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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes October 18, 2017

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
October 18, 2017
Oliver Hall Room 112

Rap session with Robert McKinney preceded Faculty Senate meeting, and adjourned at 4:05 pm.

Meeting called to order by Chad Parker (Parker) at 4:07 pm,

Meeting minutes were displayed on screen. Jonathan Goodwin made motion to approve, and motion was seconded; unanimous vote to approve.

Parker thanked everyone for coming and stated there wasn’t too much new business to discuss.

The final QEP brainstorm list with eight (8) ideas is provided on Moodle for your review.  The QEP committee/McKinney will come back to use in about a month containing more specifics, and at least one more round of brainstorm ideas.

Parker stated the Webmaster is currently working on getting the website updated and functional.

István Berkeley (IB) stated there is a way for faculty to communicate with all faculty – the UL Faculty Club and everything in anonymous. Stated he can send the link to Parker.

IB also inquired about the process/ability to evaluate administration – for years we’ve been told something is coming, nothing ever does. He also stated Lewis Denton was always told “working on it.” Need to ensure something moves towards this happening.

Parker asked G.H. Massiha (GH) about the Summer Pay committee. GH stated the committee requested data and will provide report.

Parker then listed the remaining Senate meeting dates through April 2018 for approval vote. November 15, January 17, February 21, March 21, and April 18th.
Parker also stated Faculty Senate meetings are always the third Wednesday of the month.

Parker stated, in reference to the teacher center, he only has experience with one center, and it is very important to have faulty driving the project. Please go back to your departments and encourage others to get involved.

Parker stated there are changes to the handbook awaiting McKinney’s review, and need to address the issue of including the 5 year review as being part of the handbook, as suggested by the task force.

GH stated one desire Henderson had was to change the department head/chair process and not sure if this is still the case since he is no longer here.

Parker stated procedures for selecting and hiring ensure faculty have a voice in who is ultimately chosen. Parker proceeded to say if faculty want to include language on reviewing term limits.

Frank ______+stated a while back there was discussion on graduate coordinators within departments getting a stipend and haven’t heard anything more on the issue. Is there anything new? Is it still being examined?

Parker stated he agrees the graduate coordinator deserve a stipend, and said he wasn’t sure where the process was, but he would look into it and get back to the Senate.

Parker went through the list of committees for reports.
Nancy Autin (NA) reported on SEI reports.  (see report posted in Moodle)

GH stated Frank _______ is the senior member on the summer pay committee and is up for making any recommendations to change, as there has been really good success in the past.  For the upcoming summer the pay will change has follows:
Instructions  - $4,200.00
Assistant Professors - $4,750.00
Associate Professors - $5,100.00
Professors -  $5,500.00
This change does not affect Adjuncts- they will get the same rate received during a Fall or Spring semester.

Parker also brought up the issue of class sizes during the summer semester.

Frank ____ stated summer semesters are often a simple break even point, with the class limit being 19 for undergraduate, and 10 being the limit for graduate classes.  This is the minimum needed to account for and cover the cost of the raise. In a way to help with summer class sizes, all independent studies are added together to reach what is needed. 

GH put forth a motion to request pay plan/budget from administration with a December 1st deadline for the data.
Voted resulted in all Yea’s, zero No’s and zero abstention.

Lewis Denton stated there is a Louisiana Faculty Senate town hall meeting at the Student Union on November 2nd, at 6:00 pm. Theme is Higher Education and the Future of Louisiana.

Sheri Lazare stated there is an AAUP meeting on Friday, October 20th, at 1 pm HLG 109-B. All welcome to come.

Parker adjourned the meeting at 5:02 pm.