FACULTY SENATE MEETING
Minutes
August 14, 2006
3:15 p.m., 601 Rudder Tower
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty_senate
Present: Arant-Kaspar, Aufderheide, Battle, Bednarz, Cepeda-Benito, Blasingame, Cagin, Carhart, Carlson, Carrigan, Cobb, Curry, Ellis, Estrada, Fackler, Feldman, Fike, Gawande, Gunn, Hall, Harms, Heilman, Hise, Hobbs, Hobson, Kelly, Klein, Lard, Loudder, Magill, Martindale, McGeachin, Meagher, Messina, Moreira, Murphy, Reddy, Ruoff, Sharkawy, Slack, Stadelmann, Stallone,Thomas, Vaid, Vogel, Walker, Welsh, Whiteacre
Not Present: Anthony, Benedik, Beskok, Boyd, Busch, Cagin, Collisson, Dorsey, Engler, Fackler, Grant, Han, Ing, Kirkendall, Linton, Lusielli, Machann, McIntyre, North, Petersen, Riccio, J. Smith, R. Smith, Straube, Swearingen, Toby, Valasek, Vedlitz, Woodman, Woosley, Zellner
Inactive: Armstrong, Bassichis, Buffa, Centikaya, Fink, Geva, Harris, Hyman, La-Pastina, McCann, Portales, Price, Rich, Schultz, Ward
Guest Speakers
Guest speakers: Vice President for Facilities/Administration Charles Sippial and System Civil Engineer Bruce Karr described plans for Ross Street improvements. The first priority is to replace utility lines beneath the road before deterioration leads to serious problems in the flanking buildings (the chemistry complex on one side and Reed-McDonald and Halbouty on the other). Since replacing utility lines under the pavement would likely kill the trees on both sides of the road, the utility lines will be placed in a trench on the Halbouty side of the street. Work is expected to begin in October, take about one year, and will be done in sections so that buildings will always be accessible. Overall, 12 trees must be removed to make room for the project, the largest being a 21 inch live oak. Funds identified for future repair of the road surface are part of a Federal project (with local matching funds) that will eventually extend Ross Street to West Campus with vehicular passage under Wellborn Road and the railroad tracks.
Call to Order
Speaker Slack welcomed the visitors to the Faculty Senate Meeting.
The third meeting of the 24th Session of the Faculty Senate of Texas A&M University was called to order.
Speaker Comments
Senators were reminded about the Faculty Senate Retreat on August 24 at 8:15 at Christopher’s World Grille.
A handout regarding the Constitutional Changes Voting Results was provided. Both of the proposed changes were passed by the necessary two-third’s vote.
Last week, Dr. Doug Thornton from the Qatar campus was on the College Station Campus. We took advantage of his visit to swear him in as a Faculty Senator. We now have two senators in Qatar.
Installation of New Faculty Senator
Dr. Joselito K. Estrada, Assistant Professor in the Department of Maritime Administration, Texas A&M University at Galveston, was sworn in as a new member of the Faculty Senate.
Approval of July 10, 2006 Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes Attachment A
Motion Passed FS. 24.11
Consent Agenda
Executive Committee (Recommended Approval) Attachment B
Ratification of candidates for degrees conferred August 11, 2006
Motion Passed FS. 24.12
Graduate Council (Recommended Approval) Attachment C
New Courses C Backup
ALEC 603 Experiential Learning Motion Passed FS. 24.13
ALEC 609 Learning Organizations
BICH 655 Crystallography Methods
BIOL 652 Epigenetic Mechanisms
BUSH 603 American Diplomacy
BUSH 604 Politics of the Contemporary Middle East
CPCS 622 Generic Programming
ELEN 629 Nanotechnology Fabrication
GEOL 645 Geochronology
HORT 610 Physiological and Molecular Basis for Plant Stress Response
MARB 606 Advanced Concepts in Marine Population Biology
MEPS 610 Physiological and Molecular Basis for Plant Stress Response
OCNG 684 Professional Internship
Committee Reports
New Degree Program Attachment D
College of Architecture Motion Passed FS. 24.14
B.S. in Urban and Regional Sciences
New Courses
URSC 305 Urban Analytical Methods
URSC 325 Introduction to GIS in Urban and Regional Studies
URSC 336 Public and Private Infrastructure Funding
URSC 450 Emergency Management Principles and Practices
URSC 454 Neighborhood Revitalization
URSC 458 Policy Implementation
URSC 469 Urban Infrastructure
URSC 493 Urban and Regional Studies Capstone Course
Mays Business School Attachment E
B.B.A. in Business Honors Motion Passed FS. 24.15
Old Business
There was no old business to be discussed.
New Business
No new business was discussed.
Dr. Watson was out of town and unavailable for questions.
Committee of the Whole
Former Speaker Loudder took the Faculty Senate to the Committee of the Whole.
Former-Speaker Fike, co-chair of the ad hoc committee established to develop a plan for implementing a “University-Studies” degree program, reported that the plan in its current will be circulated to Senators within the next few days via e-mail and will be finalized for presentation to the Senate in the next meeting of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. Comments from the floor concerning the proposed degree included:
1) the need for defined administrative and organizational structure (Senator Tom Blasingame),
2) the likelihood that courses filled due to overcrowding in majors that lead to GPR cutoffs and the “access to majors” problem will still not be available to students attempting to gain a “concentration” in the same college (Senator Lard & Former Speaker Carlson),
3) the problem that students switching into the program will still need to have fulfilled course prerequisites (Senator Hank Walker).
Senator Tim Hall requested that a study be made to determine if the “contract-purchasing” agreements are actually saving money and urged that the purchase agreements not be extended to items such as chemicals where quality is often variable among distributors.
Former Speaker Gunn asked if insurance benefits are extended to partners in “non-traditional” couples. Former Speaker Fike, speaking as a member of the Personnel and Welfare Committee responded that his understanding is that the University works with couples in such relationships to identify reasonable sources of insurance but that state law prohibits use of state funds in other than the classical husband/wife definition of couples.
Secretary Magill raised a question concerning the ability to locate rules adopted by the Senate. Specifically, the rule on establishing Intercollegiate Faculties that was passed by the Senate and signed by President Mobley in 1991 was placed at that time in the TAMU Policy and Procedures Manual. The manual is no longer printed, but is supposed to available on-line. Only dead links were found when attempts were made to see if the rule has been changed. (There is no Senate record of a change, and two cases that violate the original rule have “emerged”, possibly because the rule cannot be found).
Secretary Magill also requested that a problem in hosting international visiting scholars be addressed. Based on information from the International Faculty and Scholar Services Office, the easiest way to help pay living expenses for a visiting scholar on a J1 visa would be to provide a supplemental stipend to augment travel funds provided by the scientist’s home institution, who as a non-employee would also be required to provide proof of insurance. However, the ability to use funds provided specifically for that purpose has proven nearly impossible.
Adjourned
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m.