Faculty Senate

Meeting: Faculty Senate Meeting, June 12, 2002, Wooten Hall, Room 322

Absent: Jim Albright, Nick Anghel, Yvonne Chandler, Derrick D’Souza, Roy Decarvallo, Noreen Goggin, Samantha Hastings, Henry Harris, Joseph Huff, Kimi King, Tammy Kinley, Melinda Levin, Michael Monticino, Jane Pemberton, Mitty Plummer, Joyce Rademacher, Debbie Rohwer, David Tam, Robert Wallace, Barbara Wilhite

Guests: Suzanne LaBrecque, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs; John Todd, Special Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs; Senator Pelton’s doctoral class students

Opening: Juliet Getty, Chair of the Faculty Senate, called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. She recognized doctoral students in attending to learn about processes and procedures of the Senate.

Approval of May 8, 2002 Minutes: Minutes were approved as distributed.

Old Business: None

New Business: None

Committee Reports

Committee on Committees: Senator Luce presented nominees for the following committees: Charter and By-laws (Noreen Goggin), Faculty Research (Nancy Boyd-Lillie), Faculty Salary Study (Kris Raman), Fine Arts (Mark McKnight), and Visiting Lecture Series (Debbie Rohwer). Nominees were approved as presented.

Committee on the Status of Women: Pamela Hight provided a written report from the committee. In summary, women faculty member hires have increased over the past few years. In the current fiscal year, more women than men were hired; however, most women were hired as lecturers while more men were hired for tenure-track positions. The committee found it difficult to obtain relevant and accurate data about women faculty. The committee suggested that a person be hired to deal specifically with gender questions in the Provost’s office. Recommendations were made for committee charges for next year.

The report was approved as distributed.

Faculty Handbook Committee: John Todd provided a written and oral report. Changes will go into effect for next year. Most changes were minor and editorial in nature. Some items were taken out of the handbook and replaced by a reference to that information on the VPAA web link. He encouraged use of the web for easy links to references in the handbook. In Section IIF Attaining Tenure, a sentence was added outlining exceptional circumstances when more than a minority of letters are from graduate school colleagues, former professors, or former colleagues. In Section IIG Promotion, a paragraph was added to address external referees. Candidates for promotion from assistant to professor must have achieved an emerging national reputation, while candidates for promotion from associate to professor must have confirmed such a national reputation. These are changes in the handbook to match the new policies. An exit meeting is now required when a faculty member departs. In Section IIIC, more careful guidelines are in place related to posting students grades and records. Instructors should assign a random number known only to the student and instructor for posting grades in a public place. Faculty must not respond to requests for student information without written consent of the student or as otherwise authorized by law.

Senator Newell pointed out that this may pose problems with WebCT and scrambled reports. This policy does not apply to WebCT, only to physical posting of information. The committee will consider adding language specific to WebCT information.

Senator Benjamin asked if faculty should respond to student E-mail requests for grades before grades are mailed out. No. Do not respond with the grade, as E-mail is not secure, nor can faculty be assured that the requesting person is actually the student.

The report was approved as presented.

Faculty Research Committee: Art Goven provided a written report. In 2001 Faculty Research Grants were awarded in the amounts of $1,500, $2,500, $3,500, and $5,000 for a total of $410,500 awarded to 122 successful faculty proposals. Small grants of up to $750 were awarded to 24 faculty members, for a total amount of $15,804. A total of 41 Junior Faculty Summer Research Fellowships were awarded to total $205,000. Research and Compliance indirect costs totaled $312,875, with $39,632 spent for Research Equipment Repair and Maintenance.

Senator Miles commented that when this report was brought to the Executive Committee’s meeting with administrators, the question was asked as to the process when/if Goven vacates the post of Interim Vice-Provost for Research. The administration responded that when an Associate Vice President for Research Park is hired, Goven will be the Associate Vice President for Research.
The report was approved as distributed.

University Election Committee: Martha Tarlton reported that the committee found it sometimes necessary during the year to use paper ballots but ballots are now back on WebCT at the time of each voting. She commented that the greatest challenge has been the number of nominees for each vacant position. The committee often finds that a person is nominated but only by one senator, thus can not be placed on ballot.

Senator Miles reminded senators to obtain two nominations for any candidate, to assure the candidate gets placed on the ballot. Senator Tarlton then described the process of how the committee obtains election results from WebCT. She announced that several positions remain vacant on various committees.

The report was approved as distributed.

Progressive Discipline Policy: Cassandra Berry provided an oral report from the committee. She stated that no, at the point of accusation, the accused in notified about the complaint unless the complainant identifies first-hard bearers of evidence which would be held in order to provide full documentation to the accused. Others may be included in the investigation if they have first-hand information. The policy clearly outlines procedures. Five percent of cases have been pursued; Berry will be happy to bring the Senate data on cases handled.

