Kansas State University

Highlights from the May 9 Faculty Senate meeting

Submitted by Faculty Senate

These are the highlights from the May 9 Faculty Senate meeting. Minutes become available on the Faculty Senate website as they are approved.    

Guest: Provost and Senior Vice President April Mason welcomed the new faculty senators and thanked the outgoing faculty senators for their service. She first addressed student enrollment by indicating that June is the month for orientation and enrollment for new students. At this point, we do not really know what the projections will be regarding enrollment, but will have a better idea in June when we see how many students attend orientation and enrollment. Regarding budget, Mason indicated the administration is watching Topeka with great interest. There is a tax proposal that would bring $1 million into the state of Kansas over the next two years. We do not yet know if this will pass.   

Consent agenda:

• President-elect Brian Lindshield presented the consent agenda with various course and curriculum changes, which was approved.       

Standing committee and Student Senate reports: 

• Academic Affairs: Sen. Jenny Bormann made a motion to approve a new minor in apparel and textiles and a new overlay program in Arts and Sciences. Both were approved. Curriculog, the automated course management system, is in full swing and in the fall all colleges will be using it for course proposals.    
• Faculty Affairs: Sens. David Lehman and Charlie Barden reported on the second to last meeting of the year. The committee brought closure to their TEVAL discussion. The committee identified some best practices regarding TEVALs that they will post to the Teaching and Learning website. They will begin on other agenda items in the fall. 
• Professional Staff Affairs: Sen. Loleta Sump reported that a professional staff survey was recently completed and they were pleased with the number of those who responded. They have shared a report with the president and provost regarding the survey and its results.  
• Student Senate: Student Body President Jack Ayres welcomed Jonathan Peuchen as the new speaker of the Student Senate. Ayres reported on the recent Tuition and Fees Strategies committee meeting. He will be in Manhattan throughout the summer and encouraged faculty to feel free to reach out to him with anything they'd like to discuss. 
• Technology — FSCOT: Sen. Lisa Shappee updated senators on a few technology related items. The update to the KSIS interface will go live on July 24. The CIO search committee has met and been charged. The university is accepting applications for a new director of identity, security and compliance. Also, they are seeing an all-time high of phishing scams. She encouraged all to be on alert, especially at the end of the semester and beginning of the semester when these attacks increase.
• University Planning — FSCOUP: Sen. Spencer Wood reported their committee will meet next week. They have invited Steve Martini to discuss the Health and Wellness facilities/infrastructure. They hope to finalize the implementation guidelines for the furlough policy, which have been worked on this year. Finally, they will review some city/university fund ideas to work on over the summer.

Announcements

• President Andrew Bennett reported on the April 19 KBOR meeting. The Weapons Policy group presented to the Governance Committee regarding their proposals for restricted areas and adequate security measures on a temporary basis. The AP exam cut scores have now gone to uniform cut scores across all Kansas Regents institutions. There has been some follow-up to the GED exams.

• President Bennett reminded senators that the June 13 Faculty Senate meeting will take place in Salina on the Polytechnic Campus.

The 2016-2017 Faculty Senate was adjourned and Brian Lindshield, 2017-2018 Faculty Senate president, called the first meeting of the 2017-2018 Faculty Senate to order.

2017-2018 president-elect and secretary elections 

• Spencer Wood was elected as president-elect of Faculty Senate; Mindy Markham was elected as secretary of Faculty Senate.

Andrew Bennett
Faculty Senate President
Professor and Department Head
Mathematics
Kansas State University
138 Cardwell Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506