President Teresa Davidian called the meeting to order at 3:30 P.M.

All departments were represented.

I. Minutes of the November 13, 2001 meeting were approved.
II No treasurer's report

III. Guest Speaker: Javier Garza, Advising during Summer Orientation
Garza spoke to the Senate about problems with advising, particularly in the summer. Last July there were 935 new freshman, but there were not enough advisors in the ballroom advising area. Students may be interested in subjects, but if advisors aren't there students might switch to other area.

Should only paid faculty advise or should volunteer faculty be involved? One problem is that so few faculty are present in summer. Last summer there were only 117 faculty, of which approximately 1/3 participated in advising.

IV. Announcements

A. Grievance Committee
Met on Dec 6th to clarify current policy and to provide guidelines for the Faculty Advisory Committee. Members: Jeremy Curtoys, Steve Field, Steve Simpson, Teresa Davidian.

B. Professional Development Program
Linda Jones will follow up, looking into ways to publicize the program and deciding whether a description should be included in the Faculty/Staff Handbook.

C. Student Evaluation of Faculty Form
Evaluation form is now in VPAA.s office. It was recommended that faculty should get a chance to see the form ahead of time. It was also recommended that both old and new evaluation forms be used to see what differences there might be.

D. Changes in Criteria for Promotion
This will be sent to Academic Council for consideration.

V. Vote

A. Proposed Revisions to System Policies 12.01
Teresa Davidian moved to approve changes. Motion passed unanimously.

A question was brought up by Russ Higham concerning the fact that we have no contracts, only a letter of appointment, terms are in the Faculty Handbook. He suggested bringing this issue before the Faculty Senates in Austin.

B. Faculty Development Leave Policy
A proposal was made to approve the policy using Option 1 but changing tenured faculty to all full-time faculty with at least seven years of service.
Motion from Allan Nelson. Passed with 14 votes for approval.

VI. Senate Discussion

A. Faculty Development Leave (1) Application and (2) Evaluation Guidelines
These will be reconsidered in January

B. Excellence in Scholarship Awards (Jones)
This committee met on December 5. They are still fine-tuning the policy and will have a draft for the senate in January.

C. Evaluation of Administrators Policy (Mollick)
A draft policy was presented. The committee is still working on forms and questions.

VII. University Committee Reports

A. Academic Council (Davidian)
The Academic Calendar was voted on and included none of the recommendations from the senate. Thus, neither major assignments nor make-ups may be given from the start of restricted activities until the end of the term.

A question was raised as to whether attendance may be counted for part of grade. Teresa will ask for clarification.

B. Curriculum Committee (Petronis)
No report

C. Faculty Workload Committee
A draft was handed out for comment and review. Comments are invited from faculty.

VIII. Other Reports:
A. Meeting of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates (Weissenburger)
A report summarizing the meeting was handed out.

IX. New Business
A. Summer Teaching Policy
Dr. Peer and the deans are looking into this issue.

B. Other
Question from Janet Whitley. Should grants be going through IRB review? Sponsored Programs says yes, but involves a lot more work. Recommendation to IRB to meet more often.

Meeting adjourned at 5:15 PM