Senator Pelton asked about corrective action. The committee is apprised of correction actions and the complainant and accused may obtain a full report.

Senator Fisher asked about what appears to be duplicity of categories on Form #1. Berry responded that these are the categories and definitions used by Title VII. Fisher also suggested that gender would be a more appropriate term than sex for Item #4. Berry responded that no complaints in this regard have been received. Fisher then suggested that administrator titles be used rather than names, as people change from position to position. Berry responded that these forms are not part of the policy and are used only for record keeping.

The report was approved as presented.

Information Items: Suzanne LaBrecque presented the report for Vice President Kesterson. She reported an increase of 14.6% for Summer I, 2002 enrollment, with an increase of 6% in enrollment for Summer II at pre-registration. There is already a 5% increase for fall enrollment, from the May early registration. There has been significant growth in distance education. These are encouraging increases; however there is not relative increase in number of faculty. Soon, RFPs will be announced for further TIF grants, with ½ awarded in August and the remaining ½ in early October, to allow faculty not teaching in the summer opportunity to respond. The RFPs will follow the Teaching with Technology format.

Vice Chair’s Update: Chair Getty presented a summary of the written report provided by Vice-Chair Oxford, in his absence. Senator Miles commented on the struggle administrators report regarding the low response rate to the evaluation of administrators and urged senators to respond at voting time. Senator Benjamin commented that a suggestion should be made to administrators that a bar be established as to an adequate numbers of responses. Dr. LaBrecque commented that there has been much concern from faculty regarding the accuracy of the recent data report, noting obvious serious problems with data analysis and accuracy. Chair Getty responded that there was a misanalysis of those data, so there will be a second analysis run and sent out to faculty. Senator Pelton noted that he is disheartened to learn about administrators’ response to the Executive Committee regarding their use of administrator evaluations. Senator Glover stated her concern that data error can be verified, stating that if a list of who voted could be obtained from WebCT, votes are not totally anonymous. If only one or two persons from a department vote, as has been the case, it could be easily determined who those persons were. Chair Getty noted that the responsible committee will be working seriously on these issues next year. Senator Benjamin noted that the previously referred to "new chemistry" building is now being called the "new science" building, as only the first floor of the three-story building will be finished out for use at the initial stage, in order to save substantial monies that will be applied to the North Texas Research Park.

Items in the report from the June 5^th meeting with administrators included the following:

A national search will be conducted next year for a Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer.

2. Dr. LaBrecque has been appointed to head a "temporary" committee to examine the report and recommendations made by the Commission on the Status of Women and to determine the bets strategy for implementing needed changes.

Regarding the process following faculty’s evaluation of administrators, deans see evaluations of chairs; Dr. Pohl sees his own evaluation as well as that of Dr. Kesterson. These evaluations form one part of Dr. Kesterson’s annual written evaluation of deans. Both Drs. Kesterson and Pohl noted the small number of faculty who participate, intimating that if more faculty members participated, evaluations would carry more weight.

Texas universities are under legislative mandate to award pay raises to faculty on a merit-based structure, even if/when the legislature provides no funds for such raises. This is in contrast to an "across-the-board" pay raise.

The pool of money for administrator raises was the same as for faculty and staff – two percent.

Chair’s Update: Chair Getty thanked all senators for their hard work throughout the year of her tenure as chair. She recognized and provided printed certificates to all senators who are completing one or two terms of service. Those senators completing two terms are Fisher, Weiller, Albright, Rademacher; those completing one term are Anghel, Tarlton, Tam, Wallace, Benjamin, Glover, Luce, Mathis, DeSousa, and Teislau. Chair Getty thanked Senator Newell for her tireless service as parliamentarian. Newell is retiring.

Committee of the Whole: Senator Fisher asked if anything could be done about the air conditioning blower noise that is disconcerting during Senate meetings. This has apparently been a problem since installation of the system.

Senator van Tassell presented to Chair Getty, in Vice-Chair Oxford’s absence, a framed certificate of recognition, noting the accomplishments of the Senate under Getty’s leadership, expressing appreciation for her "tireless efforts," and wishing "her well in all future endeavors." The commendation noted the following issues that the Senate considered during Getty’s tenure: College of Engineering, North Texas Research Park, assessment of the Core Curriculum, external grant indirect funds, written guidelines for items needing Senate approval, UNT at Dallas acquisition of a permanent location, and the name change for the Executive Committee. Chair Getty responded that she will remain as a Senator for two years and expressed her reflections on the events of the academic year, particularly the Senate meeting following the September 11, 2001 national tragedy.

Adjournment: Chair Getty adjourned the meeting at 3:05 p.m.

Submitted by Frances van Tassell, Senate Secretary