Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes January 18, 2023

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Draft Minutes, Wednesday, January 18, 2023, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: Philip Auter, Secretary: Clai Rice

I. Call to Order

• 3:56.

II. Quorum Call

• 41, need 28.

III. Agenda Approval (C. Parker, D. Baker)

• 37-0-3 approved.

IV. 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 will continue their work.
• P. Auter will represent us at the Louisiana higher ed summit
• State Tenure task force still hasn’t met.
• Market adjustments on salaries are still under review by administrators.

V. Minutes Approval (Parker, Montagnet)

• November minutes passed unanimously.

VI. Committee Reports

• Faculty Senate Committees
  • Standing Committees—no oral reports.
  • Ad Hoc Committees –
    • Ad Hoc Committee on Underrepresented Groups (A. Pitre)
      • Goal is to meet early February to collect research on other R-1 schools.
      • Ad Hoc Committee on Tenure and Promotion (L. Orr)
        • Committee drafted document and sent to Provost, awaiting response.
• University Committees
  • Distance Learning Leadership Council (F. Crocco)
    • Discussed increasing course stipend for developing and improving courses. Details to follow soon. Will be implemented immediately.
    • Question from D. Baker: what has DL done for recruiting since AP was dropped? Crocco says staff has just been hired to do that. AP had tuition share, so now we have more $ coming in per student; thus, revenue hasn’t dropped with enrollment.
    • Question from Parker: DLLC looks like there are no faculty on it. Shouldn’t there be? Answer: Yes. Let’s formulate some action to get this done (as well as pushing along the whole committee structure reorganization that Provost was heading).

VII. Old Business –

• Proposal to move voting for Senate from fall to spring. See Appendix 1 for text of Amendment #05. (D. Baker, J. DeRouen)
  • Terms are not affected, only voting times.
  • Language is needed specifying terms, as well as when promotion pulls someone out of term.
  • 40-0-2 Motion carries.

VIII. New Business

• Committee on Committees (J. DeRouen)
  • T. Chambers is now member on Committee on Committees from Engineering.
  • I. Berkeley and J. Laudun will be on Committee, one as Lib Arts one as At Large.
  • Spots on some Committees were filled and some seats remain open.
• Motion: that Faculty Senate request that Student Affairs review the Code of Student Conduct to consider addressing how AI (like ChatGPT)-produced assignments are academic dishonesty and/or plagiarism and can be handled by faculty and the University similarly to how other forms of academic dishonesty and/or plagiarism are handled.
  • Proposed by C. Parker, seconded by D. Baker. 30-0-1, motion approved.
• Motion: that Faculty Senate begin using unanimous consent to approve minor items like the agenda, minutes, and adjournment etc. (C. Parker, T. Chambers) 25-1-1.

IX. Announcements

• Need volunteers for committees! Ad Hoc Committee on Salary and Compensation could use a leader.

X. Adjournment

• 5:34.

Submitted by Clai Rice
February 9, 2022

Appendix 1

Amendment #05: Suggested Language for Constitution in bold.

ARTICLE II: MEMBERSHIP. Section 3: Election of Members.

1. Elections shall be held in the spring semester prior to the fall semester of the next academic year. In an election to select Senate members, the following persons shall be eligible to vote from the faculty of their respective faculty units:
   1. Full-time associate professors, who shall select representatives of the associate professor rank.
   2. Full-time assistant professors, who shall select representatives of the assistant professor rank.
   3. Instructors, who shall select representatives of the instructor ranks.
2. Prior to the elections each faculty member eligible for elective membership shall be polled to determine if they are willing to serve in the Senate as an active member (one who states the intention of attending at least one-half of the regularly scheduled Senate meetings). Only the names of those who indicate such willingness shall appear on the election ballot.
3. The Senate Secretary shall request a census of faculty by unit and rank from the appropriate administrative office by February 1. Using that census, the Secretary will calculate and notify each faculty unit by March 1 of the number of vacancies to be filled by election. The Senate Secretary will also send a university announcement to all faculty indicating the number of vacancies to be filled by election. Each faculty unit shall fill its vacancies through election by secret ballot. Four types of ballots are required — one for associate professors, one for assistant professors, one for instructors, and one for adjunct faculty.
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. In the event that this occurs, an ad hoc election will be held to fill those vacant positions.
5. All academic departments shall have the right to ask for Senate representation. Following the annual Senate elections, departments without either elective representation or active participation by a full professor from the department may petition the President of the Faculty Senate for representation. If a department is not represented, the President of the Faculty Senate shall have the authority to appoint a representative from the eligible elective ranks of the department making the petition. The term of appointment shall be for one (1) year. In no case shall the President of the Faculty Senate appoint more than one such representative per department. These appointments shall supersede the representation formula in Article II. The appointments shall conform to the membership eligibility requirements as set forth in Article II.
6. The Secretary of the Faculty Senate, with the aid of the deans of the faculty units, shall be responsible for ascertaining that the representation called for in this article is maintained.
7. Election irregularities or challenges within a faculty unit shall be referred to the Faculty Senate for arbitration. Election irregularities or challenges for President of the Faculty Senate, Vice President of the Faculty Senate, Substitute for Previous Senate President (when necessary), or Secretary of the Faculty Senate shall be referred to the full Senate.