Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes January 15, 2020

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes January 15, 2020
Senate Meeting called to order at 4:00 PM
Presiding: Donna Gauthier; Secretary: Clai Rice
    1) Agenda approved (Berkeley, McDonald)
    2) Quorum check – at least 24 needed, we have that.
    3) Approval of Minutes from 11-20. Not everyone had seen the email so not many people had reviewed the minutes. Motion to defer approval to February meeting (Parker/McDonald) passes.
    4) Executive Officer’s Report: Gauthier
        a) Some departments don’t have department meetings, so not everyone might hear what is going on in the University. Please communicate about issues with your colleagues. Faculty Senate could draw up a template for a department meeting if that would help.
        b) The Board of Regents has a Master Plan: https://masterplan.regents.la.gov
            i) Searches of the plan reveal few references to “faculty” and “instruction” [faculty = 6 hits; instruction = 3 hits; teaching = 1 hit. –CR]
        c) UL System annual meeting “For Our Future” is coming up.
        d) NCAA will be having an informational meeting in Baton Rouge in February for faculty.
        e) Our Feb 19 meeting will have some sort of social element after the meeting. Stay tuned!
    5) Committee Reports
        a) Ways and Means: C. Berry
            i) McDonald’s motion from 10-16 regarding limiting SEI use on faculty evaluations was revised in response to input from the November meeting and posted to Moodle with lots of supporting docs. Two major edits were proposed.
                (1) Motion to consider and vote on each edit separately (Rice, Berry) passes.
                (2) Motion on first edit–upping the percentage of allowable use of SEIs on teaching evaluations to 35%--passes 21-4-1
                (3) Motion on second edit–adding a sentence suggesting other sources of data for evaluating instruction–passes unanimously.
        b) Faculty Benefits and Welfare: D. Gauthier will chair this important committee.
        c) Distance Learning: Report from Dr. Francesco Crocco (francesco.crocco@louisiana.edu) in the Distance Learning Office to the effect that a thorough review of the university’s Learning Management System (Moodle) will be undertaken. Faculty input is being solicited in a variety of ways.
    6) Old Business
        a) Faculty Senate Constitution Review and Updating
            i) The full set of current edits can be seen on the Moodle draft. Rationales will be added for each proposed change and the whole thing forwarded to Ways and Means for evaluation. Everyone please take a minute to examine the changes as they are substantial.
        b) Faculty Handbook
            i) Pres. Gautier discovered that a University office has been working on it. She will find out more. There followed a brief discussion of the Committee on Policies in the Office of Operational Review. What exactly would be their role in making changes to the Faculty Handbook?
        c) Lanier was elected unanimously to the open seat on the Committee on Committees.
    7) New Business
        a) Option Retirement Situation: GH
            i) GH will keep us apprised of the situation regarding the faculty of LSU suing the system regarding the ORP being treated differently from the regular retirement plan. We will try to determine if faculty need to join the lawsuit in order to participate in the legal remedy, or if the remedy will be applied to everyone fairly.
    8) Announcements
        a) Sick Leave Policy Update? President’s signature will be sought this week.
        b) There are still faculty travel grants available if you haven’t applied yet.
        c) Chrome River assistance will be available from the Office of Purchasing. See their website for available hours.
    9) Motion to Adjourn: 5:00 p.m.

Submitted Jan 22, 2020
Clai Rice
Secretary