Minutes of the Faculty Senate
DWR 205
January 16, 2020
Present: Senators Zia, Logan, Huang, Oden, Boumtje, Lowther, T. Schroeder, S. Schroeder, Tucker, White, Wise, Fanning, Wilson, Shirey, Hurdle, Testa
Ex-Officio: Leigh Labit, Jennifer Rowsam, Trey Berry, David Lanoue, Donna Allen, Roger Giles, Kim Bloss, Amanda Anderson
Proxies – Senator Oden for Senator Testa
Call to Order at 3:41
I. Approval of Minutes:
Minutes from November 21, 2019 [motion – White, second – S. Schroeder]
II. Special Orders of the Day:
President T. Schroeder announced that Dr. Alan Wright will replace Dr. Zia
President T. Schroeder said that he is seeing an improvement in communication from administration to faculty. Today, Dr. Berry sent an e-mail for budget process, which he felt like was a step in the right direction.
President T. Schroeder asked for feedback about a spring faculty meeting.
Senator White said that it was important for having an extra reading in a spring faculty meeting, if needed.
Senator White said that there will be 7 meetings from Feb. 18 – April 7 for faculty and staff senates. There will also be 2 at large.
President T. Schroeder asked that the faculty senate budget committee report back to faculty senate.
Dr. Berry shared a handout information:
1) College of Business – Greece Study Trip.
2) Endowed Professorship in the College of Education was awarded to Dr. Neelie Dobbins.
3) The Cyber Range is scheduled to be finished by February 1, 2020. We want to use the room for our Cyber Security students as well as a recruitment room.
4) Art Partnership with Crystal Bridges and Murphy Arts District. They will hire SAU students to be art exhibit construction.
5) Wingate Foundation will fund 4 new art scholarships. It is good to build a relationship–start small and then build from that point.
6) Department of Transportation grant will fund research for creating asphalt out of ash instead of oil. The grant will provide a great deal of civil engineering equipment.
7) Centerpoint High School is creating an Agricultural Academy. They have asked SAU to be their academic partner. Dr. Berry along with will meet with Centerpoint High School about this opportunity.
8) Enrollment is 4,099. We are down 50 students from spring 2019. We have entered in concurrent enrollment. Deregistration is Jan. 23.
9) Applications are trending 100 down from last year and our acceptances are trending 50 down from last year. National Park school officials said that the 10th graders in Hot Spring is 300 less. The Kindergartners there are 300 less. The decline in the birth rate.
Dr. Lanoue said that HLC will be on campus February 2-4. A two person HLC reviewing team will be on campus and review.
Ms. Reed, Vice-President, Financial Affairs, discussed the budget and tuition discount. She shared a Power Point with financial figures and information. The tuition discount rates are 2016-17 27%; 2017-18 31%; 2018-19 32%.
Senator Tucker asked if it would be possible to find out the average amount of what a student pays actually goes to SAU.
Ms. Reed said that there are various ways to calculate the tuition discount rates and answered questions.
Committee Reports:
Handbook Committee: Senator S. Schroeder discussed the work of the handbook committee. The handbook committee met and worked on the annotated version of the Faculty Senate Handbook. The goal of the committee will provide a list of changes. The committee will meet with Dr. Lanoue first and then bring to the faculty senate.
Senator S. Schroeder said that Mr. Giles has a report about the Building and Grounds committee and LEAD group both recommended that a change to the name of the committee and a description of the committee Campus Sustainability.
Building and Grounds committee has not met in several years. The committee is in charge of keeping the campus clean. The agenda items have been reallocated to the respective areas.
Senator S. Schroeder withdraws motion until February 2020. She will have a handout at that time.
Dr. Lanoue discussed faculty qualifications update. He is going to send a handout for faculty senate handbook committee to review.
Senator White had no budget committee report.
Unfinished Business:
Dr. Lanoue discussed the request for the academic course schedule changes to be done at the Dean’s Assistant level throughout registration. He has discussed with office personnel that chairs can make adjustments to course caps and classroom changes. He said that the VPAA office is trying to be more responsive and streamline the process.
Once a schedule goes “live” it then goes to Poise. The Poise system will require training to ensure accuracy with the state.
President T. Schroeder discussed using the Campus Connect system to make it digital instead of paper copies.
Senator White discussed the benefits of a paperless processes in place.
Dr. Lanoue said that he is committed to improving systems.
Dr. Jennifer Rowsam said that state reporting comes out of Poise.
Get the “drop/add/modify” into electronic form would be a huge improvement
Senator S. Schroeder said that communication would be improved by making the process electronic.
Senator Tucker said that human resources and time could be saved if the process could be electronic.
President T. Schroeder discussed a possible reconfiguration of the University Tenure and Promotion Council. Dept. chair, college council and dean could bypass and go straight to VPAA. The committee is in place if there is a disagreement.
Dr. Lanoue said that there are university level standards in addition to the college level standards. It would make VPAA the sole arbitrator to determine university-level standards and makes the judgement.
President T. Schroeder said that an amendment made could be any T and P packet who meets college standards.
Senator S. Schroeder said that at other institutions T and P committee only came in to mediate. The reality is that the ultimate responsibility is the VPAA.
President T. Schroeder said that the rubrics should take care of the equity between colleges.
Dr. Lanoue said that the best designed rubrics are still up to interpretation. This could be problematic.
Senator White said that the ranking process with Tenure and Promotion was time consuming and not necessary.
President T. Schroeder said that the language on the forms should be more robust. The communication loop can be improved in this area. More discussion in February.
Mr. Giles discussed a request that the issues be referred to the handbook committee:
1) Authorize electronic distribution of handbook amendments in a format that is conducive to comments.
2) Chapter in faculty handbook to let the board delegate to the committee
3) Electronic submission of tenure and promotion packets to electronic
President T. Schroeder said that he would e-mail the faculty senate Mr. Giles 4 items to consider.
III. Committee Reports:
President T. Schroeder asked for a Handbook Committee report.
Senator S. Schroeder gave an update on the committee’s work. President T. Schroeder discussed the nature of the handbook changes. He said that there are editorial changes. Senator S. Schroeder gave an example of the style guide errors.
IV. Motion to adjourn
[motion –S. Schroeder, second – Wright]
Meeting adjourned at 4:38
