Members Represented by Proxy:  College of Liberal Arts: Charles Bolton (pr. Bill Scarborough), Kim Herzinger (pr. Michael Dearmey), Alexandra Jaffe (pr. David Hunt);  College of Nursing: Norma Cuellar (pr. Janie Butts);  College of Science and Technology:  Bob Coates (pr. Mary Lux); College of International and Continuing Education:  Mark Miller (pr. Karolyn Thompson);  Gulf Park:  Darlys Alford (pr. J. Pat Smith).

Members Absent:  College of Business Administration:  Ernest King, Scott Magruder; College of Science and Technology:  David Beckett.

FORUM SPEAKER:  Jim Borsig, Assistant to the President for Government Relations
Mr. Borsig, a USM alumnus, has a background in city government, and, prior to this position, spent five years as Director of the State Municipal Association, the advocate for city and towns in Mississippi.  He is currently writing a dissertation that he hopes to finish in 2000 at Mississippi State.
He stated that state revenues appear to be flat, a different circumstance than what we have had since the advent of gaming and the beginning of the economic upturn in the mid to late 90's.  The term "flat" is misleading because what this appears to be is that where we have enjoyed some double digit growth and excess over estimates, the economy and revenue projections for the state budget are performing to estimate.  That is a different circumstance than what we have had before. He pointed out that institutions in the 1980's weren't performing to estimate.  Now it's performing to estimate but not throwing off excess revenues in the way that it has in the past.  A legitimate Y2K problem shut down the state computer systems after Christmas so we are missing some revenues from December that are going to be reported in January.  The information that was filed at the end of November and early December showed the revenues about on the mark--corporate income tax slightly down, possibly cyclical.  So he expects January will put the state budget revenues back on track.  He pointed out that the objectives of the appropriations committees are to try and reduce expectations and try and be as conservative as possible.  We're not yet to the point of panicking about state revenues.  As we sort through the news reports that shows it down, the reality is that it is probably performing close to what the budget estimates have been and, in the past few years, the economy has been performing above the budget estimates.

On committee appointments, J. Borsig feels we need to take a wait and see attitude about where we head.  The way the system works, if you look at the appointees, the first two criteria that are usually met have to do with seniority and diversity, then geography comes in third .  Once you get beyond the committee chairman to the vice chairman of these committees (and we still don't know some of the subcommittee chairmen), he feels a slightly different geographic picture will emerge.  When you look at the seniority aspect of it, there are people on both sides of the House and Senate who are in positions of leadership with a great deal of experience in dealing with appropriations to universities and colleges, that have a track record in this area.  He feels caution is advised on purely evaluating these appointments due to geography and wants us to wait and see what the outcomes are. He noted that Representative Watson from Forrest County is on the legislative budget committee.  Two South Mississippians, one of whom represents Forrest County, bodes well for the views of this part of the state in this process even though 2002 will be the first budget that Representative Watson will be a part of building.

In the first half of the legislative session, the deadline for the introduction of bills and constitutional amendments is February 17, about thirty days later than in other sessions.  From February 17 until the final adjournment the first week in May, the first half of this session is devoted to general legislation and constitutional amendments until about the middle point in March.  Then the next 30 days are devoted to revenue matters and appropriations, leaving the last three weeks to reconcile the differences between the House and the Senate.  That's where all the decisions happen.  Therefore, we will see information now about general bills and constitutional amendments in the news until March.  Then there will be a flurry of activity on revenues during March and middle April and then chaos breaks out until the end of the session.  He pointed out that he has only been here three weeks and has been trying to absorb a lot of information as well as going to Jackson to get to know the leadership.  He stated that he will do his best to keep us informed as to what is really happening and encouraged questions or comments via his email address  (Jim.Borsig@usm.edu).

