November 6, 2019

Faculty Senate  

November 6, 2019  

8th floor Mary and John Gray Library  

Attending: Arts and Sciences: Jennifer Fowler, Brian Williams, LeAnn Chisholm, , Cynthia Pipkins, Kelli White, Pat Heintzelman, Jing Zhang, Sujing Wang, JP Nelson, Christopher Martin, Melissa Riley, Joseph Kruger, Jim Armacost, Jeremy Shelton, Ashwini Kucknoor, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Garrick Harden, Robert Vallin Business: Ashraf El-Houbi, Tim McCoy, Vivek Natarajan Education: ,  Kaye Shelton, Donna Azodi, Eunjin Kwon, Dorothy Sisk, Robert Nicks, Praphul Joshi  Engineering: Berna Tokgoz, John Gossage, Chun-Wei Yao, Mien Jao  Fine Arts and Communication: Ashley Dockens, Nicki Michalski, Paul Hemenway, Brian LeTraunik, Travis Prokop, S. Jordan Wright, Jacob Clark, Serder Ilban, Xenia Fedorchenko  Library: Sarah Tusa, Scott Crawford Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel   

Not Attending: Arts and Sciences: Matt Hoch, Charles Popp,  Gwinyai Muzorewa, Suying Wei,  Cengiz Sen Business: John McCollough Education: Cindy Cummings, Shannon McFarlin, Cristina Rios, Kim McGough Engineering: Ruhai Wang, Yueqing Li Fine Arts and Communication: Awais Saleem  

Call to Order: 3:30 p.m. 

Guest Speaker: Theresa Hefner-Babb, SACS-COC Liaison 

• We are working on our ten year re-affirmation. Our report was submitted September 10, and the off-site meeting is taking place now. At the end of February we need to submit a focus report and QEP document. The on-site visit will be April 8th. We are scheduled to receive our re-affirmation confirmation in January 2021. 
• A hand-out is provided that covers many of the commonly seen issues. 
• 99% of schools have faculty competence issues. 

• Core assessment is a common problem. 
• There is usually a financial audit. 
• They look at the faculty to student ratio. 

• There are no Texas people on the committee. 

• We have 60% compliance with the syllabus and vita uploads. 

• We are required by law to post them by the 7th class day. 
• Everyone needs to update their vita annually. 
• We need to be aware of state requirements for syllabi (most of these are now covered in the Concourse template). 
• The committee’s primary concerns are compliance with both the state and LU regulations. 

• Now SACS-COC reaccreditation is an on-going process of assessing effectiveness. 
• Copies of the report will be available in library reserves and Theresa’s office. It will be put on the web once all of the typos and grammar mistakes are fixed. 

Guest Speaker: Jeremy Alm, director of the QEP 

• We are working on getting students into appropriate math pathways. College algebra is not necessary for everyone. 
• This will decrease the numbers of pre-reqs and remediation hours students need. 

• It will increase student success, retention and so forth. 
• Department chairs have been signing letters of intent about changing their math requirements. 
• It is important that advisors are aware of the new math requirements. 
• We need students to get their math out of the way in the first two years. 
• There is a significant decrease in the remediation classes being offered. Instead, we are moving to a co-requisite situation. 

• We need to fight the idea that contemporary math is “math for dummies”. It has a critical thinking focus. It is not easier; it is just different. We are trying to get students into the mindset of mathematicians without all of the mechanics. 

Approval of the minutes: A motion was made by Vivek Natarajan and seconded by Sarah Tusa. The motion carried. 

President’s Report: 

• The update from the meeting with Dr. Evans included: 

• Three people were stuck in the library during Imelda due to flooding. 

• The monetary costs will exceed that of Hurricane Harvey. 
• The CFO search has been announced. The search for the Associate Provost of Research and Sponsored Programs is on-going. There should be an announcement soon. 
• We are part of the education initiative with Apple. 
• We are hosting our first robotics competition. 

• The update from the Texas Council of Faculty Senates and TSUS meetings included: 

• Vivek Natarajan was elected vice president of TCFS. 
• Lamar State College Port Arthur is lowering their tuition 25%. 
• Lamar State College Orange is giving raises to all of their faculty. 
• The line in the budget about the 10% cut is a legislative issue. They always ask how schools would manage it, but that doesn’t usually happen. 
• There was discussion about the evaluation of administrators. 

