Faculty Senate Meeting

Attendance

The Faculty Senate met on Thursday, February 16, at 3:40 pm in Reynolds 205.  Senators in attendance were Stacy Clanton, Jan Duke, Dan May, Sam Riner, Pat Clanton, Karen Ferneding, Tim Schroeder, Tim Daniels, Scott White, Shannin Schroeder, Denise Moseley, Abdel Bachri, Hong Cheng, Bernadette Fincher, Jennifer Logan.

The following senators were absent with proxies: Bernadette Fincher served for Mary Armwood and Jennifer Logan served for Vikram Bhadauria.

Ex-officio: Dr. Donna Allen, Dr. David Crouse, Amber Sharp-Allen, Daniel Page, Roger Giles, Paul McLendon

Visitors included:  Raishad Glover, Sandra Smith, Dr. Trey Berry, Dr. Jamie Brandon, Dr. Chrisanne Christensen, Michael Everhart.   

Call to Order: Pres. S. Clanton called the meeting to order at 3:41 p.m.  Proxies read.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the January Faculty Senate meeting were approved electronically on January 27, 2012.

Special Orders of the Day   

Constitution of the Faculty Senate:

Pres. Clanton distributed handouts copied from the Constitution of the Faculty Senate as dictated on pages 10-17 of the SAU Faculty Handbook.  The purpose of this handout was a brief review of the mission and the functions of the Faculty Senate.

Unfinished Business

Ad Hoc Academic Integrity Committee Report

K. Ferneding reported the following recommendations from the Committee on Academic Integrity:

• The committee’s standpoint on the issue of academic integrity emphasizes prevention and recognizes that students need appropriate information and support so that they will make positive choices.
• The committee recommends that Del Duke be asked to design and develop a tutorial based on the actual Academic Integrity Policy.  The tutorial will have pre and post-tests to determine understanding of key concepts.  A prototype of this tutorial would be made available before the end of the spring 2012 semester and reviewed by the committee.
• The committee recommends that consideration be given to purchasing access to Turnitin for a one-year trial period.  Faculty would still have access to Blackboard’s SafeAssign.
• The committee recommends that students be taught a module that specifically addresses the issue of academic integrity in tandem with useful study strategies.  Students are also to be tested on their understanding of SAU’s Academic Integrity Policy.  The curriculum for this module needs to be consistent across various sections/instructors.  The committee also recommends that academic integrity be formally addressed in other courses and student services; Composition I and II and the Writing Center.
• The committee recommends that the feasibility of the suggestions made by Sandra Smith be researched and procedures established.

T. Schroeder made a motion to accept the committee’s recommendations as presented.  The motion passed.

Ad Hoc Student Textbook Committee Report

D. May reported the following recommendations from the Student Textbook Committee:

• Whereas it has been identified as a problem for students with financial aid and/or other financial problems with obtaining the textbooks in a timely fashion, the ad hoc committee on student textbooks recommends that the University President, David Rankin, appoint a body to create clear and concise language which should be included in all documents, publications on the internet and in promotional materials associated with recruitment that student costs for books are not included in the price of tuition as part of University policy.
• The committee recommends that the University President, David Rankin, proceed with developing a procedure for creating a debit card for students which is tied to their student ID which will allow students to immediately purchase books based on financial aid data which can be made available to the bookstore through a database without the necessity of applying for a book voucher which makes the system unnecessarily clumsy and expensive for students.
• The committee recommends that the University President, David Rankin, inform faculty to be sure before the adoption of a text that it is indeed necessary to student success.  Textbook ad hoc committee would like to recommend that the faculty take a hard look at their adoptions, and be reminded that assigning a text is not 100% required; especially when the text is hardly incorporated into the lectures.

T. Daniels motioned to amend the 2^nd recommendation shown above.  J. Duke seconded the motion.  The motion passed.  The phrase “proceed with developing a procedure for creating a debit card” was replaced with “proceed with exploring various procedures for the creation of a debit card.”  S. Schroeder motioned to accept the recommendations with the amendment.  The motion passed.

Allusers Policy

B. Fincher reported that the Technology Committee was in the process of collecting data regarding the use of Allusers emails.  Their findings would be reported in the next month’s meeting.  To assist with this, Pres. Clanton requested the Faculty Handbook Committee modify the current policy to address recent concerns.  S. Schroeder motioned to accept this recommendation.  S. White seconded.  The motion passed.

Equity Pay Adjustments

Pres. Clanton discussed that numerous discrepancies have been discovered in the data provided by the university administration regarding equity pay adjustments over the past five years.  To address this, the Executive Council of the Faculty Senate requested that these discrepancies be addressed and that the administration provide a more appropriate list of equity pay adjustments over the same five year period.

Faculty Awards Banquet

Based on feedback from faculty regarding possible dates for the SAU Faculty Awards Banquet, Pres. Clanton announced that it is now scheduled for the evening of Monday, April 9.

Reports of Committees

Parking Committee Recommendations

Pres. Clanton shared the following Parking Committee recommendations on behalf of M. Armwood:

• The faculty, staff and student parking appeals committees be combined to make the appeal process more efficient and to prevent the appearance of favoritism among any group.
• Change the permit sticker date to August 31^st instead of August 15^th to allow all parties more time to purchase and place the sticker on the car.
• Increase the frequency in which cars parked in reserved spots are towed.
• Increase in the fines in order to increase the accountability of the university population, since it has been shown that there is ample parking space on campus.

The next meeting will take place on Thursday, March 15, 2012 in Reynolds 205.

Adjournment:

The motion to adjourn was made by T. Daniels and seconded by B. Fincher.

Submitted by Jennifer Logan, Faculty Senate Secretary, February 27, 2012.