Resolution Honoring Senate President

Vice President Spencer Anthony-Cahill read a Resolution honoring Karen Stout for her service as Senate President in 2011-2012 which the Senate passed unanimously by acclamation.

Anthony-Cahill thanked the recorder, Rose Marie Norton-Nader for her work for the Senate in the past year.

Election of Officers and Seating of the 2012-2013 Senate.  The following faculty were elected as the voting officers of the 2012-2013 Executive Council: 

President:  Karen Stout, Communication (2d year of service as President);

Vice President: Johann Neem, History;

Secretary: Kathleen Saunders, Anthropology;

Appointments & Elections, Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, Geology;

At-Large representative, Jim Graham, Psychology;

Faculty Legislative Representative, Dan Boxberger, Anthropology. 

Remaining non-voting officers include:

Interim At Large position (to fill the vacant seat of Past President): Vicki Hsueh, Political Science;

President UFWW, Steve Garfinkle, History;

ACC Chair, Yvonne Durham, Economics,

UPRC Chair, Jeff Newcomer, Engineering Technology.

2 motions

MOTION TO RESCIND MOTION OF 4/30/12.   The Senate moved to rescind a motion (moved by Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, seconded by Deb Currier) on how to allocate three positions to the UPRC.  The motion was rescinded because it was considered out of order as it violated Bylaw 7.4.1.b. which states:  [Membership of the UPRC shall be...] “Two at-large faculty apportioned by the Faculty Senate and appointed by the respective college or library faculty governance body annually (2); one faculty elected by and from the ACC annually (1); one faculty elected by and from the Faculty Senate annually.”  The motion to rescind passed.   

NEW MOTION RE ALLOCATION OF UPRC POSITIONS.   The Senate then proposed a new motion (moved by Kathleen Saunders, seconded by Penny Hutchinson) which allocated the three positions to CFPA, CST and the Humanities, and one of the three will be filled by a Senator, as allowed in the Bylaws.  The remaining two positions will be filled following recommendations of the appropriate College Governance bodies, which are asked to select faculty with insights to serve the broader needs of those colleges as plans for space and capital plans are being formulated.  The motion, which passed, applies only to AY2012-2013.

MOTION re Allocation of UPRC at large positions:  The Senate moved (Jackie Caplan-Auerbach), seconded (Deb Currier) and amended (Jim Graham) a motion to allocate the UPRC positions as follows:  That three (3) positions (rather than two) be allocated to CFPA, CST, and the Humanities area of CHSS, with recommendations to the College Governance bodies to select faculty with insights to serve the broader needs of the college as plans for space and capital plans are being formulated.  Passed Unanimously.  (The Senate recognized that if such allocation of three rather than two positions was to become permanent after next year that the membership charge to the UPRC would then have to be revised. An important part of this allocation is that the colleges have the discussion on who could best represent their interests)

Yom Kippur Resolution

Western Washington University, as expressed in its 2010 Strategic Plan, welcomes and embraces diversity and supports a campus atmosphere that reflects respect for and sensitivity to diversity among its students, faculty and staff.  

In recognition that Yom Kippur occurs on the first day of classes, September 26th, 2012, the Senate approves of the following actions:

1.      The University or Faculty will not penalize students absent on Wednesday September 26, 2012 (the first day of classes for Fall Quarter) nor drop such students from class lists because of their absence;

2.      The Registrar will extend the Fall Quarter 2012 tuition and fee payment deadlines and applicable registration deadlines by one day for Fall 2012;

3.      The Provost and Faculty Senate President will send an announcement to faculty to urge their awareness of and sensitivity to the needs of students as discrimination on the basis of religion is prohibited by law and University policy; and

4.      The University will inform all members of the Western community of the conflict in scheduling and one-time changes in policy listed under 1 and 2 above, including incoming first year students and new faculty members.

§  Senators passed a Motion to create a committee to review Section 6 of the Code of Faculty Ethics to ensure proper inclusion of text related to Academic Freedom.

Code of Faculty Ethics

MOTIONS:  Senators reviewed revisions to Appendix 5 to the Faculty Handbook regarding consensual personal relationships and passed a Motion to accept revised Sections 7 and 8 of the Code of Faculty Ethics with the caveat that minor edits could still be made.

“CODE OF FACULTY ETHICS:  Faculty Handbook:  Appendix 5

Section 7: Conflict of Interest Resulting from Family and/or Intimate Personal Relationships in Employment Situations (See POL U5410.01)

Definitions:

 “Family Members” shall mean members of the same immediate or extended family, such as   spouse, sibling, parent, legal guardian, child. 

