Faculty Senate Minutes (08/30/2018)

Call to Order

Present: Albert Lozano, Willie Ofosu, Caroline Chronowski, Wei-Fan Chen, Getinet Gawo, Tim Sichler, Megan Mac Gregor, Melisa Naylor, Jonathan Pineno, Lynda Goldstein, Marshall Davis, Ann Brennan, Erin Brennan

Via Zoom: John Weber, Sue Hales, Anson Carter, Esra Yilmaz

Announcements

  • Sign up for two preferred committee assignments via the paper sign up sheets. Once the committees have been finalized, each committee should meet and elect a chair. Each committee will receive its charge(s) from the Chief Academic Officer before the second committee meeting is held.
  • Summary of scholarly and outreach activities to be presented to the Campus Advisory Board must be sent to Dr. Rosier ([email protected]) by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Minutes

Tabled until next meeting due to lack of record.

Communications of Campus Administrators and University Officers

Dr. Jones

  • Spoke briefly about what it means to be part of Penn State. Thanked the faculty.
  • ABET is underway, please contribute when possible and put best foot forward.

Ms. Susan Hales

  • Discussed and presented new features added to the Campus Directory on Penn State Wilkes-Barre website. Department listing, expanding the search box, tabs added to faculty listing, and updated photos.

Reports

University Faculty Senators — None

University College Faculty Council — Dr. Lynda Goldstein: 

Notes from the University College Faculty Council (UCFC) meeting, April 27, 2018

Attending from Wilkes-Barre: Christyne Berzsenyi and Lynda Goldstein

  1. There should be two councilors from each campus. Ours are above. Their terms should stagger such that there is an election every two years for one councilor whose term runs for four years.
    1. New councilor term will be June 1, 2018–May 31, 2022 [this applies to Berzsenyi]
    2. Term held by current councilor expires May 31, 2020 [this applies to Goldstein]
    3. WB Faculty Senate should determine whether Goldstein’s term, originally set to run 2017-2019, should be extended by one year (by acclamation) or whether a special election for a single 1-year term should be held. Could we have a determination of how the Election committee should proceed?
  2. Nominations for all UC awards (research, teaching, service) were received and assigned to their respective committees for review and then recommendation to Dr. Hanes. By the time you read this, the recipients will have been announced.
  3. There is a new health insurance requirement for students. [Wanda Ochei can provide most current information.] The gist is that students are now required to have insurance or purchase it from the University. Does the faculty have feedback that should be conveyed to UCFC?
  4. Teaching load for co-taught inter-domain courses (Gen Ed) varies on campuses. It is likely to be added to Workload Guidelines coming from the University College. Discussion? Any concerns to be conveyed?
  5. There was discussion of the changing role of Instructional Designer and the funding source for IDs. There is some concern that there are inconsistencies in IDS web course support across university resources, particularly for courses delivered in shared programs. As well, IDs work primarily for online delivery by World Campus rather than for campuses. Discussion? Any concerns to be conveyed?
  6. Any other issues to be conveyed?

Committee Sign Ups

  • Student Affairs
  • Scholarly Activities
  • Library
  • Academic Affairs
  • Faculty Affairs

Old Business

Establishing a standing Diversity Committee (Educational Equity and Campus Environment)

New Business

An email was sent out for nominations on two positions:

  1. A full, 2-year term beginning in fall 2018
  2. A spring 2019 term as a sabbatical replacement

Tenured professors with the minimum rank of Associate Professor can be nominated for these positions.

Dr. Faux motioned to extend Dr. Lynda Goldstein’s term to fall within the new guidelines. Dr. Albert Lozano-Nieto seconded the motion; all were in favor. Dr. Lynda Goldstein was extended one year.

Comments for the Good of the Order

All future Faculty Senate meetings will take place in T-14 from 12:15–1:15 p.m. on the following dates:

  • October 11, 2018
  • November 8, 2018
  • January 24, 2019
  • February 28, 2019
  • April 4, 2019

Schedule for spring 2019 semester to go live to the students the week of September 3, 2018. Please get any changes in ASAP to prevent any scheduling conflicts for students.

Adjournment

Motion made; meeting adjourned.