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April 22, 1998 Minuites


Present: Conroy, Deduck-Evans, Hays, Irvin, McGee, Oliver, Pascoe, Sawey,
Simpson, Stimmel, and Winek.

Absent: Anderson, Bible, Gillis, Hunter

Guests: John Davis (Psychol), Grady Early (Math), Margaret Vaverek
(Lib), Sheila Torres-Blank (Lib), George Morgan (CIS/QMST), Ramona Ford (Soc),
Dylan Sides (STAR), and Mike Moore.

CONTENTS
Senate Subcommittee on Librarian Pay and Status Report
International Perspective
Committee on Committees Report
SWT Smoking Policy
New Business
SR 98-04 Faculty Representative
University Star Article on Developmental Leave Reviews
Presidential Award Committees
Minutes of 4-15-98

The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Grant Simpson at 4:07.

1. Senate Subcommittee on Librarian Pay and Status Report

Dr. Mona Ford, Chair of the Senate Library Subcommittee and the SACS Library
Committee, reported that the SACS accreditation team investigating the Library
is working on their 4th draft of the "must statments" report. A final copy
will be circulated in November when the SACS Steering Committee sends forward
approved reports from all subcommittees. The "must statements" overlap the
concerns of the Senate Library Subcommittee and include additional items (e.g.
user surveys, service to distance learning sites, electronic hard and software,
et. al.) A copy of the Executive Summary of the Library SACS Draft Report is
available in the Faculty Senate Office.

Despite cuts in state funding, through additional funding from the University
and student fees, there has been a 41% growth in library pieces since 1988
with the electronic database and search engines expanding the possibilities
immeasurably. Public awareness of the availability of electronic resources is
a problem. The collection exceeds national formulas for a university of SWT's
size and mission. TexShare cards are available to all SWT students, faculty
and staff, allowing access to all state funded and some private libraries.

Two surveys, one of users and the other of faculty, indicated a high level of
satisfaction with the library, especially with the Circulation and Reference
sections, whose scores were in the upper 90's.

All 26 SWT professional librarians have master's degrees from ALA accredited
programs and are highly active in their field. According to the ALA formula
for determining number of librarians, SWT employs 52% of the librarians
needed.

Career-ladder librarian and staff pay is below state, regional and national
averages and turnover remains a problem.

The Senate voted to urge the upper administration to act on the Library's
Career Ladder and Scheduling Teams reports. This item will be put on the
upcoming PAAG agenda. The Senate will offer to oversee the career ladder
salary surveys to eliminate a conflict pointed out by Pres. Supple when this
issue was last discussed.

2. International Perspective

The Senate was asked by VPAA Gratz to consider 2 recommendations from General
Studies Council:

1. A revised definition of "International Perspective"
2. The procedure for adding or deleting courses in the General Studies
Curriculum.

In reference to the first item, Prof. Grady Early circulated comments to the
Senate via email and attended the Senate meeting to explain his concerns that
the International Perspective requirement is poorly defined, is not a true core
experience since it can be filled by 65 different courses and is unnecessary if
the university curriculum is international in nature. This discussion gains
importance in light of efforts by the Coordinating Board and the Legislature to
reduce the total number of degree hours required.

A motion to recommend the elimination of the International Perspective in the
General Studies Curriculum was defeated. The Senate voted to endorse the
General Studies Council recommendations on items 1 and 2 above.

3. Committee on Committees Report

Prof. John Davis, Chair of the Committee on Committees, presented the
committee's recommendations for faculty appointments to Senate committees for
the 1998-99 academic year. The recommendations are based primarily on
responses to the Committee Preference Poll distributed to the faculty each
fall.

The importance of faculty volunteering for committee service via this poll and
the Senate's responsibility to encourage participation was discussed. After
considering the composition of 20 Senate committees, the recommendations from
the Committee on Committees were accepted with minor changes and revisions.

4. SWT Smoking Policy

The Senate has been asked to consider a proposal before UC to ban
smoking in all buildings. RTA'd due to lateness of the hour.

5. New Business

SR 98-04 Faculty Representative

The Senate received a request from Linda Bertelsen, Auxiliary Services, for a
faculty representative to serve on the committee investigating the removal of
Social Security numbers from student ID cards and other materials that could be
accessible to a third party. Prof. Cynthia Peterson (C&I) had expressed an
interest in this issue and, therefore, was appointed by the Senate to serve on
the committee addressing SR 98-04.

University Star Article on Developmental Leave Reviews

After the Senate developmental leave rounds, the Star ran articles summarizing
the applications and also adding some comments which Senators had made during
their discussion of the applications. The Senate is concerned that it is not
necessary, wise, or appropriate for such comments to be aired in this forum.
In the past, when the Senate discussed applications at the same time, after all
presentations had been made, the practice was to close that portion of the
the meeting; this changed last year, however, when the Senate began discussing
applications after each presentation. In the future, the Senate will
reinstitute the practice of closing deliberations to the public for future
evaluation discussions.

Presidential Award Committees

Senators Simpson, Deduck, and Oliver reported that the Committee for the
Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching unanimously proposed several
changes in the award process to include those committees selecting Scholarship
and Service recipients. These include:

-making 3 categories (Professor, Associate Professor, and Assistant
Professor/instructor/lecturer for the $5,000 awards;

-directing the schools to select one nominee per category who
would automatically receive the $1,000 award;

-charging the university selection committee to identify the
$5,000 recipient from the possible 7 nominees per category."

Minutes of 4-15-98

The minutes of the 4-15-98 meeting were approved with Senator Stimmel's
suggested changes.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:12.