Kansas State University

Highlights from the June 13 Faculty Senate meeting

Submitted by Faculty Senate

Guest: Provost and Senior Vice President April Mason complimented Faculty Senate on coming to the Polytechnic Campus, and taking the opportunity to tour and learn about the campus. She discussed the state of the budget and provided what information she could about the announcement from the state related to a possible salary increase for employees. The governor may accept, reject, or line item veto portions of the budget. Mason addressed several questions from senators.

Standing committee and Student Senate reports: 

• Academic Affairs: The consent agenda was approved along with a new undergraduate major in professional strategic selling from the College of Business Administration and a new Master of Science in athletic training from the College of Human Ecology. These items will go on to the Kansas Board of Regents for final approval before they are able to be implemented. Next year they will review several handbook change proposals from CAPP. Reminder: Curriculog is in use and all colleges will now be using it for course proposals. Curriculum proposals will come on line in the near future.
• Faculty Affairs: University Handbook Section F changes were approved to reflect updated requirements from the Kansas Board of Regents that will take effect this summer.
• Professional Staff Affairs, PSA: Reported that they discussed the professional staff survey and the 2018 agenda at their last meeting.  
• Student Senate: Reported on the Tuition and Fees Strategies Committee's work. 
• Technology, FSCOT: KSIS update testing has been completed, however, an issue was identified that if it is not resolved in July, may delay its release to November. An update also was provided on the WannaCry ransomware and faculty who are having issues are encouraged to call the IT Help Desk to get the needed patch.
• University Planning, FSCOUP: At their last meeting they were given a presentation on the Health and Wellness Master Plan give the discussion about the natatorium and city/university funds. They finalized their input on the implementation guidelines for the Furlough policy; many of their recommendations were incorporated. Finally, Sen. Laurel Littrell was elected as chair for 2017-2018.

New business

• An honorary degree candidate was approved for the December 2017 commencement ceremony.
• A resolution on Diversity Leadership was passed.
• A resolution on Maintaining Library Support was referred to FSCOUP for further action.

Announcements

• Faculty Senate has started Facebook and Twitter accounts to increase awareness about the work Faculty Senate does through pictures and some text.
• The Kansas Board of Regents is recommending that undergraduate degree programs only consist of 120 credit hours, unless justification is provided for them being more, and they plan to discuss this at their August retreat. 
• Appointments and recommendations for Faculty Senate and Presidential committees were approved at the May Executive committee meeting. 

Open discussion period

• A question was raised regarding whether there has been an effort made by the university to educate faculty about what to expect with the new conceal carry expectations that go into effect July 1. Online training and optional syllabus statements have been released since the meeting.
• Faculty Senate applauded K-State Polytechnic Campus for its hospitality.  

Brian Lindshield
Faculty Senate President
Associate Professor
Food, Nutrition, Dietetics, and Health
Kansas State University
208 Justin Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506