MINUTES—September 11, 2006



MINUTES—SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

East Tennessee State University

2011-2012 Faculty Senate

| UPCOMING MEETING: | FOLLOWING MEETING: |

|September 26, 2010 2:45 p.m. |October 3, 2010 2:45 pm |

|Forum, Culp Center |Forum, Culp Center |

Present: Sally Blowers, Wesley Buerkle, Doug Burgess, Randy Byington, Sandy Calhoun, Sharon Campbell, Charles Collins, Bruce Dalton, Mohamed Elgazzar, Emma Todd, Susan Epps, Emmett Essin, William Fisher, Virginia Foley, Allan Forsman, Rosalind Gann, David Harker, Jim Kelley, Ken Kellogg, Tom Laughlin, Kurt Loess, Theresa McGarry, Bob Morgan, Brent Morrow, Jerome Mwinyelle, Brian Odle, Alan Peiris, Tami Pearson, Kelly Price, Delanna Reed, Aimee Rowe, Thomas Schacht, Eric Sellers, Melissa Shafer, Jerry Shuttle, Bill Stone, Jerry Taylor, Paul Trogen, Kesheng Wang, Teressa Wexler, Meng-Yang Zhu, and Ron Zucker

Excused: Dave Arnall, Jim Bitter, Tom Ecay, Ron Hamdy, Evelyn Hammonds, Rick Hess and Lorianne Mitchell

Guests: Past President Champouillon

CALL TO ORDER: President Schacht called the meeting to order at 2:48 p.m.

President Schacht asked for a motion that the minutes from previous meetings be approved. Senator Emmett Essin made the motion to approve the minutes. The motion was 2nd by Senator Sandy Calhoun. The minutes were approved.

Salary Equity Task Force Recap

President Schacht

Salary Equity Task Force established as a result of state of the faculty report analyzing the faculty salary situation sent out last spring by President Schacht. The faculty members on this committee include: President Schacht, Kurt Loess, Mike Zavada. Benchmarks for salary comparison were evaluated.

The current benchmark is composed of a data base which includes mainly non-doctorial institutions. The following benchmark following requirements for the benchmark comparison institutions was decided upon: 1. Doctorial institutions or higher, as classified by the Carnegie Classification, 2. At least 80% of ETSU’s size in terms of enrollment., 3. Omitting those institutions who have received AAUP Censure., and 4. omitting any institutions that were overly specialized.

It was then decided we needed a more complex benchmark due to the fact that the institutions in the first group lacked our focus on health sciences and were not as similar to us as we would have liked; therefore a secondary list of institutions were composed to whose budgets were similar with exclusion that we include no community college systems and no system offices that were composed of purely administrative personnel. This gives a second data base of about sixty institutions.

Finally, a third data base was derived simply by asking faculty for institutional lists based on the comparison of their discipline which gave a list of institution. So we have a three tier process for calculating the equity pay depending upon the faculty’s discipline and which system works best for it.

Update on on meeting with TBR general counsel re: academic freedom and shared governance resolution.

Jim Bitter met with Christine Modisher and Paula Short regarding Academic Freedom extension to Shared Governance. We were told our policy which was signed by President Stanton and sent to TBR for adoption would not be approved by legal counsel. Counsel was willing to support the concept but narrowly defines shared governance as a university group functions. See Policy: 5:02:03:30 changes in red.

Senator Stone asked where would research fall into this policy

President Schacht replied that research was already covered under the policy and that the proposed addition serves to extend the freedoms and responsibilities to shared governance.

Senator Laughlin asked if we would be covered if we were in a public meeting such as SGA or city council.

President Schacht replied that we would not be covered if we were in attendance at a city council meeting.

Senator Kellogg stated that this fact seemed illogical since we are representing a public institution and everything that is stated in shared governance meetings is public domain.

Senator Stone asked what additional freedoms would we want and how would we want to reword it.

Senator Collins questioned if the policy just does not give us enough freedom.

Senator Burgess expressed that there is a fine line between slander and liable issues and the first amendment issue.

Senator Blowers questioned if we would be jeopardizing the approval of the policy if we changed any of it?

After much debate, Senator Collins made the motion to accept TBRs language as it stands. The motion was 2nd by Bob Morgan.

A call to vote on Senator Collins motion was made by President Schacht. The vote was 26 in Favor, 5 opposed, and 7 abstentions - the motion carried.

Senator Stone stated that he would like to see the terms “reasonable professional judgment” inserted into the policy.

Senator Byington asked, “Where do we have the ability to obtain the power to counter the power of the TBR counsel?”

Senator Stone made a motion that while we accept the language as it is, we also instruct Senator Bitter to negotiate the terms “reasonable and professional conduct be included in the policy. The motion was 2nd by Keith Green. President Schacht called for a vote on the motion proposed by Senator Stone. The vote was 22 in favor, 6 opposed and 10 abstentions.

A motion was made and 2nd to approve the language as written and include it to the faculty in handbook. Senator Schacht called for a vote on the motion to include the policy as written in the faculty hand book. The vote was 33 in favor, 0 opposed, and 5 abstentions. The motion was approved.

Update from VP Byington on the Dismissal Proceedings

A group of 11 faculty members and administrators were selected only from the list nominated by the Senate in the September 9, 2011 emergency session. All of the 11 were asked the approved questions regarding impartiality. The attorneys have been given the names. In addition, to the attorneys want to strike some of the proposed committee and have asked that others provide a CV.

DETERMINATION OF THE SENATE AGENDA FOR 2011-2012

Presidential Search Committee

President Schacht reminded the Senate of that the process had raised serious concerns with the search committee due to the time frame set up by the search firm to relay the candidate information to the committee and the time frame in which decisions had to be made regarding the candidates. President Schacht reminded us initially the committee was told that the candidates’ CV’s will be distributed on October 17 and no opportunity to do background work with the CV’s before a decision to select candidates must be made. On October 17 the committee will meet, see the applications, and make a decision on that day as to what names would be sent to the chancellor. Selection of candidates will be recommended to TBR chancellor before the campus interviews are held. Two days later on site interviews will be held. The results in the campus interviews will have no bearing on the selected recommendations to the TBR chancellor.

President Schacht informed us that the TBR website for the candidates is up we have some candidates already applying. This means that it is possible for some of the vetting of the candidates may be done ahead of time. The potential number of candidates is estimated at 19. President Schacht asked for assistance in the vetting process and devising a standard questionnaire for vetting candidate positions. A signup sheet was distributed to achieve Senate volunteers for service on this committee.

Conflict Resolution – The tasks of this committee include: 1. handbook revision for dismissal, 2. merits of a campus ombudsman, 3. Draft a proposal to establish one at ETSU Potential administration members would be Tammy Hamm + Mary Jordan

Motion to form the committee was made by Jerry Taylor and 2nd by Ken Kellogg.

Discussion--

Senator Burgess stated the benefits of having an ombudsman resulted in less grievances, and more disputes arriving at a mutual agreement rather than escalating to a dismissal hearing or a grievance.

President Schacht expressed that there were flaws in the dismissal process that needed to be addressed and changed an example being that a lawyer could be present for the dismissed faculty member, but the lawyer can’t speak among others.

Past President Champouillon suggested that there should be a process of escalating disciplinary actions including: first counseled for their actions, next reprimand, then move against for dismissal.

President Schacht called for vote to establish the Conflict Resolution Committee. The motion passed with a unanimous vote.

A motion was made by Senator Pearson to merge Committees 8 and 9 (Impaired Colleague Committee and Faculty Professional Conduct Committee with Conflict Resolution Committee Senator Essin seconded the motion.

Discussion

Senator Kellogg stated that merging 1 and 8 would be acceptable but that Committee 9 had a different focus and he would not be in favor of merging it with 1 and 8.

Senator Emma agreed and made a motion that the merger between committee 1 and 8 proceed but that committee 9 be left out of the merger which Senator Byington 2nd .

President Schacht called for a vote on Senator Emma’s motion. The vote proceeded with 33 in favor, 1 opposed, and 4 abstentions. The motion passed.

Senator Schacht called a vote on motion to merge 1 and 8

Vote proceeded with 35 in favor, 1 opposed and 2 abstentions. The motion to merge committee 1 with committee 8 passed.

Model Departmental By-Laws as modeled in Biology

Senator Trogen made a motion to create a committee for developing departmental by-laws. This motion was 2nd by Senator Delanna Reed. A call to vote on the motion was made by President Schacht. The vote proceeded with 30 in favor, 3 opposed and 5 abstentions. The motion passed to establish a committee to examine the possibility of departmental by laws.

Issue 3 Assessment of Instruction Committee

Kirkwood – delegating 3 members to assist

The following Senators expressed interest in serving on this ad hoc committee:

Senator Susan Epps

Senator Delanna Reed

Senator Ron Zucker

Senator Theresa McGarry

Senator Ken Kellogg

Senator Charles Collins

Senator Allan Forsman

NEXT MEETING

Academic Integrity Task Force--Jeff Howard –

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 a.m.

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Please notify Senator Sharon Campbell (campbese@etsu.edu or x92029), Faculty Senate Secretary, 2011-2012, of any changes or corrections to the minutes. Web Page is maintained by Senator Doug Burgess (burgess@etsu.edu or x96691).

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