FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
MAY 14, 2003
Meeting:
May 14, 2003, Wooten Hall, Room 322
Absent:
Benjamin, Bond, Boukerche, Cho, Doherty, Getty, Goggin, H. Harris,
Hastings, Hill, Jordon, King, Kinley, Levin, Mueller, Oliver, Osadchy, Parks,
Pemberton, Roberts, Rohwer, Shiner, Staff, Tieslau, Wilhite, Windsor
Guests:
David Kesterson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs; John
Todd, Special Assistant to the Provost; Jo Monahan, Librarian, Chair of UFTLA;
Kay Selby, Director, Academic Publications; Michelle Hal, Editor, InHouse;
Dahryl Ramsey, Chair, Core Oversight Committee
Opening:
Jeffrey Oxford, chair of the Faculty Senate, called the meeting to order
at 2:10 p.m.
Approval of
April 9, 2003 Senate Minutes . Sue Parks was noted as absent but was
present. Page 3, word “seated”
should be “stated.” Minutes
were approved as corrected.
Old Business: None
New Business:
Election
of Officers. Chair Oxford called for nominations from the floor:
Bustinza nominated Lou Pelton for 2003-2004 Senate Chair; Cole seconded.
There were no other nominations. Conover/Miles moved that nominations be closed.
Senator Pelton was elected unanimously.
Pelton/Taylor nominated Frances van Tassell for Vice Chair. There were no
other nominations. Miles/Plummer moved that nominations be closed. Van Tassell was elected unanimously . Tarlton/Conover nominated Marcia Staff for Secretary.
There were no other nominations. Miles/Cox
moved to close nomination. Senator Staff was unanimously elected.
Committee
Reports:
1. Committee on Committees: Senator Tarlton provided a
written handout noting committee nominations noting one additional nominee, Judy
Johnston. Senator Cox seconded the motion. Nominees were unanimously elected.
2. Academic Affairs: Sahliyeh provided the committee’s
annual report, noting responses to charges from the Executive Committee, as
follows:
1)
Undergraduate admission review: the committee’s report was approved at last
Senate meeting.
2)
Awarding of honorary degrees at UNT.
There were administrator reservations regarding the committee’s
recommendations. Revised guidelines take into account those concerns.
The committee accepted a six-member standing committee of the FS
(previous recommendation was 10). Regarding reporting procedures, the
administration preferred reporting to the Executive Committee (EC), rather than
the full Senate, for purposes of anonymity. The EC will report to the provost
and president. This issue of who
should be excluded was also a concern. The revised proposal allows for persons
who are candidates for political office, as requested by the administration.
Pelton seconded the committee’s motion. Oxford clarified some of the points in
the recommendations, in particular that “normally” is there to allow for
urgent response needs to provide
UNT more room to act if needed. Oxford asked if Provost Kesterson had any
comments. The committee’s report
was unanimously approved.
3)
Faculty who wish to teach at UNT Dallas. Faculty
members willing to teach in South Dallas need special consideration, similar to
how graduate advisors receive $1000 per month (or less) with any additional
funds to go to the department for local use, which might include the faculty
member’s use. Miles seconded the committee’s motion. Allen asked why $1000
was selected for recommendation. The graduate advisor additional salary was used
as a benchmark. Miles asked if this
would be an addition to current incentives.
Miles asked how this impacts what is currently occurring, whereby a
percentage of the salary of faculty teaching there is returned to the unit. Does
the committee intend that this policy replace that money, or is this in addition
to? Taylor responded that it is an
issue of the source of the funds. Kesterson
responded that the source of funds would have to be out of the UNT Dallas
budget, which raises some question. Initial
incentives were a healthier percent than in subsequent years due to budget
constraints. He asked the committee
if this would be in addition to the previously established formula. The proposal
calls for taking the $1000 from what UNT Dallas gives the unit, with the
remaining amount to be used by the department; the purpose is to assure that the
faculty member receives $1000. Miles
restated that now money goes to the department and the department can spend it
as it wishes. The committee is
recommending that $1000 goes to the willing faculty member (or a relative amount
based on the amount funded to the department).
4)
Initiatives taken by committee were reported for the year.
5)
Recommendations were made for the charge for this committee for next year.
