FACULTY SENATE MEETING
MINUTES
June 30, 2009
3:15 p.m., 601 Rudder Tower
http://facultysenate.tamu.edu

Present:      Louise Abbott, Karl Aufderheide, James Aune, Wolfgang Bangerth, Guy Battle, Robert Bednarz, Michael Benedik, Tahir Cagin,Gwendolyn Carroll, Antonio Cepeda-Benito, Joe Cerami, Walter Daugherity, John Fackler, Rainer Fink, Holly Gaede, Carlos Gonzalez, Melinda Grant, Robert Griffin, Mike Hanik, James Heilman, Joe Jaros, Larry Kelly, Vikram Kinra, Andrew Klein, Ming-Han Li, Robyn Lints, Clinton Machann, Lanny Martindale, Christopher Mathewson, Robert McGeachin, Peter McIntyre, Kathryn McKenzie, Mary Meagher, Jeffrey Morris, Tim Murphy, Adam Myers, Bo Norby, Ramona Paetzold, David Peterson, Weston Porter, Angie Hill Price, Dan Roelke, Lynn Ruoff, Roger Schultz, Jorge Seminario, Douglas Slack, Robin Smith, Karen Snowden, Kathleen Speed, Susan Stabile, John Stallone, Bob Strawser, Ramesh Talreja, Manuelita Ureta, Jyotsna Vaid, Gary Varner, Tom Vogel, Shelley Wachsmann, Hank Walker, Robert Warden, Thomas Welsh, William West, Kirk Winemiller, Gary Wingenbach, Thomas Woodfin

Inactive:      Derya Akleman, Louise Darcey, Michael Greenwald, Guido Kanschat, Elizabeth Tebeaux

Absent:       Carisa Armstrong, Stephen Atkins, Tom Blasingame, Dragomir Bukur, John Carhart, Keith Chaffin, Iftekharudd Choudhury, Thomas DeWitt, Mariah Hahn, Richard Hutchinson, Eluned Jones, Rafael Lara-Alecio, Thomas Linton, Carol Loopstra, Patrick Louchouarn, R.N. Mahapatra, Sam Mannan, Frederic Pearl, Brian Perkins, Khalid Qaraqe, Richard Stadelmann, Robert Stewart, Winfried Teizer, Frank Thomas, Hamid Toliyat, John Van-Huyck, Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson, Matthew Whiteacre, Debra Zoran

Call to Order:
Speaker Bednarz called the meeting to order at 3:17 P.M.  He introduced guest James Wilson, Vice Chairman of the Board of Regents, who read the attached statement (Attachment A) and then took questions from the Senate.

During the question/answer session with Regent Wilson numerous senators raised questions which included:

• Is the System Office looking at eliminating any high level positions?
• Will Research Foundation be taken over as a result of the Shared Services Initiative?
• Where did the $20 million number come from? Will the savings stay at the University?
• Merit raises for those at $175k and above at TAMU have been frozen. What about the System Office?
• Will NCTM be another TIGM? IF we need an additional $20 to $30 MM, why not wait until the money has been raised?

The answers are summarized in the attachment (Attachment B).

Bruce Thompson (guest) stated that we as faculty take no pleasure in all these no votes (those of the Council of Principal Investigators, the Faculty Senate poll, and the votes today).

Speaker Bednarz announced the death of Jeffrey Conant, department head and professor of marketing, today and called for a moment of silence.

Resolution 1 was read and discussed.  When discussion closed Michael Benedik (Science) called for the vote to be by secret ballot, to ensure fairness and avoid the possibility of intimidation.  Peter McIntyre (Science) called for a roll-call vote.  The motion to vote by ballot passed by an overwhelming margin, rendering the motion for a roll-call vote moot.  Speaker Bednarz designated the Election Committee to distribute, collect, and count the ballots.  The motion passed by a vote of 58 to 5.

Resolution 2 was read and discussed.  The Election Committee distributed, collected, and counted the ballots.  The motion passed by a vote of 55 to 9.

Adjourned:
There being no further business to come before the Special Meeting, Speaker Bednarz adjourned the meeting at 5:15 P.M.