University Senate - March 6, 2023 Minutes

UNIVERSITY SENATE
Meeting Minutes
March 06, 2023

The University Senate was called to order at 3:30 p.m., in 111 Harrison Hall on Monday, March 06, 2023. Members absent: Kenya Ash, Steve Bailey, Kevin Ballard, Rodney Coates, Eli Davies, Amanda Euen, Tyler Eyster, Evan Gallagher, Jennifer Green, Chip Hahn, Patrick Houlihan, Kennedy Hughes, Spencer Izor, Martin Johnson, Chelsie Kirk, Kevin Messner, Michele Navakas, Murali Paranandi, Danelle Stein, Adam Strantz, Cheryl Young

  1. Call to Order and Announcements – Tom Poetter, Chair of University Senate Executive Committee
    1. Thank you for encouraging faculty to fill out the interest survey, initial data indicates a lot of response.
    2. Chair Poetter wanted to review the norms for floor discussion: 
      1. Turn your placard up to indicate that you want to speak.
      2. Everyone who wants to speak can speak, keep your comments to a minute.
      3. If we’re rolling with discussion, wait until everyone has been recognized for the first time before we take a second opportunity for a senator.
    3. Liz Wardle has been working on the OCTC, a consortium of interested parties who have put money, time, and effort into supporting good Professional Development across the state. OCTC is now hosted at Miami.
  2. Approval of University Senate Minutes.
    1. University Senate Full Meeting Minutes.02.23.2023 (42- Yes, 0-No, 1-Abstain, 1- person arrived after vote
  3. Consent Calendar The following items were received and accepted on the Consent Calendar:
    1. Curricular Items _03.01.2023 
    2. LEC Meeting Minutes_02.14.2022
    3. Graduate Meeting Minutes_02.28.2023  
  4. Old Business 
    1. SR 23-08 Class Attendance Policy Revision, Eric Marinich, Associate Teaching Professor and Carolyn Haynes, Senior Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives  (43- Yes, 0-No, 0-Abstain, 1- person arrived after vote) 
      1. Senate Senator Questions and Comments:
        1. Senator: State Law says that students will be permitted up to 3 days, but I don’t see that in there? (A) We’ve never had a limit on the number of days at Miami.
        2. Senator: Have we consulted with Athletic Policy? (A) We did not consult the Athletic Policy. This was a totally different proposal/purpose around religious accommodations.
        3. Senator: Is there anything our ASG candidates should know or understand before they run on a policy flexible attendance policy platform? (A) The people running need to know how policy works in Miami and can move to amend it through the Senate by coming to the Senate Executive Committee.
        4. Senator: Is there a policy for Faculty regarding Attendance? (A) There is no policy at this time. 
    2. SR 23-09 Proposal to Revise Senate Bylaw for Function and Composition of the Undergraduate Research Committee, Joyce Fernandes, Professor of Biology and Director Undergraduate Research (42- Yes, 0-No, 1-Abstain,  1- person arrived after vote)
      1. Senate Senator Questions and Comments:
        1. Senator: Is it going to be 8 or 10 for the Faculty at Large? (A) It should be 8, the final version will reflect this in the formatting.
    3. SR 23-10 CCA, TCPL Cap Change, John Weigand, Interim Dean & Professor of College of Creative Arts (43- Yes, 0-No, 0-Abstain, 1- person arrived after vote)
      1. Senate Senator Questions and Comments:
        1. Senator: I thought the percentage cap was in the 30’s across the campus. Is that not the case? (A) While the caps used to be reported as a ratio of TCPL to TTT faculty, we made an adjustment and now report that as a percentage of TCPL of all continuing faculty. It was just a way for us to better report the numbers as a whole.
        2. Senator: Looking at the policy, it does not just say TCPL; it looks at composition broadly. Senate retained control over faculty composition votes, and that’s a good thing. Senate needs to better understand faculty composition from a University perspective–what is the mix overall? When there aren’t many permanent people, service work gets transitioned to VAPs, and things get wonky. We do need TCPL faculty, but sometimes my colleagues who are on TT feel that raising this cap is a threat to TT. That’s not where the threat comes from. The risk comes from keeping TCPL caps low and ballooning the number of visitors and adjuncts. We need to watch this as enrollment goes up. I request that we hear about the full faculty mix per division and throughout the whole university.
