Faculty Senate Meeting
September 28, 2012
12:00-2:00pm
North Campus
Senators Present: Larry Larson, Randall Florey, Timothy Woodcock, Barbara Lyon, Lynn
Greenwood, Luke Nichter, Geoff Diestel, Katherine Miles, Richard Yeager, Brian Wortham,
Sam Fiala (proxy for Jason Northrup)
Others Present: Doug Dyer, Allen Redmon, Walt Murphy, J.Z. Bales
J.Z. Bales – Student Government President
- Alma Mater song
- Submissions have been open for the last month
- SGA meeting tonight - will send out for faculty, staff, and student feedback
- The final music will not be as military as the example
- Actively Caring For People program
- Seeks to recognize good deeds and good people
- Looking for ambassadors for the program - increase awareness, etc.
- Will have bands to recognize and acknowledge good deeds
- Random acts of kindness
- Create a culture of caring at our university
- Making helping people intentional
- Warrior Week - there will be an orientation to the program - probably on Thursday of
Warrior Week
- We are the only school participating in this that is a non-traditional university
- We might want to look at possible data collection
- SGA
- Expanded the SGA membership this summer to 20 voting members representing
specific academic areas
- Students have been encouraged to engage their fellow students and faculty
- The SGA website will be updated with the names of the students
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- Nov 3 - Literacy Day
- 11-3 (Saturday)
- Children's author is keynote speaker
- Reading activities
- Speaking to family members as well
- Community outreach program
- Looking for people to participate
- Ex-officio faculty member to attend SGA meetings
- SGA wants a faculty member to attend SGA meetings
- Provide guidance as well as stay informed about student concerns
- Barbara Lyon has agreed to be the Faculty Senate representative
__________
Vice President
- Discussion:
- Should the VP be a tenured faculty member?
- Is there a course release associated with this position?
- VP will be President next year
- Barbara Lyon – volunteered to be VP
Motion: accept Barbara Lyon as Vice President of Faculty Senate
- Acclimation
- Vote called
- 9 out of 9 voted yes
- Motion passed
__________
Adding non-voting members to faculty senate
- SGA and Staff Council
- Discussion - why do we need this? Makes voting stronger when you include input from other
entities. We are often discussion the same issues.
- Offer an invitation for a liasion from each entity for each meeting - might need to ask them to
leave if something sensitive is being discussed.
- Leave the option to make the meeting Senate-only - observers to step out
Motion: Invite liasion from SGA and Staff Council to attend Faculty Senate Meetings
- Seconded
- No discussion
- Vote called
- Motion passed
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__________
Graduate Council
- Need to invite Dr. Porter to a Faculty Senate meeting
- Right now Graduate Council is a Faculty Senate committee
- It is not a committee under Faculty Senate at most universities
- Dr. Porter wants to modernize Graduate Council
- This cannot be done while something else called Graduate Council exists
- Right now, he has the Graduate Committee
- Graduate Council needs to be separated from Facuty Senate and removed from our Bylaws
- Graduate Council would be composed of Graduate faculty who make decisions regarding
graduate programs
- Ask Porter to formally propose his vision of Graduate Council
- Barbara wants to draft a document to outline the faculty
Motion: change Bylaws to remove Graduate Council from Faculty Senate
- Not Seconded
Motion: Consider dropping the committee from Faculty Senate and instituting a university
graduate council; ask Dr. Porter to provide a written proposal as to what he envisions
- Seconded
- Discussion – do not want a written proposal; he should not be telling us what he wants - it
should be faculty driven; proposed compromise - send Dr. Porter our concerns
- Vote called – Approved - 7 ; Opposed - 2
- Motion passes
__________
Committee list update/changes
University Committee list will be out today
There are a number of Senate Committees that, if we want to eliminate them, will have to be
eliminated through By-Laws
- By-laws committee will report next month
What does the Assessment and Development committee do?
- Make sure that there is some evaluation of administration being conducted
__________
Development of a workgroup to study tenure and promotion standards
- 2/7 who received a university recommendation got tenure
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- We seem to have two different tenure policies - one that is written (minimum standard to apply)
and then one that actually passes
- Faculty need to know what the target is!
Motion: form a workgroup to work with administration to clarify tenure and promotion standards
- Seconded
- Vote called
- Motion passed
Richard Yeager agreed to spearhead this and will communicate with Dr. Gray-Vickrey.
__________
Writing Intensive Policy Review
- Workgroup was formed to develop writing intensive (WI) course policy and process
- Members from each School: Timothy Woodcock, John Lalone, Tamekia Harris-Jackson, Lynn
Greenwood, Season Mussey, Allen Redmon
- Writing facilitates learning - making sense of the subject matter through writing
- 6 WI Course Requirements
- To designante a course as WI, it goes through the same process as any other curriculum change
Motion: accept writing intensive document as appropriate from Faculty Senate
Seconded
Discussion - what is to stop someone from creating a bunch of WI classes? The WI policy and
process clarifies what used to be mythical and unclarified
Vote called
Motion passed unanimously
___________
Faculty Development Leave Policy
- There was a workload workgroup last Spring
- Borrowed from TAMU Corpus Christi
- Workload recommendations were sent to Dr. Gray-Vickrey - nothing has happened yet
- Sabbatical policy came up as an aside to the work the group was doing
- West Texas A&M has a policy that we can use as a model
- Are the words "sabbatical" and "faculty development leave" interchangable? The term
sabbatical seems to be going away
Motion: endorse and send to Provost the Faculty Development Leave Policy written up by Luke
Nichter
Seconded
Vote called
No discussion
Motion passed
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__________
Faculty Senate Faculty Affairs Committee
- Was renamed this in the Spring
- West Texas has a good model
- Should it be a Faculty Senate committee?
Motion: endorse and send to provost the Faculty senate Faculty Affairs Committee policy written
up by Luke Nictor
Seconded
No discussion
Vote called
Motion passed
__________
Course Development and Quality Matters
- Need a center to provide assistance to help faculty develop courses regarding QM
- Need to look at how QM is being addressed
- Course development takes a lot of time when implementing QM content in Blackboard
- Is it possible to use graduate students to help with QM content?
- Is there an issue with consistence of online coordinators?
- Faculty need help with the hands-on end of things
- We need online support to be support, not oversight
- Invite Yakut and online coordinators to a meeting later in the semester - October 26 meeting
__________
Oct 26 next meeting
Motion: approve April 2012 minutes
- Seconded
- Vote called
- Passed
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