Nancy Wilkinson called the meeting to order with the following members present: Arquitt, Bertholf, Bost, Carlozzi, Cole, Dawson, Eastman, Edgley, Gedra, Hsu, Johannes, Kimbrell, Martin, Miller, Moder, Montgomery, Peck, Rhoten, Sanders, Scott, Sisson, Tilley, and Warde. Also present: Beer, Beverage, Birdwell, Carroll, Holmes, Keener, Nielsen, Tye, and Young. Absent: Gregson, Hallgren, Hoffer, Krenzer, and Locy
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reported the committee put forth four recommendations and all four were passed by the council but three are still pending administration approval. 1. P&P Letter on Faculty Promotion and Tenure Process. This document was sent to the committee by Dr. Keener. The committee reworked the document. 2. Faculty Council review of Promotion and Tenure P&P Letter. This resolution asked the administration to return the document to the Faculty Council if any other group made major changes in it before it is approved by the administration. 3. Faculty Perceptions of the A&D Process. This resolution asked the administration to distribute the summary of a survey done by Adrienne Hyle and Michael Mills and asked the EVP to remind deans of their responsibility to provide written responses to A&D disputes in the department and conduct workshops on the A&D process. Accepted by the Administration. 4. Personal Profit on Required Materials. This recommendation is that the university adopt a policy that professors can not make a profit on materials which they require students to buy. Dr. Johannes asked about enforcement. Dr. Edgley said that it is sometimes hard to enforce the right thing to do but it does not make it less the right thing to do. Dr. Wilkinson said that the Faculty Committee has a heavy burden in helping Dr. Keener with the promotion and tenure decisions which he feels need additional faculty input before the final decision is made.
reported that the charge of the LRP committee is to examine the future of OSU, the university clientele relationship, and faculty development. The committee has a high turnover rate so last years committee set out to educate itself about issues inside and outside the university that would affect the universities planning. John Wesley, the Stillwater Community Development Director discussed the Stillwater Comprehensive Plan. Gary Trennepohl, who is a member of the Citizens Commission on Higher Education, discussed the recommendations of the commission. Ron Area discussed the OSU Foundation and Jerry Gill and Harry Birdwell discussed alumni relations. The committee also worked with Jack Vitek in the "Research Makes It Happen" initiative. The committee will be looking at OSU/Tulsa this year.
said this is the second year for this committee. Some issues to be considered this year will be intellectual property rights, patent policy, conflict of interest, distribution of indirect costs, research centers, support for the research infrastructure, especially the IRB, Carnegie 1 research status, the undergraduate research and scholarship environment, and technology transfer. The committee wants to develop liaisons with different research infrastructure groups especially the Research Council. The committee will examine the faculty needs for education about intellectual property protections and responsibilities. The committee should have its first meeting this month.
said the committee stays in close contact with Personnel in order to keep up with changes in the benefit programs. The committee sponsored the TIAA-CREF national conference on focus on investing. This is a way of keeping OSU informed as to our need to be more involved in our retirement planning. There was a time when faculty looked to the university to take care of them when they retired, but that is no longer the case. The committee hopes to sponsor the TIAA-CREF conference again this year. The committee will also continue to monitor the OTRS changes. One of the big issues will be health care. No one is happy with what is happening with health care. Hopefully some solutions can be worked out next year. A consultant should be chosen by the Regents at the next meeting. An issue that has been discussed in the committee is the development of a more flexible benefits package. It may be reasonable to go to a "cafeteria" style plan where each employee is given a certain number of dollars and can tailor their benefits package to their own needs. The committee will be looking at a philosophy statement about health care. That is, should our health care plan be basically a wellness program or a program that pays for all our health care needs or a catastrophic health care program. The committee together with the Health Care Committee and the consultant hope to have a recommendation in regard to health care by September.
reported for Gene Krenzer who was out of town. The committee runs the elections each year. Last spring the committee had the Herculean task of revising and updating the voting rosters.
reported that the committee's top priority will continue to be library concerns. The committee is waiting for Dean Johnson's paper on intellectual property and is working on this issue from a different direction than the Research Committee. Other issues concern student welfare in general, on campus daycare and the Martin Luther King Day celebration.
