Faculty Senate President Elect Kelli Styron called the meeting to order at 3:30 P.M. Eighteen
Senators were in attendance. With the Faculty Senate’s approval Kelli Styron invited Janet Schmelzer , chair of the Calendar Committee, and Jeremy Curtoys, Chair of the Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee, to report on the work of their respective committees before the Faculty Senate began considering the other items on its agenda.

I. Calendar for 2004-2005—Janet Schmelzer: Janet Schmelzer, chair of the Calendar
Committee, reported that the Committee had made few changes in the 2004-05 academic
schedule, and that it was similar to previous years’ schedules. In discussing the issues
and decisions made by the Calendar Committee, she noted that:
· The scheduling of the Killeen campus’s spring commencement had been determined by the availability of facilities for holding the commencement ceremony;
· The Calendar Committee wanted to keep the Monday following commencement as the due-date for final grades;
· In scheduling final examinations, the Calendar Committee
§ Found this to be the biggest issue confronting it over the last few years;
§ Wanted to provide a study day for students prior to the beginning of final examinations;
§ Had debated the merits of scheduling MWF classes’ examinations on MWF and TTH classes examinations on TTH in order to minimize students’ confusion;
§ Had considered the possibility of using a lottery system for scheduling examinations in the future.
Janet Schmelzer concluded by noting that:
· More faculty were needed on the Calendar Committee;
· The Faculty Senate should be kept up to date on Calendar Committee deliberations as they proceed; and
· Recommendations of the Faculty Senate and others for future changes in the academic schedule should be e-mailed to her so that they may become part of her permanent files.
At the conclusion of the discussion of the 2004-2005 calendar, the Faculty Senate
unanimously voted to adopt it.

II. Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee—Jeremy Curtoys: Jeremy Curtoys reported that
the Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee had compared and contrasted the salaries for
Tarleton faculty with those of faculty at other peer institutions within the TAMU System
and had concluded that salaries for Tarleton faculty were higher than average for those
with the rank of instructor or lecturer, but lower than average for those with the rank of
assistant professor, associate professor, or full professor:

Professor Associate Assistant Instructor Lecturer.
Professor Professor

System $68,000 $54,000 $47,000 $35,000 $31,000
Average:

Tarleton: $63,000 $51,000 $44,000 $37,000 $32,000

He announced that his committee had recommended:
· Tarleton should bring faculty salaries into parity with the TAMU system schools other than A & M University itself;
· Salaries should be addressed on a rank-by-rank basis;
· Salary increases should be by fixed dollar amounts and not calculated as percentages of base pay since to use the latter will perpetuate, rather than correct, inequities.
· Salary increases be phased in over a 4-year period; and
· Each rank should get a partial adjustment each year.
He concluded by noting that these recommendations had been made to Gary Peer in
11/03, and that his committee was awaiting a response.

III. Minutes of the November 11, 2003, meeting were approved.

IV. Treasurer’s Report: Secretary-Treasurer Malcolm L. Cross reported a balance of
$1512.78, a decrease of $215.55 from the balance of $1728.33 reported at the 11/11/03
meeting and reflecting payments to reimburse Faculty Senate officials’ travel expenses.

IV. Announcements.

A. Faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award: Russell Higham announced that the
policy establishing the Faculty Excellence in Scholarship award had been
approved, with Gary Peer’s support and with one dissenting vote, by the
Academic Council in 11/03, and will be on the docket with other awards this
spring.

B. Bookstore Issues: David Weindorf, chair of the committee appointed by the
Faculty Senate to examine complaints about the Campus Store’s textbook order
policies, announced the absence of any real issues with the Campus Store. Mark
Holtorf, a committee member, reported that he had met with Campus Store
officials to review its policies; learned that the number of books ordered by
the Campus Store for a given course was based on a formula taking into
consideration the number requested by the faculty, the number of books likely to
be bought by students based on past experience, and the number of books likely to
be ordered by other bookstores; and concluded that the Campus Store’s policies
were not unreasonable.

C. Student Evaluation of On-Line Courses/Evaluation of Distributed Education
Courses: No report.

D. Evaluation of Deans: Kelli Styron announced that the evaluation of deans and
department heads would not be conducted on line, but rather with the distribution
of evaluation forms to the faculty, as in previous evaluation exercises for
administrators.

E. Arthur Award: Kelli Styron announced that the process of selecting Arthur
Award nominees will begin in 2/04, that student government leaders had been
contacted for input, and that the process will be administered in the traditional
manner and not on line.

F. Barry B. Thompson Award.. Marlin Priddy announced that Dr. Samuel Dodson
of the Department of English and Languages had won the Barry B. Thompson
Service Award for his assistance to students outside the classroom.

G. Other Announcements: Kelli Styron announced that:
· There will be no merit plus pay program this year;
· Gary Peer was supportive of increased faculty participation in selection of future merit plus beneficiaries;
· An ad hoc committee to examine tenure and promotion issues has been formed, consisting of Linda Jones (chair), Janet Whitley, Hussein Jafri, Pam Littleton, Robert Newby, and Pat Zelman;
· A system-wide meeting of Faculty Senate presidents was scheduled for Friday, 1/16/04.

V. University Committees.

A. Reports:
1. Academic Council: No report.
2. Curriculum Committee: No report.
3. Enrollment Management Advisory Council: No report. The Enrollment
Management Advisory Council has not met because of the departure of
Enrollment Dean Bankhead.
4. Employee Benefits: Kelli Styron announced that Leah Schultz is developing
an online survey on employee satisfaction with regard to salary benefits.
5. Distance/Distributed Education: No report.
6. TLTR: George Mollick reported that Gary Peers wants the TLTR’s Vision
Statement reviewed by the Deans, the Academic Council, and the Faculty
Senate, and recommended that faculty senators distribute copies of the Vision
Statement to their colleagues and solicit feedback for consideration at the
Senate’s 2/04 meeting.
7. EEO/AA: No report.
8. Faculty Development Leave: Kelli Styron announced that the Faculty
Development Leave Committee had forwarded a recommendation to Gary
Peer who forwarded it to Dennis McCabe, and that an announcement of the
recommendation in the future is expected.
9. Other Committee Reports: None.

VII. Motions to Approve:
a. Funds for travel to Texas Faculty Senate Meeting in February: Approved.

VIII. New Business: David Weindorf reported that faculty efforts to secure reimbursement
for travel expenses were hampered by administrative inefficiencies and that rules
governing faculty reimbursement for travel expenses needed to be updated. Kelli
Styron appointed David Weindorf to head a committee, consisting also of Steve Field
and Marlin Priddy, to examine this issue.

XI. Adjournment: The Faculty Senate adjourned at 4:50 P.M. The next meeting is scheduled for 2/10/04, at 3:30 P.M. in the Library Multi-Purpose Room