Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes March 18, 2015
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes March 18, 2015
Senate Meeting called to order at 4:00 PM
Approval of Minutes: It was moved by Chad Parker and seconded by G.H. Massiha that the minutes of the March 4 meeting be approved. The motion passed.
Presentation of Nominees for Executive Officer and Secretary: Senator Wooddell stated that the nominating committee has two candidates each for Executive Office and Secretary. For executive officer the candidates are Dr. Jim McDonald and Dr. Lewis Deaton. Each of these candidates gave a brief talk about their ideas for the faculty senate. The presentation of candidates for secretary was deferred until later in the meeting when both candidates could be present.
Parking and Planning: Cheri Soileau, director of Transportation Services, presented an overview of the operation of the Office of Transportation Services. She introduced Parking Operations Manager Stuart Glaeser and discussed some of the issues involved with managing parking for students, faculty, and staff. She introduced some possible changes to parking on campus, including the possibility of removing parking lot gates, enforcing parking areas by license plate photo recognition, and eliminating separate zones on campus. Senators asked questions about the number of spaces available and the number of permits sold. A discussion regarding issues involved with gated lots followed, including questions about availability of handicap spaces under the proposed new system. Robert Slater moved that the Parking and Planning Committee put together a list of proposals for parking on campus and present the list to the faculty senate so that the senate can vote on a recommendation. George Woodell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
At this point in the meeting the executive officer had to leave to attend a conference so the secretary presided over the remainder of the meeting. Dr. Donna Gautier volunteered to take notes of proceedings during this period.
Senator Wooddell then presented candidates for secretary of the faculty senate. The committee’s nominations are Dr. Kathleen Knierim and Dr. JoAnne DeRouen. Each candidate made a brief statement.
Reports of Senate Committees:
Committee on Committees: no report
Ways and Means: Written report submitted. Jean Kiesel presented the committee’s recommendations for amending the senate constitution regarding membership in the senate (Article II, Section 2.) Senator Wooddell moved that section “C” on Ex-officio Members be deleted from the proposed amendment. Senator Deaton seconded the motion. The motion passed. In other discussion of the proposed amendment it was pointed out that there are several places in the constitution where the President of the University is described as president of the faculty senate. This is not consistent with language limiting faculty senate membership to those who are not serving in administrative positions above the level of department head. George Wooddell made a motion requesting that the senate constitution be modified throughout so that the executive officer of the senate is the president of the senate and the President of the University is not president of the senate, nor a member of the faculty senate. The motion was seconded by Griff Brownlee. The motion passed. The Ways and Means committee will prepare a formal motion to amend the senate constitution with appropriate wording to reflect this change.
Academic Planning and Development: written report submitted
Governmental Concerns: The committee submitted updated wording for the resolution presented at the previous senate meeting regarding the budgeting process and funding for higher education in the upcoming state legislative session. The motion for accepting the modified resolution passed unanimously.
Due to the time, no further committee reports were presented.
Meeting adjourned at 5:30 pm.
Kathleen Knierim
Secretary