Members Represented by Proxy:  College of Business Administration:  Ernest King (pr. Trellis Green), Scott Magruder (pr. Trellis Green);  College of Liberal Arts: Charles Bolton (pr. Kate Green); College of Nursing: Janie Butts (pr. John Rachal), Norma Cuellar (pr. Betty Rogers); College of Science and Technology:  Dean Dunn (pr. Delia Anderson); Center for Marine Science: Steve Lohrenz (pr. Sherry Laughlin); Gulf Park:  Shahdad Naghshpour (pr. Alexandra Jaffe).

Members Absent: College of Education and Psychology:  Janet Nelson;College of Health and Human Sciences: Mary Ann Adams, Susan Graham-Kresge.

Business Meeting
1.0   Call to Order Meeting:  The meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m.

2.0   Approval of Agenda:  The agenda was approved as distributed.

3.0   Approval of Minutes:  The minutes of the October 16th meeting were approved as distributed.

4.0   Executive Committee Reports
4.1   President's Report: Jesse Palmer
Stephen Mallory has been appointed to serve as the Liberal Arts representative for the rest of this year.  This vacancy occurred when the College of International and Continuing Education was formed and Mark Miller (formerly representing Liberal Arts) was appointed its Senator.  The Liberal Arts seat will be filled for a full term in the election this spring.  Academic Standards: The recommendations from the Academic and Governance Committee to the Academic Standards Report have been presented to the Provost;  Environment Resolution:  This resolution has been given to Vice President Linda Gilbert.  She wants to look at other models for dealing with campus environmental issues; Summer Salaries:  President Palmer met with Provost Henry to discuss summer salaries.  No action will take place until the strategic planning process runs its course, and this will happen in March or April.  Dr. Henry leans more toward the present flat summer salary structure instead of a percentage of nine-month salary.  His reasoning is that going to a percentage salary structure would mean fewer courses offered, fewer faculty who will be able to teach, larger classes, and more senior faculty who will want to work.  Dr. Henry wants to see what comes out of the strategic planning committee in terms of reallocating funds.  Much Senate discussion ensued.  It was pointed out that all these objections had been discussed and addressed in last year's Senate committee that studied this issue.  Another Senator pointed out that the most important issue here was the percentage salary structure and that we would be willing to negotiate immediate financial trade-offs to come to a resolution favoring the percentage structure.  President Palmer reiterated that he has brought this issue up in cabinet meetings several times and will continue to do so.
Cabinet:  Travel Agency: Protravel is now our travel agency; however, the decision must be approved by the IHL.  This is a three year contract, but we won't start using them until January 1st.  Diversity: A University wide diversity committee is being formed through Bud Ginn's office; several members of the Senate have asked to serve on this committee.  Gulf Coast:  A document, A Plan for Expanding Higher Education Opportunities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast has been produced and is being distributed.  In summary, the goal is to move gradually toward a four-year USM campus.   Darlys Alford said that the key to doing this is to define USM as a two campus system.  The Attorney General has recently ruled that if IHL approves this, the two year college system will not have a legal objection.  Athletic Planning:  The President has proposed a strategic planning process for the Athletic Department.  They will have 90 days to review athletics.  The athletic plan will likely be imbedded in the University's strategic plan.  Satellite System:  The satellite uplink system has been purchased, and faculty are being asked for suggestions on how to use it.  Graduation: There will be two graduation ceremonies in December, at 2:30 and at 6:30, and there will be speakers.  The 2:30 speaker will be the Ambassador to Great Britain and the 6:30 speaker will be Shelby Thames.  The division of colleges will be the same as it was in summer graduation.  Capital Campaign:  Curt Redden will be making two hour presentations on the capital campaign to the colleges in December.  All faculty are encouraged to attend.  Honors College Recruitment Day:  The Honors College will be bringing in prospective students on November 20th.
Deans' Council:  Strategic Planning:  Fifty people were nominated for the Strategic Planning Committee. Fifteen to twenty will be appointed.  Online courses:  Sue Pace gave a report about online classes.  There will be fifteen courses offered in the spring.  Anyone interested in teaching an online class should contact Sue Pace.   Bob Smith said that he is teaching one and it is simple to do.  You need to start planning for the class a semester before.  A question was raised about release time for the class.  Bob Smith said that you have to make those arrangements with your department.  These are classes that already exist.  President Palmer said that the Technology Committee may want to look at these issues:  pay, release time, who owns the course.  NCATE:  The NCATE visit was positive. The chair of the committee said we met all the standards.  The final report will be out in the spring.  Under consideration in the Cabinet:   Whould USM provide laptop computers for all students?  Should the first two floors of the library be open 24 hours a day?  Sherry Laughlin pointed out that the current construction on the first floor of Cook Library is being done in order to provide a 24 hour a day/7 days a week computer lab and study room.  Plans are for the first two lobby floors to be open for these hours, but there are no current plans for the service desks and the collections to be open.  A seven foot bronze eagle is being considered for the student plaza; this will be funded by outside money and fund raising is beginning.

