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Grand Valley State University

Highlight of UAS Meeting of December 1, and Preview of ECS Meeting of December 8, 2023

 

In an effort to improve communication between ECS/UAS and faculty colleagues, the Executive Committee of the Senate (ECS) at its August 16, 2023, retreat reaffirmed a recommendation from August 12, 2021, that each week, a general message be sent out to all faculty. This message will highlight the immediate past ECS/UAS meeting and give a preview of the upcoming ECS/UAS meeting. In particular, the highlight will summarize the key agenda items and provide context on the key votes; the pros and cons will be summarized and the key arguments for each highlighted. Herein are the highlights of the ECS meeting of November 17, 2023, and a preview of the UAS meeting of December 1, 2023. Meetings of the ECS are restricted to members of the ECS, their alternates, and others whom the ECS may invite, pursuant to SG 1.01.7.2. Meetings of the UAS are open pursuant to SG 1.01.6.2.

Highlights of UAS Meeting of December 1, 2023

Chair’s Report

  • When our current shared governance structure was designed, it can be argued that everything was channeled through the Provost Office; the Provost was the Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs. Today, the Provost is the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and there are many divisions that were previously part of the Provost’s portfolio but now headed by a Vice President. Therefore, the time has come to review our governance structure based on the changing structure of the university. This Friday, December 8, ECS will discuss the charge and timeline of a taskforce that has been put together to review our current faculty governance structure, benchmark the governance structures of our peer institutions, and make recommendations for a faculty governance structure that takes into consideration the configuration of our current university structure. The taskforce will be comprised of the following members: Elizabeth Arnold (CLAS), Karen Gipson (CLAS/BCOIS), Raymond Higbea (CECI), Bob Hollister (CLAS), Figen Mekik (CLAS), Azizur Molla (CHP), Chuck Pazdernik (CLAS), Wendy Reffeor (PCEC), and Ed Aboufadel (ex officio).
  • The summary of the feedback from the faculty forums on the evaluation of teaching are now available. If you missed it from my message last week, you can have access to the feedback by going here.

Provost's Report

  • Storbeck Search has been retained as the search firm for the computing and engineering dean searches. Storbeck met with the search committees and various constituency groups last week.
  • Last week’s Laker to Laker article discussed ongoing and planned efforts around the D/F/W rates, written by Dean Jennifer Drake, Vice Provost Cathy Buyarski, and AVP Philip Batty. We are all monitoring and looking at additional resources. A series of Town Halls will be held in January for the whole university to discuss retention.

Student Senate President's Report

  • The Executive Vice President and other members of the cabinet were introduced.
  • Student Senate passed their omnibus bill with the restructuring proposals. Next semester will focus on implementation.
  • On January 25th the State of Student Senate address will be held in the Pere Marquette Room in Kirkhof at 4:30-6:00 pm.

