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Presiding: Dr. Cheng-Hsien Lin

In Attendance (In-person)

College of Arts and Sciences:

Mark Broome, Jennifer Fowler, Ian Lian, Pat Heintzelman, Mark Mengerink, James Armacost, Tina Kibbe, Sujing Wang, Sommer Shackelford, Elia Hatfield, Melissa Riley, Raymond Doe, Matt Hoch, Raouth Kostandy, Cheng-Hsien Lin, and B. Garrick Harden

College of Education and Human Development:

Daryl Ann Borel, Eunjin Kwon, Donna Fong, and Daniel R. Chilek

College of Business:

Ashraf El-Houbi, Vivek Natarajan, Kelly Weeks, Tim McCoy, and James Slaydon

College of Fine Arts and Communication:

Andre Favors, Paul Eric McCluskey, Paul Hemenway, Brielle Frost

College of Engineering:

Xuejun Fan, Xian Chang Li, Gleb Tcheslavski, and Xing Wu

Library:

Poornima Gunasekaran

 

In Attendance (Online)

College of Arts and Sciences: Brian Williams, Permalreddy Chandrasekaran, Cengiz Sen, Wen Liu, Emma Morris

College of Education and Human Development: Shelly Allen and James Laub

College of Business: Gevorg Sargsyan

College of Fine Arts and Communication: Alan Brincks, Lilian Felipe, Xenia Fedorchenko, and Chelsea Lyles

College of Engineering: John Gossage

Library:

 

Absent:

College of Arts and Sciences: Jiangjiang (Jane) Liu and Sharon Joffe (Developmental Leave)

College of Education and Human Development: Mohamad (Khal) Hamza and Katherine Sprott

College of Business: Xiao "Jerry" Zhang and Minkyum Kim

College of Fine Arts and Communication: Milicent Musyoka (Development Leave)

College of Engineering: Maryann Hamidi

Library: Penny Clark

 

Call to order

3:31 P.M.

 

Remarks by Interim Provost Welch

• This is first time for Dr. Welch to address the full senate.
• Rebecca Boone is the new interim Dean of COAS
• Jimmy Bryant will serve as Interim Chair of History
• Cardinal View is Nov 16.
• Enrollment is currently around 17,400. System wants us to get to 18,000.
• Library Renovation Project breaks ground on October 15, 2024. Timeline is 2.5 years. To some extent, the library will be repurposed. Some floors will be used for student services. Eighth floor will still be used for reception area.
• Intramural Field groundbreaking October 9, 2024. The plot of land right outside of Reaud will be repurposed as an instramural/ band field. The goal is to increase student engagement.
• Soft launch Nov 14 of Center for Entrepreneurship.
• Board of Regents will meet in Beaumont in November.
• Instructor salary adjustment completed.

In response to James Slaydon's question about future salary adjustment. Provost Welch said none are on the agenda now.

 

Approval of Minutes

• Daryl Borel made motion to table approval of September minutes until the October meeting.
• James Slaydon seconded the motion.
• Motion passes

 

Faculty Senate President's Report

• We have lost our administrative assistant in the senate office.
• Senate will invite faculty to speak in Open Forums next month.
• Senate will have Open House October 30th from noon to 2:00 P.M.
• Shared information from TCFS meeting.

Faculty Senate Committee Chair Reports

• Budget and Compensation- Andre Favors, Chair
  • Update on Merit MAPP draft was submitted to Dr. Gene Theodori, Deans working on formulas, expected to return to Faculty Senate for review. 
  • Update information regarding the changes in IT and information regarding the instructor equity adjustment methodology.
  • Review MAPP on funding requests from student organizations. 
  • The committee discussed drafting Equity MAPP; it was mentioned that an existing policy 44.2 in the Faculty Handbook addresses this.
  • University Budget Committee 
    • The committee reviewed the charge and membership of the proposed University Budget Committee (currently named University Budget Development Committee); it was recommended  to add College Budget Managers to the committee. Andre Favors will contact the CFO with our recommendations regarding renaming the committee and updating its membership and charge.

 

• Faculty Affairs - Dr. Melissa Riley, Chair
  • Grievance Policy Proposal Drafts
    • Drafts were reviewed. Questions arose about a separate policy written by Hector Flores. We need the definition of Shared Governance. I will attend a meeting of the Shared Governance Committee on Thursday and report back to Faculty Affairs.
    • Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award 2025 - Awaiting administrative access to the competition space. 
    • Postdoctoral Employment: Comments/ suggestions were sent back to Dr. Thedori's office.
    • Faculty office hours and residency policies reported that it is ready for faculty open comments until September 26.
    • IT security meeting on July 1st report about security awareness training; phishing email; real-time alert; JAMF for mac users; IT contact sri@lamar.edu.

