Alan Brinks, Beth Byers, Brielle Frost, Cengiz Sen, Clayton Jeffryes, Daryl Ann Borel, Eric McCluskey, Eujin Kwon, Ginger Gummelt, J.P. Nelson, James Armacost, James Slaydon, Jane Liu, Jennifer Fowler, Jennifer Thedford, Kelly Weeks, Lilian Felipe, Mark Broome, Mark Mengerink, Matt Hoch, Melissa Riley, Mien Jao, Pat Heintzelman, Poornima Gunasekaran, Raymond Doe, Sharon Joffe, Sujing Wang, Tom Harvey, Trina Nolen, Xenia Fedorchenko, Yasuko Sato, B. Garrick Harden
November and December 2022 general meeting minutes approved – James Slaydon (motion), Garrick Harden (second)
President Taylor’s Minute
Dr. Taylor was unable to attend.
Theresa Hefner-Babb, Assistant Provost for Accreditation and Assessment
Discussion of SACS
-academic rigor now in compliance
-keeping close tab on grad rigor
-still not compliant with student learning outcomes
-have assessment reports and results, not doing anything with them
-asking that departments look at last year’s report, and look at results in there to see what we can fix
-Theresa and Jeremy willing to help departments tweak reports
-SACS wants formative assessment
Continue working on: Instructor rank and promotion
Honor code review form
We will meet on Teams Feb 15
Will look at time to report grades at the end of term
Emailed Provost Dann Brown about academic calendar, member wanted it posted at least 3 years in advance
Will meet next Wednesday
Main tasks: faculty grievance policies, want something ready and approved by faculty and provost office
President, provost, and CFO (met this morning with CH Lin), concerned about salary inversion, will meet with them soon
Last meeting November 16
Evaluating four proposals for FDL, sent to Provost Brown next day
Preparing for coming faculty climate survey, soliciting suggestions for questions
Did not meet in December, new thing: office hours issues, asked to continue Jennifer’s previous work (MAPPs)
New handbook is policy-focused, and planned to link policies to procedures, SACS wants the format we are moving toward
Goal: get the handbook setup with links to MAPPs
Preamble from last spring
We will have 30 days to review new version of handbook before voting on it.
Kelly Weeks: Will the part of the beginning of the handbook that says it is advisory remain in the document?
Matt Hoch: Preamble has been tightened up; that part may be removed.
The roster of administrative office personnel relevant within the university is more set now. JP will communicate with them soon. Member(s) looking at how other institutions handle grievances. JP said HR report will be impacted by changes to by-laws.
Cheng-Hsien Lin
Elections – elections to replace UUCC vacancies
Problems of alignment of academic catalog with Degree Works, students confused, it is unclear who is in charge of alignments.
Questions from Education faculty – Why are we forbidding online attendance? Some faculty are online faculty, and they are not able to attend even though they have been elected to Faculty Senate.
Tom Harvey – was it in the by-laws, will virtual meeting be reconsidered in the future?
CH Lin: not in the by-laws
Slaydon – suggests to use Teams but do not record it
J.P. – the university would like to see more faculty back on campus, we discussed that in previous meeting
CH Lin – some faculty at a lot of on-campus service, they want more faculty back on campus to service and interact with students
Jennifer Fowler: point of procedure: could make a motion next time
Kelly Weeks: Closed session to talk about issues in COB CH Lin: We can vote on a motion next time
Garrick Harden: Memo to instructors sent in English Department; not clear whether English is the only department; factually accurate, but the timing was bad
Slaydon: smacks of English hit list from five years ago
CH Lin: F2.08 evaluation process still subjective
Hoch: Concern about mass, blanket warning to instructors; thought individuals had to be notified they will not be renewed by deadline.
Harden: Motion is not ready.
Heintzelman: Dean said we have the expected budget because of surplus, and we don’t expect any cuts. Said instructors got letter 30 minutes before Fall semester grades were due. Asking faculty to support instructors’ concern on job security.
We lost quorum during discussion: J.P.
CH Lin: Garrick will make a motion next time on this issue.
2nd by Lilian Felipe
Meeting adjourns at 5:20 pm