• Academic freedom is a major point of discussion. 

Academic Issues: 

• There was no quorum at the meeting. 
• Dr. Nichols talked about the AP/CDE merge situation. She says the merge is set up this way to comply with FERPA. She also says that if there are more students in the class, the faculty member makes more money, so the merge of two sections is not a disadvantage. 
• A suggestion was made from the floor that we need to look at establishing a mechanism for dealing with instructional load issues. 

• Dr. Nichols said that she is not involved in the degree plan change issues. 

Faculty Issues:  

• We are working on the grievance policy. 
• Chris Martin is the nominee for the Piper award. 
• Nobody on the committee thinks that changing to a 3 year review (instead of a two and a four year) is a good idea. 

Budget and Compensation: 

• The committee is having trouble locating the person who can provide them with a line-by-line budget for review. 
• A request was made for a list of all administrators with their starting pay. 

Events Committee: 

• There was a 7 am breakfast this morning. 

• It was an opportunity to meet some of the TOTAL people. 
• The Distinguished Faculty Lecture will be held on November 12th, please come. 

Research and Creative Activity: 

• We have changed the committee name to include creative activity. 
• We approved the committee charge. 

• Development leave applications are due Tuesday. So far none have been received. 

F2.08: 

• The committee is getting its footing. Jim Armacost has been elected chair and they have had discussions with Jennifer Fowler and Nicki Michalski about the goals of the committee. 
• Dr. Marquart would like to meet with the committee. 

Student Success: 

• The committee has met with Craig Escamilla and Greg Marsh. 
• They are working on gathering data. 
• Dr. Evans suggested the group meet with the Dean of the Library. 

University Committee Reports: 

Judge Joe Fisher Lecture: the date has been set for the lecture. It will be March 9th. 

Handbook Committee: the committee has been working on grammar changes and trying to streamline the book. They will be separating procedures from policies. There will be links to the TSUS handbook. Once that is all done, then the work on the actual book can begin. 

Old Business: 

• A copy of suggested revisions to the by-laws has been distributed. If you have questions, please contact Jennifer. We cannot vote on this for 30 days, so we will vote at the December meeting. The vote is going to be on the by-laws as written. Amendments can be made later to address the following issues: 

• There has been a suggestion made that we revise the length of terms for senators and officers. Most faculty senates have longer terms because it allows for greater continuity and completion of tasks. Many are 4-year terms with 2-year officer terms. However, the suggestion is made that we should consider 3-year terms because if a person is re-elected with a 4-year term they will be in senate for 8 years which is a long time. A vote is taken and the senate is amenable to a 3 year term. We can discuss phasing the change in over time. 
• Our senate is much larger than most. The majority have 12-15 members. We are close to 50. We might want to discuss cutting membership to facilitate better communication. 

• There is also mention of changing the executive committee to include a president-elect to increase the time spent on the committee before taking the presidency. 

• A handbook committee is going to be created. Jennifer will call a first meeting for them next week. If you are interested in serving, please let us know. 
• The ad-hoc committee has been renamed the investigative committee. 

• They have paid for the public information request and were told it will take months to get the materials because the office is backed up. 
• They have filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s office about the excessive cost of the requests charged by Lamar. 

• The AG’s office sent a letter to LU asking for information in ten days’ time to assess the validity of the charges. 
• LU sent a five page letter in response which claimed they had undercharged us by $500. 

• Information has been sent about Dr. Evans’s evaluation, but it was basically his state of the university talk and not an actual evaluation. 
• Audits are coming in from TSUS and THECB. 
• Information is slowly coming in. 

• Jennifer suggested extending the deadline for the committee to account for the time required to get information. There is unanimous acceptance of a end of spring deadline. 

New Business: 

• The town hall meeting is scheduled for November 20th at 4:30. 

• Questions are being collected; so far there are 23. 

• We will leave the solicitation open until Friday. Please let people know to contribute. 
• Paul Hemenway will be a moderator. The second moderator has not yet been selected. 
• Dr. Evans has asked if he can bring deans, vice-presidents and such who can provide additional information about the questions. 

• The faculty issues committee is presenting a resolution about the definition of the term faculty. It will be sent out so everyone can review it before voting next month. 

Adjournment: 

Sarah Tusa made a motion to adjourn. Melissa Riley seconded the motion, and it carried. The meeting adjourned at 4:39 p.m.