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March 24, 1999 Minutes


Senators Present: Anderson, Bible, Conroy, Gillis, Gordon, Hays, Irvin, McGee,
Pascoe, Renick, Sawey, Skerpan, Stimmel and Winek.

Guests: Dr. Carol Hazlewood (Comp Sci) and Dr. Robert Mooney (Health Admin)

CONTENTS
ACADEMIC COMPUTING COMMITTEE
TEN YEAR ACADEMIC CALENDAR
PLUS/MINUS GRADING
MANDATORY MEDIATION PROPOSAL
APPROPRIATIONS ACT RIDER ON FACULTY SALARIES
MINUTES OF 3/17/99

The meeting was called to order by Chair Dr. Bible at 4:00 pm.

ACADEMIC COMPUTING COMMITTEE

Committee chair C. Hazelwood presented for Senate consideration a draft of a
Request for Proposals for the approximately $500,000 of student service fee
money to be allocated this year. The Senate had some concerns with the draft
and asked Prof. Hazelwood to convene her committee to rework it. The item was
RTA'd until the March 31 meeting. The draft is available on the Web.

TEN YEAR ACADEMIC CALENDAR

AssocVP Smallwood explained the process whereby the Ten Year Academic Calendar
was constructed. Essentially, this involves identifying the required holidays,
exam days, and days of instruction (pursuant to Coordinating Board rule) and
working backward from the commencement day.

PLUS/MINUS GRADING

The Senate had asked its Academic Standards Committee to study and report to
the Senate on a proposal to implement plus/minus grading. Committee chair
Mooney reported that his committee strongly recommended that this system not be
adopted and provided a Senate with a statement of its reasons. The Senate
concurred with this recommendation by a 13 to 1 vote.

MANDATORY MEDIATION PROPOSAL

A proposal from Ombudsman McGee to establish mandatory mediation as part of the
faculty grievance process was RTA'd.

APPROPRIATIONS ACT RIDER ON FACULTY SALARIES

The Senate endorsed State Senator Barrientos' rider to SB 2 to provide for a
mandatory 7% raise for faculty for each year of the biennium. This increase
will make Texas more competitive in faculty salaries with the other 10 most
populous states. Faculty should remember that any lobbying for this bill must
not be done using state resources such as e-mail telephones or letterheads.

MINUTES OF 3/17

The minutes were approved with minor modifications.

The Meeting was adjourned at 5:58 PM.