Plymouth State University

Faculty Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 3:35PM-5PM – Heritage Commons

Note – These minutes contain changes to the Faculty By-Laws which were approved at this meeting.

Note – Click here to view the full draft of these minutes (which includes the appendices) in PDF format.

Approval of draft minutes of the 12/05/07 meeting. Approved as corrected.

I. Reports

a. President Sara Jayne Steen: sent electronically. Attached. No questions.

b. Provost Julie Bernier: sent electronically. Attached. No questions.

c. Student Senate Speaker Peter Laufenberg: Senate has not yet met. No report.

II. New Business

a. Resolutions of the Standing Committees—

i. Motion from the Curriculum Committee: Drop the K-12 Special Education Certification option of the BS Childhood Studies

Motion passed unanimously.

b. Resolution from the Faculty Welfare Committee (Mary Cornish):

That the faculty endorses the concept of awarding extraordinary merit pay.

c. Resolution from the Faculty Welfare Committee (Mary Cornish):

That the faculty endorses the concept of awarding recognition pay.

Rationale: Extraordinary merit pay and recognition pay were awarded after the 2006-07 academic year. There has been debate and discussion about this issue,
including a Faculty Forum in December 2007. The Faculty Welfare Committee
would like to get a sense of the spirit of the full faculty on this issue. To that end, we are introducing two resolutions to gauge the support of the faculty for extraordinary merit pay and recognition pay. We are asking for a faculty discussion and a poll by paper ballot of full-time (tenure-track and contract) faculty at this meeting.

The ballot voting process was explained to the faculty in attendance. A discussion was held during which comments were made both for and against the motion. Following the discussion, ballots were distributed, votes were cast, and ballots were collected. An email to the faculty will announce the results of the balloting.

d. Motion from the GITF: (Linda Levy)

that Faculty By-Laws, Article VII, The Faculty Forum be changed:

Current wording:

The Faculty Forum meets to discuss matters of concern to the teaching faculty and to the University as a whole. The Forum has no legislative jurisdiction. The Faculty Forum meets at the request of the Executive Council; alternatively, the Faculty Speaker will, on petition from ten members of the faculty, call a Faculty Forum meeting.

Proposed wording:

The Faculty Forum meets to discuss matters of concern to the teaching faculty and to the University as a whole. The Forum has no legislative jurisdiction. The Faculty Speaker will, on petition from ten members of the faculty, call a Faculty Forum meeting.

It was suggested by Gary McCool that the minutes of this meeting reflect that this is a Faculty By-Laws change, which was not shown in the original agenda statement.

There was no discussion.

Motion passed unanimously.

e. Motion from the Curriculum Committee: (Wendy Palmquist)

That a minimum of 120 credits be required to earn a bachelor degree from Plymouth State University.

There was no discussion.

Motion passed unanimously.

f. Motion from the Associate VP for Undergraduate Studies (David Zehr):

To change the policy for declaring academic options as follows:

Page 51-Academic Catalog: Declaring majors, Options, and Minors (2^nd paragraph)

The current catalog policy regarding options reads:

“…Where there are several options available within a major, it is advisable for students to choose the one that best suits their interests rather than to pursue several overlapping options jointly.”

The proposal is to add the following (in bold) to that statement:

“…Where there are several options available within a major, it is advisable for students to choose the one that best suits their interests rather than to pursue several overlapping options jointly. If a student does choose to pursue a second or subsequent option, at least 12 credits must be different from the first option. To complete an option a student uses the same catalog as the major.”

There was some discussion on this motion.

After a voice vote was not absolutely clear, a hand vote was taken.

Motion passed.

g. Motion from the Department of Environmental Science and Policy (Brian Eisenhauer):

That the Faculty approve a new program, a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy. (See Appendix A for vision and goals and Appendix B for curriculum)

There was some discussion on this motion.

Motion passed unanimously.

h. Report from the General Education Committee (Evelyn Stiller):

On the status of general education assessment.

Sent electronically. Attached. Question: How will the pilot program be structured? 100 students in the fall and 100 students in the spring. It has not yet been determined how the students will become part of the program.

i. Report from SPPC (Anne Kulig):

Sent electronically. Attached. No questions.

i. Report from Public Relations (Christopher Williams):

On P-Link.

