ABAC Faculty Senate Minutes November 20.2015Page 1 of 4

Faculty Senate Meeting

Minutes from Meeting on Friday, November 20, 2015(corrected)

Call to Order:

Faculty Senate meeting was called to order by Christina Dent, President of the Senate, at 2:03pm

Members Present:

Shawn Seat (Science), Abul Sheikh** (Business), Steve Janousek (Human Sciences), Anthony Fitzgerald (Human Science), Dr. Vanessa Lane* (Forestry & Wildlife), Russell Pryor (History and Political Science), Brian Yost (English and Communications), Amanda Urquhart (Mathematics), Christina Dent** (Nursing), James McCrimmon (Agriculture)

*Dr. Vanessa Lane was given a proxy for this meeting for Sen. Jason Scott.

**Sen. JoAnn Brannen gave her proxy to Sen. Abul Sheikh, and Sen. Jeannie Paulk gave her proxy to Sen. Chrissy Dent.

Presentation of Minutes:

Sen. Pres.Christina Dent presented the minutes from the meeting of Friday, October 30, 2015.Sen. Urquhart made a motion to accept the minutes; Sen. Janousek seconded. Minutes of Friday, October 30, 2015accepted unanimously.

Old Business:

  1. Promotion and Tenure Guidelines for Academic Leave:
  2. Sen. Sheikh typed a draft copy of the Promotion and Tenure proposal following prior discussion at the October 30 meeting and before, but said it needed editing for clarity. Sen. Fitzgerald asked whether there was a timeline that the revised proposal should be delievered, and Sen. Dent said that we should give Acting VPAA Dillard a completed copy on or before February. To expedite approval, Sen. Pres. Dent suggested doing electronic voting. Sen. Yost volunteered to edit the proposal, and Sen. Pryor added that the spirit of the draft was correct, just needed editing for clarity.
  3. Action items: Sen. Pryor suggested a 11/30 due date for the revised proposal, and Sen. Pres. Dent said the revision should be voted on by 12/9 by email.
  1. Retiree emails
  2. Sen. Pres. Dent reports that there was no response at all concerning retiree emails since the last Faculty Senate meeting. The proposal was presented to HR Director Spancake which was notr acknowledged, nor was a phone call followup.
  3. Sen. Seat mentioned that in a brief meeting with Mr. Spancake that he said he received the email on the Monday prior to the Tuesday meeting with retirees.
  1. Proposed Amendments to Constitution:
  2. Sen. Fitzgerald presented the proposed amendments to the Constitution and By-Laws (see Appendix) that were under discussion concerning having meetings of Faculty Senate in the summer term. Sen. Dent made a motion to accept the amendments as written, and was seconded by Sen. Yost. Parliamentarian Fitzgerald noted that there was a necessity for a roll call vote under the current Constitution and By-Laws, and each amendment must be voted on separately.
  3. Using the numbering in the appendix, the votes for adoption were:
  4. 1st Change: Shawn Seat - Yes, Abul Sheikh – Yes for himself and Yes for Sen. Brannen, Steve Janousek - Yes, Anthony Fitzgerald - Yes, Dr. Vanessa Lane - Yes for Sen. Scott, Russell Pryor -Yes, Brian Yost -Yes, Amanda Urquhart - Yes, Christina Dent – Yes for herself and Yes for Sen. Paulk, James McCrimmon - Yes
  5. 2ndChange: Shawn Seat - Yes, Abul Sheikh – Yes for himself and Yes for Sen. Brannen, Steve Janousek - Yes, Anthony Fitzgerald - Yes, Dr. Vanessa Lane - Yes for Sen. Scott, Russell Pryor -Yes, Brian Yost -Yes, Amanda Urquhart - Yes, Christina Dent – Yes for herself and Yes for Sen. Paulk, James McCrimmon - Yes
  6. 3rdChange: Shawn Seat - Yes, Abul Sheikh – Yes for himself and Yes for Sen. Brannen, Steve Janousek - Yes, Anthony Fitzgerald - Yes, Dr. Vanessa Lane - Yes for Sen. Scott, Russell Pryor -Yes, Brian Yost -Yes, Amanda Urquhart - Yes, Christina Dent – Yes for herself and Yes for Sen. Paulk, James McCrimmon - Yes
  1. Office Hours policy
  2. Sen. Pres. Dent said she would follow up on responses from the administration on office hours policy from previous meetings, but has heard nothing concrete back.

New Business:

  1. Amendment to Constitution and By-Laws concerning Roll Call Voting
  2. Sen. Fitzgerald mentioned that for all votes of the Faculty Senate, according to the current Constitution and By-Laws, a roll call vote must be taken.
  3. Sen. Pryor asked if this was for transparency; as Parliamentarian Sen. Fitzgerald said that as written now, every motion may require a roll call vote, which is inconsistent with how it has been done so far.
  4. Sen. Dent said that this would be very inefficient timewise. Dr. Lane asked if there were any guidelines about minutes, and whether attendance taking is part of the official duties of the Secretary. Sen. Fitzgerald read the relevant part of the current Constitution and By-Laws and showed that it was part of the official minutes. This would ensure that if a unanimous vote were recorded, the votes would be prima facie clear.
  5. Sen. Fitzgerald suggested that to make it more convenient, the Constitution and By-Laws could be amended to provide for roll call votes only when the Constitution and By-Laws were being amended. As it reads now, “all votes shall be roll call.”
  6. Sen. McCrimmon asked if the roll call vote would be necessary for everything in the January meeting, and Sen. Fitzgerald said it would, since an amendment would have to be first read in January and then passed in February.

A motion to adjourn was made by Sen. Urquhartand Sen. Seat seconded the motion. The Senate adjourned at 2:54p.m.The next meeting will be held January 29, 2016.

Appendix:

Proposed Amendment to the Constitution and By-Laws of the Faculty Senate

Proposal:

The Faculty Senate adopt a recommendation to Amend the Constitution and By-Laws of the Faculty Senate in order to provide for summer semester meetings, and to clarify other wording in the Constitution.

Rationale: In Senate meetings our discussions have addressed the fact that ABAC administration continues to operate year-round while the Faculty Senate only meets in the fall and spring semesters, and as a result items of interest which ought to appear before the Faculty Senate cannot be addressed during the summer semester and are adopted without our consultation due to the gap.

Changes:

  1. Article III: Officers, Section 3, President Pro tempore: Change the wording “shall be elected by the Faculty Senate” to “shall be elected from the existing membership of the Faculty Senate”
  2. Section IV: Meetings, Section I Frequency: Change the wordings from “once per semester for fall and spring semester” to: “once per semester in fall, spring, and summer semesters.”
  3. Article VI: Amendment of the Constitution, Section 1: Amendments: Add the words: “No change to the Constitution and By-Laws of the Faculty Senate shall be adopted during the summer semester.”