Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes 1-21-09
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Clint Atchley, President
Present: Clint Atchley, Mitzi Bass, James, Duke, David Evans, Martin Halpern, Barbara Landrum, Brett Serviss, Jamie Engman (alternate for Michael Taylor), Pat Weaver, Renae Clark, Jane Dunn, Kevin Durand, Vickie Faust, Paul Huo, Yunsuk Koh, Catherine Leach, Patty Miley, Michael Miller, Allison Vetter, Dusty Schmid (Staff Senate Representative)
Dr. Vernon Miles, Provost/VPAA spoke to the Senate. He announced that the M.B.A. program at the University of Sarajevo will be closed after this semester. Dr. Miles discussed the Higher Learning Commission’s visit. This is the semester to choose committees. He anticipates that two co-chairs will be in charge campus wide and that sub-committee chairs and committees for each of the five standards will be selected.
The minutes of the December meeting were approved.
Dr. Atchley’s president’s report concerning his visits with university president, Dr. Charles Welch and Dr. Vernon Miles, Provost/VPAA is as follows:
President’s Report
January 2009
Meeting with Provost/VPAA Vernon Miles—
I met with Vernon Miles for the first time on 13 Jan. Just coming back from the holiday, neither of us had an agenda or anything in particular to discuss. We chatted about Dr. Miles’s first semester at Henderson. His overall impression of HSU is positive although he sees areas for improvement. We discussed the University’s financial situation in general terms and he agrees that the budget deserves scrutiny, but he is hesitant to suggest cuts or dispersal of funds after only three months on the job.
We also discussed the Ad Hoc Committee on Retention’s report from December. He agrees that some of the ideas presented by the committee are good, but he thinks that this is just a starting point and that more work needs to be completed. More positions on campus need to be figured into the retention strategy and more research into retention strategies at other universities needs to be completed.
Meeting with President Chuck Welch—
I meet with Dr. Welch on 14 Jan. Like my meeting with Dr. Miles, this one was informal without any particular agenda. We discussed the possibility of securing more state funds for this year, and Dr. Welch indicated that there no news about the restoration of funds that were frozen last year but he is not particularly hopeful. Based on figures released by the state, HSU is slated to receive $253,000 in new money for next year. Based on these figures, Bobby Jones calculates that we will need to raise tuition by 5% if we want to provide a 2% cost of living adjustment for employees.
Dr. Welch also indicated that, because of funding, there will be no new faculty hires. HSU will hire one new police officer. Dr. Welch checked campus police departments at comparable universities and compared to those departments, our campus police staff is badly understaffed. These findings, coupled with the shooting last semester, prompted the new hire. Dr. Welch also indicated that he would like to hire legal counsel, but he is not sure what he wants to do about this situation yet.
There was no old business.
New Business:
Election of officers: President-elect-Catherine Leach, Secretary- Mitzi Bass, Board of Trustees Representative- Patty Miley, Web Master-elect –Paul Huo. The current Web Master is Brett Serviss. The Parliamentarian is Kevin Durand.
The ex-officio representative to the Staff Senate is Allison Vetters.
Senators indicated first, second, and third choices for the standing committees-Academics, Finance, Procedures, Buildings and Grounds.
At the next meeting, a Committee on Retention will be formed.
The spring meetings will be held at 3:15 in the Cabe Room on February 4, March 4, April 1, and May 6.
Several other items of new business were brought before the Senate.
1. Concerns about Skylite were expressed. a) registration irregularities; b) concerns about student schedules disappearing from Skylite ; c) grades reported as incomplete, and changed before grades were due, reverted to the grade of incomplete; d) difficulty printing transcripts; e) no access to Skylite from off campus; f) the lack of computer training for new faculty members. Dr. Atchley will speak to Dr. Welch and Dr. Miles about these issues.
2. The possibility of HSU being a “SMOKE FREE” campus.
3. Questions concerning the one year time frame between promotion and tenure review coupled with concerns about salary issues prompted Dr. Atchley to form a committee for consideration of both topics. The committee consists of Kevin Durand, chair, Jamie Engman, Allison Vetters, Martin Halpern, David Evans, and Michael Miller.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Mitzi Bass, Secretary