“Intimate Personal Relationship” shall mean emotional or physical relationship that has sexual or romantic overtones. This definition also includes persons in a co-habitation relationship and any persons engaged in a romantic or sexual relationship.

The university employs and retains the best qualified individuals as members of the faculty, administration, and staff. The protection of the individual as well as of the university, however, requires certain safeguards from potential conflicts of interest.

No faculty member, department chair, academic dean, or other academic administrative officer of Western Washington University, including the President and Provost, shall participate in any decision that directly affects the condition of employment with the university for family members or partners in an intimate personal relationship. These decisions include appointment, evaluation, promotion, retention, discipline, or dismissal.

Whenever a department chairperson, academic dean, or other administrative officer would in the normal course of business participate in a decision prohibited under this section, the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs shall delegate the responsibility for such a decision to an appropriate person.

No employee shall review, audit, or administer public funds under the control of another family member or partner in an intimate personal relationship.

When employees discover that their duties will lead to making decisions that directly affect the condition of employment at the university for family members or partners in an intimate personal relationship, they will promptly inform their immediate supervisors (i.e., chair, director, dean, etc.) and request that those duties be assigned to different employees.

Code of Fac Ethics cont'd

Sec 8

Section 8:  Consensual Intimate Personal Relationships Between Faculty and Students (See POL 1600.xxxx)

Definitions:

 “Intimate personal relationship” shall mean emotional or physical relationship that has sexual or romantic overtones.

“Faculty” shall mean all those who hold tenure-track, tenured, and non-tenure track faculty appointments.

“Students” shall mean students in a faculty member’s class, a student employee under a faculty’s supervision such as graduate teaching or research assistant or a student who was or may be mentored, advised or evaluated in any way by a faculty member.

Intimate personal relationships between faculty members and students currently in the faculty member’s class or under that individual’s supervision are prohibited and considered a violation of the Code of Ethics, since the faculty member has professional responsibility for the student. (See Section 7 of this Code regarding “Conflict of Interest Resulting from Family Relationships.)  Intimate personal relationships between faculty members and students occurring outside the instructional and supervisory context may also lead to difficulties, particularly when the faculty member and student are in the same academic unit or in units that are academically allied.  In such situations, the faculty member may face serious conflicts of interest and should be careful to maintain distance from any decisions that may reward or penalize the student involved.  A faculty member who fails to withdraw from participation in activities or decisions that may reward or penalize a student with whom the faculty member has or had an intimate personal relationship is considered to be in violation of the Code of Ethics.

The university’s educational mission is promoted by professionalism in faculty-student and supervisor-subordinate (e.g., faculty and teaching or graduate assistant; advisor and student) relationships which are maintained by an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.  Actions that negatively impact this atmosphere undermine professionalism and the fulfillment of the university’s educational mission. Intimate personal relationships between faculty members and currently enrolled students are unwise because of the trust accorded to the faculty by their students.  Faculty and supervisors have power over students through grading, evaluating creative and scholarly endeavors, making recommendations for further studies or future employment, or conferring any other benefits.  Intimate personal relationships between faculty and students or supervisors and students create the risk of real or perceived favoritism toward the student in the personal relationship and potential harm to this and other students. When a power disparity exists in the academic or employment association of the individuals in the intimate personal relationship, the academic or employment interests of the student must be protected.

Trust and respect are diminished when those in positions of authority abuse or appear to abuse their power. Those who abuse or appear to abuse their power violate their duty to the university community. Such situations greatly increase the chances that faculty may abuse their power and emotionally or sexually exploit the student.  Voluntary consent by the student in such relationship is legally questionable, given the fundamentally asymmetric nature of the relationship.  Moreover, other students and faculty may be affected by such unprofessional behavior because it places the faculty member in a position to favor or advance one student’s interest at the expense of others and implicitly makes obtaining benefits contingent on continuing the intimate personal relationship.

Individuals should be aware that consensual personal relationships that are intimate (emotionally or physically) or romantic or sexual in nature, may result in claims of sexual harassment (See POL-U1600.04) because the voluntariness of the consent is legally questionable due to the power differential that exists between faculty and students and supervisors and students. This differential makes such relationships vulnerable to exploitation and to claims of exploitation. If a sexual harassment claim subsequently is filed by a student in an intimate personal relationship with his/her faculty member or supervisor, this matter will be subjected to investigation regardless of whether it could be at any point characterized as a consensual relationship.”

