Abstract of Nov. 9 Faculty Senate meeting

November 12, 2009

Daniel Larner, Faculty Senate president, called the 2009-2010 Faculty Senate to order at 4:03 p.m. Senators accepted senate minutes of Oct. 12, 2009, along with the standing committee minutes. Senators postponed acceptance of Academic Technology Committee minutes of Oct. 21, 2009, pending clarification of a proposal to "outsource email."

President Larner and the executive are working on a charge for a potential graduate advisory committee that will come to the senate for debate.

Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard reported

  • that he is making the argument to state Legislators that even a best case scenario cut of 2 percent is ridiculous;
  • Shepard’s offer of space and student volunteers to the Whatcom Middle School was appreciated by the community;
  • Shepard plans to move forward with the search to fill Buff Schoenfeld’s position;
  • Shepard will attend Veterans Day ceremonies with the vice presidents.

Provost Riordan caught the attention of the Legislature with the argument that we normally hire 30 faculty members but this year we hired only three. While there is no hiring freeze, deans are urged to be cautious and to fit projects under themes that might be part of next year’s fundraising campaign.

Marsha Riddle Buly, senate legislative liaison, urged faculty members to publicize data that shows that while other aspects of education get legislative funding, the public baccalaureates are down 7.3 percent. Washington state ranks 48th in the country in the public’s participation in four-year college degrees but leads the nation in graduate degree production. Riddle Buly suggested each college choose a month and ensure that several faculty members show up at local town hall meetings. Students, too, ought to learn about higher education issues, she said.

Ramon Rinonos-Diaz reported the following:

  • Students are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Viking Union
  • Three hundred students voted in the Bellingham elections using campus ballot boxes
  • The Associated Students is writing a specific charter to reflect student partnership with the university.

Steven Garfinkel, United Faculty of Western Washington president, reported:

  • The four regionals have combined efforts to leverage as many contacts as possible with legislators.
  • Bill Lyne’s blog site has useful information and many hits at http://www.ufws.org/blog/.
  • Bargaining units may be invited to a seat at the table of state bodies that determine medical fees.

Constituent concerns:

  • The Seattle Opera young artists will perform at the Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
  • A campus safety officer is not allowing dropoffs for faculty members who teach in Humanities.
  • The Whatcom Transportation Authority is holding a board meeting on Nov. 19 to discuss the loss of certain bus routes.
  • The Course Reaction Survey ordering process ought to be automated and the question of evaluating every class brought to the bargaining table. Shepard commented that students have the right to evaluate classes but that these surveys are used improperly to evaluate teaching when there is a lack of more meaningful alternatives such as peer review.

Senators heard Steven VanderStaay, vice provost for undergraduate education, report on his current initiatives, including review of First Year programs and Honors, Assessment and Accreditation plans, the alignment of data reports with departmental needs and review of VPUE program directors.

Senators adjourned at 5:40 p.m.

Appointments and elections – Chuck Lambert, appointments officer

Vacancies: Cold Beverage Awards committee (2-3 faculty members). This committee is involved in contracting the cold beverages for the university and is different from the committee that awards beverage funds for campus speakers.