Meeting Minutes: October 5, 2017

Faculty Senate Minutes

Regular Meeting

October 5, 2017

The Faculty Senate was called to order by J. McDonald, Chair on Thursday October 5 , 2017, in FSHN T101 at 3:30 p.m. forty  (40) members were present with fifteen (15) absent and five  (5) nonvoting members present.

Minutes of  September 21, 2017 meeting were approved as circulated.

1. Announcements (Information items).
   1. Information Items.
      1. Minor Change Bulletin #1  (Exhibit B)
      2. The Graduate Studies Committee has approved updated Bylaws for Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering which are available on the department’s website
      3. The Research & Arts Committee has reviewed and approved the 5-year self-study review on the Monoclonal Antibody Center
2. Announcements (Reports)
   1. Remarks by J. McDonald
      1. Senate Executives attended the interviews for the vice president for advancement and CEO of the WSU Foundation and were pleased to learn Lisa Calvert was selected.
      2. Prior constituents concerns are still being followed up on and when we receive answers, we will report on our findings.
3. Additions or Changes to the Agenda.  None.
4. Agenda Items (Action Items)
   1. Recommendation from Recommendation from Steering Committee to approve the Faculty Senate Committees be approved as listed, although not all committees have the required number of senators since the senate elections were not completed at the time the committees were populated (Exhibit G)
      1. Motion Carried
   2. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve the Undergraduate Major Change Bulletin #2 (Exhibits  I  I1 )– G. Crouch
      1. Motion Carried
   3. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve Graduate Major Change Bulletin  (Exhibit  J ) –T. Salsbury/D.Potts
      1. Motion Carried
5. Agenda Items (Discussion Items).
   1. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve the Undergraduate Major Change Bulletin #3 (Exhibits  L  L1  )– G. Crouch
      1. No Discussion
   2. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve the Rule 6(i), Transfer Credit  (Exhibits M  M1  )– G. Crouch
      1. No Discussion
   3. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve Graduate Major Change Bulletin #2  (Exhibit  N ) –T. Salsbury/D.Potts
      1. No Discussion
6. Constituents’ Concerns.
   1. A concern was raised regarding the increase of administrative positions over faculty positions and what kinds of funding for salaries was being used.  The questions posed by a constituent: “It would be interesting to know how overhead dollars are being spent at WSU- are they really being spent in direct support of research? How have the number of administrative positions at WSU changed in relation to faculty positions over time?”
   2. An additional question posed was, “how the number of faculty positions has changed relative to student enrollment figures?” 
   3. These questions will be brought to the attention of the administration and the period for position changes will be requested for the last 20 years.
   4. A request was made for a formal “review of the procedures used by the CAHNRS to terminate tenured faculty and to review the role of the Commodity Commissions in terminating tenured faculty” [more accurately, in reducing the number of tenured faculty, because many of them were pressured to resign].
   5. It was noted the Executive Officers will follow up on these concerns.
7. Adjournment.                                                     

                      The meeting adjourned at 4:16 p.m.

                                              Amy Nielsen, Executive Secretary