FACULTY SENATE MEETING Minutes I. Call to Order, Bobbette Morgan

FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Friday, November 14, 2014
Salon Cassia, Main Bldg., 1:00 pm
Minutes
I.
Call to Order, Bobbette Morgan, Faculty Senate President called meeting to order at 1:00 PM
with a quorum present.
II.
Guest: Dr. William Fannin, Interim President, UTB
A. Dr. William Fannin prefaced a question and answer period with updates on a couple of
issues.
A.A. Press Conferences: Received good news yesterday news that UTB has received
NCATE accreditation. There will be a press conference on Wednesday, December 3,
2014 at 10 am, either in the patio by College of Education or in Salon Cassia.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone. On next day, Thursday, December 4, 2014
at 10 am, there will be another press conference led by Dr. Bailey, Dr. Fannin, and Dr.
Tercero in the TSC Arts Center to announce a memorandum of understanding between
UTB, UTRGV, and TSC about clarifying existing board policies and exact wording
related to how the new university will work with TSC students and their enrollment at
UTRGV.
A.B. Commencement is Saturday, December 13, 2014. Faculty are encouraged to
attend and support students.
B. Dr. Fannin then welcomed questions that he would try to answer as best as possible.
B.A. There were no questions for Dr. Fannin.
III.
Provost Report: Alan Artibise, UTB Provost of Faculty and Academic Affairs
A. Dr. Artibise prefaced a question and answer period with updates on a couple of issues.
A.A. Hiring Process: The Provost office is still working on the staff and faculty
hiring process. Phase 2A and 2B are currently underway.
A.B. Transition to Interim Provost: Dr. Artibise will be retiring from UTB at the
end of February, and the Interim Provost, Javier Martinez, will be take over when Dr.
Artibise leaves. This is Dr. Artibise’s last Senate meeting.
B. Dr. Artibise then welcomed questions from faculty.
B.A. Mark Horowitz asked whether there would be opportunities for faculty not rehired under Phase 1 to apply under Phase 2 at a rank other than Assistant Professor. Dr.
Artibise replied that hiring in Phase 2 is done as a “normal hiring process” in each
department. Dr. Artibise said that the interim deans have been asked to put together a
statement of needs, so if there was a need for faculty at a rank other than Assistant level,
deans would ask for this.
B.B. Lou Falk asked whether tenured faculty that were not eligible for rehire under
phase 1 could apply under phase 2 and retain their tenure or whether they would have to
undergo the tenure process? Dr. Artibise replied that that decision would be up to the
hiring committee.
B.C. Eloisa Tamez asked whether faculty members that had a break in service
because of the rift between UTB and TSC could apply in Phase 2. Dr. Artibise replied
that they could apply in Phase 2 to fill needs of departments.
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B.D. Diana Dominguez mentioned that UTPA has different ranks for lectures, and
asked whether their ranking system would apply at UTRGV? Dr. Artibise replied that
lecturers will be appointed at level 1 and readjustments to ranking made later based on
years of service.
B.E. Dr. Artibise mentioned that another thing to be aware of is that all staff looking
to be employed at UTRGV should check the UTRGV website daily because positions
are usually only posted for 3-5 days. He stated that a lot of positions will be listed in
next weeks before Thanksgiving, and that right after Thanksgiving, there would be a
flurry of activity.
B.F. Lou Falk asked that if the goal of UTRGV is to raise our current status to a
higher level, than can someone be in charge of making sure we are moving forward in a
way that is going to represent this vision. Dr. Falk mentioned the hiring of athletic
coaches and questioned the selection process. Dr. Artibise replied that the Athletic
positions were filled through a competitive process and that it definitely was not
automatic that UTPA coaches would fill those positions. He stated that it is clearly a
balancing act to fulfill the needs of both east and west campuses, and that a lot of people
are watching as the transition unfolds. He noted that, given the size of UTPA, it is
expected that more of positions at UTRGV will end up being filled by their employees.
Dr. Artibise mentioned that for example, no one from UTB even applied for the Interim
Provost position. Dr. Fannin noted that jobs come open regularly, but maybe for only 35 days because UTRGV is trying to get things done efficiently. He emphasized the need
for interested employees to look at the job board regularly. He mentioned that there are
several positions open dealing with student success, and that these could easily be filled
by those currently holding faculty positions. He stated that people who have positions
that were automatically filled (e.g., facility services), can still apply for newly-listed
positions and that this would not affect their rolled over positions.
