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

I. Minutes of the February 8, 2005, meeting were approved.

II. Secretary-Treasurer Malcolm L. Cross reported a balance of $2779.51, a net decrease of $556.93 from the balance of $3336.44 reported at the February 8 meeting and reflecting expenditures of $312.50 for the 2005 Summer Aerobics Program and $244.43 in travel expenses for incurred by the Faculty Senate President when attending the February meeting of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates.

III. Guests: Kelli Styron invited several guests to address the Faculty Senate:

A. Dean of Graduate Studies Dr. Linda Jones: Dr. Linda Jones discussed a proposal to raise the salaries of graduate assistants by $3000 over a three- year period in order to improve working condidtions for graduate assistants and help make Tarleton more competitive in the recruitment of better graduate assistants. In the ensuing discussion several Faculty Senators expressed the concern that too much effort was being made to raise graduate assistants' salaries and not enough effort to raise faculty salaries, and that Tarleton was becoming too expensive to attend.

B. Associate Librarian and SEBAC Representative Donna Savage and Human Resources Director Angie Brown: Donna Savage reported that the Legislature had ordered a study of the feasibility of merging the State Employee Retirement System with the employee benefits systems of the Texas A&M and University of Texas systems. Although the study had not been completed, preliminary actuarial analysis had discerned no benefits to such a merger. Additional information would be available at the April SEBAC meeting.

III. Arthur Award: The Faculty Senate nominated Dan Marble, Reyes, and Pam Lindsay-Glenn for the Arthur Award and selected Jeanelle Barrett (COLFA),
Judy Cadle (COBA), Linda Gunter (COST), Marlin Priddy (COAHS), and Janet Whitley (COE) to serve as faculty members on the Selection Committee.

IV. Announcements.

A. Budget Hearings. Kelli Styron announced that budget hearings had been well-attended and thanked the Faculty Senators for their participation. Malcolm L. Cross reported that at the hearing he attended Dr. Peer said that the Faculty Senate deserved credit for helping secure faculty salary raises.

B. Spring Senate Luncheon. Janet Whitley reminded the Faculty Senate 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 and "celebrate the faculty."

C. Research Award. Kelli Styron announced that the deadline for submitting applications to the Deans for consideration for the Research Award had been March 7, and that the selection process would soon be underway.

D. Sherrill Easterling: Kelli Styron announced the impending retirement of Sherrill Easterling from both the Faculty Senate and the University as well. The Faculty Senate honored Dr. Easterling’s many years of dedicated service with an enthusiastic ovation.

IV. University Committees.

A. Reports.

1. Academic Council: Kelli Styron announced that the Academic Council had discussed the freshman orientation program, concluding that:
· No additional orientations would be scheduled;
· Placement tests would still be held;
· The evaluation by participants of the orientation program would be solicited and analyzed;
· The issue of whether the length of the program was a problem would continue to be reviewed.

2. Curriculum Committee. No meeting or report.

3. Calendar Committee. Richard Sale reported that the Calendar Committee had completed the 2005-06 Academic Calendar and was discussing the 2006-07 Calendar. A major issue was whether to reduce final examination periods from 2.5 hours to 2 hours. To do so would permit the scheduling of more final examinations on weekdays and therefore the elimination of finals on Saturday, and was approved by the Student Government Association and some faculty members. However the Faculty Senate, without objection, endorsed the retention of 2.5 hour final examinations.

4. Enrollment Management Advisory Council: Kelli Styron announced that issues discussed by the Enrollment Management Advisory Council included:
· Proposals to make changes in the new student orientation program;
· Standardization of scholarship award data;
· A study to determine which groups on campus need certain Banner system capabilities (eg., the need for degree evaluations programs by faculty)
· The creation of a Diversity Recruitment and Retention Action Team to supply scholarship data and make contact with minority students on campus;
· The web site for Admissions Representatives;
· The Coordination of reports for applications for admissions, housing, scholarships, etc.;
· The development of a campus-wide recruitment program; and
· A study of the Coordinating Board Performance Measures which relate to Enrollment Management.

