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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes November 17, 2021

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Draft Minutes, Wednesday, November 17, 2021, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: Philip Auter, Secretary: Clai Rice

I. Call to Order
  • 4:10
II. Quorum Call
  • 57
III. Agenda Approval
  • No opposed.
IV. Welcome and Report from Executive Officer (P. Auter)
  • Check that you are receiving emails from FS Moodle. PA sent one today to everyone.
    • If you aren’t, especially full professors who might not be on our roster, please email Auter or Rice.
  • Review of equity adjustment appeals are now in the hands of the Provost. Appellants will be notified after final approval of decisions, and subsequent adjustments will be retroactive to August.
  • Gender policies regarding University account names and bathrooms are being worked up at the administrative level, and it is taking some time. The speed at which this is happening is probably due to the encouragement they have been getting from some very involved faculty, staff and students.
  • The UL system conference has been moved from January to March. There will be a 500 participant limit so sign up soon if you are interested.
  • The Provost is putting together a committee to look at market adjustments for salaries. He definitely wants the Faculty Senate involved on this committee.
  • Registrar search will continue in Spring. Auter is on that committee.
  • FS VP Jason Maloy is heading a committee to interface with VP LeBlanc to review purchasing and reimbursement procedures and the difficulties faculty have had with it.
  • Maloy is also gathering people to do a retreat this summer to work on remaining faculty handbook and FS Constitution issues, especially as they regard the committee structure. The Provost wants to be involved with this also.
V. Approval of Oct. Minutes (Auter)
  • Approved unanimously.
VI. Committee Reports

Faculty Senate Committees

Committee on Committees – JoAnne DeRouen

  • We will have votes in January for:
    • Committee on Committees
      • One from Sciences:
        • Ballot will be: A Gallo, B. Wade, S. Massoud.
      • One from At Large:
        • Member could be the second place winner from Sciences, if we get no volunteers before then.
    • Ways and Means Committee
      • One from Arts:
        • Ballot will be M Broussard, N Kozinets.
        • One from Engineering – no volunteers yet.
    • Academic Planning and Development
      • Needs a volunteer from Engineering.
    • Governmental Concerns Committee
      • One from Arts:
        • Ballot will be B Landry, C Schultz, S Paine.
      • One from Education – need volunteers.
      • One from Engineering – need volunteers.
    • All Ad Hoc Committees are filled by volunteers.
      • Status of Women–Natalie Keefer volunteered.
      • Status of Underrepresented Faculty–David Reid volunteered.

Ways and Means – Jimmy Kimball

  • Examined the new Power-based Violence Policy.
  • Reviewed FS motions in order to see if Academic Affairs has responded to our ongoing concerns.

FS Executives

  • J. Maloy thanks people for submitting statements about reimbursement issues, some of which are helpfully very detailed. The document has been sent to VP LeBlanc and after a suitable time if no response is forthcoming will circulate it more widely.

University Committees

Faculty Grievance – W. Ferguson

  • Has had organizational meeting and a few grievances are on the docket. No COVID grievances so far.

Distance Learning Leadership Council – F Crocco

  • Meeting scheduled for the 29th.
  • C. Ratliff asks if requests for on-line courses for people who are DL certified must go through HR. The discussion shifted to focus on who decides how many online courses are offered, and how this integrates with faculty requests for accommodation.

*GH Requests Auter consider not calling the committee roll every meeting if thecommittee has no report.

VII. Old Business
  • Review charges for ad hoc committees on salary, status of women, and status of underrepresented faculty.
    • Ad Hoc Committee on Salary may split into two, perhaps one for summer compensation and one for raises and market adjustments?
    • GH will poll current members of that committee and return with a recommendation.
    • J. DeRouen discusses the idea of “cluster hires” to address underrepresented faculty specifically.
      • A cluster hire is hiring within several related departments toward specific research topics or themes.
    • Motion proposed by Auter to combine the two Ad Hoc Committees on the Status of Women and Underrepresented Faculty.
      • No objections.
    • Motion proposed by Auter to split AHC Salary into a committee on Base Pay and one on summer/interterm/extra pay –
      • No objections.
      • The exact names of these committee will be decided and announced next meeting.
VIII. New Business
  • Review and vote on slate of two to fill open slot on SEI committee.
    • GH moves to accept the one volunteer for SEI and send it up with only a single candidate. Rice second. None opposed.
    • Ratliff Resolution A, I. Berkeley second.
      • Those proposing accept the striking of “transgender” as a friendly amendment. Full resolution text given in Appendix A.
      • Vote by show of hands, 26 aye, 3 nay, 5 abstaining. Resolution passes.
    • Ratliff Resolution B, J. DeRouen second.
      • Those proposing accept the striking of the final sentence and adding “and install.” Full resolution text given in Appendix B.
      • Vote by show of hands, 15 aye, 6 nay, 10 abstaining. Resolution passes.
    • Auter states he will bring those resolutions to University Council meeting on Monday.
    • Chambers resolution on executive order, Kimball second. Full resolution text given in Appendix C.
      • Discussion mostly focuses on the distinction between the Executive order and UL administration’s choices in implementing it.
      • Vote by show of hands, 10 aye, 8 nay, 5 abstaining.
      • GH notes in chat during the vote “Only 24 present!”
IX. Adjournment
  • 6:21 (Chambers, Baker)

