Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes November 20, 2019

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes November 20, 2019
Senate Meeting called to order at 4:00 PM
Presiding: Donna Gauthier; Secretary: Clai Rice
    1) Quorum call – at least 24 needed, we are well above that.
    2) Approval of Minutes from 10-16. N. Autin noted that her committee report had been emailed. Motion to approve with that change (Parker/McDonald) passes.
    3) Executive Officer’s Report: Gauthier
        a) Attended University Council meeting Oct 28. No minutes recorded. G. presented and requested the need for faculty salary equity adjustments and inversions.
        b) Met with webmaster, Brock Guidry. FS site should be operational by end of academic year, for posting past minutes, other items.
        c) Review and revision of FS Constitution.
            i) Meetings were held. Dates: 11/12, 11/14, 11/18, 11/20
            ii) Future meetings scheduled: 11/26 (9 am), 11/27 (10 am), 12/2 (10 am), 12/10 (10 am) (Location is Wharton Hall 501, bring your own coffee pods)
            iii) Proposed changes are substantial, so we will follow the Constitution’s guidelines for making such changes. The proposal will be forwarded to Ways and Means Committee by the end of fall semester.
        d) Requested CUPA data for faculty salaries
        e) LAFA meeting Nov 23 at LSU-A.
        f) Met briefly with Executive Committee
    4) Committee Reports
        a) Ways and Means: C. Berry
            i) McDonald’s motion from 10-16 regarding limiting SEI use on faculty evaluations was revised and posted to Moodle with supporting docs. That version was projected and read to the Senate.
            ii) Energetic discussion followed. Attention focused on Departments that freely chose to allow more than 25% of the annual evaluation to derive directly from SEIs.
            iii) Motion to return the text to Ways and Means for further editing in light of expressed concerns (Berkeley, Parker) passes with 4 opposed, 4 abstentions.
        b) SEI Committee: N. Autin (full text of report posted to Moodle)
            i) Committee is now headed by Blanca Bauer form Institutional Effectiveness. There is an empty spot for an Arts faculty.
            ii) Average response rates over the last 5 years hover at 40%. This needs to improve.
            iii) Online faculty don’t get notices that SEIs have become available.
            iv) It is probably time to revisit the instrument.
    5) Old Business
        a) Faculty Senate Constitution Review and Updating
            i) Meetings are ongoing -- see 3(c) above
            ii) Gauthier presents a summary of current proposed edits. The full set of current edits can be seen on the Moodle draft. Rationales will be added for each proposed change. The biggest change so far is the addition of a VP role, to improve continuity and stability.
        b) The new Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Salary and Compensation is taking volunteers.
        c) Lanier was elected unanimously to the open seat on the Committee on Committees.
    6) Motion to Adjourn: 5:15 p.m.

Submitted Jan 07, 2020
Clai Rice
Secretary