--end

1/23/12

MOTION FROM THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (moved and seconded).  Senators passed the following motion brought from the Senate Executive Council:  “That Council member-at-large, Spencer Anthony-Cahill, Chemistry, serve as interim Vice President and Parliamentarian (he will not serve as Senate President), and that Senator Vicki Hsueh, Political Science, serve as Interim At-Large Executive Council member, both through Spring Quarter 2012.

§  Senators thanked David Bover, Vice President, for his service on the Senate.  Bover has been appointed Associate Dean of the College of Sciences and Technology.  The 2012-2013 Senate will vote this spring on the Executive Council for next academic year, and faculty elected to the Senate are invited to volunteer for service on the Executive Council.

2D VOTE

MOTION from Executive Council (passed unanimously by the Senate):  The Faculty Senate approves minor edits to the Bylaws of the Constitution of the Faculty Handbook. SECOND VOTE

2ND Vote.       Minor revisions to the Bylaws of the Constitution of the Faculty Handbook: (new text underlined in red, old text struckthrough).  Only revised sections are included below.  Entire text with markup is posted on the Senate website.

Appendix One

Constitution and Bylaws of the Faculty

of Western Washington University

Bylaws

      BL7.1  Appointments and Elections Officer

                      The Appointments and Elections Officer sits on the Faculty Senate Executive Council. S/he serves a one–year renewable term and reports to the Executive Council.  The Appointments and Elections Officer recruits Faculty to serve on all bodies which report to the Faculty Senate and oversees all referendums and elections, maintains the voting list with the Senate office, counts the ballots, and reports the results of elections to the Faculty Senate.  The Appointments and Elections Officer may make interim appointments (less than 1 year) to Faculty Senate committees subject to review and approval of the Senate.

  BL7.1.3    The President pro tem then proceeds to the election of officers of the Faculty Senate in the order of President-elect, Secretary, Appointments and Elections Officer, and one at-large Senator as member of the Executive Council, announcing the result after each ballot and continuing to ballot for each office before proceeding to the next until one person has a majority and is elected. 

 BL7.1.4    The Appointments and Elections Officer shall review, annually and in a timely manner prior to elections, the distribution of Senate seats within and among the Colleges, in order to determine whether representation is on an approximately proportional basis.  The faculty shall be informed of the proportional distribution.  When it is determined to be necessary, the Appointments and Elections Officer shall recommend to the Faculty Senate changes in the distribution of representation on the Faculty Senate.  However, each College shall have a minimum of one Senate Seat.

*   Area Representation: The thirty (30) Faculty Senate positions for the 2009-2010 2010-2011 Spring election were assigned as follows:  6 representatives from Natural and Physical Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering Technology, Geology, Mathematics, Physics/Astronomy); 4 representatives from Social Sciences (Anthropology, PEHR, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Communication Sciences and Disorders); 7 representatives from Humanities (Communication, English, Modern and Classical Languages, History, Journalism, Liberal Studies, Philosophy);  3 representatives from the College of Fine and Performing Arts (Art, Art History, Music, Theatre Arts including Dance); 3 representatives from the College of Business and Economics  (Accounting, Economics, Finance/ Marketing,  and Decision Sciences, Management); 1 representative from Fairhaven College; 1 representative from Huxley College (Department of Environmental Studies; : Policy, Planning, Education and Geography, Department of Environmental Sciences); 3 representatives from Woodring College of Education); and 1 representative from the Wilson Librariesy.  At its February meeting Tthe Senate voted to make the 30^th seat the At-Large position for the Senate President. 2009-2010. 

con'td

BL 7.3.4     Committees and Reportage

The ACC shall maintain the following standing committees: Admissions Committee, the Committee on Undergraduate Education, the Council on University Programs, the Assessment of Teaching and Learning, General Education Requirements Committee, Graduate Council, Honors Board, and International Programs Advisory Committee.  The memberships of these committees are approved by ACC, and membership requirements are published along with the charge in the ACC Handbook and on the Faculty Senate website.

Curricular Committees of the Colleges, including the Teacher Curriculum and Certification Council and the Western Libraries Library Curricular Committee inform ACC of their memberships.