III. Announcements

1. A reminder to bring your own drink containers as part of our sustainability efforts.

2. Reminder that Nadine Strasser, ACLU, will be speaking at Smith Recital Hall

on Thursday, February 7^th.

3. New exhibit at Karl Drerup Gallery opening tonight: Standing on One Foot.

4. Terri Potter has asked the faculty to please give thought to making

recommendations to her for student orientation leaders.

5. The Academic Excellence Reception is coming up. Faculty were reminded of

how much students appreciate seeing their faculty at this special event.

The meeting adjourned at 4:58 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Alice O’Connor, Scribe

Plymouth State University

Faculty Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

3:35PM-5PM - Heritage Commons

I. Approval of draft minutes of the 11/07/07 meeting. APPROVED AS SUBMITTED..

II. Reports

a. President Sara Jayne Steen

Update on search for VPFA: moving forward. Search committee next week - interviews in spring. Michelle McEwen, who is an aluma and is also the CEO at Speare Memorial Hospital, is a member of the committee.

Alumni Association Board has met twice recently. They are focusing on working more with our students. Has heard from students that they are enjoying these interactions. And is hearing from the Board members that they like it, too. The Board is working on a strategic plan to look at students as potential alums right from the beginning. New Career Services section on Alumni portal in combination with Bagley House. Our Alumni portal is considered a real achievement (thanks to the Alumni Board and Ken Kochien) and we are becoming a national model.

Legislative breakfast next week to talk about what we are doing. Will include talking about our North Country Teacher Certification Program that is really working.

Doctoral authority has been formally introduced. Has gotten full support from our local delegation, as well as bi-partisan support, and support from the Keene and Durham legislators.

Student senate and followup to Red Sox incident. Got dozens of letters from students with lots of important ideas to share. Great feedback to her letter that went to students. So many expressed "we're better than that." Incidents like ours happened across NE but that doesn't make ours acceptable. The Student Senate supported creation of a riot behavior task force. Some faculty had written willingness to participate in efforts to subdue/prevent incidents like this if there was an opportunity.

Paul Castonia - Received Coach of the Year for football coach from the ECAD. Had a reception after last home victory for parents, students and others. His work with the football athletes stressing academics and time management are laudatory.

Debate society is already winning awards.

Pakistani Institute for 2008 will focus on Environmental and Cultural Heritage Preservation.

Just finishing full-scale communications audit. New internal communications portal to open next week. Feedback should be addressed to Chris Williams in PR.

Thanked Anne Kulig for her report on the recently approved civil unions legislation in NH. She has no sense that USNH is backpedaling on its commitment to same-sex domestic partners.

President's Commission on Diversity: Reminder that applications for Diversity Fellow are on every table.

PSU has received a grant from the National Science Foundation for research in the biological sciences which will fund an environmental literacy program next summer.

A new financial aid program has been offered to a test cohort of students for next year. Designed to start to involve students and their parents in the financial aid process earlier, this program, the intent is to get them working together towards their educational goals. Supplementing the information students receive at their high schools, a presentation will take place in January to help get the students and parents going.

b. Provost Julie Bernier

Merit Pay: She described last year's process for merit pay and how it was structured. 2.5% was given as the general increase; 1% general merit was given to almost all faculty through a chair recommendation process; a small amount was given in dollar increment (versus percentage of salary) for extra merit (these faculty had been identified by their chairs as having an extraordinarily good year). The % increases address longevity. Extra merit will happen occasionally and allows those newer faculty to move ahead a little faster with their extra efforts.

c. Student Senate Speaker Peter Laufenberg

The Student Senate formed a committee composed of 6 students and representatives from Operating Staff, PATs and faculty, to look at events that occurred after the Red Sox World Series victory and why this continues to occur at PSU. More information will be forthcoming. The Senate decided that it was not prudent to charge all students for the damages. Parking - clarified that there was never a demand from the students that faculty be charged for parking. The parking committee had solicited feedback from PSU constituences regarding some parking issues including the idea of having staff pay for their parking stickers. They did receive a lot of feedback.

d. SPPC Faculty Representative Anne Kulig - sent via email.

