Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes September 19, 2018
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, September 19, 2018, Oliver Hall 112
There was a rap session with Provost Dr. Jaimie Hebert that began at 3:30 pm and lasted until 4:15 pm. Dr. Hebert stated the best way to contact him is via email, Jaimie.hebert@louisiana.edu or provost@louisiana.edu or stopping by his office in Martin Hall.
Senate meeting called to order at 4:18 pm.
GH asked to ensure that the Provost is on the Senate contact list to be aware of our meeting dates.
Chad Parker (CP) stated the sign-up sheet is being circulated.
CP began in saying he feels optimistic about things this year, but did say the same thing last year. He states one of the things he and the Provost are going to be focusing on is policy procedure and keeping things in the open so faculty are as informed as possible.
A Senator in the back of the room asked for CP to introduce himself because she doesn’t know who he is.
CP then introduced himself as professor in History and the Senate President.
CP then continued to say he has met and will be meeting monthly with the Provost and the Provost seems to “get it” as to what the issues are and what we need to do. The Provost agrees we should have a committee to look at the payroll data and is possible to get a raise this year, sometime in the spring.
Dave Baker (DB) states the persistent excuse of not being able to give us the data is just not acceptable. It’s no excuse.
CP stated he spoke to the Provost about this and CP stated he was told the issue with releasing the data deals with the merit score. Provost said he does see why we can’t check the data and will look into why we are not getting it.
DB thanked CP for looking into the matter.
Keith Dorwick (KD) stated he wants to echo CP’s optimism and to give the Provost the benefit of the doubt. It seems the Provost wants to correct things and think we can rebuild some trust with the Provost.
Donna Gauthier (DG) asked if the Provost will attend every meeting.
CP stated he didn’t invite Provost for every meeting but could.
DB stated the Provost should not receive all of the Senate communication but could be invited to every meeting.
CP stated the Senate will include him on necessary communication, but will not add him to the Senate Moodle page, and will be invited to each meeting this fall.
Unnamed Senator 1 in back of room stated the Senate needs to extend invitations as we want him to come, not just an open invitation to all meetings.
KD reminds the Senate the Provost said he is happy to come and do a rap session before every meeting.
CP stated he will ask for a rap session before each meeting.
CP then moved to updating us on the University Council meetings, and the last one was like all the rest. They did discuss the Sick Leave Pool and sent to Jim McDonald and committee to investigate.
Unnamed Senator 2 asked what the Sick Leave Pool is.
CP states this is where people can donate extra sick days they have to a pool for other faculty can use them as needed.
John Laudon (JL) asked if the Sick Pool Leave could be used for a person on maternity leave.
CP said it is something to look into as that seems like a really useful way to use the days.
GH stated that those in state retirement will get paid for some of those remaining sick days when you retire, but not all the days, so you could lose some, and if that’s the case giving them to the Pool could help in two ways.
Unnamed Senator 3 stated in the review of the last draft of the Sick Leave Pool, the concern is over who will maintain the pool and ultimately had out the days.
CP stated he would look into it.
KD asked if the policy could be provided, as it currently is, so we can see and have knowledge of it.
CP stated he will provide the information.
CP went on to say some of us might have remembered during the President’s Address at the beginning of the semester, the President quickly mentioned raises. There is a new fee being instated and part of that fee will be used for raises, but won’t see anything before January, and raise will be around 2%.
GH stated UL is currently 170 fewer students than last fall.
CP stated the administration is trying to keep things hushed, but UL is more like 700 fewer students, but the enrollment is up in the graduate school so it doesn’t look like as many as 700.
DB stated that the online business degree cost 50% of fee goes to the academic organization. They currently have 11,500 enrolled in the online program, and MBA has increased their enrollment.
Unnamed Senator 4 asked if the online students are still charged a fee for facility use.
KD stated he thinks the fees have been waived for online students.
DG stated she thinks the cost for online students can be deferred.
CP turned the discussion to setting the Senate meeting schedule for the fall, and wants to add 3 meeting dates to the traditional meeting schedule.
Senate always meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, but all the business we have to cover, CP presents adding additional meetings on the 1st Wednesday of the month as well.
Oct. 3rd & 17th and Nov 7th and 14th. The regular November meeting falls the day before Thanksgiving, so what about moving the 21st to the 14th. Motion made by Dave Baker to approve, Ish seconded the motion, and all voted in acceptance.
Meeting dates are approved.
CP stated he met with Dean Jordan Kellman with the University’s Task Force. Jim McDonald and Jeff Stewart are named as the head of the Task Force. The Senate is tasked with selecting two members from each college to serve on the task force.
CP moved to Committee reports and the issue of committee memberships. We have no idea who is on what committee and when the last time is the various committees have met.
DB states in his experience it is too difficult to get people to participate. Need some sort of mandatory serving or something. People so rarely even show up when they are on a committee. People just need to step up.
CP put a request for everyone who is on a committee to email Sheri, sheri@louisiana.edu, informing what committees you are on.
GH stated no one in engineering ever does anything. I’m the only one that gets involved because they don’t want to do the work.
DG stated she does not agree with making it a requirement.
DB stated any regular job has requirements and things you don’t like to do, it’s called a job. This is no different.
KD stated he agrees in that he doesn’t think we can make it a requirement.
CP stated we are facing a problem because there needs to be 13 people on Committee on Committees and we don’t have enough people actively involved in the Senate.
DB stated everyone needs to encourage Senate participation.
István Berkeley (Ish) stated a while back the senate was given some money, maybe we can pay people.
GH stated we tried to get food.
CP said anyone who wants to do all the paperwork for refreshments, he will sign it, but he is not doing all that work.
DG recommends that by the next meeting to have the names and chairs of the senate committees.
DB said he will ask his Department head.
Nancy Autin (NA) it is bothersome that there are 8 listed committees and the infrequency of reports is a problem. We have to opportunity to make our Senate functional and good, so we need a plan to get there.
CP stated that a good strong senate is his goal as well, and the majority in attendance agreed.
CP just opened the floor and asked if there was anyone there from any committees who had something to report.
DG as chair of the Strategic Program Review has been on hold since Provost Henderson left. Biggest issue is there is nothing in place to close the loop on a review. Thinks the by-laws need to be changed and has asked Fabrice Leroy for help.
NA gave update on when the SEIs were opening for session A and session B students.
There was a lengthy discussion on various studies showing these evaluations don’t actually show or measure anything worthwhile. Also, being it is optional for students to take, it really provides little to no information and the SEIs are figured into our merit scores – massive issue with members of the senate.
Senators engaged in a 38-minute discussion on how the merit score is address in the different colleges and the percentage of students who actually complete.
CP stated he will check McKinney’s site for the committee information, but we still need to get to new business.
Fall Meeting Dates approved.
CP stated we need to nominate 2 people from Nursing for Faculty Grievance: Jennifer Lemoine and Donna Gauthier were named.
JL stated past grievance chairs varied in how good they were because one did all the work and never told anyone and another one actually used the committee.
CP stated again we need 2 names from each college for the next meeting to fill out the task force. The task force should also be helpful in getting the committees straight as well as the different functions. So start thinking of members of your department who can serve, and they do not have to be senate members.
CP also stated that Lewis Denton needs to be replaced on the Executive Committee since he is on leave this semester. We also need to get a web master for the senate page. Anyone interested please contact Chad.
CP stated we need to one more thing before we can leave today, and that is approve the minutes from April.
Keith Dorwick motioned to accept.
Seconded by Nancy Autin.
All approved.
Meeting adjourned at 5:48 pm.