ABAC Faculty Senate Minutes November 20.2015 Page 4 of 4

ABAC Faculty Senate Minutes November 20.2015 Page 4 of 4

Faculty Senate Meeting

Minutes from Meeting on Friday, April 22, 2016

Call to Order:

Faculty Senate meeting was called to order by Amanda Urquhart, Vice-President of the Senate, at 2:02 pm

Members Present:

Amanda Urquhart (Mathematics), Shawn Seat (Science), Jeannie Paulk* (Nursing), Brian Yost (English and Communication), Renaldo Arroyo** (Forestry and Wildlife), Steve Janousek (Human Sciences), James McCrimmon (Agriculture), JoAnn Brannen (Business), Abul Sheikh (Business)

* Jeannie Paulk held a proxy for Sen. Christina Dent

** Renaldo Arroyo held a proxy for Sen. Jason Scott

Presentation of Minutes:

Sen. Vice-Pres. Amanda Urquhart presented the minutes from the meeting of Friday, Mar. 29, 2015. Sen. Yost noticed that his name and Sen. Pryor’s names were transposed on a note of a proxy given during the meeting, and that he wanted a phrase he said that was on the draft minutes redacted. Sen. Sheikh made a motion to accept the minutes; Ms. Paulk seconded. Minutes of Friday, Mar. 29, 2015 accepted unanimously after amendment.

Old Business:

1.  Electronic voting on the resolution concerning the Open Carry bill

a.  The votes on the resolution were:

1. Aye: Shawn Seat, Amanda Urquhart, Christina Dent, Russell Pryor, Brian Yost, Jason Scott, James McCrimmon, JoAnn Brannen, Abul Sheikh
2. Nay: Steve Janousek

b.  The resolution was passed; the resolution has been mailed to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to encourage a veto of the bill.

2.  Need for increase of travel budgets

a.  Sen. Yost said that he and Sen. Pryor are working on the letter; because the budgets are already set for 2016-17 there is no time for them to be adjusted before the 2017-18 budget year.

3.  College-wide Promotion and Tenure Committee cover letters

a.  Sen. Urquhart sent copies of the revised cover letters for the Promotion and Tenure Units (PTUs) and for the College-wide committee.

b.  Sen. Sheikh noted that the current letters are inconsistent, giving an example where of 9 members of the committee only 4 votes were recorded. The minimum of 8 is explicit now to prevent this problem.

c.  Sen. Yost noted a typographical error that occurred several times with “PUT” instead of “PTU”

d.  Sen. Brannen mentioned that changes were sent to her that were outlined in red; Sens. Seat, Urquhart, Yost and Sheikh all mentioned they did not get a copy.

e.  Sen. Urquhart (while the email was being retrieved by Sen. Brannen) noted a problem in that the form said “at least” 5 members from the PTU should be on the form but only 5 spaces were available. Sen. Urquhart also noticed that one of the forms says “Eligible Members” while the other only says “Members”.

f.  Sen. Brannen said that the forms needed to be checked again. Sen. Sheikh suggested tabling the issue but Sen. Urquhart noted that these forms must be included in the updated Promotion and Tenure Guidelines for 2016-17. Sen. Brannen said we should then have approval of the updates by email and Sen. Urquhart tabled the discussion until the email was sent out.

4.  Appeal process for adverse annual faculty evaluation

a.  Sen. Seat reported back a brief summary of emails received from a query to the USGFC membership on the topic and he reported that the options were highly varied across the University System.

b.  Sen. Urquhart suggested a committee comprised of other department members, a member of the Faculty Senate and a dean or department chair.

c.  Action item: Sen. Seat said he would send a summary of the submissions from the various USG institutions.

d.  Sen. Urquhart said we should go back to constituents to discuss after receiving the information and wondered if it should be discussed in the Summer meeting or kept until Fall.

5.  USGFC meeting

a.  Sen. Seat reported on the meeting with the Faculty Council on April 15. Items (i) to () below were in the address or questions to Chancellor Huckaby.

