Faculty Senate

67th Faculty Senate, 2025 - 2026

Applied Arts: Michael Supancic, Criminal Justice

Business Administration: Kevin Jetton, (Secretary), Information Systems and Analytics

Education: Stacey Hunter, Health and Human Performance; Rolf Straubhaar, Counseling, Leadership, Adult Ed, School Psychology

Fine Arts & Communication: Dale Blasingame , Journalism and Mass Communication; Lynn Ledbetter (Chair), Music; Dimitry Tetin, Art and Design

Health Professions: Kim Lee, Health Administration

Liberal Arts: Peter Dedek, History; Valentina Glajar, World Languages and Literatures; Reiko Graham, Psychology; Steve Wilson, English

Science and Engineering: Noland Martin, Biology; David Donnelly, (Vice Chair) Physics; Piyush Shroff, Mathematics

The Texas State University 66^th Faculty Senate worked diligently as an advocate for faculty from May 2024 – May 2025. Below is a list of accomplishments highlighting the work completed during this period.

The 66^th Faculty Senate:

• Reviewed and endorsed awards related to the following peer review processes:  
  • Research Enhancement Grants, 
  • Nontenure Line Faculty Workload Release, 
  • University Lecturers Series Awards, 
  • Part-Time Faculty Teaching Awards, and the 
  • Piper Professor and Everette Swinney Teaching Awards.
• Reviewed and recommended 66 Faculty Development Leave applications.
• Met weekly during fall and spring semesters.
• Met as a full senate including Senate Liaisons once in each semester in 2024-2025. For the fall meeting liaisons and senators discussed issues brought forth by their constituents within their colleges. The discussion of the spring meeting focused on faculty feedback regarding Zoom v Teams. A final report was shared with the Vice President of Information Technology, Matt Hall
• Reviewed 89 curriculum additions, deletions and revisions.
• Reviewed revisions to 75 Academic Affairs and University policies. 
• Served as impartial observers in Chair and Director and Dean reviews.
• Formed a Faculty Senate subcommittee to recommend changes to the Faculty Development Leave review process. Recommendations were shared with the Provost.
• Conducted several surveys in 2024-2025:
  • Administrators Perception survey, 
  • Committee Preference survey and 
  • Provided summary reports on the Chair Survey.
• Reviewed and endorsed committee membership for 15 Faculty Senate Committees and for university committees and councils that hold Faculty Senate appointments. Reviews and changes to membership were made throughout the year in response to resignations, retirements, or department transfers.
• Reviewed reports from the Faculty Senate Committees including but not limited to:  Academic Computing, Academic Freedom, University Curriculum, University Lecturers, University Research Enhancement.
• Conducted a Special Election to replace Senator Jo Beth Oestreich in Fall 2024.
• The regular senate election for 2025-2026 was conducted in March/April 2025 resulting in two senators winning re-election and four new senators. A late change in representation for the Education Department resulted in the appointment of the election runner-up for a one-year term.
• The 66th Faculty Senate set out to reform the election process for 2025-2026 and beyond by amending the Faculty Constitution to provide a process for candidates to opt-in rather than to opt-out of the election. The amendment passed with a vote of 697 for the amendment and 8 against.

The 66^th Faculty Senate comprises the following members: 

Lynn Ledbetter, Chair
David Donnelly, Vice-Chair
Kevin Jetton, Secretary

Stacey Bender, Dale Blasingame, Peter Dedek, Valentina Glajar, William Kelemen, Russ Lang, Noland Martin, Adetty Perez de Miles, Piyush Shroff, Lois Stickley, Michael Supancic, Steve Wilson