September 27, 2023 Minutes

Printable PDF

Software Contract History and Procedures

Slide Presentation

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

Leon Johnson 346

September 27, 2023

3:15pm-4:30pm

I.            Call to Order 

a.      Meeting called to order at 3:15pm.

II.            Approval of FS Minutes from September 13, 2023

a.      Michael Wallach moves to approve. Hua Li seconds. None opposed. No abstentions. Approved. 

III.            FYI Items 

a.      Fran Albrecht has been selected President/CEO of MSUAF and VP for Advancement of Montana State University, effective November 1, 2023.

b.      The Office of Research Compliance will host the Research Integrity & Compliance Conference 2023 on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 18-19 in the SUB Ballrooms and invites you to join.  

c.       Montana State University's fall enrollment is the largest in its 130-year history, with 16,978 students pursuing the many benefits of higher education at the state's largest university. The new enrollment is up 2% over last fall's headcount, an increase of 290 students.

d.      Lunch with the President and Provost 

i.      There is still space available. Please email [email protected] to be added to the list! 

1.      Monday, October 23 - - 12-1pm 

2.      Tuesday, November 28 - - 12-1pm 

IV.            Information Updates 

a.      Tracy Ellig: Social Media Policy 

i.      https://www.montana.edu/legalcounsel/proposed/index.html

ii.      If you want your university unit to have a social media site, you need to have a back up person and the log in info.

1.      Need to post at least once a week.

iii.      Cannot remove negative comments. First amendment rights are violated. 

 iv.      Exempt accounts associated with an individual’s name

v.      Are you doing the business of the university? 

1.      University Communications is not involved in the process. 

vi.      Questions:

1.      Student Clubs? 

a.      They are exempt. Not employees and not doing business of university.

2.      Lab research named account?

a.      Not exempt. Organizational unit of the university. 

3.      How do you go about it the right way?

a.      Send Communications an email. State who your back up is and the frequency you want to post. 

b.      Will give you some information and you’ll be on your way.

c.       Extension: Have a funding model where they receive support services from a county employee. That county employee may be the administrator of the page. This policy will also apply to that employee. 

i.      Will need to give log in info to Communications.

4.      Besides the info you give up front, how much oversite will the university have on the content?

a.      Will get involved in someone says there is a big problem. 

b.      Legal matters.

5.      Twitter accounts for labs that are under an individual person’s email account posting MSU content?

a.      Are you doing the business of the university? Yes, this policy would include you. 

b.      Should de-couple their personal site from their work.

i.      Disclaimer: State that the view represented are your own.

ii.      Don’t use the MSU logo.

c.       MSU business websites cannot live outside of montana.edu. 

d.      Out of compliance with policy

e.      Remediation?

i.      Help move the out of compliance website over to montana.edu. 

6.      What do you do about abandoned sites? Who should be maintaining those? What does Communications want to see?

a.      Post once a week.

7.      An admin updates our site. Posts a couple of times a week. 

a.      When CAN you delete a comment?

i.      Reach out to Communications when you see a hostile comment. 

1.      If it is an actual threat, it goes immediately to law enforcement. 

2.      It poses a threat, it can be removed. 

8.      Email Colter or Stephanie with more questions.

b.      Megan Lasso: MSU Operating Budget Snapshot  

i.      Slides have been sent out via email.

ii.      Questions: 

1.      Average expenditures per student. 

a.      Figure out what costs will go up and then figure out how much tuition should increase. 

2.      Faculty salary is 20-30% below our peer average. What can be done about that? 

a.      MUS contracts are under the Commissioner of Higher Education and the Board of Regents. 

b.      Provost Mokwa: Keeping our eye on this and tracking it. Some measures we can use to get increases, such as Merit, Market and Equity. 

i.      Working on increasing promotion rates. Approval comes through the Commissioner’s office. 

ii.      State Raises. 

iii.      Endowed professorships.

iv.      Keep pushing. Keep bringing the topic up. 

v.      The pool for raises has stayed the same over years. Can we get it bigger?

1.      We are working on that. 

c.       Campuses that have faculty unions, do they negotiate better salaries, or are their disparities across the MUS system?

i.      Collective bargaining happens through the Commissioner’s office. 

3.      FY22, benefits dipped. What was that reason?

a.      We had a holiday where we didn’t have to contribute to benefits so we didn’t have to pay that out. 

V.            Undergraduate Courses and Programs 

a.      Courses—First Reading 

i.      BMIS 312 : Data Analytics II

ii.      HDFS 468 : Home Visiting for Families

iii.      HLD 346 : The Leader's Way: Deep Listening, Systems & Processes

b.      Course Changes — First Reading 

i.      LS 499R :Senior Capstone 

1.      Change in title from 

2.      Credit change

c.       Courses—Second Reading 

i.      CSTN 101 : Introduction to Concrete

ii.      HSTR 405 : American Holy Land

iii.      HSTR 469 : Memoir & Biography in History

d.      Courses—Inactivations –Second Reading

i.      PHSX 405 : Special Relativity Online

1.      PHSX 405 was intended be replaced by PHSX 579.However, when PHSX 579 was approved in Spring 2023, PHSX 405 remained active.

VI.            Senators’ Open Conversation 

a.      Gary Canton: Business hired four new faculty in December and January. Some don’t have their office or computer yet. Can we look at the process of buying equipment for new faculty. The UIT process goes off date of hire, not the date the contract was signed. Process can take six months to get equipment n campus. 

b.      Sarah Stoneback: What is the $50 graduation fee is used for?

i.      Those funds goes to registrar’s office. Printing costs, etc. Will get you more info. 

1.      Election day is not a state holiday anymore. 

2.      Faculty: Cannot disrupt class time, instruction time.

c.       Sara Rushing: Floating Holidays: Don’t understand them. 

d.      Erick Johnson: Would the university consider using that holiday for election day on election years?

i.      We don’t have the ability to make that decision.

ii.      We would have to eliminate a holiday to do that. 

iii.      We could put one of the two days off at Thanksgiving and be in compliance? Hypothetically, yes. 

e.      When do contracts go out to faculty?

i.      Will get that info.

f.        Where do you want people to start regarding social media policy?

i.      Send to Tracy Ellig.

ii.      [email protected]

VII.            Public Comment 

a.      Albert Reyes: Lab twitter pages are student run. Does that count? 

i.      Is the student saying “this is my experience”? Has the instructor asked a student the students to post? 

1.      Post what you want.

a.      If the name is the page is an MSU name, the policy applies.

VIII.            Adjourn 

a.      Karie Orendorff moves to approve. Doug Downs seconds. Meeting adjourned at 4:30.