A Senator stated that we need clarification: does Human Resources define the different faculty rankings? Carlsen-Landy replied that, if at this university, it was HR's authority to establish rankings, a Faculty Handbook could list those rankings, but HR policy would supersede the Handbook.

A Senator asked, how do we find out who has that authority over policy?

Carlsen-Landy replied that he would follow up on that question; he noted that it seems many people are unclear on this issue.

A Senator requested that, before the faculty make further revisions on the Handbook, we have the answers to all these questions so that we are not repeating this revision work over and over again. It would be a far more efficient use of valuable faculty time to know the answers to these questions before the revision process continues.

A Senator asked, where is the list of causes for termination? We are not allowed to discuss specific personnel issues, but there have been cases of faculty contract terminations on this campus without an explanation of cause, which provokes anxiety among faculty.

Another Senator reiterated the same question: all we know is the policies in the Handbook. It is scary not to know what one might get fired for. We want to know what the written policies are – not the oral policies someone is telling us or the policies in a non-binding Handbook. There must be written policy. Can it be put on the university web page? Give us the webpage address so that we can consult that, instead. Knowing this information would make us feel comfortable so that we can do our job, which is teaching, not worrying about whether we're about to get fired or not.

Carlsen-Landy replied that HR does have a policy manual, and he will email it to Moffett.

A Senator asked how soon we would get information to address our concerns.

Carlsen-Landy responded that it is hard to say how long it will take. He asked Senators to send Moffett a list of questions to forward to him so that he can have all the questions addressed. He stated that he would be able to respond with answers in a couple of weeks.

5. Executive Committee Action Items: Moffett explained that the Senate Executive Committee is helping APC work through some items. The following two have been developed and approved by the Executive Committee:

EC 18-19-01: Proposal for Aligning Staff and Academic Calendars: This calendar proposal makes staff and faculty holidays the same. There will be a loss of two instructional days in the fall and two in the spring. This loss will not take us too low in instructional hours to meet federal guidelines. Moffett conceded that we will lose more Monday classes, but concerned faculty can move to TR classes or hybrid courses in which some of the instruction is done online.

EC 18-19-02: Proposal for Updating the Faculty Handbook: Moffett explained that the problem with revisions is that there has not been a designated person responsible for updating the Handbook, so it hasn't been getting done regularly. This item proposes that at the end of the year, the Senate President will update the Handbook for the next Senate coming in in August. If he/she is not able to complete this