ATHLETIC COUNCIL - Dennis Bertholf reported that the AC met May 21 and Maryanne Mowen reported that the council approved the playing of a basketball game the weekend before final examinations. The Fiscal Integrity Committee reported the athletic budget for FY98 was $13.3M. They were able to apply $250K to debt reduction which reduced the debt to $2.7M. The Student Athlete Welfare and Gender Equity Committee will make a recommendation at the June meeting as to whether equestrian or crew will be added in the fall of ‘98. Compliance Officer, Rich Allen, reported on the many activities he handles as to education about the rules for coaches, athletes, and alumni and support groups. He also deals with the internal audit of institutional scholarships, tuition waivers, general eligibility, summer camps and ticket operations. He has also been reviewing implementation and monitoring activities to see that OSU’s procedures are in order.
reported that most activities of the association continue through the summer. The major challenge is to find accommodations for the first Friday dinner. They are trying a different arrangement about every month.
reported that the council has nearly raised the $1500 needed for staff scholarships which will be matched by the administration. Please encourage the staff who qualify to apply for these scholarships. SAC is also concerned about the health care program and has most of the same concerns as the faculty. The Sick Leave Bank Committee has been formed and there are faculty, staff, and administrators on it. The new compensation classification system is to go on line July 1, 1999 and this will be a big change for staff.
Dr. Keener said the Big 12 vice presidents meet at least one time and sometimes twice a year. Some initiatives have been developed in which all the schools can participate. One of those is the Big 12 fellowship program. All schools are now participating and sending and receiving fellows. OSU has had the lead in sending but trails in receiving. Please encourage your colleagues to invite scholars to come to OSU as well as applying to go to other universities. The program will be expanded somewhat. The real objective in expanding the program from the Big 12 institution's viewpoint is that they would like to see a higher participation rate in under-represented minority faculty and, to some extent, women. Another issue considered was the journal costs at the libraries. Every institution is feeling like they can not continue to fund the library at the level the faculty wants. This is not just OSU but all the institutions including Texas, Texas A&M and Kansas. They are all considering large cut backs in the number of journals purchased. The major problem is in the physical sciences, engineering and mathematics. The costs of journals in these areas are increasing at 40% per year and have been for several years. As an example, a study of math journals has shown that the cost per page published by Elsevier or Springer-Verlag is about $2.60 whereas the AMS was costing only $.34 per page. The big publishers feel no need to justify this. It is going to take the work of individual faculty to stop this by accepting alternative publications or not publishing in places that are generally thought of as the place to publish. Faculty could publish papers by different means and in different places. Faculty are the producers of the research, as well as the reviewers of the research and the editors of the journals and then we have to buy it all back at inflated prices. The universities are not going to get help from the federal government because at that level we are competing with Walt Disney, etc. This fall there will be some informational sessions for faculty about these problems. Dr. Gedra pointed out that this problem will probably continue due to the consolidation in the publishing industry. Dr. Keener said people thought that electronic publication could solve this problem but the publishers are getting control of the copyrights and if you want an electronic version they will sell it to you only if you buy the paper version and possibly other journals. Dr. Johannes asked the status of the satellite library in the old IGA building. Dr. Birdwell replied that the asbestos removal will be complete July 1. It will then take about $250K to complete the outside and the interior work and lighting will need to be completed. Dr. Warde asked the status of the various computer bulletin boards. They have not been active for the last 6 months. Dr. Birdwell said that Communication Services has responsibility for these. It is in the list of priorities but has not been completed.
Dr. Sanders moved for adjournment. Dr. Moder seconded. The meeting adjourned at 4:48 p.m. The next meeting of the Faculty Council is September 8, 1998.
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