Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes October 16, 2024

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes September 18, 2024
University of Louisiana at Lafayette Faculty Senate
Minutes, Wednesday, October 16, 2024, Zoom Meeting
Presiding: President Philip Auter, Secretary Kelly Robinson

I. Call to Order

4:07 pm

II. Quorum Check

at 4:08 pm, need 21 Senators; at 37 senators; quorum met

III. Approval of Meeting Agenda

yes 29 senators; nay 0; abstain 3

IV. Executive Report

by Philip Auter

• LSU Board Committee Hiring Rule Change causing some concern

o LSU system board met quietly recently and make a new policy that they can now appoint a person to any hiring committee of LSU system institution, from a Dean to an Instructor hire

▪ https://lailluminator.com/2024/10/15/lsu-board-of-supervisors-might-have...

o Hoping that UL System Board does not make a similar change

•  AAUP meeting Nov. 6 (Wed) at 1p in Burke Hall Rm 241

o Not being recorded

o Please attend if possible

•  Approval of September 2024 Minutes

o yes 31 out of 38 senators; nay 0; abstain 7

V. Committee Reports

• Executive Committee
  • Want to revitalize standing committees that have gone quiet in Spring 2025
• Standing committees
  • No Updates
• Ad Hoc committees
  • Aeve - No Updates
  • Tenure & Promotion (Phil Auter subbing for Leah Orr)
    • Still waiting. NO change in past 30 days
  • Faculty Handbook Updates (Phil Auter subbing for Leah Orr)
    • Final PDF with no tracked changes is available on Moodle
    • Review period of 30 days. Adopt as is if no problems found.
    • Second PDF with track changes
    • Third PDF that is the original
  • Dean Search Policy (Matt Green)
    • Creating a policy using the UL System policy as a starting point.
    • Creating a forum on Senate Moodle page to crowd-source ideas
    • What should a new policy for selecting deans should look like within the constraints of the system policy?
    • Policy for hiring department heads being handled through Provost Office
      ​
  • Phil Auter we will Initiate Dean and Department Head search and hiring policy
  • Market Adjustment (David Khey)
    • Provost did a good job summarizing the administration’s position. Provost said that the consulting RFP is in process, and we need to send representatives to the Provost’s working market adjustment committee that is drafting the scope of work and RFP for outside consulting firms. Seeking feedback to build a scope of work that the consulting firm will be charged with completing. Ability to shape the scope of work now. Need to make we have representation
    •  We are not hearing firm goals or timeline for the entire process from higher admin. There is a timeline for the consulting firm’s deliverables. But after the firm’s analysis is returned to the administration, then what is next in the plan?
      • How will changes be implanted logistically, mathematically? Accountability for higher administration to follow through after the analysis is return. This is what keeps the committee up at night per se.
    • The original charge of the ad hoc committee has hit a ‘dead end.’ Need to shift to a new objective with a new standing or ad hoc committee.
    • Mechanisms of holding higher administration accountable (K. Robinson question)
      • David Khey - Unionization of faculty
      • David Khey - Lean on social science faculty to develop tools that help give administration a better understanding of our concerns. Develop a climate study to inform admin of economic status of faculty and staff (i.e., inflation, insurance costs)
      • John Gargano – Evaluations for higher admin need to happen and be made available. Provost more accountable for dragging his feet.
      • David Khey – High Admin Evaluations should be made available to Faculty Senate
      • Phil Auter – new to make a new ad hoc committee to have energy and time to get reports that have data for persuasive lever to move higher administration. Keep pushing for multiple fronts to amplify the voices.
      • Matt Green – Cannot have a search without appointment term limits
        • Phil Auter: ‘everything’ goes stale. Dean and Department Head appointments should have term limits
• University Committees
  • No Updates

