August 19, 2020 Minutes

Faculty Senate Meeting (Webex) Minutes

August 19, 2020

3:10pm – 4:30pm

Webex

I.            The meeting was called to order at

II.            Interaction Rules during Senate Webex meetings    

a.      Everyone Mute

b.      Only Senators speak unless called on

c.       Senator Questions in chat

d.      Identify self if speaking

e.      Voting in Webex or in D2L

III.            Welcome President Cruzado 

a.      Always a pleasure to attend the first Faculty Senate meeting. This year it is extra special.

b.      The steam whistle is our tradition and was an emotional start to the semester. Represented a moment of hope, hope in the future.

c.       I hope you all enjoyed a good and health summer.

d.      Thank you for your incredible hard work las semester.

e.      All of your hard work is greatly appreciated.

f.        Thank you to Michael and Bradford for their hard work over the summer. They always represented the voices of the faculty in a wonderful manner.

g.      Special shout out to our faculty!

h.      Faculty members in microbiology are working with the testing company and came to the aid of the state of Montana.

i.        Thanks to Provost Mokwa and Sam Mitchell who worked so hard for weeks to write a proposal for our testing.

j.        Faculty are taking on an almost impossible workload between online instruction, taking care of their children, etc. Makes me very proud.

k.       Thank you for your support of our students, particularly our black student union. Pledge document looking for signatures of 20 faculty members. Chris Kearns, Alison Harmon, Ariel Donohue, Jeannette Gray-Gilbert, thank you.

l.        Best way to proceed ahead is elaborating an action plan. Want it ready to be disclosed no later than November.

m.    GO CATS, GO!!!!

IV.            Rules of engagement:                                                

a.      D2L, emails: personal, group-For clarification, the [email protected] is not a list serve. It is simply an email address you can email regarding Faculty Senate business. Only Michael, Bradford and Keely have access to check this email account.

i.            [email protected]

ii.            [email protected]

iii.            [email protected]

iv.            [email protected]

b.      during Webex meeting

V.            Approval of FS Minutes from May 5, 2020

a.      Tomas Gedeon moves to approve. Julie Ruff seconds.

b.      No further discussion

c.       All those in favor of the motion say aye.

d.      Those opposed to the motion indicate by saying aye.

e.      Meeting minutes are approved.

VI.            A refresher on Faculty Senate Bylaws                       

a.      Purpose

b.      Policies

c.       Membership

d.      Responsibilities

e.      Meetings

f.        Committees

g.      Faculty Senate Webpage https://www.montana.edu/facultysenate/

h.      One of the most consequential committees at MSU.

i.        Please look these bylaws over and bring any questions to the next meeting.

VII.            Old Business:

a.      Course and Program Approvals-Have learned that this is a really big deal.            

i.      Revised OCHE Guidelines for New Programs

A.      Info that is important for your departments to know

ii.      See senate website; first reading

iii.      Second reading next meeting; discussion

iv.      Moves to senate steering committee; vote

VIII.            New Business:

a.      MSU Resources:                                                         

i.      Provost Mokwa (comments)

A.      Appreciate the invitation.

B.      Overview Michael gave is a goat reminder of what Senate does

C.      It is important and helpful to me to hear from senate at these meetings.

D.     We do our best work when we work together

E.      Appreciate the heavy lifting that you all have done last semester and over the summer. We could not do this without you.

F.       Please encourage everyone to wear their masks, ongoing.

G.     New program offered between Fall and Spring terms. When we decided to end in November, we gave ourselves a bigger window of time. There will be a pilot offering of courses over that period between the semesters called “Snowmester”. We are just getting started on this. Your dept head or dean may be reaching out to you. Looking at primarily online courses that will help students to get ahead. If they take 12 credits in the Spring, the Snowmester would be no tuition, just a program fee. This is an opportunity for faculty to teach extra courses. We will have flexibility in proposals. Probably will not be any reslife offered during this time. Look forward to your ideas and suggestions.

ii.      Jason Carter (Research COVID accomplishments)

A.      Thank you all for everything you’ve done over the summer.

B.      This is a great example of our mission as a Land Grant University.

C.      Sentinel Surveillance: Regular checks to see if we are getting “ahead”. Ran into issues with DPHHS and certification. Faculty that has really stepped up when we ran not roadblocks with the testing: Seth Walk, Deb Keil, Raina Plowright, Alex Adams, Michelle Flannigan, Pat Hatfield, Carl Yeoman, among others-Delivering to DPHHS, 500 a day. Should be able to turn over a 1,000 per day soon.

D.     Pooling: Asymptomatic people, three or four people. If it comes up negative, you retest those same people.

E.      Due the change in semester dates, we have made some changes in research, so that researchers can use their grant money.

iii.      Jim and Sam Mitchell (health)

A.      Sam has worked as an epidemiologist in the past.

B.      Can accommodate on site testing in the Health Services now.

C.      Sending testing through the state program as well. Want to get a drive-through testing station as soon as possible.

D.     Faculty have been contacted them directly regarding contact, etc. In general, we are encouraging everyone to reach out to the county health line. They are the ones that need to make decisions on close contacts and testing and possible quarantine. You can also call your personal health care provider. If you don’t have one, the county has other resources.

E.      Dean Adams has sent out a great email with some resources. You should all receive that email.

iv.      Dean Adams (CFE) “lessons learned”

A.      Want to thank Sam and Jim Mitchell. Always kind and gracious with questions from faculty.

B.      Center is trying hard to organize webpage in a way that makes sense.

C.      Lessons learned from five in person courses taught this summer. Smaller classes assigned seating sets the structure and will help with contact tracing in larger classes, if needed. After first day, students tend to sit where they sat the first day, so if you create a seating chart based on that first day’s seating, that should work great.

D.     You cannot move seats and desks.

E.      Expect students to be absent. Make your course as flexible as possible.

F.       Using synchronous and asynchronous together, as much as possible, will help a larger number of students.

G.     Students are concerned about their own health. Some may think that this age group is less concerned with COVID, but we found that is not true. Underlying stress may be impacting them academically. Please be aware of that.

H.     Modeling behavior is the key to success. Including body language-backing up if someone gets too close. Wear your mask correctly.

v.      Jeanette Gray Gilbert (HR) accommodations i.e. families BSD schedule

A.      Having difficult conversations with faculty but has gone well with everything considered.

B.      Challenging with children in the K-12 schools. They are not offering flexibility and children will only be in school two days a week. This will impact faculty with children in school

C.      Please be patient and understanding with your faculty who are in impacted or will be impacted in the coming weeks by the K-12 schedule.

D.     Working on gathering info on expanded day care opportunities.

E.      Small groups of faculty and staff have been having conversations about pooling resources for transportation and group learning for their children.

F.       Work with your dept head and look at your schedule.

G.     In limited circumstances, there may be leave available.

IX.            Public Comment

a.      None

X.            Thank you to Eric Austin. Presentation of plaque.

XI.            Adjourn

a.      Meeting was adjourned at 4:30pm.

Reminder: The next meeting is September 9, 2020

                   Webex invite will be sent out the day before the meeting.