The Student Athletic Advisory Committee has asked to address the senate. They are concerned that students are still being punished for their absences. They provided some syllabi and read the penalties that are levied for absences. Another concern is that athletes end up dropping classes or taking a lower grade because of the unavailability in some classes of make-ups. Additionally in some classes, make-up tests are harder or an alternate style (essay versus multiple choice) effectively punishing students for their absence. They would like to see the senate develop a policy for excused absences. There is no university policy currently in place; absence policy is between the student and instructor.

President William Atkinson called the meeting to order at 3:45 P.M.

Twenty-two senators were present or represented. Senators Randy Hines and Sandy Johnson were absent.

1. Approval of Minutes
Upon motion by Linda Duncan, the Senate approved the minutes of the October 2000 meeting.

2. Treasurer's Report.
The Treasurer reported a balance of $3475.48. The treasurer also handed out a working budget for the 2000-2001 academic year to allow expenditures to be tracked more easily.

3. Piper Award
There were four nominations. Under the rules of the Piper foundation only full-time faculty who have no administrative duties are eligible. That eliminated two candidates. One other candidate's eligibility was questioned and ultimately ruled ineligible. That left only one viable candidate whose name was submitted to the President for consideration and forwarded to the Piper Foundation.

4. Committee reports

A. Academic Council Gene Atkinson
Academic Council is no longer considering curriculum matters. They seem to be non-functioning and apparently no longer are the governing body for the University.

B. Developmental Leave Committee - Deferred until December

C. Campus Bookstore Advisory Committee - No report

5. Selection of new committees

A. Faculty Achievement Grant Committee - Gene Atkinson
Colleges caucused and selected representatives.
Agriculture and Human Sciences Mike Wade
Business Administration Hussein Jafri
Education Linda Duncan
Liberal and Fine Arts Randy Popkin
Science and Technology Phil Murry

B. Merit Plus Committee - Gene Atkinson
Agriculture and Human Sciences Tim Brown
Business Administration Sankar Sundarrajan
Education Janet Whitley
Liberal and Fine Arts Mark Holtorf
Science and Technology James Kirby

6. Other Reports:

A. Meetings with Administration - Gene Atkinson
No comments on luncheon meeting

B. Texas Council of Faculty Senates - Gene Atkinson
Better organized and more focused than in past. Four major issues will be concentrated on:
· Standardized testing for core and major curriculum
· Field of study - increase in number of hours that would have to be accepted, more uniform numbering and course description
· Non-tenure track teaching faculty
· Processes used to select and evaluate administrators
A possible additional one is faculty governance

C. A&M System symposium - Gene Atkinson
Characterized as a meeting for the power elite. Most faculty ignored, referred to as employees, personnel or resources.
20 year plan is to increase enrollment to 500,000.
The Perry Commission has suggested vouchers for higher education.

D. Senate luncheon - Linda Duncan
Luncheon will be Thursday. About 30 have registered.

Old Business:

7. Letter regarding library allocations - Gene Atkinson
A few minor wording changes were suggested. The letter will be revised and forwarded to the President.

8. Scheduling Problems - Gene Atkinson
The matter was inquired about and the Registrar's office claimed not many complaints were received and it was not their fault.

9. Senate resolution on Distance Learning - Gene Atkinson
There seems to be no record of the old senate resolution. The President seemed to think it was about intellectual property matters.

It was suggested that we need a better tracking system for such documents. Perhaps a numbering system or separate storage. Also need to be posted on-line.

Under this item there was discussion of the new student evaluation forms. Janis Petronis requested that the Senate see the actual form under consideration. Because of delays this will not be implemented until Fall 2001.

New Business:
10. Eligibility of future Piper nominees - Teresa Davidian
There was concern that it would be awkward for Senate members to run for the Piper. This will be considered as a change in the by-laws.

11. Consideration of awards based on service time for Killeen faculty - David Weissenburger
At the lunch with the President, it was made very clear that no change in the award criteria would be considered. He recommended that the College or department develop some awards to recognize faculty.

The Staff Directory does not adequately recognize faculty awards. Gene will make a suggestion to the editor to include more.

12. Status of recommendations from self-study - Carol Thompson
There is concern that the recommendations from the self-study will be neglected unless thay are part of the musts that have to be done for accreditation. Most of the SACS report is on process, not outcome. Since we cannot address all of the items in the self-study, we need to concentrate on one. That item will be faculty loads related to advising, graduate teaching, and labs. We will bring the results of the self-study for that issue to the next meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 4:45 PM.