December 7, 2022

Lamar University Faculty Senate Minutes December 07, 2022 

Galloway Business Building, Landes Auditorium 10:00-11:30AM 

Attendance Record 

In Person: Mark Broome, Pat Heintzelman, Yasuko Sato, Mark Mengerink, J.P. Nelson, Cengiz Sen, Kelly Weeks, Tom Harvey, Clayton Jeffryes, Gleb Tcheslavski, Eric McCluskey, Sujing Wang, James Slaydon 

Online: Melissa A. Riley, Cristina Rios, Eunjin Kwon, Beth A. Byers, Trina Nolen, Nicki L. Michalski, XENIA FEDORCHENKO, Brielle Frost, Jennifer M. Thedford, Perumalreddy Chandrasekaran, Chun-Wei Yao, Lilian Felipe, Stephan P Malick, Poornima Gunasekaran, JAMES W. ARMACOST, M Jao, Millicent Millicent Musyoka, Garrick Harden, Kelly A Brown, Raymond Doe, Wen Liu, Sujing WANG, Ginger S. Gummelt, Edgardo J Pujols, Thomas W Harvey, Maryam Hamidi, Mohamad Hamza, Sharon L Joffe, Shelly Allen 

Quorum met and meeting called to order at 10:20am by Dr. J.P. Nelson serving as Guest Chair on behalf of Dr. Cheng-Hsien Lin. 

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Dr. Nelson 

• Thank you for being here this morning. Since today’s meeting was not on President Taylor’s original schedule, he will not be here to present his usual one-minute introductory comments. 

• The first order of business is to review, and if necessary, amend the minutes of our October 5th meeting. The minutes for our November 2 meeting are pending completion and review. 
• No guest speakers will be joining us this morning. 

Prior to today’s meeting, Dr. Nelson met with Dr. Lin in order to summarize for the Senate what he (Dr. Lin) had learned during his most recent meeting with President Taylor and Provost Brown, which include: 

• The ongoing search for a new Assistant Vice President for Human Resources; 
• The review of Dean Craig (College of Engineering) is ongoing but the review of Dean Spina (College of Education and Human Development) is not moving forward since he has resigned his position; 

• In the spring we should anticipate a new policy about clarifying service obligations for faculty who teach online, which has become a major issue not only for Provost Brown but also among faculty; 
• President Taylor has expressed a commitment to equity adjustments, and the Budget and Compensation Committee is currently at work on this; 
• For those who are interested in curriculum issues such as adding courses, adding programs, or changing courses and programs, the new Smartsheet System is currently up and running and will help standardize the process for the curriculum items just mentioned. Like Degree Works, the Smartsheet System is another way in which the University has centralized record keeping. The Provost’s Office, Deans Offices, Department Chair Offices have access to Smartsheet and can track such items as the status of pending proposals; 
• For AY2023, we should expect the entire week of Thanksgiving to be a designated University Holiday. Provost Brown has spoken a great deal about this given that local school districts have adopted this practice, which has created challenges for Lamar faculty who are parents; 
• Other adjustments to the Academic Calendar are likely to be made, but they have not yet been finalized. It might happen that the Fall and Spring semesters will begin on Thursday rather than Monday; 

• LU Police Officer salaries have been increased in an effort to retain officers who otherwise are drawn to city and local Police Departments that offer higher salaries and benefits. Similarly, it is becoming more challenging for the University to retain outstanding staff members, such as Department Administrative Assistants and Associates who earn at most $25-35K a year. Faculty and staff salaries warrant review and action; 
• Does the Faculty Senate have a committee that is looking into the issue about whether Online and Face-to-Face faculty are required to have an on-campus presence? Further, how does this affect a faculty member’s Service obligation (20%) as reflected in the F2.08 annual faculty evaluation? Should this topic fall under the purview of the Faculty Senate [Faculty Evaluation Committee]? 
• Faculty Workload issues should not solely be determined by the number of courses one is assigned to teach but also by the number of students who are permitted to enroll in a faculty member’s assigned courses for any given semester or term. Faculty are expected to teach a 4-4 load, yet there is a wide disparity in “workload” between the same numbered course that has an enrollment of 40 students and one in which 120-250 or more students have been permitted to enroll. This and other workload disparities call for the Senate’s attention. 
• The last point I had to make in the President’s Report had to do with facilities and IT beginning this week. Facilities are centralizing information about tech work, but often we see flat screen TVs that are turned off in various campus buildings and are not doing anything to promote Lamar University. Facilities is currently addressing this issue by publicizing academic programs and student opportunities for being engaged in a wide variety of activities. 

