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 May 4, 2004, meeting were approved.

II. Secretary-Treasurer Malcolm L. Cross reported a balance of $3136.67, representing an allocation of $3100.00 for the 2004-05 fiscal year, with $36.67 in unspent funds held over from the 2003-04 fiscal year.

III. Election of Parliamentarian: Dr. David Weindorf was elected Faculty Senate Parliamentarian by acclamation.

IV. Announcements.

A. Introduction of Senators. Kelli Styron invited each Faculty Senator to introduce himself or herself before the commencement of other business.

B. Piper Award: Marlin Priddy announced that if required to do so to meet early Piper Award deadlines, he would contact us by email to solicit candidates for the Piper Award, with the names of the top 3 candidates to be selected at the October Faculty Senate meeting and thereafter forwarded to Dr. Peer. Kelli Styron urged Faculty Senators to help recruit nominees for every available award and attend all relevant functions, especially the fall and spring lunches sponsored by the Faculty Senate.

C. Regents Professor Award: Kelli Styron announced that last summer the Faculty Senate committee established to nominate a candidate for the Regents Professor Award had selected a candidate and submitted his name to Dr. Peer.

D. Excellence in Research Award: Kelli Styron announced that the first recipient of the Excellence in Research Award was Dr. Daniel Marble, whom President McCabe gave $1500.00. She also thanked Jeanelle Barrett and Russ Higham for their work in establishing the award, and announced that a new nominee for the award would be selected in the spring.

E. Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee: Kelli Styron anounced that Dr. Peer was pleased with the hard work of the Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee and wanted the Committee to study what Tarleton's peer institutions have been doing over the past year and whether Tarleton is making headway in raising salaries relative to them. Members include Jeremy Curtoys (COLFA); Joe Gillespie (COE); Linda Schultz (COST); Sandy Johnson (COAHS), and Stuart Warnock (COBA).

F. Grade Inflation: Kelli Styron announced that Dr. Peer wants to continue university-wide dialogues on grade inflation and hopes that faculty senators will encourage faculty and department heads to discuss this
matter and attend relevant forums.

G. Academic Honesty and Integrity: Kelli Styron announced that Dr. Peer wanted faculty senators to discuss academic integrity issues with department heads and other academic administrators including himself, and to develop a report on whether major academic honesty problems exist at Tarleton and, if so, how the faculty deal with them. Mark Holtorf, Sherill Easterling, and David Weindorf volunteered to constitute an ad hoc committee to examine and report on the matter. Don Beach noted that faculty could visit the website at http://www.mydropbox.com for assistance in detecting plagiarism.

H. Symposium on November 10 at 3:00—Dr. Steve Murdock. Kelli Styron announced that Dr. Peer wants as many faculty members as
possible to attend. Dr. Murdock will discuss a proposed Quality
Enhancement Plan and relevant Central Texas demographics.

I. Discussion of Movement to a Writing Intensive Curriculum. Kelli Styron announced that a speaker on this will be on campussubject this spring, and that as many faculty
members and senators as possible should attend the program.

J. University Web Calendar at http://www.tarleton.edu/scripts/calendar/default.asp.
Kelli Styron announced that the calendar is user friendly, that it reflects no attempt to control scheduling by the administrator, and that Dr. Peer is pleased with the website.

K. Other Announcements: None.

V. University Committees.

A. Reports.

1. Academic Council. No report. The Academic Council will hold its first meeting on September 21.

2. Curriculum Committee. The Faculty Senate elected Don Beach by acclamation to represent it on the Curriculum Committee.

3. Enrollment Management Advisory Council: Kelli Styron announced that the Enrollment Management Advisory Council met
on September 7 and discussed several topics, including:
· Its Capacity Study Action Team's plan to study when Tarleton will have enrolled the maximum feasible number of students and whether it will have to add additional faculty, staff, and other components;
· The necessity to give all faculty an opportunity to speak at an Open Forum on enrollment capacity; and
· The benefits of Tarleton's orientation program, reflected by the 97% enrollment rate for prospective transfer students attending the program, and a high enrollment rate for prospective freshmen attending the program.

4. Employee Benefits Committee: No meeting yet this year. Kelli Styron announced that the results of the survey on employee benefits conducted last spring would be announced later this fall.

5. TLTR. Kelli Styron announced that the TLTR had revised its Vision Statement over the summer and that she would ask George Mollick to continue to serve on that committee.

6. EEO/AA. The Faculty Senate unanimously selected Stuart Warnock to represent it on the EEO/AA.

7. University Planning Council. No meeting until October.

8. Other Committee Reports. Kelli Styron announced Carol Thompson may report to the Faculty Senate in October on progress made towards the establishment of a University committee on environmental affairs.

