Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes January 20, 2016
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes January 20, 2016
Senate Meeting called to order at 4:03 PM
Approval of Minutes: A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the December 2, 2015 meeting of the faculty senate. The motion passed.
Executive Officer report:
Lewis Deaton reported that the University Council discussed the issue of damage that has occurred on campus as a result of skateboarding. He noted that hoverboards have been banned on campus.
Dr. Deaton also reported that it is no longer necessary to book hotel rooms through hotel planner.
Finally, Dr. Deaton stated that he has not received any information on who might be appointed interim provost or whether one will be appointed when Dr. Henderson leaves. He will keep faculty updated as information becomes available.
Reports of Senate Committees:
Committee on Committees: no report
Ways and Means: no report
Academic Planning and Development: no report
Governmental Concerns: Robert Slater reported that the Governmental Concerns committee will meet next week. He noted that the legislative education committee chairs have been replaced this term.
Faculty Advisory Council Representative: no report
Ad Hoc Committee on Underrepresented Faculty Groups: no report
Ad Hoc Committee on the Status of women: George Wooddell reported that the committee has not yet received any action regarding their request for data.
Reports from University committees:
Curriculum: no report
Faculty Grievance: no report
Faculty Benefits and Welfare: no report
Library: no report
Academic Affairs and Standards: no report
Parking and Planning: no report
Student Evaluation of Instruction: no report
Distance Learning Leadership Council: no report
Strategic Program Review: Donna Gautier reported that the committee is processing the first round of reviews. She said that it is a very work intensive committee and suggested that the committee have two representatives from each college. The committee will bring a proposal for this to the senate at a future meeting.
Unfinished Business:
Senate Budget Advisory Committee: George Wooddell made a motion to accept the constitutional amendment providing for the inclusion of a Budget Committee in the list of permanent senate committees. Mark Smith seconded the motion. The motion passed.
Pay raise policy: Senator Massiha discussed his motion that “as long as unclassified staff are not awarded raises based on merit then faculty should be given the same across the board raises”. Senator Birkenmeier made a suggestion that no faculty member should get a lower percentage raise than an across the board raise given to administrators. Mark Smith suggested the statement that “Any across the board raise should be given to everyone”. During discussion it was mentioned that the HR office is working on a procedure for merit evaluation of administrators. After discussion, which included concerns raised about minimizing merit rewards for faculty, Senator Massiha withdrew his motion and recommended that senators discuss the issue with colleagues in their departments to see what if any action they would like to see in response to the issue of different pay raise policies for administrators than for faculty.
New Business:
Senator Wooddell stated that a lot of work has been done passing resolutions about policies, but the policies don’t always get announced or implemented. He suggested putting policy resolutions on a university policy form so that they would not be ignored. He volunteered to work on getting policies posted on the official university policy site.
Senator Slater commented that this is the only university that requires faculty to give up part of their salary when on sabbatical. A discussion of the lack of sabbaticals and the need for a clear sabbatical policy followed.
Lewis Deaton stated that the senate still has a disagreement with the provost regarding the window of time that a request to stop the tenure clock may be made in the proposed “stopping the tenure clock” policy. After further discussion of this issue, George Wooddell suggested labeling the policy as an interim policy. Chad Parker made a motion to accept the Provost’s timing, i.e. that the clock can’t be stopped later than the 12th month before tenure review. The motion was seconded and passed.
Meeting adjourned at 4:58 pm.
Kathleen Knierim
Secretary