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Faculty Senate

April 23, 2008 Minutes

Members present:  Senators Stone, Bond, Feakes, Hazlewood, Hindson, Hurt, McGee, McKinney, Meek, Melzer, Ogletree, Winek, Wilson

 

Guests: AVPIT Milt Nielsen; Dr. Robert Habingreither, Assoc. Dean of Science; Dr. Joe Tomasso, Chair of Biology; Dr. Vedaraman Sriraman, Chair of Technology; Dr. Terry Golding, Physics; Dr. Bob McLean, Biology; Mathew Greengold, Liberal Arts Media Technician; Rebecca Swindal, Staff Council Representative; Mary Dichard, University Star

 

 

Meeting called to order at 4:00.

 

Computer Refresh Cycle: AVPIT Milt Nielsen met with the Senate to discuss the computer refresh cycle.  He indicated that computer refresh funds from HEAF are allocated annually based on the number of full-time faculty and staff paid from appropriated or designated tuition funds. Equipment for staff paid from grants, fees or service revenue must be refreshed from those funds.  Each year allocation numbers are sent to each Dean, who then determines the actual distribution of the refresh cycle units within each college.  Deans and then Chairs ultimately decide who gets the allocated systems within the eligible list.  Units with requirements beyond the University’s standard system require the purchasing organization to fund any cost difference.  Orders are then filled over the course of a year so that the IT staff is able to prepare the new systems at a manageable rate.  He reiterated that Chairs have the freedom to deal with specific issues.  He also mentioned that adding printers and appropriate laptops to the refresh cycle was being considered.  Problems with the refresh cycle should be reported to Dr. Nielsen at 5-1799 or mn11@txstate.edu

 

TRACS: Dr. Nielsen discussed the status of the TRACS conversion from Blackboard.  It seems to be working well, 90.62% of the faculty are currently using TRACS.  Blackboard will be completely phased out by December 31, 2008.

 

Faculty Perceptions of Deans and Chairs:  The Senate approved a cover letter, with minor word changes, for the faculty survey data on Deans and Chairs. The data will be presented to President Trauth at the PAAG meeting Friday, May 2nd.  Several members of the College of Science asked to speak against the Senate decision to publish the comment section of the faculty survey of Deans: Dr. Robert Habingreither, Assoc. Dean of Science; Dr. Joe Tomasso, Chair of Biology; Dr. Vedaraman Sriraman, Chair of Technology; Dr. Terry Golding, Physics; Dr. Bob McLean, Biology.  This issue has been discussed in the Senate for several weeks.  The current resolution is that the survey data together with the comments will be available to voting faculty for ninety days after posting on the Senate’s web page.  After that date, faculty members may still access the data, but only after a formal request is made to the Senate Chair.

 

Break:

 

Senate Election Results: The Senate passed a motion to certify the Senate election results.  The following faculty members have accepted their election to the Senate and will be seated at 5:00 pm on May 2nd.
Science:
           Dr. Carol Hazlewood (Computer Science)
Education:
          Dr. Steven R. Furney (HPER)
Fine Arts & Communication:  
           Dr. Joey Martin (Music)
 
Liberal Arts:
          Dr. Sally Caldwell (Sociology)
           Dr. Brock Brown (Geography)
           Dr. Richard Warms (Anthropology)

 

PAAG Agenda Items:  The Senate discussed possible items for the next PAAG agenda.  The agenda will be completed at next week’s meeting.  Items considered:

  • Status of the next University Ombudsman.
  • Student Athletes and Excused Absences.
  • The President’s Mitte Decision.  The Senate passed a motion endorsing the President’s moral stance on the Mitte issue.
  • Faculty survey issues.
  • Capital Campaign.
  • Progress on the Pleasant Street Garage.

 

New Business:

  • Wellness Fair: Senator Furney will be the Senate representative.

 

Minutes:  Minutes for 04/19/08 were approved as amended.