        3. Senator: I suggest we standardize a template or model for this. (A) I think that is a great idea. 
        4. Senator: Concur with what has been shared and we need to broadly think about compensation and how TCPL are compensated for their work.
  5. Provost Update -- Provost Liz Mullenix, Chair of University Senate
    1. BOT was in town last week. This was (1) one of (5) five visits  that they do yearly to the Oxford campus. They visit the Oxford Campus in September, December, March, May, and June. 
      1. Trustees are made up with 9 appointed members by the Governor that serve for 9 years. 4 National Trustees that serve for 4 years. Then there are 3 Committees: Academic and Student Success, Investments, and Finance and Audit. 
      2. This agenda included:
        1. Approval of Faculty Tenure and Promotion
        2. Reports: Senate, President’s report, Student Body President
        3. Tribute to student Trustee Dawson Cosgrove
        4. Admission update (grad and undergrad)
        5. Fundraising and the Campaign
        6. Presentation by Dean Sukamaran and by Padma Patil
    2. We want to congratulate the candidates for Tenure and Promotion, some of whom are senators and were featured at the meeting.
    3. Update on Remote Proctorio vs. Honorlock
      1. Proctorio and Honorlock were both reviewed and graded on a variety of criteria, and Honorlock is not better than Proctorio and is more expensive. This is a yearly contract.
      2. I’m committed to exploring this further. There are so many faculty who use this that we didn’t want to leave them in the lurch. 
      3. We are leaning toward extending the contract one more year. It is the least problematic, and we will figure out a longer-term solution as we go. This is a compromise. I’m working with Nkosi Shanga on who should serve on the committee.
    4. Emergency Procedures: Miami has adopted a Crisis Management Plan that covers a variety of potential emergency situations. That plan is regularly reviewed by the Institutional Response Team, which includes experts from a broad range of offices, including Student Life, Miami Health Services, the General Counsel’s Office and the Chief of Campus Police. In the immediate context of an emergency, the Crisis Management Team may be called upon to carry out the plan. 
      1. As part of this week, the State of Ohio has planned a statewide tornado drill to commence on Wednesday, March 23, 2023, at 9:50 a.m. 
      2. MUPD asks that all Miami students/staff take the time during this Severe Weather Awareness Week to become familiar with and formulate their own plan on how they would handle a severe weather situation.
      3. MUPD will do training with faculty and staff, including an hour of active shooter training, if invited.
    5. Senate Senator Questions and Comments:
      1. Senator: I was in Howe, and they came over the speaker, telling us where to go during the . In other buildings, I am not sure where to go. Is there an app with this information? (A) It is available on a physical map in each building. We will work with building coordinators to make sure this is better communicated.
      2. Senator: I know that Senate has been hearing about Proctorio, and we want to make sure that it aligns with the Miami platform and does it protect their information? (A) No product is going to fit every checkmark. Honorlock hits key notes, particularly with respect to minoritized students and Asian students. They are all secure until they aren’t. The high risk is FERPA data, which is a risk on both platforms.
      3. Training is an issue. Many people don’t know best practices with respect to using Proctorio, and we are going to put in place more robust training. The software only gives you clues, not definitive answers; the instructor has to interpret the data.
      4. Senator: Is this check sheet accessible to everyone? (A) no. 
      5. Senator: Point of order. We’ve passed many resolutions about this. Should this be under old business? Or is it a Provost announcement? Under old business, would let us know it was coming ahead of time. 
      6. Senator: My concern is that we have been talking about this for 3 years, and now this is the 2nd renewal? We’ve already requested better training. (A) We were hoping that Honorlock would be a much better product than it turned out to be. We can bring this as Old Business next time. The training will be the focus this time. Senator responded that we should have started the training earlier when Senate requested it.
