FACULTY SENATE MEETING
MINUTES
July 14, 2008
3:15 p.m., 601 Rudder Tower
http://facultysenate.tamu.edu

Present:    Louise Abbott, Carisa Armstrong, Karl Aufderheide, Robert Bednarz, Michael Benedik, Ifte Choudhury, Walter Daugherity, Richard Feldman, Holly Gaede, Paul Harms, James Heilman, Arthur Hobbs, Eluned  Jones,  Andrew Kirkendall, Robyn Lints, Clint Magill, Robert McGeachin, Tim Murphy, David Peterson, Angie Hill Price, Sanjay Reddy, Roger Reese, Lynn Ruoff, Douglas Slack, Robin Smith, Karen Snowden, Kathleen Speed, John Stallone, Frank Thomas, Douglas Thornton, Gary Varner, Tom Vogel, Hank Walker, Matthew Whiteacre, Kirk Winemiller, Jim Woosley

Absent:    James Aune, Wolfgang Bangerth, Guy Battle, Charles Bollfrass, James Boyd, Tahir Cagin, Richard Carlson, Antonio Cepeda-Benito, John Fackler, Rainer Fink, Kishore Gawande, Mike Hanik, Richard Hise, Joe Jaros, Larry Kelly, Ann Kenimer, Leon Luxemburg, R.N. Mahapatra, Sam Mannan, Lanny Martindale, Peter McIntyre, Mary Meagher, Michael Messina, Rosana Moreria, Frederic Pearl, Khalid Qaraqe, Elisabeth Rich, Morgan Scott, Robert Shandley, Susan Stabile, Robert Stewart, Hamid Toliyat, Jyotsna Vaid, Nancy Volkman, Robert Warden, William West, Jessica Wickersham, Thomas Woodfin, Debra Zoran

Inactive Status:    Derya Akleman, Wendi Arant-Kaspar, Tom Blasingame, Gwendolyn Carroll, Keith Chaffin, Melinda Grant, Michael Greenwald, Guido Kanschat, Andrew Klein, Andre Landry, Thomas Linton, Carol Loopstra, Clinton Machann, Ramona Paetzold, Cynthia Riccio, Roger Schultz, William Stein, Bob Strawser, Winfred Teizer, Theodore Turocy, Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson, Gary Wingenbach

Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 3:15 by Speaker Clint Magill.

Speaker Comments:  
Speaker Magill opened the meeting by welcoming guests and Senators. There were no Senators present via videoconferencing.

Speaker Magill welcomed guest speaker John Happ, Director of Aviation.  John Happ reviewed the history of Easterwood Airport and discussed American Eagle’s plan to change its first flight to depart College Station at 10:50 A.M. (instead of 7:39 A.M.) and its last flight to leave Dallas-Fort Worth Airport at 4:20 P.M. (instead of 7:05 P.M.).  He encouraged people to write American Eagle to ask them to keep the current flight times for ease of use, etc.  Guest speaker Charles Sippial, Vice President for Facilities, underscored the importance of maintaining good service, which benefits the larger community in this region as well as Texas A&M.  Both guest speakers answered questions, and Speaker Magill encouraged faculty to buy their airline tickets to/from College Station instead of Houston or Austin.

Speaker Magill reported that around $2,400 has been deposited to the Roger Stone Memorial Fund to date; additional contributions may be made via the Senate Office or Bank of America.  Speaker Magill announced that the Board of Regents is reportedly preparing a resolution honoring Roger Stone’s heroism and asked that if the Senate wished to offer its own resolution also, the Senators from Galveston take the lead.

Speaker Magill summarized a number of meetings he and/or the Executive Committee have attended since the May 12th Senate meeting:

• At the request of Chancellor McKinney, the proposed Dean and Department Head rules have again been revised to include definitions of “applicant,” “candidate,” finalist,” etc., but have now encountered objections from Deans.  These rules have been in the works for some seven years now.
  
  
• The Board of Regents is anxious to institute more rewards for good teaching, and seemed to favor the concept that the Senate has been promoting for non-tenured instructors to have hierarchical classifications with an opportunity to secure greater than one-year guarantees for those with sufficient experience.
  
  
• President Murano is interested in initiatives to hire “superstars,” increase graduate stipends, double the state’s “bonus” for research grants from the Competitive Knowledge Fund, and secure funding to increase the number of students staying in Texas for graduate school.  Speaker Magill regularly attends President Murano’s staff conferences to report on Senate activities.
  
  
• The Executive Committee retreat made committee assignments for the coming year and reviewed resolutions still awaiting President Murano’s action as well as committee charges still pending.
  
  
• The Executive Committee met with the candidates for Provost and will meet with the candidates for Vice President for Research.

Speaker Magill invited Senators to spend two hours helping on August 17th, residence hall move-in day, either individually or as a group from the Senate.  He also reported that with the exception of Agriculture and Life Sciences, all Deans have paid for the Senate shirts, an idea of Senator Price, who was thanked with a round of applause.  She was then also presented with an engraved gavel in recognition of her previous service as Speaker.