Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes March 4, 2015
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes March 4, 2015
Senate Meeting called to order at 4:00 PM
Approval of Minutes: It was moved and seconded that the minutes of the February 25 meeting be approved. The motion passed.
Executive Officer report:
Executive officer Jim McDonald reported that he spoke with Ellen Cook regarding the evaluation of administrators; Provost Henderson has directed her to conduct administrator evaluations before the end of the semester. Dr. McDonald has also emailed the Provost about the issue but has not heard back yet. He will bring it up at the University Council meeting. Dr. McDonald also reported that Meagan Wyatt of the Daily Advertiser has been notified that the faculty senate will be voting on a resolution regarding the state legislature and state budget. He also announced that the Parking and Planning committee will meet within the next two weeks.
Committee reports will be presented at the March 18 senate meeting.
Unfinished Business:
1. Proposed change to document 24 of the Faculty Handbook to provide for establishing a QSN committee for Dean of University College: It was moved and seconded that the proposed changes which were discussed at the February 25 senate meeting and posted on Moodle be accepted. The motion passed unanimously.
2. The Governmental Concerns committee introduced a resolution on the state higher education budget. A question was raised about statistics cited in the resolution. The committee reported that data used in the resolution were obtained from the website measureamerica.org. Discussion of the resolution included the introduction of a number of grammatical changes and other changes in wording. The governmental concerns committee accepted these changes as friendly amendments. The resolution was then voted on and passed unanimously. A copy of the resolution is posted on Moodle. Prof. McDonald will send a copy of the resolution to Megan Wyatt of the Daily Advertiser, the Acadiana delegation in the state legislature, the Governor, Sandra Wooley, the chair of the appropriations committee for each house of the state legislature, the president of the state senate and the speaker of the house. The resolution will also be sent to President Savoie, the Board of Supervisors, and the UL system Faculty Advisory Committee.
New Business: Senate Executive Committee
Prof. McDonald reviewed the current make-up of the senate executive committee and stated that with an increasing role in shared governance the executive committee may need to be enlarged to provide more representation, possibly including electing a vice president as well as an executive officer. Judy Gentry reported that the executive committee was originally formed to assist the senate executive officer. A suggestion was made that an ad-hoc committee be appointed to gather information regarding senate executive committee make-up and procedures from other universities. Alice Ferguson and Andrea Conque volunteered to serve on the ad-hoc committee. Judy Gentry volunteered to serve as an ex-officio member. Dr. McDonald appointed these volunteers and will also appoint a representative from AAUP to the committee.
Meeting adjourned at 5:27 pm.
Kathleen Knierim
Secretary