4.2   President-Elect's Report: Art Kaul   No Report.

4.3   Secretary's Report: Sherry Laughlin:  No report.

4.4   Secretary-Elect's Report: Shellie Nielsen
The attendance roster was passed and proxy statements were read.

5.0   Committee Reports
5.1   Academic and Governance Committee: Kate Greene
Karen Thrash has compared our calendars with those at Mississippi State and at Ole Miss.  They both teach one day less than we do.  They have 200 minute final exams which they count as contact minutes.  They have a reading day where there is no class and no final.

5.2   Administration and Faculty Evaluations: Bill Powell
Bill Powell met with Provost Henry to discuss the Provost's role in the evaluation process.  He will continue to support the evaluations and will consider including the evaluation process in the Faculty Handbook.  Bill Powell will meet with Anita Stamper (Council of Chairs) to discuss this and it will be brought up in the Deans' Council.  There is no indication of how the evaluation results are being used.

5.3   Athletic Liaison: Trellis Greene
Trellis Green thanked volunteers for staffing the tailgating tent before football games.  The intrastate football rivalry has been killed by the IHL Board.   Senators should let Trellis know if there are other issues his committee should address.

5.4   Awards: Linda Dysart Goff
The Awards Committee has compiled a list of former HEADWAE recipients.  Dr. Marjorie Wheeler has been selected as USM's HEADWAE winner for this year.  The call for nominees for the Excellence Awards will go out soon. You are encouraged to nominate your colleagues for these awards.

5.5   Benefits and Work Environment: Mike Forster
The committee will introduced a resolution on the salary review process at the next Senate meeting.  Previous resolutions from the Benefits and Work Environment Committee dealing with salaries have been placed on the Senate web page.  There was some discussion in the Senate as to whether the previous resolutions that have not seen action should be reintroduced.  A recommendation was also made that administrators be asked to speak to the Senate and to respond to these resolutions.  Mike Forster indicated that he had attended the recent Faculty Senates Workshop in Jackson.  He received information on salaries comparing us to national and regional averages.  We don't stack up well in these comparisons.  He also received information on salary compression issues among Mississippi institutions.  We apparently have a smaller compression issue than other schools.
 
5.6   Constitution and Bylaws: Sherry Laughlin
Sherry Laughlin asked for an indication of how many proxies we should allow an individual to have for a given meeting.  General agreement was that two proxies were appropriate although there was a dissenting view that proxies should be unlimited.
 
5.7   Elections: Mary Dayne Gregg
Mary Dayne Gregg asked that you check the sign-in list or the web site to make sure your term information was correct.  It looks like we will have elections in every college except for International and Continuing Education.

5.8   Environment (ad hoc): Dick Conville  No Report.

5.9   Faculty Development: Norma Cuellar No Report.
 
5.10 Technology: Dan Surry No Report.

5.11 University Club: Kim Herzinger
The reestablishment of  a University Club has been mandated by the COFU report.   There appears to be enough funds in the University Club account to begin operating.  The Peck House on Pearl Street is still available for use by the University Club.   Its use is controlled by International and Continuing Education and they are supportive.  There is still additional work to be done in order to get the club back in operation, but that is progressing.

5.12 Parking: Bill Scarborough No Report.

6.0   Old Business None.

7.0    New Business

Alexandra Jaffe asked if there are any updates on the solution to the modem pool problem.  Daniel Surry said he would ask John McGowan about this.

Mary Dayne Gregg expressed concern about the OTR's plans to charge students for printing in the computer labs.  Faculty may need to reconsider there assignments that require lots of printing.   She had other concerns about problems this might cause in labs that are opened and staffed by student workers in the late evening hours.   Art Kaul asked how this would affect labs that are tied into departments.  Those labs have not been allowed to charge a fees to cover costs.  Daniel Surry volunteered to bring this up with John McGowan.
 
8.0    Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 3;10

Respectfully submitted, Sherry Laughlin