{"id":1425,"date":"2021-03-22T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T21:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/faculty-staff\/?p=1425"},"modified":"2021-03-22T15:46:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T21:46:19","slug":"january-2021-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/faculty-staff\/2021\/03\/22\/january-2021-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"January 2021 Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minutes of the Faculty Senate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Virtual Meeting<\/p>\n

January 21, 2021<\/p>\n

Present: Senators T. Schroeder, S. Schroeder, Tucker, Fanning, Wilson, Oden, Stanford, Wise, Overholser, Logan, Huang, Paulson, Schneiderwind, White, Almotairi, Warrick<\/p>\n

Ex-Officio\/guests: Dr. Trey Berry, Dr. David Lanoue, Dr. Kim Bloss, Dr. Donna Allen, Mr. Roger Giles, Dr. Helmut Langerbein, Dr. Jennifer Rowsam, Dr. Gerald Plumlee, Dr. Robin Sronce, Dr. Scott White, Ms. Amanda Anderson, and Dr. Karen Landry<\/p>\n

Proxies:<\/p>\n

No proxies<\/p>\n

Call to Order at 3:41 p.m.<\/p>\n

I. Approval of Minutes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minutes from November 19, 2020 [motion \u2013 S. Schroeder; second \u2013 Oden]\n

II. Special Orders of the Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

Updates from Dr. Berry:<\/p>\n

COVID update–we are doing well. 1,400 were screened this semester; over 550 students have been tested; there currently is no on-campus in isolation rooms; 2 are in quarantine rooms on campus. We\u2019re tracking 18 positives faculty, staff and students off-campus. The protocols have been holding up very well.<\/p>\n

Enrollment update–tonight is deregistration. He estimates SAU is down 2% overall. Graduate enrollment is up 189 students. Housing is down 189 students. Consequently, this will affect our revenue. However, we anticipated the decline in enrollment due to the pandemic. Undergraduate applications are down significantly. We feel that the pandemic is impacting recruitment. There are many variables, this year more than ever. He complimented the admissions and advising staff for being innovative and working very hard.<\/p>\n

He discussed state senators regarding a new legislative update. Currently, there has been a bill filed that 2 and 4-year universities were restricted on what could and could not be taught in courses. He expressed his concern.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lanoue updates:<\/p>\n

He encouraged faculty to work with students through various challenges they are facing with technology and the pandemic. Then, he updated everyone on the \u201cDFW\u201d rate. After analyzing data, he found that undergrad went up 5% from fall 2019 to fall 2020. The \u201cWF\u201d went up, but the \u201cD\u201d rate didn\u2019t. Graduate school \u201cDFW\u201d rates stayed approximately the same. The \u201cCDFW\u201d went down 9.5% to 8.9% from fall 2019 to fall 2020.<\/p>\n

His hope is to go completely to Mentor for Tenure and Promotion process as well as faculty evaluations. Currently, we have some faculty members who are piloting the process. He thanked Dr. Plumlee for his work in facilitating the process.<\/p>\n

Questions to the administration:<\/p>\n

1. Are the two Fridays off (March 5th and April 2nd) this semester given toward 3 day weekends in lieu of spring break for students and faculty or just students? If the two Fridays are for faculty? Also, will there be any scheduled meetings that faculty must attend?<\/p>\n

Dr. Lanoue said that there should be no meetings, etc. schedule on March 5 and April 2.<\/p>\n

2. Would it be possible for faculty to have additional time following the end of the semester to submit grades? In the fall, this was very helpful when accommodating the abnormally large amount of delays from students and testing issues caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lanoue expressed a concern about having too long of an extension after the semester because of the strain that it would put on the Registrar\u2019s Office. However, he spoke with Ms. Grippo, Interm Registrar, and she is open to extending the deadline by 2 days in order to accommodate faculty.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jennifer Rowsam update:<\/p>\n

She shared some current initiatives from her area:<\/p>\n