III.
IV.
I. Call to Order - The meeting was called to order by President Fuss Sommer at 1:05 p.m. on January 23,
2009 at the 3 rd Floor SETB Conference Room.
Senate Members in Attendance
Janna Arney
Jude Benavides (s) CSMT
Steve Benton (s) CSMT
Kevin Buckler (s) CLA
Ethel Cantu Associate VPAA
Hector Castillo Asst VPAA
Pat Celaya (s) CATGS
Charles Dameron VPAA
Bill Davis (s) CLA
Eduardo Del Rio (s) CLA
Miguel A. Escotet Dean SOE
Doug Ferrier Dean IS
Angelica Fuentes (s) CLA
Emilio Garrido Sanabria (s) CSMT
Daniel Heimmermann Dean CLA
Elizabeth Heise*
Senate Members Absent
Chuey Abrego (s) SOE
Leslie Arnim (s) SHS
Linda Fossen Associate VPEP
Peter Gawenda Interim Dean
CATGS/CSMT
Guests
Irma Jones*
Karen Fuss Sommer*
Joe Lacher (s) SHS
Brett Lefler (s) CLA
Eric Linder (s) CSMT
Charlie Lackey, Dean GS
Mostafa Malki (s) SCOB
Jose Martin, Provost
Bobbette Morgan
Eldon Nelson, Dean SHS*
Cheryl Phelps (s) CLA
Martin Shane Dean SHS
Patrick Smith (s) SOE
Bashir Tiwana (s) PS
Richard Gomez (s) SOE
Gerald Hollier (s) SCOB
Grant Olbeter (s) SHS
Annabel Trevino (s) PS
Suzanne Acevedo
Michael Blanchard
Mari Fuentes-Martin
Deloria Nance-Davis
Betsy Price
Louis Sanchez
Al Hilsenbeck
II. Presentations – Regent’s Outstanding Teaching Award – Ethel Cantu
There is a brand new teaching award established by the UT Regents. There is currently no selection process in place and as nominations are due so soon, next year there will be an appropriate nomination process for subsequent years. An extensive portfolio is needed and awards are made on the strengths of individual faculty. UTB has the opportunity to nominate three tenured faculty members, three tenure-track faculty members and three contingent faculty members. Faculty wanting to participate need to submit a letter of intent to the VPAA’s office and the supporting documentation by February 13. This documentation consists of a teaching portfolio, letters of support from students, peer faculty, chair, & dean of college, syllabi and Curriculum Vitae. The timeline for this process is: notice from faculty by 1/30, 2/13 portfolios to deans’ office, academic affairs personnel committee composed of a representative from each college and school and between one to three faculty members that have received teaching awards will make their recommendation on February 27. Dr. Dameron will give his recommendation on March 6 and President
Garcia will give her recommendation by March 27. Decision will be announced at the May UT Regents’ meeting.
Review and Approval of Minutes
– Minutes for the December meeting were distributed electronically. Joe
Lacher moved the minutes be approved as distributed. Bret Lefler seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Senate President’s Report — Karen Fuss Sommer

V.
The President attended the January 13 TSC Board of Trustees meeting. The most important item discussed was the donation of Kalim and Gigi Habet for the Performing Arts building. Drs. Heise and Benavides reported on the beginning of plastic bottle recycling on campus. Dr. Martin demonstrated the use of the recycling bin. A general faculty meeting took place in January. The Senate sent out a survey about graduate workload and the welfare committee was given preliminary results which they will be discussing.
Included in the packet to the Welfare committee was the UT Regents Rules on Academic Workload requirements. We will be sending these rules out to all faculty members on campus. Karen Fuss Sommer and Bobbette Morgan will be attending FAC on February 13. Congratulations to the new UT Chancellor, Dr.
Francis Ciggaroa, who used to be president of UT San Antonio Health Science Center.
Discussion about the situation at UTMB in Galveston followed. Bobbette Morgan asked if the Academic
Senate needed to draft a plan to provide for disasters and financial exigencies at UTB. The Academic
Senate will draft a resolution for the administration to add or include a long term exigency plan for Human
Resources to the current HOOP policy. Financial exigency plans are different from short term disaster plans. The Academic Senate can recommend to Business Affairs that they define and describe the process of financial exigency for the institution and then the Senate can review the policy and have the opportunity for recommendations or comments. Elizabeth Heise read the current HOOP policy on termination of faculty due to financial exigency. Tenure status is not a consideration currently within the policy. UTB may just need to revise the current HOOP policy. Our HOOP needs to be in concert with the Regents Rules.
