Faculty Senate Minutes: May 15, 2009

Attendance:

Faculty Senate Representatives	Name		College	Attendance
1.	Davis	D.	Arts & Sciences	Present
2.	Fowler	T.	Education	Present
3.	Garick	S.	Health & Behavioral Sciences	Present
4.	Hamilton	J.	Education	Absent
5.	Haque	M.	Business	Absent
6.	Harris	M.	Education	Present
7.	Jordan	T.	Health & Behavioral Sciences	Present
8.	Kincaid	K.	Health & Behavioral Sciences	Present
9.	Linstrum	K	Health & Behavioral Sciences	Present
10.	McCallum	M.	Arts & Sciences	Present
11.	Owen	R.	Business	Present
12.	Reavis	D.	Business	Absent
13.	Walker	L.	Arts & Sciences	Present

     Others in Attendance:  R. Stripling.

Approval of Minutes:

· Motion to approve 4-24-2009 minutes with corrections by McCallum; seconded by Gerick.

· Motion passed unanimously.

· Minutes from previous meetings are still pending.

Report Provost:

1.  2009-2010 University Calendar

· There was a lengthy discussion of the concerns about the proposed draft calendar and an extensive discussion of the calendar used by College Station. Issues about the draft calendar were:

o Loss of enrollment in the summer

o Earlier start in January

o Number of weeks to be incompliance with state regulations

o Number of class clock hours for classes that do not meet over Thanksgiving Holiday

o Time to grade before grades are due

o Need for comprehensive final week/days

o Need time for scholarship

o Influence of public school calendar upon university calendar

o Accommodations for students who work with public schools during the months of June and August (our schedule conflicts with theirs)

· Dr. Stripling stated the decision needs to meet the needs of students and meet the state’s requirements and that the decision needed to made quickly.

· After a close review of the College Station full year calendar, the consensus was that faculty preferred that calendar. Dr. Stripling stated that she would check on how College Station meets the state’s requirements with this calendar and then take it forward to the Deans’ meeting for input and take if forward to the Administrative Council.

· Currently there is a bill at the state legislature that requires all university syllabi be posted online. This bill is expected to pass. Some issues about the how the state’s 45 clock hours for a course will need to be addressed in the syllabi.

2. Change of Performance Evaluation

· Dr. Stripling stated that under the current Faculty Evaluation, Deans do have the flexibility and discretionary decision making power to recognize and assign points for collaborative research. She discussed several examples.

· At this time Dr. Stripling said she would not make any changes in the Faculty Evaluation for two reasons: 1) the flexibility that we are asking for is already in the current instrument; and 2) no changes in the faculty evaluation will be made in the middle of the year.

· Dr. Stripling stated she would consider this proposal for the 2010 Faculty Evaluation instrument which will be reviewed and revised as needed in the fall of 2009. Such reviews will be scheduled annually. She welcomes the input from faculty and Faculty Senate.

3. Chancellor’s Excellence Award

· Dr. Stripling reported that the response by faculty and by students across the system was low.

· It was suggested that the instrument used for the Chancellor’s Excellence Award was better than our current instrument and that perhaps we could use that for our evaluation. Dr. Stripling saw that as a good possibility and asked that all representatives take this to the faculty for input. She will email both instruments to Owen.

· If approved, this change would start in January 2010.

4. Faculty Evaluation of Deans

· In the past these were completed every other year. The participation was low and much of the information gathered was not constructive criticism.

· Faculty Senate representatives expressed the desire to help develop a more productive instrument to evaluate the deans.

· One concern was keeping the responses anonymous. 

· When asked “What authority does a dean have to change a student’s grade, over the grade faculty have assigned to a student?” Dr. Stripling said none. The process for student grade appeal should be used.

5. Faculty professional development

· Maggie Smith is coming in May to present on first year experience.

· Faculty are asked to complete the survey Dr. Allard has sent out.

· Funding has been established for Professional Development, but may be lowered due to budget cuts.

6. Current plan is that the new building at Bringle Lake will be ready June 2010.

Old Business:

1. Announcements

· Each college has elected new Faculty Senate representatives. Owen will collect those names and prepare a chart of the rotation.

· Owen suggested we all think about who would make a good candidate for Vice President of Faculty Senate in the Fall.

2. Executive Committee:

3. Faculty Welfare Committee: No Report

4. Academic Affairs Committee: No report

5. Undergraduate Committee

· Fowler reported UCC had approved core curriculum syllabi.

· UCC had a discussion of the use of the syllabus template. After viewing Harris’ submission of revisions to SPED 410 which used the new syllabus template.

6. Graduate Council

· Harris reported difficulties with the posting of the syllabus template and charts. She will continue to work on that this summer with Fowler and Kincaid to insure UCC and GC are in agreement. The plan is to have these items posted on the UCC and GC web pages as well as under “faculty forms.”

· Harris shared that she believed the committee on travel courses is designing a template and specific requirements for those courses.

Adjournment: Motion to adjourn made by McCallum; seconded by Gerick; passed unanimously. Noon.

Submitted 5-15-2009 by M. Harris, FS Secretary/Parliamentarian