Purdue University Northwest > Faculty Senate > News > Senate Meeting Minutes > Faculty Senate Minutes, September 9, 2022

Faculty Senate Minutes, September 9, 2022

October 7, 2022

Faculty Senate Meeting
for September 9, 2022

time: 10:00 a.m. Alumni Hall

Minutes

Voting Members Present:
Lee Artz, Ali Alavizadeh, Gokarna Aryal, Scott Bates, Magesh Chandramouli, Janet Chaney, Ralph Cherry, Karen Covington, Joan Dorman, Anne Edwards, Mohammed Errihani, Bankole Fasanya, Cari Furst, Dawit Gizachew, Rob Hallock, Wei He, Meden Isaac-Lam, Kenny Kincaid, Dave Kozel, Roger Kraft, Meghan McGonigal-Kenney, Robert Merkovsky, David Nalbone, Dave Pratt, Sheila Rezak, Tom Roach,  Geoff Schultz, Tony Sindone, Michelle Spaulding, Diane Spoljoric, George Stefanek, Wubeshet Woldemariam, Shengyong Zhang, Sam Zinaich

Voting Members Absent:
Jose Castro-Urioste, Michael Mick

Non-Voting Members Present:
Alan McCafferty

Others Present:
Michael Biel, Michael Bourgeois, Laura Franklin, Lisa Goodnight, Anne Gregory, Chris Holford, Margaret Jetmund, Tom Keon, Michael Lynn, Rachel Smith, Jon Swarts, Jen Williams,

