Faculty Senate Meeting
Lamar University
October 4, 2017
Landes Auditorium, Galloway Building
Presiding: Vivek Natarajan, President Faculty Senate
Attending: Arts and Sciences: Christian Bahrim, Tom Sowers, Judy Smith, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Jennifer Ravey, Kami Makki, Stacey Knight, Michael Beard, J.P. Nelson, Joseph Kruger, Ozge Gunaydin-Sen, Gina Hale, Lisa Donnelly, Gretchen Johnson, Pat Heinzelman, Yasuko Sato, Martha Rinker, Sanaz Alasti, Garrick Harden; Business: Tim McCoy, Karyn Neuhauser, Purnendu Mandal, James Slaydon, Education: Connie Ruiz, Dorothy Sisk, Anna Nguyen, Janice Kimmons, Vanessa Villate, Belinda Lopez, Engineering: Nicholas Brake, John Gossage, Xuejun Fan, Fine Arts and Communication: Nandu Radhakirshnan, Zanthia Smith, Bryan Proksch, Cheri Acosta, Library: Michael Saar, Mark Asteris College Readiness: Melissa Riley, Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel
Absent: Arts and Sciences: Michael Beard, Randall Terry, Jennifer Daniel, Ted Mahavier, George Irwin, Business: Seokyon Hwang, Education: Isreal Msengi, Engineering: Paul Corder, Gleb Tcheslavski, James Curry, Communications and Fine Arts: Vinaya Manchaiah, Nicki Michalski, Richard Gachot
Call to Order: 3:35 p.m.
Introductions:
- Vivek introduced the Executive Board Comprised of James Slaydon as Vice President and Judy Smith Secretary in addition to himself. Tom Sowers was appointed to serve as Parliamentarian.
- Chairs for the various Senate Committees were also introduced at this time.
Approval of Minutes: May 3, 2017
- Two minor changes to the minutes were read to the group by Judy Smith, Secretary:
- On the distinguished Faculty lecture section a note had been written to remind the secretary to get more information about the event. The event information was added to the minutes.
- In the executive session for election of officers, it was noted that M. Lopez seconded the motion to nominate Vivek Natarajan for president and should have read Belinda Lopez made the nomination.
- Both corrections had already been made prior to the meeting.
- James Slaydon made a motion to approve the minutes with the revisions
- Mark Asteris Seconded
- Unanimously approved with revisions.
Faculty Senate President Report
- The September meeting was cancelled due to the aftermath of the Hurricane
- A slight change to the Agenda has been made. Instead of having the speakers presenting at the beginning of the meeting, they are going to be asked to come at 4:00 or 4:15 so we may get the Senate business completed sooner.
- Discussed the various Senate committees available to serve on and briefly described the charges and responsibilities of each:
- Academic Issues: Issues dealing with any academic aspect related to students.
- Budget and Compensation: Looking at how faculty salaries are budgeted and Compensation to the faculty.
- Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Begin planning for next year’s event.
- Faculty issues: Any issues dealing with faculty related problems.
- Research and Development: Deals with applications for Faculty Developmental Leaves and approval of them. Seeking more applications from faculty, etc.
- Emerging Strategic issues: space availability, disaster preparedness, etc.
- A new charge for Senate requested by Dr. Evans is to help focus on increasing Student engagement on campus.
- The speaker for November will be Dr. Evans
- Vivek, James, and Mavis will be going to the Texas State Council of Faculty Senate meeting later this month.
- There have been some changes to nourishments that will be served for Senate meetings due to our increased budget.
- It was suggested that there be a Senate Christmas Party at the December meeting.
- The membership was asked to let Vivek know if you desire to remain on the same Senate Committees that you were involved with last year of if you desire to be involved in a different committee.
- Faculty Senate Committee Chair Reports:
- Faculty Salary Equity: James Slaydon
- Has met several times with Dr. Marquart regarding the proposed policy.
- Evans has also seen the proposal however he would like to see a comparison of each faculty member’s salary on campus compared to faculty with similar backgrounds, scholarly activity, etc. from elsewhere to determine if equity discrepancies exit.
- James ran the data in many different ways but the administration has not approved the policy to move forward.
- However, Market advances may still be possibility. See attached policy. Such requests would have to go to the Chair then to the Dean followed by the Provost and ending with the President. The statement about Faculty departmental review was removed.
- However, after review Tom Sowers made the motion to approve the policy with the addition that such requests should simultaneously go to the Departmental Personnel Committee and the Department Chair for review and support of the request.
