Purdue University Northwest > Faculty Senate > News > Senate Meeting Minutes > Faculty Senate Minutes – Friday, February 10, 2017

Faculty Senate Minutes – Friday, February 10, 2017

February 10, 2017

LSF 144, Westville Campus

Voting Members Present:

A. Angriawan, C. Boiarsky, R. Brusca-Vega, C.V. Chandramouli, D. Detmer, J. Duzinkiewicz, T. Elmendorf, M. Fathizadeh, J. Garwood, J. Hack, P. Hecht, E. James, G. Jin, A. Kokalov, J. Kuhn, Y. Lee, S. Nakayama, L. Pelter, J. Pula, V. Quinn, S. Rezak, C. Roper, P. Rose, R. Rupp, G. Schultz, K. Scipes, J. Spores, J. Thomas, S. Trekles, F. Wang, E. Weber, D. Whitten, D. Wilbur

Voting Members Absent:

B. Chen, N. Patel, S. Sil, S. Smithson. L. Tan, N. Zeytinoglu

Non-voting Members Present:

R. Biddings-Muro, S. Lerner, T. Keon, R. Mueller, C. Panlilio, S. Turner, T. Winders

Others present:

D. Birch, R. Clark, T. Clark, J. Colwell, K. Falzone, C. Ferrell, L. Goodnight, C. Holford, Z. Jakubowski, V. Jankowski, B. Law, W. Lukoshus, M. Lynn, R. Owens, T. Radtke, P. Riesmeyer, D. Robinson, J. Shires, R. Stankowski, S. Steele, J. Swarts, A. Tomory, M. Watson, J. Williams

  1. Determination of quorumA quorum was declared at 10:10 A.M.
  2. Call to OrderThe meeting was called to order by Chair D. Wilbur.
  3. Approval of the AgendaC. Roper motioned, D. Whitten seconded. They were approved unanimously by voice vote.
  4. Approval of the Minutes of both the January 13 and January 20th meetingsR Rupp motioned to move, C. Boiarsky seconded. They were approved unanimously by voice vote.
  5. Remarks by the ChairD. Wilbur reminded everyone about the Founder’s Day celebration on March 6th. This is celebrating the birth and growth of Purdue Northwest. There are awards associated with this celebration and the committee has received nominations for awards in Scholarship, Engagement and Outstanding Teaching. Those nominations are due February 22nd.

    The dates for the spring PNW Commencement were mentioned. At the Hammond campus, commencement will be Friday, May 5th at 3:00 P.M. and Saturday, May 6th at 11:00 A.M. and at 3:00 P.M.. At the Westville campus, commencement will be Monday, May 8th at 3:00 P.M.. Due to the odd number of colleges, the conferring of graduate degrees will be on one day. More information to come.

    There will be a new course evaluation system this summer. There will be 15 questions to the students; 5 will be university-wide and the remaining 10 will be determined by the College and academic unit. K. Scipes requested the median score be used for course evaluations and not the mean. G. Schultz was concerned about the response rates and it was suggested to withhold grades until the evaluations were complete.

    There is a rumor in the campus community that the Chancellor is blaming faculty for the lower enrollment. This is completely FALSE. We have to help our image. The complaints about the university unification need to stop as some faculty are venting to the students in and outside the classrooms. D. Wilbur shared the Concept of Academic Freedom. It covers what we can say in the classroom; is it related to the course concepts? We are not allowed to subject students to the faculty’s particular views and opinions. Please do not step outside these roles.

  6. Remarks by the Chancellor or Invited GuestsT. Keon will be speaking this afternoon at the Faculty Forum at 2:00 P.M. today in LSF-144 and WebEx’ed in LAWS-131. His remarks will include the budget of where we are and budget relief and as a university, where we are going. He will save most of his remarks for the forum.
  7. Unfinished BusinessNone.
  8. New Business
    1. Curriculum Document ApprovalD. Whitten motioned to accept all curriculum documents, R. Brusca-Vega seconded They were approved unanimously by voice vote.
    2. Senate Documents For Action
      1. FSD 16-07, PNW Academic Integrity Policy – Revised (Student Affairs)T. Elmendorf stated a few minor changes and clarifications have been made to this policy, such as, the hearing panels should be the majority of faculty and the timeline tables have been defined and simplified. C. Boiarsky motioned to adopt document with the revisions, G. Schultz seconded. R. Brusca-Vega questioned about why the syllabus doesn’t say anything about penalties. T. Elmendorf answered that a document came out years ago to recommend what to put on the syllabus, but this may not qualify. J. Spores says to leave that to the discretion of the instructor. The document was approved unanimously by voice vote.
      2. FSD 16-13 Military Service Excusal Policy (Student Affairs)This reiterates the policy on the Westville campus but not implemented at the Hammond campus. T. Elmendorf motions to approve the policy, E. James seconded. J. Pula would like “without penalty” added to the last line in the second paragraph. The committee accepts this amendment. G. Schultz wanted to know the percentage of military personnel do we have. C. Panlilio sys there are 2 students at the Westville campus and 10 for the Hammond campus. The document was approved unanimously by voice vote.
  9. Documents and Reports for Information (J. Shires)D. Wilbur announced that J. Shires will give a report of where we are now and how to move forward with an appropriate dual credit program for PNW. Only positive questions and do not attack past practices. The report will cover three areas; Teacher Qualifications, Outreach and Trends

