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Presiding: Dr. Cheng-Hsien Lin

In Attendance (In-person)

College of Arts and Sciences:

Jennifer Fowler, Ian Lian, Pat Heintzelman, Jiangjiang (Jane) Liu, Sujing Wang, Melissa Riley, Jim Armacost, Raymong Doe, Cheng-Hsien Lin, Mark Broome, Matt Hoch, and Cengiz Sen

College of Education and Human Development:

Eunjin Kwon

College of Business:

Vivek Natarajan and Gevorg Sargsyan

College of Fine Arts and Communication:

Paul Eric McCluskey, Paul Hemenway, Lilian Felipe, and Brielle Frost

College of Engineering:

Xuejun Fan and Xing Wu

In Attendance (Online)

College of Arts and Sciences:

Raouth Kostandy, Permalreddy Chandrasekaran, Sommer Shackelford, and Wen Liu

College of Education and Human Development:

Shelly Allen, Daryl Borel, Donna Fong, and James Laub

College of Business:

Kim and James Slaydon

College of Fine Arts and Communication:

Alan Brincks, Millicent Musyoka, Chelsea Lyles, and Xenia Fedorchenko

College of Engineering:

John Gossage and XianChang Li

Library:

Poornima Gunasekaran

Absent

College of Arts and Sciences:

Brian Williams, Andre Favors, and Elia Hatfield

College of Education and Human Development:

Mohamad Hamza and Daniel Chilek

College of Business:

Ashraf El-Houbi and Xiao "Jerry" Zhang

College of Fine Arts and Communication:

College of Engineering:

Maryann Hamidi and Gleb Tcheslavskia

Library:

Penny Clark

Call to order

3:32 P.M.

President Taylor's comments

• Freshman class this fall is up 11%. Our transfer students are up 14%.
• Today we gave out second Presidential Scholarship to a local high school student.
• Building intramural field. Should be finished in April. Win/win for Lamar. Band will use the field instead of the parking lot for practice. Parking lot will be used for student parking. Golf gets its space back. Students have place for Intramural sports. Put track around the space for the community.
• Plans to build a pavilion outside of Spindletop museum area. Will have a bar and grill.
• Next year, we will close off roads for Christmas lighting. Have more sponsors now.

Provost Welch's comments

• Provost attended a meeting of all provosts in the system. Lamar led conversation about solutions to issues in positive ways.
• ABET Engineering visit was positive.
• Several administrators are going to SACS conference.
• Johnny O'Connor will serve as interim dean in College of Education.
• Fall 2024 enrollment is 17,860, 2% increase of both graduate and undergraduate students from fall 2023. Highest ever enrollment at Lamar.
• We have awarded 5,600+ degrees and certificates for the third year in a row. Over 17,000 students in the last three years.
• Library innovation to be completed Sept. 2026.
• Second floor of Cherry Engineering undergoing renovation.
• Construction starting soon on former bookstore next to the credit union.

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve November minutes by Jennifer Fowler. Vivek Natarajan seconded. Motion passes. 2 abstain. 27 approve.

Faculty Senate President's Report

• Suggest faculty check once a week for new MAPPs to comment on.
• Explained review process for policies.
• Curriculum changes should be agreed on by department committee and chair before being submitted.
• Big class stipends will apply to online and on-campus programs.
• Dr. Jerry Lin leaving this month. Dr. Lin asked adm to name an interim until open search is finalized.
• Brian Williams will be new director of CFR.

Committee Reports

Budegt and Compensation Committee: Andre Favors

Committee did not meet last month

Faculty Affairs: Melissa Riley

Attended meeting of TSUS Council of Faculty Senates. Many of other universities in the system had reps there. Melissa asked if Lamar could change contract period to reflect actual work dates. Answer: YES.

Most members of TSUS are working on strengthening their shared governance. Open forums were being used by some sister institutions. Enrollment reported up at most of the TSUS schools. Several campuses working on faculty handbooks. Discussed faculty office hours and AI policies. Reviewed and approved Ombudsman MAPP.

Ad Hoc Grievance Policy Committee: Melissa Riley

Decided to modify intake procedures and align with other universities. Hope concerns about HR not addressing faculty issues will be addressed when grievance policy completed.

Academic Issues: Sujing Wang

Checked on proposal to reduce class time from 60 to 50 minutes. TSUS says contact hours can be from 50-60 minutes. Committee has not made decision. Faculty compensation for promotion to associate and to full has not changed in years. Researched other universities' policies. Not much info on this online. Lamar's compensation is much less than UT San Antonio.

Research and Creative Activity Committee: Xuejun Fan

FDL 2025-2026 Applications

6 applications from 3 colleges: COAS, COB, and COFA, 2 from History dept FDL MAPP up for public review.

Faculty Evaluation Committee: Daryl Borel

Student Evaluation Questions: Committee members reviewed faculty feedback and prepared a report for Dr. Jator. The report is available in the Faculty Senate office. Dr. Borel presented the report to Dr. Jator and Dr. Kyle Boudreaux. Dr. Jator accepted the committee's recommendations. Dr. Bordeaux will request the CTLE team review the revisions and return the final draft to the committee for review. Additionally, it was agreed that the question set be reviewed annually by Faculty Evaluation Committee.

Faculty Climate Survey 2023 final report: The report will be emailed to all faculty senate members.

F2.08: The F2.08 will be the committee's primary focus during the spring.

Senate Faculty Handbook Committee: Jennifer Fowler

Jennifer created OneDrive document called Handbook Review document which will be sent through senate email to members. The folder includes the draft the current committee is working on. The folder also includes the draft that is now currently the faculty handbook which was drafted in 2019. The Next Generation draft is that we ended up with when Brenda Nichols was at the end of her tenure. Then there is a side-by-side comparison of the handbooks. Created a list of the changes made between the Next Generation draft and our current draft. Updated preamble.

Old Business

Election of Senate Vice President

Nominees: Pat Heintzelman, Lilian Felipe, and Matt Hoch.

Matt withdrew his nomination from election.

27 voted online: 13 for Pat and 14 for Lilian.

9 voted on paper: 7 for Pat and 2 for Lilian.

Total Votes: 20 for Pat and 16 for Lilian

36 voted in total

New Business

Adjourn

Motion to adjourn by Paul Hemenway. Seconded by Sujing Wang.

Meeting adjourned at 5:21 P.M.