Bobbette Morgan reads a resolution on financial exigency. After some revision, the resolution is passed.
Committee Reports
Welfare Committee Report
— Steve Benton
A faculty graduate workload survey was completed at the request of some of the graduate faculty who feel that the 1.5 LHE for graduate courses is not being given in all schools or colleges. The faculty will be advised of the Regent s’ Rules on this matter. Just like compensation for larger classes, there is an incremental increase for graduate courses.
Treasurer’s Report — Elizabeth Heise reported that we have a little bit of money in our account.
Dual Enrollment Task Force Subcommittees
Management Structure
– Eddie Del Rio
The entire Task Force for Dual Enrollment plans to meet as a whole in March and will finalize their report then based on the findings of all subcommittees. Eddie Del Rio inquired again about the status of their recommendation to hire a dean or associate dean of dual enrollment. Dr. Dameron indicated that they have made the recommendation to the presidents’ council; the president supports the recommendation. This must be approved by System so he does not know when the President will send the recommendation to
System. The question was asked if funds are contingent on funding from the board. Dr. Dameron believes that there may be funds for this position from spring enrollment.
Students
– Annabel Trevino Will report at the next meeting.
Instruction
– James Hilsenbeck
The preliminary report from the Dual Enrollment Instruction subcommittee is that they have just looked at what is going on out in the field. From the Math standpoint, it was felt that this department has control of what is going on in dual instruction. That is not the case in other programs. They surveyed BISD faculty and distributed a handout of results. Most of the comments centered on use of BlackBoard, textbook policies, dual and non dual mix of students in classrooms. To report preliminary highlights: there are a lot of students in dual enrollment courses that are not dual enrollment students. Blackboard was being used more than we thought. The policy of textbook in the classrooms was another eye-opener when it was found some classes had no textbooks, or shared textbooks, etc. There were 40-50 respondents to this survey. The committee gave the survey to the dual enrollment office and the survey was then sent to all dual enrollment faculty members. One item found that for the Pre-Calculus class there were more pre-calculus students in dual than there were students in Pre-Calculus students on campus; actually, more pre-calculus students at just one high school than on campus. The question, then, is what will Pre-Calculus campus classes look like in the future. This committee will continue to pour through the data from dual enrollment. Steve Benton indicated that it is unacceptable for a university not to know how many teachers they have teaching. Bill
Davis stated that there is fertile ground for additional follow-up questions. Credentials are also a concern.
Dr. Nelson and David Gardner of Coordinating Board had a meeting of Associate Deans of Allied Health and

VI.
VII. all deans started talking about their concerns of dual enrollment. The Coordinating Board will be looking at dual enrollment in the next few months. The committee will meet again as a whole to produce a final report to the senate.
Faculty Club Update – Karen Fuss Sommer
The committee met yesterday with VP of Partnership Affairs and discussed specific requirements for the use of the space allocated to the Senate for the faculty club. Campus Police will move to the Newman Center in about six to eight weeks. After that time demolition for the inside of the space will occur. The architectural design will be made with the historical integrity of the building in mind. HDTV may come to look at our building and do a feature on it. Charlie Lackey asked if the Senate has a task force planning for the space.
Yes, there is a task force whose primary task is the design, architectural plans, furnishings etc. Mirad
Abusin, a new faculty member in architecture, is being very helpful by providing 3-D designs.
HOOP Policies Committee
HOOP 10.4.4 Cost Sharing
– Suzanne Acevedo
New time and effort systems are being put in place which means other policies must be created to the support time and effort policy. UTB must have this policy in place as a part of federal regulations if the university wishes to get grants. Matching funds required cost sharing. Discussion ensued. Patrick Smith moved to approve this policy as first read with the revisions suggested. Elizabeth Heise seconded the motion. Motion passed.
HOOP 10.4.5 Cost Transfer to Grant Accounts – Suzanne Acevedo
Steve Benton moved that this policy be sent ad-hoc HOOP committee. The motion was dropped for lack of second. Bobbette Morgan moves to accept this policy as first reading with suggested revisions. Kevin
Buckler seconded the motion. Motion passed.