  6. Special Report: Midterm Grade Reporting, Amy Bergerson, Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education
    1. Current Policy: In the fall and spring semesters, instructors are required to submit midterm grades by the end of the eighth week of classes for all undergraduate students who have 45 or fewer earned credits at Miami University. This requirement applies only to full-semester and twelve-week Q-sprint classes during the fall and spring semesters; it does not apply to other fall and spring semester sprint classes or the winter and summer terms. Midterm grades are accessible online through Bannerweb. Instructors are encouraged to submit midterm grades for all other students.
    2. Purpose of Midterm Grade Reports
      1. Provide information on academic progress for new students
      2. Academic Advisor outreach to provide needed interventions
      3. Time to change the trajectory in their courses
    3. Current Timeline for Spring 2023:
      1. Week 8 starts March 13
      2. Spring break March 20-24
      3. Sprint courses start March 27
      4. List of students of concern run Friday, March17
      5. Advisor outreach to students during spring break
      6. Sprints In Reserve start Monday after spring break
    4. Proposed Timeline:
      1. Open midterm grade submissions at Monday of 6th week of the semester
      2. Close midterm grade submissions at Monday of 7th week of the semester
      3. Lists to advisors mid-week 7th week of semester
      4. Outreach and course changes 7th and 8th weeks
      5. Students in SIRs before spring break
    5. Spring 2022 SIR Outcomes:
      1. 93 courses dropped to pick up Sprint in Reserve (SIR) course 
      2. 78 unique students registered for one or more of SIR course
      3. For students who were recommended to drop course, dropped the course, and registered for a SIR  
        1. Average grade in SIR course: B 
        2. Average term GPA for spring semester: 2.57 
        3. Registered for fall semester: 88%
      4. Recommended to drop course, but did not and did not take a SIR course
        1. Average term GPA for spring semester: .87 
        2. Registered for fall semester: 43%
      5. Recommended to drop a course and did, but did not take a SIR course average GPA was 1.1 and 38% registered for Fall semester.
      6. How do you feel about us bumping this process up?
    6. Senate Senator Questions and Comments:
      1. Senator: Having my courses developed based on midterms at week 8, this all makes a lot of sense, but I’ll need to reconfigure my courses to ensure I have substantial feedback to give.
      2. Senator: Is there any reason that we could have a 2 week window instead of a one week window? (A) It may be difficult to run the data multiple times and capture the new inputs over the two weeks. I can take that information back to them to see how that affects them.
      3. Senator: We need to have this in place well before the start of the semester. This really throws my constituents for a loop. The reasons are sound, but we need more lead time. (A) Yes. 
      4. Senator: 93 courses dropped; 78 unique students in spring? (A) In Spring 2022, that is the correct number.
      5. Senator: I’m already empathetic to my students, but is there another way rather than changing a system for 78 students (A) The number of students on the list right now who are getting a notification is about 700 students. While 78 students were on the list we worked with, there are far more students who didn’t respond or take advantage of the option. We are trying lots of things, but we need to be able to identify the students. This is the last point where we can make a difference in the direction struggling students are going.
      6. Multiple senatorsI support this, and thought it is going to be really good for our students, but wanted it to have been shared with Senate earlier.
      7. Senator: Did you contact these students over spring break? (A) Yes, we did contact them over spring break. Response: Maybe switching when they are contacted would get a greater response from students. 
      8. Senator: We have to report more than just a single point. I don’t think a midterm without a percentage is. Canva has all this information available in it if we use it.
      9. Presenter: This makes me wonder something. We have implemented early alerts for some courses that are typically high gatekeeping courses. What if we expanded early alerts to take over this midterm grade? We currently do EA in weeks 1-2 to cover basic “on track” behaviors. Then, in weeks 5 and 6, we do another to inquire whether we should be working with the student to drop. What if we added another layer of early alert to do what you’re talking about? That would be a larger shift that would have a big impact. (Senators supported this.)
      10. Senator: Are these being run on all midterms submitted, or just those required? (a) Everybody who has a grade submitted.
      11. Senator: I don’t want this to come back as a vote, but as a discussion.
  7. Executive Session
  8. Adjournment