September 25, 2024 Minutes

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Slide Presentation

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

Harrison 123

September 25, 2024

3:15pm-4:30pm

I.            Call to Order

a.      Meeting called to order at 3:15pm

II.            Approval of FS Minutes from September 11, 2024

a.      Michael Walach moves to approve. Doug Downs seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Minutes are approved.

III.            FYI Items

a.      Call for Founder’s Day Faculty Awards 2025 – due Nov 15, 2024

b.      Annual Principal Investigator training on November 6th, 2024, from 9:30-2pm in SUB Ballroom C.

i.      SmartBuy, ChromeRiver, OSP procedures, etc.

c.       SmartBuy training/help options

i.      Teams channel for real-time help: Teams Channel

ii.      Weekly office hours Wed 11 on Teams: Office Hours

iii.      Training and tutorials on MSU SmartBuy webpage: https://www.montana.edu/ubs/smartbuymsu/

d.      Canvas is now available to faculty access: https://ato.montana.edu/canvas/

i.      Cannot use for classes until Summer 2025

ii.      Migrating courses automatically using external vendor: academic courses after summer 2022. For more information: https://ato.montana.edu/canvas/migrate/ or email [email protected]

iii.      Can request older courses be migrated or migrate yourself

iv.      Student info is not migrated.

v.      Won’t have instructor access until you migrate a course over.

vi.      Pull examples of student work off of D2L now. We have other places to store it.

e.      The College of Arts and Architecture 50th anniversary events: www.msuaf.org/caa50  

i.      First event: Friday Oct 4, 2024, open house, 12-5

ii.      Online art auction going on that weekend.

f.        Update on parking

i.      Randy Crandall will be here on Oct 23

ii.      Can also email [email protected] or Randy directly

g.      Update on annual bike removal

IV.            Information Updates

a.      Committee updates

i.      Graduate Council

1.      1 credit extension is being discussed now and won’t go into effect until later.

2.      Contact your grad council representative if you have questions, or Rob directly. Can also reach out to Stephan Warnat, chair of UGC.

ii.      Academic Council

1.      See slide presentation for info.

b.      Dr. Betsy Asserson, Director of CPS

i.      Center has moved to the second floor of the student wellness center

ii.      Healthy Minds survey

iii.      Mental health training/handout for faculty

iv.      Q&A

1.      Are our students really that different, or is our data skewed? 

a.      Large sample. Wasn’t that different.

2.      14% response rate

a.      Lower for us than usual

3.      All data here is self-reported

4.      Looking at last 12 months

5.      Define self-insure: Someway of hurting their body

a.      Cutting

b.      Picking

6.      When did self-injury like cutting start?

a.      It can be hard to imagine, but it’s been happening for a long time. 

i.      There is now less stigma about talking about it, so people hear about it more now.

c.       Dr. Deb Blanchard, Assistant Provost – Curriculum and Assessment

i.      What faculty need to know about accreditation

1.      Accreditation Visit-Faculty Forum, Oct 9, 2024, 2pm, Inspiration Hall

2.      Look at the conclusions of the accreditation report.

3.      Go to Accreditation website and look at what the procedures are

4.      They want to hear about your experiences. Please be honest and share. 

5.      Possible questions that may come up:

a.      What is working well at the institution?

b.      Your roles and responsibility as they relate to assessment process. 

c.       How you were you involved in your program review?

d.      How do faculty contribute to planning and review of plans?

e.      How do you participate in shared governance?

6.      Can contact Tracy Dougher at x3790, [email protected] , montana.edu/accreditation

ii.      Q&A

1.      Is this a binary process, or will there be suggestions for improvement?

a.      Site team has already seen our report. They will send their report back to the commission and will make recommendations from there. 

b.      It would be unusually to have no recommendations. 

2.      For the faculty forum just for faculty? 

a.      Yes

3.      Is it noted who is talking, or does that stay in the room?

a.      They are not taking names. No adminstrators will be involved in those discussions.

