Faculty Senate
President's Report, January 2007
by Dr. David Saunders
President, Boise State University Faculty Senate
It has been my privilege to serve as Faculty Senate President since May of 2005. That year and a half has proved to be a very active time for the Senate. Many issues have come before us, and we have taken an increasingly active role in shaping policy, new and old. Much of the credit for the increased presence of the Senate in the dialogues across the campus must be given not just to the faculty that participate but also to the administration. We are very happy that President Kustra and Provost Andrews really value the conversations with faculty that take place in the Senate.
Many of the issues that have been discussed and acted upon in the Senate are controversial, to say the least. But in my opinion, we’ve achieved a great deal of success in our advocacy for our faculty and their points of view. Most recently, in the last meeting of the fall semester, Dr. Kustra spoke to the faculty regarding the new building plans, the financial status of the institution, and ongoing plans for growth, qualitative and quantitative. This information was most welcome, and we thank him for the conversation that ensued regarding those issues.
Some of the work of the Senate in the past year:
The Faculty Workload Document
This is a policy statement that was brought to the Senate by the Provost with the intent of spelling out all the activities that faculty pursue. The understanding is that there will be a wide range of variants in faculty responsibilities, from department to dept and even from one individual to another. It should be seen as a way to document our activities – all of them, not just the classes we teach.
The Faculty Salary Study
This study was undertaken by the Financial Affairs Committee, one of the Senate committees. The committee used the list of peer institutions developed by the administration – 13 institutions in all – as a comparison group. We then used the data compiled and published by CUPA, the organization that gathers salary figures to compare with our own faculty salaries. Individual faculty salary information was compared by discipline and rank to the current averages of the peer group. We were able to demonstrate what many of us already know: faculty at Boise State are underpaid. The Provost then used this information to bring some of the most extreme cases closer to the peer averages, and will continue this as funding is available.
The Plus/Minus Grading System
Personally, I was surprised at the amount of controversy this has sparked among some students. The faculty have been strongly in favor of this system because it provides a finer and therefore fairer method of assessment of student achievement. Students worry that it will ultimately lower GPAs. We believe that it will reward our best students.
Implementation of the Diversity Requirement
The Diversity Requirement was passed in the Senate in 2005. A new policy like this will always present challenges as it becomes implemented, and this one has. But those issues are currently being worked out as classes and syllabi are being added to the approved courses for this requirement. The Faculty Senate is very proud of the statement this policy makes about our school and our community.
New Policy Guidelines on Faculty Authored Teaching Materials
This is a revised policy that tightens up the guidelines for faculty that use self-authored teaching materials. The idea is to ensure excellence in teaching and fairness to students.
The Core Curriculum Committee
The CCC has implemented new wording for the core curriculum statement as well a process for ongoing assessment of the core curriculum offerings. We thank this committee for its careful and thorough work.
The Faculty Senate looks forward to the semester ahead to complete some of the work already begun, and for continued collaborative work with the administration.