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In Attendance (in-person):

College of Arts and Sciences: Amanda Allison, Raymond Doe, Jennifer Fowler, Pat Heintzelman, Matt Hoch, Sharon Joffe, Tina Kibbe, Jane Liu, Wen Liu, Mark Mengerink, James P. Nelson, Melissa Riley, Cengiz Sen, Jennifer Thedford, Sujing Wang, Cheng-Hsien Lin

College of Education and Human Development: Daryl Ann Borel

College of Business: Tim McCoy, Vivek Natarajan, Gevorg Sargsyan

College of Fine Arts and Communication: Andre Favors, Lilian Felipe, Brielle Frost, Chelsea Lyles, Stephan Malick, Paul Eric McCluskey, Millicent Musyoka

College of Engineering: John Gossage, Clayton Jeffryes

Library: Penny Clark

 

In Attendance (Online):

College of Arts & Sciences: B. Garrick Harden, Perumalreddy Chandrasekaran, Mark Broome

College of Education and Human Development: Eunjin Kwon, Shelly Allen, Kelly Brown, Kathryn Washington

College of Fine Arts and Communication: Xenia Fedorchenko, Alan Brincks

Library: Poornima Gunasekaran

 

Absent:

College of Arts and Sciences: Ian Lian, Elia Hatfield, Jim Armacost

College of Education and Human Development: Mohamad (Khal) Hamza, Caleb P. Hood, Daniel R. Chilek

College of Business: Ashraf El-Houbi, Xiao "Jerry" Zhang, Kelly Weeks

College of Engineering: Chun-Wei Yao, Mien Jao, Gleb Tcheslavski, Maryam Hamidi

 

Call to order

3:30 p.m.

 

President Taylor’s Minute – Dr. Jaime Taylor

• Cardinal View – President Taylor thanked everyone for participation in Cardinal View over the last two years. There’s one in the fall and spring and is the most efficient way to do recruiting. Goal is to bring people (parents and students) to campus and then create an academic showcase for them. The number of individuals coming to these events have increased dramatically, from around 100 to approximately 600 at the last Cardinal View. Hopefully there will be between 700 and 800 potential students this time. Asked to have faculty present from each department represented because when potential students and parents come to Cardinal View, this is what they think of when they think of ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ. It means a lot when they get to visit with faculty members.
• There were no questions for Dr. Taylor

 

Guest Speaker – Dr. Jim Mann, Ombudsman

• Retirement – Dr. Mann announced his retirement in December. The position is ¼ time release. The position requires that the person attend Ombudsman training by the International Ombudsman Association.
• Overview of Office of the Ombudsman – Dr. Mann reported that his job to try to resolve conflicts, disputes, and other work related issues with the employees, faculty, and staff in an informal manner. If can’t be resolved informally, then point people in right direction for formal process – file a grievance. Year-to-date, he has had 32 visitors in his office, which amounted to 57 meetings, an increase from last year.
• Trending Issues – Dr. Mann discussed the trending issues.
  • Communication – The biggest issue is communication, being willing to communicate with another party, not engaging in meaningful dialogue, or the lack of two-way communication.
  • Refusal to address issue, sometimes parties cannot agree on nature of problem or proposed solution.
  • 08 evaluation disputes.
  • Issues with supervisors/leadership effectiveness - Micromanagement, or supervisors who don’t do anything or not aware of what is going on. About 62% of people that leave a job leave because of the manager, not because of the work.
  • Incivility issues
• Primary skill needed for Ombudsman – Dr. Mann emphasized that the primary skill needed for the Ombudsman was active listening.

Approval of Minutes

Andre Favors made a motion to approve the minutes of the October 2023 Faculty Senate General Meeting. Vivek Natarajan seconded the motion.

 

The Faculty Senate unanimously approved the motion (votes: 29 in-person, 10 online).

 

Faculty Senate President’s Report (Dr. Cheng-Hsien Lin)

• Calendar: The University is going back to the old calendar next fall for Monday-Wednesday-Friday class start times, 8:00-8:50, 9:00-9:50, etc.
• Secondary Employment: There will be a new form that asks faculty to confirm their employment status, previously faculty only needed declared they had another job.
• Ombudsman Office: Currently the Ombudsman reports to the Provost. There is a consideration to move the Ombudsman Office under Human Resources.
• Departmental Budget Cut: Provost planning to restore department budgets next academic year.
• Teaching Load Issues: There is a concern about teaching load issues – colleges count loads differently, not just the regular teaching load but also how they count low enrollment classes. Dr. Lin requested the Faculty Affairs committee collect information from different colleges and departments regarding teaching loads. Then we will do a policy review in the spring and put our feedback into policy.
• Committee Chairs: Addressing Dr. Weeks' inquiry from the previous month about an amendment proposed in the new bylaws regarding the election of committee chairs. As the TSUS rejected the new bylaws, the associated amendment was consequently declined. Voting on the new bylaws is scheduled before the next academic year.