He then opened the floor for questions.  J. P. Smith asked him what his sense was about the Gulf Park Campus expansion and the hiring situation.  J. Borsig felt we weren't wasting our time.  He pointed out that the Gulf Coast business community is very focused on this issue and has been present since the start.  The coast needs to register with the legislature what their viewpoint is.  He feels things are progressing as they should this early in the session and that the request from the College Board is the one that is being pursued.  J. P. Smith noted that the issue got clouded by the Ayers case.  Now  the Junior Colleges have a lawsuit.  He asked if J. Borsig perceived that as having a political effect on appropriations.  J. Borsig stated that appropriations have to be decided regardless of a lawsuit.  This issue is about authority, not about appropriations.  So he feels the appropriation bills will be filed so the state can operate. He doesn't see this as a negative or positive effect.  J. Rachal asked if Senator Jack Gordon was reelected to the chair of the committee he was on last year.  He pointed out that an issue about sick leave that was brought up last year got bottled up in Gordon's committee when it reached the Senate last year and wondered if we would have the same obstacles this year.  J. Borsig stated that Jack Gordon has been appointed Chair of appropriations and is not the Chair of the committee J. Rachal asked about.  He also noted that sometimes obstacles don't change with people.  Both the House and the Senate membership and committee makeup is on the State web site.  J. Palmer asked for some of the highlights of the legislative package that the IHL is seeking.  J. Borsig said that in the three weeks he has been here he had made the choice to to build relationships rather than become completely conversant with the IHL package.  He felt he could not answer this question at this time, but he would make the two page summary available.  G. Rayborn asked if he would be handling Congressional relations.  J. Borsig stated the he wouldn't.  As the job was restructured it includes state government relations, local government relations local and state-wide, and, broadly painted, federal government relations which means the general tone of the university's relations with the congressional and Senate offices in concert with others like research working that area. As a last remark he stated that "he was going to try and make this murky process as transparent as possible as it can be."  
1.0  Call to Order:  The business meeting was called to order at 2:27 p.m.
2.0  Approval of Agenda:  The agenda was approved  with one correction.
3.0  Approval of Minutes:  The December minutes were approved as distributed.
4.0  Executive Committee Reports
4.1  President's Report:  Art Kaul
**Post Tenure Review:  The USM Dean's Council unanimously endorsed the Faculty Senate resolutions of November 19, 1999 and December 10, 1999 regarding Post Tenure Review.  The Council of Chairs passed, by a wide margin, a resolution endorsing the Faculty Senate Post tenure Review efforts.

The University Faculty Senates Association (UFSA) took no position on Post Tenure Review at its January 19, 2000 meeting, expressing a desire to meet with IHL Commissioner Thomas Layzell prior to the College Board's February meeting before taking a position.  Mississippi Valley State's Faculty Senate is reviewing a post tenure review document drafted by a university committee that calls for across the board post tenure review every five years and a two-year trigger mechanism for such a review.  Mississippi State has formed a university committee to consider post tenure review.  Ole Miss adopted a post tenure review statement at its January 13, 2000 meeting that calls for mandatory post tenure review of all faculty members every six years.

**Faculty/Staff Tuition Restoration and Portability:  The Faculty Senate's two resolutions on Faculty/Staff Tuition have been endorsed by all the publicly supported university Faculty Senates except for Ole Miss.  The USFA plans to forward the various Faculty Senate resolutions with a USFA cover letter to Dr. Layzell and the College Board.

**IHL Committee Meetings, January 19, 2000:  The University administration submitted Capital Improvement requests, 2001-2005, totaling $290.8 million to the College Board.  Breakdown:  USM=$234 million; Gulf Coast Research Lab=$16.9 million; USM Gulfcoast=$32.7 million; USM Center for Higher Learning=$7.2 million.

**Bobs Tusa of McCain Library and Archives has been nominated for recognition at the February 2000 meeting of the College Board for her contributions to advancing diversity via the USM's Freedom Summer Exhibit.