4.      Can we use the recommendations as leverage to ask BOR for funding?

a.      Yes.

V.            Undergraduate Courses and Programs 

a.      Course – First Reading

i.      ECNS 315: Urban Economics and Community Development

b.      Courses—Second Reading 

i.      ANTY 359: Public Archaeology

ii.      EDSP 462: Special Education Law, Policies & Practices

c.       Course Inactivations – First Reading

i.      ARTH 421: Late Gothic Painting

1.      No longer offered

ii.      BGEN 215: Career Readiness

1.      We have redesigned our first-year curriculum, and this course is no longer required.

iii.      BIOM 497 is being used as an SA training course for all courses in the department.

1.      BIOH 429: Student Assistant Training for Integrated Physiology (BIOH 185)

2.      BIOH 432: Student Assistant Training for Advanced Human Anatomy (BIOH 411)

3.      BIOH 461: Tutoring Human Anatomy and Physiology I

4.      BIOH 463: Tutoring Human Anatomy and Physiology II

5.      BIOH 483: Peer Leaders for Anatomical Science Laboratories

d.      Programs — Second Reading 

i.      -CAS: Law Enforcement

e.      Program Changes – First Reading

i.      MBVA-BS: Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences - Environmental Health Option

1.      Change from Bachelor of Science in Microbiology - Environmental Health Option

2.      The Environmental Health Option is currently in the Department of Microbiology & Cell Biology. However, it fits better as an Option in the Department of Land Resources & Environmental Sciences. LRES is proposing to oversee the Option and make the necessary small changes to the curriculum such that it is an Option within the Environmental Sciences major, and it meets accreditation requirements and standards.

VI.            Graduate Courses and Programs 

a.      Course – First Reading

i.      GEO 501: Phylogenetics

b.      Course Inactivations – First Reading

i.      MUSI 504: Studies in Hist and Analysis

VII.            Senators’ Open Conversation 

a.      CLS Dean search

i.      Committee is meeting soon to evaluate first round of candidates. Still confidential.

ii.      Application is still open.

iii.      Fairly large pool of applicants. 

b.      Presidential search

i.      Commissioner has signed on with a search firm, Greenwood Asher, and putting together the search committee. 

ii.      Very limited information. All up to the commissioner.

iii.      Commissioner is the chair of search committee and the hiring committee.

iv.      Search committee organizes the search. They don’t make the selection decisions. 

v.      There will be a committee with people from the university, community, etc. 

vi.      There will be forums, etc. 

c.       International Programs Dean

i.      Candidates on campus next week. 

VIII.            Public Comment

a.      Tony Hartshorn COA, LRES

i.      "Hi, my name is Tony Hartshorn. I'm an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Land Resources and Env. Sciences. I come to this body with some optimism. I'd like to know what MSU might be doing about affordable housing in Bozeman. If you think this issue does not affect our faculty, our staff, and our students, I'd beg to differ.

One colleague has said their own colleagues can't stomach face-to-face departmental meetings because they've been forced to buy or rent a long commute from Bozeman.

Another colleague cannot understand why more resources (any?) can't be provided to support especially junior colleagues in being more housing-secure.

And finally, I've had students who have--quietly--admitted they are living out of their vehicle.

So, I thought I was just a bad Googler but the 1st 10 hits when I search 'affordable housing' at montana.edu have nothing to do with any initiative that might fuse our collective creativity to this pressing need. I know we have limited resources, but I'd love to learn more about how we might create "a culture of care" (per the Counseling & Psych Services brochure) that includes being able to call a place home.

ii.      "What can be done?

1.      Organizing community conversations.

2.      University used to allow faculty to live in graduate housing.

3.      Has come up many times, in multiple committees.

4.      Temporary housing for new faculty and staff until they get on their feet.

5.      Susanne Cowan: Gallatin Valley’s One Valley group working on this issue. Will pass along that MSU faculty want to be involved in this.

IX.            Adjourn

a.      Jim Meyer moves to adjourn. Scott Meyer seconds. Meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.