Minutes of the Faculty Senate
DWR 205
January 17, 2019
3:40 p.m.
Present: Senators Warrick, Zia, Huang, Louden, Testa, Lowther, DiPier, Lyubartseva, White, Schroeder, Wise, Fanning, Wilson, Shirey
Call to Order at 3:41 p.m.
Proxies: Connie Wilson for Angela Stanford
Seating of Senator Fanning
I. Approval of Minutes
Minutes from November 15th, 2018 were approved (motion – Testa, second – White).
II. Special Orders of the Day
Dr. Lanoue gave an update about Fall Break. The break has been finalized and will occur October 10th and 11th, 2019.
Dr. Lanoue spoke on University Handbook section 315 pertaining to the issue of outside employment. Dr. Lanoue stated that SAU was not following the policy regarding outside employment. The intention of the policy is not to deny opportunities to faculty or staff. Instances of outside employment that might not be approved include:
1). A person who has requested outside employment but is failing to meet their on campus obligations.
2). If the work requested represents a conflict of interest with the person’s role at SAU.
If an instructor requests to adjunct at another University, the request will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Any faculty member who is being paid for work outside the university should fill out the form including work that occurs during off contract time. If the work is freelance, the faculty member can receive a one-time blanket approval.
Dr. Lanoue discussed an initiative with National Park College in Hot Springs. SAU is partnering with National Park College to offer a degree program that can be completed entirely in Hot Springs. Through this initiative, National Park College would provide the first 2 years of courses, and SAU would provide the 2nd two years of courses in Hot Springs. The goal of this initiative is to keep graduates in the Hot Springs area. These students would be SAU students and would receive SAU student benefits. Since the courses would be offered by SAU, instructors teaching those courses would be vetted and approved. Faculty will be notified by a formal announcement when the initiative is finalized. Programs that will be offered are: Chemistry for Health, Computer Science, and Biology Pre-Health.
Mr. Giles addressed the issue of contracts for insurance coverage beginning and end dates. Contracts for faculty and staff begin and end based on fiscal years. Faculty contracts begin at the start of the semester. Health insurance begins the 1st day of the month following when employment began. If a person is concerned about a gap in insurance between jobs, they can pick up COBRA to cover that gap. Insurance information is included in contracts.
III. Other Business
Handbook Committee Appointment: Senator Fanning is appointed to the Handbook Committee.
Blackboard Changes: The new Blackboard semester end date will be updated after the 11th class day. The common blackboard template will begin in the fall. Some instructors had already begun working on courses when the decision on the end date and common template was finalized, which is the reason the updates have not yet occurred.
Early Alert Email: Brad Herman is now in charge of the Early Alert System. To simplify the early alert process, faculty will receive an email asking about early alert instances. Faculty can simply reply to the email with names of any students, and that will serve as an early alert submission. The old way of submitting an early alert through Campus Connect will still be available. The senate requested to be able to type in early alert as an email address to then send names via email throughout the semester. Donna Allen will follow up with this request.
University Task Forces: Dr. Berry has introduced 3 task forces:
1). Rankings and Performance. Purpose is to look at how University information is being reported and to ensure that the information being reported by SAU is correct. Senator Louden is the senate representative.
2). Retention. Purpose is to look at retention issues across campus. The senate representatives are appointment positions and will be the current senate president and vice president.
3). International Studies. Purpose is to look at international recruitments. Senator Wilson is the senate representative.
These task forces will be ongoing and will always have a faculty senate representative on them.
Campus Connect Student Pictures: Online students and some on campus students do not have pictures in Campus Connect. A request was made for all students to have pictures in campus connect, and for online students to have student IDs.
Motion to refer the issue of verifying pictures of online students to be included on student IDs and in Campus Connect, as well as related issues, to Online and Technology Services Committee. Report back to senate in March. Motion carries.
Merit Pay Ad-Hoc Committee: Purpose – Produce an optimal implementation policy for the use of merit pay. President Warrick appointed the following to the committee: Senator Huang, Senator Tucker, Senator Stanford, Senator White, and Senator Warrick. Senator Stanford will chair the committee. Request a report from the committee by February.
Back-to-School Ad-Hoc Committee: Purpose – Produce an agenda of desirable topics and timeframes for the annual back-to-school meeting. President Warrick appointed the following to the committee: Senator Schroeder, Senator Zia, Senator Wilson, Senator Boumtje, and Senator Shirey. Dr. Lanoue and Dr. Allen will be included in meetings after the initial meeting. Senator Schroeder will chair the committee.
Arkansas Faculty Senate President’s Meeting: Met for the 1st time in December. There were 8 universities represented. Topics discussed included: Senate organization, senate charges, etc. Some considerations from the meeting:
1). SAU faculty senate is organized similar to UCA. There are similarities in release time for the faculty senate president and in meeting time set aside between Senate officers and the President and Provost.
2). UCA holds a pre-year meeting for ½ day. During this day the senate discusses the agenda for the year, and the senate members receive instructions.
3). Some universities have a mechanism in place that ensures the senate president is always aware of any new committees that have been formed.
4). At some universities, the senate president serves another term after their presidency in the role of past president. The purpose of this is to have continuity in seeing actions begun during their term take place and to serve in an advisory role.
The next meeting is scheduled to take place in February in Little Rock.
Senate Annual Accomplishment Task: President Warrick requests that the senate do a service project for the faculty or for the university. He requests that the senate brainstorm ideas and email the ideas to him by February 19th.
VI. Adjourn
Senator White motioned to adjourn at 4:53 pm (Louden second). Motion passed.
