Faculty Senate President Kelli Styron called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Seventeen Faculty Senators were in attendance.

I. Minutes of the November 9, 2004, meeting were approved.

II. Secretary-Treasurer Malcolm L. Cross reported a balance of $3336.44, a net decrease of $634.40 from the balanced of $3970.84 reported at the November 9 meeting and reflecting income of $73.00 in ticket sales for the Fall Faculty Luncheon, and expenditures of $639.20 for the Fall Luncheon and $68.20 for the plaque awarded to former Faculty Senate President David Weissenburger.

III. Announcements.
A. Presentation on Faculty/Staff Development Campaign. Rusty Freed, Nancy Turner, and Donna Savage discussed the Faculty/Staff
Development Campaign, emphasizing:
· The Campaign's goals of raising 25% more money than last year and encouraging 50 more faculty and staff members to contribute than last year;
· The freedom of each donor to specify the fund to which he wanted to give his money; and
· The absence of any administrative overhead costs, meaning that 100% of each donor's contribution would go to the purposes specified by the donor.
B. Barry B. Thompson Award Recipient. Kelli Styron announced that Christy Brown, an instructor in the Department of Animal Sciences, had won the Barry B. Thompson Service Award, which is award annually to the faculty member with the best record of service to students outside the classroom. The Faculty Senate extended its congratulations.
C. Arthur Award. Marlin Priddy reminded the Faculty Senate that the process for selecting Arthur Award nominees must begin soon, urged Faculty Senators to solicit candidates from their departments, said he would soon send them by campus materials explaining the process to be followed, and announced a deadline of March 1 by which he must receive 22 copies of supporting paperwork for each Arthur Award candidate.
D. Budget Hearings. Kelli Styron announced that budget hearings would soon be under way and urged Faculty Senators to sign up to attend one or more sessions.
E. Spring Senate Luncheon. Janet Whitley announced that the Spring Faculty Senate Luncheon will be at noon, April 6, with guest speaker Dr. Jeanelle Barrett, and urged Faculty Senators to encourage faculty attendance.
F. Research Award. Kelli Styron announced that the deadline by which a faculty member could either nominate himself or a colleague for the Faculty Excellence in Scholarship Award was March 7.
G. Introduction of New Senators: Kelli Styron introduced Richard Sale as the New Faculty Senator from Human Sciences.

H. Other Announcements:

1. TAMUS Faculty Advisory Council: Kelli Styron reported on the 1/21 meeting of the Texas A & M University System Faculty Advisory Council, noting that issues discussed included those concerning vote of confidence procedures, salary inversion, administrative salaries, grade inflation, and benefits. Of particular interest were proposals concerning the administration of health insurance which, if implemented, could lead to increased premiums and less coverage.

2. Valerie Ballister Report: Kelli Styron reported on remarks made by Valerie Ballister, an educator urging that writing requirements for each discipline be developed and that writing intensive classes have no more than a 20:1 student-faculty ratio.

3. Bookstore Advisory Committee. Kelli Styron announced that a Bookstore Advisory Committee would begin functioning in late February and appointed Don Beach to represent the Faculty Senate on the Committee.

IV. University Committees.

A. Reports.

1. Academic Council: Kelli Styron announced that topics discussed at the latest Academic Council meeting included:
· The Orientation Committee's desire to reduce the number of days devoted to freshman orientation by eliminating the math and English placement tests: This proposal was opposed by Mark Shipman and Randall Popkin of the English Department who argued that the placement tests serve a valuable diagnostic purpose, and the proposal has been tabled pending the review by the Deans of Randall Popkin's position paper.
· The implementation of the Banner system: Dr. Jim Cook reviewed issues raised by implementation efforts, soliciting feedback from faculty concerning problems with Banner usage and announcing the impending hiring of three full time temporary computer programmers to assist with its implementation.

2. Curriculum Committee. Don Beach announced the Curriculum Committee had adopted new administrative and parliamentary procedures, including a consent calendar, to increase its efficiency.

3. Calendar Committee. Richard Sale announced that the Calendar Committee is working on the Calendar for the 2006-2007 academic year, with due consideration of the scheduling issues which have been raised.