3. Faculty
Handbook Committee. A written
report will be provided later.
4. Faculty Research Committee: Written and
oral reports were provided by Art Goven, noting successes with faculty research
grants, small grants, junior faculty summer research fellowships, and indirect
cost funds spent on research.
5. Oversight
Committee on the Core Curriculum. Darhyl Ramsey, reviewing the processes and
procedures developed and used by the committee over the 2002-2003 academic year,
provided written and oral reports. The
Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 assessment/review schedule was provided.
The results of the Spring 2003 reviews were discussed, noting courses
approved for the Core, courses deferred until Spring 2004, and courses removed
from the Core due to non-submission of required assessments.
Specific courses to be reviewed for Fall 2003 were noted, as well as
courses to be reviewed Fall 2003 that were deferred from Fall 2002.
6. Visiting
Lecture Seminar Series Committee. Monika
Antonelli provided a written report outlining the committee’s work for the
year.
7. University
Curriculum Committee. Associate
VPAA LaBrecque provided written and oral reports from the May 14, 2003 UCC
meeting. New course were added for
the College of Education, School of Visual Arts, College of Arts and Sciences,
College of Business Administration, and School of Community Service.
The Driver Education program was deleted.
Core courses required for the degree were added for the College of
Engineering.
8. Charter and Bylaws: 1st reading for Charter change. 3 issues
1.
expand EC
to leadership council; who might be on this; would committee chairs; for now
recommendation to not change to this
2.
college of
engineering impact on representation; looked at options; three COE depts. Two
are now in one group; one in another; not enough for the COE to be a group of
its own; what impact would redistribution cause.
Committee has suggestions but is still working on plan and will present
later.
3.
procedure
for obtaining nominations for committee positions.
Problems with nominations now such that some times it take 5-8 rounds.
What can be done? Committee offers addition to Bylaws, first reading
today (not open for discussion); second reading and vote in June.
Article I< section 1: recommended addition: an exception will be made
to this nominating process if after two rounds of nominations…GET TEXT from
MILES
Wallace: question about group makeup
of COE. Is anyone advising EC or
committee about an appropriate distribution? Miles: not to this point.
Wallace noted that faculty might have valuable input.
Miles will discuss if there is debate about which group each department
of the three will go into. Oxford
noted that it would be good to get input from faculty in the three programs. Miles noted that current grouping are pretty clear but at
some point the distribution becomes possibly illogical, thus a greater look at
distribution may be in order. Tam:
is data of distribution available for faculty to review. A: on Senate website
Vice-Chair’s
update
Vice-Chair Pelton reported on the May meeting of the
EC with administrators. Concerns
expressed by faculty regarding use of the current PED recreational facility were
brought to the administration. A
meeting with Dean Keller and others is planned for the June EC meeting to gather
more information. The University
Review Committee recommendations were noted, with handouts provided for
recommendations for Equitable Distribution of Salary Summary, recommendations
regarding Administrative and Instructional Salaries, and a resolution to support
the committee’s recommendations regarding Administrative and Instructional
Salaries. (Handouts of those
documents were provided.) The
resolution was worded as follows:
Whereas,
the University Review Committee has, in the interest of fairness and faculty
morale, identified the need to address the process for distribution of
instructional and administrative salaries; and
Whereas, the URC, in accordance with its charter, has
made recommendations to meet this need; and
Whereas,
the recommendations were forwarded to the Provost and Vice President for
Academic Affairs in February; and
Whereas, the Provost and Vice President for Academic
Affairs has given his tacit approval of these recommendations; now
Therefore, be it resolved, that the Faculty Senate of the University of North Texas endorses the approval of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and charges and strongly supports the Committee on Faculty Participation in Governance in implementing these recommendations.
Chair’s Update. Due to the limits of time (4:00), Chair Oxford
adjourned the formal Senate meeting at this time in order to welcome the third
candidate for the position of Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs who
was scheduled to address the Senate at 4:00.
The candidate addressed the Senate and engaged in questions and answers.
Respectively submitted by Frances van Tassell,
Senate Secretary
Send comments or questions to Sue Young, syoung@unt.edu, at the Faculty Senate Office, Telephone (940) 565-2053.