University Governance
FACULTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
February 24, 2009
Approved 03/10/09
PRESENT: Nancy Kinnersley, Mary Berry, John Stratton, John Staniunas, Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Liz Kowalchuk, Ben Eggleston.
EXCUSED: Lisa Friis
ALSO PRESENT: Molly Mulloy, Governance; Rick Levy and Rick Hale, Task Force on the Faculty Handbook; Town Peterson, Ada Emmert, Jennifer Church-Duran, Hume Feldman, Faculty Senate Research Committee.
Chair Nancy Kinnersley called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
MINUTES for 02/10/09 were approved.
REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON THE HANDBOOK FOR FACULTY AND OTHER UNCLASSIFIED STAFF
Kinnersley welcomed Task Force members Rick Hale, chair, and Rick Levy, recorder, who presented the 02/16/09 Preliminary Report of the Task Force. Hale noted that task force members voted to forward their report to the Provost and to FacEx and requested that Human Resources and the General Counsel’s Office review it also.
Rick Levy said the next step in the process would be for the Faculty Senate to be asked to endorse the new Handbook, to approve taking the old Handbook offline, and to approve moving policies listed in the Report’s Appendix to a temporary site in the KU Policy Library. The Appendix includes policies that the task force has identified to be revised before they are placed permanently in the Code and Rules or another site. Hale observed than “owner,” such as Faculty Governance or the Provost, must be identified for each policy when it is placed Policy Library.
Hale described the Task Force’s reorganization into four subcommittees that will focus on developing new language for: 1) Faculty Rights Board procedures, 2) the Faculty Code of Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, 3) Unclassified Staff issues, and 4) Academic Staff issues. Levy expects that recommendations from the first two groups will be made by the end of the semester, while the work of 3rd and 4th subcommittees will need to carry over to next year.
Hale and Levy answered many questions about the recommendation. Lisa Wolf-Wendel/John Staniunas moved that FacEx endorse the new Handbook and approve the recommendations to remove the old online Handbook and to temporarily move the policies listed in the Appendix to the Policy Library. Passed.
Kinnersley thanked Hale and Levy for their extraordinary work in rewriting the Handbook.
UPDATE FROM THE FACULTY SENATE RESEARCH COMMITTEE’S AD HOC COMMITTEE ON OPEN ACCESS
Kinnersley welcomed Town Peterson, ad hoc chair, committee members Ada Emmett and Jennifer Church-Duran, and Hume Feldman, chair of the Faculty Senate Research Committee.
Peterson provided the background for the proposed “Open Access Policy for University of Kansas Scholarship” which would ensure that KU faculty grant the university a license (permission) to make published research available in an open access repository. He explained that the committee reviewed policies passed by faculty at Harvard and Stanford, made a list of potential benefits and problems, conducted an online survey of KU faculty, and held two open meetings. The final policy, which is similar to that of Harvard University’s, basically states that KU faculty will provide a copy of each scholarly paper they publish, granting a license to KU to make their work freely available unless they opt out for an individual paper.
Peterson said that the Provost would need to designate an office to implement the policy, set up the website, and provide training to faculty.
Discussion ensued on copyright issues where a faculty member would opt out of providing a copy of his/her article to the KU repository if the publisher did not allow it. Peterson distributed a draft “Addendum to Publication Agreement” that the faculty member could submit with his or her contract to the publisher.
Asked how the policy will be enforced, Peterson said department chairs would be encouraged to support it and strive for a greater percentage of participation each year, noting that the site would provide easy access to the scholarship published in the department. Peterson said the Provost responded favorably to a draft copy of the proposal.
Liz Kowalchuk observed that in addition to scholarship consisting of published words, there are many fields in the arts where scholarship consists of images, sound, dance. Asked how faculty in the arts would participate, Ada Emmett said language could be added to the Open Access policy to explain that their work, although not required by the policy, would be very welcomed and included in the repository if the author/creator submitted them.
In response to a question from Mary Berry about including students and staff in the Open Access policy, Peterson said that would be done in the future but the emphasis now was to involve faculty participants. A member suggested that language be inserted in the last paragraph of the policy stating that ownership of the policy reside with Faculty Governance, who would review the policy every three years. Members agreed with John Stratton’s suggestion that the second sentence in the final paragraph be changed to: “Faculty Governance, in concert with the Provost, will be responsible for….”
Hume Feldman thanked the ad hoc committee members for a fantastic job in developing the policy. He pointed out that there may be resistance at first from some faculty who do not like being required to participate unless they opt out.
Following further discussion, Nancy Kinnersley requested that the Faculty Senate Research Committee vote on the recommendation and send it to FacEx for its March 10th meeting. She will schedule the proposal for discussion and vote at the March 26th Faculty Senate meeting.
Kinnersley thanked the ad hoc committee members for their fine work.
REPORT OF THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT
Nancy Kinnersley reported on budget discussions when she and Mary Berry met with the Provost this week. KU’s budget could be cut up to 15% next year. It was brought out that many schools nationwide are implementing furloughs and that this is an option KU may have to consider.
Following last Thursday’s special Faculty Senate meeting, Kinnersley sent a letter to Regents CEO Reggie Robinson concerning faculty governance participation in the search process for KU’s next Chancellor. Copies of the letter were sent to the Search Committee chair and to the two faculty serving on the committee.
No further business.
Respectfully submitted,
Molly Mulloy