Lamar University Faculty Senate

March 7, 2018

Attending: Arts and Sciences: Judy Smith, Cristian Bahrim, Tom Sowers, Kami Makki, Sanaz Alasti,  Stacey Knight, Gina Hale, Pat Heintzelman, Michael Beard, Yasuko Sato, J.P. Nelson, Ozge Gunaydin-Sen (present but did not sign the roster), Jennifer Daniel, Joseph Kruger, Ashwini Kucknoor, Martha Rinker, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Ted Mahavier Business: Tim McCoy, Education: Anna Nguyen, Dorothy Sisk, Belinda Lopez Engineering: John Gossage, Fine Arts and Communication: Zanthia Smith, Nicki Michalski, Sherry Freyermuth, Cherie Acosta, Library: Michael Saar, Mark Asteris College Readiness: Melissa Riley Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Treibel

Absent: Arts and Sciences: Judy Smith, Garrick Harden, Lisa Donnelly (excused), Gretchen Johnson, George Irwin, Maryam Vasefi, Business: Seokyon Hwang, Purnendu Mandall, Karyn Neuhauser (excused), Vivek Natarajan (excused), Education: : Connie Ruiz,  Janice Kimmons, Ken Young, Vanessa Villate, Israel Msengi, Engineering: Mien Jao, Gleb Tcheslavski, Xuejun Fan, Nicolas Brake, James Curry Fine Arts and Communication: Nandu Radhakirshnan, Vinaya Manchaiah, Bryan Proksch

Presiding: James Slaydon in Vivek Natarajan’s absence

Call to Order: 3:32 p.m.

Guest Speaker: Dr. Joe Nordgren, Acting Associate Provost:

• Thanked all Faculty Senate Members for their active participation in the SACS preparation.
• Reports are needed from all of the Senate Committees by the end of the semester. Requested that committees review their charges and the SACS resource manual in preparing the reports.
• By mid-October 2018 a draft of the report of all of the committee activities will be compiled
• March 1, 2019 Final committee reports will be due to Dr. Hefner-Babb.
• August 10, 2019 final self-study report due to SACS
• November 2019 there will be an offsite SACS review
• The QEP status will be due six weeks before the on-site visit
• April 7-9, 2020 is slated for the on campus review by SACS.
• It will be the fall of 2020 when the SACS board will make its final determination about re-certification.

Dr. Theresa Hefner-Babb, Executive Director Office of Planning and Assessment/SACSCOC Liaison

• Refer to outline attached
• SACS highest priorities are on Institutional Effectiveness and Planning.
• Each college has an institutional effectiveness representative on the committee
• Each committee needs to document their meetings well
• Leadership includes all Deans, Chairs, and Administrative Staff as well as some faculty and staff, comprise the Institutional Effectiveness Committee for SACS. Still looking for a student representative. Please notify Theresa if you have a student you would like to recommend.
•  Offsite and on-site visitors will not be from Texas so will need to be sure we are very clear about specific rules, policies, laws, etc. that are unique to Texas in all SACS encounters.
• All QEP plans must mirror one another
• Faculty qualifications to teach subjects assigned will need to be confirmed in the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters
• Strategic planning, outcomes and student learning outcomes are key aspects of the survey.
• Syllabi and vita posting is required by the state. No personal information should be included as they are posted to a public website
• Syllabi need to include a schedule of how the course will be conducted.
• In courses with five or fewer students, a syllabi does not need to be posted.
• All vitas must be completely up to date by August 2019.
• Do not use words such as contract or agreement with the syllabi
• A power point presentation will be forwarded to senate members with key information included. Please share the power point with your peers once you receive it.
• Hefner-Babb’s office number is 614 in the Library for any questions.

Dr. Judith Mann, Director of First Year Experience, Office of Planning and Assessment

• Talked about the QEP and WINGS Program
• The key thing with the QEP is that it should be tied to the Institutional Mission and based on Student Learning
• It needed to have a broad based implementation in which effective learning outcomes are evaluated.
• On an average 44% of all freshman college students have some form of CSI restrictions and disabilities.
• Looking at having co-requisite math courses that focus on helping the developmentally challenged students to progress through the curriculum faster and graduate on time.
  • By Fall 2018 the plan is to have 25% of the eligible for math CSI restrictions to be enrolled in co-requisite courses; 50% by the fall of 2019 and 75% by the fall of 2020.
• The committee is looking at how the needs of departments can best be met without causing problems for students.
• Currently students take up to three developmental classes before they can move on to taking a core course. Only 11% are actually completing this cycle.
  • Co-requisite courses mean that these students will take a developmental class on Monday and Wednesday and a core course on Tuesday and Thursday. The developmental class will be designed to do just in time teaching to prepare the students for the core course the next day. The co-reqs will be taught by two instructors who have looked at best practices in instruction. The Math department is in the process of realigning their courses.
• March 26, 2018, there will be a speaker on campus from 10-11 am to talk more about co-requisite course alignment. Place to be determined.
• Also see attached power point presentation.

Approval of Minutes with Corrections: motion made by Tom Sowers, seconded by Michael Beard. The motion was unanimously approved with minor revisions.

President’s Report:

• TCFS updates: The faculty senate should not focus on research or doctoral studies
• Equity study to go to the TSUS Board of Directors soon
• University Elections should be getting underway. Have looked at the by-laws to align representation within the Senate;
  • 12 or less faculty in a department should have one representative;
  • 13 or more faculty in a department should have two representatives minimum.

Old Business:

• 08
  • Vivek Natarajan and Nicki Michalski are to be meeting with Dr. Marquart soon.

New Business:

• Judy Smith, Faculty Senate Secretary formally thanked Nicki Michalski for taking the minutes at the February meeting in her absence due to a Medical Leave.

Committee Reports:

• Academic Issues: Melissa Riley
  • Committee is working on a Laptop use policy
  • Working on the SACS Self-study at present
  • Looking at Monday March 19, 2018 for a meeting at 0900. Several expressed conflicts with this date and time-Melissa will pole the committee members on Doodle to set a more convenient time for all.
• Budget and Compensation: Tom Sowers:
  • A survey will be forthcoming in regards to travel fund reimbursement for research. Please fill it out when you receive it on-line.
• Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Dorothy Sisk
  • There have been ten nominations of which
    • Two have declined
    • 1 was found to not be eligible
    • 4 are still working on their dossiers
    • And 3 have complete dossiers ready for review
  • The deadline for completion has been extended to March 15, 2018
• Research and Development: Ozge Gunaydin-Sen for Nicholas Brake
  • The next meeting is planned for tomorrow Thursday March 8, 2018 at 2:30 pm to look at the proposals that have been submitted. The committee will be notified of the place for the meeting soon.
• Emerging and Strategic Issues:
  • No report
• Faculty Issues: Jennifer Daniel
  • Ombudsman policy dispersed for review (see attached)
  • Problem has been noted that some e-mails are automatically going to clutter or become combined with other memos on a related topic and faculty are missing important information.
  • Minutes of the committee are ready to be posted on-line but no one has access to post them.
  • A faculty wellness program is being worked on
  • Need to make sure that all University Departments are ready to respond appropriately in an active shooter situation. Need a better way to lock doors-some require a key to lock them, some open out while others open in, some have no lock at all, etc.
  • In one department the chair is using Rate the Professor in assigning points to the F2.08 this year
  • Also noted that students are not completing the on-line course evaluations. Some students are complaining about the number of questions to answer.

Motion to Adjourn: Motion was made by Tom Sowers, seconded by Michael Beard. The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted:

Dr. Judy Kaye Smith, Faculty Senate Secretary