Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes September 18, 2024

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Minutes, Wednesday, September 18, 2024, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: President Philip Auter, Secretary Kelly Robinson

I. Call to Order

4:10 pm

II. Quorum Check

at 4:12 pm

Need 14 Senators;at 28 senators; quorum met

III. Approval of Meeting Agenda

• Approved 28 senators; nay 0; abstain 0

IV. Executive Report

by Philip Auter

• Faculty Handbook being updated
  • Tenure and promotion policy being updated
  • Update on department head selection process being updated and made more transparent
  • Update on market adjustment for faculty salaries
  • Rap session schedule
    • First one next week
    • Speakers overall include the registrar (preferred name policy), Melissa Davis
  • Approval of April 2024 business minutes
    • Approved 25 senators; nay 0; abstain 2
    • Minutes have been approved
    • Kelly to send the minutes to Elena (last name?)
  • Approval of the 2024-2025 Faculty Seante Meeting Dates
    • Approved 29 senators; nay 0; abstain 0

V. Committee Reports

•  Executive committee
  • Major overall of faculty handbook approved by end of the year is the goal. Careful and deliberate process when making changes.
  • Keeping eye on legislation and any lobbying we need to do.
• Standing committees
  • No Updates
• Ad Hoc committees
  • Dr. Pitre’s committee was looking at recruitment and retention polices across the country. 18 out of 19 R1 across the SW. 29 of 42 R1 in NE had recruitment; 18 out of 42 of R1 in NE had retention policy.
    Invitation to join committee with several senators rotating out of the senate.
  • Leah Orr: Faculty Handbook Updating
    • Emerge with a document that everyone likes and aligns with their goals.
    • Working with Phil Auter, Dianne Olivier
    • Waiting on Provost Hebert to sign off on changes. Changes have already been approved by the Faculty Senate.
    • You will receive a ‘tracked version’ to facilitate comparison
    • Question: Leah, did the senate approve a version after meeting with department heads and deans?
      • Yes, this group has looked at these changes twice
      • It will be coming back here for a final ratification vote.
    • Phil: we considered starting with a new handbook from scratch based on AAUP recommendations. But that quickly turned into a gargantuan task and we went the route of modification instead. AAUP Office (Dianne Olivier) went through the document beginning to end to find errors.
      • Final PDF with no tracked changes
      • Review period of 30 days. Adopt as is if no problems found
      • Second PDF with track changes
      • Third PDF that is the original
      • Goal is to fix all the errors in the document.
      • Dianne Olivier (Academic Affairs) will present the document on Tuesday at 3:30-4:30 and answer questions.
• David Khey: Market adjustment of faculty salaries
  • Drivers for raises: Cost of living, salary compression, market adjustment
  • Sent a letter to the Provost’s office in May. No formal response before the State of the University address Fall 2024.
  • We are moving forward with an outside study on market adjustments. Faculty will have input on the RFP.
  • Working on a getting a formal response from Jaime Hebert’s office to the letter.
  • No planned raises for the academic year is the consistent word from higher administration.
  • Question from Martin Margala: Rumor has it that the money for raises is here but set aside. Waiting to hear from where the cuts will be from Governor Landry office. $10-12M set aside for raises. Will be used to absorb the cuts. Or, this was a bluff and we will get raises in November. No officially saying ‘no, raises’ Holding pattern instead.” How much money will be used to pay the outside consultant company when we don’t have money to update computer labs?
    • David Khey: moving forward with the RFP process. I can suggest that the cost will be in the low 6-digits. I will bring up that comments when I meet with Jaime Hebert next week.
    • Phil Auter: we can do some advocacy with the 2 senators appointed to the market adjustment RFP committee.
      • Could get AAUP and other faculty senates at other institutions to create some pressure on the politicians to modify what they are doing.
• University Committees
  • No Updates

VI. Old Business

• Matthew Green made a handbook amendment that went to the Ways and Means Committee. Will be voted on at the October 2024 Faculty Senate meeting.
  • Moving to Table this amendment. It was about the process for selecting Deans. Making sure people knew who was on the search committee and who was selecting those representatives. Tabling because we are revising the process in its entirety.
    • Martin seconded the motion
    • Approved 24 senators; nay 0; abstain 0

VII. New Business

• Phil Auter: The Faculty Senate will establish ad hoc committee to work with the Provost’s office to build a new process to select new Deans. Have a staff member on the Dean’s search committee
  • Matthew Green: Motivation for this amendment College of Liberal Arts Searching for a New Dean. No Staff on the Search Committee. Request for staff was denied based on the faculty handbook. Other colleges have staff that work with academic departments and understand the needs of units in the context of searching for a new dean.
  • Phil Auter: see this as an equity issue. Motion to table faculty handbook amendment #9. Seconded.
    • Approved 17 senators; nay 0; abstain 0
    • Motion passes. Amendment #9 Tabled

VIII. Announcements

1. Phil Auter: If you are a full professor, and are participating in the Senate, please email or Teams message Kelly Robinson to add yourself to the Senate Roster.
 

2. Leah Orr: Amendment for October 2024

• Official policy is that whensomeone is on sick leave, then the replacement colleague teaching their class is not paid for the 1st two weeks the replacement is working. This policy is followed by payroll. The policy was created by the Council of Deans in 1990. This policy needs to change that replacement colleague being paid on a pro-rated basis.
• Phil: this will be a Faculty Handbook Amendment. Must be posted 12 days prior to the meeting where it is discussed. And then changed posted 30 days after proposal.
• Comment by Martin Margala: Who enforces the PAF that the 1st two weeks are not paid for replacing a colleague? Leah: it is for specifically for only sick leave.
• Phil: confusion; I thought it was for any type of leave.
  • Leah: other types of leave fall under different categories.
• Revision: “Faculty replacing a college for one week or longer will be paid on pro-rated or perform substantial work such as compiling final grades will be compensated”
   

3. Senate RAP Sessions coming up

• SGA President
  • Running academic improvements by the Dean and Faculty Senate; get ting feedback
• Academic Vice President of Academic Affairs
• Association of Louisiana Faculty Senate
  • Not the AAUP chapter though we do have a AAUP chapter on campus
  • Faculty Senators across all universities across the state
  • Discussions focused on legislative actions that affect classrooms and ability to teach.
  • Speaker of the House guest speaker on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 10a at LSU-Alexandria
     

4. Matthew Green and Elena discuss an academic leadership summit

• Working on a ‘boot camp’ to get people more familiar with how the university operates. Getting faculty into leadership positions to leverage more faculty input in a shared governance context.
• Phil: Funding from Provost’s office for snacks and an external speaker (off-campus)

   
5. Phil Auter: Senate Elections will be held Spring 2025 in all college for open senate seats for Fall 2025. Terms for senators in the constitution and membership.

• Instructors 1 yr term
• Assistants 2 yr term
• Associate 3 yr term
• Please help the people in your college to complete elections.
• Term of the Executive Committee will expire in April 2025. Elections for President, Vice-President and Secretary held at April 2025 Faculty Senate Meeting.

IX. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at:5:23 pm

 

Submitted by Philip Auter
October 16, 2024