**Legislative Day, jointly sponsored by the Faculty Senate and Staff Council, has been scheduled for June 2, 2000.

4.2  President-Elect's Report:  Sherry Laughlin  No report, but she stated that she did not know what happened to the cookies today.
4.3  Secretary's Report:  Shellie Nielsen  No report.
4.4  Secretary-Elect's Report:  Michael Forster
Proxies were announced and an attendance roster was passed.  M. Forster announced that David Hunt will be Alexandra Jaffe's proxy for this semester while she is on sabbatical.
5.0  Old Business
5.1  Summer Employment Resolution from the Benefits and Work Environment Committee
This resolution resulted from information regarding some nine month faculty being pressured to teach in the summer.  The committee recognized that summer employment is not guaranteed but, at the same time, a nine month faculty should not be pressured to teach if they don't want to.
Discussion came up  regarding what was meant by pressure.  It was pointed out that asking someone to teach in the summer was different than being coerced.  S. Alber said that by not doing so a faculty is not looked on as being a team player. It could be a problem for a faculty member to say no that might not be tenured . As to whether or not this is a university wide problem, there has not been a survey done. It was pointed out that if it is not part of your contract, a faculty member may want to get a summer job that pays more than our summer salary.   Therefore, we should have the right to say no. The issue about defining "pressure" came up.  J. P Smith moved to amend the resolution to add "undue" before pressure.  The motion to amend passed unanimously. M. Dearmey moved and M. Lanman seconded to further amend the resolution by adding a final sentence-"A faculty member on a nine month contract is fully free to decline summer employment."  The motion  to further amend the resolution was passed unanimously.  After no further discussion, the resolution  passed unanimously as amended.  The text of the resolution is available on the Senate web site.
5.2  Dissolution of the Current Salary Equity Committee Resolution from the Benefits and Work Environment Committee.
The committee's primary rationale for this resolution was that the existing committee is only allowed to examine issues of the the distribution of the previous year's salary increases and is not allowed to examine issues that may be "historic" inequities, inequities existing over time due to salary compression or gender/racial equity issues.  The committee which is a) ad hoc, b) is appointed, and c) is only allowed this very narrow purview, cannot address the far more substantive issue of historic salary inequities, or salary compression issues, or gender or racial discrimination kinds of inequities.  We propose the abolition of this existing committee in hopes that it would result in the establishment of a legitimate committee, as the Faculty Senate proposed last year, to examine all sorts of inequities.  That proposal last year died on someone's desk so the committee decided to take this kind of action this year.

