Faculty Senate Meeting
May 6, 2003, 3:30 P.M.
Library Multi-Purpose Room

Faculty Senate President David Weissenburger called the meeting to order at 3:30 P.M.
Twenty-one senators were in attendance, including three incoming senators.

I. Introduction of New Senators: The election of the following new Faculty Senators was
announced:
David Weindorf, Agribusiness, Agronomy, Horticulture, and Range Management,
replacing David Kattes;
Patricia A Smith, Clinical Laboratory Sciences, replacing Dr. Donna Mitchell;
Mark Holtorf, Fine Arts and Communications, replacing Dr. Teresa Davidian.
Chet Martin, Health and Physical Education, replacing Dr. Steve Simpson; and
Jennifer Barrera, Library, replacing Ms. Tracy Holtman.

II. Election of the Faculty Senate President-Elect: Kelli Styron was the sole nominee for
President-Elect, and elected by acclamation. It was also announced that Janet
Whitley would assume the presidency of the Faculty Senate and Malcolm L. Cross
would remain as Senate Secretary-Treasurer.

III. Minutes for the meetings of March 11 and April 8, 2003, were approved.

IV. Secretary-Treasurer Malcolm L. Cross reported a balance of $625.08 in the Faculty Senate account

V. Announcements.
A. Faculty Development Leave Recipient for 2003-04 Academic Year: David
Weissenburger announced that:
· Dr. Leslie Stanley-Stevens was awarded faculty development leave for 2003-04, during which time she will teach no courses but receive half pay while writing a book;
· In the future, faculty development leave may be given if courses normally taught by faculty on leave could be taught by adjuncts for less pay, and if the leave program produces no net costs to the University.

B. Response to Resolution on Summer Pay for Faulty: David Weissenburger announced that Dr. Gary Peer had expressed his appreciation and support for the resolution and accompanying data, promised to use them to resist cuts in summer teaching for as long as possible, and expressed cautious optimism about the maintenance of summer teaching for the foreseeable future.

C. Budget Reductions. David Weissenburger announced that:
· He had sent his memorandum on budget cuts to Dr. McCabe;
· Had discussed the issue with Dr. Peer, stressing the need for faculty involvement in making budget cuts, and that Dr. Peer had agreed.
· Budget hearings would not be held until June;
· He would keep Senators informed by e-mail of noteworthy developments and solicitations of input.
· President McCabe’s Task Force had completed its work, submitting a 14-page document to President McCabe, and that while the document could be released only through President McCabe, he could nonetheless report that it was supportive of the faculty and consistent with stands taken by the Faculty Senate.

D. Status of Proposed Legislation: David Weissenburger announced that:
· HB 1783, a bill to raise faculty salaries to the average of those in the public universities of the ten largest states had been in the House Education Committee since 3/11/03, not a good sign;
· HB 2465, a bill to prevent administrators from earning higher raises than faculty, had been in the House Education Committee since 3/24;
· HB 2461, a bill concerned with sick leave conversions, had been in the House Education Committee since 3/24;
· HB1, Engrossed Rule 98, to increase annual funding of the Central Texas Center from $21,000 to $1,979,379 had passed the House on 4/17 and the Senate on 4/29, was now before a conference committee, and that Dr. McCabe deserved credit and praise for his efforts in promoting the bill’s progress; and
· Dr. McCabe had worked with Senator Troy Fraser to attach a rider to SB 800, a bill to create Texas A&M San Antonio, to transform our Killeen campus into Texas A&M, Central Texas when its enrollment reaches 2500 FTE for one semester.

E. Hallmark of Excellence Task Force: David Weissenburger announced that
· Kelli Styron will serve on the Hallmark of Excellence Task Force, which will be meeting through June to create a proposal to participate in the First-Year Experience Project;
· Tarleton was among 110 schools out of 410 which had made the first cut;
· A proposal from the Task Force was due 6/16 to make the final cut; and
· If successful, Tarleton will receive free consulting services to assist in continuing development and program upgrade.

F. Excellence in Research Award. David Weissenburger solicited discussion on Russ Higham’s committee’s proposal for an Excellence in Research Award, which was approved at the last meeting pending minor editing. The Senate was satisfied with the edits, so it will now be forwarded to Dr. Peer’s office for Academic Council consideration.

G. Other. David Weissenburger announced that:
· The Faculty Senate office was moving to room 441I in the New Science Building, and that the move would be completed by 6/1; and
· Dr. Gary Peer told him he was supportive of the resolution to increase employee scholarships.

