University Governance
FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
September 16, 2008
Provost’s Conference Room – 3:00 p.m.
Approved: 09/30/08
PRESENT: Mary Berry, Liz Kowalchuk, Nancy Kinnersley, Ben Eggleston, John Staniunas, John Stratton, Lisa Wolf-Wendel,
EXCUSED: Lisa Friis
ALSO PRESENT: Molly Mulloy, Mark Ezell, Rick Hale, Rick Levy,
FacEx chair Nancy Kinnersley called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m.
MINUTES for September 2, 2008, were approved.
REPORT OF THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT
Nancy Kinnersley noted that the Board of Regents and the Council of Faculty Senate Presidents (COFSP) will meet this week. When she and Mary Berry met with the Provost last week, he indicated that he would like for the revised Handbook for Faculty and Unclassified Staff currently being updated by the governance task force to be available on the policy website by early October.
The Provost is looking at gender equity issues in hiring faculty and staff. Lisa Wolf-Wendel mentioned that several KU faculty have been invited to a conference at Iowa State that will be looking at gender equity in promotion and tenure lines.
UPDATE FROM THE COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES FOR PROMOTION AND TENURE (SPPT)
Kinnersley welcomed SPPT chair Mark Ezell, who distributed a handout for discussion by FacEx. He noted that FacEx will be asked to approve the procedures that SPPT uses when reviewing unit promotion & tenure procedures. He said that a unit’s procedures must be approved by the dean or the school’s promotion and tenure committee before they are forwarded to SPPT for review. If SPPT is unable to approve a unit’s procedures, they will be forwarded to FacEx for approval.
In the discussion that followed, consensus of FacEx was that it would be useful for the schools to revise their promotion and tenure policies first – this year – with all departments revising their policies in the following two years. In response to a question, Ezell said there is no set schedule for departments to submit their revised procedures to SPPT.
Members agreed with Ezell that new promotion and tenure policies should not be created by language in the Blue Form. Discussion followed on two items in the current Blue Form:
- Section “B. Evaluation of Classroom Teaching and Undergraduate Advising.” The first four (bulleted) criteria are taken from FSRR Art. VI, but the 5th (“Development of teaching and advising practices over time”) is not included in the FSRR. Members expressed concern that this criterion is not backed up by FSRR policy.
- Section “B. Evaluation of Research, Scholarship, Creative or Artistic Work.” Members pointed out that the 1st and 3rd bulleted items in this section are taken from FSRR VI, but did not recall that the 2nd bullet (“A program of work beyond that completed for the terminal degree, for a pervious promotion, or prior to appointment at the University of Kansas, as applicable:”) was included in FSRR. This language would be problematic in some fields. Ezell will check further.
Ben Eggleston suggested that the promotion and tenure standards stated in FSRR Article VI did not need to be restated in their entirety on the Blue Form; rather, the Blue Form could have a link or citation to the FSRR. Following lengthy discussion, consensus of FacEx was for the SPPT committee, with input from UCPT, to wait until the end of this academic year to compile a list of possible changes to the Blue Form and FSRR Art. VI.
PROGRESS REPORT FROM THE TASK FORCE ON THE FACULTY HANDBOOK
Nancy Kinnersley welcomed Rick Hale and Rick Levy to the meeting. Hale distributed copies of the task force’s draft report, and members received a separate handout of Appendices I and II of the draft report. Hale and Levy summarized the work of the task force to date, noting that the Provost provided funding this summer for Levy to develop the draft document. The Handbook has always been under the purview of the Provost, but it contains several policies that need to be moved to other sites such as the FSRR or the Policy Library. Other sections that refer to HREO or Board of Regents policies will link to the original policies but will not be reprinted in the new Handbook. The consensus of the task force is that the revised Handbook should be a descriptive document, with links to policies in other areas, but not itself a source of policy. The final online version will be a collapsible outline that can be expanded for more detailed information.
Levy and Hale led a discussion about Appendix 2, which lists a number of matters that Governance or others must address in the future. Levy pointed out two important issues that will be in “transition” this year while being updated and approved and will be housed in a temporary section of the Policy Library: (1) the Faculty Code of Conduct, Rights, and Responsibilities, and (2) the FRB (Faculty Rights Board) hearing procedures for dismissals and other situations. He recommends that the Code of Faculty Rights be placed in the FSRR after being updated, and that there be a statement in the FSRR that the FRB will develop its own procedures.
Members agreed that the Faculty Evaluation Policy and the Joint Appointments Policy should be pulled from the Handbook and relocated to the Policy Library. These two policies do not need to be updated at this time.
Two other areas where core policy needs to be clarified in the Handbook are the sections on [unclassified] professional staff and academic staff. Levy recommends that the term “unclassified” staff be changed to “professional” staff since KU no longer has a “classified” staff.
Rick Hale stated that the Provost would like to have a basic Handbook online in October, then the task force can focus on matters in Appendix 2 that need to be updated. He said the draft Handbook will be sent to FacEx by early October for forwarding to the Provost. Levy noted that the task force is meeting every week to edit the draft, which is posted on Googledocs so that all eleven task force members can provide input in one place. He added that there may be delicate negotiations with the Provost as to whether the role of governance is one of consultation or approval on several issues.
The task force hopes to have a recommendation to FacEx by mid-January regarding updated policies that will need to go through the Faculty Senate approval process in spring 2009.
Nancy Kinnersley thanked Rick Hale and Rick Levy for updating FacEx today.
No further business.
Respectfully submitted,
Molly Mulloy