Kansas State University

Highlights from the March 10 Faculty Senate meeting

Submitted by Faculty Senate

These are the highlights from the March 10 Faculty Senate meeting. Previous minutes are available on the Faculty Senate website as they are approved.

Guest:

• Provost April Mason was a guest at the meeting and discussed budget planning for continued funding of faculty salary increases and new faculty positions.

Consent Agenda:

• President-elect Fred Guzek presented the consent agenda to senators, which was approved. Various course and curriculum changes were from the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Human Ecology.

Standing committee and Student Senate reports: 

• Academic Affairs: Senator Andy Bennett reported that KBOR has asked for discussion regarding the inclusion of conduct questions on admission applications. About half of the Big 12 schools have these. 
• Faculty Affairs: Senator Betsy Cauble presented to senators for a vote of proposed changes to the University Handbook, Section C10-12 regarding professional titles of practice. A policy allowing implementation of these proposed titles was passed by the Board of Regents last month. Some edits were made from what was presented last month due to what the regents approved as well as requests made by senators. The proposal was approved.
• Professional Staff Affairs (PSA): Mary Anne Andrews reported that the committee is continuing their detailed work on Section C of the University Handbook. They will be meeting with Human Capital Services again to discuss various topics.      
• Student Senate: Senator Abby Works reported on work taking place in their Tuition and Fees Strategies committee. She also reported that student government representatives spent a week in Washington, D.C., and met with Kansas legislators to discuss several bills affecting higher education.
• FSCOT: Senator Don Crawford updated senators on many items including Office 365 Phase 2 implementation and rollout; Canvas migration; rebranding of iSIS to KSIS; Adobe Creative Cloud; and Zoom updates.    
• FSCOUP: Senator Barbara Anderson reported on their meeting with Heather Mills and Loleta Sump regarding space migration planning and general classroom space. She reminded senators about upcoming construction and that this will affect traffic flow, pedestrian walkways and campus parking lots. Please visit the facilities website to keep yourself informed. Also, the consultant for the North Campus master plan will be on campus March 25-26 to continue discussion. 

Announcements/Reports

• Faculty Senate elections are in process and final ballots are being completed.
• KBOR meeting report: President Rintoul briefly reported on the February KBOR meeting. Professional titles of practice were approved with a couple of minor changes. The board simplified the language and will leave the decision about what titles can be offered to each university. They did limit multi-year contracts to three years, with the exception of what was already approved prior to this for clinical track faculty positions.  K-State's proposal for clarification to University Handbook, Appendix M, was reviewed by KBOR Academic Affairs committee last month and will be on their full agenda this month.

New Business

• An honorary degree candidate was approved for the May 2015 commencement ceremony. 

David A. Rintoul, Ph.D.
Associate Director/Graduate Program Director
Biology Division
Faculty Senate President
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506