WKU Faculty Senate Chair Gordon McKerral emphasized to the university its obligation to treat students with respect at the senate’s November meeting on Thursday.

McKerral closed his opening remarks to the senate with an address to all of the WKU community, reminding them of the importance of showing respect to their students.

“I think one of the things that we all owe our students,” McKerral said, “Whether we’re faculty or staff or administrators – from the highest level on down to the people who don’t get paid enough to clean our buildings – that we have to treat our students respectfully.

“They deserve that.”

McKerral said when people don’t show respect, they are teaching by example “the wrong way” to treat people.

“When we recharge our batteries, hopefully during the winter break, I hope to come back with that being at the top of our list,” McKerral said, “Regardless of whether we agree with them or not, we treat them with respect.”

Faculty Regent Shane Spiller emphasized the importance faculty have on students even after they graduate.

Spiller said during the homecoming weekend, he spoke to many Hilltopper alumni that either attended the Alumni Awards or were around campus.

“There’s not an alum that I talked to – it doesn’t matter how successful they are – when they stand up, they talk about a faculty member every single time,” Spiller said. “They talked about a faculty member who had a huge impact on their lives.”

Spiller said the reason faculty are faculty is to have that impact on students, and he said he doesn’t feel like he has to remind most of campus that.

Spiller said he does not feel like he has to remind most of the campus community that the reason people are faculty is to have impacts on students.

The intrinsic motivation to have a difference in student’s lives, Spiller said, is shared by many different people on campus.

“I hear that from finance people on campus,” Spiller said. “I hear that from Athletics. I hear that from IT.”

Spiller said he knows many faculty are dealing with campus-wide reductions, but he emphasized that the faculty have a chief officer of Academic Affairs they can turn to: Provost Bud Fischer.

“They (McKerral and others) point to the president; they yell about some things,” Spiller said. “Well, quite honestly, the president’s (Timothy Caboni) dealing with a lot of things. This (Fischer) is our person.”

Spiller said he didn’t mean faculty shouldn’t ever ask the president questions directly, but he emphasized that the faculty as a body should begin with the provost.

Spiller also said that no matter the question he forwards from faculty, whether it’s about finances or academic programs, no one on campus has “deferred an answer.”

“No one is hiding anything from me, as near as I can tell,” Spiller said. “But if you got questions, hit me with them, and I will do what I can to find you an answer.”

Also discussed at the meeting:

• Fischer said the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education is currently conducting a feasibility study ordered by Senate Joint Resolution 170  to determine whether Kentucky will expand a state university to R2 status. SJR 170 will also determine whether the state will allow other Ph.D. programs outside the University of Louisville or the University of Kentucky. Fischer said he feels “optimistic” the state will allow WKU to offer Ph.D. programs, but he said he doesn’t know what the future holds.
• Student Government Association President Sam Kurtz announced he is working with Dean of Students Martha Sales to create a project that will help combat student mental health issues. Kurtz said the project will be done in the spring and hopefully implemented in the fall.

News Reporter Cameron Shaw can be reached at [email protected].