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Committee Chair Reports   

Melissa Riley: The Academic Issues Committee met online via Teams on November 16 and discussed the following topics: 

• Committee member Brielle Frost introduced the idea of posting the Academic Calendar three years in advance. Melissa reached out to Provost Brown to learn if this could be done, but he has not responded back to her yet; 
• We also created a OneDrive folder that will include an Honor Code Review Form; 
• Dr. Hoch brought up an ethical issue dealing with academic integrity last month involving a graduate student enrolled in a thesis program who graduated without having completed a required thesis. The degree was ultimately rescinded. The Registrar both apologized and assumed responsibility for the error that occurred, but Dr. Hoch felt this was not actually an error, and he requested that we arrange a meeting with Provost Brown to discuss this further. I have emailed Dr. Brown about arranging a meeting with Dr. Hoch and I to discuss this further, but as of yet he has not responded back to our request. 

• This is all that I have to report, and our next meeting, I’m guessing, will be sometime around January 18. 

Sujing Wang: The Faculty Issues Committee  

• We also held our subcommittee meeting last month comprised of both in person and online committee members. Our meeting was lengthy and productive, and our main topic of discussion focused on the University’s Grievance Policy. I received feedback from all committee members, and we agreed to continue our work on the current policy. 

Jennifer Fowler: Budget and Compensation Committee 

• Jennifer Fowler was unable to attend the December 7 meeting. Dr. Nelson invited Dr. Harden, Vice Chair of the Budget and Compensation Committee to make a few comments on her behalf. He spoke briefly about the need to develop a formula for “equitable pay” as the focus of the committee’s current work.  

Dr. Kelly Brown reported on behalf of Dr. John Gossage, Chair of the Research and Creative Activity committee: 

• Regarding Faculty Development Leave, all proposals have been reviewed and our comments and proposal averages have been submitted to Dr. Gossage and Provost Brown. All documents should be in their hands by now.  

Mohamad Hamza, Chair Faculty Evaluation Committee 

• Committee Member Millicent Mysoka summarizes on behalf of Dr. Hamza that the committee, as a group, has been working on two issues, the first being on the F2.08 evaluation form and the second being on how to ensure Department Chairs follow the Faculty Handbook guidelines as they pertain to the F2.08. There are concerns that the F2.08 is being used in different ways for different faculty members in relation to Faculty Merit.  
• Lastly, we are working to develop a Faculty Climate Survey to garner as much material and information as possible that represent faculty experiences and what they would like to see changed on campus. We hope the Faculty Climate Survey will go out in April of next year. 
• Dr. Weeks suggests to Dr. Mysoka and her group to “… find a way to stratify that data according to how long someone has been here.”  

Nicki Michalski, Chair Faculty Handbook Committee 

• During recent meetings we have been talking a great deal about tracking proposed MAPPs, which is the University’s acronym for Manual of Administrative Policies and Procedures. Rather than divide our attention between reviewing and tracking additions to our growing number of MAPPS, President Taylor asked for the committee to focus solely on the Faculty Handbook text and undertake a comparison between the previously revised Faculty Handbook and the most updated version of the Faculty Handbook. Two specific issues have been pointed out to us and they include (1) Office Hours Policies, and (2) Developing a multi-level process for making changes to the Handbook which includes Faculty, Department Chairs, Deans, and Administration. Because communication is not always great, it is difficult for the people involved to enforce approved changes if they do not know where those policies can be found.  Basically, this entails informing other levels where in the Handbook changes have been made and how they are to be implemented.   

1. P. Nelson, Chair Ad Hoc Committee on HR Policies and Procedures

• The H.R. Committee is looking into how grievances are processed at other institutions, specifically whether grievances are separated based on whether they pertain to academic issues or matters directly related to employment law. Also, Dr. Nelson plans to host a meeting with university stakeholders to help the Committee gather additional information about these issues. 

Old Business 

• Dr. Weeks re-introduced the modified version of the by-laws that he initially emailed to members on November 2, 2022. Following a debate over these proposed changes, Dr. Weeks’s new version of the by-laws was approved by the 2/3 margin necessary to secure passage (9 in-person attendees and 24 online attendees; 24 yeas, 9 nays). An additional amendment to the by-laws passed (by the required margin) immediately thereafter. This amendment stipulates that Chairs of the Faculty Senate committees will be elected by committee members, and that the Faculty Senate President cannot remove those committee chairs. 

Motion to Adjourn Passes (12:30pm)