  1. Determination of Quorum
    • Quorum determined at 10:05
  2. Call to order.
    • Meeting called to order at 10:07
  3. Approval of the agenda.
    • Motioned for approval by Tom Roach
    • Seconded by
    • Approved by voice vote
  4. Approval of the Senate minutes from August 19, 2022
    • Motioned for approval by
    • Seconded by Ralph Cherry
    • Approved by voice vote
  5. Remarks by the Senate Chair.
    • The Chair introduced Mike Lynn as sit-in Parliamentarian
    • Senate meeting locations have been corrected so that there are an equal number of meetings at each campus.
    • The Chair said they have been in an ongoing discussion with the Chancellor and Provost concerning the need to have a plan for what we want to look like if we think we are going to be a smaller university than we were a few years ago. The Chair and the Provost are appointing a committee to conduct a benchmarking study in order to determine what a 4,000-8,000-student campus would look like based on data such as the number of colleges, deans, schools, programs, faculty-to-student ratios, administrators-to-student ratios, of other institutions. The committee would then present their findings and solicit feedback in order to create a proposal for submission to the Chancellor and Provost. Upon approval from the administration, it would then be ratified by the Faculty Senate if we choose to do so.
      1. Dave Nalbone is Co-Chair
      2. Dian Spoljoric said their committee is currently working on two proposals and asked the Chair for direction as they intend on coming to a resolution in the near future.
      3. The Chair said the committees should continue their work.
      4. The Vice Chair said the implementations will be university-wide. The committee will look both at the academic side and the administrative side in order to obtain a broader perspective.
  1. Remarks by the Chancellor.
    • The Chancellor provided information on retention, saying that it is down only slightly, indicating progress for continuing students.
    • FTIC retention is up 6.5%, a huge increase in retention for first year students. We are close to 70%.
    • Demographics
      1. Over 25% Hispanic
      2. 11% African American
      3. 91% full-time with 56% being first generation
      4. 81% of undergrads are 25 or younger
      5. 56% female, graduate and undergraduate
      6. 44% male, graduate and undergraduate
      7. Transfer students from other universities are up 18%
      8. FTIC freshman class up 21%
      9. The Chancellor added that this is at a time when our colleagues have gone down 10%, 11%, and 12%.
      10. They said we are at approximately 5,800 students.
    • The Chancellor passed the floor to the Provost
      1. The Provost said administration is supportive of increasing transparency, that they look forward to working jointly with Senate Leadership in talks about the changing university and what that would mean for us structurally.
        1. In addition to Professor Nalbone, Vice Chancellor of Information Services, Tim Winders, will serve as Co-Chair from the administrative side.
        2. Over the next month they will be working on membership of the committee and will share their choices with this body. He and Professor Nalbone will work together on what the charge for the committee is going to be so that it is a joint charge. Details, as well as thresholds or triggers for us to consider such changes will be something we work jointly together on.
      2. Honors College is amongst the most diverse in the state of Indiana. We have now a majority underrepresented minority Honors College.
        1. Our Hispanic/Latino population is now 28.5% of the Honors College.
        2. The are currently 609 students in the Honors College.
        3. Our African American population in the Honors College also saw a substantial increase, representing about 10.5%.
      3. Our stated goal, within our offices working with academic advising and other support units, would be to bring us to about 75% retention.
      4. Faculty will be receiving requests for academic progress reports. This is not a midterm report, it is the early alert system launched the previous year. Faculty will receive midterm reports a few weeks from now.
      5. Professor Nalbone requested the Provost provide some outcomes which will be shared with the Senate Secretary for distribution to the faculty.
      6. This information will be shared with the Senate Secretary for distribution.
        1. 70% of faculty participated in the process of determining students exhibiting what would constitute high-risk behaviors such as frequent absences and incomplete assignments.
        2. Advisors are being prompted to reach out to students and ask them a series of questions about what challenges they are having. In some cases, those challenges are financial aid. Students are being referred to the appropriate units, to the Dean of Students Office for more intensive advising. Students are also being referred to the faculty members whose classes they are in.
        3. The outcome of this in spring 2021 was positive. Students were contacted and had some sort of intervention improve their grade from the time when they received the early alert. Students that ignored the request performed worse than they were at the time the requests went out.
        4. The Provost urged the Senate and faculty in general to participate in this process as it is believed to be an important step toward retention.
      7. Update on testing center
        1. 15,000 exams in the past year.
        2. 550 exams this fall.
        3. 102 exams have been submitted by 22 faculty members this fall.
        4. Our first Civics Literacy exam was successfully completed in the testing center.
        5. In response to a question at the previous Senate meeting, the Provost said the Testing Center can provide accommodations. The Testing Center is set up to provide proctored exams that meet our accommodation requirements.
        6. The Provost said he and Professor Swarts will be meeting with the Ed Policy Committee to discuss the two structural changes brought up earlier in today’s discussion.
      8. Lee Artz said they were informed that Zoom or online classes would no longer be offered in the near future and wondered if that would be university-wide or applied only to specific colleges or departments considering we now have some faculty who are fully-remote.
        1. The Provost said we have walked away from Zoom or online classes. We still currently offer some online courses, but our focus should be on a quality in-person model. We also have faculty that require ADA or other accommodations. In cases where a faculty member is sick with COVID they would shift to online instruction. Zoom licenses will be maintained for all faculty in those cases as well as in cases of severe inclement weather resulting in campus closures during the winter months. Classes will no longer be canceled due to severe inclement weather, they will shift to online.
        2. Zoom is still an option, however the proportion of courses on Zoom was too high. An intentional shift will be made back to in-person instruction on both campuses.
        3. The modality of instruction will be determined by the Department of Chair in consultation with the Dean.
      9. Dave Kozel asked if the Dean of Students Office or the Provost Office could distribute a message to students encouraging vaccinations. They said at least four of their students are currently out with COVID.
        1. The Provost said he would forward the request to the Safe Return Committee.
      10. Michelle Spaulding asked for clarification on what is considered online and provided an example of a class in which lectures are delivered virtually but labs are in-person. Is that considered on line or does is have its own category?
        1. The Provost said it would be considered a hybrid course. They added that we do not get make our own definition for when something becomes an online course. ICHE and the federal government weigh in on those decisions and, officially, anytime a switch to online lecturing is made through any format like zoom or otherwise, we run the risk after a few class sessions of the entire class being counted as an online class. Only the College of Nursing and a certificate program in technology are authorized to run online programming.
