Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes 2-4-09
The meeting was called to order by Dr. Clint Atchley, President
Present: Clint Atchley, Mitzi Bass, David Evans, Maralea Gourley, Martin Halpern, Barbara Landrum, Brett Serviss, Jamie Engman (alternate for Michael Taylor), Jane Dunn, Kevin Durand, Lea Ann Alexander (alternate for Linda Evans), Vickie Faust, Rhonda Harrington, Paul Huo, Yunsuk Koh, Catherine Leach, Patty Miley, Michael Miller, Rochelle Moss, Ceyla Taylor, Allison Vetter, Dusty Schmid (Staff Senate Representative)
The minutes of the January meeting were approved.
President’s Report
Meeting with President Chuck Welch—
I met with Dr. Welch on 27 January 2009 to discuss the issues that arose during our last Senate meeting. Regarding the issue of HSU becoming a totally smoke-free campus, Dr. Welch indicated that he didn’t have a problem with this. He did say that there is a bill in the legislature that will mandate every higher-education campus in the state be smoke free and that this trend seems to moving toward every state entity becoming smoke free. Rather than potentially making students and staff angry, he recommends that we adopt a “watch and see” stance until we find out what happens in the legislature.
I broached the subject of raises for next year. Dr. Welch reiterated what he told me during our last meeting that HSU will only receive about $253,000 in new monies. With the current budget and new monies, we will need a 5% tuition increase to implement a 2% raise. Dr. Welch did indicate that there is a possibility, however slight, that the funds lost last year could be restored as late as June and could be used for raises for next year. The possibility for funding the suspended equity adjustments also depends on the restoration of these funds and a tuition hike. Nothing is off the table at this point. We discussed this issue at length, and the bottom line is that there are just too many “ifs” in play to make firm decisions: if the grocery tax passes, if the tobacco tax passes, if the Governor makes the funds available, etc. There is also a new bill in the works which will limit the amount that colleges can raise tuition. In conjunction with this, Dr. Welch asked Bobby Jones to average the tuition raises over the last ten years along with the average increase of funds from the state over the last ten years. The results are that tuition has gone up 6% while state funding has only increased by 3%, which will not even cover the cost of raises much less operating costs. All of this will have to be sorted out before we will know anything, but Dr. Welch is hopeful and at this time there are no anticipated cuts. Dr. Welch also told me that Bobby Jones is working to get the budget posted on the HSU website so that everyone will have easy access to it.
When Dr. Welch mentioned the website, he stated that the website is being somewhat overhauled in anticipation of having it totally revamped. Part of the problem with the website is that it is tied to an old system and that this needs to be stripped. Reed Joiner is cleaning up the website and getting the infrastructure in place so that the site can be redesigned. This will be a top priority.
At the time of our meeting Dr. Welch did not have the enrollment statistics for the spring semester, nor did he know how many students lost their scholarships from the fall. He expects the enrollment to be down, but he also stated that, when the budget was set last year, it was set in the expectation of increasing enrollment by 100 students which did not materialize. So whatever the final total, the numbers will be somewhat skewed. He also indicated that there could be as much as a 20% reduction in scholarships totaling approximately one million dollars. We continue to get more applications than ever, but the students are not enrolling and some are not being retained.
During this discussion Dr. Welch mentioned two other legislative bills that can impact us. One is a bill which will allow anyone with a concealed weapon permit to have a hand gun on campus. The gun must remain locked in a vehicle and out of sight. Another proposed bill will allow all classes and hours for a community college student with an AA to transfer.
Meeting with Provost/VPAA Vernon Miles—
I met with Dr. Vernon Miles on 27 January 2009 to discuss some of the things that came up during our last Senate meeting. I mentioned that I had talked to Dr. Welch about a smoke-free campus, and Dr. Miles expressed his opinion that doing this will cost us students. He thinks some students will opt to go elsewhere if they cannot smoke here; however, if the legislature passes the bill and mandates smoke-free campuses, it will not matter.
I broached the subject of Skylite with Dr. Miles. He was aware of some of the problems associated with Skylite but certainly not with all. Since our last meeting, another problem has surfaced; students’ GPAs are now listed on class rosters printed on Skylite. I printed one of my class rosters with the GPAs on it and showed it to him. He agrees that this totally violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Acts (FERPA) and needs to cease immediately. He is not sure what can be done about the other problems associated with Skylite, but he intends to address this issue. I have since checked the rosters and the GPAs have disappeared.
I took the ACT flier to Dr. Miles and expressed the concerns that surfaced during the last meeting. He did not think the workshop would realistically raise students’ scores significantly, but he was concerned that a private company was coming on campus and using our facilities. He intends to discuss the situation with Pam Bax.
We also discussed the ad hoc tenure and promotion committee that we set up last month. He has lots of information that he is willing to share with the committee along with models from other schools. He stated that whatever recommendations the committee makes should conform to AAUP guidelines set forth in their “Red Book” because, if any legal action is ever instigated regarding promotion and tenure, the court will refer to these guidelines.
Since Dr. Miles cannot meet with us in Feb because of a prior commitment, I asked him if there was anything that he wanted me to tell the Senate. He said that he will be sending out an assessment newsletter soon and that he would appreciate any feedback from the faculty. He also wanted me to tell you that HSU is a good place to be and that he is happy to be here.
University Budget meetings will begin on February 12.
Dr. Durand, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Promotion/Tenure and Salary Study reported that the committee will continue to examine the data from the Faculty Salary Committee as well as data from regional and national peer institutions and the AAUP Salary Study as a way of identifying where discrepancies exist and proposing solutions to rectify those discrepancies. The committee will entertain any and all ideas from faculty colleagues with regard to the issue of promotion after the fifth year and tenure after the sixth. Email Dr. Durand at durandk@hsu.edu with responses.
Old Business: The issue of a Smoke Free campus was reintroduced. The suggestion was made to consult both the Staff Senate and the Student Government Association as well as constituents of senators. After discussion, this issue was referred to the Executive Committee.
Dusty Schmid, Staff Senate Representative, reported that concerns about Skylite will be discussed at the next Staff Senate meeting.
New Business: Faculty Excellence Committees should disseminate material concerning nominations for awards for Creative and Scholarly Activity as recipients will be selected this semester.
Excellence Awards Committees as elected October 2008
Liberal Arts: Don Wells, chair, Stephanie Barron, Kevin Durand, Aneeq Ahmad, and Megan Hickerson
Fine Arts: Randy Duncan, chair, David Stoddard, David Warren, William Henshaw, and Stephen Eaves
Math and Science: Brenda Trigg, chair, Brett Serviss, Janice O’Donnell, Fred Worth, and Shannon Clardy
School of Business, Library, Student Support Services, Aviation: Lea Ann Alexander, chair, Paul Huo, Nathan Campbell, Vickie Faust, and Jonathan Moss
Teachers College: Michael Kelly, chair, Carolyn McClure, Rhonda Harrington, Penny Welchell, and Don Peterson
The meeting was adjourned after a motion, second and favorable vote was taken.
Respectfully submitted,
Mitzi Bass, Secretary