Meeting Minutes: February 11, 2016

Faculty Senate Minutes
Regular Meeting
February 11, 2016

The Faculty Senate was called to order by Richard Zack, Chair on Thursday February 11, 2016, in FSHN T101 at 3:30p.m. forty (40) members were present with nine (9) absent and nine (9) nonvoting members present.

Minutes of January 28, 2016 meeting were approved as circulated.

1. Announcements (Information items).
   1. Information Items.
      1. Graduate Studies Committee has approved updated bylaws for the Molecular Sciences Program which are available on the department’s website
      2. Minor Change Bulletin #6 (Exhibit B)
      3. Nominations of Chair Elect
2. Announcements (Reports).
   1. Remarks by the Chair.—R. Zack
      1. Legislative reports from Joan Wu are on the Senate website.
      2. ASWSU is seeking faculty to assist with a taskforce on the proposed course material cost reduction initiative. The handout will be posted on the senate website.
   2. Remarks by Sita Pappu
      1. An overview on the changes to the Patent Policy changes in the Faculty Manual were provided.
3. Additions or Changes to the Agenda. None.
4. Agenda Items (Action Items)
   1. Recommendation from the Research and Arts Committee to approve the proposal on the Center for Interdisciplinary Statistical Education and Research (CISER) (Exhibit X X1) – S. Parish, J. Savage
      1. Motion carried.
   2. Recommendation from the Research and Arts Committee to approve the proposal on the Center for Institutional Research Computing (CIRC) (Exhibit Y) – S. Parish, J. Savage
      1. Motion carried.
   3. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve Undergraduate Major Change Bulletin #5 (Exhibits Z Z1) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   4. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve UCORE Bulletin #4 (Exhibit C) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   5. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve a revision in Rule 39, Re-enrollment of students following academic dismissal(Exhibit D) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   6. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve a revision in Rule 43, Credit restored during Readmission/Reinstatement (Exhibit E) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   7. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve the proposal to create a new degree – BS in Construction Engineering (Exhibit F F1 F2) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   8. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve UCORE Bulletin #5 (Exhibit I) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   9. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve Undergraduate Major Change Bulletin #6 (Exhibits J J1) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Motion carried.
   10. Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee to approve the changes to the Faculty Manual on the Annual Review process (Exhibits K K1) – J. McDonald
       1. Motion moved and seconded to amend the wording to “After receiving the annual review report, the chair shall provide the faculty member a minimum of ten (10) business days to sign the report”
          1. Motion carried.
       2. Motion moved and seconded to amend the wording to “The career progress report is prepared by the chair and should reflect the views of the faculty eligible to vote on the candidate’s tenure and/or promotion. This report should highlight the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and include recommendations for improvement and the likelihood for tenure and/or promotion. In the case of untenured faculty, the candidate should be advised according to the following categories”.
          1. Motion carried.
       3. Motion moved and seconded to amend and add in the word “especially” to the meritorious performance bullet in the Results section.
          1. Motion carried.
   11. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve Graduate Major Change Bulletin #6 (Exhibit L) – B. John-Mariadoss, T. Chauvin
       1. Motion carried.
5. Agenda Items (Discussion Items).
   1. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve Undergraduate Major Change Bulletin #7 (Exhibits M M1) – Liv Haselbach
      1. No Discussion
   2. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve UCORE Bulletin #6 (Exhibit N) – Liv Haselbach
      1. No Discussion
   3. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve a revision in Rule 52, Prerequisite Courses (Exhibit O ) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Discussion: A concern was raised regarding the proposed change that no longer allowed instructors the opportunity to make the final decision on prerequisites and that the academic units would have the final decision on those issues.
   4. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve a revision in Rule 105, Administrative Changes to Final Grades (Exhibit R ) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Discussion: Senators expressed concern that changing the word “is” to “may be warranted” will open the committee up to a huge number of potential appeals.
   5. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve the elimination of Rules 23 and 58, Make up hours for University Holidays & Permission to Register Late (Exhibit W ) – Liv Haselbach
      1. Discussion: Concern was raised how to schedule make-up days.
   6. Recommendation from the Academic Affairs Committee to approve the proposals:
      1. Request to replace the BA in Communication with the following degrees
         1. Communication & Society
         2. Strategic Communication
         3. Journalism & Media Production
      2. Request to extend the BA in Strategic Communication to Vancouver (Exhibits P, P1 P2 P3 P4) – Liv Haselbach
         1. No Discussion
   7. Recommendation from the Faculty Affairs Committee to approve the changes to the Faculty Manual on the Patent Policy (Exhibits Q Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4) – J. McDonald
      1. Discussion: A question arose regarding why there were two allocations to ARC in the distribution system for the seed propagated and vegetatively propagated crops. It was noted the difference is based on the breeding time of various crops.
      2. An additional concern was the breeder portion was higher for vegetatively propagated crops. It was speculated that it was probably intended to balance the length of time it takes to arrive at a marketable variety, the time being much longer for the vegetatively propagated crops.
   8. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve the revised graduation requirements for a MS in Biology (Exhibits S S1) – B. John-Mariadoss, T. Chauvin
      1. No Discussion
   9. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve the revised graduation requirements for a PhD in Biology (Exhibits T T1) – B. John Mariadoss, T. Chauvin
      1. No Discussion
   10. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve a new Graduate Certificate in English Language Learners (Exhibits U U1) – B. John-Mariadoss, T. Chauvin
       1. No Discussion
   11. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve the Environmental Science Graduation Certificate in Radiation Protection (Exhibits V V1) – B. John-Mariadoss, T. Chauvin
       1. Discussion: A question arose what the minimum GPA was. It was noted that it should be a 3.0, but the GSC committee co-chair will follow up on this and report back if different.
   12. Recommendation from the Graduate Studies Committee to approve Graduate Major Change Bulletin #7 (Exhibit G) – B. John-Mariadoss, T. Chauvin
       1. No Discussion
6. Constituents’ Concerns.
   1. The question again arose about the proposed amendment to allow faculty representation on the Board of Regents. It was noted that WSU is working with the UW Legislative representative to jointly pursue the faculty regent bill in 2017.
7. Adjournment.
   1. The meeting adjourned at 5:12 p.m.
      1. Sheila Converse, Executive Secretary