July 13, 2020

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

July 13, 2020

3:00pm

Via Zoom

http://facultysenate.tamu.edu

CALL TO ORDER

Speaker John N. Stallone called the second meeting of the 38^th Session to order at 3:00pm. Due to ongoing social distancing practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was fully conducted via Zoom. Speaker Stallone began by reminding Senators of details of how to participate remotely via Zoom using the hand-raising, polling, and chat features.

GUEST SPEAKER

Speaker Stallone welcomed guest speaker Dr. Carol Fierke, Provost of Texas A&M University, along with members of her leadership team: Dr. Michael Stephenson and Mr. Joe Pettibon. Dr. Fierke began by sharing the two primary goals for fall semester operations: 1) providing the best education possible to meet our land grant mission as safely as possible, and 2) making decisions based on best available scientific and medical data, taking advantage of all of the experts at TAMU. She provided multiple updates for the fall.

Currently planning on face-to-face (F2F) classes
Working hard to balance educational mission, safety, and financial health; fewer F2F classes will lead to layoffs and furloughs
Decisions are fluid and can be changed as circumstances change
Remote courses are a safety option to minimize exposure to students who test positive for COVID-19, while allowing them to continue their education
Committees are working on options for exams and proctoring
Every classroom will have cameras and microphones, and guidance on use will be provided
TAMU now has a bring-your-own-device policy for students
Planning to work with local hospitals to manage load due to student illness
Various measures are being put in place to ensure safety of faculty and staff; colleges are expected to have a back-up if faculty are too ill to teach remotely
Administration will be tracking illness on campus via a dedicated portal and Workday
Face covering policy is in place; non-compliant students can be reported to the Office of Student Conduct and faculty have the option to move their class online for that day
The amount of fresh air being circulated in buildings is being increased to hospital levels, and classrooms will be cleaned multiple times daily
Maximizing study spaces, including tents on campus to avoid congregating in halls
Operations will be re-evaluated on a weekly basis
Training, monitoring, testing and contact tracing are in place; free testing for faculty and staff who are symptomatic will be available via the student health center. Turnaround time is expected to be 30-48 hours. Testing will also be available for those who are notified by contact tracers that they have been exposed.
Students who are COVID-19 positive will be quarantined in hotels set up for this purpose.
TAMU School of Public Health has teamed up with the Brazos Valley Health Department to develop a contact tracing group. Portal reporting goes directly to this group.
Working on a wastewater COVID-19 testing protocol to test for viral load

Dr. Fierke then took questions from Senators, some of which were aggregated by Senator Andrew Klein who was monitoring the Chat. (The full video recording of the meeting can be accessed on the Faculty Senate website[link].)

Speaker Stallone thanked Dr. Fierke for speaking to the group.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. Jocelyn Widmer, Assistant Provost for Academic Innovation

Dr. Widmer provided her monthly update on the progress of implementing the new learning management system (LMS). This included a technical update, the Opt-in App, Canvas “by-the-numbers”, shells in Canvas, Canvas out of the box & 3^rd party tools, Zoom in Canvas, and what’s next. For greater detail, see Dr. Widmer’s slide presentation and notes.

SPEAKER COMMENTS

Speaker Stallone reflected on the two challenges confronting faculty: the COVID-19 pandemic and how it will impact teaching in the fall, and racism on campus. The full text of his comments can be found here [link].

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The motion passed to approve the June 15, 2020 minutes as distributed. Attachment A – Passed

CONSENT AGENDA

The motion passed to approve the July 13, 2020 Consent Agenda as presented. Passed
(Full Consent Agenda with FS #’s can be found below Adjournment.)

COMMITTEE REPORTS

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE – Report on the S. Ross Statue Survey – Attachment B – FS.38.041
Senator and Executive Committee member Julie Harlin presented the report found in Attachment B.

CORE CURRICULUM COUNCIL – No COURSE REPORT for July, 2020

STANDING COMMITTEES – SPRING 2020 REPORTS – Attachment C – FS.38.042
Academic Affairs Committee – Senator Jay Ramadoss
Budget Information Committee – Senator Greg Heim
Personnel & Welfare Committee – Senator Len Bierman
Planning Committee – Senator Clint Magill
Research Committee – Senator Tom Sullivan

OTHER COMMITTEE REPORTS

SEBAC Report for May 2020 – Attachment D – FS.38.043
SEBAC Representative – Senator Greg Heim

NEW BUSINESS

Proposed Amendments to Minimum Syllabus Requirements:
Statement on Mental Health and Wellness – Attachment E – Passed – FS.38.044
The motion passed to approve Attachment E without discussion.

COVID-19 Temporary Amendment – Attachment F (linked document is the FINAL revision ) – Passed – FS.38.045
Senator Angie Hill Price, College of Engineering, asked for the Senate to recognize faculty member ‘Jon Jasperson. Dr. Jasperson served on the committee drafting the Minimum Syllabus Requirements, and detailed extensive suggested revisions to this amendment. After much discussion and input from Associate Provosts Michael Stephenson and Michael Benedik, the Faculty Senate approved a motion to allow the Executive Committee to make final approval of the amendment after revisions, due to the extremely short turnaround time required to get this amendment on fall syllabi. There followed a vote on Attachment F “as amended,” which passed.

Recommendation of August 2020 Degree Candidates
TOTAL – 1,897
TAMU-Main – 1,671
TAMU-Galveston – 93
TAMU-HSC – 100
TAMU-Law – 21
TAMU-Qatar – 12

Secretary Ferdinand made the motion to certify the August 2020 Degree Candidates; the motion passed.

Senator Deb Banerjee shared an announcement of the passing of a colleague and mentor in the College of Engineering, Dr. Hisham Nasr-El-Din.

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

Speaker-Elect Dale Rice convened the Committee of the Whole.

Senators Raymond Arroyave, College of Engineering, and Clint Magill, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, both shared their experiences in the Recreation Center of students not wearing masks while using the facility. Senator Adam Kolasinski also shared a circumstance of demonstrators without masks on campus.

Speaker-Elect Dale Rice turned the meeting back over to Speaker Stallone.

ADJOURNMENT

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