Faculty Policies Meeting – August 28, 2006

Attending: Carol Rychly, Charles Jackson, Pam Jackson, Rick Pukis, Robert Reeves, Mike Searles, Jim Benedict, Tom Colbert, Sam Myers, Donna Hobbs, Cathy Tugmon (chair), and Debbie van Tuyll (secretary)

Tugmon called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m.

1. Approval the minutes of the August 21 meeting was deferred due to a computer malfunction that kept them from being distributed to committee members.

2. Jeff Heck, faculty secretary, met with the committee to introduce himself and to discuss procedures for making changes to the catalog and the faculty manual. Members questioned having catalog updates made as they come into the faculty secretary’s office affected in any way the designation of a particular catalog to govern student degree program requirements. There was also a question over what group has final jurisdiction over the catalog.

3. A subcommittee, consisting of Myers (chair), Rychly, and Colbert and at the suggestion of the Vice President for Academic Affair’s Office, was appointed to examine the existing committee list (both ad hoc and standing) to determine what committees are needed, what committees are not needed, and whether committees should be designated as ad hoc or standing. The subcommittee will also consider whether, and if so how, membership on ad hoc committees needs to be subject to a rotation scheme. This subcommittee was appointed in response to concerns about the lack of available committee slots for people who would like to serve at the campus level.

4. Tugmon reported on her meeting with Jasper Cook, public safety director, regarding the policy which prohibits faculty from having more than one parking tag. This policy is not a public safety policy, but a BAT policy. The policy is not new, but it has not been enforced in the past. It is being enforced now due to abuses in the past. Cook assured Tugmon that he would work with faculty who have temporary or emergency needs for a second sticker. Cook also asked to be notified if ineligible people have faculty/staff parking permits in their possession. Further, Jackson agreed to speak with Kathy Hamrick, who is head of BAT, to discuss the possibility of offering a second permit to faculty members at a significantly higher cost. The suggested fee was $40.

5. The Faculty Mentor/Mentee lunch will probably be October 13. Tugmon is waiting for a confirmation of the date from the Pinnacle Club.

6. Benedict announced that the vice president for academic affairs has appointed a study group to look at funding for the Cullum Lecture Series. Benedict will serve as chair.

7. Tugmon asked members to consider how to revise the policy on the constitution of post-tenure review committees in light of the addition of two new departments over the summer. Those two new departments, Art and Communications and Professional Writing, will remain in the same post-tenure review groups as they were before, but the policy calls for a member from each department. That would mean the group that includes Learning Support, Art, Music, English and Foreign Languages, Communications and Professional Writing, and the Library would have six members rather than four like the other committees, but with no increase in workload since the new departments grow out of existing departments already in that post-tenure review group. Rychly will work on developing suggestions for revising the policy.

8. Tugmon said she had been approached by a faculty member who was concerned about the inequity this semester between Tuesday/Thursday classes and Monday/Wednesday classes. The T/Th classes have one extra day. Tugmon suggested, and committee members concurred, that effected faculty members should determine for themselves what to do with the extra day.

8. The committee voted to adjourn at 3:38 p.m.