The University of Southern Mississippi

Faculty Senate Meeting

November 14th, 2003

Union Hall of Honors

2:00 p.m.

 

Members Present and Those Represented by Proxy (listed in parentheses):

 

College of the Arts and Letters:

Amy Chasteen-Miller (Anne Wallace), Phillip Gentile (Anne Wallace), Kate Greene (Bill Scarborough), Stephen Judd (Mary Ann Stringer), Tony Lewis, John Meyer, Bill Powell, Bill Scarborough, Paula Smithka, Mary Ann Stringer, Susan Malone (Gary Stringer)

 

College of Business and International Development:

James Crockett (David Duhon), David Duhon, Trellis Green, Mark Miller (Mary Ann Stringer)

 

College of Education and Psychology:

Taralyn Hartsell (Joe Olmi), Janet Nelson, Jay Norton (Elizabeth Haynes), Joe Olmi, John Rachal, Janice Thompson (Joe Olmi)

 

College of Health:

Joyous Bethel, Margot Hall, Bonnie Harbaugh, Susan Hubble, Amal Khoury, Kathleen Masters, Stephen Oshrin (Stan Hauer), Mary Frances Nettles

 

College of Science and Technology:

David Beckett, Randy Buchanan, Peter Butko, Ray Folse, Mary Dayne Gregg, Myron Henry, Gerry Mattson, Gail Russell, Alan Thompson (Ray Folse), Denis Wiesenburg (Gail Russell)

 

University Libraries:

Mary Beth Applin

 

USM Gulf Park:

Darlys Alford, Kathy Davis, Shadad Naghshpour, Pat Smith

 

Members Absent: (none)

 

1.0                 Call to Order (2:05)

Myron called to order; expressed thanks to family and colleagues for all concern during his recent illness. Soon thereafter, turned the presiding of the meeting over to David Beckett, President-Elect

 

2.0                 Approval of October 7, 2003 minutes. (moved/seconded/passed)

 

3.0                 Approval of Agenda (moved/seconded/passed)

 

4.0                 Officers’ Reports

4.1                 President/President-Elect

4.1.1            FAR Update

Dr. Beckett, reporting for Dr. Judd referred to the Preface of the FAR as an important component of the FAR (Preface components: data collection tool not designed to replace departmental evaluation tools, but may supplement or replace such if so desire; requests that individual FAR reports should require notification of the individual with justification and date of request for the report). Introduced Bobby Middlebrooks (who also serves on the FAR Committee) to provide additional information/field questions. Several questions remain to be addressed including: 1) How are outside requests for FAR info handled? Are there limits to who can request the info? Must permission be granted to those requesting that info? What about multiple listings of info by multiple persons? There are no resolutions to these questions at this time. His impression was that the process will be done on a year-by-year calendar basis. He also noted problems with JavaScript as related to input of information.

4.1.2            Faculty Handbook Committee Report

Dr. Henry reported that there have had three meetings of the FHC. Several big issues remain: 11.3 (this is being set aside again; the amount of support for the Faculty Senate version of 11.3 by faculty, the AAUP and the Council of Chairs is remarkable, yet there is still contention regarding the lack of due process in the current draft by the Administration; if the FS version does not go forward, our decision has to be what to do in response; Dr. Henry suggested the possibility of a special meeting date of the Senate on December 5 or January 12 to address this issue in that it may be brought before the IHL prior to our being able to review/respond. Dr. Henry addressed the issue of workload as contained in the current proposed version of the Handbook. The normal workload is 12 undergraduate hours or 4 courses with no mention of service, etc.; it remains that load decisions are made at the department level, but this is a “benchmark”. Balance between teaching, service, and research are made at the departmental level. Dr. Henry offered comment regarding the issue of whether the FAR “must” or “may” be a part of the departmental evaluation process. Appreciation was offered to the Committee members for the work done.

4.1.3            Status of Deans’ Searches

David deferred to Joyous Bethel who reported on the search of the College of Health. It is unclear as to whether there are applications as of this date. The timeline is the end of March with a start date of the end of June. The situation is similar for the College of Education and Psychology.

4.2                 President-Elect

4.2.1            Dr. Beckett announced the appointments to the Transportation Committee (Bill Scarborough) and the Americans with Disabilities Committee (Janet Nelson).

4.2.2            Polish Your Piece of the Rock: Virginia Kittrell reported that it was a success with much participation across both campuses (Hattiesburg and Gulf Park).

4.3                 Secretary (No report)

4.4                 Secretary-Elect (No report)

 

5.0                 Committee Reports

5.1                 Academic and Governance (No report)

5.2                 Administration and Faculty Evaluations: Ray Folse reported that the process is set for early January.

5.3                 Awards: Tony Lewis reported that the Headwae Award had been determined (Dr. Creed in Biochemistry), and the Committee will be convening to discuss the teaching, research, Grand Marshall, university service, professional service, and library awards.

5.4                 Budget (No report)

5.5                 Constitution and Bylaws: Dr. Alford reported on the proposed constitutional change regarding closed Faculty Senate meetings. It was moved/seconded/passed to suspend rules to vote on the resolution. The proposed resolution (attached at the end of the minutes) was moved/seconded/passed unanimously (38-0).

5.6                 Faculty Welfare: John Meyer reported that the Committee was gathering data regarding part time faculty pay, moving next year’s fall break to Monday/Tuesday, and addressing the schedule of final exams. A report should follow at the next regularly scheduled Faculty Senate meeting.

5.7                 Government Relations: Concern was expressed regarding higher education pay raises and pay raises to top 10% of faculty in each department.

5.8                 Technology: Anticipate a presentation/report from Jill Beneke of iTech at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Faculty Senate.

5.9                 Elections (No report)

5.10              Ad hoc committee reports and liaison reports (AAUP and others); Dr. Scarborough reported that the Transportation Committee has been reconstituted and is chaired by Mary Ann Bankston; focusing on one issue per month (parking at athletic events and abuse of handicapped stickers). The next meeting will address visitor pass abuse. Dr. Joyous Bethel reported that the Second Annual Meeting of the Mississippi State-Wide AAUP is slated for November 22. She also reminded the Senators of the AAUP Governance questionnaire and encouraged all to respond.

 

6.0                 Old Business (None)

 

7.0                 New Business

David Duhon offered questions regarding the new faculty evaluation form used by the University. He was concerned that this was not the form that was recommended previously and wondered about whether the form had been pilot tested. Bill Powell voiced concern that USM was associated with certain radio stations in the area that fail to represent issues of taste.

 

8.0                 Adjournment 4:50

 

 

Resolution passed on November 14th regarding Article 3, Section 201 of the Faculty Senate Constitution:

 

The meetings of the Faculty Senate shall be open except when, by majority vote, the Senate deems it necessary to restrict a meeting to Faculty Senators only. At its discretion, the Senate may invite specific individuals to attend and participate in a closed meeting.

 

Passed 38-0