Faculty Senate Meeting 

October 7, 2020 

Held via Teams due to Covid 

Members began joining meeting at 3:00 PM. 

Attending: 47 Faculty (attendance via Microsoft Teams participation):  Ashley Dockens, Ashwini Kucknoor, Awais Saleem, Berna Tokgoz, Brian Letraunik, Carmen Doering, Cengiz Sen, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Christopher B. Martin, Chun-Wei Yao, Cristina Rios, Cynthia Cummings, Cynthia Pipkins, Donna Azodi, Dorothy Sisk, Edgardo Pujols, Eric Shannon, Eunjin Kwon, Garrick Harden, James Armacost, Jennifer Fowler, Jing Zhang, John McCollough, John Gossage, JP Nelson, Kaye Shelton, Kelli White, Kelly Weeks, Lawrence Osborne, LeAnn Chisholm, Matthew Hoch, Melissa Riley, Mien Jao, Millicent Musyoka, Mohamad Hamza, Nicki Michalski, Pat Heintzelman, Paul Hemenway, Praphul Joshi, Serdar Ilban, Sujing Wang, Suying Wei, Travis Prokop, Trina Nolen, Xenia Fedorchenko, Yasuko Sato, Yueqing Li

 

Call to Order:  3:30 PM.  

Approval of the Minutes: Motion to approve made by JP Nelson. Seconded by John Gossage simultaneously. Motion passed.  

Faculty Senate President’s Report:  

• Creation of a Faculty Workload committee to serve alongside adhoc investigation committee (Jennifer Fowler asking Matt Hoch and Vivek Natarajan to head up) will Pat Heintzelman to investigate what she has learned with the adhoc committee already 
• Senate members (e.g., Hoch, Musyoka) discussed interest in joining to address equitable workload  (e.g., how does special topics type courses and Ph.D. type mentorship count; appears in some departments thesis/dissertation students do not count as workload 
• Note from Faculty Handbook committee member re: language regarding how these special topics type courses are laid out in the Handbook but it is tiered perhaps unusually 
• Noted that COFAC has a faculty group that is meeting on similar topics 
• Question was raised if there was in university writing (e.g., handbook) re: workload requests and teaching load (discussion that this seems to change per department/season)  
• Noted that some departments labeling working with research students as “service” 
• New Covid response ad hoc committee has met – met with Praphul Joshi (Public Health) and is recommending some procedures to the administration after meeting recently: 

(see Memo_COVID below). 

• Group attempted to contact Public Health Director with no response.  
• Group has requested dashboard evaluation of LU about COVID reporting.  
• Want LU’s numbers to reconcile with Jeff Co numbers.  
• Discussion that communications re: Covid on campus needs words “known” infections or “available” data to say we are being intellectually honest and we are recognizing that we can’t mandate them to report.  
• Discussion re: concerns within departments with enforcement of university requirements re: masks, etc. (J. Fowler mentioned this was asked at Executive meeting, President said to refer them for disciplinary action and let them know they could be expelled from the university).  
• P. Heintzelman is requesting more info about Covid reporting from LU to teachers when students test positive – definitions between what is reported and what is exposure is varying – letter was written to Bert Wagner – Pat to followup.  
• Faculty Senate member from COFAC mentioned that people in her department didn’t realize a dashboard was still available because of website layout 
• Covid Memorandum: 

Lamar University 

Faculty Senate 

Memorandum (COVID) 

To:	Kenneth Evans, President  Brenda Nichols, Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs  Jeremy Alltop, Vice President of Finance and Operations
From:	Jennifer Fowler, President of the Faculty Senate
Date:	October ?, 2020
RE:	Faculty COVID-19 Recommendations

As Lamar tries to return to some semblance of normalcy, faculty have expressed concern in regard to the well-being of the students, staff, and faculty at Lamar during the current pandemic.  To address this issue, I formed an ad-hoc committee to draft a list of recommendations that provide constructive solutions to assuage faculty fears during Lamar’s return to campus.  The committee recommendations are included below. 

• The committee recommends that Lamar notify the campus community of new positive COVID-19 cases (either through email or text alert system).  These notifications should include the locations the affected individual visited and protocols for those community members that are considered a close contact (CDC definition) of the affected individual.  

• The committee recommends that Lamar set a threshold at which on-campus courses cease and inform the university committee of this number. 

• The committee recommends that the Lamar COVID-19 Task Force work closely with Dr. Joshi to reconcile the county numbers with the Lamar numbers.  This collaboration should include a weekly report that is distributed to the campus community. 

• The committee recommends that the Lamar COVID-19 Task Force review and comment on Dr. Lin’s proposal for on-campus testing and provide a response to the Lamar community. 
• The committee recommends that minutes from the Lamar COVID-19 Task Force (and its subcommittees) be posted online, per the Texas Open Meetings Act. 