1. Chancellor Huckaby mentioned that the principal challenge this year was over new policies rather than funding. The Open Carry bills (firearms and the Taser bill) and the Religious Freedom bill was both fought against by the USG.
2. Among positives the Chancellor said both the overall budget and the capital budget were improved this year, and there was an extension of budget carry-forward from 3 to 5 years allowing for more flexibility.
3. The number of new HS graduates is falling in south Georgia because people are leaving the region; the out-of-state fee waiver is intended to help offset the problem – 16 schools had enrollment increases but 14 had declines. Schools that are growing are financing the schools that are not growing, and more cuts will come at schools with shrinking enrollment.
4. 9 of the USG schools had serious financial aid problems, which in the worst case may result in $17-18 million having to be paid back to the US Government including fines. This is why faculty must take roll since there must be 60% enrollment to prevent penalties.
5. A standard policy must be in place by the BoR for student harassment sexual assault and other student behaviors. Georgia Tech lost a capital project because of racial slurs from a fraternity.
6. A pool has been funded for raises of approximately $59 million system wide which corresponds to about 3%. $60 million more also went into MR&R funding.
7. There are known academic consequences of the Open Carry bill; the University of Texas Board of Governors suggested that faculty should avoid controversial topics. But another issue is how to pay for implementation. Gov. Deal is not talking about the Taser bill, and many more students would qualify since the age limit is 18 for the Taser bill as opposed to 22 for the firearms bill. If not vetoed these go into effect on May 3.
8. ADP will go away sometime soon but there are some things that ADP can do that PeopleSoft cannot so it will take some time.
9. Top priorities for USGFC into the future according to Huckaby and Vice Chancellor Davis: improvement of communication from the Presidents to the faculty; embracing the new campus safety and sexual assault rules; year-to-year transmission of information so the USGFC can be functional from semester to semester
10. Davis said he will investigate the Jackson Hewitt insert into the tax forms; in particular to see if there is any information leak between the division of the company that advises retiree medical benefits to its tax services branch.

6.  Advising evaluations

a.  Sen. Sheikh was supposed to talk to the deans and that has not yet happened.

New Business:

1.  Election of New Officers

a.  Sen. Urquhart mentioned that the Senate’s terms ended at the beginning of Fall semester.

b.  Sen. McCrimmon nominated Christina Dent for a second term as President, seconded by Sen. Urquhart. The vote was unanimous.

c.  Sen. Urquhart nominated James McCrimmon for Vice President of the Senate and was seconded by Sen. Sheikh. Sen. McCrimmon mentioned that it was not certain that he would be reelected to the Faculty Senate but was willing to serve under that provision. The vote was unanimous.

d.  Multiple people were nominated for Secretary of the Senate. Sen. Seat declined because he will not be on the Faculty Senate next year due to a possible conflict with serving as Chair of the Physics and Astronomy RAAC. Sens. Russell, Pryor, Sheikh and Brannen all declined nominations. Sen. Janousek nominated Jason Scott (in absentia) and Sen. Seat seconded. Sen. Urquhart thought it was unreasonable to nominate someone that was not present.

i.  Votes for Jason Scott: Sens. Seat, Janousek, Sheikh, Brannen, McCrimmon and Jeannie Paulk

ii.  Votes against: Sens. Yost, Urquhart and Renaldo Arroyo

e.  Sen. Sheikh nominated Amanda Urquhart for USG Faculty Council, seconded by Sen. McCrimmon. The vote was unanimous.

2.  Summer meeting date

a.  Sen. Urquhart looked up dates that coincided with New Student Orientations. By acclamation, a date in the middle of Summer was selected: July 8, 2016. The time is estimated to be 1 pm, but timed so that advising would be completed in the event that the schedule change may affect the best time.

A motion to adjourn was made by Sen. Seat, seconded by Sen. McCrimmon. The Senate adjourned at 3:05 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for July 8, 2016.

Appendix: The text of the letter sent to Gov. Nathan Deal follows:

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April 1, 2016

Dear Governor Deal:

As the elected representatives of the faculty of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, we, the Faculty Senate, write you to express our strident opposition to HB 859.

As you are aware, college campuses have many unique characteristics that mean the presence of guns, even lawful ones, in the hands of those who are not trained law enforcement professionals can pose a significant risk to students, staff, faculty, and even children [including high school students dually enrolled in college courses] and visitors on campus.

At the heart of the college experience is the preservation of an environment conducive to a free exchange of ideas. The protected presence of firearms in the classroom and in all other campus spaces threatens that basic goal. It precludes the possibility of the open exploration of sensitive topics crucial to student development and an honest assessment of student work. Faculty must be allowed to encourage the free exchange of often controversial ideas. Students must be able to engage these ideas in an environment free of physical intimidation. In addition, the presence of firearms in otherwise heavily regulated laboratory spaces both compromises the security of the facility and the safety of the campus community. If faculty and students are compelled to work under the threat of intimidation and violence, these conditions will threaten the academic integrity of our institution.

As faculty, the impact of HB 859 is especially upsetting. The promise of tenure represents a lifelong commitment on the part of faculty equally great as it does from the University System. Wedded as we are to the institution, we feel the proposed legislative fundamentally transforms our relationship to the College. The overwhelmingly negative, threatening atmosphere campus carry creates will have a far-reaching effect on the College’s capacity to recruit new students and faculty that will damage its standing.