The first regularly scheduled meeting of the AY 2018-19 Faculty Senate was called to order at 3:12 pm on Monday, August 20th, 2018 in Hathaway Hall 123. The agenda was approved with no amendments.

The new Senate President, Dr. Joe Moffett, welcomed the senators and guests and said it was his pleasure to serve with them.

Faculty Senate President Report:

  • Moffett has several copies of the AAUP red book in his office and invited colleagues to come pick one up if they would like one. His office is in HH 407C.
  • The Tenure and Promotion calendar will be available next week, as he has learned, and its deadlines will be pushed back slightly due to the delay. The Provost, Dr. Lucian Yates, noted that as a rule, this calendar should go out in the spring, but it didn't. He added that in the third week of March, Tenure and Promotion information should go out to faculty, so that they and the Provost can get working on the process in a timely manner. He said that the deans and chairs were just as chagrined as faculty that this calendar was not published on a timely basis.
  • Academic Reorganization: Moffett noted that he took the academic reorganization information as he received it and assigned senators in colleges/schools as he thought they should go. He followed the Senate Constitution rule that every program gets at least one senator, and two if the program has more than 7 faculty. He has let the deans know that there are now several colleges without senate representation. His concern is to make sure that all areas have representation. For instance, he changed his own position to at-large senator because his division of LLP was reorganized.
  • Moffett thanked senators for sending him issues for Senate to work on. For instance, the Professional Concerns Committee (PCC) has been working on a Faculty Evaluation Form.
  • 0 Senator Question: what if someone doesn't want to continue on Senate? Moffett: a couple of senators have already resigned or traded places with other people. He is working on a document that lists the senators and their new areas. He will distribute this document to the Senate once he finalizes it. He noted that even yesterday (8/19) there was still confusion in some divisions about which faculty members are Senators and which are not. Currently, there are the most Senate vacancies in the College of Public Service and Leadership Studies.
  • University President Christopher Brown: he wanted to say on record that this unit [PSLS] continues to be a unit that faculty senate needs to look at. It is the only unit in the reorganization that doesn't fit the criteria for having a discipline, a field and an application. Brown would welcome Senate's advice on whether those departments are in the right place and even if they should be restructured. For instance, the history department is campaigning to be moved. If Faculty Senate could look at the issue of redistribution in that area, we might be able to go down to four deans. Moffett responded that senate would take up this review. Brown noted that the other areas would also increase as a result, giving some areas two senators instead of just one.
  • 0 President Brown explained that when he received this revised Faculty Evaluation Form, it came to him “cold.” As it was developed the year before last, when it came to his desk, no one had even mentioned to him, so he didn’t know about it. However, he said