Committee Minutes

September 7, 2022

Date/Time
Wednesday, 09/07/2022
Location
CICE
Submitted By:
Amy Jones

LU Faculty Senate General Meeting Minutes 

 

September 7, 2022 

3:30-5:50pm 

CICE Rooms 113 A&B 

Minutes 

 

Attending:  

Mark Broome Jennifer Fowler Ginger Gummelt Pat Heintzlman 

Matt Hoch Jane Liu Yasuko Sato Sujing Wang 

Brendan Gillis J. P. Nelson Cengiz Sen Wen Liu 

Edgardo Pujols Jennifer Thedford Jennifer Huff Sharon Joffe 

Joe Nordgren P. Chandresakaran Melissa Riley James Armacost 

Raymond Doe Cheng-Hsien Lin B. Garrick Harden Shelly Allen 

Kelly Brown Eunjin Kwon Mohamad Hamza Tom Harvey 

Cristina Rios James Slaydon Ricardo Tovar-Solis Kelly Weeks  

Tim McCoy Nicki Michalski Eric McCulskey Stephan Malik  

Mellicent Musyoka Lilian Felipe Beth Byers Brielle Frost  

Xenia Fedorchenko Clayton Jeffryes Chun-Wei Yao Gled Tcheslavski 

Maryam Hamidi Trina Nolen Poornima Gunssekaran 

Not Attending: 

Doug Boatwright Ashraf El-Hou bi Xiao Zhang Allen Brinks  

 

Call to Order 

Brief Announcements: 

  • LUFS shirts and leather portfolios are now available for pick-up in the LUFS Office located in John Gray, Rudy William Building Room 128;  
  • Fall LUFS office schedules are now posted; and  
  • Please visit the Faculty Senate website for additional information about the Senate’s Charge, Roster, Committee Assignments, and Bylaws, for 2022. 

 

President Taylor  

  • Fall 2022 enrollment is close to Fall 2020 level; 
  • University financial status is improving and we expect the condition continues to improve in the coming academic year; 
  • The administration is working on the November one-time pay; and 
  • The new CFO and Associate Provost will start on October 1st (3rd to office).   

 

Provost Brown 

Environmental Screening Process and Academic Integrity. 

  • Lawsuit filed against Cleveland State University regarding Environmental Screening Process for students enrolled in on-class classes;  
  • The decision rendered against Cleveland State does not affect Lamar University;   
  • Lamar is contemplating adopting Honor Lock rather than extending its contract with Proctorio as its preferred Environmental Screening Process for protecting academic integrity by insuring a secure testing environment. 
  • Adopting Honor Lock must be a faculty driven decision to decision to determine whether or not the product is actually working or not. Each college council will be invited to offer its guidance about whether or not the university should adopt Honor Lock. 
  • Dr. Sujing Wang asserts that Honor Lock is easy to circumvent by several different mean of creative deception. The University should seek feedback about reliability and functionality. 
  • Environmental screening is always seen as invasive, and Lamar should proceed with caution.    
  • Personal circumstances likewise create challenges, primary among them being is the testing environment suitable, and can the student produce a verifiable ID that is unique to her or him. 
  • The TSUS is very specific about its guidelines for providing an environmental screening process that respects and protects both the screening environment and the student’s academic integrity. 
  • Faculty have expressed reservations/concerns about adopting an Environmental Screen Process that adequately protects the academic Integrity of the institution and of the individual test taker. 
  • Challenges exist in the minds of Lamar faculty and students. 

Strategic Planning Announcement 

  • In its current state, Lamar’s Strategic Plan is unnecessarily lengthy and detailed laden. How to the thread the needle for brevity and precision will be a challenge and Strategic Planning Committees, hopefully, comprised of Divisional Representatives, will review internal measures and outcomes that are focused and serious. 

What’s the Gossip 

  • 320 personal action travel requests have been approved, suggesting the request to travel process is effective. 

Review of College Deans 

  • Dean’s Reviews have been completed for Dean Lynn Mauer of the College of Arts and Sciences and Dean Dan French of the College of Business. With the support of faculty and administration both have been renewed to continue in the respective roles. 
  • Dean Bob Spina of the College of Education and Human Development and Dean Brian Craig of the College of Engineering are the next to be reviewed. 

 

 

Updates 

Cheng-Hsien Lin: President Report 

  • J. P. Nelson’s introduction of Robert’s Rules of Order; 
  • Reviews of each FS committee charges for the 2022-23 Faculty Senate booklet; 
  • Updates of IBS policy discussion with Dr. Jerry Lin; 
  • Shared the priorities each FS committee will be working on in the academic year; and  
  • Faculty’s requests on CoAS and CoB Dean’s Review results 

 

John Gossage: Research Committee 

  • Evaluate Faculty Development Leave (Announcements on Monday); 
  • Share Calendars—Competition Space open for a month; and 
  • Seeking a co-Chair. 

 

Nicki Michalski: Faculty Handbook Review 

  • Faculty Handbook in need of tightening (Multiple Versions still exist); 
  • Initiate a Procedures review; 
  • Reenergize ongoing work regarding the Manual of Administrative Policies and Procedures; 
  • Review Policy for Deans; 
  • Vagaries and list of points to discuss; and 
  • TSUS Policy—can it be changed? 

 

J.P. Nelson: Ad Hoc Committee HR Policies, procedures, and protocols once a formal complaint 

             is Filed 

  • Several new people have joined the Lamar Faculty; 
  • A voice needed for the Faculty Advisory body; 
  • The Faulty Senate has a clear and meaningful voice on behalf of Lamar faculty—be aware of critical processes and act with integrity; 
  • All Lamar faculty are welcome to attend regularly scheduled Faculty Senate meetings, the caveat is that not all Lamar Faculty are voting members of the Senate; 
  • Press forward a motion to refer or table Robert Rules of Order—opinion expressed of “no confidence” of the Faculty Senate’s Body and Bylaws; and   
  • Address equity changes-adjustments. 

 

Melissa Riley and Stefan Malick: Academic Issues 

  • Review Grade Change and Grade Appeal verbiage; 
  •  Assigning a grade of “F”; 
  • Student Government Association proposed that no course exams should be given 3 days prior to the published Final Exam Schedule; the Resolution passed; 
  • Instructor promotion criteria;  
  • Review Classroom Code of Conduct; and 
  • Upcoming TEAMS meeting. 

 

Sujing Wang: Faculty Issues  

  • Base salary review; 
  • Awarding Overload assignments—Policy under review; 
  • Grievance Policy (Revision has been in the making for 6-7 years and now working with Provost Brown to bring the Policy to conclusion); and 
  • Revisit and review Lamar’s Workload Policy. 

 

Jennifer Fowler: Budget and Compensation (Three Goals) 

  • Equity; 
  • Where tuition dollars go.; and 
  • Budget transparency under new CFO. 

 

New Business 

  • Research and Sponsored Program Office of Pre and Post Awards; 
  • IRB Professional Training; 
  • Contact Dr. Jerry Lin, Associate Provost Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (880-8760). Departments interfering with External Grants held hostage by Department Chairs who are paying students. No organizational structure that is effective with grants; and 
  • Kelly Weeks’ lengthy list of email items become Old