The University of Southern Mississippi

The University of Southern Mississippi

Faculty Senate Minutes

September 7, 2007

Union Hall of Honors

Forum Speaker: Dr. Bobby Middlebrooks

Dr. Middlebrooks read a report from President Saunders that included the recent appointments of Chad Driskell as executive assistant to the president for external affairs and Mary D. Gregg as special assistant to the president. He reported that Dr. Saunders is planning a series of core dialogues that will being the process for developing a strategic plan. He indicated that the provost search has begun and the advertisement will appear shortly. He expects that off-site interviews for the provost will be conducted in January, and on-site interviews in late January or early February. A discussion followed by senators about the timing of the deans searches and provost search. Some suggest that in some colleges the dean might have to be selected before the provost, but in other instances, the provost should be selected first. Dr. Middlebrooks indicated that a new organizational chart is now available, that the process for hiring faculty has been altered to speed up the process. Dr. Middlebrooks clarified Dr. Saunders’ statements about “tithing” to the President’s Office. President Saunders believes that a limited percentage of money from vacant positions should revert to the President in order to facilitate new positions in emerging areas. For example, if a retirement results in an $80,000 vacancy, the substantial part of recovered salary should be used to replace the vacancy (perhaps at a lower rank with a lower starting salary) and some part should revert to the President’s Office for reallocation. It was pointed out that this practice has been common at USM in the past, but was not done in a transparent manner. What President Saunders is proposing will be transparent. Dr. Beckett asked about what happens to indirects, and will Dr. Saunders consider changes to where that money goes? Dr. Middlebrooks said that would be addressed at the next cabinet meeting. Dr. Middlebrooks said that Dr. Bill Powell is still working with on online programming with Sungard. He brought up the late enrollment fee of $100 and asked for feedback.

1.0 Call to order: 2:45

2.0 Approval of past minutes (completion of May meeting and June meeting): Motion to approve the May portion by Amy Young, second by Steven Bushardt. May minutes were approved. Motion was made by Bonnie Harbaugh to approve June minutes, second by John Rachal. June minutes were approved.

3.0 Approval of agenda: Motion to approve the agenda by Greg O’Brien, second by Jerry Griffith. Agenda was approved.

4.0 Officers' Reports
4.1 President

4.1.1 President’s cabinet and Provost cabinet meetings: Stephen Judd said that the inner cabinet (consisting of Saunders, Middlebrooks, Paul, Burge, Morgan) will meet weekly and the external cabinet had grown in size and will meet monthly.

4.1.2 Update on FAR: Judd indicated that he is working with Dr. Bill Powell and IR to determine what information was necessary to collect, but it appeared that the use of FAR will not be for any kind of evaluation.

4.1.3 Orphans: Judd suggested that senators urge their deans to have regular meetings with senators. He also urged senators to send reports on senate meetings through their college listserves so that departments not directly represented can stay updated on Senate activities.

4.1.4 Gulf Coast Convocation: Judd reported that he and Amy Young attended the convocation with the theme of “Planting the Flag.” The convocation was well attended and spirited.

4.1.5 Gulf Coast Faculty Council liaison: Judd reported that the Gulf Coast Faculty Council has appointed the Senate president as a liaison and is invited to their monthly meetings. The GC Faculty Council feels that decision-making processes are unclear and that much is not being accomplished.

4.1.6 University branding: Judd reported that he and Young attended an informational meeting by the Godwin Group who is currently handling USM branding. The meeting was a history of how branding occurred over the last several years. Judd pointed out at the meeting that there has been almost no opportunity for faculty to participate and provide feedback about our branding.

4.1.7 Focus groups and beginning of strategic planning (see Dr. Middlebrooks report above)

4.1.8 Update on searches for deans, library director, and provost (see above). Senators asked if the library search committee might recommend that the position might be for a dean rather than a director. (Update – at the September 14 convocation the President reported that she has decided to upgrade the position from director to dean.) That will likely be discussed by the search committee.

4.1.9 Textbook costs: Senators were urged to talk to their faculty about textbook issues and concerns. The executive committee was directed to gather information and report it to the provost and directly to the IHL.

4.1.10 Email privacy policy: Judd urged the Technology Committee to work on an email privacy policy.

4.1.11 Legislative Liaison (see Middlebrooks comments re Chet Driskell above)

4.1.12 Committee assignments: Judd asked committees to meet briefly after the meeting and discuss tasks and assignments

4.2 President-Elect

4.2.1 Campus safety: Stephen Oshrin reported on the university’s progress in implementing an emergency notification system. In response to the Virginia Tech shootings, universities are being urged to upgrade methods for informing the campus about potentially dangerous situations. USM is considering a number of ways to achieve this goal: speakers in each building that could broadcast emergencies messages, video monitors in buildings where bulletins could be flashed, and a text-messaging system where individuals could opt-in via a website to receive text-message notification about emergency situations on campus. The administration (VP Joe Paul, Chief Hopkins, CFO Morgan, Dean Holloway and others) are in the process of developing recommendations for the implementation of these procedures.

4.3 Secretary – no report but reminded standing committee chairs to communicate members and chairs when they decided so the information can be posted on the Faculty Senate website.

4.4 Secretary-Elect – no report

5.0       Committee Reports
            5.1       Academic and Governance – no report
            5.2       Administration and Faculty Evaluations – no report
            5.3       Awards – no report
            5.4       Budget – no report
            5.5       Constitution and Bylaws – no report
            5.6       Faculty Welfare: Anita Davis, chair reported that surveys were distributed and were supposed to be completed at the first departmental meetings. Some have already been sent to the Provost’s Office. The surveys were designed to help pinpoint issues of most concern to faculty. Some senators reported that they were not given an opportunity to complete the survey.
            5.7       Government Relations – no report
            5.8       Technology – no report
            5.9       Elections – no report
            5.10     Other committee and liaison reports

5.10.1 President’s Council – removed

5.10.2 AAUP – no report

5.10.3 Facility Management Planning Committee – no report

5.10.4 Alternative Learning Committee – no report

5.10.5 Distance Education Committee – no report

5.10.6 Faculty Handbook Committee – David Beckett, chair reported that the committee was working to clarify language regarding grievance processes (chapter 12) and continues to work on the section on sabbaticals.

5.10.7 Committee on Advisement - suspended

5.10.8 Evaluation of Teaching

5.10.9 Academic/Graduate Council – Taralynn Hartsell reported that the deadline for any changes that will go into the Bulletin must be in by Sept. 20, 2007.

6.0 New Business

6.1 A motion by Amy Young to have the president (or other representative) of the Gulf Coast Faculty Council become a liaison in Faculty Senate and attend executive committee meetings. Second by Pat Smith. Motion passed.

6.2 Anita Davis reported that she had a great deal of difficulty working with purchasing and grants, which resulted in getting a strongly worded letter from CFO Joe Morgan. She indicated that others had received similar letters and asked Faculty Senate to help address this problem. Tim Rehner suggested that a major problem was that there was no communication between Sponsored Programs and Grants and Contracts.

6.3 Bob Press reported that international students could use additional support and will make a formal request of Faculty Senate at the next meeting.

7.0       Old Business - none
8.0       Other - none
9.0       Adjournment: 4:55 pm

Faculty Senate Meeting Sept. 7, 2007