The regular meeting of the Faculty Senate was held on February 4, 2015 at 3:00 P.M. in the Chao Auditorium, Ekstrom Library, Belknap Campus, Pamela Feldhoff presiding.
Senators Registering Attendance:
A&S: David Brown, Jennie Burnet, Carrie Donald, Jasmine Farrier, Karen Hadley, Greg Hutcheson, Ron Sahoo, David Simpson, Joseph Steffen, Beth Willey, Elaine Wise BUSINESS: Rob Barker, Ben Foster, Bruce Kemelgor, Robert Myers DENTISTRY: Ricardo Caicedo, Donald Demuth, Dave Willis EDUCATION: Monica Delano, Patrick Hardesty, Tom Simmons KENT: Seana Golder, Martin Hall LAW: Kurt Metzmeier, Luke Milligan, Enid Trucios-Haynes LIBRARIES: Carrie Daniels, Terri Holtze, Margo Smith MEDICINE: Yousef Abu-Kwaik, Forest Arnold, Eric Burton, Pamela Feldhoff, Guomin Jiang, Saeed Jortani, Kenneth Palmer, David Stirling, Michael Tseng MUSIC: Randi Boling NURSING: Heather Owens, Valerie McCarthy, Karen Singleton PART-TIME FACULTY: Joseph Gutmann, Rose Mills, Susan Peacock PUBLIC HEALTH: Ray Austin, Scott LaJoie SPEED: Roger Bradshaw, Kyung Kang, Kevin Walsh
Also Attending:
Ex Officio: Shirley Willihnganz, Allie Funk
Others: Tracy Eells, Mary Elizabeth Miles, Amy Shoemaker, Bob Stenger (ULARP)
Press: Janet Cappiello, UofL Today
Senators Not Registering Attendance:
DENTISTRY: Robert Staat EDUCATION: Caroline Sheffield KENT: Wanda Lott Collins MEDICINE: Luz Fernandez, Arun Gadre, Sham Kakar, Brad Keller, Jeffery King, Rainer Lenhardt Chin Ng MUSIC: Dror Biran, Krista Wallace-Boaz PART-TIME FACULTY: Donna Gaus, John Ritz, Michael Wade SPEED: J.P. Mohsen
CALL TO ORDER: – Feldhoff
ACTION ITEM: Consideration of the Minutes - Feldhoff
The minutes of the December 3, 2014 and January 7, 2015 meetings were both approved as amended.
REPORT: Student Government Association – Allie Funk
The Student Government Association elections started today and will run for 3 weeks. The Top 4 met and developed a 21st Century Student document of priorities. The SGA supports the Counseling Center’s move to Student Health to provide more confidentiality.
REPORT: Staff Senate – Ginger Brown
No report was made.
INFORMATION ITEM: A&S Bylaws revisions (Second Reading) – Metzmeier
This is the second reading of the revised A&S bylaws. There were no questions and no discussion. The revisions were unanimously approved.
INFORMATION ITEM: Title IX & Clery Act Mandatory Reporting Guidelines – Miles/Shoemaker
Federal regulations require tightened reporting on campus crimes (against students) for institutions participating in federal student financial aid programs. In an effort to ensure all faculty members are trained in what is mandated by the federal government, Mary Elizabeth Miles, UofL’s Title IX Officer, and Amy Shoemaker, a member of UofL’s legal counsel team, presented to the Faculty Senate today. Each faculty member is usually perceived by students to be a ‘responsible employee’ of the institution. If the student is in a difficult situation, it is reasonable for them to believe that a faculty member can help them in some way. If a student reports an incident (sexual harassment, violence, etc.) to a faculty member, it is imperative that the student be told that a report must be made. The faculty member then offers confidential resources on campus and online (brochure). After the resources have been offered to the student, the faculty member is then required to contact the Title IX Officer. There are three places to make reports: contact HR for incidents involving a staff or faculty perpetrator; contact the Dean of Students if the perpetrator is a student; and, contact the police for any other perpetrators (off campus). A lengthy discussion took place on the various scenarios that can fall under these requirements. Even if an incident took place off campus and years earlier, it must still be reported. The question was raised about holding GTAs to the same standard as full faculty members. UofL does not designate GTAs as ‘responsible employees’, though Resident Advisors are. Most senators felt that a student would reasonably believe the GTA to be a faculty member and that an orientation for GTAs/TAs should be developed. The faculty is not being asked to make any judgment calls about incidents, but, only to report anything that is told to them by a student. We are proactively implementing this to provide an environment that does not interfere with the students’ right to an education.
Title IX, a portion of the United States Education Amendments of 1972, states: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Further, the Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses. Compliance is monitored by the United States Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties against institutions for each infraction and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student financial aid programs.
INFORMATION ITEM: Annual report of the Faculty Grievance Officer – Trucios-Haynes
This report was available online.
INFORMATION ITEM: Annual Report of the University Ombudsman – Belak
This report was available online.
REPORT: University President and Provost – Dr. Shirley Willihnganz
The harassment reporting coming from the federal government on Title IX is an attempt to stop violence on campus. This will create other issues, but something has to be done, and this is it. It is difficult to balance the victim’s rights and catching a perpetrator. We will get a template to use on course syllabi. The Board of Trustees will be updated on 21st Century Initiatives at tomorrow’s meeting. The Provost met with 87 department chairs to discuss what direction the University should take. Areas of interest that were mentioned included: global health; environment and sustainability; big data; urban solution centers; art and culture; early childhood; aging and optimal aging; social justice and diversity; and STEM-health. There is still more vetting of this list and looks forward to more discussions. She is interested in lots of collaboration to make programs bigger, not smaller. The student mix has become a challenge. There are less high school students, meaning less college applicants and less tuition dollars. The proposed 2 years of free junior college could also dramatically change the student body. She has hired a part-time consultant to address international recruiting (of students) and how we can make their experience here a success. There is also a forum on February 27th to address the needs of gap students- current students who are unprepared for a successful college experience and need help making it through to graduation. The College of Education is moving ahead with programs to address the needs of adult learners with existing college credit, but no degree. The Healthcare Leadership degree will be the first completer degree to be offered. A technology incubator has been proposed. This would be a place for the development of commercial technology and for faculty to test new programming and machinery. She thanked all who helped on the Carnegie classification as an Engaged University. There are committees looking at the new round of SACS accreditations and a QEP. On this QEP, we are going to build on what we already have, since there is no budget to create anything new. The budget is once again, the big issue. It is almost in balance if we do nothing. If we got $2M, what would we do with it? Raises? Salary equity issue? 21st Century Initiatives? How do we spend it? Do we spend it? Hold on to it? We need help in making these decisions.
REPORT: Standing Committee Reports
Academic Programs Committee (APC) – This committee did not meet.
Committee on Committees and Credentials (CCC) – This committee did not meet.
Part-time Faculty Committee (PTFC) – This report was available online.
Planning & Budget Committee (P&B) - This report was available online.
Redbook & Bylaws Committee (RB) – This report was available online.
Executive Committee (XC) - This report was available online.
New Business
None
Old Business
The AlcoholEDU/Haven programs have had a 97% response rate. The data is being analyzed and will be available next month.
Announcements
- The Celebration of Teaching & Learning is this Friday.
- Please consider taking the survey about UofL Today usage that was circulated to Faculty Senators. This will let UofL Today know how they are doing and how communications can be improved.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Gretchen Stein Henry
Faculty Senate Secretary