Faculty Senate Minutes

April 4, 2018

 

Attending: Arts and Sciences: Cristian Bahrim, Tom Sowers, Kami Makki, Sanaz Alasti, Garrick Harden, Stacey Knight, Gina Hale, Lisa Donnelly, Gretchen Johnson, Pat Heintzelman,  Michael Beard, Yasuko Sato, J.P. Nelson, Jennifer Daniel, Joseph Kruger, Martha Rinker, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Ted Mahavier, Ashwini Kucknoor (for Maryam Vasefi) Business: James Slaydon, Purnendu Mandal, Karyn Neuhauser, Vivek Natarajan Education: Anna Nguyen, Ken Young, Dorothy Sisk, Vanessa Villate, Belinda Lopez Engineering: Nick Brake Fine Arts and Communication: Zanthia Smith, Bryan Proksch, Nicki Michalski, Sherry Freyermuth, Cherie Acosta Library: Michael Saar College Readiness: Melissa Riley Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel

Absent: Arts and Sciences: Judy Smith, Ozge Gunaydin-Sen, George Irwin  Business: Tim McCoy, Seokyon Hwang Education: Connie Ruiz, Janice Kimmons, Israel Msengi Engineering: Mien Jao, John Gossage, Gleb Tcheslavski, James Curry, Xuejun Fan Fine Arts and Communication: Nandu Radhakirshnan, Vinaya Manchaiah Library: Mark Asteris

 

Call to Order: 3:30 p.m.

 

Guest Speakers

 

Dr. Marquart, Provost:

• Student numbers are down, class sizes are down; we need to increase recruitment and retention. Classes need to be big enough to pay the faculty member’s salary or it is a losing proposition for the university.
• TSUS has new program called 2020 Vision that lays out new accountability measures and expectations. We will all be measured using these standards, so we should familiarize ourselves with them.
• The new deans for Arts and Sciences and Business have been hired. We are still working on finishing up the library dean search.
• Facilities are coming along. The first floor of the library is done; Starbucks has been a hit. The Setzer Center will open next week. There have been Education rooms renovated, Landis Auditorium has been redone. The science and tech building is making good progress. Two dorms will be renovated over the summer.
• Budgeting is being decentralized. Deans will have more direct control over the money.

Katrina Brent, Vice Provost for Retention and Student Success, Financial Aid

• We are working with RNL to accrue data to help with determining what we need to do to help students succeed.
• Financial aid will be implementing a new federal policy that requires classes to be on students’ degree plans for reimbursement.
• We are looking into who gets scholarships and aid, if it is sufficient, wasted, and how to use it best for recruiting purposes.

 

Deidre Mayer, Admissions Director

• Overview of staffing of the recruiting office: we are adding people in central TX and see Louisiana as the next territory to focus on.
• We are working on plans to smooth transfer from junior colleges to LU. Agreements with specific schools will facilitate the flow. Some are already in place, but we are working on additional agreements.
• The Welcome Center will be opening in the not too distant future.
• It is important that faculty help with recruiting, talking with potential students, etc.

 

Brenda Nichols, Vice Provost

• Thank you to faculty who stepped up after Harvey to help with teaching special sessions, online, etc. It helped prevent further loss of students.
• Online is now about 1/3 of our classes and students. It is significant and vital to our success.
• CDE is up about 6%. AP numbers are down a bit.
• We are looking into QWD stats to see where people are failing, which classes are being repeated. We need to look at adjusting our teaching methods when fail rates are high-what we are doing isn’t working for the students if there is a 30% pass rate over time.
• We will be offering Smarthinking online tutoring for all classes, not just online students. This is important because so many of our students need assistance outside of regular hours.
• We are reassessing how best to use Proctor U; we need to consider who is using it, what features are needed and so forth.
• The university is re-upping Blackboard for 3 years. We don’t have infrastructure (low staffing in IT) right now to facilitate a change if we changed systems.
• The Concourse syllabus template should be available soon, we are hoping for Fall. It will improve the consistency of syllabi and vita formats.

 

The minutes from the last meeting were approved.

President’s Report:

• The equity plan is almost done. It is actually a market adjustment plan and has been vetted by the system lawyer.
• Three deans are up for review. We will be putting those ARC together. Senators assisting with those are Ken Young, Jennifer Daniel and Nicki Michalski.
• The senate elections are all either underway or complete.

 

 New Business:

• We need to meet after the main session and select members for the senate nominations committee. Each college needs a representative.
• There is money left in the senate budget. It has been approved to use some of it to buy shirts for all current senators. It will be a button down with the Lamar University logo and “Faculty Senate” on it. Sign up with your size and if you want red or white.
• At 4:50, after this meeting, senate members will be given a tour of the Setzer center.

 

Committee Reports:

 

Academic Issues:

• We need to review and update the SACSOS statement about the senate. It looks like that is largely making sure links and references are active and correct.
• Regarding the computer replacement issue: IT has a policy in place which faculty members sign when they get new technology. If the tech is lost or stolen, the faculty member pays the replacement cost. Since the faculty member who brought this issue up has not pursued it, we believe it is moot.
• There was a discussion of student centered classes. This type of teaching is more effective and should be encouraged, but the majority of the committee feels that mandating it would be an infringement of faculty members’ academic freedom.
• We would like to have better publicity, signage and enforcement of the no smoking policy on campus. It includes chewing and vaping which has become an issue in classes and bathrooms on campus. We want to urge the university post signs at every building entrance and bathroom.

Budget and Compensation:

• We are putting together a survey about travel funding. It will be distributed at our next meeting.
• We are also beginning to look into the ORP and TRS reimbursement rates. Some of the ORP members are having their retirement funds matched at 2% less than the TRS members.

 

Distinguished Faculty Lecture:

• The field has been narrowed down to two applicants.
• We need to check with Exxon-Mobil to verify that they would support a presentation about Syria.

 

Faculty Issues:

• The ombudsman job description is done. Dr. Marquart is supportive of our using the TSU policy because it has already been vetted by the system attorney.
• A faculty member complained that their chair had used results from Rate My Professor for the teaching section of the F2.08. This is inappropriate (as is all use of hearsay). This issue will be sent to the F2.08 task force for integration into the form and/or handbook.

 

Research and Development:

• We have been working on updating our rubric. This includes making it friendlier for non-STEM applicants. We will be seeking feedback on the revisions in the near future.
• We have been asked to gather data about post-leave production: how many articles come out of it, books, grants and such. In pursuit of this, we will ask for materials from awardees that can be put on the website.
• The College of Engineering F2.08 committee is interested in changing the language in the faculty handbook (section 36.1.3) about determination of large class sizes and teaching load. The 100 student designation seems arbitrary and not always appropriate. It would be better for the Deans and departmental personnel to decide what is appropriate in the given circumstances. The proposed wording will be circulated at the next meeting so there can be a vote.

 

Market Adjustment:

• The system attorney has reviewed and edited the plan.
• It is recommended that we accept this revision and get it into the handbook as soon as possible. It will be possible to make amendments in the future if needed.

 

F2.08 Task Force:

• Vivek Natarajan and Nicki Michalski met with Dr. Marquart to discuss the senate’s recommendations. He said he will review them and get back to us.

 

Emerging and Strategic Issues:

• The committee has not met this month.

 

The motion to adjourn was made by James Slaydon and seconded by Tom Sowers.