VI. Motions to Approve: None.

VI. University Committees.
A. Reports.
1. Academic Council: No report. The Academic Council did not meet in April; its next meeting was scheduled for 5/20.
2. Curriculum Committee: No report.
3. Employee Benefits Committee: Kelli Styron announced that the Employee Benefits committee had conducted an election for a representative to the System Employees Benefit Advisory Council, that the votes had been tabulated, and that the winner would be announced once all candidates were informed of the election outcome.
4. Distance and Distributed Education Committee and TLTR:
· Distance and Distributed Education: Bill Bane reported that the CITDE is studying the technical components of on-line courses to assure that they are in compliance with SAC standards, but that course content is not subject to examination.
· TLTR: George Mollick announced that the TLTR was soliciting faculty input concerning what hardware, software, and technical support faculty want, and was continuing to work on a mission statement, to be completed by September, to specify its goals and provide assistance in the budgeting process.
5. Calendar Committee: David Weissenburger commended Janet Schmelzer, chair of the Calendar Committee, for her efforts and consideration of the Faculty Senate’s proposal for a Fall Break, but said that there was strong opposition and some misunderstanding about the rationale behind the proposal from staff representatives on the committee. Noting that there were only two faculty members on the Calendar Committee, the Faculty Senate then passed a resolution authorizing David Weissenburger to work to increase the number of faculty representatives on the Calendar Committee to one half its membership, with each college having a representative on the committee.
6. EEO/AA: The EEO/AA Committee was scheduled to meet on May 6, and will likely complete its Affirmative Action Plan within 4 to 6 weeks.
7. Planning Council: David Weissenburger announced that the Planning Council had selected 8 indicators to be given to President McCabe for consideration.
8. Other Committee Reports: None.

B. Faculty Development Leave Committee—New COLFA Representative: David Weissenburger announced that Charlie Howard had been elected to a three year term as the COLFA representative to the Faculty Development Leave Committee.

C. Nominations for Next Academic Year.
1. Nominees for faculty membership on university committees. Teresa Davidian:
· distributed a list of nominees to university committees compiled by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee;
· said that the Executive Committee, in making its recommendations, had sought to re-appoint incumbents, give as many applicants as possible their first committee choices, and avoid over-representation of any one department on any committee; and
· cautioned that the list reflected only our recommendations, and was not final or binding.
David Weissenburger said that:
· the percentage of recommendations actually accepted by Dr. McCabe has varied from committee to committee;
· the Faculty Senate must track the extent to which our recommendations are accepted; and
· Dr. Peer had agreed with his assertion that a 0% acceptance rate on any committee would be viewed unfavorably.

2. Faculty Senate Representatives on Committees: The Faculty Senate:
· Reappointed Russ Higham to the Curriculum Committee
· Appointed David Weissenburger and Janis Petronis to the EEO/AA Committee; and
· Appointed George Mollick to the Employee Benefits Committee, to be chaired by Kelli Styron.

D. Other Committee Business: None.

VIII. New Faculty Annual Activity Report: David Weissenburger summarized his discussions with Gary Peer concerning the proposed Faculty Activities Report, emphasizing that:
· He had informed Gary Peer that our concerns were not with the report itself, but with the identity of those who would see the information generated by the report, and the data bases to which that information would be added;
· Gary Peer had shared these concerns with the deans; and
· Gary Peer had said that the report itself would not be a faculty evaluation, but could be used in conjunction with other data to evaluate faculty.
David Weissenburger concluded by stressing the need for the Faculty Senate to offer further input, to which Gary Peer would be receptive.

IX. Proposed Faculty Workload Policy: The Faculty Senate discussed the proposed Faculty
Workload Policy, raising the following questions and issues concerning the assignment
and measure of workloads:
· The fact that students and administrators fail to understand the distinction between faculty workload and faculty teaching load;
· How to determine the proper teaching load for non-tenure track faculty: That they normally have no research or service responsibilities may justify the assignment of more teaching responsibilities, but to do so may reduce their overall teaching effectiveness;
· Whether and how to draw distinctions among tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, full-time faculty not on a tenure track, and adjunct faculty;
· How much responsibility for evaluating work loads should be assigned to department heads: Too much diversity of thought among department heads may reduce the standardization of measurement across departments;
· How to take into consideration the fact that research opportunities differ from department to department, with faculty in departments with large graduate programs having more research opportunities since they would have more access to graduate student research assistants;
· Whether and how to make distinctions between the acquisition of grants for research, and the conduct of research unsupported by grants;
· The necessity to make the assignment and measurement of faculty workloads consistent with tenure and promotion requirements to avoid creating confusion among faculty candidates for tenure and promotion.
David Weissenburger concluded the discussion by announcing that he would continue to work on the policy during the summer for Faculty Senate consideration in the 2003-04 academic year.

X New Business: None.

XI. Adjournment. The Faculty Senate adjourned at 5:02 P.M. The next meeting is scheduled for 9/09/03, at 3:30 P.M. in the Library Multi-Purpose Room