Faculty =
Senate
Minutes
Aashir
Nasim, Psychology; Bill Knorpp,
Philosophy and Religion; Bob Jerome,
Economics; Bob Lembright, History;=
Carmenza&n=
bsp;Kline,
Foreign Languages and Literatures; Charles Runyan
for Rory DePaolis,
Communication Sciences and Disorders; Claudia
O’Neill, Nursing; Craig Shealy, Psychology (Grad);
Guest included: Doug Brown, Office of the Pro= vost.
Visitor =
included
Christi=
ne
Robinson.
Dr. Lewis reminded the senators about the computer lottery which has been posted on t= he FS website.
Tenure & Promotion: Dr. Brown stated that his office is getting ready to s= end out tenure and promotion letters (56 tenures and/or promotions) by next week. The letters will be sen= t 15 days after approval from the BoV.
Faculty Salary: 134 salary adjustments were made in late fall. Dr. Brown explained that there are several bills regarding faculty salaries.&= nbsp; According to him, one of the bills that may pass is the recommendati= on from a 3% increase to a 6% increase. He also shared that this coming summer faculty salary is likely to be increased due to the increased operating budget this year. There was a brief discussion on salary raises among peer institutions regionally and where JM= U stands in comparison to them. Aashir Nasim asked whether there i= s a formula to calculate salary compression.&n= bsp; Dr. Brown explained the rationale and logistics behind the reward sy= stem and emphasized it is done on a case by case basis.
Hospital Acquisition: The BoV approved acquisition of hospital. The site will not serve JMU until 2009. The acquisition represe= nts an increase in academic space of 60% (1/2 million square feet) and that there = is no pressure from the legislator to take on more students so far.
A cross-divisional space ap=
proach
will be used for the planning looking specifically at the university
priorities. Dr. Brown comment=
ed
that specialized consultants will be brought to campus to do a campus plan =
commented. He also talked about a number of f=
uture
renovations on campus, including identifying space that can be temporary to
accommodate faculty during the renovation period (approximately 50,000 squa=
re
feet for temporary space).
Dr. Imani raised a concern = from faculty about students going from one side to the other of campus during the renovation period. Dr. Brown = talked about class scheduling to facilitate commuting from one point to another.
Kent Zimmerman attended the= BoV meeting on Jan. 7 and asked about the possibility of a day-care with the acquisition of the hospital
He also asked about the rol= e of faculty in commencement exercises. Dr. Brown asked the speaker to do a segment in the commencement. In May commencement, speaker was a= sked to endorse the candidacy and present the candidates to the president for the conference of their degrees.
There was a brief discussio= n on the hooding of undergraduates and graduate candidates.
Faculty Appeals Committe=
e: Dr.
Wynn has a pressing need regarding the Faculty Appeals Committee. There is a restriction on the Facu=
lty
Handbook that says there needs to be representation of different colleges in
appeal cases. According to hi=
m, there
is an appeal case coming forth; therefore, he needs one representative from
education and one from math and biology.&n=
bsp;
Possible senators that could serve in this committee would be John G=
ilje
from Chemistry and Tamara Jetton from the
Nominations & Electi= ons: Dr. Griffin clarified that se= nators can serve two consecutive terms in the Faculty Senate. Dr. Griffin needs th= e names of the new senators by the March meeting.&= nbsp; Elections will be held on April meeting. The slate will be presented in the= April meeting. Dr. Griffin asked for volunteers to serve in the various committees.
Academic Policies: D= r. Bernstein had no updates to report.
Faculty Concerns: Dr=
. Ruff
presented some of the issues discussed in the Faculty Concerns Committee.
§
§ Possibly include two other categor= ies – under $20,000 a year and aBoVe $100.000 a year)
§ There is a need to talk to Human Resources to make available to the faculty those surgeons within the 30 mile radius who are part of the network.
Student Concerns: St=
ephanie
Chisolm distributed a resolution recognizing the value of the Honor Code.
Michael Smilowitz suggested rewording the phrase “which would be conducted sometime subsequent to= the formal orientation itself within the first semester of matriculation at JMU” to “which must be accomplished successfully in the first academic semester of matriculation”.= Michael suggested that the resolution be accepted since there has be= en sufficient discussion on the issue. Resolution was moved and seconded.&= nbsp;
There was discussion on the usefulness of resolution B. F= aculty senators were in favor of the resolution.
Budget Priorities: <=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Elizabeth Cole talked about the
committee’s charge on examining faculty turn-over & salaries. According to
A resolution was brought up= in the December meeting regarding discrimination language in University documents.= The resolution states making unive= rsity documents consistent by inserting the sexual orientation class in all docum= ents in the university policies. N= ikitah Imani read a statement Dr. Robinson had on this issue.
Jim Ruff asked Dr. Brown ab= out any legal considerations regarding leaving sexual orientation out of the docume= nts. Dr. Brown explained that sexual orientation is not protected category under law. The goal would be to get the BOV t= o request the Attorney General to endorse that right in all documents. This change would be in conformance with the majority of the other institutions in the state that h= ave made this a protected category. There was extended discussion= on the issue among the senators and between senators and Dr. Brown. The resolution was tabled until th= e next meeting after obtaining more information from the Legal Council.
The meeting adjourned at
Respectfully submitted,
Solange A. Lopes-Murphy, Fa= culty Senate Secretary