September 2017 Minutes

Present: Senators Pearson, Warrick, Zia, Dobbins, Louden, Testa, S. Clanton, Lowther, DiPier, Lyubartseva, Moore, Schroeder, P. Clanton, Paulson, Parnell, Wilson, Shirey, Bryant

Ex-officio and guests: President Berry, Provost Lanoue, Vice Presidents Allen and Giles, and Deans Mohdzain, Langerbein, and Bachri.

Proxies: Jennifer Louden for Neely Dobbins upon Senator Dobbins’ departure.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from April 20, 2017 were approved (motion – Testa, second – Louden) without additions or corrections.

Special Orders of the Day

Senators welcomed new senator from LPA Lynn DiPier.

Provost Lanoue addressed the Senate regarding topics that carried over from the April meeting, including the ratio of tenured and tenure track(T/TT) faculty to non-tenure track (NTT), the ongoing issues of salary compression and inversion across campus, and the issue of faculty summer and overload compensation.

Dr. Lanoue indicated that by his count which removed coaches, part-time retired, and grant-supported faculty, the number of T/TT faculty sits at 71% with the remaining 29% in NTT roles. This is in contrast to the Faculty Handbook mandate of 80% T/TT and 20% NTT faculty. Dr. Lanoue presented evidence that SAU has been in breach of this requirement for a number of years and indicated that in today’s climate of declining state support that the 80%-20% ratio may no longer be as realistic as when it was adopted in the mid 1970s.

Dr. Lanoue used the new MCIS programs as an example of why the administration needed to be cautious about the hiring of T/TT faculty early in a program. The MCIS enrollment has dropped for multiple factors necessitating a decrease in the number of faculty teaching the courses. Had T/TT faculty been hired, the downsizing of the faculty would have been more problematic. No other programs were discussed in detail and it was requested the Faculty Handbook Committee revisit the faculty ratio.

Dr. Lanoue indicated that he recognized the issue of salary compression and inversion across campus and also indicated that the situation will need to be addressed gradually to avoid budgetary hardships. He indicated that Deans and Directors were requested to put forth lists of faculty in their area for which compression and inversion were the most severe. He indicated that the recent growth of the university seems to sit at odds with such cases of compression and inversion. The new growth of the university has allowed for the annual COLA raises in a time when many universities cannot do the same. The growth has allowed for some smaller classes to make that perhaps should not have made. For the time being, a 2% COLA is planned for October and a minimum of two new budget lines for faculty next year. Now that things have leveled off, Lanoue suggested that we really need to make some choices about faculty, rotations of class offerings, and class sizes as we move forward.

Spirited discussion ensued regarding these topics:

When will faculty will participate in these discussions? (Warrick)

How is the university budget impacted by summer courses? (Warrick)

How many overload courses are on the books for this fall? (S. Clanton)

How much overload and adjunct work is currently being done by department? (Testa)

Dr. Lanoue’s responded that faculty participation in discussions should be happening now in individual departments and that summer course revenues are budgeted in the spring for the subsequent summer II and then the following summer I terms. Fall overloads and overload/adjunct by department numbers are figures Dr. Lanoue can get for the Senate.

New Business

The academic integrity policy is ready for the Handbook Committee. Motion to refer to committee (motion – Testa, second – Warrick) passed unanimously. Senator Testa will send a current clean copy to the Senate.

Standing committees of the Senate were selected and approved by acclamation:

Handbook Committee: Warrick, Testa, S. Clanton, Moore

Parking Committee: Pearson, Dobbins, DiPier, Shirey

Budget Committee: Zia, Bryant, Louther, Schroeder

Committee liaisons for standing committees of the university were selected by acclamation. The list is found at the end of this set of Senate minutes.

Staff Senate Liaison: Testa

University Budget Committee: Schroeder

Senator S. Clanton encourages all committees to be certain to include Faculty Senate liaisons on all official committee communications.

Other Business

A discussion of the feasibility of incorporation of a fall break, possibly resulting in the dismissal of classes the entire week of Thanksgiving, in conjunction with shortening or even eliminating the two days of open registration was introduced. Many faculty feel that the new enrollment procedures that are stressing that students save their schedules and the delay of deregistration until the eleventh class day result in less need for faculty to enroll students during what is classically known as “open enrollment.” VP Giles indicated that in the past, the faculty were polled about a similar change and about 70% opposed.

Motion by Senator Moore (Parnell second) to ask the Administration to poll faculty and staff about changing the fall schedule to start on Monday of the first week of classes and to take the entire week of Thanksgiving off. Motion carries unanimously.

Adjourn

Motion by S. Clanton (Testa second) to adjourn. Motion carries.