December 01, 2021

Call to Order, Roll Call (Sign In) FS President announced link to sign-in. Started at 3:30 PM.

President Taylor’s Minute:

Dr. Taylor began his update by letting FS know that he is enjoying working with faculty and has been happy to have the open discussions that have been requested. Dr. Taylor reported that he spoke with J. Slaydon about data for equity study and discussed how to benchmark the university first. Dr. Taylor stated he would investigate whether we could get access to data we report to the State. Dr. Taylor suggested greater reviews need to occur when programs are being formed and how money is being spent (Pro Formas).

• Recommendation from the floor (J. Slaydon) – physical copy of the budget should be available in a central location like the library
• Recommendation from JP Nelson – adding to Slaydon – info was previously not only in library but also PDF online
• Info from floor: Texas Legislative Budget Board (Stephan Malick) and openthebooks.com (A. Dockens) have some budgetary information online
• Question and info from floor (K Weeks) – transparency is an issue – some events in the past have locked down the ability for faculty to have open communication
  • Note from FS President – we now have ability to contact faculty directly
  • President Taylor response – I was not involved in past issues and want to look into decision making and processes to improve what is happening – changing things takes time

Guest Speaker – Wilma Jackson – Office of Global Diversity and Inclusive Excellence

Began recording at 3:58 PM

• Enjoy building and maintaining relationships (loves brunch)
• OGDIE responsibility for multicultural programming and education – services for EVERYONE – but also have specific services for underrepresented individuals
• Want to share about FirstGen Forward Initiatives in OGDIE
• Created a first gen forward workgroup:
•  
• Received national recognition from NAFSA as first gen forward consortium member
• Many events this fall for first generation
• Did a presentation for Texas tech for first generation conference
• Had a project with COEd with Jerry Nix via his program evaluation class
• Question from floor (E. Shannon) – who are your partners? – we have members of certain colleges that are a part of our workgroup – we welcome more 😊 – contact wjackson10@lamar.edu
• Note from floor (J. Slaydon) – would you like a list of students in College of Business (COB) who are first gen?
• Question from floor (M. Hoch) – What is happening with McNair program? Extended twice – didn’t have enough applicants
• Question from floor (G. Harden )– religious diversity – some colleagues were offended by pastor at investiture – Response W. Jackson: thank you for bringing a need to our attention, we do our best to address needs
  • Discussion from floor.
• Request from W. Jackson: Send your students their way! They love to help!

Approval of Minutes – November 2021

Motion Vivek and Stephan Malick – second; passed

Faculty Senate Committee Chair Reports   

Academic Issues Committee – Melissa Riley  

• Meet virtually Nov. 17 and Jarrod Rossi guest spoke about course evaluations
• Course evaluation general questions are going to be addressed
• Looked at Distance Education policy proposed checklist from Dr. Kumar – support the policy mostly but some committee members feel some things should be suggested rather than mandated to support academic freedom
• Distance Learning – VP Lin: Found out list was guideline rather than policy

Faculty Issues Committee – Sujing Wang

• Finished Piper award review process
• Working on faculty grievance policy and received Provost feedback (will discuss next meeting)
• Working on MAPP also to add to faculty handbook

