the data. IT does not capture or
store the information, nor do they delete or quarantine data from a
departmental or user’s system. If a
department suffers a security breach, IT will work closely with the department
and their departmental IT staff, if any, to assist them with incident notification
and remediation.
“On the tobacco free campus issue, Prof. Scott
Moses, the chair of the faculty welfare committee, and I wrote a letter to the
editor of the Oklahoma Daily on
September 16 saying we were pleased to see that the University of Oklahoma as a
community is having a serious discussion about smoking on our campus. We reiterated the fact that the Faculty
Senate passed a resolution in March 2010, with an expanded wellness resolution
in May 2011 supporting the decision to become a smoke/tobacco free campus. We
continue to support this initiative, of course implemented in a way that will
address special circumstances.
“Finally, I have
an announcement that came in late after we circulated the agenda: On Thursday, October 13, Katie Barwick-Snell
and Ginger Elliott Teague will host a drop-in lunch discussion focusing on
work-life balance. Discussion
will begin at 11:30.”
The meeting adjourned at 4:52
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, November 14, 2011, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
____________________________________
Fran Ayres, Faculty Secretary