Meeting:
 Faculty Senate Meeting, 14 November 2007, Wooten Hall, Room 322
 
Present:
 Babcock, Baker, Benet, Catalano, Chen, Clower, Conover, Cox, Cushman, Doherty, Eddy, Harrell, Harris, Hayes, Heidlberger, Holt, Jagadeeswaren, Johnston, McPherson, Mikler, Mueller, Nagaoka, Oldmixon, Packard, Pavur, Perez, Peters, Plummer, Pohlen, Sahliyeh, Seligmann, Swan, Todd, Wallace, Weiller, Wells, Windsor
 
Absent:
 Atkinson, Bratton, Chandler, Cole, Donahue-Wallace, Emmanuel, Figa, Hill, Reidy, Thomsett-Scott, Turner
 
Guests:
 Michelle Mears, Margaret Vestal, Margie Lagleder, Celia Williamson, Donna Asher, Lynn Bissett, Katy McDaniel, Carolyn Bobo, Kirk Cooper, Rebecca Evans, Siny Thomas
 
Opening:
 Michael McPherson, Chair of the Faculty Senate, called the meeting to order at 2:01 pm
 
 

I Welcome and Introductions
a. Senator McPherson welcomed attendees
b. Senator McPherson introduced Kathy Nichols.

II Group Caucuses
There were no issues requiring caucuses.

III Approval of the Minutes from the October 10, 2007
Faculty Senate Meeting Senators Sahliyeh and Oldmixon accepted and seconded the minutes. The minutes passed unanimously without correction.

IV Committee Reports
a. Committee on Committees
Chair Johnston presented the report.
Andrew Milson was a write-in candidate for the Curriculum Committee.
Ione Hunt von Herbing was a write-in candidate for the Oversight Committee on the Core Curriculum.
There were three nominations from the floor.
Jennifer Lane was nominated to serve on the Committee on the Evaluation of University Administrators.
Chris Chesky was nominated to serve on the Faculty Salary Study Committee.
Smita Mehta was elected to serve on the Scholarship Committee.
The report was accepted unanimously.
b.Curriculum Committee:
° Chair Celia Williamson made the report. She reported that the work on the 120 hour requirement has been completed. This was accepted with one abstention.
  1. ° She then presented the state’s initiative for college readiness standards in the areas of language arts, science, math, social sciences, and cross-disciplinary, and asked for feedback on the standards. The default curriculum in high school is becoming college readiness, and this document attempts to clarify the curricular expectations. The draft of the Texas College Readiness Standards document can be found online at: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/CollegeReadiness/draft_crs.pdf
  2. ° Dr. Williamson then explained that the next step will be nominating courses that exemplify the application of these standards in first year courses.
  3. c. Faculty Awards Committee The Faculty Awards Committee reported in writing. There were no suggestions for action items and the report passed unanimously.

    V Report of the Provost/VPAA postponed because the Senate meeting was running ahead of schedule. (See VII below)

