Present: Bible, Caverly, Deduck-Evans, Ford, Hays, Horne, Hunter, McGee,
Pascoe, Sawey, Stimmel, Weller. Absent: Bourgeois, Simpson, Winek.
Guests: Prof Grady Early; Mike Moore, Shirley Pilus.
CONTENTS:
SENATE MINUTES
FACULTY GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE
SENATE COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENTS (Prof. Early)
ACADEMIC PROCESSES SURVEY
CAD UPDATE
NEW BUSINESS
MINUTES OF 3/19/97
The meeting was called to order at 4:05, Chair Bible presiding.
SENATE MINUTES
Ms. Shirley Pilus, Senate Office Administrator, has agreed to take
the minutes. A motion passed to approve the change and to amend the
Faculty Handbook. The Senate will recommend a salary increase to cover the
added duties.
FACULTY GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE
All faculty have been sent a request for nominations to the
Grievance Committee to replace Prof. Don Tuff whose three-year term expires
this year. The Senate has proposed that Prof. Michel Conroy return to the
committee for the 1997-98 term and serve as chair, and that Prof. Marguerite
Gillis serve for two more years. Profs. Conroy and Gillis were appointed
last fall to replace Profs. John McGee and Theron Stimmel, who became,
respectively, Ombudsman and Faculty Senator, and the designation of the terms
of Profs. Conroy and Gillis is designed to restore the faculty members of the
committee to three-year rotating terms. A department chair and a dean will
be appointed in September for one-year terms.
SENATE COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
After some discussion of committees, a motion passed to ask the
chairs of all Senate committees to submit brief reports of their committee
activities for the year. Prof. Hunter is working on a short form to
distribute to chairs to facilitate these reports. All committees (standing
and ad hoc) will be reviewed. A new committee on Policy Oversight was
suggested. RTA'd.
CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENTS (Prof. Early)
Prof. Early explained a situation in which his chair would not
allow him to change classrooms from the one to which he had been assigned
[It was full of computers] to a more suitable vacant room in the same
building. The argument was that the dept. might lose this first-call room
if it was not utilized. It was suggested that the chair could ask that
the computer room be designated as a "lab" (a dedicated space that other
depts. cannot use without permission because of equipment or special
conditions apply, such as the Dance Studio where shoes cannot be worn on
the floor).
The Senate requested Prof. Bible to ask Ombudsman John McGee to
meet with the parties concerned to address the situation. There seemed to
be general agreement that such "bean-counting" on the use of facilities was
interfering with student and faculty needs.
ACADEMIC PROCESSES SURVEY
RTA'd.
CAD UPDATE (Prof. Bible)
Prof. Bible informed the Senate of several draft PPSs reviewed by
CAD yesterday, to wit:
(1) 8.03 Evaluation Deans [VPAA annual evaluation in
consultation with chairs, with summative review every five years by a
committee of faculty/chair/outside dean/external consultant if necessary.
Results distributed to chairs.];
(2) 8.05 Evaluation of Chairs [School deans will solicit
evaluation from faculty, with summative reviews every three years from
faculty/staff/students. Results distributed to the dept.];
(3) 1.xx Centers, Institutes, Academies, and similar
organizational structures [Approval comes through the VPAA and President,
in collaboration with the departments and schools involved. Sunset review
every five years and annual reports required each September];
(4) Faculty Awards. [The two winners in each of the categories
of teaching, scholarly/ creative, and service will receive $5,000--runners-up
from each school can also receive awards of $1,000--for a possible 84 persons
(?); Strategic Plan Initiative Awards for individuals and teams will be added];
(5) 4.xx Change of Grades [final grade appeal procedure--School
dean and School Grade Appeals Committee which will consist of three Faculty
Senators or Senate liaisons from the School];
(6) Hiring Deans and Chairs. [Apparently the screening
committees will not be asked to rank candidates, as the Senate had
requested earlier. One senator suggested that the ranking votes could be
done by secret ballot and delivered unopened to the Adm., thus making sure
the ranking would not "leak" to the candidates.]
These drafts will be reviewed by the Senate. Prof. Sawey asked why
these PPS drafts were not available electronically as we had been promised.
This would open up input by all students, staff, and faculty. [He will be
putting them on his Website: http://www.txstate.edu/-rs01/senate/cad.htm]
NEW BUSINESS
(1) It was suggested that we thank Geography Chair Estaville
for providing information on the new Center for Research and Policy on
Hazardous and Environmental Geography. This new center will not be funded
by the University, we were told. No information was provided regarding
faculty release time.
(2) At least one School has more administrators than senior
faculty in some departments and no written faculty evaluation policy. This
causes problems. Post-tenure review policy requires that depts. and
schools provide written evaluation criteria. Peer review is still a
problem if the dept. chair is the only senior faculty person.
MINUTES OF 3/19/97
The minutes were approved as read.
The meeting adjourned at 6:00.
Ramona Ford
Secretary