B.G. Phil Samponaro asked whether faculty recruiting plans that were due by next
Friday could be extended. Dr. Artibise said that if we wait any longer, will miss the
hiring market. He stated that it is not that complicated to decide departmental faculty
needs. Dr. Fannin suggested that departments may want to consider short and long-term
needs, but stressed that the focus now is to make sure we have enough faculty on board
to teach classes next fall. Dr. Artibise stressed that this request for hiring needs should
not be surprising news. Volker Quetschke stated that departments from UTB and UTPA
aren’t integrated yet, so it’s not always easy to make these types of hiring decisions.
Jude Benavides stated that administration must realize that request is a little more
complicated than it seems. Planning can’t yet be done from a unified perspective in all
departments because some departments are yet to be fully joined. Dr. Fannin said that
his assumption is that some departments are much more ready than others, and they can
make hiring new faculty work by March. Those departments that are not ready to hire
but can fulfill teaching needs, may put off hiring until later. Elizabeth Heise asked
whether Dr. Fannin could carry these concerns up to UTRGV folks. She emphasized the
problem that because UTB is a smaller campus, UTB often gets left out of the planning
and decision process and faculty voice isn’t being heard as loud. She noted again that
the ‘togetherness’ hasn’t always happened for every department. Dr. Fannin said he
would mention the problem to UTRGV, but wanted to know how we would suggest
changing this process and still make sure classes can be taught in fall 2015.
B.H. Karin Lewis asked whether we can assume we’re going to have the same
structure and same departments when UTRGV starts in fall 2015, or whether there
would be change to be more innovative like we discussed last fall. Dr. Artibise said he
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asked deans for a first cut of the description of structure for their colleges. He stated that
hiring is a completely different issue than structure that relates to teaching needs, but
that structure changes should be clarified in the next couple of weeks.
IV.
Presentations
A.
V.
No presentations were made.
Reports
A. Senate President’s Report, Bobbette M. Morgan
A.A. Bobbette gave an overview of several meetings she attended since the last
Senate meeting. She attended a Grievance Meeting on October 10, 2014. 15 UTB
people attended; UTPA sent one person. Grievance Panel met on October 13, 2014 to
review a grievance. They drew names of panel members which included three people
plus two alternates. Chris Ledingham attended the University Council meeting on
October 15, 2014. The HOP Committee was identified, and included two faculty
members from UTB faculty (Bobbette and Elizabeth), two UTB staff members (Sergio
and Michael) and four individuals from UTPA. Many faculty reviewed HOP with
another faculty member from UTPA. More HOPs are coming in and need to be
reviewed. The process is going very well. 184 policies were to be reviewed by
December 5, 2014. 105 came from UT system. 71 came back from faculty, and those are
to be reviewed again by HOP committee. 31 have a due date of November 14, 2014. 31
were sent out later and due today. 34 are not yet returned. This leaves 79 not yet
received by UT system lawyers. Process is going pretty smoothly, but we need to look at
what the UTRGV structure will be and how that will affect HOP. The Texas Council of
Faculty Senate met October 24-25, 2014. Each institution participated in “Round-Up,”
which is a three-minute overview about what is happening on each campus. Most
campuses noted that they had received 3-4% salary increases. Also some resolutions
were presented, several of which we’ll be reviewing today. Steering Committee for
Mascot met on October 28, 2014. Bobbette did not know that it was going to be
Vaqueros, and was very surprised by this announcement. Despite considerable feedback
from the community about a dislike of the new mascot, the University will not change it.
On October 30, 2014, Bobbette met with Dr. Fannin about the Interim Provost. On
October 31, 2014, University Council met with Provost. On November 6, 2014, UTPA
and UTB Faculty Senate Officers (Diana and Bobbette) met via teleconference. They
discussed Faculty Senate representation for UTRGV. UTPA asked for proportional
representation. UTB said this was not fair. UTPA does not represent by department but
by college, and they have an executive council in addition to officers. UTPA includes
lecturers on senate. This is a national trend. UTPA and UTB Senate members had a
common interest and desired a big push for getting printers. Suggestion was made to
have half the Senate officers filled from each campus.
B. October Minutes, presented by Heather Alexander, Faculty Senate Secretary
Elizabeth Heise moved to accept the minutes as distributed. Jude Benavides seconded this
motion. The minutes were approved without revision.
C. Treasurer’s Report, Diana Dominguez, Faculty Senate Second Vice President
The Faculty Senate currently has 20 pesos and 1 euro.
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D.
