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Oct 10, 2001 Minutes

APPROVED FACULTY SENATE MINUTES 43RD FACULTY SENATE OCTOBER 10, 2001



 


Approved Senate Minutes

October 10, 2001

All Senators were present

Guests:  Matthew Swartz, Mike Moore (informal information officer)

Meeting was called to order by chair Renick at 4:00 pm.

Chair Renick presented the following issues for later discussion:
1.  Staff Council was concerned about seemingly excessive (And they were not kidding!) administrative salary increases when staff salary increases have not materialized.
2.  Establishing a time for meeting with the Senate Liaisons (Oct. 24 or 31)
3.  Setting a time for the Senate/CAD meeting (Nov. 6 or 13)

Presidential Search Committee
The Senate then turned its attention to selecting the three faculty nominees from which one faculty member will be chosen to serve on the Presidential Search Committee.  Some Senators wanted to limit nominations to those on the Senate.  After some animated discussion it was moved and seconded (McKinney/Blevens) that only present senators be placed in nomination.
This motion was amended (Sawey) to allow current Senators who did not wish to be on the search committee to name a non-senate member to be considered in their place.  This creative motion was passed 9/4.  The Senate then generated a list of names that would be acceptable for the substitutions.  It was emphasized that, should one of these people be selected they would be obligated to keep the Senate privy to all activities of the search committee.  The ballot was then drawn up and Senators voted.  The three nominees to be sent to the Board of Regents for possible inclusion on the search committee are Fred Blevens, Joan Hays, and Oren Renick.

Senate Goals
Chair Renick announced that Senator McKinney has volunteered to take the action plans created by the various Senate goal teams and beat them into a consistent format.  (If I had a hammer.)
Senator Gillis suggested that we encourage Senate Liaisons to sign on to work on some of these goals when we have our Senate/Liaison meetings.  This suggestion was greeted with enthusiasm.

Chair Renick suggested that the Senate might want to find ways of obtaining our own data and information since we often pose questions that get no answers.  Actually, we often get answers but they seem to be to different questions.  Examples of such information might include salary compression, success in keeping tenure and tenure track hires, promotions, costs of Ph.D. programs, and the hiring and use of part time and adjunct faculty.  Looks like its time to suit up!

Although many Senators remember working on policy documents pertaining to Post Tenure Review there seems to be some difficulty in locating more that a few sentences in the Faculty Handbook.   We will be tracking down these policies.  As the Senate presses forward with the task of improving the PTR process it was suggested that we might want to obtain advice from a number of external organizations such as TFA, AAUP, TACT and others.  The Senate continues to be concerned about the failure of the process to intervene and remediate successfully.  The process may need to become more adversarial on the part of the faculty.  The Senate will continue to observe the litigation process now occurring in the case of Dr. Rudnicki.

Developmental Leaves
Senator Stutzman pointed out to the Senate that chairs, when they step down, are given an administrative developmental leave.  This leave requires no proposal and no outcome report. Since this is so it seems like "double dipping" to allow a chair to be considered for a developmental leave while a sitting chair.  The first question during the ensuing debate was whether the Senate had the authority to deny chairs the right to be considered for developmental leave?  Having denied that privilege to Senators it was agreed that, perhaps, we did have the authority.  It was moved by Stutzman and seconded by Stone that the Senate amends the developmental leave policy to exclude sitting chairs and deans from being able to apply for developmental leaves.  After much fairly heated discussion and the consideration that this might further drive a wedge between faculty and their first line of administrative defense the motion was accepted 8/4/1.  Faculty has a difficult time deciding whether chairs are administrators (the enemy) or faculty (good guys).  Actually it is nice to see how many Senators seem to like their chairs!

Evaluation of VPAA and President
Senator Stutzman presented the results of a Senate committee charged with developing a means of having the faculty evaluate the VPAA and President of swTSU.  The materials included a cover letter, instructions and a questionnaire for each of the above mentioned administrators.  A few suggestions were made for improvement.  These changes will be made and the final documents presented to the Senate at the next meeting.  The Senate agreed that there is a great need for a performance evaluation, even if the President is retiring.  This will be a "bench mark" for further evaluations.

Associate and Assistant VP salary increases
Senator Sawey passed out a document including specific raises for several associate and assistant VPs.  One was for $20,000 dollars, guys.  Takes your breath away.  VPs apparently received a 4% raise like the rest of us but Senator Sawey will be checking on that.

For your enlightened perusal the list of the associates and assistants appear below:
      Assoc. VP, University Advancement          from $81,936.00  to 102,048.00
      Assoc. VP, Quality and Planning               from $79,920.00  to  96,120.00
      Assoc. VP, Student Affairs                        from $87,864.00  to  91,826.00
      Asst. VP, Information Services                  from $85,272.00  to  95,640.00
      Asst. VP, VPFSS Planning                        from $73,428.00  to  79,128.00
      Asst. VP, Director, Multicultural
      Student Affairs                                          from $76,416.00  to  79,524.00
This when the Staff Council was told that limited resources was the reason that staff salaries could only be brought above 75% of base.  Is this some of that "forked tongue speak"?
The Senate will be having some further discussions with the Staff Council.
The Senate will be reviewing associate and assistant dean salaries as well.  Keep tuned to this dial.

Other Stuff
Senator Peeler asked for nominations for members on the Transportation and Parking Committee.  They are doing some very important work that will be effecting our parking costs, bus routes, etc.  Senator Hindson volunteered to join the committee.   The Senate will be selecting another member soon.
The Senate approved Committee on Committee recommendations for committee membership.
It was mentioned that Dr.Warshauer was concerned about the lack of financial aid for high school students participating in college programs.

The minutes of Oct. 3 were approved.

Submitted with only mild hand wringing, Joan Hays