     VI Vice Chair Update Please see the report for additional details.
a. Kirk Cooper, the Views editor at the NT Daily News, has opened a call for faculty to contribute a column or cartoon. Submissions should be between 400 and 500 words and submitted by 5pm the day before publication.
b. Senator Wells presented the ongoing discussion comparing summer school enrollments, salaries, number of faculty employed, and cost of summer school to the university. Senator Pohlen requested that the profit or loss from summer school be clarified further by examining how statistics regarding costs were reported. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee and Budget Committee will request the “overunder” report and in addition to other information to review and report back to the Senate.
c. Senator Wells presented information regarding ongoing concerns about the affect of the UNT Dallas campus on the UNT main campus. He reported that a person has been identified to act as a consultant for the process of transitioning the Dallas campus into a self-sustaining campus. Plans call for the campus to be independent by 2010. Issues noted were the combined enrollment statistics, faculty rank, titles, and contracts, as well as the continuing cost to the UNT main campus.
d. Senator Wells gave a brief update on the three Dean searches. The committees for the College of Business Administration search and the College of Education Search have been named; the Chair of the College of Engineering search is Herman Totten.
e. Senator Wells announced that Tom Evenson has been named Dean of CPACS and will serve two years until the strategic plan is complete. There is discussion of a possible new college combining Journalism, RTVF, and Communication Studies.
f. Other issues presented by Senator Wells include the library’s loss of seven thousand square feet of study and common space and continuing concerns regarding defining and meeting the standards of a “student oriented research institution”.
g. Senator Wells announced that the College of Engineering bylaws draft is underway.
h. As final announcements, Senator Wells noted that the EC plans to check the status of doctoral scholarships. The budget hearings are scheduled for December and two faculty senators will be present at the hearings. The first Space Assessment meeting will take place November 29, and a faculty representative will be present at that meeting as well.
VII Report of the Provost /VPAA
a. Delaware Study. Dr. Wilkins encouraged faculty to respond to the Delaware Out-of-Class Activity Study. In a response to a question posed about whether faculty should report publications based on the calendar year or the academic year, Dr. Wilkins stated that items should be reported based on the publication date. She noted this online study will reduce the amount of repeat reporting that faculty will have to do.
b. Dr. Wilkins distributed a draft of Faculty Criminal History Background Check Policy that will take effect in January of 2008. This policy will require background checks for new faculty and tenure and promotion candidates who have not previously undergone a criminal history background check.
c. Workload Policy has been sent to chair of the Faculty Workload Committee. Comments will be incorporated and the policy will then be sent to the Faculty Senate for review.
d. Tenure Policy. The first draft has been sent to the Chair of the UTC. Important highlights include:
i. Substantive third year review for faculty in tenure track positions.
 ii. Revision of the grievance procedure. Candidates can rebut at each level, but no grievance can be made until the decision is made at the Provost or President’s level.
 iii. A statement by the candidate will be required.
iv.
Colleges must have a P&T committee.
v.
The UTC would be changed to the University Promotion and Tenure Committee.
vi. Dr. Wilkins emphasized that she is trying to guarantee the quality of the review process, and through this process, will jointly develop and implement a “best practice” policy. To that end, she is using models recommended by the ad hoc committee.
e.
Non Tenure Track Faculty. Dr. Wilkins is working to define and establish new titles for non tenure track faculty that will distinguish them from tenure track teaching appointments and also create opportunity for career advancement.
i. Guidelines will be established for promotion. ii. Specific titles have not been decided. iii. Faculty already serving in this capacity will not have to change their contracts. iv. Contracts for new instructional faculty will range from one to three years.
f.
Major Budget initiatives. Dr. Wilkins announced two new proposed budget initiatives:
i. Student Success Initiative to assure that students make better progress through their studies. This may include, but is not limited to, better advising, and more sections of oversubscribed classes. ii. New faculty lines to address a serious full time shortage. Faculty may be hired in clusters to promote research. VIII Chair Update a. Senator McPherson encouraged faculty to respond to the Delaware Survey so that the aggregated data might help determine discipline-specific workload norms.
b. Eagle Alert. Dr. McPherson reminded faculty to register with the Eagle Alert System to facilitate communication among the university community in the event of an emergency.
c. Senator McPherson also noted the College Readiness Standards Draft on the Texas Coordinating Board’s website and asked faculty to comment.
IX Comments by the President
a.
Dr. Bataille discussed the four new senior positions that have been filled recently and noted the new leadership supports the University’s commitment to equity and diversity. New hires include Belinda Newman as Ombuds, Gilda Gonzalez as VP for Equity and Diversity, Steven A. Hill as Director of Institutional Compliance, and Andrew M. Harris as VP for finance and administration.
b.
She requested that faculty participate in the new Emergency Alert.
c.
Dr. Bataille discussed our community college relationships and noted that UNT is the number one transfer school in the state, and number nine nationally. Emphasis will be placed on facilitating transfers and generating reports to communicate with community colleges. This will help prepare community college students better for university level work.
d.
The university is working with the Voluntary System of Accountability Task Force.
e.
The university is joining the Association of State Colleges and Universities. This promotes UNT’s accountability and transparency. Information will be available on the website about graduation rate, diversity, courses of study, student body demographics and student body engagement. There will also be a cost calculator posted to give information about tuition and fees.
f.
President Bataille announced that UNT has been named one of the “100 college best buys”. This is based on a combination of academic quality and cost.
g.
Research Park. In addition to SLIS moving to the research park, there is ongoing discussion of further uses for that land.
h.
Dr. Bataille noted that every institution will be using the same metrics to report student teacher ratios in response to a question.
i.
Research Status Senator Windsor asked about research productivity and expenditures and how this is reported. There was discussion about possible seed money to stimulate applications for federal grants. Dr. Bataille clarified that although she speaks about research in broad terms, UNT is evaluated based on Federal Grants received. She emphasized that in terms of research at UNT, we must evaluate based on long term goals while taking chances.
X Unfinished Business:
None

 XI New Business Senator Seligmann presented a resolution to request the repeal of Executive Order 13233, which limits access to the records of former U.S. Presidents. Senator Swann moved to accept the resolution, and Senator Plummer seconded. There was a motion to table the resolution, but it failed. The resolution passed with four abstentions.

XII Committee of the Whole
There was a question about lecturer positions.
Senator Seligman announced an upcoming lecture.

Respectfully submitted by Dornith Doherty.