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Faculty Senate
Texas State Faculty Senate History Archived Minutes Minutes of the 48th Faculty Senate Sep 13, 2006 Minutes

Sep 13, 2006 Minutes

Minutes for 09/13/06

Members present:

Chair Stone, Senators Brennan, Conroy, Davidson, Feakes, Hazlewood, Hindson, Homeyer, McKinney, Montondon, Sorensen, Winek

Guests: Dr. Mark Fronstad, Geography

Meeting called to order at 4:00.


Updates:

 

·         Senate Election in Education:  54% of the faculty voted in the first ballot for the Senate election in Education.  There is a possible problem that one of the nominees for the final ballot became ineligible after his/her name was placed on the runoff ballot.  A motion was made and passed to appoint the second place candidate if the ineligible candidate gets the majority of the votes.

 

  • Piper Nominations: The announcement for Piper nominations will be sent to all faculty tomorrow. All tenured faculty members who teach at least half time are eligible and are invited to apply and/or to nominate a colleague for the Piper award. There is no restriction on the number of nominations coming from each department or college.
  • Texas Council of Faculty Senates: Senators Stone and Feakes will attend the Texas Council of Faculty Senates Meeting next month.  It is anticipated that the Texas State Senators will meet with the Texas State University System Chancellor, Charles R. Matthews.
  • Sports Issues:  Dr. Paul Gowins has agreed to meet with the Senate, 9/27/06, to talk about sports issues.
  • Senate Audit:  The Senate passed its audit.  All Senate assets were accounted for.  
Faculty Handbook: The Chair has received a hard copy of the administrative changes made to the draft Handbook forwarded to the administration in October 2005.  Oddly, an electronic copy seems to be nonexistent.  The Senate subcommittee, Senators Conroy, Hazlewood and Hindson, will proceed to with a review for the Senate, but Chair Stone will continue to press for an electronic version of the administrative changes.

Honor Council Appointments: There are several vacancies on the Honor Council.  Next year, the Senate will request that the Committee on Committees include the Honor Council as a committee that faculty member might select for a service commitment.  For the current openings, Dr. David Pino, Music, is recommended for the Applied Arts vacancy and Dr. Michelle Hamilton, Anthropology, is recommended for the Liberal Arts vacancy.  Senators are asked to bring names of candidates to the next meeting for vacancies in Education, Science and Health Professions.

Meeting with Senate Liaisons:  Senate liaisons will be invited to the next Senate meeting, 9/20/06.  It will be held in the Regents’ Room on the 11th floor of JCK at 4 pm.  There will be refreshments.  Agenda items include: 

·         retirement benefits

·         governance issues

·         faculty handbook

·         parking issues

·         course fees/tuition

·         uniform class schedule

·         reactions to present M & O funding

The Chair will ask liaisons to poll their faculties for any other issues that might seem appropriate for the meeting.
 

Macebearers for Fall Graduation: Senators Davidson, Conroy, Feakes and Homeyer agreed to be macebearers for the various fall graduation ceremonies.
 

New Business:

·         Workload:  A question was raised about whether there may have been some subtle changes in the faculty workload policy. Faculty workload will become a future Senate agenda item.

·         Tenure/Promotion Data:  The Chair will request tenure/promotion data from the last cycle.

·         Faculty Office Hours:  Still will probably be a future agenda item.