Faculty Senate

65th Faculty Senate, 2023 - 2024

Applied Arts: Michael Supancic, Criminal Justice

Business Administration: William Chittenden, Finance and Economics

Education: Stacey Bender, Health and Human Performance; Jo Beth Oestreich, (Secretary), Curriculum and Instruction 

Fine Arts & Communication: Dale Blasingame , Journalism and Mass Communication; Lynn Ledbetter (Chair), Music; Adetty Perez de Miles, Art and Design

Health Professions: Farzan Irani, Communication Disorders

Liberal Arts: Rebecca Bell-Metereau, English; Peter Dedek, History; Jennifer Jensen, Geography; William Kelemen, Psychology 

Science and Engineering: Rachel Davenport (Vice Chair), Biology; David Donnelly, Physics; Alex White, Mathematics

64th Faculty Senate Accomplishments 2022 - 2023

The Texas State University 64^th Faculty Senate worked diligently as an advocate for faculty from May 2022 – May 2023. Below is a list of accomplishments highlighting the work completed during this period.

The 64^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 77 Faculty Development Leave applications.
• Met as a full senate including Senate Liaisons once in each semester in 2022-2023. The spring meeting liaisons and senators discussed issues brought forth by their constituents within their colleges. A final report listing concerns affecting the whole of the university was shared with the Presidential Academic Advisory Group.
• Reviewed and suggested revisions to 93 Academic Affairs and University policy and procedure statements
• Served as impartial observers in Chair and Director and Dean reviews.
• Reviewed applications and chose Senate Fellow MiHyun Kim for her 2022-2023 project on salary compression, inversion, and its impact on the Texas State University community.
• Formed a Faculty Senate Subcommittee to conduct a comprehensive salary study to analyze salary inequity, salary compression and the effects of inflation on faculty income. The report includes findings from a qualitative survey of faculty conducted by the Faculty Senate in fall 2022. The final report was shared with university administrators and faculty in spring 2023.
• Conducted several surveys in 2022-2023:
  • Administrators Perception survey, 
  • Committee Preference survey and 
  • Salary Study survey
• Reviewed committee membership for 15 Faculty Senate Committees and for Texas State University committees and councils that hold Faculty Senate appointments.  During the summer semester membership rosters were created based on the Committee Preference Survey or recommendations from the Committee on Committees.  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.
• Election was conducted concluding in four new senators, three of which will be representing their colleges for the first time. 

In addition to the items listed, the faculty senate addressed more than 20 concerns brought to the Faculty Senate either through the confidential website contact form, the senate email or directly through a liaison or senator. 

The 64^th Faculty Senate was comprised of the following members: 

Lynn Ledbetter, Chair
Jennifer Jensen, Vice-Chair
Dale Blasingame, Co-Secretary
Ben Martin, Co-Secretary

Taylor Acee, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Stacey Bender, Rachel Davenport, Peter Dedek, Farzan Irani, Roque Mendez, Andrew Ojede, Adetty Perez de Miles, Michael Supancic, Alex White