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April 17, 1996 Minutes


Present: Bible, Ford, Glassman, Horne, Hunter, Kurtz, Middlebrook,
Parkin-Speer, Pascoe, Sawey, Stedman, Swinney, Weller, and Winek. Absent:
Caverly.

Guests: Profs. Gene Bourgeois (History), Lou Caruana (Health Profs.), Paul
Cohen (English), Julio Dix (Math), Nancy Grayson (English); Margaret
Vaverek (Library liaison) ; Mike Moore, and Sandra Akridge.


CONTENTS:

86 LIBRARY COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Sawey)
34 CURRICULUM COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Caruana)
81 FACULTY WORKLOAD POLICY
17 CoFGO REPORT (Prof. Hunter)
80 FACULTY LOUNGE COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Kurtz)
74 SCH TARGETS (Appoint Faculty to Committee)
84 PPS 7:10 (Appt. Committee to Study Raise Policy)
85 STAFF RECOGNITION
02 SENATE MINUTES OF 3/27/96/, 4/3/96, 4/10/96
NEW ITEMS

The meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m., Chair Swinney presiding.

86 LIBRARY COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Sawey)

Three items are on the report:

(1) It was recommended that the Library's liaison to the
Faculty Senate be appointed to the Library Committee, so that the
professional staff have a representative (the Director of LRC and the Head
Librarian are on the Library Committee, but there is no other library
professional assigned to the Committee). The Senate concurred with this
appointment.

(2) Electronic ordering of monographs and serials was
recommended and this is being worked on currently by the Library.

(3) Formula for allocation of funds to departments was
discussed in detail with Profs. Bourgeois, Cohen, and Dix. The new formula
includes external and internal average costing of acquisitions, elimination
of differentials for lower and upper division undergrads (because lower
division undergrads are given heavy library assignments), and amount of
publication in each field (according to Blackwell's monograph list and
Faxon's serials list). This is in addition to the FTE faculty, number of
majors, etc. The formula averages the past three years to soften the blow
for some departments.

The following problems were raised: (1) Some depts., such as
Anthropology which have few faculty but many majors, minors, and others
seem to have been hit hard (20% reduction) when they did not have enough
funds in the first place; (2) The School of Ed. will have to set up some
kind of library in Round Rock to meet the needs of students on our tentative
feeler for a northern campus (U.T. does not cooperate well although they
are supposed to have an agreement with SWT on reciprocal usage. Obviously
we need to work on this idea of sharing the resources.); (3) Allied
Health has taken a strong hit which will not help with accreditation
agencies which have complained about previous library support; (4) What
we really need are more Library dollars, as we have stood at the same
$925,525 for at least three years, while prices and needs escalate (more
grad. programs, in particular); (5) If we are stuck with the same
underfunded budget, can we at least put a ceiling and a floor on what
depts. get under the new formula?

It was brought up that some certification bodies require limits on
class sizes and some depts. have few faculty per SCH (both of which cut
their library acquisitions, but do not indicate student library use).

A major problem is that there is no way to count student and
faculty usage without going to closed stacks which limits everyone in terms
of availability. No one on the Senate seemed to like this option. Closed
stacks also raises costs, as pages have to individually procure the
requested book/serial--one at a time. Closed stacks cuts down on browsing
in related books and journals nearby. Serendipity goes out the window.

In comments on the above it was noted that the new Student Fee
Library dollars could offset some setbacks initially. Also new programs
usually came with extra dollars from somewhere in the higher
administration, but this is unknown at this time, (e.g. Will Ed. get more
funds to set up a library in Round Rock?)

The motion was made that we accept the Committee's report. There
were 5 ayes and 7 nays. Apparently there were too many unanswered
questions. A motion carried to RTA this until Fall 1996 when the Committee
could address the above points more specifically.

The Senate thanked the Committee for their meticulous work on the
formula, which seems to be in a positive direction compared to what we have
had for the last 20 years. The Committee is not at fault for not
addressing the questions brought up at this Senate session, since some of
the issues are new.

34 CURRICULUM COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Caruana)

The Curriculum Committee recommended the following:
(1) An interdisciplinary minor in Photography offered under the
aegis of the School of Applied Arts and Technology.

(2) A name change of the BFA degree in Commercial Arts to a BFA
in Commercial Design.

(3) A minor in Media Studies under the Dept. of English which
incorporates courses from 11 departments.

(4) In addition, new courses were suggested: EDA 6344 Campus
Leadership, EDP 5322 Governance and Legal Issues in Higher Ed., EDP 5323
Program Development and Evaluation, and Geo 5416 Digital Remote Sensing and
Terrain Modeling. For EDP 5368 Developmental Issues in Counseling
Children, Adolescents, and Adults a change in course description was
requested

(5) Long Term Health Care asked for the approval of a 36 hour
accreditation certificate program (although the accrediting body asks for
only 30 hours). The idea is to attract post-grads from various undergrad
disciplines into a two year certification program. No new courses,
additional faculty, or resources are needed.

The Senate approved each of the above changes in the
Committee's report. No immediate changes in faculty, etc. were requested.


81 FACULTY WORKLOAD POLICY

A draft revision of PPS 7.05 on faculty workload was received in
late March from VPAA Gratz. "The purpose of this PPS is to define the way
that workloads of faculty members are determined and monitored. This
document also established the policy and responsibilities for monitoring
and reporting faculty workload, and for reporting workload compliance to
the Coordinating Board for fall and spring semesters."

