PROFESSIONAL CONCERNS COMMITTEE
MINUTES
Members Present: Barbara Arrighi, Michael Baranowski, Scottie Barty, Mary Chesnut, David Cole, Patty Connelly, Debby Dempsey, Chuck Frank, Janene Grodesky, Parmita Kapadia, Robert Kempton, Mike King, Francois LeRoy, Phil McCartney, Ray McNeil, Ban Mittal, Toru Sakaguchi, Penny Summers, Sandra Turkelson,
Members Absent: Paul Bishop, Rick Brockmeier, Lynn Burbridge, Greg Hatchett, Jim Hauser, MaryCarol Hopkins, Isaac Larison, Julie Mader-Meersman , Rebecca White, Ed Workman
Guests: Rebecca Evans
1. The meeting was called to order at 3:0 by Chuck Frank.
2. The minutes from
3.
Agenda
Item #3: Faculty Policy for Dealing with Students Experiencing Mental Distress
(Discussion Item)
Rebecca Evans presented information related to students experiencing mental distress. She said that 1 of 8 students will seriously contemplate suicide. Faculty are not professionally trained to deal with student mental issues. Legal liability may arise if untrained faculty members try to intervene in problem situations. Alternatively, faculty could face legal liability if there is an obvious problem situation and no action is taken.
PCC committee members raised several questions:
· Does University have a policy for handling students experiencing mental distress?
· Should University have a policy for handling these problems?
· Does the existence of a University create unintended legal liabilities for the University and faculty?
· Does University insurance policy cover faculty dealing with these issues?
Rebecca Evans indicated that both faculty and students need to be aware of the resources available on campus. The University is currently working on an Emergency policy that would cover situations similar to Virginia Tech, but not necessarily suicidal students.
Chuck Frank with talk with legal counsel and invite Barb Sween (Health, Counseling & Prevention Services) to a future Faculty Senate meeting.
4.
Agenda
Item #4: Faculty Survey (originally indicated as a voting item but no vote was
taken.)
A second revision of the draft of the faculty survey was presented by Michael Baranowski. The PCC members made further recommendations for modifications to the survey. Michael will make suggested revisions and forward to Grace Hiles to send to faculty. PCC members were encouraged to discuss the survey with their departments before the next PCC meeting and forward any further suggestions to Michael.
5.
Agenda
Item #5: Policy Statement on Privacy of Student Records (Discussion Item)
PCC members engaged in a broad discussion on this topic. Discussion included concerns about faculty liability and the continuing use of social security numbers by Norse Express. NKU is in the process of installing a computer platform that will create identification numbers different than Social Security numbers. IT department is working to make personal and financial information more secure.
6.
Agenda
Item #6: Policy Chair’s Report
Chuck Frank provided PCC members with a table run in The Enquirer that compared information on faculty at local universities. The table provided information about total faculty, tenured faulty, full-time and part-time faculty and total enrollment as of 2006. From the table it was apparent that NKU had a much small percentage of tenured faculty than the other institutions in the table. In addition the ration of enrollment to faculty was much higher for NKU than other institutions.
7.
Agenda
Item #7: Ask the Provost
The Provost indicated that the CPE has placed NKU as #1 on the list for funding of renovations and #2 on the list for new construction. She indicated that retention of students is becoming increasingly important. NKU will need to address how to increase student retention and still maintain high academic standards.
Penny Summers asked the Provost about faculty members technically being able to apply for a sabbatical before being given tenure. The Provost explained that the issue was a time table issue, but no faculty would be given a sabbatical if they did not receive tenure.
Faculty asked the Provost about the university’s policy of recognizing faculty for achieving milestone in terms of longevity with the university – 10 years, 15 years, 25 years, etc. in a manner that is similar to the recognition given to staff.
8.
Online
Student Evaluations
Phil McCartney asked faculty to talk with their respective department members and encourage participation in the pilot online evaluations.
9.
Agenda Item #8: New Business
No new business at this point in time.
Meeting adjourned:
Respectfully submitted,
Scottie Barty