VI. Old Business

• No Updates

VII. New Business

• Vote on the 2 Faculty Senate representatives for the Provost’s Market Adjustment Committee
  • Natalia Sidorovskia nominated Kelly Robinson to be part of the slate of candidates.
    • Kelly Robinson accepted and placed her name on the ballot
  • David Khey – this committee membership is a time-limited commitment. Done by the end of the semester and RFP sent out by February 2025. Suggesting that ad hoc committee be reassigned to the 2 representatives to help them get broader feedback from Faculty Senate and share the workload of shaping the RFP. Scope of Work conceptualization is already 100% drafted per the higher admin.
  • Phil Auter-get the ad hoc committee to provide labor to draft documentation. Will add 2 representatives to the ad hoc committee
  • Jen Hamilton – breadth of representation is key; however, should senators with prior experience and knowledge would strengthen the Faculty Senate voice on the Market Adjustment Committee. Should David Khey be one of the representatives (a candidate with the most experience working on this issue? Or can we have other representatives be supported by experienced folks?
  • Phil Auter - Chair of Ad Hoc Committee, if elected to the Markey adjustment committee could step-down
  • Two appointments to the Provost’s Market Adjustment Committee are David Khey and Kelly Robinson
     
• Discuss and amendment RE: Leah Orr’s Handbook Amendment
  • Phil Auter not in favor of accepting material amendments that alter her proposal.
  • Description “faculty member takes sick leave, dept. must cover those classes” policy states that (Deans Council 1990) colleagues will assume responsibility for teaching for 10-14 business days during a regular semester before you start getting extra pay. If the sick leave extends beyond 2 weeks, then they will be paid only for time beyond the 2 weeks.” Policy exists only in the handbook. Provost is on-board to change this.
  • Change (not verbatim) “will assume other faculty teaching responsibilities for more than one week will be compensated at the market rate. But if the responsibility is
  • Matt Green – are faculty substitutes assigned by the Dean or faculty volunteers? Curious about proposing a friendly amendment to give faculty members more agency? Matt wants to propose a friendly amendment to provide more faculty agency in accepting.
    • “Faculty may be presented with the opportunity to assume the teaching duties of a colleague on sick leave for one week or longer and will be paid at the standard adjunct rates, prorated weekly for the time they are teaching the extra class. Faculty who choose to assume teaching duties of someone on sick leave for less than one week, or who perform extraordinary functions such as compiling and submitting final grades, may be compensated at the discretion of their department head and academic dean.”
  • Phil Auter- cannot accept material amendments because he is not the author of the amendment
  • Jo DeRouen – suggest delaying vote until Leah returns and can decide
  • Phil says Robert’s Rule allows friendly amendments in this case
  • Matt Green – the downside of ‘leave’ is that it could give admin room to not ever finding a replacement especially if the substation is a long-term replacement when really an adjust needs to be hired.
  • Natalia Sidorovoskia – from an administrator’s perspective, if the faculty member’s load changes during the current semester, then they are entitled to extra compensation. Schedule for future semesters is always up to Dean and Department Head.
  • Marty Aikens – “Teaching duties OR load?”… in my case, we receive a course release for production and performance… its the production duties that I’ve inherited by being volun-told”
  • Laurel Ryan second Matt’s amendment and wants to revise to Matt’s original phrasing to this statement:
    • “Faculty may be presented with the opportunity to assume the teaching duties of a colleague for one week or longer; they will be paid at the standard adjunct rates, prorated weekly for the time they are teaching the extra class. Faculty who assume teaching duties of a colleague for less than one week, or who perform extraordinary functions such as compiling and submitting final grades, may be compensated at the discretion of their department head and academic dean.”
  • Marty Aikens would like a specific language for folks who leave and their work is on another faculty member’s load without compensation. Phil Auter encouraged Marty to write a proposal amendment for addition to separate.
  • Passed 22 yes, 1 no; 1 abstain; vote passed
  • Phil Auter: will vote on this proposal as a official handbook amendment in November 2024

VIII Announcements

• If you know full professors, and want to be on the Senate, have them email Kelly Robinson or me, Phil Auter, to add them to roster.
• Vote for Senate open seats to be seated in January.
• Officer elections for Senate at April 2025 meeting.

IX. Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at:5:44 pm