VI. Motions to Approve.

A. Payment of Dues to the Texas Council of Faculty Senates: The Faculty Senate unanimously approved payment of $300.00 in dues to the Texas Council of Faculty Senates.

B. Texas Council of Faculty Senates Expenses for Travel: The Faculty Senate unanimously approved payment of travel expenses for its representatives to the fall meeting of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates.

C. Other Motions to Approve: Kelli Styron announced that the Faculty Senate had received a request to contribute $625.00 to help finance the Faculty and Staff Noon Aerobics and Strength and Conditioning program, and noted that while the Faculty Senate had helped finance the program in the past, it had required additional funds from Dr. Peer to make a contribution for the 2003-04 fiscal year. The Faculty Senate unanimously approved a motion to request Dr. Peer for additional funds before committing itself to supporting the program this fiscal year.

VII. Fall Luncheon: Janet Whitley announced she was considering scheduling the Faculty Senate’s Fall Luncheon in October and requested suggestions for speakers for both the Fall and Spring Luncheons.

VIII. Old Business.

A. Faculty Concerns Survey: Janet Whitley announced that responses to the online Faculty Concerns Survey, conducted before the announcement of the most recent salary increases, indicated that respondents were more concerned over salaries than over any other matter, with 56 of 107 respondents ranking salary concerns the most important, and an additional 31 ranking salary concerns as major. Other concerns identified by respondents as important included concerns over teaching loads, research opportunities, and tenure and promotion opportunities. The results were given to Dr. McCabe and Dr. Peer. Kelli Styron announced she would check on additional feedback and report to the Faculty Senate in October about her findings.

B. Senate Report for 03-04. Janet Whitley summarized the highlights of her report on Faculty Senate achievements during her presidency, including:
· Improvements in salaries and benefits through the work of the Salary and Benefits Committee;
· The creation of the Excellence in Research Award;
· The administration of the Faculty Concerns Survey;
· The expansion of faculty membership on university committees, especially the Calendar Committee;
· The success of the Faculty Development Leave program as reflected by the granting of faculty development leave to two faculty members;
· The nomination of Dr. Jim Kirby for the Regents Professor award;
· The service of former Faculty Senate President David Weissenburger in the leadership of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates;
· The addressing of faculty concerns concerning the Campus Store and travel reimbursement policies;
· The amendment of the Senate Constitution to provide for a faculty senator from Tarleton-Central Texas in Killeen;
· The success of the Fall and Spring Luncheons; and
· The beginning of work on a committee concerned with the impact of Tarleton’s policies on the environment.

C. Other Old Business: None.

IX. New Business.

A. Committee Requests. Kelli Styron announced that 63% of the Faculty Senate’s recommendations for faculty committee assignments had been accepted for the 2004-05 academic year, up form 57% for last year. Janet Whitley said that if a faculty member really wants to be on a committee he should, in addition to filling out the request form, contact Dr. McCabe, Dr. Peer, and the committee chair with an assignment request, and that committee work remains an important component of the faculty service criteria for tenure and promotion.

B. Parking Concerns: The Faculty Senate discussed complaints that faculty parking spaces were frequently illegally occupied by students' vehicles,
thereby reflecting a theft of faculty spaces and a complete disregard for
their rights. Kelli Styron announced she would discuss the matter with the
Vice President Graham and Associate Vice President Moser, and the Chief
of the Campus Police, and report to the Faculty Senate at the October
meeting on her discussions.

C. Faculty Development (general): The Faculty Senate formed an ad hoc committee to study Faculty Development Centers promoting different teaching styles at other campuses and report to Dr. Peer on its findings. Members include George Mollick, Marlin Priddy, and Stuart Warnock.

D Committee Assignments: The Faculty Senate made the following assignments:
1. Administrative Confidence Committee: Steve Field, Pauline Mosely, Charlie Howard, Dan Dudley (alternate).
2. Complaint and Grievance Committee: Mark Holtorf (COLFA),
Joe Brocato (COBA), Wendell Sadler (COE), Ted Ford (COAHS),
Sherill Easterling (COST).
3. Faculty Development Leave Committee: Kelli Styron (Faculty Senate President), Charlie Howard (COLFA), Paul Lawrence (COST), Mark Littleton (COE), Mike Wade (COAHS), and Richard Petronis (COBA);
4. Distance and Distributed Education Advisory Committee: Bill Neff;
5. Diversity Advisory Committee: Daniel Thiebaud.

C. Other New Business: The issue of restoring faculty supervision to the J-TAC, first discussed at the May, 2004, Faculty Senate meeting, was raised. Malcolm Cross reported that those faculty who had initially requested the Faculty Senate to discuss the matter were continuing to assess the situation and that he would continue to report on the matter as developments arise.

IX. Adjournment. The Faculty Senate adjourned at 5:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for October 14, 2004, at 3:30 p.m. in room 102 of the E. J. Howell Building.