Dec 08, 2010 Minutes

Members present:  Senators Morey, Hazlewood, Stone, Wilson, Huling, Furney, Martin, Feakes, Conroy, Payne 

Guests: Sigler, McGee, Sanders, Senate liaisons

Meeting called to order at 4:00.

Liaison Meeting:

1. College Workload Reports: Senators and liaisons presented their findings on workload policies in the various colleges on campus.  The Chair noted that the task of exploring workload policies is important to insure equity within departments, across colleges, and across the University.  The Chair also asked that she receive any written college and department workload policies.

2. Workload Report Follow-Up and Discussion: Among the issues that the Senate and liaisons believe require further exploration are

a. faculty workload discrepancies between the College of Science and other colleges;

b. the varying assigned time awarded for teaching large classes;

c. the question of whether those who teach graduate courses should receive additional workload credit;

d. the possibility of assigning extra workload credit for teaching online courses;

e. discrepancies in awarding workload credit for thesis direction and serving on thesis committees;

f. workload credit for laboratory supervision;

g. the need for a workload credit code to reflect grant buyouts of faculty time;

h. a simplified process for reporting courses taught by graduate teaching assistants.

3. Faculty Definitions: The Chair distributed a handout outlining the Senate’s recommendations for revising definitions of the terms “faculty voter” and “personnel committee membership” as they appear in PPS documents.  The former is a minor change needed to reflect the current budget system, which no longer separates out faculty salaries as they once were.

The second is a more substantial change.  The Senate is recommending that membership on personnel committees be limited to those faculty with one year of service at Texas State, as well as having taught at least twelve sections of courses at the college / university level.  Discussion of this change centered on the complications raised by asking that personnel committee members have the required amount of teaching experience, a situation that may become more pressing as the University hires and tenures faculty whose professional history and practice are purely research-based.  The Senate is concerned that such faculty may not be able to effectively and fairly make tenure and promotion decisions about colleagues who teach full-time.  Among the concerns raised by liaisons was the effect such a requirement might have on the University’s goal to hire respected researchers, whether the term “course” is too limiting to reflect the possible ways faculty teach, and whether the instituting of this change might affect faculty currently on personnel committees.  The Chair asked liaisons to discuss these changes with their colleagues and report back.  

University Curriculum Committee Recommendations: The Senate voted to accept the recommendations of the UCC presented to the Senate on December 1.                  

Minutes of 12/01/10 were approved.

Adjournment.