5. Employee Benefits Committee: The Employee Benefits Committee met and reviewed the issue discussed in item III B, above.

6. Instructional Technology. No meeting or report.

7. EEO/AA. No meeting or report.

8. University Planning Council. No meeting or report.

9. Academic Integrity Committee: David Weindorf distributed the
Academic Integrity Committee's Report, which concluded that:
· "Visibility and awareness of the issue need to be enhanced across the TSU campus;"
· "The current policy given in the TSU catalog needs to be more clearly defined;
· "Greater uniformity and transparency of the disciplinary process are needed;" and
· "Penalties for academic dishonesty need to be strengthened."
In discussing the Report and its development, David Weindorf noted that:
· Students and faculty think cheating is commonplace;
· Dr. Peer wants more awareness of the issue;
· Dr. Craig Clifford and Vice President for Student Services Dr. Wanda Mercer had supplied valuable background information;
· The J-TAC had printed a helpful article; and
· The Student Government Association would conduct a professionally developed survey within the next month.
The Faculty Senate accepted the report without objection.

10. Salary and Benefits Committee: The Faculty Senate reviewed a letter written by the Salary and Benefits Committee to Dr. Peer which praised him for securing across-the-board salary adjustments for all full-time faculty with the rank of assistant professor and above, and urged him to continue his excellent work to secure parity between Tarleton faculty salaries and the average salaries paid by the Texas A&M University System. Kelli Styron praised the Salary and Benefits Committee for its efforts on behalf of the faculty too.

11. Faculty Development Committee: Marlin Priddy reported that the committee was considering:
· A Faculty Development Center which could serve as a "safe haven" wherein faculty could discuss ways and means for improving their teaching but which would neither evaluate faculty teaching nor enforce particular polices;
· A study to determine the availability of grants to help improve teaching;
· Recognition of the value of a diversity of teaching styles;
· The creation of useful web sites on the subject;
· Efforts by the Center to improve not only teaching but research and service as well.

V. Old Business.

A. Parking Update. Kelli Styron announced that the Staff Council had not endorsed the Faculty Senate's proposal to raise parking fines to $50.00, that some Staff Council members thought the proposed fine would be too high, and that the Staff Council would offer its opinion to Dr. McCabe if solicited.

B. Environmental Presentation Update. The Faculty Senate began reviewing a draft of a resolution supporting the implementation of environmentally friendly policies on the Tarleton campus and will continue the process at the April meeting.

VI. New Business:

A. Report from the Texas Council of Faculty Senates. Kelli Styron reported on the Texas Council of Faculty Senates meeting in Austin and distributed handouts concerning proposed bills, including a bill to increase Texas faculty salaries to the average of the salaries of faculty in the ten most populous states.

B. Other New Business:

1. Email Issues: The Faculty Senate rejected a proposal to request a change in email policy for certain categories of "informational" email at Tarleton. The consensus of the Senate was to encourage faculty members to simply delete any unwanted email rather than demand special filters.

2. Web Page assistance: Kelli Styron announced that Leah Schultz was offering assistance in the creation and maintenance of faculty web pages.

3. Potential Change in Tarleton's NCAA conference affiliation: Kelli Styron announced that Dr. McCabe and Lonn Reisman would attend the 4/12 Faculty Senate meeting to discuss a possible application from Tarleton to join NCAA Division One.

4. Faculty Senate Elections: Kelli Styron reminded Faculty Senators whose terms expire at the end of the current academic year to conduct elections in their departments for their successors, and to bring their successors to the April Faculty Senate meeting.

5. Election of a President-Elect: Kelli Styron remined the Faculty Senate that it must elect a President-Elect at the April meeting and invited any Faculty Senator interested in being a candidate to contact her by March 22.

X. Adjournment. The Faculty Senate adjourned at 5:10 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for April 12, 2004, at 3:30 p.m., location to be announced.