    Teacher Qualifications

    • The data used is for Fall 2016 and from the Westville campus
    • The data for the Hammond campus is skewed as Hammond faculty were put in as the high school instructor and they are obviously qualified
    • Billing hour data is also for Fall 2016 and from the Westville campus
    • 37% of our high school instructors are either fully qualified or are 1-6 credit hours away from being fully qualified
    • The state average is 25% of high school instructors are qualified
    • The groups that are either 18+ credit hours away from being fully qualified have had a letter sent to their principal

    S. Trekles asked how was the reaction by the schools. J. Shires explained the schools reactions run full circle. They are either encouraging their teachers to complete, they will just teach A.P. courses or go to another provider that offers a five-year extension, whereas we are only offering a two-year. Some are angry, some are looking how to make this work because it’s Purdue credit and some are re-evaluating their partnerships with other areas of Purdue.

    S. Trekles said community partners are upset and concerned that the community will push students to go elsewhere. G. Schultz commented that this doesn’t effect the low-income/free lunch students. The schoolis as much as part of the problem. We’re about quality.

    C. Boiarsky asked about the difference between A.P. and dual credit and are we or the state offering the teachers to get the credits they need. A.P. is a year-long course that leads to a final test for credit. Dual credit is a semester or year-long course that will transfer for credit. J. Shires answered that ICHE is pushing the state to provide some sort of compensation, matching grants for instructors. The state created a pot but no funding has been provided to date. Maybe this year as there will be funds provided.

    A question about the Westville grant was asked. Westville received a grant, but it has since expired and was not renewed.

    C. Boiarksy also asked if the SLT would provide a discount for teachers to complete those credits. T. Keon said the SLT have not discussed a discount type of program but it could be up for discussion. We do have grad level content courses available but we don’t have grad programs for all areas of dual credit. The legislature is looking at another bill to incentivize teachers but it started limiting who would get it due to cost. Those limited included dual credit teachers.

    J. Colwell said a state-wide coalition is working on this issue. No proposal has included discounted tuition and looking at hybrid and summer programs and online to attract teachers. Even with an incentive, it may not be enough to get the credits because there is no longer a financial incentive for getting a master’s degree.

    C. Boiarsky agreed that teachers aren’t motivated by getting their master’s.

    J. Shires said some schools are looking at contract negotiations for the higher credentials. Possibly a $2,000 one-time bonus. The teachers who were incentivized are possibly nearing retirement age. The group that needs the most help may not be able to complete the program.

    C. Boiarsky said either there is dual credit or the student ultimately pays when they come here.

    C Roper said the bargaining degrees are into these dual credit programs with contract negotiations.

    Trends

    • Discussed the headcount and credit hour graph.
    • ICHE says we had an 11% retention rate (329 students, $2,460,362)

    Outreach

    • Bring students on campus for an academic experience. Attend a lecture, meet with people, faculty, tour the facilities and feed them.
    • Have college representatives talk to kids during lunch, but not actually recruit.
    • Conduct polls to see if students would come here.
    • Try to roll this out on a wider scale in Fall.
    • Work with New Student Orientation and travel to high schools to discuss procedures in dual credit, activate their account, discuss billing procedures. This has proven to reduce non-payment.

    In Fall 2016; 31 schools and 2700 students were seen/contacted by our dual credit office.

    • Resulted in few phone call from parents and students
    • Fewer non-paid bills

    They are piloting a CE Club at Westville High School.

    • Explains the difference between high school and college
    • There are 40 students involved
    • Brings people in to talk and work on personal enrichment

    The Concurrent Enrollment office is undergoing a slight reorganization for streamlining.

    K. Scipes stated that some courses work well in a high school setting but has concerns about Humanities courses. An Intro to Sociology course in high school would not have the same content as an Intro to Sociology course in college.

    We are not mandated to have dual credit, but high schools who offer A.P. need to also offer Dual Credit. We choose to partner with the schools who offer dual credit. Any school who wants to partner with us needs to start at the department level and the syllabus must be equal to ours.

    D. Wilbur stated the new articulation agreements will be signed by the college department and the accountability will reside with them

    A question was asked as to why aren’t we having students take the courses here. The cost to the student is a major factor. Westville High School will bus their seniors here for courses. The students still pay the $25/cr. and the High Schools will pick up the rest of the cost.

    J. Thomas said when the North Central faculty are involved they feel better of the syllabus content of the dual credit courses. Get your faculty involved.

