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Sept 5, 2001 Minutes

APPROVED FACULTY SENATE MINUTES 43RD FACULTY SENATE SEPTEMBER 5, 2001




Approved Faculty Senate Minutes

September 5, 2001

Senators present: Renick (chair), Sawey, Gillis, Stone, Hays, Blanda, Blevens, Stimmel,
                            Hindson, McKinney, Brennan, Stutzman

Absent: Peeler, EAPS appointee

Guests:  Milt Nielsen, Mike Moore (information agent)

Meeting was called to order by chair Oren Renick at 4:00 pm.

Dr. Renick quickly reviewed the meeting agenda and asked for any new business items so they could be added.   He also informed the Senate that he would be away next week and Dr. Blevens, senate vice-chair, will be in charge of the meeting on September 12, 2001.  We were reminded that the September 19th meeting will be the PAAG meeting and we should be considering the items we might like to discuss with Drs. Supple and Gratz at that time.  Dr. Renick reminded those Senators who are responsible for developing a plan of action for one of the 2001-2002 goals should be prepared with it for the September 26th meeting.  Slave driver!

Dr. Renick will be meeting with Ombudsman  Bible to pursue concerns about Post Tenure Review.  The Senate intends to ask about numbers of faculty who have at least 2 non-performance reviews at the next PAAG meeting.  We will appoint two Senate members to serve on a presidential committee to improve the PTR process.  Senator Hindson wondered how many, if any, faculty did not get the 4% performance raise this year.

Because precedent for having faculty serve on the search committee for a university president at SWTSU was established when Dr. Supple was selected the Senate is recommending that one senator and at least one faculty member at large be placed on the search committee for Dr. Suppleís replacement.  The Senate also encourages student representation on this committee when it is appointed.

The Senate recommended that chair Renick send a note of effusive thanks to Meg Grant, Bob Olney, and Susan Day for their able and inspiring facilitation of our goal setting sessions.  They were extremely gracious and helpful!

The CAD has asked for Senate recommendations for several committee appointments.  Members were needed for the Commencement, Master Teacher, and Academic Honesty Committees as well as for the University Council.  In addition we were asked to suggest possibilities for the new Hearing Officer.  Several names were bandied about and those who are willing to have their names put forward as nominees for these positions will then be forwarded to Dr. Gratz to be considered for appointment.  Dr. Renick will be contacting those people who were named to determine their willingness to serve.

The Senate has appointed Mike Carns, EAPS, to serve in Marianne Reeseís senate seat during the time she is serving as acting chair of the C & I department.  The motion to accept Carnsí appointment was made by Gillis and seconded by Stimmel and was unanimous.  We look forward to including Dr. Carns in our deliberations.

Senators were reminded to attend the scintillating University Council meeting on September 13, 2001, at 3:00 pm  in the Jack Cates Room in Old Main.  Be still our collective hearts.

Dr. Milt Nielsen, the new director of the Instructional Technologies Division, met with us to give the Senate an outline of the purposes of this new group.  He is located in Alkek 108.  Dr. Nielson emphasized that this is a ìserviceî office designed to help faculty solve instructional design problems in optimal ways.  The goal is to find solutions that are effective using technology in the most appropriate ways.  By consolidating these services in a single area it is hoped that the process can be eased and streamlined for faculty.  There will be Instructional Designers, Instructional Computing Operations, Classroom Technology Support, Computer Lab Coordination, and Educational Technology Support.  Having this kind of help for managing the hardware is expected to free faculty to be more involved with the actual teaching process.  There are seven TBA positions listed in this office.  Budgeting exists for six.  Dr. Nielsen is planning to look for outside funding for the seventh.  He also mentioned that the partnership agreement with Microsoft for inexpensive access to Microsoft ìSuiteî is close to completion.  Senator Sawey made a pithy comment or two about not having information about this since he has been asking about it for the past year.  Having advanced technology does not always improve communications, it seems.

Items suggested for the next meeting or two included:
 The Stockholm Accords (although some wondered why) - Skerpan-Wheeler
 Report on Council of Chairs - Blevens
 Report on the Research Enhancement Grant Process ­ Blanda
 Discuss policy for voting by email - Sawey
 Setting PAAG agenda ­ all
 The value of the University Council - all

It was noted that the Evaluation Committee for Dean Cheatham has established a time line to complete the evaluation and is moving forward.  Dr. Blevens has resigned from the committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 pm and we bolted for the door.

Minutes  emotionally submitted by J. Hays, Senate secretary