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Nov 3, 2004 Minutes

Members present: Chair Stone, Senators Sawey, Rao, Conroy, Fleming, James, Shah, Homeyer, Hazlewood, Sorensen, Bell-Metereau, Warms, Brennan, McKinney, Montondon (4:30)

Liaisons: Jim Bell, Audwin Anderson, Moyce Manske, Margaret Vaverek

Guests:  Micky Henry, Patrick Cassidy, Faculty Senate staff, Ms. Inglet President Trauth, Provost Perry, University Star reporter, Chris Robinson, Dan Lochman, Bob Habingreither, Eric Nielsen

 

4:00 Chair Stone called to order the combined PAAG and Senate meeting.

 

Senate finance has asked for a budget of 95% of our current budget.

 

Environmental issues:

 

Master plan, green space, parking and transportation, congestion and air quality issues, are all of interest currently.

 

Within facilities, we have people doing more things to improve environmental practices, such as light pollution.  Dr. Trauth visited the campus to look at safety issues.  We have several places that are overlit by national standards, and this is being addressed. 

 

Green buildings and a number of other issues of importance are being considered as high priorities.

 

Quality of Life Report:

The university will implement several recommendations, under oversight of a

committee:

 

1) Suspension of the tenure clock for faculty having or adopting children under 5; twice in one family; coordinate this with the Tenure and Promotion PPS.

2) Active service modified duties policy in such cases; reduced or no teaching during semester of birth or adoption (once in 6-year period, twice in a

lifetime)

3) Policy for filling in for staff during this time or during development of staff leadership period

 

Senator Sawey asked if this covered gay and lesbian couples, and the provost said it would cover any parent.  Senator Sawey suggested that faculty responsible for parents also need guidance and some consideration, and the committee report did not mention this.  A staff person in charge of this issue would be good, but Dr. Trauth said that new staff positions are on hold, in light of the 5% budget cut.

 

A pamphlet or webpage would be useful, and this would not require a full-time staff position.

 

New Certificate Proposals:

 

These have been frozen (28 from previous planning process, to be added to the current 22).

 

Balance of Teaching, Scholarship, and Service:

 

Dr. Trauth said that in a university of this size and complexity, it is difficult to establish a single policy.  Teaching and research should be equally important in the first three years, with service playing a smaller role as faculty progress toward tenure.

 

Provost Perry suggested a 40-40-20 balance, with flexibility at the departmental level.  For assistant professors, service should be limited and not involved in university politics.

 

Senator James asked if this would continue after tenure, noting that it is harder to get people to serve. 

 

The provost said that there should be a sense of civic responsibility among associate professors expecting to be promoted to full.

 

Chair Stone said that in some departments, they are encouraged to devote all their time to research, and this may result in later problems if they don’t teach well.

 

The provost commented that good teaching is a necessary but not sufficient qualification for staying on through the probationary period.

 

Senator Sawey asked how we should handle faculty throughout a long career in terms of research.

 

President Trauth said that the emphasis might vary, according to the faculty member. 

 

Senator Homeyer asked if there is a sense of flexibility in the transition period on promotion and tenure issues.

 

President Trauth said that the hardest decision is tenure, and this should be hard.  It there is a question about a person’s credentials, we should deny tenure.

 

Market/equity cycles:

 

We have $750,000 to deploy without upsetting merit decisions.  The Provost said that we should first determine if we had implemented to new policy as intended, looking at whether using the mean or median was more appropriate. 

 

The old equity policy factored in time in rank.  The primitive model for market cycle ignored longevity. 

 

Chair Stone said that we could use time in rank internally to distribute money.  In some departments they followed the shallow slope, and others didn’t.  The provost wants to have personnel committees involved in the process.

 

Senator Hazlewood said that in their department, the personnel committee had no direction when it came to dividing up the money.

 

Senator Shah asked if this money would be affected by the 5% cut, and Dr. Trauth said this was a high priority item.  The university budget committee would look at where cuts could be taken.

 

Senator Conroy recommended that the committee should look at these issues earlier in the process.

 

ERS Services:

 

Chair Stone asked if anyone was trying to protect the faculty in this process.

Joyce Manske would answer these issues.  The university is asking for full funding of health costs.  A & M is abandoning their separate system and joining ERS.

 

Parking:

 

Senator Sawey said that the elimination of parking places was made unilaterally, without consultation with the transportation and parking committee.  Dr. Trauth said that the facilities committee made the decision that this would be an edge of campus.  The master planning architects recommended that this be a green space.  25% of our campus is covered with surface parking and streets leading to parking. 

 

Academic Affairs:

Organizational charts were distributed outlining the before and after organization.

 

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs:

The Provost is close to making a decision on this issue.

 

Faculty Senate Meeting:

 

Curriculum Committee:

Dan Lochman reported on the non-substantive proposals, including changes in the BSFCS names to avoid , addition of a concentration in Entrepreneurial Studies under the BBA major in Management College of Education, change in the name of the Department of Mass Communication to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, addition of BFA major in Digital and Photographic Imaging and a photography minor in the Department of Art and Design and its deletion in the Department of Technology, College of Education minor in Recreation Administration. 

 

Senator Shah asked about where it is usually placed. It is usually based in Art and Design. 

 

Liberal Arts changed the post-baccalaureate certificate from Lawyer’s Assistant to Paralegal Studies certificate and added an undergraduate minor in Sports Psychology.

 

College of Science proposed to change the name from Department of Technology to the Department of Engineering and Technology, and to delete the photography minor.

 

Several courses were denied, some because they were incorrectly submitted.

Some graduate courses were not sufficiently differentiated from undergraduate courses.

 

The curriculum committee is still investigating the idea of developing college-level review committees.

 

Liaison Ted Hindson’s Issues:

 

Kay Hofer complained about sick leave policy.

 

Chair Evaluation Committee will include Senators Bell-Metereau, Sawey, and Chair Stone. 

 

December 1 PAAG needs a location.

 

Developmental leave reviews are the 10th and 17th, alphabetically, except for Galloway, which will present on the 17th.

 

Technology Learning day.  Milt Nielsen will visit the senate at some future date.

 

New Business:

 

Minutes

 

Minutes submitted by Rebecca Bell-Metereau.