Submitted by Clai Rice
11/22/2021

Appendix A

Gender Inclusivity at UL Lafayette Resolution A:

Whereas UL Lafayette is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the campus community;

Whereas it has been demonstrated that transgender and nonbinary people are at high risk of suicide and mental illness1;

Whereas communities' use of transgender and nonbinary people's chosen names and the use of pronouns that align with gender identity are demonstrated to reduce the severity of suicidal ideation2;

Whereas UL Lafayette currently uses legal names from birth certificates as their email addresses and Moodle usernames, forcing transgender and nonbinary students, faculty, and staff to use deadnames as their university email addresses and Moodle usernames;

Whereas email aliases and Moodle usernames should not be a difficult setting to change (not requiring prior changing of legal names);

Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate calls on the University Council and the Offices of Information Technology, Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management, Students Affairs, Administration and Finance, the Registrar, Admissions, Institutional Research, and Distance Learning to take immediate measures to allow members of the UL Lafayette community to use their chosen names as university email addresses and Moodle usernames, as well as on thirdparty platforms like Office 365 and Teams.

Appendix B

Gender Inclusivity at UL Lafayette Resolution B:

Whereas UL Lafayette is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the campus community;

Whereas it has been demonstrated that transgender and nonbinary people are at high risk of suicide and mental illness3;

Whereas bathroom polices that are based on gender assigned at birth have damaging consequences on transgender and nonbinary people's mental health4;

Whereas UL Lafayette does not have a clear policy or messaging regarding bathroom discrimination on campus, and efforts to make all bathrooms at UL gender neutral have so far been unsuccessful, but some action is needed on bathroom policy;

Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate calls on the Office of Communications & Marketing to order and install UL branded signage for all UL Lafayette bathrooms stating that UL Lafayette welcomes all students, faculty, staff, and visitors to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Appendix C

Background

On Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, which introduced a new condition of employment for all University employees. This new condition of employment goes against the deeply held religious beliefs of many of our colleagues, placing them in a position where they must choose between their faith and their employment. The conditions of the executive order and its implementation by the University allow an accommodation due to disability or religious belief, but the order is being interpreted in such a way that few if any accommodations are actually being granted. As a result, unless the order is rescinded or stayed through the legal process, the University will soon lose a disturbingly large number of highly valued employees of all classes, potentially including student workers, graduate assistants, classified staff, unclassified staff, and even tenured faculty.

Discussion

The executive order is imposing an intolerable hardship on the University, threatening both our ability to carry out our core mission as well as the social fabric that binds together our university community. The affected employees, many of whom have invested many years in this university, working long nights and weekends, some for over 20 years, feel betrayed and abandoned by the University and their colleagues. They are frightened for their livelihood and their families. The loss of these valuable employees will negatively impact the university either through the cancellation of many classes in the Spring semester, or the undue burdening of the remaining faculty and staff who will be asked to take on the load of the employees who are suspended or terminated. The executive order also undermines the trust between university employees and the administration. The concept of tenure is effectively nullified by stripping affected tenured faculty of the hard-fought rights and privileges obtained through the lengthy tenure and promotion process. One critical aspect of the social contract that keeps the academy working is the promise that when new tenure track faculty members work very hard for a certain number of years and are successful, they will be rewarded with job security through tenure. If the precedent established by this executive order is allowed to stand, any future president with an axe to grind 6 concerning higher education could just as easily impose new and unacceptable conditions of employment on university professors through the exact same mechanism, threatening the employment of another segment of the university community, and tenure will have lost its meaning entirely, making all university employees mere at-will employees.

Resolution

It is therefore resolved that:

  1. The Faculty Senate firmly opposes the use of presidential executive orders to mandate changes to the conditions of employment for university employees through the coercive means of threatening to withhold federal funding, because doing so seriously undermines the ability of the University to govern itself and fulfill its core mission.
  2. The Faculty Senate encourages the University administration to use all legal means to protect our existing employees from the immediate threat posed by this executive order.

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1https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/suicidality-transgen...
2https://news.utexas.edu/2018/03/30/name-use-matters-for-transgender-yout...
3https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/suicidality-transgen...
4https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(20)30653-4/fulltext