New Business

  • The Vice President for Finance and Administration, Dr. Greg Sanial, gave a presentation on the university budget and focused on the following areas: Fiscal Year 2023-2024 General Fund Expenditure Budget; Fiscal Year 2023-2024 State Appropriation; Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Enrollment Impact; and Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Planning.
  • We discussed the idea of a consent agenda for UAS and whether UAS thought it was a worthwhile idea. A straw poll was conducted, which demonstrated overwhelming support of the idea from the membership of UAS. ECS will work out the details on how to select an agenda item as a consent agenda.
  • We discussed the memo from the Online Education and Microcredential Council (OEMC) on Program Modality Definition. The goal of the memo is to help students understand the programs’ delivery modes. The intent is to be clear to students. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was unanimously supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the memo from the Faculty Facilities Planning Advisory Committee (FFPAC) on Lost and Found. This memo noted that there is a need to promote more actively the lost and found system and make it more official. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was unanimously supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the memo from the Faculty Facilities Planning Advisory Committee (FFPAC) on Campus Safety Night Walk. FFPAC proposed that Campus Safety Survey be discontinued and replaced with an expansion of the GVSU Department of Public Safety (GVPD) Campus Safety Night Walk, an annual event in which the GVPD leads an after-dark tour of the GVSU campus for university administrators, Student Life personnel, FFPAC representatives, and representatives from Student Senate. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was unanimously supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the memo from the Affiliate Faculty Advisory Committee (AFAC) on Affiliate Faculty Retirement. AFAC was charged with reviewing eligibility for retirement benefits for affiliate faculty and make recommendations. Because other benefit-eligible faculty and staff across GVSU who were hired prior to 1/1/2014 receive the Official Retiree healthcare supplement, AFAC is asking that Affiliate faculty who were hired prior to 1/1/2014 and have reached the 75 number (age plus years of service) receive the same Official Retiree healthcare supplement as all other GVSU faculty and staff who meet the Official Retiree status. In addition, AFAC is requesting that the University consider Affiliate faculty who have retired and met these qualifications between the implementation of the Official Retiree status for Affiliates in 2017 and the implementation of this proposed policy change. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was unanimously supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the memo from the Academic Policies and Standards Committee (APSC) on Academic Review and Dismissal. The goal of the memo is to not consider academic review for dismissal at the end of spring/summer semester, as it is a shorter semester, and it may not be in the best interest of the students to be dismissed after this shorter semester. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was unanimously supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the memo from the Academic Policies and Standards Committee (APSC) on Academic Grievances. The goal of the memo is to review the timeline for academic grievances and make recommendations. The main recommendation states that appeal of decisions must take place 15 working days after receipt of notification. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was overwhelmingly supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the memo from the Academic Policies and Standards Committee (APSC) on Repeat Course Approval Policy. The goal of the memo is to review the repeat course approval policy. APSC recommended that a “student may repeat any course three times (for a total of 4 attempts) without approval from an academic advisor. Some programs may have stricter guidelines on course repeats, and these program guidelines take precedence.” The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was not supported by UAS. In our discussion, we considered the concerns from student perspective that changing the current policy from 1 repeat to 3 repeats will set the student up for failure, waste of money and time. It was also noted that the recommendation in the memo was anti-student-centric because if a student is failing a class 3-4 times, it means there is a deeper problem that needs to be addressed. There were other factors considered such as a third repeat course not being eligible for financial aid. UAS asked for the memo to be returned to APSC for further review.
  • We discussed the memo from the Faculty Salary and Budget Committee (FSBC) on Annual Faculty Salary Adjustment Request for 2024-2025. FSBC recommends that next year’s raise should be more than CPI plus 1.5% to address recent shortfalls. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS was unanimously supported by UAS.
  • We discussed the FARES III Task Force Proposed Bylaws Language Change. Given that AFAC is now a Standing Committee of the senate and no more a University Governance Committee, the description of AFAC will be moved from SG 1.03 to SG 1.02. Standing Committees of UAS are described in SG 1.02 and University Governance Committees are described in SG 1.03. Now that we are specifying a role for affiliates, there are places where we need to acknowledge affiliates and how they fit into our governance structure. The key changes in SG 1.01 pertain to Section 4, particularly 4.4, which specifies from where the members are selected, 4.4.2 has to do with who the second affiliate senator will be. AFAC should try to identify a member of AFAC who is an affiliate, and who can serve on UAS. If not, the second member can be selected from the broader pool of affiliates, with preference given to those who have served on AFAC or in other relevant roles. The motion to support with recommendation from ECS, specifying that changes will be implemented beginning in AY 2024-2025, was unanimously supported by UAS.

For more details on the above items, please go here.

Preview of ECS Meeting of December 8, 2023

  • Discussion of the Test-Optional and Holistic Admission Task Force Report
  • Discussion of Proposed Changes to the Campus Life Committee
  • ECS/UAS Endorsement of the COACHE Survey
  • Discussion on Consent Agenda for UAS
  • Discussion of Charge and Timeline for the Task Force on Governance Committee Structure
  • Discussion of the Theme of the 2024 UAS Newsletter

Please, feel free to reach out to your ECS or UAS representative from your College/University Libraries to provide input on any ECS agenda item that you may like to weigh in on.

Thank you for your continuous interest in faculty governance.

Sincerely,

Felix N. Ngassa
Chair of ECS/UAS 2023-2024

ECS Membership

1 Campus Drive

3090 James H. Zumberge Hall
Allendale, MI 49401

 

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