        2. It’s imperative that the we are considered a brick and mortar institution the majority of our instruction needs to be provided in person without shifting modalities.
        3. Diane Spoljoric asked what percentage down retention is. They asked if there was data about retention from each campus respectively.
          1. The Chancellor said approximately .35% cumulative but did not have individual figures readily available.
        4. Diane Spoljoric asked if we know what freshman admissions are by location.
          1. Individual figures were not readily available.
        5. International is at 4%
      11. Mike Bourgeois said there is a factbook on the Institutional Research website which is an interactive dashboard that provides enrollment and retention data by campus, by student level and other variables. This is available to the public. They said they would also be happy to respond to any data requests.
  1. Unfinished Business:
    • Zoom for fully-remote instructors and Gen Ed
      1. The Chair said Senate Meetings will continue to accommodate faculty members who are unable to attend, adding that in-person attendance is strongly encouraged.
  1. New Business:
  2. For Action:
    • FSD 22-01 Removal of Term Limits
      1. Motioned for approval by R. Cherry
      2. Seconded by …
      3. Approved by voice vote
  1. Discussion Items
    • FSD 22-04 Document SB1(abortion ban in Indiana)
      1. The Chair explained that this resolution was drafted and brought forth for discussion by two faculty members.
      2. No discussion
    • FSD 22-05 P&T Document
      1. Tony Sindone said
      2. Dave Kozel asked…
        1. Sindone said the main issue with the previous document was twofold. There were a lot of formatting issues which they worked on with Rachel Clapp Smith. They thanked Rachel Clapp Smith.
        2. The other issue was in some of the ways promotion and tenure are administered. The whole process in the previous document did not match the reality of what was really happening. For example, wording in the previous document still said that promotion materials are to be compiled in boxes when we are currently using an electronic workflow system. The new P&T document has been written with language reflecting this modernization.
        3. They said the Senate passed FSD 19-08 with respect to promotion committees that are made up for clinicals. There was nothing in a previous document that even spoke to clinicals other than what the criteria for clinicals were in a general sense, referring back to the college criteria and the guidelines. There are guidelines in the in the promotion document outlining how the committees are created. This was done by adding the language of FSD 19-08 into this particular document. This states that if a clinical goes up for promotion, there should be at least one clinical faculty member on the committee, be it in the primary committee, the area committee, university committee. That is only there for the purpose of assessing the clinical faculty that are going up for promotion. If you read the language carefully, you will see that that clinical member will not have anything to do with the tenured faculty going up.
        4. A question was asked about how time sensitive the document is.
          1. The Provost said it should be approved by the end of the semester so that it can be in place by FY 2024 which starts early next year in the spring semester.
        5. Tony Sindone motioned for action
        6. Rob Merkovsky seconded
        7. The Chair said items for discussion should be motioned for approval at the next meeting so that faculty have time to review.
        8. Geoff Schultz agreed with the Chair, adding that the documents needs backing from the departments and maybe the colleges at a local level.
        9. Tony Sindone said there are references in the document to the system-wide university. Paragraph one stated that college guidelines are in effect. College guidelines were taken into consideration and referenced so that they were congruent and were not violated.
        10. The Chair asked for a vote by show of hands.
          1. 11 in favor
          2. 18 opposed
          3. 1 abstention
          4. Motion fails
        11. Reports from Chairs.
          • Curriculum (Joan Dorman)
            1. Joan Dorman said in view of the amendment that was just passed, they believe Lee Artz will be taking over for another year.
            2. No documents from last month. New documents will be discussed today.
            3. Another member of the committee is needed, there are currently only 4 members.
            4. Lee Artz said documents need to be submitted three weeks before Faculty Senate meetings so that they can be approved by departments and colleges, and discussed by the Curriculum Committee.
            5. The registrar has said that in order for a program or a course to be on the schedule for the following fall, it needs to be approved by the Faculty Senate by the February meeting. Which means, given our schedule, that any submission for a document that you want to be approved to be on the formal schedule 2023 will have to be submitted by December 16.
          • Ed Policy (Diane Spoljoric)
            1. Will be working on the CES/COT merger.
            2. Will be discussing the university college.
            3. Questions were addressed by the Dean and Provost.
          • Faculty Affairs (Tony Sindone)
            1. No report, focus has been on P&T document.
          • Gen Ed & Assessment (Cari Furst)
            1. Cari Furst said the committee has determined the liaisons for the subcommittees sent out correspondence to have those subcommittees set up initial meetings.
            2. Meeting today to set up agenda for the semester.
          • Nominations, Elections, & Awards (Meden Isaac-Lam)
            1. Revision of Standing Committees
              1. Meden Isaac-Lam said the list of committees was distributed and provided updates as indicated in the most recently released document. COB still needs replacement for Matt Bowman.
              2. As of today, Lee Artz will replace Joan Dorman on the Curriculum Committee.
              3. Professor Jose Urioste-Castro will replace Colette Morrow on IFC. The other IFC member will be Lee Artz.
              4. Awards are being discussed. Founders Day has three awards, Scholarship, Teaching, and Engagement. Last year’s winners will be recruited to be chairmen along with the Deans.
              5. The Teaching Award document states that if you are self-nominated you should include a rationale statement. This statement is not present in any of the other Awards documents. The Nominations Chair would like to propose adding that statement in the documents for Research, Scholarship, and Engagement Awards, but was informed that it must first be passed by the Senate.
              6. Email with documents will be distributed
              7. Tony Sindone said documents can be approved one of two ways. They can be confirmed as a Senate Document with an FSD in which case a whereas and therefore is needed. The statement must also be included. This should be written by the Nominations Committee. The second way is to introduce it here, but it must also be in writing.
              8. Tony Sindone offered the assistance of FAC for preparing this proposal.
  • Student Affairs (Michelle Spaulding)
    1. Michelle Spaulding said a Chair was determined for the Student of the Month Committee.
    2. SAC is going to try using Slack for their correspondences.
  1. Open discussion (as time permits).
    • David Nalbone asked for an update from the Provost on where we are in terms of faculty. Are there numbers available to compare changes between last year and this year? Changes in terms of retirements, deaths, versus incoming hires, they specified.
      1. The Provost said they did not have those numbers in front of them but will provide them.
    • Diane Spoljoric said today is the Pride Walk and invited those to attend.
    • The Vice Chair said to note that initial course participation requests are due in the coming week.
  2. Adjournment
    • Meeting adjourned at 11:11