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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes February 15, 2023

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Draft Minutes, Wednesday, February 15, 2023, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: Philip Auter, Secretary: Clai Rice

I. Call to Order
  • 3:58.
II. Quorum Call
  • 20, need 28. Move on to non-voting segments.
III. Welcome and Report from Executive Officer (P. Auter)
  • University Council minutes will be posted to Senate Moodle page when they are approved.
  • Senate Ad Hoc committees are continuing their work.
  • Market adjustments on salaries are still under review by administrators.
IV. Committee Reports
  • Faculty Senate Committees
    • Standing Committees
      • Executive Committee–C. Rice gives Secretary’s report on upcoming elections.
        • Roster has been requested from VPAA, should be able to complete this by March 1.
        • We were supposed to set up a nominating committee last month for election of Officers. We will do it today and get on track for April voting.
      • Committee on Committees–T. Chambers is the new chair.
      • Governmental Concerns–J. Goodwin is the new chair. Keeping an eye on the legislature’s tenure mutterings.
        • On a related topic, the new Dean of the Library met with a variety of constituents about the issues facing public libraries in the state. The goal was to figure out how UL could help libraries and to prepare for things that might bubble up to university libraries in the state.
    • Ad Hoc Committees –
      • Ad Hoc Committee on Tenure and Promotion (L. Orr)
        • Committee draft has been distributed to deans and department chairs for feedback. They may share with faculty.
      • Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Handbook (D. Khey)
        • A skeleton document is being finalized by the committee so that it can be used to judge priorities for completion of sections by giving it out to subcommittees to get to work on it. The goal is to have a completed draft next year to begin the process of getting feedback.
  • University Committees
V. Old Business
  • None.
VI. New Business
  • Constitutional amendment introduced by Executive Committee, to be voted on in March. [Full text in Appendix A]
    • Goals:
      • Fix a typo resulting from Amendment #05.
      • Clarify that although elections have been moved to spring, that Senate terms still begin in Fall (at beginning of semester) and end the last day of Spring semester of the final year of the senator’s term.
  • Nominations for Nominating Committee
    • Because we don’t have a quorum we will take nominations now and arrange for an asynchronous vote next week.
    • Volunteers are C. Rice, E. Montagnet, M. Hammons, M. Bruce-Davis, and J. Laudun
  • Executive Committee suggests starting a discussion about having full professors elected rather than polled for participation. The goal is to increase participation and commitment by having full professors commit to representing their peers. Percentages of seats can be managed so they maintain a majority if that is important.
VII. Announcements
  • Need volunteers for Senate officers.
  • Senators can share meeting recordings if needed. Contact P. Auter or C. Rice it you want to do this and need instructions.
  • Senators are invited to attend ALF (association of Louisiana Faculty Senates) meeting after Mardi Gras.
VIII. Adjournment
  • 4:42.

Submitted by Clai Rice
March 7, 2023

Appendix A

Faculty Senate Constitutional Amendment #06

Goals:

  1. Fix a typo resulting from Amendment #05.
  2. Clarify that although elections have been moved to spring, that terms still begin in Fall (at beginning of semester) and end the last day of Spring semester of the final year of the senator’s term. (Elected term lengths vary by rank from 1 – 3 years).

Proposed Changes WITH MARKUP:

ARTICLE II. Section 3.4

If senators that are elected in the spring and depart by fall – or are promoted to a different rank and thus are ineligible to hold a certain senate seat – those seats will become vacant. If this occurs, an ad hoc election will be held to fill those vacant positions. Senators elected in the ad hoc election shall take office at the first meeting following their election.

ARTICLE II. Section 2. Elective Members. 1 – 5

  1. Elective members of the Faculty Senate must be associate professors, assistant professors, instructorsinstructors, or adjunct faculty of the general faculty not serving in an administrative capacity above the level of Department Chair or equivalent who have completed no less than one academic year of full-time employment at the University at the time of taking office. No candidate for a degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette shall be a member of the Faculty Senate. Elective senate terms begin the first day of the fall semester after an election occurs and end the last day of spring semester of the final year of a senator’s term.
  2. Associate professors shall be elected in the proportion of one member per four associate professors or fraction thereof in each faculty unit of the University. Associate professor Senate members shall be elected for three-year terms and shall take office at the first meeting following election.
  3. Assistant professors shall be elected in the proportion of one member per four assistant professors or fraction thereof in each faculty unit of the University. Such members shall be elected for two-year terms and shall take office at the first meeting following election.
  4. One instructor shall be elected from each faculty unit of the University. Such members shall be elected for one-year terms and shall take office at the first meeting following election.
  5. One adjunct faculty member shall be elected from each faculty unit of the University to serve a one-year term. Such members shall be elected for one-year terms and shall take office at the first meeting following election.

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Proposed Changes CLEAN:

ARTICLE II. Section 3.4

If senators that are elected in the spring depart by fall – or are promoted to a different rank and thus are ineligible to hold a certain senate seat – those seats will become vacant. If this occurs, an ad hoc election will be held to fill those vacant positions. Senators elected in the ad hoc election shall take office at the first meeting following their election.

ARTICLE II. Section 2. Elective Members. 1 – 5

  1. Elective members of the Faculty Senate must be associate professors, assistant professors, instructors, or adjunct faculty of the general faculty not serving in an administrative capacity above the level of Department Chair or equivalent who have completed no less than one academic year of full-time employment at the University at the time of taking office. No candidate for a degree at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette shall be a member of the Faculty Senate. Elective senate terms begin the first day of the fall semester after an election occurs and end the last day of spring semester of the final year of a senator’s term.
  2. Associate professors shall be elected in the proportion of one member per four associate professors or fraction thereof in each faculty unit of the University. Associate professor Senate members shall be elected for three-year terms.
  3. Assistant professors shall be elected in the proportion of one member per four assistant professors or fraction thereof in each faculty unit of the University. Such members shall be elected for two-year terms.
  4. One instructor shall be elected from each faculty unit of the University. Such members shall be elected for one-year terms.
  5. One adjunct faculty member shall be elected from each faculty unit of the University to serve a one-year term. Such members shall be elected for one-year terms.