Skip to Content

April 01, 2009 Minutes

Minutes for 04/01/09

Members present: Senators Feakes, Bond, Brown, Caldwell, Conroy, C. Hazlewood, D. Hazlewood, Martin, Melzer, Minifie, Shah, Stone, Warms, Wilson
 
Guests: Rebecca Swindal, Staff Council Representative; Kosaku Narioka, Univ. Star
 
Meeting called to order at 4:00
 
Info Items:
 
  • Work Life Survey: The chair has sent the request from Stephen F. Austin to do a work life survey to Dr. Roseann Mandziuk, Presidential Work Life Advisory Council, to see if the Council is interested in doing the survey.
  • Senate Meetings: There are six more meetings of the Senate scheduled for the spring semester, ending with the PAAG meeting on May 6th.
  • Bourgeois Meeting: Assoc. Provost Bourgeois will meet with the Senate next week to discuss summer teaching budgets, evaluation of tenure-track faculty and summative evaluations of chairs.
  • Brochure: A brochure was circulated offering housing with a $10,000 discount for new faculty.
 
Senate Elections:The calculation of Senate representation as determined by the Senate Constitution indicates there will be only one seat for the College of Business where there had previously been two. The net result is there will be fourteen Senators for the next academic session. The College of Applied Arts, with 58% of its faculty voting, has elected Dr. Bill Stone, Criminal Justice; and the College of Science, with 62.3% of its faculty voting, has elected Dr. Debra Feakes, Chemistry/Biochemistry, and Dr. Susan Morey, Mathematics. The new terms will begin on May 6th.
 
PPS 1.15:The new draft PPS 1.15, University Budget Committee, was discussed. It was sent forward with only minor wording comments.
 
UPPS 04.04.42:UPPS 04.04.42, Prohibition of Sexual Harassment, was discussed. Most of the discussion centered on Section 03.06, which is titled Consensual Relationships but that really seems to involve consensual relationships that have gone bad. Some suggestions for wording for a new title and some revision to Section b. of 03.06 will be considered at the next meeting.
 
PPS 6.04:Recommended changes to PPS 6.04, Piper Professor Award Recognition, were discussed. There will be a new form for proposals and other changes were consistent with previous discussion. The intent is to make applications for Piper Nominations clear, easy to follow and consistent.
 
Grievance PPS: Senators Feakes, Hazlewood and Stone met with University Attorney Fly to consider alternatives to the Senate’s suggested grievance process. Senator Stone will bring suggested modification to the process to the next Senate meeting.
 
Break:
 
Faculty Development Leaves: Senator Warms circulated suggested changes to the process by which the Senate evaluates faculty development leave applications. There was considerable disagreement. The topic will be continued next week.
 
 
New Business:
University Council: Someone questioned the worth of the existence of the University Council. There have been few meetings of the Council during the past academic year.
Progress on Concealed Handgun Legislation: Someone suggested that individuals should contact their state representatives if they were concerned about such legislation.
 
Minutes: Minutes for 03/25/09 were approved as amended.