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May 12, 2010 Minutes

Members present: Senators Brown, Feakes, Wilson, C. Hazlewood, Morey, Huling, Stone, Melzer, Payne, Furney, Caldwell, Warms, Conroy.

Guests: Sigler, Hagleman, D. Hazlewood, Dunn, Winek, Sriraman, Autrey.

Meeting called to order at 3:00.

Announcements:
1.
At this week’s CAD meeting, two issues of interest to faculty arose: Based upon a survey generated by the Commencement Committee, there is concern about the level of faculty participation at commencement ceremonies; and the Commission of Higher Education has created a common academic calendar for all public universities, to be instituted beginning in 2012.

2. A Coordinating Board vote on low-performing programs took place recently. The Chair will investigate this issue.

Committee on Committees Recommendations: John Davis, Chair, distributed the Committee’s recommendations for the 2010-11 academic year. The Senate will vote on these recommendations at its June meeting. Dr. Davis asked if the Senate could provide preference survey results in a format that is organized by faculty names rather than committee, noting that this would facilitate the Committee’s searching the results as they make committee assignments. The Senate had a number of requests for the Committee: asking that in future all committees be seated by the end of the spring semester so that the Senate can send the Provost’s Office its list of committee chairs who should receive workload reduction for significant service activities; and urging the Committee to meet in person when completing its duties, so that committee assignments can be finalized more effectively.

University Curriculum Committee Report: The Committee recommended five proposals:
1. Change the Bachelor of Science in Technology major in Industrial Technology-Construction Technology to a Bachelor of Science major in Construction Science and Management;

2. Add an undergraduate minor in Applied Mathematics;

3. Add an undergraduate certificate in Southeast Asian Studies;

4. Change the Master of Applied Geography major in Geography – Land / Area Development and Management to a Master of Applied Geography major in Geography – Land Management;

5. Delete the undergraduate minor in Photography.

Voting to suspend normal voting requirements, the Senate approved all the recommendations.

Perceptions of Administrators Survey: The Chair distributed the results of the latest survey. Written comments will be available for faculty review for a period of ninety days beginning August 16, with a reminder about the deadline for viewing the results and comments sent to faculty by email on August 25.

PPS and UPPS Reviews:
1. PPS 7.15 Endowed Chairs, Endowed Professorships, and University Chairs: Operating Guidelines.
The Senate would like a statement added outlining such faculty members’ duties in their academic departments and on Personnel Committees. In addition, the Senate wishes to be added as a signatory to the PPS.

2. PPS 7.08 Summer Teaching Loads. The Senate discussed whether workload credits accrue for summer teaching. For instance, do faculty members receive workload credit for teaching large classes during summer sessions? The PPS as written ties summer teaching load to credit hours rather than workload credits.

BREAK

Faculty Senate Committee Assignments: Discussing the report by the Committee on Committees, Senators explored ways that committee appointments could be made more efficiently as well as to more fairly represent various departments in colleges. In particular, membership on the Committee on Committees might need to include current or recent Faculty Senators so that Committee members have both the institutional knowledge and knowledge of their own colleges’ faculty to select the best faculty for committee assignments.

Parking Proposal Update: The Chair distributed a map detailing the red parking spaces that the Transportation and Parking Committee has recommended for conversion to 24-hour reserved. The Senate made the following requests for amending the proposal:
1. Although the Faculty Senate believes that leaving the R4 gate on Comanche Street down at all times will improve the traffic flow in that area, they believe that the designation of 24-hour spaces in that lot is still necessary since the second gate will be open after 6:00 pm.

2. The Faculty Senate would like to have 24-hour spaces in R42.

3. The Faculty Senate appreciates the T&P Committee’s willingness to allocate a portion of the drive-in spaces on State Street to 24-hour spaces and would like a portion of the drive-in spaces on Pleasant Street, by the Agriculture Building, designated as 24-hour spaces as well.

4. The Faculty Senate did not believe that 24-hour spaces in both R18 and R40 were necessary, provided that the total number of spaces allocated remained the same. We believe that 11 spaces in R40 would meet the needs of that geographic area.

New Business:
1. A Senior Lecturer has inquired whether faculty at this rank can receive workload credit for scholarly / creative activity. Current University policy states that Senior Lecturers are not eligible for such workload credit.

2. At CAD, the merit cycle was discussed. Some departments believe that first-year faculty are not eligible for full merit raises, but the Administration states that those faculty are counted when calculating departments’ merit pool, and thus are eligible for full raises.

3. A faculty member is concerned about student workers being assigned too many hours in labs. The Senate noted that it would need more data to explore this issue, and that it is more likely a topic for the Dean of Student Affairs.

Minutes of 4/28/10 were approved.

Adjournment.