FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes
January
22, 2007
Present: Akleman,
Armstrong, Aufderheide, Bangerth, Battle, Bednarz, Benedik, Cagin, Carlson,
Cepeda-Benito, Cobb, Curry, Ellis, Estrada, Feldman, Fike, Fink, Gawande, Geva,
Grant, Harms, Heilman, Hise, Hobbs, Hobson, Ing, Kelly, Kenimer, Kirkendall,
Klein, La-Pastina, Lard, Machann, Magill, Martindale, McGeachin, Messina, Moreira,
Pearl, Price, Reddy, Reese, Riccio, Rich, Schultz, Shandley, Slack, Smith,
Speed, Stabile, Stadelmann, Stallone, Stein, Stewart, Toby, Vaid, Vogel,
Volkman, Walker, Ward, Warden, Webb-Johnson, Welsh, Whiteacre, Winemiller,
Woodman, Woosley
Watson (Dean of Faculties)
Bazzi, Thornton (
Absent: Abbott,
Arant-Kaspar, Beskok, Blasingame, Boyd, Carrigan, Cetinkaya, Collisson, Curry, Gunn,
Hall, Harris, Linton, Loudder, Luiselli, Mahapatra, McIntyre, Meagher, Merrell,
Petersen, Straube, Strawser, Thornton, Toliyat, Valasek, Vedlitz
Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 3:20 by Speaker
Slack
Guest Speaker:
Dr.
Eddie Joe Davis, Interim President
Dr.
Davis outlined his goals for advancing TAMU during the search for a new
president. He noted that he has long
been a champion of shared governance, having suggested to then newly appointed
President Frank Vandiver that establishing a Faculty Senate at TAMU (as was
done) would aid administration in making sound academic decisions. While pledging to continue the priority
programs initiated by Dr. Gates (faculty reinvestment, increasing faculty and
student diversity, implementing the undergraduate University Studies degree
program and increasing graduate student numbers as well as providing the space
needed for these programs), Dr. Davis noted there are significant monetary
obstacles to overcome. Escalating building
costs, uncertain funding from the legislature with formula funding that is
inadequate for the unique educational opportunities and payoffs provided by
tier-1 research universities, and the hope of providing merit pay raises for
faculty and staff were given as specific examples. Dr. Davis presented a model for enhancing
diversity in which a pool of state-provided funds would be matched by
University funds to provide scholarships for underrepresented students. He feels private companies that are also
seeking to hire well-educated minorities could readily be convinced to partner
with TAMU to provide funds for the matching component.
Dr.
Davis pointed out that there is a continuous need to educate legislators and
the general population on the work that faculty members actually do as opposed
to the perception. He suggested that
getting legislators here for “show and tell” opportunities could help, but just
getting them to look at documents such as the Faculty Senate’s “Faculty Facts”
pamphlet would be a step forward.
Another area he pointed out for attention was to make sure that the TAMU
branding effort emphasizes academic excellence as a primary message. Finally, based on his experience with the
Development Foundation, he pointed out that individual faculty, departments and
colleges could help in raising scholarship and other funds by being more
proactive in providing promotional material.
Speaker
Comments:
Speaker
Slack pointed out that 1/3 of the Presidential Search-Advisory Committee will be
made of faculty members, requested candidates names be submitted, and promised
to keep the Senate updated on progress.
Professor
Clint Machann was sworn in as a Senator representing the
Minutes of the December 11 Faculty Senate
Meeting were approved as distributed and are available on the Senate website. Motion Passed F.S.
24.70
Consent Agenda
Graduate
Council Motion Passed F.S. 24.71
Change in Course
Requests – Oct 5, 2006
Title Change
BUSH 624 International
Economic Development
STAT 608 Least
Squares and Regression Analysis
STAT 610 Theory
of Statistics I
STAT 611 Theory
of Statistics II
STAT 613 Intermediate
Theory of Statistics
STAT 614 Probability
for Statistics
Title Change, Description Change
BUSH 655 The
Structure and Policy of the European Union
MGMT 660 Strategic
and Global Human Resource Management
Title, Description Change,
Prerequisite Change, and Cross Listing
POSC 625 Least-Cost
Feed Formulation
University Curriculum Committee Motion Passed
F.S.24.72 Attachment C
New Courses - Dec 8, 2006 (p.
1-22)
ATMO 321 Computer
Applications in the Atmospheric Sciences
ATMO 456 Practical
Weather Forecasting
COSC 301 Construction
Surveying
MKTG 484 Marketing
Internship
Change in Courses -
December 8, 2006 (p. 23-30)
Change in course prefix for CAEX courses
to SLCX
Change in course prefix for
Department of Industrial
and Systems Engineering: change in
course prefix for all INEN courses to ISEN
ELEN 248 Introduction to Digital Design - prerequisite
change
Committee
Reports (all moved for approval by the Secretary of the Senate)
University Curriculum Committee (Recommended Approval) Motion Passed F.S.24.73
Change in Curriculum – December
8, 2006
Biomedical Sciences Program
B.S. in
Biomedical Science
Executive Committee (Recommended Approval) Motion Passed F.S.24.74
W Courses – New Course Request -
December 20, 2006 Attachment
E
COMM 407 Women, Minorities, Mass Media
COMM 410 Radio,
Records, and Popular Music
COMM 415 New
Media and Civil Society
COMM 420 Gender
and Communication
COMM 425 Rhetoric
of the Civil Rights Movement
COMM 431 Rhetoric
of Social Movements
COMM 460 Contemporary
Issues in Communication
EHRD 484 Professional
Internship
HIST 410 Russian
History to 1801
HIST 444 American
Military History Since 1901
VIBS 443 Biology
of Mammalian Cells and Tissues
Old Business
There was no old business.
New Business
There was no new business
Committee of the Whole
Rick Carlson (GEOS) asked that a mechanism be devised that would
permit one on one teacher/student courses to be used for satisfying the writing
course requirement. He suggested that
485W or 491W courses or preparation of an undergraduate thesis would be
appropriate vehicles.
Adjourn
The
meeting was adjourned at 4:00 pm.