Faculty Senate Minutes
September 4, 2019
Mary and John Gray Library
Attending: Arts and Sciences: Brian Williams, Jennifer Fowler, Valentin Andreev, Matt Hoch, Cynthia Pipkins, Kelli White, Charles Popp, Pat Heintzelman, Jing Zhang, Sujing Wang, Gwinyai Muzorewa, JP Nelson, Christopher Martin, Cengiz Sen, Robert Vallin, Melissa Riley, Joseph Kruger, Jim Armacost, Ashwini Kucknoor, Jeremy Shelton, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Garrick Harden Business: John McCollough, Tim McCoy, Vivek Natarajan Education: Cindy Cummings, Kaye Shelton, Donna Azodi, Eunjin Kwon, Cristina Rios, Kim McGough, Shannon McFarlin Engineering: Berna Tokgoz, John Gossage, Mien Jao Fine Arts and Communication: Ashley Dockens, Jacob Clark, Serdar Ilban, Nicki Michalski, Paul Hemenway, Xenia Fedorchenko, Travis Prokop Library: Sarah Tusa, Scott Crawford Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel
Not Attending: Arts and Sciences: LeAnn Chisholm, Suying Wei Business: Kaushik Ghosh, Kelly Weeks, Ashraf El-Houbi Education: Praphul Joshi Engineering: Ruhai Wang, Yueqing Li, Xuejun Fan Fine Arts and Communication: S Jordan Wright
Call to Order: 3:30 p.m.
Guest Speaker: Juan Zabala, vice president for university advancement
- The capital campaign is underway. We do not yet have the final name for it, but it is basically our centennial campaign. It will be announced in 2023; we are currently in the quiet phase. Capital campaigns are a bit unusual in that you don’t announce them until you have reached your goal, then you hopefully surpass the goal. We are currently aiming for $100 million, but so far we have $26 million promised.
- This campaign has three components:
- Great minds, great mentors-this focuses on the faculty
- One student at a time-this is about supporting students
- A vision for a new campus-this is about supporting initiatives that build connections with the surrounding community
- This is the first time that a campaign has focused on raising support for faculty. This is being presented as education is a product, and the faculty are the method of delivery.
- So far we have 4 endowed professorships; others are pending.
- We also have 30 faculty fellowships.
- An element to consider is that endowments are set up to pay over time. We are also pursuing gifts that provide immediate support.
- One of the first of these is the David J. Beck Teaching Award. It was announced last spring, and applications are being reviewed.
Approval of the minutes: Valentin Andreev made a motion to approve the minutes. Jeremy Shelton seconded the motion, and it passed.
President’s Report:
- Chartwell’s has started charging for china and silverware, so we are now using disposables.
- Cindy Cummings has agreed to serve as the senate representative on the summer session committee.
- Chris Martin has agreed to serve as the senate representative for the campus master planning committee.
- We have representatives on many university committees, but we often don’t hear what is going on at those meetings. If you serve on one of them and would like to report, or feel there is something we need to know, just let us know and you will be put on the agenda.
- Both Jennifer and Cheng-Hsien have taken a Robert’s Rules of Order class over the summer. This will help our meetings run more effectively.
Academic Issues: The committee will meet next Wednesday, probably in Maes 3B, at 3:30.
Faculty Issues:
- LUTAP will now include AP classes.
- We met with the LU lawyer to discuss the ombudsman. It is looking promising, but we need to keep pushing to make it a reality.
- The committee will meet next week in the Lucas building.
Budget and Compensation: The committee will meet next week. There are many interesting topics pending.
Events: There are 9 applications being reviewed.
Research and Development: The committee will meet in 101, Lucas Engineering at 3:30 next week.
Student Success: The committee will be meeting in Galloway 242 at 3:30 next week; Craig Escamilla will be there.
Old Business:
- Every committee needs to have an official charge. Please review the rough drafts provided during your meetings next week.
- We need to review our by-laws and charter.
- College Readiness no longer exists and needs to be removed.
- We need to edit the section on the distribution of minutes.
- We need to develop a plan for a vote of no confidence. Jennifer, Cheng-Hsien and Nicki will work on a first draft and present it to the senate. Once it is presented, there is a 30 day waiting period before a vote can be held.
- Pat Heintzelman reported on the activities of the ad hoc committee.
- A letter from the AAUP office about the removal of Kelly Weeks from the senate was read.
- She reported that the committee had met 16 times over the summer and were seeking information about the various allegations.
- You should have received a survey in your email. That is not spam. Please complete it and urge your colleagues to do so. For an extra layer of security, you can forward the email to your personal email address and complete the survey on your own computer.
- If you did not receive a code, that is alright. Doing the survey without is will still work.
- If you did not receive the email, let Pat know and she will make sure that you get one.
- The ad hoc committee turned the survey and process over to the AAUP to avoid issues of bias. The AAUP paid for the survey and will be the only ones who see the data.
- It was pointed out that neither the senate as a whole nor the executive committee had voted to approve the survey.
- Valentin Andreev reported that he had spoken with a lawyer about the ad hoc committee and the media coverage of the list of allegations about the administration.
- He was told that the term forensic audit was used improperly: it specifies criminal activity has taken place. We do not know that there has been such activity, so it would be a financial audit.
- The lawyer also said that we need to be careful about making accusations without evidence because we (both individually and the senate as a whole) could be sued.
- It is also stated that whatever investigation is carried out needs to be for the good of the institution, not a settling of personal vendettas. Focusing on the personal undermines the credibility of the investigation and any results we present.
- Pat Heintzelman deserves commendation for all of the hard work she has done and her bravery in addressing this situation.
- However, because the standing committees are now back in session, the ad hoc committee should be disbanded.
- Valentin Andreev made a motion that the ad hoc committee be dissolved and the issues under investigation be referred to the appropriate standing committees. The motion was seconded by Sarah Tusa. Discussion about the resolution revolved around questions of extending the timeline for the investigation, the need for additional data both about faculty satisfaction and the issues under investigation, the tendency to expand the areas of investigation beyond the president and provost to chairs and deans, and the survey.
- Melissa Riley called the question, and the vote was taken. The motion failed.
New Business
- Faculty Handbook Committee update
- The handbook needs to agree with the TSUS guidelines.
- Our book has been significantly out of agreement and it causes problems when there are questions of policy.
- There are also a lot of things in the book that do not belong there. broken links, and some information that is not representative of the way things are actually done.
- Associate Provost Brenda Nichols put up an unapproved handbook that does agree with the TSUS guidelines, but it is very faculty unfriendly. She said she would post a statement letting people know that it was not approved by faculty senate and thus not official. No such statement has been posted. We are working on trying to get that up. We should have the faculty issues committee look into this.
- Paul Hemenway made a motion to establish a standing committee for review and upkeep of the faculty handbook. Jennifer Fowler stated that as president she has the ability to simply create standing committees and she would do so for this.
- Pat Heintzelman made a motion to reinstate Kelly Weeks to the faculty senate. The motion was seconded by Garrick Hardin. The motion was automatically canceled because Kelly is not a full-time employee, he is a zero time employee, and thus not eligible to serve.
- A question is asked if people are having trouble getting their parking permits. Several people state that they have also had issues but if you go over to the parking office, it can be fixed.
Motion to Adjourn: Vivek Natarajan made a motion to adjourn. Melissa Riley seconded the motion, and it carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:45.