BL7.4.1   Membership of the UPRC shall be as follows:

Each university vice president or representative, ex officio, voting, including the Vice Presidents of 1) Academic Affairs, 2) Business and Financial Affairs, 3) Enrollment and Student Services; Affairs and Academic Support Services, 4) University Advancement, and 5) University Relations.

 BL7.6    The Academic Technology Committee  [August 2008]

BL7.6.1     Membership. 

The membership of the Academic Technology Committee shall be as follows:

The Director of the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment (ex officio, non-voting);

cont'd

BL8              Publication of Senate Agenda and Minutes

BL8.1      The agenda for any meeting of the Faculty Senate shall be posted on the Faculty Senate website and delivered to the faculty through an email at least four days prior to the meeting. ; flyer; or by publication in FAST at least four days prior to the meeting.

BL8.2      An abstract of the minutes of any meeting of the Faculty Senate shall posted on the Faculty Senate website and delivered to the faculty faculty and administration through an email; flyer; and by publication in Western News Today or by publication in FAST as soon as possible after the meeting.

BL8.3      The Faculty Senate shall maintain in its files and archives, official minutes of all meetings. 

BL9             Released Time for the President of the Faculty Senate

BL9.1     The President of the Faculty Senate shall receive .5 FTEF released time from other duties to carry out the responsibilities of his/her office as specified in the Faculty Contract.  The release time shall be returned to the Faculty Senate President's academic unit.  The University shall provide administrative assistance to the Senate President and the Executive Council. secretarial services from the non-instructional budget.

BL10           Meetings

BL10.1         Regular meetings of the Faculty Senate will be scheduled on alternate Mondays beginning on Monday of the first full week of each quarter.  , provided, however, that Sscheduled meetings other than the first meeting of each month may be canceled only if, in the judgment of the Executive Council, there is insufficient business to require a meeting of the Faculty Senate.

BL11           Agenda

BL11.2         Items from the Associated Students of Western Washington University will be placed on the agenda of the Faculty Senate and other items such as from the Faculty Legislative Representative or President of United Faculty of Western Washington from other bodies of the University may also be placed on the Senate agenda of the Faculty Senate at the discretion of the Executive Council, providing, however, that notice of rejection of any such request shall be given by the Executive Council to the Senate at the beginning of the next regular meeting.

cont'd

   BL12.4.3      Area Representative candidates are listed on the online ballot separately by Area Representative seat, are voted on separately by Area Representative seat, and considered separately in counting ballots.

BL12.7          Preparation of Ballots and Voting

 BL12.7.1    The online ballot must specify explicitly the number of Faculty Senate vacancies to be filled in both Area Representative and At-large representative positions.  Ballots on which the voter has voted for more candidates than there are vacancies to be filled will be declared invalid and not counted either in the total vote for any candidate or in the total number of ballots case.  A warning as to the invalidation of ballots must be included prominently on each ballot in each election.

BL12.8           Publicity

BL12.8.1    The list of candidates is sent to all voting faculty, posted on the Faculty Senate website and delivered to the faculty through an email and by ; flyer; or by publication in Western News Today.  Faculty are also informed of faculty eligibility and proportional representation for that year. in FAST. 

BL14           Faculty Referendum

BL14.1          A faculty referendum is a matter submitted to all the voting members of the Faculty.  In order to pass the referendum matter must receive a majority of all the votes cast in the election. A majority of those voting is necessary to pass a referendum.  Referendums are held as a result of a vote of the Faculty Senate or the vote of a General Faculty Assembly.  The results of all referendums are reported by the Appointments and Elections Officer to the Faculty Senate, entered in the minutes at that point, and as soon as possible sent to the President of the University and the Board of Trustees.  When a referendum results in a favorable vote on an issue of substance, the Faculty Senate is required to accept the Faculty position as binding and to take such action as is necessary and proper to carry out the decision of the Faculty.

BL16           Faculty Senate Members On Leave

BL16.1               Faculty Senate voting members on leave and unable to attend Faculty Senate meetings for one academic term or less will, in a letter to the President of the Senate, declare their seats vacant for that academic term, if possible seek another faculty member from their area to fill the vacancy, and request the  and the Faculty Senate will to appoint a Faculty member to fill the seat that vacancy during his/her absence.

MOTION from Executive Council (passed unanimously by the Senate):  The Faculty Senate approves minor edits to the Bylaws of the Constitution of the Faculty Handbook. The edits will be sent to the entire faculty and then voted on a second time at the next meeting.

*See Bylaws Above*