Faculty Senate - April 2025 Minutes

*Proxy for Dr. Jill Young
**Proxy for Dr. Sally Henschel
***Proxy for Dr. Hillary Coenen

Call to Order: 3:30 PM by Dr. Matthew Capps
Quorum Establishment: Dr. Erica Judie

Housekeeping Items:

• Approval of Agenda - Dr. Shawver motioned, and Dr. Judie seconded. All approved.
• Approval of Minutes for March 27, 2025 meeting - Dr. Lei motioned they be approved, Dr. Judie seconded. All approved.

Current Business/Information Sharing: None

1. Dr. Capps reminded that Provost Evaluations are currently open.

New Business:

1. Nominations of Officers
   • Dr. Capps opened up discussion about opening nominations for each officer. Drs. Capps, Case, & Judie, are all rolling off Faculty Senate and Exec Committee. New officers will be voted on at the May Faculty Senate Business Meeting.
   • Chair - Dawn Slavens nominated
   • Vice Chair - Darla Diltz nominated
   • Secretary - Hillary Coenen nominated
   • Treasurer - Bev Stiles nominated
   • Parliamentarian – Stacia Miller & Kimberly Onstott nominated

Unfinished Business:

1. Turnitin Decision - Statement from Dr. Marsden Brown
   • By order, we cannot increase cost. However, MSU will pay for the cost for the next 3 years then reevaluate. We will look at the AI component. Can verify against other sources if needed. Dr. Vandehey mentioned the use of alternative AI detection software as well.
2. Course Evaluations - Resolution - Feedback for the current resolution.
   • Dates of Evaluations
     1. Open early and close the last day of class. Dr. Choudhury asked if the timeframe was one of the initial reasons we went to online. Did the change to online help that? Most everyone said no.
   • Participation Rates
     1. Discussed going back to using paper evaluations to increase participation. Dr. Slavens went back and looked at the past Senate minutes to see if there was something that would help us determine what we need to address to increase participation, such as a link to the evaluations and the response rates. This would help us determine if the online evals are working.
   • Dr. Shawver mentioned that the 8-week courses were not notified about evaluations and not sure if students even received them.
   • Dr. Capps said we have a couple of options. We let it ride and see how it goes. We could put it in writing that we want increased participation with what we think will help the process.
   • Other Statements
     1. Dr. Judie mentioned the possibility of giving students the opportunity to conduct the online evals during class now that we have knowledge of when they are being delivered to the students. Dr. Azzouz and Dr. Guo said even if we give the students time in class, they often still do not complete the evals.
     2. Dr. Vandehey asked if the evals were cell phone friendly.
     3. Dr. Masuoko stated that the email concerning the evals, mentioned that an eval reminder was supposed to be sent out to the students. Did that happen?
     4. Dr. Machado stated we should give it more time before we decide to scratch the online evals.
     5. Dr. Case mentioned that we need to address the 8-week courses as well, with a two-week notification and time frame to complete the evals.
     6. Dr. Lei wants to keep the two-week time frame for all semesters.
     7. Dr. Vandehey stated that we need to list the problems associated with the evals to make sure we are addressing each issue before we finalize the resolution.
     8. Dr. Capps will create a Google Doc with the resolution that the Faculty Senate can work on and discuss these issues.

Committee and Other Reports: None

1. Academic Council - Dr. Randy Case
   Meets in 2 weeks.
2. Administrative Council - Dr. Matthew Capps
   No report. Has not met.
3. Allocation Advisory Council - Dr. Matthew Capps
   No report. Has not met.
4. Athletics Council - Dr. Catharine Garahan
   
   • Dr. Giddings stated that we have only met a couple of times over the past few years. He stated he would like to come talk with the faculty senate in the fall about the current state of the athletics.
5. Faculty Grievance Committee - Dr. Vicki Dillard
   No report. Has not met.
6. Student Affairs Council - Dr. Randy Case
   Location of meeting was changed and Dr. Case was not notified of the change.
7. University Celebration of Scholarship - Dr. Darla Diltz
   
   • Still need evaluators for the undergraduate COS.
8. Emergency Management Committee - Dr. Tammy Kurszewski
   No report. Has not met.
9. Other Committee Reports - None

Meeting adjourned at 4:20 PM. Dr. Capps made a motion to adjourn, and Dr. Judie seconded.
The motion to adjourn passed unanimously.

Submitted,
Randy Case, Faculty Senate Vice Chair
Matthew Capps, Faculty Senate Chair

Next Meetings:
The next Executive Committee meeting will be at 3:30 PM on Thursday, May 1st via Zoom.
The next Faculty Senate meeting (Business Meeting) will be at 3:30 PM on May 8th in Bridwell Hall 204 to vote on new officers.