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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes May 5 2023

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Draft Minutes, Wednesday, May 5, 2023, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: Philip Auter, Secretary: Kelly Robinson

I. Call to Order

4:00

II. Quorum Call

33, need 28; 47 Zoom participants.
Philip Auter made a motion to approve the agenda. Motion accepted. Agenda motion passed with 43 in favor.

III. Old Business

Vote on the Faculty Handbook Amendment on Tenure

  • Philip Auter made a motion to vote on the amendment and seconded by Kelly Robinson.
  • Senate discussion that possibility that the amendment will not come back to the Senate if there are not changes made by Provost.
  • Vote to approve amendment held via anonymous poll.
    - Amendment approved → 4 absentia; 41 yes; 2 no

“Teaching divisive topics” issue

  • The Louisiana GOP passed a non-binding resolution to ban all DEI activities in state higher education. In response, the AAUP Louisiana Chapter released a statement. Philip Auter read relevant sections of the AAUP statement.
    - Document “LAGOP Resolution to Request BAN on DEI.docx” shared to the Senate via a link in the chat
  • Philip Auter made a motion for the Faculty Senate to accept the statement by the LA AAUP and opened the floor for discussion.
    - Istvan suggests that we (i.e., Faculty Senate) also issue a press release.
    - Sen. Cathey would like to see faculty fired if they do things that are considered inappropriate (who is the arbitrator is unknown). He was not able to give specific examples, except for one or two examples where the faculty were ultimately terminated after due process following an incident. For example, one faculty member was terminated after they called President Obama a very ugly name in the classroom.
    - Vote held via anonymous poll. Motion passed.
       43 yes; 3 no; 3 absentia.
    - Press release will go out.
IV. Announcements
  • Question from Nathan Rabalais: Should AI policy be added to syllabus?
    - Philip Auter said that is recommended to be in the syllabus to be safe and the policy’s use is at the discretion of the instructor.
V. Adjournment

4:23