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Faculty Senate
University of Mississippi

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Meeting held in Bryant 209

 

Senators in Attendance: Robert Albritton, Deborah Barker, Melissa Bass, Mark Bing, Allison

Burkette, Pete Campbell, Joe Turner Cantu, Bill Chapel, Donna Davis, Melissa Dennis, Robert Doerksen, Daneel Ferreira, John Garner, Carol Gohm, Amanda Johnston, Ivo Kamps, Jason Klodt, Przemo T. Kranz, Joel Kuszmaul, Laurel Lambert, John Lobur, Soumyajit Majumbar, Carmen Manning Miller, Brice Noonan, Peter Reed, Brian Reithel, Philip Rhodes, Jeffrey A. Roux, Angela Rutherford, Paul Scovazzo, Zia Shariat-Madar, Steven Skultety, Chung Song, Don Summers, Joe Sumrall, Durant Thompson, Laura Vaughan, Mark Walker, Jinquang Wang, Alex Watson, Alexander Yakovlev, Yi Yang, Ahmet Yukleyen

 

Senators absent with prior notification: Douglas Davis, Charles Eagles, Angela Hornsby-Gutting,

Stephanie Noble (replaced by Charles Noble), Jason Ritchie

 

Senators absent without notification: Jason Dewland, Mark Dolan, Larry Pittman, Charles Ross,

Debra Spurgeon, Lorri C. Williamson

 

  • Senator Sufka opened the meeting at 7:00 pm
  • First order of business: Approve February 9, 2010 Meeting Minutes
    • Motioned to approve and seconded
    • The Senate approved the minutes unanimously with no abstentions
  • Second order of business: Violence Prevention Office
    • Linda Abbott, the Coordinator of the Violence Prevention Office (VPO), explained the $300,000 federal grant to start this program to address sexual assault, relationship & dating violence, and stalking
    • The VPO focuses on prevention and offers a coordinated response when violence happens. The VPO coordinates police reports, assists in the judicial process, and serves as a one-stop-shop for students seeking help
    • When a student is assaulted, s/he often first turns to a faculty member. Therefore, Ms. Abbot encouraged faculty to contact her office for departmental training or to refer students (labbott@olemiss.edu, extension 1059, 208 Odom Hall)
    • On March 30 at 6:00 pm, the VPO will co-sponsor the Take Back the Night rally with the Oxford Mayor and the State Attorney General
  • Third order of business: IHL’s Sabbatical Interpretation & UM’s Response
    • Senator Sufka reported that IHL was hung up in a misinterpretation of faculty compensation during sabbaticals, believing that faculty should receive 50% of salary during a one semester sabbatical (instead of 100% salary for a one semester sabbatical and 50% salary for a two semester sabbatical). Provost Stocks and the UM lawyer submitted a legal brief citing precedent to rectify the misinterpretation
    • IHL will approve sabbaticals currently under review at its March 18 meeting
  • Fourth order of business: Copyrights & Coursepacks
    • Senator Turner-Cantu reported that Tony Seaman, the Director of Brand Creative Services (BCS), has agreed that his office will determine copyright requirements for coursepacks, obtain copyright clearances, amortize royalties, and sell coursepacks directly to students at a fair price based on class size
    • Senator Watson asked about the time period to submit coursepacks to BCS
      • Senator Sufka did not know as the logistics are still being finalized
      • Senator Sufka added that this plan will not infringe on the legally binding contract that UM has with Barnes & Noble at the bookstore
    • Motion to approve and seconded. Approved unanimously with no abstentions
  • Fifth order of business: Senate Feedback on Online Teaching Evaluations
    • Senator Sufka gave Senators the opportunity share feedback from their departments
      • Senator Albritton reported that faculty in his department wanted to include a question asking students to speculate on their expected final grade in the class
      • Senator Noonan reported that faculty in his department requested that students with more than a certain number of absences not be allowed to complete the course evaluation. Senator Noonan reported that another professor in his department recommended that evaluations not resume after final exams
      • Senator Vaughn requested a question that measured how much time and preparation a student had devoted to the class
      • Senator Doerksen requested separate evaluations for courses with multiple instructors
      • Senator Bing reported that a colleague wanted to overhaul the system (but gave no details on how to do so) and another requested a reverse response on some items to catch “dirty” data or those respondents that complete the evaluation without reading the questions
      • Senator Davis requested information on data collection (i.e., time of day, comfort of classroom, size of class) to contextualize evaluation results
      • Senator Barker requested feedback on students’ dissatisfaction with the classroom and the reliability of classroom technology so that faculty could take such information to administrators
      • Senator Scovazzo requested a way to add an instructor-generated question (such as a question evaluating a textbook)
    • Senator Sufka summarized that the Senate’s overall message was to tweak the evaluation form rather than perform a comprehensive overhaul. Senator Sufka will forward this feedback to Maurice Efftink and let his office form a committee to investigate changes
  • Sixth order of business: Senate Committee Reports
    • No reports were forthcoming
  • Seventh order of business: Items from the floor
    • The Chancellor’s Investiture Ceremony is scheduled for April 9, 2010. Classes will be cancelled that morning
    • For the 2010-2011 term Senate elections, Institutional Research has had problems tallying departments’ unfilled lines to determine Senate representation. Senator Sufka will get these numbers and forward them to Senators for verification
      • Senator Davis asked whether the Senate could count a department’s unfilled. The old by-laws counted bodies in the lines and not the open lines themselves
      • Senator Reithel responded that the language in the by-laws specifies “budget listed employees” as of April
      • Senator Albritton mentioned that a department could be recruiting and fail to hire, and thus affect its representation on the Senate
    • OM-POV (olemiss.edu/ompov) is the new blog that the Administration is using the blog to set the record straight on important issues at UM, such as the mascot controversy
    • The next Senate meeting will be April 13, 2010.
  • The meeting adjourned at 7:37 pm