Cameron University - Faculty Senate Minutes
December 12, 2014
Members present: Saeed Ahmad, Cathy Blackman, Joe Castelli, Travis Childs, Irene Corriette, Mo Durant,
Loree Gaines, Bayard Godsave, Mike Husak, Sarah Janda (chair), Abbas Johari, Marge Kingsley (guest), Gary
Kowaluk, Hong Li, Jeff Metzger, Dejan Mraovic, Deidre Onishi, Lynda Robinson (chair-elect), Pam Panzani,
Andrew Stonerock, Keith Vitense, Debra Ward (secretary), Gabriele Wethern, Yanjun Zhao
3:03
3:03
3:05
3:15
3:17
Call to Order
Approve minutes from last meeting
§ Motion made to approve November minutes
§ Motion passed with one abstention (Keith Vitense did not attend November meeting)
Committee Reports
§ Faculty Committee
o In the process of aligning grievance procedures between Faculty Handbook and Employee
Handbook
o Terminology needs to be adjusted. Changes to the Faculty Handbook would be minimal while
changes to the Employee Handbook would be made to bring the terminology into alignment with
the Faculty Handbook.
o Motion made for the Faculty Senate to support the Faculty Committee working in conjunction
with staff to author new language for the Faculty Handbook and the Employee Handbook
regarding the grievance procedures.
§ Motion seconded
§ Motion unanimously passed
§ Curriculum Committee
o Recent activity includes the approval on proposals for Mutimedia Design and Political Science
§ Academic Standards and Policies
o Vice President Burgess continues to investigate the plagiarism software SafeAssign and
Turnitin.
Old Business
§ Recommendation regarding Adjunct Faculty Award
o President McArthur has not responded to the Faculty Senate’s recommendation regarding the
creation of a teaching award for adjunct faculty members.
New Business
§ Elections
o The Rules Committee met last week to discuss options for conducting Faculty Senate elections
in the spring of 2015.
o The Rules Committee makes a motion recommending that vote-now.com be used to run the
faculty elections on a trial bases for the spring of 2015.
§ Motion seconded
§ Motion unanimously passed
§ Faculty Senate representation on General Education Committee
o The Rules Committee also discussed Faculty Senate representation on the General Education
Committee.
o The Rules Committee makes a motion recommending that the chair and chair-elect of Faculty
Senate be removed as ex-officio non-voting members of the General Education Committee and
that there be one representative elected by and from Faculty Senate to serve as a voting member
of the General Education Committee effective August 2015.
§ Motion seconded
§ Motion unanimously passed
§ Late withdraw procedure
o The current late withdraw procedure can be cumbersome for students. Students must get
signatures from numerous people. Instead, it is recommended that, if a student wants to
withdraw after the last day to withdraw, they make a special request to Lani Malcolm.
Motion made to send this recommendation to the Academic Standards and Policies Committee
for further discussion and investigation.
§ Motion seconded
§ Motion unanimously passed
Meeting adjourned
o
3:33
Debra D. Ward
___________________________
Debra D. Ward, Secretary