March 1, 2023

Call to Order

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

Dr. Taylor’s Minute

President Taylor:

President Taylor opened the meeting first by thanking university Academic Department Chairs and their respective faculty for preparing so energetically to welcome more than 800 registered visitors to campus for the upcoming Cardinal View on March 4, 2023.

Since Lamar’s enrollment numbers and targeted budgeting initiatives have met and, in most instances, exceeded its expectations, Lamar may be in line for a 3% Merit Salary increase for the upcoming Academic year. In fact, Lamar’s weighted credit hour production has increased by 14%, and a measure of optimism surrounds what this might mean for Lamar heading into the Fall 2023 semester.

Exit surveys – always mention getting to talk to faculty member

Fix inversion before compression

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

Honorary alumni idea (will not look like graduate)

Funding formula

Speaker: Dr. Freddie Titus

Encouraged all present to establish her or his Personal or Professional Identity to include:

--Preferred Name,

--Legal Name as it appears on one’s Transcript, and

--Legal Name on file with Human Resources

Ensure that Lamar provides its students and visitors with a welcoming environment by way of Gender-Neutral Restrooms. Facilities will be renovated to ensure they meet ADA requirements for Special Populations and that they provide a single space that is private and secure.

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

Clarified single occupancy restrooms

Will put locations of gender-neutral restrooms online

Speaker: Michael Saar

Biannual library survey – Libqual

URL for old survey results

libqual.org

encourage participation

good survey for library

Motion to approve minutes from February General Meeting (Caroline Burrell), 2nd (Garrick Harden)

Unanimous approval

President’s Report: Dr, Cheng-Hsien Lin

Tenure letters out

Still swaiting for a follow-up about the Dean’s Evaluation for the College of Engineering

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, high responses are better

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 (waiting on data), 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 (Lilian Felipe reported for the committee)

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 to table conversation 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 polling/forms software name in the language]

First (Kelly Weeks), Second (Pat Heintzelman)

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)