Present: Bible, Caverly, Ford, Horne, Hunter, McGee, Parkin-Speer, Pascoe,
Sawey, Simpson, Stimmel, Weller, and Winek. Absent: Bourgeois, Hays.
Guests: Prof. Oren Renick (Health Adm. & Insurance Com. Chair), Lisa
Nelson-Germer, El Norman, and Kavin Hanzik (HA students working on
Insurance study); Dr. Susan Griffith (Asst. VP IRP); Mike Moore.
CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION OF NEW ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
INSURANCE COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Renick & grad students)
SCH REPORT (Asst. V-P Susan Griffith)
COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT
APPOINTMENTS TO GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE
TARSITANO GRIEVANCES
AD HOC COMMITTEE ON EVALUATION OF ADMINISTRATORS
MINUTES OF 7/10/96
NEW ITEMS
The meeting was called to order at 4:05, chair Bible presiding.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
The Senate greeted new Administrative Assistant Shirley Pilus
(e-mail SP05) with great enthusiasm. Ms. Pilus brings to us her fine
organizational skills and knowledge of SWT internal operations.
INSURANCE COMMITTEE REPORT (Prof. Renick & grad students)
Prof. Renick explained the survey of health insurance and medical
care satisfaction sent to covered SWT employees who were (1) recipients of
in-patient hospital care, (2) hospital out-patients, or (3) emergency room
patients from 8/1/94-7/31/95. Over 150 persons responded from the several
thousand persons covered, but these were persons who had hospital
experience which would not be the norm for most employees. The 7-page
summary of the 40+ page report indicated that the responses regarding the
six hospitals and four insurers were better for each of the hospitals than
for the insurers. They provided recommendations for each hospital and
insurer, but not by name in this first report. They notified the providers
of criticisms and recommendations.
In next year's report the Committee plans to name names. It was
pointed out in discussion that someone seeking information under the
Freedom of Information Act might be able to get names this year--and
perhaps should if the inquiring party's health were at stake. The
Insurance Committee is also seeking any input on improving the
questionnaire that we can provide.
It was noted in the discussion that the Texas Employees Retirement
System (ERS) and the Group Benefits Advisory Council (GBAC) and the SWT
staff and faculty will be given the results of each annual survey the
Insurance Committee does. This should enable recipients to choose with
more information. The problem heretofore was that the insurers have done
the satisfaction surveys themselves, which is not perhaps conducive to
reliable or complete information. For example, the HMOs are not able to
provide us with data by schools and ERS has not provided SWT with any
information, despite the State Attorney General's ruling. Some other
businesses in the Corridor would like to join our efforts so their
employees are more informed on their health care choices. At this point
resource support for the surveys has come from Bill Nance's F&SS and
Personnel.
The Senate thanked Prof. Renick, the Committee, and his staff for
their ongoing efforts to inform the SWT community on their health care
options.
SCH REPORT (Asst. V-P Griffith)
Dr. Griffith explained "SCH Productivity Plan: A Recommendation for
Implementation" from the SCH Productivity Team. The report has been
accepted at the joint meeting 7/23/96 of the Council of Chairs and the
Council of Academic Deans. Chairs will check for accuracy the list of
department faculty provided by the Coordinating Board. Only assistant
instructors to full professors will be included.
The purpose of figuring departmental and school productivity as
determined by SCH per FTFE is to see where the entire university must be in
order to raise faculty salaries to the median of the top quartile of our 13
state peer schools by FY2003. To do this projection the Committee figured
the same number of faculty through FY2003 as in 1995/96, the expected
increase in student population and its effect on state formula funding,
income from the student general fees (at their new rate which the Regents
are not expected to allow to increase again in the near future), tuition,
and reallocation. The target for the entire university is 466 weighted SCH
(WSCH) per FTFE. The weighting is 3 times the undergraduate class hour for
master's students and 6 times for doctoral students.
Negotiations among the VPAA, deans, and chairs will determine WSCH
per school and department. Chairs will develop targets/plans for FY1998 to
FY2003, based on their own comparisons to peer schools (not "virtual
depts.," although these may be revisited if negotiations break down). The
department plans and the negotiations are expected to be completed by
November 15, 1996. The actual WSCH per FTFE in 1995 was 366 per semester,
meaning we will have to average another 100 by 2003 to reach the target of
466.
In the discussion, questions were raised about possible effects on
quality of undergraduate student education in larger classes and amount of
faculty research with larger classes and/or more classes. Distance
learning, use of discussion groups in large sections, differences in
departments WSCH because of labs and certification requirements, etc. were
mentioned. Not everyone was thrilled.
The Senate thanked Dr. Griffith and her Committee for their patient
and detailed work. The item will return to the agenda at our next meeting.
COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES REPORT
Nominations were agreed upon for replacements on the various Senate
committees and Senators were assigned to Group Chair positions. Group
chairs are liaisons to several committees, taking information and requests
from committees to the Senate and seeing that committees are alerted to
questions that come before the Senate which are relevant to a particular
committee.
APPOINTMENTS TO GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE
The Grievance Committee will be reconstituted as of 9/1/96. Two
faculty positions must be appointed to replace Profs. Stimmel (who is now
on the Senate) and John McGee (the new Ombudsperson as of 9/1/96). A chair
and a dean must also be appointed. A motion was made and passed to obtain
the names of the two highest eligible runner-ups in last years' Grievance
Com. election and ask them to serve for the coming year; a faculty-wide
election will be held next year. These faculty appointments and the dean
and chair will be confirmed at the August 28th Senate meeting.
TARSITANO GRIEVANCES
New interesting (and sometimes conflicting) information was
discussed regarding both the Tilton grievance of last year and the coming
grievances of Prof. Tarsitano against two administrators. After much
discussion, a motion was passed to wait for the grievance process to work
through Prof. Tarsitano's grievances in the fall and then return it to the
senate agenda if the matters were not settled.
AD HOC COMMITTEE ON EVALUATION OF ADMINISTRATORS
After a short terse discussion (including questions about renewable
terms for administrators--to put some oomph into what seems to many faculty
to be pro-forma "evaluations"), the subject was RTA'd for 8/28/96. Sorry,
folks. Ran out of time.
MINUTES OF 7/10/96
The minutes were approved as read.
NEW ITEMS
Prof. Pascoe will attend the three August CAD meetings in the place
of Chair Bible. He will also bear the mace at the August graduation
ceremonies.
The next Senate meeting will be 8/28/96, at 4:00 p.m., JCK 880.
Meeting adjourned at 6:07 p.m.
Ramona Ford
Secretary