- Motion was seconded by Belinda Lopez
- Additional Discussion on the matter:
- Proposed that the requests and substantiation for Market Advances should follow the schedules for submission of the f2.08’s
- The committee and James were commended for the hard work put into the proposal
- James did some of the work on looking at resources from other comparable Universities For free that were previously done through the Arthur Anderson group for a fee of $10,000 dollars.
- With a motion and a second on the floor to approve with the revision, the motion was approved by acclamation and one abstention
- Meeting plans for this year will be forthcoming.
- Academic Issues-Melissa Riley and Nicki Michalski
- Meeting of the committee to be determined but all meetings will be held in Mays 3B
- E-mail will be sent regarding the date and time as soon as they are determined.
- Waiting on information from Dr. Marquart regarding course repeat mandates.
- SACS self-study has been added as a committee charge
- Budget and Compensation-Tom Sowers
- No report
- Committee will meet next week in the Political Science Conference room at 3:30 PM
- Distinguished Faculty Lecturer: Dorothy Sisk and Mark Asteris
- The 2017-2018 Distinguished Faculty lecturer was Sarah Hillin who talked on Flashpoints of Flight: The Enduring Rhetorical Legacy of 20th Century Women Aviators on October 3, 2017 at 6:00 pm at the University Theatre.
- The attendance was wonderful and in addition a group of high school students from the Hampshire-Fannett district were invited at the last minute but chose to attend as well.
- Had a late start to the event and it was suggested that there is a need to adhere to the established timeframe for the event.
- The agenda was scripted but at one point got off script which delayed the ending of the presentation in time for the reception.
- There were some previously noted issues with audiovisual/IT in the Theatre, however, the Theatre administration ensured that there was additional IT assistance available during the event to ensure the lecture went well.
- Concerns for future planning:
- There were some logistical issues with the Theatre presentation at 6:00 pm, Reception at 7:00 pm in the Dishman Gallery and the dinner at 7:45 pm on the 8th floor of the Library.
- 50 people attended the reception including 10 people from Exxon-Mobil.
- However, Exxon-Mobil failed to bring the check for the speaker.
- It was suggested that the starting time should be moved up to 5:30 pm to allow more time for questions and answers.
- Next meeting will be held in November to begin planning for next year.
- Faculty Issues-Jennifer Daniel and Ken Young
- Charges to get applications for the Piper Award and spearhead the selection process
- Look at Faculty Workloads
- Do a Faculty survey
- Pursue a Faculty Ombudsman position
- Research and Development: Faculty Developmental Leave (FDL): Nicholas Brake
- The committee has been working on the application process
- When submitting the application the committee will need 10 copies of the proposal
- The committee is trying to put the application proposal on line in the future to expedite the process.
- Also looking at ways to improve faculty participation in Research and Developmental Leave and how to deal with faculty workload issues while faculty are developmental leave.
- Will be developing a guide on how to submit applications
- The most recent policy regarding Faculty Research and Developmental leave has been included in the updated Faculty handbook.
- Due date for applications to be submitted is October 30, 2017. This year will accept hard copies of the application, applications on a flash drive or electronic copies.
- Committee will meet next week in Mays 059 room at 3:30 PM.
- Emerging Strategic Issues Task Force- Purnendu Mandal
- No report
- Purnendu passed out a brief survey for faculty to fill out and return to him. The survey suggestions may be submitted in hard copy, by phone at 880-8634 or e-mail to mandal@lamar.edu. See attached copy.
Guest Speakers: Dr. David Short and Natasha Walker from the Registrar’s Office:
- Recently implemented new software to facilitate improving overall usage of all campus classrooms.
- Ad Astra was implemented in the fall.
- Each department should submit a departmental request to schedule classrooms within their respective buildings on campus including any special needs, AV equipment, etc. by October 20, 2017 to facilitate spring planning.
- They are looking to try to have a platform available to assist teachers when teaching in rooms in other buildings so the faculty does not have to transport excessive items with them.
- It was suggested the faculty check out assigned rooms prior to the first day of class to be sure the assigned room will work for you class and specific needs.
- If any problems are identified with room assignments please notify David and Natasha as soon as you recognize they exist.
- It has been suggested that all chalkboards be removed from classrooms and replaced with white boards or glass boards. No objections were noted.
Adjournment:
- There being no further business
- James Slaydon motioned to adjourn
- Mark Asteris seconded
- Meeting adjourned 4:50 pm.
Respectfully Submitted:
Dr. Judy Smith
Attachments:
Emerging Issues Survey