Faculty Senate > Recent Posts > Minutes > 2022-2023 - Minutes > Faculty Senate Minutes: September 22, 2022

Faculty Senate Minutes: September 22, 2022

Guest Presentation: New Academic Year Welcome
  • President Kirk Schulz, WSU System
  • Provost Elizabeth Chilton, Executive Vice President & Chancellor, WSU Pullman

Minutes

  1. Call to Order. 4:05pm. The faculty Senate met on Thursday, September 22, 2022 in Lighty 403 and via Zoom. Seventy-two (72) senators were present with nine (9) absent and twenty-two (22) non-voting members present. The meeting was called to order by Chair Christine Horne at 3:30pm.
  2. Approval of Minutes from the April 7, 2022 Faculty Senate Meeting
  3. Announcements
    1. Information Items
      1. Faculty Senate Officers met with the WSU president and provost on September 12th, 2022.
      2. Matthew Hudelson will serve as the 2022 – 2023 Faculty Senate Parliamentarian
      3. Summer items passed by the Faculty Senate Steering Committee
        1. (Item #2022.09.22_201_Steering) Name change of the former unit: School of Information to the new name designation: Department of Digital Technology and Culture (Exhibit 201A 201B 201C).
      4. (Item #2022.09.22_206_GSC) School of the Environment Bylaws approval (Exhibit 206A 206B).
      5. (Item #2022.09.22_207_GSC) Animal Science Bylaws approval (Exhibit 207A 207B).
      6. (Item #2022.09.22_211_AAC) Minor Change Bulletin No. 1 (Exhibit 211A).
    2. Reports
      1. Remarks by Faculty Senate Chair Christine Horne
        1. Faculty Senate concerns and activities table (Exhibit A).
          1. Efforts for possible tuition benefits in support of indigenous students is underway
          2. Efforts to review land-grant funding to support various initiatives such as the Americas cluster hire for example
          3. Merit initiatives and faculty manual updates are pending with the Faculty Affairs Committee.
          4. MyWSU will be down Friday, September 30th through Sunday October 2nd during a web migration.
  4. Additions or changes to the agenda – No changes
  5. Agenda Items

Note: Senators are encouraged to contact senate committee chairs if they have specific questions that they would like addressed before the senate meeting. Additionally, senators are encouraged to ask questions about exhibits before items are advanced to action items.

  1. Discussion Items
    1. (Item #2022.09.22_202_GSC) Recommended approval of the revised degree, MS in Environmental & Natural Resource Sciences (thesis) (Exhibit 202A 202B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman / Lisa Shipley
      1. No discussion
    2. (Item #2022.09.22_203_GSC) Recommended approval of the revised degree, MS in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences (non-thesis) (Exhibit 203A 203B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman / Lisa Shipley
      1. No discussion
    3. (Item #2022.09.22_204_GSC) Recommended approval to drop the degree plan for MS in Geology (nonthesis) (204A 204B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman
      1. No discussion
    4. (Item #2022.09.22_205_GSC) Recommended approval of the revised degree, MS in Geology (thesis) (205A 205B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman
      1. No discussion
    5. (Item #2022.09.22_208_GSC) Recommended approval of the new Certificate for Veterinary Internship and Veterinary Residency (Exhibit 208A 208B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman
      1. No discussion
    6. (Item #2022.09.22_209_GSC) Recommended approval of the Revised Certificate in Protein Biotech. (Exhibit 209A 209B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman
      1. No discussion
    7. (Item #2022.09.22_210_AAC) Proposal to Establish a new UCORE Designation, EQJS, Pursuing Equity and Justice (Exhibit 210A 210B). -P. Sekhar
      1. No discussion
    8. (Item #2022.09.22_212_AAC) Undergraduate & Professional Major Change Bulletin No. 1 (Exhibit 212A 212B). -P. Sekhar
      1. No discussion
    9. (Item #2022.09.22_213_GSC) Revision for M.S. in Statistics (Exhibit 213A 213B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman
      1. No discussion
    10. (Item #2022.09.22_214_GSC) Recommended approval of the CySER Certificate (Exhibit 214A 214B). -E. Nicol / G. Wayman
      1. No discussion
    11. (Item #2022.09.22_215_Registrar) Graduate Major Change Bulletin No. 1 (Exhibit 215A).
      1. No discussion
  1. Constituent Concerns
    1. Alan Goodman – request to move towards a hybrid model of faculty senate meetings.
      1. Discussion: How does the hybrid environment benefit the system? And considerations for both the advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid environment.
    2. Can an independent committee be formed to review the data that negatively impacted WSU’s ranking in the UsNews College ranking.
      1. Discussion: Institutional research will be providing an analysis on data. Can an independent committee look at the data and try and figure out what went wrong as it relates the WSU ranking?
    3. Faculty retention survey in the Tri-Cities is of high concern
    4. HRS overreach concern within staff at WSU Spokane
      1. Recommendations to connect with Theresa Elliot Cheslek directly were provided.  
    5. Request on the AP Survey release
    6. Haluk Beyenal response to faculty retention what is the solution. Face-to-face meetings may help resolve problems and initiate group committee work to address issues similar to identifying university ranking issues.  
    7. Why is enrollment up at the university of Idaho and how does that relate to university rankings.
      1. Discussion: The USNews report algorithm is not transparent. We know that WSU may have a longer time to 4-year degree which could impact rankings.  
    8. New rise in salaries much higher than the NIH recommended salaries.
    9. Salary concerns, the competition with inflation, and university leadership efforts towards resolving this problem.
  1. Adjournment at 4:46 pm

Respectfully submitted

Matthew Hudelson, Faculty Senate Executive Secretary

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