4. Enrollment Management Advisory Council: Janet Whitley announced that the EMAC had discussed:
· Banner implementation and the hiring of computer programmers to facilitate it;
· The presentation of orientation programs at Weatherford Community College and Hill Community College in Cleburne;
· Plans to provide more scholarships and streamline the procedures for awarding scholarships.

5. Employee Benefits Committee: No meeting or report.

6. Instructional Technology. George Mollick announced that subcommittees Advisory Council to the Center for Instructional Technology were examining the TLTR Vision Statement.

7. EEO/AA. No meeting or report.

8. University Planning Council. No meeting or report.

9. Academic Integrity Committee: David Weindorf discussed discussions of this issue with Craig Clifford and Vice President for Student Services Dr. Wanda Mercer, who have worked on this issue. Mark Holtorf announced the availability of funds to conduct a professionally written survey to be administered with the cooperation of the Student Government Association.

10. Salary and Benefits Committee: Kelli Styron announced that the Salary and Benefits Committee had recently received more data for its work and that Dr. Gary Peer had suggested that Chairman Jeremy Curtoys request continuing implementation of the previously accepted committee proposal.

11. Faculty Development Committee. George Mollick announced that:
· The Committee should meet before the March Faculty Senate Meeting;
· A Brown Bag Lunch program, was currently scheduled 4/13 in Room 130 of the Tarleton Center as a forum for faculty discussion of faculty development needs and challenges they want Tarleton to meet; and
· The most useful service a faculty development program can offer is assistance to faculty seeking to improve their teaching, research, and service capabilities.

V. Old Business.

A. Parking Update. Kelli Styron announced that Dr. Peer has met with students to discuss the issue of parking fines, that Dr. Wanda Mercer, Vice President for Student Services, has expressed concern that a $50.00 may be too high, and that Dr. McCabe will ask both the Student Government Administration and the Staff Council to examine this issue too.

B. Environmental Presentation Update. Jeanelle Barrett announced that she is working on a draft resolution to bring before the Faculty Senate on this issue, that Dr. Peer has recommended that someone be appointed to monitor environmental issues, and that Dr. Carol Thompson has raised the possibility that special training for whomever becomes involved with the analysis and implementation of environmental policies may require special training.

VI. New Business:

A. Consideration of Salaries for Graduate Students. The Faculty Senate debated a proposal made by Dr. Linda Jones, Dean of Graduate Studies, to provide an across-the-board increase of $1000.00 a year to all graduate students working as teaching and graduate students, as well as to review policies concerning the degree of insurance coverage available to them. In the course of the discussion several Faculty Senators expressed concern that efforts to improve pay and benefits for graduate assistants were preceding needed efforts on behalf of the faculty. The Senate passed a resolution endorsing Dr. Jones’s proposal, but not unanimously. Following the passage of the resolution the Senate expressed approval of Kelli Styron’s proposal to invite Dr. Jones to address the Faculty Senate directly on this issue.

B. Committee to Review Awards. Kelli Styron appointed David Weindorf, Jeanelle Barrett, and Richard Sale to a committee to review awards available to faculty. Issues to be addressed by the committee will include the policies of peer institutions, and whether the financial compensation accompanying the awards should be adjusted.

C. Noon Aerobics--$312.50 request for Summer 2005. The Faculty Senate debated whether and how to authorize the transfer of $312.50 to the Faculty Noon Aerobics Program to be conducted this summer. After considering a proposal to automatically fund the program as long as the Senate’s treasury budget remained above $2000.00, the Senate voted to fund the Summer 2005 Program with the understanding that each future request for funding be considered on its own merits and with respect to whatever balance was in the treasury at the time the proposal came before the Senate.

VII. Motion to Approve Travel Expenses to Austin for Texas Council of Faculty Senates: The Faculty Senate unanimously approved a motion to reimburse Kelli Styron for expenses to be incurred attending the upcoming meeting in Austin of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates.

X. Adjournment. The Faculty Senate adjourned at 5:05 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for March 8, 2004, at 3:30 p.m., location to be announced.