Faculty Senate Committee Chair Reports

• Budget and Compensation – Jennifer Fowler

There was 100% attendance at monthly committee meeting. Discussed the following topics:

• Merit Pay: Contacted business managers in every college to ask how merit pay was calculated. Met with Dr. Theodori (11.01.23), he asked the committee to work on a merit plan for the university. If faculty senators have input, please contact Jennifer.
• Budget Transparency: Discussed budget transparency, not sure of next steps. The committee reviewed what was available online and thought it sufficient. We were told that the college business managers should provide any information needed. Brown mentioned moving away from historical budgeting, where what you had last year is what you will receive the next year, must be tied to student enrollment and student credit hours.
• Equity Plans: Have a meeting with the CFO on November 8 to discuss equity plans moving forward. Dr. Brown said this year he will focus on staff. Jennifer will continue to push for instructors. Everyone should have a copy of the equity plan methodology used last academic year.
• The committee is looking at rewriting the charge for the university wide Budget Development Committee.
• Travel Reimbursement: Since The COO has left and will not be replaced, many of those duties are now under the CFO. For example, travel reimbursement. Jennifer plans to talk to the CFO about travel reimbursement since there are many faculty members that do not travel because it is so cumbersome to get reimbursed.
• Grants: Jennifer is also going to talk to the CFO about paying students from grants. There was extensive discussion regarding experiences from faculty paying students. Jennifer requested the Faculty Senate President Lin invite someone from HR come to a faculty senate meeting to discuss the grant payment process.

 

• Academic Affairs – Sujing Wang

Rescheduled meeting from Wednesday to Monday, some members could not attend due to rescheduled time but still had a quorum. Discussed the following topics:

• New grievance procedure: The 30-day window for review has closed. Dr. Theodori agreed to share feedback.
• Policy drafts: There will be other policy drafts published online for review. Please provide comments within the 30-day review window. Dr. Theodori agreed that the policies are drafts and comments will be reviewed and considered.
• Motion regarding closed session: The committee presented a proposed motion to have the Faculty Senate General Meetings move from open to closed when all business begins. P. Nelson stated that according to the Texas State Attorney General’s guide to the Open Meetings Act, the motion is not compliant. You can’t have a meeting become closed by default. Organizations in Texas must meet in open session first and then vote to go closed and can only do so for specified reasons. The 2024 guide to Open Meetings Act is on the State Attorney General’s website. Sujing Wang withdrew the proposed motion.
• Class size: Committee has received feedback on class size and workload issues. Requested detailed information from each department so the committee can propose a policy. Sujing Wang will create an anonymous survey to gather information regarding teaching load and low enrollment classes.

 

• Academic Issues – Melissa Riley

Met on October 15 and discussed the following topics:

• Non-tenure faculty promotion criteria: Looked at other institutions for examples of three year contract verbiage and examples of non-tenured faculty promotion and rank criteria.
• Distance Learning Committee Meeting: Attended as a faculty senate represent. The committee changed the name to Digital Learning Committee. They also discussed creating an online handbook for digital learning, AI, and futurepedia.io. Ashley Dockens, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement (CTLE), discussed the CTLE blog and Blackboard Class replacing Blackboard Collaborate.

 

• Research & Creative Activity – John Gossage

Met virtually and discussed the following topic:

• Faculty Development Leave: The competition for the faculty development leaves were launched on October 2 and has been in the LU Weekly update. The Deadline is November 6. Next meeting will be November 15. During this meeting the committee will be compiling all the data and judging the applications.

 

• Faculty Evaluation – Millie Musyoka

Met on October 15 and discussed the following topic:

• 08: Discussed F2.08 in relation to peer universities. Dr. Theodori came to meeting and discussed his perception. We will discuss MAPPs at next meeting and hope to have a draft in the spring.

 

• Faculty Handbook – B. Garrick Harden

Met and discussed the following topic:

• Master Maps: The focus of the meeting was on the master map, the MAPP of MAPPs. We are going to start helping Dr. Theodori write some of the MAPPs. We are using a template to try to speed up the process.

 

• Ad Hoc Committee for the Review of the Bylaws – J. P. Nelson

No report; did not meet.

 

Old Business

No old business was discussed.

New Business

• Representative from English and Modern Languages: Need new representative from English and Modern Languages
• Secretary: One nominee for Secretary was received – Daryl Ann Borel. President Lin called for additional nominations. B. Garrick Harden nominated Mark Broome. Mark Broome declined. Matt Hoch nominated Ian Lian (cannot consent to serve if elected). Jennifer Fowler stated she nominated Daryl Ann Borel and thought the College of Education and Human Development should be represented on the executive committee. President Lin asked the senate to elect Daryl Ann Borel by acclimation. Andre Favors made the motion to elect Daryl Ann Borel as Secretary by acclimation. Vivek Natarajan seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

Adjournment

Millicent Musyoka motioned to adjourn. Vivek Natarajan seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

 

The meeting adjourned at 4:54 p.m.