A minimum workload requirement for full-time faculty was
established by HB 558 of the 67th Legislature (Article III, Section 20c) as
9 credit hours per semester, i.e. nine workload units. "At Southwest Texas
State University the normal workload for full-time faculty is 12 semester
credit hours per semester (twelve workload units)."

The PPS goes on to describe factors to be taken into account for
figuring special teaching conditions which might be taken into
consideration in adjusting workload credits for a course (e.g. large
classes, graduate courses, lab and clinic supervision, exceptional
team-teaching situations, thesis direction, student teacher/intern
supervision, etc.). Suggestions are also made for workload credit for
other professional responsibilities for the dept., university, or
profession. These include such areas as advising, chairing various
committees or other administrative work, major research activities,
emergency adjustments (the latter must be in writing and approved by the
appropriate dean), etc. A worksheet summarizing the suggested adjustments
was attached. A form for reporting to the University and the Coordinating
Board is under construction.

After much discussion, the Senate agreed this might increase
flexibility in assigning workloads and provide documentation
(accountability) on how workloads were assigned. A motion was passed to
add the senior faculty into the loop on #8 which would then read something
like: "At SWTSU, a faculty member's professional responsibilities for each
semester are determined by the department chair in a manner consistent with
departmental policy as established by the Senior Faculty. Subject to the
approval of the school dean, chairs are responsible for assuring that
individual faculty member's workloads comply with the University's workload
policy." This addition was suggested in an attempt to support a senior
faculty involvement.

The Senate voted to "mildly" support trial implementation of the
revised draft with the understanding that the Task Force continue
"fine-tuning" on areas not yet covered. We recommend inclusion of areas
such as the following: grant buyouts, contact hours (e.g. What about
studio classes in Art which earn 3 workload credits but require 18 hours of
contact?), distance of travel to supervise interns, the advisability in #11
(a) of granting "per course" faculty only half the regular workload credits
accrued by full-time faculty for the same course (This would seem to
encourage replacing full-time faculty with part-timers to increase the SCH
ratio.), graduate labs, private lessons, etc.

17 CoFGO REPORT (Prof. Hunter)

RTA'd because of time.

80 FACULTY LOUNGE COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Kurtz)

The Committee recommends that the breakfast hour for faculty at the
University Club be discontinued, since it continues to lose money.

The Senate voted to support this recommendation.

74 SCH TARGETS (Appoint Faculty to Committee)

Seven chairs have been appointed to the SCH Target Committee. The
Senate moved to submit the names of three faculty--Profs. Wilbon Davis,
Computer Science; Paul Raffeld, Psychology; and Walt Johnston, Computer
Information Systems and Quantitative Methods--to serve on the Committee to add
a little more balance.

84 PPS 7:10 (Appt. Committee to Study Raise Policy)

The Senate recommends a Committee to draft revisions for PPS 7.10
Procedures for Awarding Merit and Performance Raises to SWT Faculty
Members, so that a policy is in place by next spring. We suggest the
Committee be composed of seven persons so that all Schools are
represented--3 faculty senators and 4 chairs and deans. The Senate
approved the appointment of Senators Swinney, Winek, and Sawey to the
Committee.

85 STAFF RECOGNITION

RTA'd because of time.

02 SENATE MINUTES OF 3/27/96/, 4/3/96, 4/10/96

The minutes were approved.

NEW ITEMS

The Chair of the Senate received at noon Wednesday 61-pages of proposed
changes to the Rules and Regulations of the Board of Regents of the State
System. Some areas are of particular concern:

(1) Changes in titles and definitions of the duties of the
officers, e,g, Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Chief Financial Officer, etc.
seem to imply more centralization of decision making. [The Senate
expressed concern with possible increased centralization, which is directly
counter to the TQM attempts to be inclusive in the decision-making process.
Universities have their own unique missions and problems which
one-size-fits-all decisions from the top do not take into account.];

(2) All modifications in a university's policies, rules, and
regulations, "whether written or otherwise," must be approved "by the
system legal staff prior to execution or implementation." [The Senate
agreed this requirement was totally unworkable.];

(3) Illegal use of drugs allegations against faculty, even if
the individual is found not guilty in criminal proceedings, will be
examined, with possible penalties, termination, etc. [No agreement could
be reached on the possible effects of this policy, perhaps because it is
unclear what the intent of the change is.];

(4) Conflicts of interest "must" be avoided in employment or
"any outside activity" which intrudes on one's university performance.
[The Senate agreed to express concern over the vagueness of "any outside
activity."];

(5) Student misconduct with electronic facilities (e.g.
"bombing" an individual with dozens of unnecessary messages, "spamming" by
using someone else's user address, etc.) will be dealt with harshly.
[After discussing bombing, spamming, etc., the Senate concurred that this
was probably a good policy to have in place.];

(6) No firearms will be ever allowed on any "premises of a
System component." [It was agreed that this needs clarification since it
would seem to include campus police from carrying weapons, firearms from
the Civil War being examined in a history class, ROTC ritual flag
presentations, theatre productions, etc.].

The Senate expressed regret that it has not been given adequate
time to examine these proposed rules and hoped that the Board will provide
more time for all universities affected to consider areas of concern.

Meeting adjourned at 6:22 p.m.


Ramona Ford
Secretary