Approval of Previous Minutes —

Meeting minutes from 12/20/22 were approved.

New Business —

Elizabeth asked to recommend a charge for AY24 and would provide later.

Kevin discussed progress of Faculty Affairs ad hoc committee on Teaching Professor title series, as well as personnel changes in Faculty Affairs.

Kevin presented the work completed by Amalia and Kevin on the charge related to non-tenure track faculty, including a draft report on findings.

• The committee discussed the scope of the issues pertaining to these titles and the challenge that it presented to this committee to handle along with its other work. The main recommendations from that work as suggested by Amalia and agreed upon by the committee members in attendance was to form an ad hoc committee devoted to making policy recommendations for non-tenure track faculty by December 2023. That committee should have representation from the relevant Schools and faculty, both non-tenure track and tenure track, with someone from Faculty Affairs on the committee.
• Elizabeth and Rob agreed that the work of an ad hoc committee makes sense given no enforceable policy currently exists.
• Rob asked what CLAS is doing on this front, that it would be good to work with Dean Mafi on things like what the Teaching Professor roles are supposed to be.
• Amalia asked who should be on the ad hoc committee from CLAS.
• Rob suggested Asst. Dean Ben Eggleston.
• Amalia said the ad hoc committee should focus on policy with deliverables. She referenced the work of a similar committee from 2010 on clinical faculty. She raised the question of a permanent Faculty Senate sub-committee devoted to non-tenure track faculty issues.
• Kevin explained that other peer institutions have adopted some form of standing committee on non-tenure track faculty.
• Amalia asked if there is already language in the Senate code regarding representation of non-tenure track faculty on the Senate.
• Rob thought it would be good to know the average time faculty spend in non-tenure track roles at KU.
• Amalia thought perhaps HR or AIRE could provide that data. She said an ad hoc committee should remain action focused and not worry about acquiring more data.
• Elizabeth said the ad hoc committee should focus on policy.
• Kevin made a motion to approve the report on FRPR’s findings regarding non-tenure track faculty and its recommendation to form an ad hoc committee.
• Euguene second the motion.

Kevin raised charge 2 for discussion. He presented findings from conversations with Doug Ward, CTE and Corinne Bannon, Vice-Provost AIRE, on concerns regarding misuse of student surveys of teaching and implications for faculty.

• He reported that Corrinne Bannon stated that AIRE has practices in place to protect faculty from potential misuse.
• After reviewing this feedback from AIRE, the committee agreed that existing practices at AIRE do not warrant further study or new policy.

• Rob stated that the return rates for online surveys are very low resulting in bad data that is too limited to learn anything about teaching. He said peer reviews of teaching might be gaining steam. He said there should be some pushback on the University on the response rates.
• Amalia asked who fixes this problem.
• Rob said FacEx could make recommendations given questions about the extent to which the online survey process and data could present a problem to higher learning commission expectations. This issue needs to get to the Provost.
• Kevin said he will take this feedback regarding the surveys to FacEx.

Kevin explained the draft CLAS policy for online course creation. He advised that while the Dean’s office will continue to review the draft policy FRPR should consider monitoring the status of this policy next academic year.

Kevin asked if there was any other business to discuss.

Meeting adjourned.