Nov 19, 2003 Minutes

Members present:  Senators Brennan, Hazelwood, Rao, Shah, Gordon, Hindson, Peeler, Sawey, Stone, Bell-Metereau Second half senators:  James, Gillis and Hawkins

Guests:  Amanda Retallack, Tina Vernick, and Jason De La Cruz

 

I.  Developmental Leave Applications

 

Senators heard reports from faculty seeking developmental leave.

 

II.  CAD Report -- James

    Deans spent most of the time discussing their strategic plans.

    Cassidy introduced workload revision; there was not a great deal of discussion as he told them that the president seemed fine with the new policy.

    Gratz announced 16 or 17 new positions for next academic year.  Departments and colleges should come up with list of priorities as part of their strategic plan.  These priorities will then be scrutinized and decisions made about where the new positions will go.

        Additionally there will be three additional positions as part of the Target of Opportunity Program.  These positions should be used to increase diversity which would be very broadly defined.  The senators discussed whether these positions would be filled with full-blown searches or not.  James said the memo indicated that the positions would be filled without searches.

 

PAAG Follow-Up Memo

  Discussion followed discussing President Trauth's announcement that she sent Regent Flores a letter asking him to submit the anti-discrimination memo to the Board.

    Senate did get a refurbished PC and has been added to the refresh cycle for this semester.

 

Elections

    Lisa will retype ballots.  The senate will need to hold an election to replace Chris Frost in Liberal Arts before it can conduct the Liason elections.  The Liason elections will be conducted early in the spring semester.

 

Web Update

    Grievance Committee information on web page is out of date and needs to be removed.  Senator Shah said that he would take care of it.

 

New Business

    Senator Sawey mentioned that he would try to get the information on Merit and Performance onto the web.  This led to a discussion about the merit decisions.  Some departments are attempting to distribute the merit money equally among all eligible faculty.  Others are trying to give equal dollar amounts to all faculty.

    Senator Conroy asked if Gratz had responded to nominations for committees.

Stone said he'd heard nothing about that or about the number of graduations faculty have to attend.  Similarly, Post Tenure Review policy has been sent to Dr. Gratz with no response.

    Senator Gordon asked if other departments were having trouble getting approval to advertise for new positions.  Senator Peeler pointed out that this has been a perennial problem.

    Senator Sawey asked what Texas State is doing about tuition.  Chair Stone said that there would be a $10 per credit hour increase in the spring.  There is a possibility of another increase for the fall.  How much that increase might be is under investigation.

    Minutes from November 5th were approved.

 

Adjourned 5:45.

 

Draft faculty senate minutes 11/19/03 submitted by Mary Brennan and Rebecca Bell-Metereau 11/23/03

 

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