    G. Schultz questioned the new administrative structure of concurrent enrollment. In a budget report from S. Turner it said that dual credit cost about $1 million. If the program shrinks how do we cover the cost of the new administrative structure? R. Mueller said we are discussing how to make the structure more efficient. S. Turner sad the cash flow for the dual credit programs has fluctuated. It started at $100/cr., now $25/cr. and free lunch kids pay $0.

    E. Weber asked what the impact would be if we lost those high school instructors who are in the category of being 13-18+ credit hours away from qualification. R. Mueller said we might have schools who can’t partner with us and it would be less revenue.

    S. Lerner is concerned about equivalency of what we offer vs. the high school courses. He also stated the desirability of having the program at the campus could help with recruiting.

    C. Panlilio said that Dual Credit was never under EMSA at Hammond. The Dean of Students happened to be the faculty/professor who had a large academic role in Dual Credit, and she continued on a temporary basis to assist with Dual Credit at Hammond, until it was unified. PNW does have an admissions recruiter focused on dual credit students. Also, point of clarification: the NSO or New Student Orientation referenced by J. Shires refers is not the same as the New Student Orientation conducted for newly admitted degree-seeking freshmen or transfer students.

    F. Wang said the state is not giving us any more money for dual credit, but we have more students.

    J. Shires said this is a bi-annum year which means setting the budget for the next two years. We are getting a flat fee. If our enrollment goes up, the per hour reimbursement goes down. If our enrollment goes down, the per hour reimbursement goes up.

    J. Pula said that the retention of 11% at $2.5 million was impressive, but how many students would have come here anyway without dual credit? Please direct any further questions to J. Shires.

  10. Remarks by the Representative(s) of the Student Government(s)M. Sida from Hammond said that Calumet collected water for Flint, Michigan but it was never delivered so PNW reallocated the water to East Chicago to help their water crisis. March 21st will be their state capital visit. The Student Trustee search committee is having interviews March 3-5 and it is a two-year position.

    Z. Jakubowski from Westville said that SGA is being restructured. Currently, there are communication issues from both sides. The duties for the President will be consolidated. There is the Westville Campus Safety Initiative, which suggested a crosswalk between parking lots 2 and 3. January 14th was the first SGA State-wide Meeting at IUPUI and attended by numerous Midwest College presidents. They discussed innovative ways to reach students. There will be an SGA By-laws revision for next year.

    J. Duzinkiewicz asked with the new structure how will the president be chosen. Z. Jakubowski said they’re still deciding if it’ll be internal or a straight student vote as they are needing mature students in the role.

    K. Scipes said the benefit of unification, students have access to faculty on both campuses. How many students go to the other campus? Z. Jakubowski said there have been welcome rallies and urge Senators to be on both campuses. The shuttle buses help. There is an engineering course offered at the other campus, but it’ll be a number of years before we’re actually used to having two campuses and think like one university. Why should students from the other campus if the other if there is no program?

  11. Remarks by the University Senate/Intercampus Faculty Council Representative(s)F. Wang reported that President Mitch Daniels at West Lafayette the proposed state budget has a net reduction in funding. He wants line a one-time line item in budget to add $10 million.

    Course evaluation resolution on agenda. Women and minorities scores are lower than average. This is on the next meeting agenda. Treasurer report 4.2, 4.4 bill. Concurrent Enrollment discussed at IFC. The WL campus has almost 0 participation, IPFW has more than us. The Senate passed a resolution of the five year extension and we have the two year.

    The retirement plan for faculty that PNW offers is better than the other colleges. WL and IPFW offers two semesters, whereas ours is three semesters. There is no staff incentive at WL, but there is at IPFW and at PNW. IPFW also suspended the VEPR program.

    There is a university-wide draft policy for Continuing Lecturers; this is to increase the positions caps from 10% to 25% at the regional campuses. WL uses this to reduce their LTL population.

    There is no report from EPC.

    V. Quinn reemphasized the CL policy. WL is on the low end of the peer institution list. Parental leave for adoption was also discussed. Course evaluations were discussed. Provost Dutta at WL is not in support to not include questions regarding best teacher and best course. He says inequities in scores have no negative consequences. Please direct any further questions to F. Wang and V. Quinn.

  12. Open DiscussionD. Wilbur brought up the Open Forum issues. T. Winders said this was designed for professional discussion between faculty and staff. Students were accidentally added to the email list and now have been removed.

    T. Elmendorf wanted to congratulate the Chancellor and the SLT by making a smart decision on offering scholarships for the St. Joseph students.

    J. Duzinkiewicz will make his comments next month.

    J. Hack asked about the document of Experiential Learning needing to elect representatives. D. Wilbur says the Executive Committee is constructing a survey. J. Hack wants the Experiential Learning committee to construct the survey. The committee hasn’t been populated.

    The Nominating Committee needs to be populated. M. Block says it’s been difficult to populate the committee and integral parts of populating sub-committees. It’s part of the By-Laws and needs to be done.

  13. AdjournmentMeeting adjourned at 12:05.