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Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes October 18, 2023

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Draft Minutes, Wednesday, October 18, 2023, Zoom Meeting 
Presiding: President Philip Auter, Secretary Kelly Robinson

I. Call to Order

4:07 pm

II. Quorum Call

25 senators present out of 29

III. Approval of Meeting Agenda

23 senators approved, 0 nay, 0 abstain

IV. Executive Report

by Phil Auter

  • Not a lot of new stuff to share. Deans will review Handbook modification next week. Suggested changes are positive and not problematic. We can vote in November or January.
     
  • Febee and Phil are looking at revising the grievance process. They are working with Paul Thomas in Human Resources to ensure compliance. Phil and Febee will share a draft with Senate. Their ultimate goal to make it part of the handbook.
     
  • Everything else is in progress
    .
  • Kelly will send out requests to fill out Committee on Committees and Ways and Means.
V. Mandatory LaCarte Training

Leah sent a letter to Marie Frank and Josie Mariano about short-notice of the mandatory 2-hour training LaCarte training yesterday. Last year the announcement for trainings was made late October and November and the trainings were held on Microsoft Teams. This year the trainings are only offered in-person at Moody, which is not inclusive and limits accessibility.

  • Leah drafted email to Josie and Marie Frank requesting that they do what they can to give us more options for remote and additional in-person options. Specifically, she asked why cannot there be asynchronous training? Why not offer the training over several months instead of one week right before the deadline?
     
  • Kelly also let Marie Frank know about trainings during academic advising.
VI. Old Business

i) P. Auter: Approval of Sept. 20, 2023 Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes:

22 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain

ii) P. Auter: Any faculty senate committee report to share today.
[nope]

iii) P. Auter: Any ad hoc faculty senate report to share today?
[nope]

iv) P. Auter: Any representative of university committees to share report
[nope]

v) Clai Rice, P. Auter, and Dianne Olivier are in the process of improving university committees.

vi) P. Auter: Any old business?
[nope]

VII. New Business

i) Reading discussion of faculty handbook proposed by Executive Committee.

ii) P. Auter:

A handbook revision is currently posted on the Faculty Senate Moodle Site. The links in table justify the removal of some of the 39 documents in the handbook appendices. These documents describe policies that are no longer applicable.

The handbook revision also moves the remaining 13 documents in section 9 “Academic Policies” to a new section 10 called “Additional Policies and Procedures.” These 13 documents are wholly unique to UL Lafayette. Moving these documents into the actual handbook and out of the appendices will codify them to some degree.

This revision will be voted on by the Faculty Senate in November 2023. This will be an editorial and reorganization change to the handbook. Because of that, if the revision is approved in November 2023, then Dr. Hebert will just sign off on it.

iv) Proposal to make a resolution in favor of a ‘University of Louisiana System Faculty Senate.’
The creation of this body may need to approved by the state legislature. The goal is to create a system-wide senate that will have a couple representatives from each school. It would meet regularly just like our senate. Northwestern State University (NSU) passed their resolution at the end of August 2023. We (the UL Lafayette Faculty Senate) are proposing a parallel resolution whose language mirrors that of the NSU resolution.

  • P. Auter: motion to vote on resolution; K. Robinson Seconded
     
  • Vote to approve of the resolution: 21 yes, 1 no, 3 abstain; motion passes
     
  • P. Auter will share the resolution with the University Council

v) P. Auter: Any other new business?
[nope]

VIII. Announcements

i) P. Auter: If you have the time, extra computer monitor, then keep eye on UL Board meeting next Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 10a and next Thursday, Oct. 26.
It is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ULSystem. Interviewing Dr. Jim Henderson for Louisiana Tech President. If he accepts, then during the regular board meeting, one item will be to hiring of a new UL Systems President.

IX. Adjournment

4:45 pm
 

Submitted by Kelly Robinson
October 18, 2023