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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes March 20, 2019

University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, March 20, 2019, Oliver Hall 112

At 4:00 pm, there were only 14 people present, so Chad Parker (CP) waited to start until a quorum was reached – need at least 30.

Meeting called to order at 4:04 pm.

Meeting minutes from February 6th meeting were motioned to be approved, 2nd, and all voted in favor to pass the minutes.

Don’t have any minutes from the February 24th meeting because the Provost spoke from 3:30 until 5:00. CP states he does not feel missing that meeting will set back the Senate’s work, as it was/is important to hear from the Provost.

CP stated we don’t have too much to cover, just a few issues.
1 – ScanTron machines – CP stated the university is in the process of buying more machines and they will be placed around the campus based on need.

2 – Sent in the list of names suggested for the shared governance task force. University Council reviewed it and stated they wanted to include more staff members and remove Deans. Once the committee is formed, the President will call the first meeting. John Laudon and Chad Parker will be included and have someone report back to the Senate.
Jim McDonald (JM) suggested this report be placed as an agenda item for next term.

This concluded the President’s comments, and moved to Business Items.
Election of the Ways & Means Committee members.
The election resulted in the following members:
Education: Hunter Beasleyu
Liberal Arts: Brooke Breaux
Engineering: Mark Zappi
Sciences: Berry
Library: Zach Stein
Business: Ignatius Cahyanto
Arts:

CP then asked on the status of nominations for 2019-2021 Senate President and Senate Secretary. David Squires stated any nominations from the floor are accepted today.
Current ballot for President is GH and Donna Gauthier: GH also nominated Jim McDonald (JM), and Jim stated he would have to think it over before he accepted the nomination.
Additional nominations from the floor will be allowed before the election at next month’s meeting.

Only one person has showed interested in being Senate Secretary and that is Clai Rice from English.

New business:
CP put before the Senate the issue of reviewing the handbook on faculty rights when being fired and they do not have tenure. There is a faculty member who had some issues and spoke to AAUP a lot about why they were released and their rights.
CP stated tasks and issues such as these were the task of Danahar, but CP does not currently know what the situations is. Need to look at how right-to-work apply to this type of situation.

JM stated it doesn’t seem UL is currently violating anything, but information and policy could be improved upon.

UL’s AAUP rep, Leslie Barry, received the letter from AAUP, and CP stated a copy of the letter is on Moodle for those who wish to review it.

A senator asked if the handbook is binding policy.
JM stated the handbook is binding policy.

CP stated Robert McKinney is wanting to go into depth in review of handbook and be more informational, and Jonathan Goodwin states a detailed review of the handbook and policies can be requested by the senate, and to offer that person release time to be able to work on it.

JM made a motion for the senate to conduct a review of the handbook, with release time and dedicated funds to project, and motion was 2nd  by Sheri Lazare, and all voted in favor, with no abstentions – 
A final comment from a senator was “this is project that needs to be completed with or without release time and dedicated funds.

CP ensured those present, no matter what is done, the Senate will review any and all changes related to the handbook. CP also added that in talks with McKinney, he has a lot of ideas of what he wants to do, one such thing is adding a description of the ideal professor, as it effects tenure – as this issue has not been addressed in over 30 years.

Another Senator stated there needs to be a faculty information that is separate from general employee/staff information, as they believe there are things not being properly followed now.
This brought many senators to agree, they generally all believe there are many aspects of the handbook currently being ignored or not enacted.

Another comment the handbook is not relevant to current practices.

Ish stated UL has a long-standing policy that rumor is policy. JM stated there are many who run offices based on this rumor.

Everyone present also mutually agreed UL has a really bad track record in properly documenting revisions of documents.

New Business:
JM stated the Gov’t Concerns committee will be meeting again soon being legislative meeting is 3 weeks away.  Bob Slater will most likely have a report for the senate.

Senator asked about the status of the SEI review committee, and was told things could change, but there will not be any changes for this year. JM stated the Deans discussed whether or not SEI should be used for merit increases, but currently, teaching evaluations are still left up to each department.
Departments could be forced to drop SEI’s because the Deans’ don’t like the idea of SEI being used for merit.
Motion made for research finding of committee be shared with the Senate, and motion 2nd, and voted in favor, no abstentions. Sciences and Liberal Arts currently doing a study on best practices.

Last issue was what the Intellectual Property Rights are about recording lectures and students (online learning).
CP stated he would look into the issue.

Motion to adjourn meeting at 5:05 pm, JM 2nd the motion, and all in favor.
Meeting adjourned at 5:05 pm.

Next meeting is Wednesday, April 24, 2019.