No questions.

e. Credit Model Task Force Chair Ann McClellan - sent via email.

St. Josephs College in Maine and Keene State have recently moved to a 4-credit model. Talking with those schools and still gathering information. Trying to set up a date to have some reps come to talk with them.

f. Internationalization Task Force Chair Daniel Moore sent via email.

Filiz Otucu's name was inadvertently omitted from the list of members.

g. P&T Task Force Chair Gail Mears - sent via email.

Faculty Welfare and Task Force are looking at tenure standards and are trying to define what are the protections offered by tenure and what is tenure not intended to protect. This may be outside of their charge.

III. New Business

a. Resolutions of the Standing Committees-

Motion from the Curriculum Committee: Drop the General Special Education Certification option of the BS Early Childhood Studies

This motion PASSED.

b. Motion from the Curriculum Committee: (Wendy Palmquist)

That the Plymouth State Faculty approve the replacement of the current Faculty Bylaws, Article XI (Committees) F 11 b footnote with the following:

*Major and minor are operatively and dichotomously defined. A minor change is one which is not major; a major change is one which either a member of the Curriculum Committee declared major during the meeting at which the matter was deliberated, or a member of the faculty, within 20 days of posting, has declared major to the Faculty Speaker. Upon being declared major, the Faculty Speaker will notify the Chair of the Curriculum Committee and the person responsible for the proposal. The latter person must provide, in a timely fashion, the Faculty Speaker with the proposal and any supporting materials.

Current wording: * Major and minor are operatively and dichotomously defined. A minor change is one which is not major; a major change is one which either a member of the Curriculum Committee declared major during the meeting at which the matter was deliberated, or a member of the faculty, within twenty days of posting, has declared major to the Faculty Speaker. Upon being declared major, the Faculty Speaker will notify the chair of the Curriculum Committee, the Chair of the Executive Council, and the person responsible for the proposal. The latter person must provide, in a timely fashion, the Chair of the Executive Council with the proposal and any supporting materials.

This motion PASSED.

c. Motion from the Department of Environmental Science and Policy (Brian Eisenhauer):

That the Faculty approve a new program, a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy. (See Appendix A for vision and goals and Appendix B for curriculum)

This motion was withdrawn by Brian Eisenhauer.

d. Motion from the Faculty Welfare Committee (Mary Cornish):

To revise the Faculty Handbook, section 1.9 as described in Appendix C.

Rationale: In response to a charge from the GITF, the Faculty Welfare Committee has spent the last year looking into the revision process for the Faculty Handbook and Bylaws. The current three-party process (faculty, the Handbook Committee, and the Executive Assistant to the VPAA) seems an overly wieldy system with too many opportunities for miscommunication, delay, and confusion. In concordance with the faculty's goal to streamline governance, the Faculty Welfare Committee proposes that the Faculty delete the Faculty Handbook Committee and revise the revision process as explained in the Appendix.

-- Substitute motion brought by Gary McCool: seconded

(See Appendix D)

Rationale and history given by McCool. Discussion.

Hand vote taken - substitute motion FAILED.

-- Original motion from FWC. Amendment to paragraph B was proposed by Gary McCool: beginning of 2^nd sentence add , "In consultation with Faculty Welfare Committee, it shall be the responsibility of the executive assistant..." This amendment was not supported by FWC. No second.

-- Original motion from FWC. Amendment was proposed by Gary McCool: At end of first sentence of paragraph A - add "... and to notify the Faculty Welfare Committee when those changes have been implemented." Discussion. Change this proposed amendment to "... and to notify the faculty when those changes have been implemented." Accepted as friendly amendment. This amendment to the original motion is shown as italicized text in Appendix C, section 1.9, paragraph A.

-- Question called.

-- Vote on motion with friendly amendment: This motion PASSED.

-- An amendment to the passed amendment was proposed: at end of 1.9 opening paragraph add sentence about sending notification to faculty.

-- Point of order: when vote is taken, it's done. No further action was taken on this amendment.

IV. Announcements

Respectfully submitted,

Alice O'Connor, Scribe

Click here to view the Minutes AND appendices in PDF format.