Faculty Senate President Janet Whitley called the meeting to order at 3:30 P.M. Twenty-one
Senators were in attendance.

I. Minutes of the September 9, 2003, meeting were approved.

II. Secretary-Treasurer Malcolm L. Cross reported a balance of $3155.31 in the Faculty Senate account, including an allocation of $3100.00 received at the beginning of the current fiscal year, and $55.31 unspent and rolled over from the previous fiscal year. He also reported that Dr. Gary Peer had generously pledged an additional $600.00 to be used by the Faculty Senate to help fund the Noon Aerobics Program.

III. Announcements.
A. Piper Award: Kelli Styron distributed to the Faculty Senate instructions for completing the online Piper Award nomination forms, stressing that departmental nominees and their nominators should complete the forms by Friday, 10/31, so that the Senators may begin reviewing the completed forms on Monday, 11/3; that each Senator was responsible for the supervision of the process in his/her own department, and that Senators should come to the 11/11 meeting of the Faculty Senate with their top three preferences. The Faculty Senate unanimously voted that to be eligible for the Piper Award, a faculty member:
· Must be full time;
· may be of any rank;
· may not have more than one quarter release time, and that any release time must be for purposes other than the performance of administrative duties;
· may not be a member of the Faculty Senate.

B. Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee: Janet Whitley announced that Gary Peer wants the Faculty Salary and Benefits Committee to be operational, and met with it on 10/13, but results of the meeting were not yet available. Members of the Committee include: Jeremy Curtoys (COLFA, Chair)
Joe Gillespie (COE)
Carol Thompson (COST)
Sandy Johnson (CAHS)
Stuart Warnock (COBA)
.

C. Changes/Updates in Committee Appointments: Janet Whitley confirmed that the
the following Faculty Senators were members of the following committees, to which the Faculty Senate had appointed them last Spring:
Russell Higham: Curriculum Committee
Kelli Styron: Enrollment Management Committee
Janis Petronis: Equal Employment Opportunity/
Affirmative Action
George Mollick: Employment Benefits

Janet Whitley also announced that she had discussed the process by which faculty
members are appointed to university committees with Gary Peer, who had said
that the process was complex and involved many factors. She suggested that
those faculty who were dissatisfied with their assignments should appeal directly
to Dr. McCabe.

D. Faculty Research Award: Janet Whitley announced that she would introduce the
Faculty Research Award Proposal to the Academic Council as a discussion item
when the Academic Council meets on 10/21.

E. Student Evaluation of On-Line Courses/Evaluation of Distributed Education
Courses: David Weissenburger reported that an outside firm was printing generic
course evaluation forms without the actual names and numbers of particular
course sections, and that this would be cheaper than the printing of forms with
course names and numbers. He also reported that form mockups had been
examined, minor editorial changes had been requested, that a formal request of
the printing of the forms had been made Friday, 10/3.
David Weissenburger also reported on the progress being made in the development of a policy for the evaluation of on-line courses. He noted that an
agreement in principle had been reached by which CITDE would only get
evaluations of the technology used in online teaching, but not evaluations of the
instructors themselves. The latter information would be supplied only to department heads. Dwayne Snider, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs
was tasked with writing a formal policy reflecting the agreement. A review of
of a preliminary draft of the policy revealed that several issues must still be resolved, including:
· The frequency of evaluations: The preliminary draft calls for evaluation of faculty teaching online courses every semester, but the Faculty Handbook says that tenured faculty need be evaluated only once a year, at the end of the fall term;
· The amount of time to be allowed students to complete the evaluation process:
The preliminary draft allows students two to three weeks to complete the
evaluation, but David Weissenburger recommended that two to three days be
allowed, to reduce the chances of student collusion in the evaluation process;
· The compilation information: David Weissenburger stressed that student workers should have no access to the information being compiled;
· How much information, and in what form, should the CITDE get: Should it get merely aggregate evaluation results, or results by specific courses?
David Weissenburger concluded by noting that Dwayne Snider is writing a new draft addressing these issues and concerns.

