March 30, 2005 Minutes
Chair Stone, Senators Brennan, Conroy, Fleming, Gillis, Hazlewood, Homeyer, James,
Guests: Dr. Tim England, Mass Communication, Clayton Medford, University
Star Reporter.
Meeting was called to order at
Announcements:
It was mentioned that Senator
Chair Stone requested a volunteer for mace-bearer at the Saturday
Chair Stone distributed information on the tabulation of faculty and senators across campus. There are 1209 faculty and there are currently 16 senators. He said that six positions would be vacated by the end of this semester. He said that he would get ballots ready for the elections by the 2nd week in April. Senator Gillis asked what the procedure would be when she goes on modified retirement this fall. Stone said that a person would be appointed as a replacement for the rest of her term.
Chair Stone discussed the disagreement between
Workload Policy Changes:
Chair Stone mentioned that the changes to the workload policy pps 705,attachment 1, section 5 had been approved by the Council of
Academic Computing Committee Report:
Tim England, Chair, ACC, reported that $500,000 was available to be distributed this year. There were 41 proposals and 24 could be funded. There was less than $10,000 left over. This money could not be used as the next in rank was a proposal that required considerably more than $10,000. The ACC decided not to recommend partial funding. If more money becomes available, the project ranked next in line would get the funding. If not, the left over money will revert to other IT costs.
An issue that was discussed was the fact that the committee received a letter dated January 31 from the Provost and VPIT. Van Wyatt explaining that no new labs would be funded and that the money had to be used to maintain the existing computer facilities. This was not known to the departments or to the committee at the time that the applications were made. It was decided that action should be taken to ensure that in future cycles applicants would know the criteria before writing proposals.
Other items:
Chair Stone said that the Provost would like to discuss pps 2.05 and 2.22 at
the next PAAG meeting.
Chair Stone also mentioned that the standing rules subcommittee will have Margaret Vaverek and himself as members. Senator Conroy volunteered to join the committee.
CAD/Senate Agenda Items
Senator Shah expressed concern over the issue of the withdraw dates in the academic calendar. He said that the first withdraw date was too early and the second one was too late. It was thought that the senate should come up with a policy before this was taken to CAD. Conroy suggested that a subcommittee be set up. Senator Shah said that he would write up a proposal and suggest changes.
Senator Montondon mentioned the issue of nepotism. She said that there are some chairs whose spouses serve as faculty in the same department. This causes problems when the spouse comes up for promotion, merit raise, etc. It was mentioned that this was legally acceptable, but not ethical, and leads to conflicts of interest. Senator James suggested that the tenure and promotion document could perhaps include a statement about this.
Regarding equity, Senator Shah said that this time the median would be considered instead of the mean, the highest salary would be taken out before calculating the average. There would be no drastic changes from last year. The
Senator Conroy mentioned the value of the University Council as a possible topic for discussion.
Senator Hazelwood suggested workload issues.
PAAG Agenda Items
Travel money to the tune of $500 per faculty member would be available again this year. Senators discussed the use of this money that was different in different departments. It was felt that this money needed to be better distributed and used for travel purposes. Senator Shaw suggested that this money be made permanent.
Other items suggested were SAP and administrative assistance and M & O.
New Business
Senator Brennan said that the AVEM (enrollment management) search committee was in the process of interviewing candidates.
Meeting adjourned at
Minutes submitted by