The University of Southern Mississippi
Faculty Senate Meeting
March 23, 2007
Union Hall of Honors
2:00 p.m.

1.0 Call to order: 2:10pm

2.0 Approval of past minutes:  Not completed for approval

3.0 Approval of agenda:  Agenda approved with one change – 6.0 New Business moved to follow 4.2.1 with a request that the senate go into closed session for New Business items.

4.0 Officers' Reports
            4.1       President
                        4.1.1  President’s cabinet and provost meeting (secretary-elect) – Amy Young reported on an item from the Exec. Officer’s meeting with the Provost concerning the dean of CoEP stepping down.  Amy stated that the provost gave officers a data sheet to demonstrate declines in CoEP in areas of enrollment and Student Credit Hours generated. This data apparently indicated to the provost a poor performance on the part of Dean Pierce. Senate requested that similar data be ascertained on other colleges for comparison.
4.1.2  Gulf Park meeting in May – Myron H. reminded senators that the Senate meeting in May would be held on the coast.  Wil Watson agreed to see about reserving the library conference room at Long Beach for the meeting.  Myron H. also stated that Gail Russell has invited the senate for food at her Bay St. Louis home after the meeting.  Myron asked senators to be thinking about it and to let Gail know at next meeting.
                        4.1.3  Five year reflections?  A Senate document? – The senate was asked to consider creating a Five Year Reflections document which would outline accomplishments and failures of the outgoing administration in an effort to create an accurate historical accounting of the administration as well as create a document which will inform and guide the next administrations decisions. In a vote of 31-1-3, the senate passes a measure authoring the executive officers to draft a document or an outline for a document that a committee could work from.
4.1.4  The How, When, and Topics in Engaging the New President – Myron H. stated that the presidential search was moving along well and that the committee would be meeting next Tuesday (March 27) to decide the preferred candidate to invite for a campus visit.  He also reported that the senate Exec. officers met with the Editorial Board of the Hattiesburg American.  For that meeting, the officers created a list of items shared with the Editorial Board of what we thought might be priorities for the new administration.  Senators asked if the list could be disseminated to senate on the listserv.
4.1.5  Appoint Ad Hoc committee on Advising – Myron H. asked that the members selected for the ad hoc committee on advising meet with him after the senate meeting.
4.1.6  Topics and Issues for the remainder of the semester – Myron H. asked if there were any other issues or topics that senators wanted addressed in the remaining weeks of the semester.  Senators had none at this time.

4.2       President-Elect
                        4.2.1  Letter of support for MS Valley Senate – Stephen Judd disseminated a letter he drafted for senate consideration to be sent to MVSU Faculty Senate.  The letter is intended to be a show of support for MVSU senate’s vote of no confidence and their wish for open dialogue with their president.  Stan Hauer suggested some editorial changes (which he will make and send to Stephen)  and the senate approved the letter unanimously.

The senate passed a motion to go into closed session to discuss two issues that concerned personnel.

4.2.2  Investigative committee on the  search process/chair appt. in ELR – In closed session, the senate passed a measure authorizing a senate committee to formally investigate to see if policies and procedures were followed concerning the selection of an interim chair in the Educational Leadership and Research department.

6.0  New Business – In closed session, the senate unanimously passed a motion to send another letter to the president, provost and IHL commissioner reaffirming the senate’s position that no new organizational changes should be made during this transitional period and specifically that the administration stop its attempt to move the Administrative Justice (AJ) department out of CoST at this time.  The senate also approved a measure to have an observer attend a meeting scheduled Monday between the provost and faculty from AJ if not objected to by AJ faculty or the provost.

            4.3       Secretary
                        4.3.1  Codifying Senate responsibilities and authority – Mary Beth Applin disseminated for senate consideration a list of five items that could codify an understanding of shared governance and the role of the Faculty Senate in shared governance.  She proposed that maybe the senate’s Academic and Governance and Constitution and Bylaws committees look at the statements and suggest some wording acceptable to the senate.  These items would be shared with a new administration for comments and possible approval at an appropriate time. 