Academic Issues:  

• Discussed changing week schedule to MW/TR and no Friday courses for labs/meetings/etc. – Melissa talked with committee about why this was taken off the table before – one issue came up re: athletics wanting students on campus on Friday – discussion re: usage of classrooms = poorer funding 
• Committee is considering surveying faculty re: course modality used this semester 
• Discussion about getting Craig Escamilla or related person in charge of advising to discuss online course preparedness of students and what can be done  
• Discussion about how policies on instructional associates needs to be clearer   

Faculty Issues:  

• Met on Sept. 16 re: workloads, Covid, and Piper awards. 
• Covid ad hoc/workload ad hoc will be taking those issues over. 
• Question to be answered is clear communication of restructuring vision and what has already happened to all parties. 
• Piper Award – got info on Sept. 26 – Sr. Assoc Provost forgot to email Piper info and there are concerns it may be too late 
• Piper did not update on who was awarded last year – Christopher Martin still hasn’t heard from last year  
• A call for nominations was sent out for this year  

Budget and Compensation:  

• Met on Sept. 16 discussed funding re: Covid and Covid testing 
• Need idea of what the cuts were for each college and sent out request to deans for that info – how did that translate into individual departments – still not heard back yet 

Events:   

• 53 people nominated for DFL – never more than 10 nominated so very high – deadline Oct. 30 when they next meet (CV, video 3-5 minutes, and summary sheet on presentation) – 10% were self-nominated folks – each college represented 
• $8500 now raised for it. 
• Going to split up the review among committee members 
• Discussion re: Faculty Senate grateful to Dorothy for her service in this area 

Research and Creative Activity:  

• Met on Sept. 16 and discussed FDL and last years’ applications 
• Per admin, we will have FDL this year and give the applicants from last year’s applications to be able to consider, modify, or withdraw application (2 withdraw [travel no longer possible], 3 modifications, and 1 submit as is) – will discuss at next meeting when competition space will open 

F2.08:  

• Committee met Sept. 16 and has tasked to look at faculty reporting software to automate performance evaluation process – looked at Colleges/Dept who already use some softwares to see which are and are not working. Seeking feedback and concerns from FS. 
• Discussion of concerns about Chairs and Deans not following procedures – sent out a resolution re: this last year but continues to be a concern 

Student Success:  

• Met Sept. 16 discussed creation of a survey to determine student needs 
• Discussion re: using more online learning “eating into our bandwidth” – student sent an email FS member will be sharing and has permission to do so re: this issue 

Handbook:  

• Look at FSHC report below. Chris Martin says that RSP may have some info re: policy/procedure (Chris will also ask about on-campus testing amount when meets with Jerry Lin) 

Handbook Reformating/Revision Background: The January 2019 version of the Faculty Handbook is a compilation of policy and procedure. Some of the procedures need to be clarified and made more succinct. Reformatting the Faculty Handbook involves streamlining policies and transferring essential information regarding procedures to the Manual for Academic Policies and Procedures (MAPPs), which are processes associated with complex policies. MAPPs should clearly identify the review and revision dates in order to facilitate transparency. There are about 50 MAPPs identified and associated forms, which too are being addressed. The first batch for campus review includes eight.  

MAPP review process: As MAPP drafts are completed by MAPP subcommittee, they are first reviewed by the subcommittee, and any changes made prior to being voted on for campus review. The Academic Affairs website will be the home of posting MAPPs for review and comment. Posting of new MAPPs will coincide with an announcement in the Monday Campus Update. That will begin a 30 day review period. After two weeks of review, a second announcement in the Monday Campus Update will be made as a reminder. It is possible that two “batches” of MAPPs could be posted simultaneously (e.g., 30 days and 14 days to go), so attention to comment deadlines is important. MAPPs will be removed after 30 days. As MAPPs are announced, please encourage discussion of each with the faculty you represent and identify concerns in the comment section of the posting webpage. At times, committee follow up on your concern may be desired. Therefore, faculty are encouraged (but not required) to include their name and email address for follow-up.  

Upcoming Posting for Review:  

• Academic Program Reviews (PIR) MAPP 
• ASE - Campus Students MAPP 
• ASE - Online Students MAPP 
• English Language Proficiency MAPP 
• Grade Appeal Policy & Forms - Campus Students MAPP 
• Grade Appeal Policy & Forms - Online Students MAPP 
• Public Access to Course Information MAPP 
• Six Drop Petition & Procedures MAPP 

New ad hoc Member: On 10/6/2020 the FSHC voted to invite Dr Erin Bruns to join us as an ad hoc committee member. Dr Nichols had initiated this request. 

Investigation:  

• Met with Sept. 27 and concerned over no information being provided by LU (once over 8 months) – will need 30-45 minutes to speak next semester close to May 2020 meeting 
• Has “new strategies” to get LU to comply. 

New Business: 

• Fowler put in formal request for FS office – been pushed out of STEM building and may be added to John Gray – also request a 10 hour a week assistant for FS 
• Executive committee meeting next week – please bring any issues there 
• V. Natarajan (now VP of TSUS Faculty system) has requested for anyone interested in workload private message him – anything to be brought to Austin meeting, reach out to Vivek or Jennifer 

Adjournment: 

• Motion to adjourn was made by Dorothy Sisk. Seconded by Vivek Natarajan. Passed. Meeting adjourned at 4:35 PM.