EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTES                        Approved 4-9-98

PRESENT:  Julie Arbuckle, Karen Dewey, Dave Eisler, Judy Elsley, Carl Grunander, Judith Mitchell - Vice Chair, Diane Pugmire, Candadai Seshachari - Chair, John Sohl, Jerry Storey, Kay Brown - Secretary.

EXCUSED:  President Thompson

MINUTES

John Sohl:  Motion to accept the minutes of March 5 and March 17.
Second: Judith Mitchell
Outcome: The minutes were approved.

FACULTY SENATE COMMITTEES

Discussion of Faculty Senate Committees coming together for an end-of-the-year luncheon. It was decided to leave this matter to each committee.

GENERAL FACULTY  MEETING

New Senate members for 1998-99 are: Richard Beatch, Mike Cena, Erica Daines, Betty Damask-Bembenek, Karen Dewey, Jim Gaskill, Bruce Handley, Kyle Mattson, Dwayne Meadows, Judith Mitchell, Pam Rice, Candadai Seshachari, Mohammad Sondossi, Alden Talbot, and Catherine Zublin.

There will be a General Faculty Meeting April 8, 1998 at 2:00 p.m. in the Smith Auditorium of the Wattis Business Building to elect new members to the Executive Committee. Tellers for the election will be Sue Harley, Jan Slabaugh, and Rob Reynolds.

Discussion on allowing absentee ballots - Casting of absentee ballots has not been allowed for several years. A policy was adopted several years ago allowing only those present at the time of the election to vote. This policy could be reviewed next fall for any changes in voting procedures.

DIVERSITY EDUCATION

The Student Senate passed a resolution to require students to take one course in diversity. The students wish to address this proposal on the Faculty Senate floor. If the Faculty Senate approves the principle, it will be turned over to the Curriculum Committee and an ad hoc committee. The students will meet with the Executive Committee on April 9, 1998.

SALARY NEGOTIATIONS

The Salary Negotiation Team, Candadai Seshachari, Cordell Perkes and Cliff Nowell, met with the President, Dave Eisler and Alan Simkins three times. The Provost will look at all the salary recommendations made by the Deans regarding the distribution of equity funds. The Provost will report to the Executive Committee regarding the salary distributions.

Medigap - The President was requested to work with Alma Harris, Jerry Storey and Richard Sadler and make recommendations that implement a medigap plan. A report will be made to the Faculty Senate at the May meeting. It was felt there were several options available to fund medigap.

Hiring a Consultant - President Thompson has agreed to hire a consultant. Two or three consultants will be reviewed. After a selection has been made the consultant will meet with the Executive Committee, Salary Committee and the Deans Council so that he/she gets a sense of our concerns. The Senate resolution has an October deadline for a final report to the Faculty Senate.

Distribution of Funds - The $320,000 that was taken from the salaries of faculty and staff is being put into the base of employees who were here in 1995. It comes to .91. The .91 will be added to the base. The legislature allocated 3.5% less the benefits comes to 3.45%, and it will be distributed 50% across the board, 25% equity, 25% merit. Promotion money for faculty will come outside the 3.45 pool.

All tenure promotion cases received by the Provost have been resolved. He will take them to the Trustees on April 14.

Classified Staff - Secretary positions in some areas on campus are as much as 20% below the market salary. The people who leave employment at Weber State are most frequently Classified Staff. The base for a secretary position on a 12 month contract has been increased. Custodial salaries were also raised.

Overload Pay -The Salary Negotiation Team requested that overload pay for regular faculty be the same as the pay for last Summer, $600 per quarter credit. This converts to $900 per credit hour per semester hour. The administration is proposing to pay $762. If enrollment is good, they will review the overload pay issue.

Full Professors - The Negotiation Team requested that equity for Full Professors be addressed. Full Professor who are below $45,000 will be brought up to $45,000. This will affect 17 professors. The University is putting between $530,000 to $550,000 into salaries for the coming year. They have made a strong effort in addressing the salary recommendations from the Salary Committee.

President Thompson is drafting a memo to the faculty discussing salary raises given this year.

ON-LINE AD HOC COMMITTEE

The National Association of Continuing Educators has recognized Weber State University and Penn State for their "Outstanding Innovation in Distance Education."

Five faculty members were selected to serve on the On-line Ad Hoc Committee. They are Dick Alston, Brad Carroll, Tom Day, Jim Jacobs, and Sally Shigley with Carol Rosenlund as first alternate and Craig Oberg as second alternate. Suggestion was made to include a member of the Executive Committee to serve as liaison. Dr. Seshachari will contact the selected faculty members and ask if they are willing to serve on the committee.

UTAH STATE GRADUATE COURSES

Utah State University offers graduate level courses at the USU Ogden Center, via satellite, and through EDNET. Utah State is proposing a partnership with Weber State and requesting space on Weber State=s campus to offer a variety of graduate level courses.

Terry Teigeler, Director of Ogden Area Education Center for Utah State in conjunction with Jay Gogue, Provost at Utah State, are proposing an agreement with Weber State. The agreement would be for USU to not offer any undergraduate courses that were in competition with Weber State courses. They then would like to be given space on Weber State=s campus to offer graduate courses.

Utah State would like space in the Student Service Center for an office, and space for their classes. Most of the classes would be in the evening and over the EDNET. They would agree to not duplicate any classes that we offer. Collaboration could be developed for a 3 plus 2 approach to an MBA, possible collaboration with legislative proposals, and possible joint faculty appointments. We need to look at their programs at the master=s level in terms of what they could bring to this campus.

CONFERENCE

A conference sponsored by the Regents= Task Force on General Education of the Utah System of Higher Education and the Utah Humanities Council is scheduled for May 8-9, AWhat is an Educated Person?@ The purpose of the conference is to discuss the role of liberal education in preparing citizens and workers to participate effectively in society. Academic Affairs will pick up the cost for any faculty member who would like to attend the conference.

SUMMER ACADEMY

A proposal was sent to the Association of American Higher Education for inclusion in their Summer Academy. This is the second year in a row that our proposal was selected.

PARKING

Alternative ways to accommodate more cars with parking is being discussed. Various options are being looked at. (1) The west side of the new gym is being considered. This would give access to the library and gym. Cost is around $90,000. (2) Expansion of parking at Promontory Tower. Possibile expansion could take place by relocating a basketball court. (3) Expansion of A-1 parking on the side entrance across from the Information Booth with diagonal parking. The cost of this expansion would be around $12,000. The Executive Committee was not in favor of option 3.

ADJOURN

The meeting adjourned at 3:35.