Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes April 18, 2018
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, April 18, 2018, Oliver Hall Rm 112
There was a rap session beginning at 3:30 pm with Robert McKinney.
He updated Senate on SACS, QEP, faculty evaluations, and the new provost search, as well as the new Distance Learning Director search. McKinney spoke to the Senate until 4:40 pm.
Official Senate meeting did not come to order until 4:40 pm.
Motion to approve minutes from March meeting.
Motion was seconded and approved by all.
Chad Parker (CP) stated there wasn’t too much to cover as McKinney had covered the majority of what we have to cover.
CP also stated the university has a series and massive communication issue with faculty and specifically the senate.
Senate meeting are open and President and Provost always invited to attend.
GH suggested CP extend an invitation to Provost and President to attend.
Laurel Ryan (LR) asked if there are any speaking restrictions on speaking rights in senate meetings.
CP is not aware of anything but states he will look into the issue.
Keith Dorwick (KD) states there needs to be a clear distinction between rap sessions and senate meetings. Also states we used to have a good working situation with administration and we need to get back there.
Donna Gauthier (DG) stated there needs to be a committee that reviews the senate policies and constitution.
Committee Reports:
CP states we need to approve the slate of membership for several committees.
KD makes a motion to use Moodle and email for votes in senate matters.
Motion is seconded.
1 vote opposed
1 vote abstained
Motion passes.
CP states that the committees need to be functional again, and there are a few committees in which the provost selects the chair, so cannot complete.
Jim McDonald (JM) states the Committee on Committees has done their job and now senate still needs 2 people from each college.
CP also states there is a struggle every fall with the committees and we have to have it all set and approved for the fall.
A senator asked why don’t we [the senate] have the technology to have meetings virtually.
Greg Davis (GD) read the Ways and Means Committee report (posted on Moodle).
JM stated the handbook needs to have language added addressing department heads and term limits. JM also stated that it has become a pattern for people to ignore the handbook and the policies already in place. They need to be enforced, and there needs to be a reporting mechanism in place to report violations.
LR made a motion to set department head limits to 4 years.
KD seconded the motion.
JM states that procedure was not followed, and we MUST follow procedure.
GD asked if we could get information from our peer institutions on how they deal with department heads and their practices. Need to get some concrete language.
CP stated he will post the SEI report.
KD stated in discussion of the provost search, the faculty and senate needs to be respected and to stop pulling things on us at the last minute.
JM stated we need language to vote on related to objecting to actions of administration- as with the provost search.
JM then stated that we no longer have a quorum and cannot vote on anything now, and that the whole process is currently flawed.
Meeting motioned to adjourn at 5:40.
Seconded and approved.