4.4       Secretary-Elect

5.0       Committee Reports
5.1       Academic and Governance
            5.2       Administration and Faculty Evaluations
                        5.2.1  Steve Oshrin stated that most evaluations have been completed (last call is next Friday and depts have been notified).  J.T Johnson is working on tabulations.  Myron asked Steve O. to send him a list of the depts that have not completed the evaluations at this date.  Myron also stated that Pat Joachim, Assoc. Provost on coast, has asked if she could use the senate evaluation tool to do other administrative evaluations on the coast.
5.3       Awards
                        5.3.1  Mary Lux – senate had 5 reps on the Grand Marshal Awards Selection Committee.  Senate awards committee will soon be selecting from 20 candidates.
5.4       Budget
            5.5       Constitution and Bylaws
            5.6       Faculty Welfare
                        5.6.1  Report on Faculty Salaries – Anita Davis reported that Dave Beckett, chair of the Faculty Handbook committee, called her to tell her that there was a error in the wording concerning sabbatical leaves – it should say that faculty get full pay for a semester of sabbatical leave and half for a year but it currently has ½ that value. 
5.7       Government Relations
            5.8       Technology
            5.9       Elections
                        5.9.1  Cheryl Goggin reported that CoEP elections had to be re-done because a faculty member had been left off the ballot.  It was suggested by a senator that the senate president call a meeting of the Faculty Leadership Council (FLC) to elicit their assistance in determining a method for extracting correct faculty names for the purposes of various elections.
            5.10 Other committee and liaison reports
5.10.1  President’s Council
                                    5.10.2  AAUP
                                    5.10.3  Facility Management Planning Committee – The committee held an open forum for all faculty, students and staff to review the draft proposal.  There was very low attendance at the forum.  The consulting group will be sending the final draft proposal to the committee in April.  The committee also looked at the placement of the new tennis courts at their last meeting. 
                                    5.10.4  Alternative Learning Committee
                                    5.10.5  Distance Education Committee
                                    5.10.6  Faculty Handbook Committee
                                    5.10.7  Committee on Advisement
                                    5.10.8  Evaluation of Teaching
                                    5.10.9  Academic/Graduate Council – Bobby Middlebrooks reported that at last Graduate Council meeting, Susan Siltinan proposed a 15 hr., essentially, ‘minor,’ for graduate students on how to be a college professor.  This raised a lot of excitement at the last meeting.  Its been referred back to the college. 


7.0       Old Business
8.0       Other
9.0       Adjournment:  4:50pm

Members present and those absent [in brackets] but represented by proxy (in parentheses):

College of the Arts & Letters

Anita Davis

Cheryl Goggin

Stan Hauer

Stephen Judd 

John Meyer

Greg O’Brien

[Bill Powell] (Stan Hauer)

Bob Press

[Paula Smithka] (Stan Hauer)

Amy Young

College of Business

Stephen Burshardt

[Bill Gunther] (Steve Burshardt)

Scott Magruder

Catherine Price

College of Education & Psychology

Mary Ann Blackwell

Taralynn Hartsell 

Joe Olmi

Tony Rodriguez-Buckingham

John Rachal

College of Health

Wendy Bounds

Bonnie Harbaugh

Mary Lux

Steve Oshrin

Tim Rehner

College of Coastal Science

Chet Rakocinski

[Don Redalje] (Chet Rakocinski)

College of Science & Technology

Jeff Evans

Randy Buchanan

[Jerry Griffith] (Mary Beth Applin)

John Hannon

Myron Henry

Charles McCormick

Larry Mead

Bobby Middlebrooks

Gail Russell

University Libraries

Mary Beth Applin

Jay Barton Spencer 

USM-Gulf Coast

Patsy Anderson

Julie Cwikla

Eric Nelson [Wil Watson]

Members Absent:

College of the Arts & Letters:

College of Business:

College of Education & Psychology:

College of Health:

College of Coastal Science:

College of Science & Technology:

University Libraries:

USM-Gulf Coast: