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Faculty Senate Minutes

May 1, 2019

8^th floor, Mary and John Gray Library

 

Attending: Arts and Sciences: Brian Williams, Jennifer Fowler, Tom Sowers, Garrick Harden, Stacey Knight, LeAnn Chisholm, Gretchen Johnson, Pat Heinzelman, JP Nelson, Christopher Martin,  Jing Zhang, Sujing Wang, Gwinyai, Muzorewa, Cengiz Sen, Robert Vallin, , Valentin Andreev, Ted Mahavier, Joseph Kruger, Ashwini Kucknoor, Martha Rinker, Cheng-Hsien Lin Business: Karyn Neuhauser, Tim McCoy Education: Kaye Shelton, Donna Azodi, Dorothy Sisk, Israel Msengi, Shannon Williams, Kim McGough, Johnny O’Connor, Cristina Rios Engineering: Berna Tokgoz, John Gossage, James Curry, Xuejun Fan, Mien Jao Fine Arts and Communication: Amber Marchut, Jacob Clark, Cherie Acosta, Nicki Michalski¸ Paul Hemenway, Ashley Dockens  Library: Michael Saar, Scott Crawford College Readiness: Melissa Riley Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel

 

Not Attending: Arts and Sciences: Kami Makki, Sanaz Alasti, Suying Wei Business: Kelly Weeks, Kaushik Ghosh, Purnendu Mandal, Vivek Natarajan Education: Connie Ruiz, Janice Kimmons Engineering: Gleb Tcheslavski Fine Arts and Communication: Nandu Radhakirshnan, Sherry Freyermuth

 

Call to Order: 3:35 p.m.

 

Guest Speakers: Dr. James Marquart, Provost, and Craig Ness, Vice President of Finance

• Marquart has met with all the of the deans, department heads and chairs to discuss budgets.
• Ness provided an overview of enrollment and the budget for the last five years. The budget, particularly our state allocation, is driven by schedule hours. It is important to remember that not all counts are equally representative. Because LU has so many different periods starting at various times, our count does not accurately reflect our enrollment. Every two years we take count for a base period. The amount we receive varies depending on the legislature. Last summer, fall and spring will be used to calculate the funds for this biennium. That is during the time we were dealing with the fall out from Hurricane Harvey, so that impacted our counts.
  • There is non-formula funding which is designated for specific things; there will be 3.4 million dollars for special projects.
  • We are expecting $31,360,000 for next year from the state.
  • The majority of our funds come from tuition (approximately 3 times what we get from the state). This is why it is so expensive for students.
  • The 16/17 biennium was a high point for us financially.
  • The 18/19 year saw a significant decrease in our headcount.
  • The AP program also impacts our finances. Our expenses have gone up; they now receive 50% of the income from those classes. We also have a decrease in headcount, therefore, we are bringing in less money.
  • This year used a hold steady budget. There was not a big decrease, but we needed to be frugal and hold tight to where we were. Thus, there were no raises.
  • We are fairly flat on appropriation because
    • The legislature agreed to a hold harmless from the effects of Harvey.
    • There is money coming in for remediation from Harvey.
    • There was a special projects amount approved.
  • We have been investing capital in making LU more attractive.
    • There will be half a million dollars spent this summer on upgrading classrooms.
    • There will be half a million dollars spent this summer on computer lab updates.
    • The legislature decided we needed a new building, the Science and Technology Building that recently opened.
    • Our strategic plan calls for the creation of a new entryway into campus. It will go where the police department was temporarily housed after Harvey. We have managed to get the concrete plant to relocate, so that will help.
    • We want to increase the number of residential students, so we will need to work on housing for them.
    • There will be a $15 million renovation in the library; part of it is already completed.
    • We have been replacing infrastructure.
  • There are also plans to incentivize activities out in the community by LU.
  • There was a $123 million payroll in 2018.
• Marquart provided some further details.
  • In the new TSUS reporting scheme, we will be held responsible for meeting specific metrics. Most of it is the same materials that are required by the legislature.
    • A rubric will be completed for each department to indicate where they currently stand and how it will affect the budget.
      • This will help us make stronger budgeting decisions in the future.
    • We need to change our optics to better drive enrollment.
      • The welcome center, new labs and facilities will draw people to campus.
      • We have invested in recruiting. We have a new recruiter in Travis County. We also opened a building in the Valley for this purpose.
    • The growth area is in the AP program. This is where the field of education is going.
      • AP is a good partner. They are providing staffing and bilingual support at the new center in the Valley.
    • We are investing in the research culture on campus.
      • We are especially proud of the Center for History and Culture of the Gulf Coast.
      • We are hiring a new dean of engineering.
      • We are working on a new head of research.
    • We need to remember that we are all in this together, and we need to work on getting students in and then getting them out in six years.

 

Approval of the Minutes: Valentin Andreev made a motion to approve the minutes. Tom Sowers seconded the motion, and it carried.

 

President’s Report:

• Thank you to Dr. Nelson for helping with the revision of the bylaws and Senate charter so they agree with SACS requirements.
• Thank you to Sarah Tusa for her work on the staff appreciation day luncheon.
• We still need charges for each committee.
• We will need a representative from engineering for the ad hoc committee.
• We are in the process of running elections. There are still some senate positions for university committees that need to be filled. A list will be sent out.
• Amy Smith has been asked to provide an orientation for chairs including a focus on shared governance.

 

Academic Issues:

• The committee will meet next week in Maes 3B.
• We will discuss the need for stronger advocation on behalf of the non-tenure track faculty and a career ladder for them.
• We will discuss the “secret grade change” issue.

Faculty Issues:

• We are working on a statement of agreement with the AAUP regarding shared governance.
• We looked into why LUTAP doesn’t apply to AP classes. Because the university has to share 50% of the profit from those classes, making them free would cost the university money.
• We are still waiting to hear back from the attorney about the grievance procedure draft.
• We are still trying to get the ombudsman position and fill it.

Budget and Compensation:

• The REG applications are coming out this summer.
• There are travel grants available for junior faculty. Spread the word.

Distinguished Faculty Lecture:

• Nichols is now assigned to oversight of this event.
• Mavis Triebel has provided some TOTAL logos that we can use on the publicity materials.
• The committee will meet at 1:30 tomorrow.

Research:

• We are making progress in marketing the faculty development leaves. There has been nearly weekly pr, and we are planning to run workshops.
• We are working on fixing competition space.

Strategic Issues:

• We have been working on retention. This has included regular meetings with Craig Escamilla.
• The university needs to work to move students to new majors when they are unsuited for the major they are in. This
• will help us keep and graduate people.
• We need more people to serve on this committee.
• We will be creating benchmarks for retention programming in the future.

Old Business:

There was discussion about the proposed F2.08 revisions. Senators spoke both in favor and against. Many people liked the idea of clarifying rubrics. There was concern about the ease with which people could game the system. Several people spoke about the idea that if chairs se due diligence, and faculty hold them to that, problems will be less likely.

• Joe Kruger called for a vote on the proposal. Tom Sowers seconded the call. The proposal failed with 22 people voting no and 18 voting yes.

New Business:

• Brenda Nichols took down the faculty handbook because of compliance issues with the TSUS handbook. The disagreement is a violation of SACS.
• The roles of each committee were discussed for the new senators.

The meeting is adjourned at 4:57 pm. Outgoing senators leave, and the new senators are welcomed.

Second Meeting Attendance:

Attending: Arts and Sciences: Brian Williams, Jennifer Fowler, Tom Sowers, Valentin Andreev, Matt Hoch, Cynthia Pipkins, Kelli White, LeAnn Chisholm, Charles Popp, Pat Heinzelman, Jing Zhang, Sujing Wang, Gwinyai Muzorewa, JP Nelson, Christopher Martin, Cengiz Sen, Robert Vallin, Melissa Riley, Joseph Kruger, Jim Armacost, Ashwini Kucknoor, Jeremy Shelton, Cheng-Hsien Lin Business: Tim McCoy Education: Kaye Shelton, Donna Azodi, Dorothy Sisk, Eunjin Kwon, Johnny O’Connor, Cristina Rios, Kim McGough Engineering: Berna Tokgoz, John Gossage, Yueqing LI, Xuejun Fan Fine Arts and Communication: Amber Marchut, Jacob Clark, Nicki Michalski, Paul Hemenway, Ashley Dockens  Library: Sarah Tusa, Scott Crawford Lamar State College Port Arthur: Mavis Triebel

Not Attending: Arts and Sciences: Suying Wei Business: Kaushik Ghosh, Kelly Weeks, Ashraf El-Houbi, John McCullogh, Vivek Natarajan Education: Cindy Cummings, Praphul Joshi, Shannon Williams Engineering: Ruhai Wang, Mien Jao, Fine Arts and Communication: Mahmoud Salimi, Christopher Troutman, Brian LeTraunik

Joe Kruger takes the chair position for the second meeting. He calls for nominations from the floor. There are no additional nominations.

Valentin Andreev makes a motion to accept the proposed slate of candidates by acclamation. Jeremy Shelton seconded the motion, and it passed.

Motion to adjourn: Tom Sowers mand a motion to adjourn the meeting; it was seconded by Valentin Andreev. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 5:00pm.