Discussion- S. Hubble pointed out that we were abolishing a committee without including a statement where we wanted them to reinitiate a reformulation of such a body.  By getting rid of something totally, it is sending a message that Faculty Senate doesn't want an equity committee.  J. Palmer pointed out that we have a position from the Faculty Senate last year.  Since it wasn't acted upon, it was suggested to tag a reference to last year's resolution stating that we want a permanent committee established.  Others pointed out that our resolution last year called for the committee to be permanent, with elected members.  There was great concern about the fact that at the moment there is no fair and equitable appeals system in place.  A. Kaul suggested that we could reendorse our resolution from last year.  After further discussion, T. Green moved and J. P. Smith seconded amending this resolution by adding the reendorsement our last year's resolution  passed January 22, 1999.  The resolution passed unanimously as amended. The text of the resolution is available on the Senate web site with a link to last year's salary equity resolution.  
6.0  Committee Reports
6.1  Academic and Governance:  Mary Lux No report.
6.2  Administrative and Faculty Evaluation:  Kimberley Davis
The committee distributed an evaluation survey and would like input as to how each department/college handles the Student Evaluation of Faculty.
6.3  Archives:  Shellie Nielsen   No report.
6.4  Athletic Liaison:  Trellis Green  No report.
6.5  Awards:  Lillian Range
The recipients for the Faculty Endowment 1/2 tuition Scholarships are Ms. Kelly M. Beckett and Ms. Arpna Vajpayee.  Each of them received $470.00  L. Range noted that today was the deadline for nominees for the University Service Awards.
6.6  Benefits and Work Environment:  John Rachal
The committee plans to have two resolutions for next meeting, one on the 2.5 grade point average for faculty/staff tuition waiver, and one regarding new post office rules.
6.7  Constitution and Bylaws:  Allan McBride  No report.
6.8  Elections:  Steven Lohrenz
The announcement of the spring elections was distributed to all Faculty Senators, which included a list of the College and Senators whose terms expired this year and their eligibility for reelection.  B. Scarborough pointed out that C. Bolton began his term in 97-98 replacing B. Scarborough, instead of 94-95 as listed.  The committee is compiling lists of faculty who are eligible to be on the ballot as well as a mailing list for distribution of the ballots.  They hope to finish this in February and begin the election process in March .  S. Lohrenz reminded his committee members to make sure that they are getting his communications he has been sending out. 
6.9  Environment (ad hoc):  Dick Conville  No report.
6.10  Faculty Development:  Karolyn Thompson  No report.
6.11  Technology:  Dean Dunn
D. Dunn announced that Bob Smith has stepped down as "list-owner" of the USM-Talk discussion list.  He has been replaced by Liam Kennedy, Government Documents Librarian.  D. Dunn is trying to contact the technology committee to discuss internet access and the Eagle Connection.  He hopes to have something for the next meeting.
6.12  University Club:  Kim Herzinger  No report.
6.13  Transportation Committee:  Bill Scarborough
**He noted that the lot North of the Liberal Arts Building has been rezoned to zone 4.  We have been strictly enforcing that quite successfully.  As he stated last time, the main problem with the lack of enforcement is due to the lack of ticket writers.  Cecil Wilson is proposing that three new positions be temporarily funded from the parking fine fund.  B. Scarborough noted that there are three full time ticket writers now, four part-time student worker ticket writers and about six faculty/staff ticket writers, including himself.  Hopefully the addition of these ticket writers will make enforcement more rigid throughout the campus. **On the west side of campus, concrete is being poured now for a massive new student parking lot that will accommodate 400-500 cars. **The Plaza has been delayed.  The drainage requirements are different for pedestrian walkways than drainage requirements for vehicular traffic.  Therefore, the engineers have to be called in before it can move forward. Access to various facilities will continue to be blocked for a while.  He did talk to Royce Pierce about the dangerous situation on the south side. **There have been some proposed changes in parking regulations that have been sent forward by Chief Wilson to the Administration. 1) When replacing windshields or changing vehicles, the permit must be returned in exchange for another decal for the cost of $5. 2) The police department will only reimburse faculty/staff decal fees up to 60 days.  3) Requests for appeal must be made within 10 working days rather than 15. 4)  After the third violation, each subsequent violation will be doubled, i.e. 4th ticket =$20, 5th =$40, next $80 etc. 5) There will be a $10 late fee for vehicles who are not registered by the beginning of the term.  6) Towing violation fees are going up $5 up to $70 now.  If the police have to do it, the fee will be $85.  7) 33 parking meters have been installed to accommodate quick stops. **It was noted that the difficulty with the enforcement of our ticket writing is that, until we can get paid employees with the computerized hand set that can determine if that student has exceeded their ticket limit,  will we be able to get offenders with multiple tickets towed. K. Davis brought up the difficulty with the amount of parking meters around the College of the Arts Building, especially in front of the Fine Arts Building.  They have taken many of the Faculty spaces away.  It was pointed out that the proposed Hartwig Theatre parking lot would not help the College of the Arts.  B. Scarborough pointed out that the committee approved the purchase and the distribution of the meters for visitors who have a huge problem finding parking on this campus.  But they had no say in where these meters were going.  He said he would bring the situation regarding the meters that were put up between College Hall and the Fine Arts Building that took away zone 4 spaces to the attention of the committee.
6.14  AAUP Liaison:  Michael Dearmey  No report.
6.15  Faculty Handbook Task Force:  David Goff
The committee plans to bring forward a resolution at the February 18, 2000 to vote on in March.
7.0  New Business
8.0  Announcements
9.0  Adjournment  The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted, Shellie C. Nielsen, Faculty Senate Secretary