Faculty Senate Minutes

May 2, 2018

8th Floor Mary and John Gray Library

 

Attending (Current Senators through the end of business meeting:

Arts and Sciences: Judy Smith, Tom Sowers, Kami Makki, Garrick Harden proxy Kami Makki, Stacey Knight, Lisa Donnelly, Gretchen Johnson, Pat Heintzelman,  Michael Beard, Yasuko Sato, J.P. Nelson, Ozge Gunaydin-Sen, Jennifer Daniel, Joseph Kruger, Martha Rinker, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Ted Mahavier, Ashwini Kucknoor Business: Seokyon Hwang, James Slaydon, Karyn Neuhauser, Vivek Natarajan, Tim McCoy, Education: Connie Ruiz, Anna Nguyen, Ken Young, Dorothy Sisk, Belinda Lopez, Israel Msengi Engineering: Nicholas Brake,  Mien Jao, Xuejun Fan Fine Arts and Communication: Nandu Radhakirshnan, Bryan Proksch, Sherry Freyermuth, Cherie Acosta College Readiness: Melissa Riley Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel

Absent:

Arts and Sciences: Cristian Bahrim, Sanaz Alasti, Gina Hale,  Maryam Vasefi, George Irwin  Business: Purnendu Mandal, Education: Janice Kimmons, Vanessa Villate, Engineering: John Gossage, Gleb Tcheslavski, James Curry, Fine Arts and Communication: Zanthia Smith, Nicki Michalski, Vinaya Manchaiah Library: Mark Asteris, Michael Saar

 

Newly elected Senators for 2018-2020:

Arts and Sciences: Gwinyai P. Muzorewa, Brian Williams, Jing Zhang,  Suying Wei, Cengiz Sen, Robert Vallin, Valentin Andreev, Sujing Wang Education: Kaye Shelton, Donna Azodi, Johnny O’Connor, Wendy Greenridge, Kim McGough Fine Arts and Communications: Chong Min Lee, Ashley Dockens, Jacob Clark, Paul Hemenway Library: Scott Crawford

 

Call to Order: 3:33 p.m.

 

Guest Speaker

 

Speaker from the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects:

• Beginning September 1, 2018, the Lamar University IRB will only accept CITI training certificates as proof of Human Subjects Protection Training. The training certificate is good for three years. NIH certificates will no longer be acceptable after that date.

Approval of minutes April 4, 2018

• Tom Sowers made a motion to approve the minutes
• James Slaydon seconded
• The minutes from the last meeting were unanimously approved.

 

President’s Report:

• Election Updates:
  • The elections were completed on time and went well
  • The election committee chairs were recognized for their hard work
    • Cheng-Hsien Lin-College of Arts and Sciences
    • Purnendu Mandal-College of Business
    • Dorothy Sisk-College of Education
    • John Gossage-College of Engineering
    • Michael Saar-Library
  • The Executive Committee had a tour of the Setzer Center last month. It was suggested that the meetings for next year should be held in one of the meeting rooms there.
  • The Faculty Senator Shirts are in-please be sure to pick up yours before you leave if you already ordered one. If you need to order one please see James Slaydon.
  • The American Association of University Professors Red Book is now available. A copy is currently housed in Vice Provost Joe Nordgren’s Office and another copy housed in the library. Ted Mahavier suggested that all new officers should have a copy to use while in office and to pass on to the next officer elected to that position. It was a good suggestion but discussion and voting on the matter was deferred to the fall.
  • Senate Budget: There is currently $4,000 left in the Senate budget from this year that will roll over to next year’s Senate Budget

 

Market Advance Study: James Slaydon

• The Study recommendations have now been placed in the Faculty Handbook. Information displays comparable schools and their reimbursement policies for equity.
• However, it was noted that funding for equity adjustments may be tight for next year.

 

Committee Reports:

• Vivek asked that all committee chairs submit a summary of meetings, committee members, issues dealt with, etc. to him as soon as you can so he can post them on the SACS website.

 

Academic Issues:  Melissa Riley

• The committee is currently looking at and double checking to be sure that all links for the SACS Self-Study are accurate and working properly.
• Issue regarding better publicity, signage and enforcement of the no smoking policy on campus remains a concern for the committee. It includes chewing tobacco and vaping which has become an issue in classes and bathrooms on campus. Still want to urge the university to post more signs at every building entrance and bathroom.

 

 

Budget and Compensation: Tom Sowers

• Travel funding policy is being looked at. We are put together a survey about travel funding that we would like each of you to fill out and return today.
• Still evaluating the potential retirement funding inequities between the ORP’s and the TRS programs.