HOOP 6.5.9 Free Expression – Michael Blanchard
This policy came to the Senate in March 2007 and April 2008. The chief complaint against this policy was the language. Michael Blanchard indicated that in order to avoid a court challenge, the policy must be detailed. There are two important points in this policy that does not apply to teaching research: prohibition of verbal harassment and outdoor speeches. The rest of the policy describes time, location and manner of how to get it done. Elizabeth Heise asks if it is necessary to add the entire
Regents’ Rules in it. Michael
Blanchard said yes, it needs to be in the policy but they cross referenced as much as they could. Another question was “Do we have to define each word?” It is a cautious reaction to how courts look at the policy. If you don’t put those things in the policy, it can fail for being vague. Irma Jones asks if 6.0 is the appropriate section to have the policy in. Michael Blanchard indicated that section 10.0 is the institutional section so this policy should go there so they will be moving it to that section. Bill Davis stated that he was nervous about the fact that since this policy is so broad, are we missing something while limiting speech. Michael
Blanchard mentioned that all the other system universities have already approved a policy but not all in the same way. UT Pan American adopted the original policy sent by System. UT Arlington, Dallas and other campuses changed it in different ways. HOOP 6.5.8 is being dropped as the content is already found under
10.2.6. Karen Fuss Sommer would like for the scope in Section A, outdoor instruction to instead indicate
“classes taught outdoors”. Cheryl Phelps called our attention to page 5 where the term obscene is not defined. Irma Jones moved to approve this policy for first reading as revised. Bill Davis seconded the motion. Motion passed.
Old Business o ISBN Numbers on Schedules - Bobbette Morgan
Bobbette Morgan brought forth a resolution (attached) to add the title, author, edition, and ISBN number to the course schedule if there is enough space. There is a proposed Senate Bill 454 to include ISBN numbers to schedules or courses in the works. There should be a disclaimer on the schedule that indicates that there might be an error in the textbooks listed. A question was asked about here to put the disclaimer. Dr. Dameron indicated that the ISBN number could definitely be included on the online schedule of courses. Bret Lefler moved to approve the resolution with the modifications. Bill Davis seconded the motion. Motion passed. o Exigency Plan - Bobbette Morgan (attached). Bill Davis explains that UT Galveston had an unfortunate happening and that the FAC took up its cause. This is an attempt by FAC to reach out to campuses for support of their efforts and for all campuses to review the existing exigency guidelines. The entire situation has come about because of things or perception of events having occurred at UT Health

Science Center. Senate would like to send our resolution to the FAC to show our support. Resolution passed. o Graduate Faculty Definition - Jim Storbeck
As Jim Storbeck was not in attendance, no information was given.
VIII. New Business o Enrollment Figures - Dr. Dameron o Currently enrollment figures are above the 5% budgeted numbers that the university anticipated for the spring but, the process will not be complete until the 12-day count. o Cheryl Phelps indicated she needed to resign from the UCCC as she is taking an administrative position. Matt Johnson has been acting as the representative of Liberal Arts to UUCC committee in
Cheryl’s place. Bill Davis moved to appoint Matt Johnson to complete Cheryl Phelps term as UUCC
Rep from CLA. Bret Lefler seconded the motion. Motion passed. o o Book Buy Back - Two week prior to final exams, the bookstore has book buy-back so that means that students may not have their textbooks to study from at final exam time. Rosemary Martinez and Doug
Arney are in charge of bookstore issues. Bill Davis volunteered to sit down with them or the bookstore to speak with them about delaying book buy-back.
IX.
Provost’s Report — Dr. Jose Martin
February 28 is the provost’s last day as provost. UTB has a new initiative called faculty coach program this spring.
Dennis Ortiz has been selected as a spring coach. The hope for this program is building a strong relationship of trust in academics. UTB is undergoing a search for a Volleyball coach.
James Telese has been appointed Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning to provide professional activities for faculty.
Last night there was a celebration for the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King. The provost thanked
Deloria Nance Davis for her c oordination of this event. The REK will be completed by March. For the Provosts’ search, a committee is compiling a list of candidates for interviewing. There is another search ongoing for the Dean of the College of Math, Science and Technology. The Interim Dean of Applied Technology and General Studies will begin to appoint a search committee for that position. Cheryl Phelps will be serving as Assistant Dean for Liberal Arts.
New Grants: Drs. Iglesias and Shwartzberg received a 1.1 million dollar grant for Bioinformatives and Infometrics.
Dr. Luis Colon received a grant to support research and infrastructure in the amount of
½ million dollars. STARS program is a program funded by the oil reserve monies and are distributed to particular UT Campuses. As a consolation for those campuses that do not share in that money, UT came up with a system of putting their monies in the bank under a common account and System was to invest that money. The idea was that so long as the monies at the end of the year were above the amount deposited, this money be shared by the system served and the institutions.
X. Announcements
XI. o Next Academic Senate Meeting —February 27, 2009
SETB Third Floor Conference Room
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Irma S. Jones, Secretary