 

• Academic Issues - Dr. Sujing Wang, Chair
  • Discuss of the MAPP on Academic Continuity: Committee members made the following recommendations: C. 1: Activation of the Academic Continuity Plan: We recommend that the Office of Academic Affairs actively implement its academic continuity plan. It is crucial for each college and department to adhere to this plan in order to ensure a consistent and cohesive response across the entire campus.
  • Revision of Note under C.10 to C.11: We suggest revising the note under C.10 to C.11 to allow for adjustments that accommodate exceptions. This flexibility will be beneficial  in addressing unique circumstances  that may arise.
  • Recommendation to develop large in-person/ hybrid class compensation policy.
  • Concerns about canceling low enrollment class in fall, spring, and summer semesters which effect the program enrollment and retention.
  • Questions and recommendations about external grant and internal proposal submission forwarded to the Research sub-committee:
  • Overhead Budget Distribution: What formula is used to determine the distribution of the overhead portion of external grant budgets to the college and department level?
  • Internal Grant Submission Approval: There is a recommendation to remove the requirement for department chair and dean approval for submitting internal grants.

 

• Research and Creative Activity - Dr. Xuejun Fan, Chair
  • MAAP FDL (Faculty Development Leave) draft
    • Discussion on a few key changes:
      • 1) Eligibility (in the draft the tenured faculty only applies. Committee feels that FDL should apply to all full-time faculty. 
      • 2) Duration between two leaves (in the draft it changed to 6 years. The committee favors in 3 years).
      • 3) Supplement funds (in the draft only "travel" is included, the committee suggests that per diem lodging needs to be included). Some other feedback and details in a separate document to be submitted to Dr. Theodori's office.
      • 2025-2026 FDL key dates (proposed)
        • 10/7/2024 - live on Competition Space
        • 11/4/2024 - application submission deadline
        • 11/12/2024 - committee member review due
        • 11/13/2024 - committee meeting for final results discussion
        • 11/15/2024 - committee forwards the recommendation to Provost
      • Current FDL documents (including rubrics) to be reviewed by 09/30 by the committee.
      • Internal grant review policy and procedures MAPP - work with Research Office
      • External grant incentives MAPP - work with Research Office
      • We will invite Dr. Jerry Lin to our next meeting on October 16, 2024, for federal/ state related IBS policies.
      • Discussions on workload policies on research components

 

• Faculty Evaluation -  Dr. Daryl Ann Borel, Chair
  • F2.08 and Workload Policy: Daryl Ann Borel will reach out to Dr. Theodori for updates on the F2.08 revisions and workload policies. She will share her findings at our next meeting. 
  • Faculty Climate Survey 2023 final report: We currently have no status updates as Millie Musyoka, who has the data, was unable to attend the meeting.
  • Student Evaluation Questions: Committee members will seek input from faculty members on the base set of student evaluation questions. At our next meeting, we will review the feedback and submit our recommendations to Dr. Jator.
  • Training for the new F2.08 and Course Evaluation through Watermark: The training schedule is attached. Committee members are encouraged to attend one of the sessions.

 

• Faculty Handbook - Dr. Jennifer Fowler, Chair
  • Each committee member reviewed a section of Joe Nordgen's document which tracked the changes made between the 2017 and the 2019 Faculty Handbooks. Most changes were titles of position. The only change of substance between the 2017 and the 2019 versions was the salary market adjustment statement. Matt Hoch motioned to pass 2019 version. He stated it would only apply where we do not have MAPPS. Andre Favors seconded. Point of Order by Slaydon. Will the bylaws be changed? 2019 and 2017 do not include the same bylaws. Jennifer pointed out that Brenda said bylaws are only an appendix to the handbook. They must be voted on separately.
  • Motion to pass 2019 version of handbook passes
  • For: 24 in person and 7 online
  • Against 3 in person and 2 online
  • Abstention: 1

 

• Old Business
  • Dr. Lin asked Daryl Ann Borel to review evidence concerning the vote on the bylaws passed in April 2020. Daryl Ann contacted the former FS secretary, Nicki Michalski, and was provided documentation concerning the vote. 31 senators voted in favor of approving the bylaw draft, 4 voted against, and 1 senator abstained. This vote was into included in the April 1, 2020, minutes. Daryl motioned to amend the minutes of April 2020 to reflect the results of the vote. Discussion ensued. Concerns were raised avout the procedure for amending the minutes. Dr. Borel explained that Rob erts Rules require a 2/3 vote, or a majority vote with no notice, or the vote of the majority of the entire membership, or unanimous consent. Mark Broome seconded the motion to amend the minutes. The vote option was "majority vote with no notice" and the motion passed 40 to 3 (0 Abstention).

 

• New Business 
  • Dr. James Slaydon discussed an annual evaluation of the administration and provided suggestions on the creation of review committee. Dr. Lin offered to bring the issue directly to that administration and report the results to the senate.

The quorum was lost and the meeting adjourned at 5:17 p.m.