March 1, 2022

Faculty Senate General Meeting – March 1, 2023 

Attendees 

Mark Broome, Raymond Doe, Jennifer Fowler, Ginger Gummelt, Pat Heintzelman, B. Garrick Harden, Jennifer Huff, Sharon Joffe, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Jane Liu, Wen Liu, Mark Mengerink, J.P. Nelson, Joe Norgren, Melissa Riley, Yasuko Sato, Cengiz Sen, Jenifer Thedford, Asraf El-Houbi, Tim McCoy, Kelly Weeks, Tom Harvey, Eujin Kwon, Daryl Ann Borel, John Gossage, Chien-Wei Tao, Gleb Tcheslavski, Alan Brincks, Beth Byers, Xenia Fedorchenko, Lilian Felipe, Brielle Frost, Stephan Malick, Millicent Musyoka, Eric McCluskey, Poornima Gunasekaran, Trina Nolen 

Taylor’s Minute 

President Taylor: likes interaction/outreach 

Wants core piece of Cardinal View to be academics 

Over 800 signed up, “big day Saturday” 

Exit surveys – always mention getting to talk to faculty member 

Fix inversion before compression 

3% increase salary pool next year 

University Advancement – graduates accomplished great things; some didn’t graduate 

Honorary alumni idea (will not look like graduate) 

Funding formula 

Titus 

Read policy – recognition of preferred names and pronouns, will be able to use preferred name in Banner 

LEA, email address, Banner, Residence Hall ID, diploma 

Transcript will have legal name 

Gender neutral restroom 

2021 survey done on single occupancy restrooms that can be made neutral 

Clarified single occupancy restrooms 

Will put locations of gender-neutral restrooms online 

Saar 

Biannaul library survey – Libqual 

url for old survey results 

libqual.org 

encourage participation 

good survey for library 

Motion to approve (Caroline Burrell), 2nd (Garrick Harden) [Note: I think this was the approval of the minutes, but my notes do not indicate what motion they made] 

Unanimous approval 

President’s Report (Cheng-Hsien Lin) 

Tenure letters out 

Our formula funding went up 

We expect merit raises 

Inversion – higher pay for senior than junior faculty 

May also address staff salary 

Submit budget to Board of Regents in May 

We will get requested HEAF money 

FDL – all four applications approved 

Credit hours increasing at LU but not head count 

Good turnout at NAACP Legal Defense Fund meeting 

Need more responses to climate survey, more responses are better 

Kelly Weeks: Who is looking at salary inversion? 

Cheng-Hsien Lin: Will look at worst first then send to Budget and Compensation Committee 

Committee Reports 

Academic Issues (Melissa Riley) 

Met February 15 on Teams, discussed academic calendar and want it posted for at least 3 years (spoke to Brown about it), talked about Chat GPT and thought there should be language for syllabus about it, discussed rolling grades nightly and will reach out to Registrar; maybe use AI in wording instead of Chat GPT 

Faculty Issues (Sujing Wang) 

Collecting feedback from faculty members on grievance policy draft 

Budget and Compensation (Jennifer Fowler) 

Intra-departmental salary equity plan, may have it available if you log in with LEA. Dr. Lin asked to look into merit plans ( how do we distribute merit to not worsen inequity?). 

Faculty Evaluation (Millicent Musyoka) 

Last meeting finished questions for survey, will send to Executive Committee to evaluate questions. 

Faculty Handbook (Raymond Doe) 

Met and have three motions 

Preamble (edit has been shared with senators), ask senators to approve 

Discussed handbook reviews, have them handwritten 

Want to link old (2019) MAPPs while new ones debated 

Goal: new handbook to approve by committee, to Provost, then approved by Senate 

Motion: allowed to serve on committee another year after leaving senate position 

Third motion: change committee and chair process 

Motion one: First (Stephan Malick), Second (Mark Mengerink) 

Kelly Weeks: better to distribute motions before meetings 

Motion to table: First (Jane Liu), Second (Kelly Weeks) 

Vote on motion to table: 14 in favor, 12 against [Note: The motion was tabled.] 

Ad Hoc Committee on Human Resources Policy and Procedure (J.P. Nelson) 

If an organization wants your contact information for a political cause, please provide a non-Lamar email address. As state employees, we are not allowed to use state resources to influence politics. V.P. Nelson learned this at the Texas Council of Faculty Senates meeting. 

The stakeholders in HR-related positions (Assistant and Associate Vice President, Title IX Coordinator, etc.) are now permanent employees, not interim appointees. The committee has gathered information on which types of grievances are within the purview of which campus offices, and is working on producing a guide for faculty on this matter. They are currently planning a meeting with the stakeholders and the committee members so that members can ask them questions and learn more about how current policies are/will be implemented. 

Cheng-Hsien Lin: Trying to get chairs involved in voluntary mediation process 

Old Business 

Letter to English and Modern Languages Department Instructors 

Garrick Harden: Motion: Support instructors, individual instructor should be notified if there is a problem, long-term (seven years) instructors should have an expectation of contract renewal, and alerting an entire department’s instructor pool is not appropriate 

Tom Harvey: We are not consistently running the Faculty Senate; more attention is being paid to the current motion than those that came from the Faculty Handbook Committee. 

Motion about instructor letter: First (Caroline Burrell), Second (Jennifer Fowler) 

Pat Heintzelman: Non-renewal would be at end of semester, keep that in mind when you vote, Lamar used to only allow 3-year contracts for instructors. AAUP says some expectation of renewal. 

Motion to Table: 10 votes to table; 13 votes against tabling [Note: The motion was not tabled.] 

The motion about the instructor letter received unanimous approval. 

Kelly Weeks: we should have a special session to bring up concerns, not just for the College of Business. 

Motion – special session for time a quorum can be there via Doodle poll [later decided to not use a company name in the language] 

First (Kelly Weeks), Second (Pat Heintzelman) 

Pat Heintzelman: Support because special session could move forward [Note: I am not sure what this comment means; I must have missed something.] 

Motion: First (Kelly Weeks), Second (Pat Heintzelman) 

The motions passed unanimously. 

New Business 

Kelly Weeks: Engineering concerns 

Pat Heintzelman: 1940 AAUP statement in LU Faculty Handbook 

Suggest senate and university should support it 

Pat Heintzelman: spoke with Lynn Tatum, he will speak with us virtually on March 29, encouraging people to attend (3:00 p.m.) 

Motion to adjourn: First (Kelly Weeks), Second (John Gossage)