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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes May 12, 2021

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Minutes, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: Philip Auter, Secretary: Clai Rice

I. Call to Order
  • 4:11
II. Quorum Call
  • 47 present.
III. Agenda Approval
  • No opposed.
IV. Welcome and Report from Executive Officer (FS President PA)
  • First meeting for new Executives.
  • Committee Reports are up on Moodle.
  • University council reports are also updated.
  • Think about major issues and which to focus on.
  • J. Maloy speaks for a moment on issues he plans to follow.
  • Reach out to Executive Committee if you have issues over the summer.
V. Approval of Minutes (Berkeley, Parker)
Vi. Committee Reports
VII. Reports from Senate Committees

Faculty Senate Committees

Committee on Committees – JoAnne DeRouen

  • D. Gauthier worked on the slate and got it sent up.

Ways and Means – Zack Stein

  • Requests for alteration is policies sent up, nothing heard back.

Academic Planning and Development – 

  • No chair. No report.

Governmental Concerns – Robert Slater

  • Posted to Moodle legislative issues invite comments.
  • Speaker series will continue. Send suggestions.

FS Executives

  • Had good first meeting
  • Will use Zoom poll tool for FS meetings.
  • We will meet over summer. Send concerns to any member.

Faculty Advisory Council Committee

  • No report.

Ad-Hoc Committees

Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Salary and Compensation – Donna Gauthier

  • Major mission was to conduct the salary study and it was done, forwarded to Pres and VP finance and Provost and other admin.
  • Pal has offered to present issues to the Senate.

University Committees

Curriculum Committee – Jaimie Hebert

  • No Report.

Faculty Grievance Committee – Natalia Sidorovskaia

  • No Report.

Faculty Benefits and Welfare Committee – Praven Das

  • No Report.

Library Committee – Blair Stapleton

  • No Report.

Committee on Academic Affairs and Standards – Donna Wadsworth

  • Handled 3 student appeals.

Parking Planning Committee

  • No report.

Student Evaluation of Instruction – Nancy Autin

  • SEI staff member compiling materials for distribution of reports.

Campus Planning – Thomas Sammons

  • No Report.
  • L. Orr (from chat): I've been on campus planning for a couple of years. It typically meets once per semester. The meetings are mainly a time for the university to share with the committee information about projects they've already started. They don't ask the committee to help in the planning itself.

Diversity Advisory Council – T. Mallery

  • Two initiatives in focus
    • Growing “Courageous Conversations” into a certificate program
    • ASPIRE Initiative: Campus-wide, 3 year commitment, NSF funded. First year is looking at faculty data and teaching practices, next two years attempt to recruit and retain diverse faculty.

General Education – Pearson Cross

  • No Report.

Distance Learning Leadership Council – Claire Arabie

  • No report.

Strategic Program Review Committee – Donna Gauthier

  • No report.
VIII. Old Business – (Voting by the Zoom polling feature)
  • Administration response re: revising faculty grievance documents.
    • Auter should start with chair of existing FS committee to determine how the review can be done.
    • Bring them to the whole Senate for approval, then present them to VPAA for consideration.
  • N. Pal’s report on faculty salaries, very helpful. Takeaway: each college has different issues that need addressing, gender is clearly an issue is several ways.
    • The raw data is available, contact Pal. Confusing lines were deleted.
    • Provide 3-4 priority budget points from the faculty senate before the fall or at the beginning of the fall. In writing and request a reply within a specific time. (D. Gauthier in chat).
IX. New Business
  • Acknowledgement of past president Dr. Donna Gauthier’s service to the senate and university (see text in Appendix 1). Passes overwhelmingly.
  • Election of Faculty Senate Executive Committee member to replace past president due to retirement.
    • C. Parker—nominated by Auter, declines
    • D. Olivier—declines
    • F. Louka—self-nomination
    • I. Berkeley—nominated, accepts, withdraws
    • N. Autin—accepts
    • DG moves to close nominations, Parker seconds
    • Vote: Louka 19, Antin 18
    • F. Louka is the new Past President
  • PROPOSED AY 21-22 Meeting Dates, will be voted on at September meeting (see Appendix 2 for schedule).
    • Date of September meeting, the 15th, approved by voice.
  • Meeting format for AY 21-22: Voting after discussion.
    • Online, 23 – Next year’s meeting will be held online through Zoom.
    • In Person, 2
    • Hybrid, 9
  • Nominations and vote on Faculty Senate representative to the Innovation & Research Advisory Council.
    • K. Robinson, 21 – Robinson will be the FS representative to IRAC
    • M. Mokhtari, 5
  • Discussion about LSU Faculty Senate resolution re: COVID19 vaccinations, ALFS position.
    • Auter reports that University Council doesn’t want to require immunization while the drugs still under emergency authorization.
    • Not everyone can be immunized, mainly due to allergies, but most discussion assumes there will be exemptions for those situations.
  • Discussion about adoption of Microsoft Outlook email platform.
    • Whether we like Outlook or not, the forcing of technology onto faculty universitywide with no consultation is inappropriate.
X. Adjournment at 6:15 pm.

Submitted by Clai Rice
5/13/2021

Appendix 1

Resolution Expressing Appreciation for the Service of Donna Gauthier as Presiding Officer of the Faculty Senate

Whereas Donna Gauthier has served the last two years as President of the Faculty Senate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2019-2021);

Whereas Donna has been a knowledgeable, active leader, communicating and defending faculty concerns throughout the University and the Community, shepherding us through revisions to the Senate Constitution that will improve our effectiveness for years going forward, leading a study of faculty salaries that helped push forward a central issue regarding the health of our university, and in general ensured that topics of concern were not dropped or forgotten;

Whereas Donna has presented an optimistic, amenable countenance, welcoming communication from all faculty and managing good working relations with administrators;

Whereas Donna presided over the Senate during the COVID-19 crisis, one of the most difficult periods of the university’s history, in which faculty needed and received a most unusual degree of support from their Senate leadership, and in which Donna had to work closely with administrators to handle all manner of urgent and unprecedented decisions;

Now, therefore, on motion of Senate Secretary Clai Rice and duly seconded by President Philip Auter, Former President Chad Parker, and a number of additional senators,

Be it resolved that we, the Faculty Senate membership, by this motion, express our highest appreciation to Donna Gauthier for her service to the Senate and the University, and wish her all the best in her retirement and future endeavors.

Appendix 2

2021-2022 Meeting Dates (proposed)

Fall 2021

  • September 09/15/21
  • October 10/20/21
  • November 11/17/21
  • December NO MEETING

Spring 2022

  • January 01/19/22
  • February 02/16/22
  • March 03/16/22
  • April 04/27/22 (04/20/22 is during the Easter/Spring Break.)