The University of Texas Faculty Advisory Council Report-Elizabeth Heise, UT
FAC Chair (Update from Regent’s Meeting in El Paso)
Elizabeth went to El Paso for the Regent’s Meeting. Regents ratified Vaqueros, and then they
terminated a tenured, endowed chair faculty member from UTPA for a variety of reasons,
including sexual harassment and intimidation. Elizabeth talked to attorneys about HOP policies
and how faculty are giving input. Received approval of this process, and lawyers noted that they
were appreciative of faculty input. Elizabeth stated that all the HOPs currently out for review
will be subject to all the normal editing procedures, and that the input they are receiving now is
just a starting point.
VI.
New Business
A. Faculty Transition to UTRGV – already discussed
B. Resolutions (Faculty Governance at UTRGV, Fund Hazelwood and Hazelwood
Legacy Act, Prohibit Handguns on Campus, Expand Texas Education
Opportunity Grant Program)
B.A. Resolution for Faculty Governance at UTRGV: Michael Quantz motioned to
discuss faculty participation in governance within UTRGV; James Maissen seconded.
Michael Quantz mentioned that this would serve as a beginning for assessment of
administration in addition to already in place assessment methods of students and
faculty. Mark Kaswan stated that consensus isn’t always possible, so what to do if it
can’t be reached? Michael Quantz responded that the spirit of this resolution is to
recognize that consensus isn’t always possible, but that an effort to reach consensus
should be made and documented. Mark Kaswan proposed a friendly amendment to the
resolution, requesting that the last sentence be changed to read “Where consensus is not
possible or has not been reached, deans and chairs will strive to take into account the
full range and views expressed by faculty members.” Resolution passed unanimously
with no opposition with inclusion of friendly amendment.
B.B. Resolution regarding Prohibition of Handguns on Campus: Comes from TX
Council of Faculty Senate. Read by Bobbette. Motioned to accept by Elizabeth Heise.
Seconded by Jude Benavides. Resolution passed with one opposition (James
Maissen).
B.C. Resolution regarding Fund Hazelwood and Hazelwood Legacy Act. Motion
to accept made by Elizabeth Heise. Seconded by Jude Benavides. Mark Kaswan
suggested changing “encourages” to “urges” in last sentence as friendly amendment.
Resolution passed unanimously with no opposition with inclusion of friendly
amendment.
B.D. Resolution regarding Expand Texas Education Opportunity Grant
Program. Motion to accept made by Elizabeth Heise; Seconded by James Maissen.
James Maissen asked if we add some details about how much more funding and the
effect it might have. Mark Kaswan suggested the last sentence be changed to “restore
and increase funding for TEOG to above 2012 levels.” Resolution passed unanimously
with no opposition with inclusion of friendly amendment.
B.E. Resolution on Department Chairs. Read by Elizabeth Heise. She noted that a
similar resolution was passed by UTPA on Wednesday. Motion to accept made by
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Elizabeth Heise; Seconded by Lou Falk. Elizabeth Heise noted that if deans and chairs
are not a part of the new structure of UTRGV, then all the HOPs and rules that refer to
these positions can be bypassed. Mark Kaswan suggested that to ensure both campuses
have equal vote, in order for a vote outcome to carry, there has to be a majority vote by
each department on each campus. James Maissen had concerns about whether we will
be UTRGV faculty in general or part of only one campus. Elizabeth Heise noted that all
faculty will have a home campus. Volker Quetschke suggested that there should be cochairs to ensure leadership at the departmental level on each campus, but others said this
might not happen because of funding. James Kaswan said there had been talk that there
has to be departmental leadership in house on each campus. Diana Dominguez noted
how there has been an issue with structural and scheduling decisions being made
without faculty input. Mark Horowitz expressed the need for clarification about credit
hour ratios. Elizabeth Heise noted that some large chemistry lab sections at UTPA are
being taught by undergrads with only one person supervising. Mark Kaswan suggested
a modification to resolution which was transcribed by Elizabeth Heise. Resolution
passed unanimously with no opposition with inclusion of amendment.
B.F. Additional Resolutions about Class Size. Mark Horowitz and Edith Galy
suggested that we need a resolution about class size, especially with regard to online
classes. Suggested that size should be determined by best practices set by the discipline
that are appropriate for particular class in question. Mark H. will draft this resolution
and send around to Senate members for voting on at next meeting. This resolution was
tabled until further discussion.
B.G. Elizabeth Heise will develop a resolution on appropriate training/education for
people overseeing labs, etc.
VII. Announcements
A. The next Faculty Senate meeting will be on Friday, December 5 at 1 pm, in the Salon Cassia
of Main Building.
VIII. Adjournment: Bobbette Morgan adjourned the meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Heather D. Alexander
Heather D. Alexander, Assistant Professor
Faculty Senate Secretary
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