Budget and Compensation Committee – Garrick Harden  

• Got one request received from Open Records for salaries for every employee and breakdowns by race, gender, and ethnicity – forwarded to equity studies
• First motion for resolution, “Based on the 2020 CUPA report and the Budget and Compensation Sub-committee’s analysis of salary data from Lamar University, which illustrates the compression of salaries for faculty hired between 2003-2009, the Budget and Compensation Sub-committee moves that first equity raises be targeted at faculty hired between 2003-2009 from instructors up to full professors and all ranks in between simultaneously. Furthermore, the equity should be achieved for the above-mentioned cohort prior to any other equity adjustments and the administration should have an actionable plan to present to the Faculty Senate by the end of the present academic year to be implemented no later than the beginning of 2022 academic year. The Budget and Compensation Subcommittee also moves that faculty salaries for the cohort hired between 2003-2009 be adjusted to at least 10% below CUPA median salaries for aspirational institutions’ CUPA figures (or an alternative percentage that the current campus budget allows) and continue to minimize the salary gap over the course of 3 years to reach aspirational CUPA figures by 2024.”
• Motion made by Harden, seconded Slaydon
  • If we are looking to raise our Carnegie Institute ranking then faculty need the support to move to an R2
  • Heintzelman – appreciated inclusion to instructors but older hires (prior to 2003) have greater compression
  • Fowler - during the equity adjustment under Simmons were instructors included?
  • Heintzelman – no.
  • Weeks – instructor ranks may help
  • Weeks – “no one can get equity adjustments until…” language may need altered
  • Fowler – I think we need to do a study and figure out the amount needed to get us to equity and then request they find a way across a given time period to complete the equity matches
  • Weeks – G. Harden, are you open to a friendly amendment re: “no one”?
  • Harden – yes
  • Discussion re: need for this and why HR is involved
  • Slaydon motion to close discussion – G. Harden second it
  • Weeks – can we table it until everyone has reviewed the new language?
  • We can vote on the motion now with amendment: “Based on the 2020 CUPA report and the Budget and Compensation Sub-committee’s analysis of salary data from Lamar University, which illustrates the compression of salaries for faculty hired between 2003-2009, the Budget and Compensation Sub-committee moves that first equity raises be targeted at faculty hired between 2003-2009 from instructors up to full professors and all ranks in between simultaneously. Furthermore, the equity should be given priority for the above-mentioned cohort prior to any other equity adjustments and the administration should have an actionable plan to present to the Faculty Senate by the end of the present academic year to be implemented no later than the beginning of 2022 academic year. The Budget and Compensation Subcommittee also moves that faculty salaries for the cohort hired between 2003-2009 be adjusted to minimally 10% below CUPA median salaries for aspirational institutions’ CUPA figures (or an alternative percentage that the current campus budget allows) and continue to minimize the salary gap over the course of 3 years to reach aspirational CUPA figures by 2024.”
    • 26 aye – motion carries
  • Note: Further motions may be needed later as data is analyzed

Events – Dorothy Sisk  

• Met last week and recommended distinguished faculty lecturer should be moved to just after Spring Break

Research and Creative Activity – John Gossage  

• Chris reported in place of J. Gossage – all recommendations made to Provost (9 applicants)

Faculty Evaluation – Carmen Doering

• Musyoka has agreed to take over as chair as Carmen retires
• Likes the new FS module in Blackboard

Student Success – Pat Heintzelman 

• No reports

Faculty Handbook – Matt Hoch  

• 2 meetings – FS and University meeting
• Went over comments made on last posting of handbook for comments
• Requests faculty please pay attention to Monday announcements to make note of these review opportunities
• Amy to send policy reviews to all faculty
• Would FS like to see what has been reviewed and comments changed? Yes. Will post on Blackboard.
• Postponing discussion of workload until further info
• President Taylor does not want rigid standards but wants guidelines with flexibility

Faculty Senate President’s Report   

• Some individuals have been denied promotion and overturned – people denied promotion (6 denied – 3 overturned)
• K Weeks (B. Mayer thought it was 8 and only 2 were not overturned)
• Slaydon – how did they make it to Provost and not rejected sooner?
• Fedorchenko – f208 and annual review – are those backed by our admin? Where is the shared governance?
• Fowler - Can we have a roundtable or brown bag for discussion issues? – perhaps to take place of some executive council meetings?
  • Weeks - this meeting it was 90 minutes – we need time to vote on resolutions and motions – should we expand 120-150 minutes?
  • Natarajan – guest speakers are given too much time
• Fowler note: Dr. Taylor talked about the open records request – when asked, the President is happy to give information when he can

Old Business     

none

New Business   

• JP Nelson at OUR Award session – office on signing off on all the checks for student prizes didn’t get to that in time
• Nix – minitab stats program – LU has access but would like to be and have access – J. Slaydon (COB) has license
• Weeks – Student evaluations that never end – we teach to evaluations instead of improving course (other places evaluated once every third year) – can focus more on quality rather than evaluation; evaluations beyond final time doesn’t make sense – send to academic issues
• Weeks.- requests closed session to discuss issues without recording for his new business –
• FS agreed, CLOSED and stopped recording meeting 5:28 PM
• Dockens (secretary) excused herself to prevent any concern for bias re: closed session topics.
• Any further notes were kept by FS President or VP.

NOTE: I do not have the final adjournment info since I was excused at closed session – A. Dockens (Secretary)

Adjourn at PM

Motion to adjourn by , seconded – passed - ended at pm