 

Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Dorothy Sisk

• Exxon-Mobil Refinery budget has been cut which may decrease the funding subsidy from them for the Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series
• Mark your calendars for October 3, 2018 at 6:00 pm for the next scheduled Distinguished Faculty Lecture presentation. The Theatre and the 8^th floor of the library have been reserved for the lecture and the dinner to follow.
• In summation: there were 10 nominations initially, 2 declined the nomination, which narrowed the candidates to 8 who submitted fully completed applications and videos. The committee has now narrowed that number to two potential finalists. When the final decision is made faculty will be notified.

 

Faculty Issues: Jennifer Daniel

• The application form for the Piper Award will be going on-line shortly.
• Ombudsman policy draft was completed.

 

Research and Development:

• All application documents have been successfully loaded on-line.
• Successfully launched the on-line application for R and D and streamlined the policy.
• Will be sending out an announcement in the summer to begin the application process for next fall.
• Scoring rubric has been simplified to improve the review process in the future
• Evans has requested that a follow-up process be implemented to have R and D recipients share their scholarly products with the other faculty of the university whether it is published articles, books, grants and such. In pursuit of this, we will ask for materials from awardees that can be put on the website.

Emerging and Strategic Issues:

• The committee has been looking at issues related to retention of students and International recruitment of students.

Faculty Senate Priorities for next year:

Vivek asked those present to think about topics that Faculty Senate should work on next year.

• Nicki Michalski was thanked for all of her and the F2.08 Task Force members for all their work on the F2.08 policy which will need to be voted on and passed in the fall.
• Concerns were voiced about needing to get a copy of the budget for the website.
• Ombudsman position needs to be approved.
• Discussion needs to occur with regard to maintaining academic integrity in relation to retention of students initiatives.
• Dr Hyak, TSUS Provost is asking universities to develop an evaluation process for assessing President and Provosts performance.
• Continue to look at Faculty workload issues
• The America Association of University Professors (AAUP) needs seven members from LU in order to create a charter. Anyone interested should apply to become a member of this group.

Announcement:

Vivek Natarjan was congratulated for being awarded the District Educator from the Federation of Business.

Adjournment:

The motion to adjourn was made by Tom Sowers and seconded by James Slaydon. Adjournment by acclamation at 4:00 pm.  

 

Respectfully Submitted:

Dr. Judy Smith, Faculty Senate Secretary

 

Attachments:

Special Senate Executive Session: Board Election

LU IRB requiring CITI training

 

Special Senate Executive Session: Board Election for 2018-2019 school year:

 

All Senate Members whose terms were expiring and will not be continuing on Faculty Senate for the 2018-2019 school year were excused from the proceedings.

 

The slate of candidates for the following offices were presented by Nicolas Brake, the Faculty Senate Election Committee Chair:

 

President: James Slaydon

Vice President: Jennifer Daniel

Secretary: Nicki Michalski

Nominations from the floor were requested for each office but none were made.

The nominations were closed and the vote was taken.

Each candidate nomination was unanimously approved to serve as the Executive Board of the Faculty Senate for the 2018-2019 school year.

 

Adjournment: Tom Sowers mad a motion to adjourn and James Slaydon seconded.

Adjourned at 4:10 pm

Respectfully Submitted:

Dr. Judy Smith (Outgoing Secretary)

 

Lamar University

 

Institutional Review Board

 

Human Subjects Education Policy

 

Background

Ethical treatment of humans during research studies is based on international and national standards and principles. Researchers, both faculty and students, need to be well versed in ethical standards and principles to protect the rights and well being of humans who serve as research subjects. Education about ethical treatment of humans is important for researchers to be knowledgeable about safe and ethical research practices. Lamar University’s Institution Review Board (IRB) has required LU researchers to complete National Institute of Health (NIH) or Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) education regarding human subjects for several years. A survey of other universities, clinical agencies and the National Science Foundation demonstrates that CITI education on protection of human subjects has become the leading recognized standard. The online CITI Program is used worldwide by over 2,200 organizations and annually by more than 1 million learners around the world.

 

Policy

To ensure LU researchers (faculty, staff and students) are adequately educated about the protection of human subjects during research studies, LU’s IRB will only accept CITI education/training (not NIH) starting Sept. 1, 2018.  Researchers need to provide evidence of successful completion of CITI education within the last three (3) years when applying for IRB approval.

 

Implementation

The CITI training is free to LU researchers and can be accessed on the LU Office of Research and Sponsored Programs’ website “Use of Human Subjects for Research” (see list of Resources on lower left of the website).

Research - Human Subjects

 

A direct link to the CITI site is https://www.citiprogram.org/index.cfm?pageID=154&icat=0&ac=0&region=1

 

Researchers should register with CITI by selecting Lamar University as their organization. (See screen print on next page.) There is no cost for the education when researchers register by selecting Lamar University as the organization affiliation. Researchers can select to complete the Biomedical track or the Social and Behavioral track.  The education modules will populate according to what is required at LU within either track.  To successfully complete the modules, researchers need to achieve an 80% on the post-tests for each module.  The post-tests can be repeated as many times as necessary to achieve an 80%.