Faculty Senate
October 2, 2019
8th floor Mary and John Gray Library
Attending: Arts and Sciences: Jennifer Fowler, , LeAnn Chisholm, Matt Hoch, Cynthia Pipkins, Kelli White, Charles Popp, Pat Heintzelman, Sujing Wang, Suying Wei, JP Nelson, Christopher Martin, Cengiz Sen, Robert Vallin, Melissa Riley, Joseph Kruger, Jim Armacost, Jeremy Shelton, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Garrick Harden Business: Tim McCoy, Vivek Natarajan Education: Cindy Cummings, Donna Azodi, Eunjin Kwon, , Shannon McFarlin, Robert Nicks Engineering: John Gossage, Chun-Wei Yao Fine Arts and Communication: Ashley Dockens, Nicki Michalski, Paul Hemenway, Brian LeTraunik, Travis Prokop, S. Jordan Wright Library: Sarah Tusa, Scott Crawford Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel
Not Attending: Arts and Sciences: Brian Williams, Jing Zhang, Gwinyai Muzorewa, Ashwini Kucknoor Business: Kaushik Ghosh, Ashraf El-Houbi, John McCollough Education: Kaye Shelton, Dorothy Sisk, Praphul Joshi, Cristina Rios, Kim McGough Engineering: Berna Tokgoz, Ruhai Wang, Yueqing Li, Mien Jao Fine Arts and Communication: Awais Saleem, Jacob Clark, Serder Ilban, Xenia Fedorchenko
Call to Order: 3:34 p.m.
Approval of Minutes: Ashley Dockens made a motion to approve the minutes. It was seconded by Matt Hoch and passed.
President’s Report:
- A $3 million faculty retirement initiative has been announced. Faculty must have 35 years of service. They will receive one year’s salary. 26 people are eligible to participate.
- Theresa Hefner-Babb wants to come discuss the SACSCOC report with us.
- Dr. Marquart has outlined the goals he would like for us to achieve this year:
- Completion of the F2.08 revisions
- Agreement of terms and forms between the promotion and tenure paperwork and the F2.08. He would also like for the P&T guidelines to be streamlined.
- He suggested a consolidation of the 2- and 4-year reviews into a 3-year review.
- Drs. Marquart and Nichols are visiting all of the departments this year.
- Texas Council of Faculty Senates will be meeting in two weeks. If you have items you would like on the agenda, let us know.
- There will be a townhall meeting for faculty with Dr. Evans.
- There will be a question box in the library. You can also email questions to Jennifer, Sarah or Vivek.
- We want suggestions for dates; we were thinking around Thanksgiving.
- We need to give him two weeks preparation time with the questions, and he may bring some deans or other administrators to help answer questions.
- The plan is for him to start with a short talk then answer questions.
- In the interest of transparency, Jennifer provided a time line of all of the events in the formulation and work of the ad-hoc committee.
Committee Reports:
Academic Issues:
- The committee reviewed and accepted its charge.
- There was discussion of the collapsing of AP and distance ed sections into one class section and why the guidelines for having an instructional assistant have changed to 50 students. It is not consistent with face-to-face classes.
- There were two issues the committee decided should be passed along to the faculty issues committee.
- There are concerns of department chairs adding classes to degree plans without faculty input.
- The committee will meet next Wednesday in Maes 3B.
Faculty Issues:
- The committee agreed on their charge.
- Please share the word that nominations for the Minnie Piper Stevens award are due soon.
- The committee will be meeting with Dr. Marquart about the grievance process.
- Please attend next week’s meeting.
Budget and Compensation:
- Garrick Harden was elected chair.
- The committee accepted its charge.
- The process of reviewing the budget and acquiring information has begun.
Distinguished Faculty Lecture:
- The lecture will be November 12 at 6:30 in the Setzer Center.
- There are going to be medallions created for all previous (and future) winners.
- There will also be a reception for all previous winners where they are given their medals.
Staff Appreciation Day:
- Staff wants to be more involved in the process. Sarah Tusa is reaching out to their president.
Research and Development:
- Chris Martin was elected co-chair.
- The committee reviewed its charge.
- There is a name change for the committee in the works.
F2.08:
Student Success:
- The committee is meeting with Craig Escamillia to discuss initiatives.
- The committee is reviewing its charge and previous initiatives.
Standing University Committee Reports:
We need a new representative for the academic information technology committee.
Judge Joe Fisher Lecture: a speaker has been selected, but his name is not yet approved for publication.
Institutional Effectiveness:
- There is a new WEAVE platform. Please let Jarod Rossi know if you have assessments that are no longer being done or are being combined.
- We will be working on identifying marketable skills and increasing focus on them in the degree plans.
- SACSCOC was discussed.
Campus Master Planning: this is mostly about logistics of expansion and progress on the ten-year plan (we are halfway through).
Old Business:
Ad-Hoc Committee:
- Pat Heintzelman read two letters from Dr. Klein of the Texas Conference of the AAUP that were sent to the administration.
- There were several concerns addressed about the work environment and shared governance.
- There were positives addressed including fair hiring practices and fair tenure and promotion.
- It was explained that the information requests would cost $3359.70 for LU to fulfill.
- Pat Heintzelman put forth a motion that the senate approve using its budgeted funds to pay for the information requested by the Ad-Hoc committee in pursuance of its charge. Paul Hemenway seconded the motion. After discussion, the motion passed with 17 in favor, 12 against, and 3 abstentions.
Discussion:
- It was stated that if we want shared governance, it is our responsibility to step up and participate. We have been giving our rights away.
- It is also important that people understand that when the term “faculty” is used (e.g. faculty shall be consulted), it does not refer to one or two friends of the administration. It is the body of faculty.
- We need to keep these issues in mind when we review the faculty handbook. Perhaps we need to include a definition of faculty to clarify the issue.
- This is a time when we need to practice self-reflection and step up to participate in the process.
Call for Adjournment: Sarah Tusa made a motion to adjourn. It was seconded by Ashley Dockens and carried. The meeting adjourned at 5:07 p.m.