• 0 Moffett noted that the salary survey is a commendable document. There are comments in the back of the document that note some issues in the document that Senate needs to work on.
  • Committee Book: President Brown acknowledged that he needs to make faculty appointments to the standing committees listed in the Committee-Book. He requested the Senate to send that Committee-Book to his office so that committee members can be assigned in a timely manner. He noted that last year, those committees were not assigned and convened until the spring, and many committees never met.
  • 0 Moffett noted that these committee assignments are a complicated process.
  • 0 A senator agreed that the process is convoluted.
  • Another senator said that there are two committees, IRB and Animal Use, that have guidelines that go beyond the university; the USDA and other funding agencies oversee those committees.
  • Provost Yeats noted that another committee, Biohazards, has a special member-makeup that has to be fulfilled.
  • 0 Moffett noted that the Senate needs to clean up the Committee Book before he sends it to the President's office.
  • Faculty Handbook: A Senator asked President Brown about an update on the Faculty Handbook Revision.
  • 0 Moffett noted that he had been trying to find an answer on this issue.
  • Deputy Provost Sipes noted that the Action Item of 2014 requiring the President's approval on every Senate Item has been rescinded. Since then, the Action Items that have passed in Senate have been approved, with the exception of the Tenure and Promotion Action Item, which needs to go to the Board of Regents.
  • 0 Moffett stated that we need to have a group of people who know what's been done to add all the updated information to the Handbook.
  • A Senator noted that there was the Science faculty load proposal that was approved through Senate which needs to be moved to the Administration so that issue can be resolved, as well.
  • 0 Moffett asked Senators to send him the Action Items which they know have been approved so that he can put them all together.

Faculty Ombudsman Report:

Will Riley, Associate Professor of Political Science and Faculty Ombudsman, introduced himself. He said that last year in Senate, he had given a 10-minute overview explaining his role as mediator and describing the issues he'd been working on. He said that the Ombudsman is a wheelhouse for faculty questions, concerns and disputes. For instance, at the request of faculty members, he pursued funds that had been promised to faculty members in the past which had not been received; those epafs are now going out. On another instance, he spoke to a publisher for a faculty member. For another faculty member, he contacted the HR office to ask when a stipend was coming. He welcomed people to come visit him with any concerns; his office is Hathaway 234. The issues he addresses usually are in one of two categories: HR issues that have not made it to HR, such as adjudicated disputes or work place disputes. Second are simply issues that one might want resolved as a faculty member; these have been across the