F. Other Announcements: Janet Whitley announced that she had discussed budget matters with Gary Peer, who:
· Apologized for failing to include the Senate in the deliberations prior to the completion of this year's fiscal budget, saying that the collapse of the budget process, eliminating the wish-list features of previous years, had eliminated the perception that the Senate should be involved, but that the Senate would be invited to be involved in future years;
· Announced that he did not yet have any news concerning merit pay increases or faculty achievement grants, but that he would report later on those matters;
· Reported that to the best of his knowledge, nobody had received more than a $75.00/month salary raise.
Janet Whitley also reported that:
· Faculty Development Leave applications were due 10/31 for next year;
· The Faculty Development Leave Committee had met once this year, and that it would meet again after applications had been submitted, and
· The possibility of televised meetings to accommodate committee members on different Tarleton campuses was being examined.

IV. University Committees.

A. Committee Reports:
1. Academic Council: Janet Whitley announced that the Academic Council had approved:
· Associate Degrees in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, due to the vocational nature of the programs;
· An online MBA program.
2. Curriculum Committee: Janet Whitley announced that the Curriculum Committee had not yet met but that it was scheduled to meet 10/24.
3. Calendar Committee: Janet Whitley announced that
· the Calendar Committee's Fall, 2004, schedule had been approved and that it was now working on the Spring, 2005 schedule;
· The possibility of creating a Fall Break by adding a Wednesday to the Thanksgiving break had been considered but rejected, since to do so would have pushed back graduation a week, thereby creating insurmountable logistical difficulties, especially given the fact that the graduation for Killeen campus students had already been scheduled and could not be postponed.

4. Enrollment Management Advisory Council: No meeting.
5. Employee Benefits: No meeting
6. Distance/Distributed Education: No meeting.
7. TLTR: George Mollick reported that the TLTR had met twice and would soon meet again to discuss the mission statement it has been charged with formulating, and which Gary Peer wants completed by 10/31. At issue is the extent to which faculty should be using technology in the classroom. The TLTR was:
· Rejecting the idea that all faculty should use technology in the classroom;
· Discussing the circumstances under which faculty could and should use technology in the classroom; and
· Advocating that funding for training in the use of technology be made available.
8. EEE/OA Committee: No meeting.

VI. Motions to Approve:
A. Noon Aerobics: The Faculty Senate voted unanimously to approve the contribution of $625.00 to the Noon Aerobics Class when it receives the additional allocation of $600.00 from Gary Peer.
B. Other Motions to Approve: None.

VI. Fall Luncheon: David Weissenburger reported that:
· The Fall Luncheon was scheduled for Wednesday, 11/5, in the Travis Room and would feature Dr. Barry Price of the Social Sciences Department as its speaker;
· He had shared his concerns over the cost of the Fall Luncheon with Gary Peer, who wanted the Fall Luncheon to be administered and financed as in the past, but who was also willing to consider alternative arrangements for future Spring Luncheons.

VII. New Business: Janis Petronis distributed information from the Texas Association of College Teachers (TACT) indicating that:
· For faculty members hired before 1995 and electing to participate in Optional Retirement Plans, the state had contributed 8.5% of their salaries;
· The state had reduced its contribution to ORPs from 8.5% to 6.0% for faculty members hired since 1995;
· HB 264, passed in 2003, allows universities to increase the ORP contribution for faculty hired since 1995 back to 8.5%.
In light of the information supplied by Janis Petronis, the Faculty Senate voted to request
that Tarleton raise its contribution to the ORPs of faculty hired since 1995 to 8.5%,
beginning with the 2004-2005 fiscal year. The vote was not unanimous.

XI. Adjournment: The Senate adjourned at 4:35 P.M. The next meeting is scheduled for 11/11/03, at 3:30 P.M. in the Library Multi-Purpose Room