April 13, 2020

TAMU Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes

April 13, 2020

3:00pm

Via Zoom

http://facultysenate.tamu.edu

CALL TO ORDER

Speaker Andrew Klein called the meeting to order at 3:00pm. Due to the ongoing circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was fully conducted via Zoom. Speaker Klein began by covering details of how to participate remotely via Zoom using the hand-raising, polling, and chat features.

AWARD PRESENTATIONS

The annual Aggie Spirit Awards were presented to the following students, each introduced by their nominator and given time to provide brief remarks:
Taylor Sutton, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, nominated by Dr. Summer Odom
Ty Sutton, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, nominated by Dr. Summer Odom
Clara Wietbrock, College of Science, nominated by Dr. Heather Ramsey
The in-person ceremony will be held at a later date.

GUEST SPEAKERS

Speaker Klein welcomed guest speaker President Young.
President Young thanked the Faculty Senate for inviting him, indicated that he would go over COVID-19 planning that has been done over the past eight weeks, then take questions.

Administration undertook a disaster-planning session for a pandemic in January.
Shortly thereafter on January 22, they learned the University had a student returning from Wuhan. The student went into a 2-week self-isolation, and the administration knew they needed to prepare a rapid response. Study abroad students from China were brought home, then Italy, Spain, and all other programs, totaling around 800 students who were requested to self-monitor.
Shortly before spring break it was determined likely that all classes would need to move online after break, break was extended, and training was implemented for faculty needing assistance taking classes online. Planning was undertaken for adequate safety procedures, including enabling staff to work from home, as well as food service, transportation, and custodial plans, etc.
The results were astounding: 3000 professors and 14,000 class sections moved online, almost 60,000 students attending online, with minimal glitches.
President Young’s primary message: a tremendous thank you to all faculty for this effort. He saw faculty engage, their appreciation for educational mission and process, passion for the students, and willingness to step outside of comfort zones – he expressed great pride in and gratitude for Texas A&M faculty. He acknowledged Speaker Klein for his extraordinary engagement, cooperation, suggestions, advice, counsel and work during this time.

Currently, students were invited to either stay home or return after spring break; 80% of students checked out of residence halls. Around 2500 remained in residence halls, and administration had no way to determine how many students returned to the community. Food service to students moved to “grab ‘n’ go;” ~80% returned their meal cards with the rest receiving credits. Food service decreased to about 3% of what it would normally be.
Bus transportation continued with social distancing, with planning for more buses if necessary; ridership down to ~5% of normal. Parking was a bit higher but a significant reduction there as well.
Classes have gone online for summer session I. Cancellations include: study abroad for summer, student camps, and graduation is postponed to a later date to be determined. Muster will be virtual, while most traditions have been postponed. New student conferences will be virtual.
Research activities have been greatly scaled back under direction from federal and state authorities with essential research continuing. Adequate protections must be provided for those working in labs.
There have been no COVID-19 related layoffs at the University, or SSC (custodial services).
Decisions still need to be made and will be done on a rolling basis, such as summer session II, camps, etc., as well as options for the fall.
The financial cost to the University has mostly been seen in the auxiliary services so far, as well as athletics. There are some resources available to students who are in financial distress, as well as for faculty and staff.
The mission of providing high quality education to our students continues. It is possible the University will see a decline in international graduate students. Federal funding will soon be made available to students in need.
In conclusion, attention is being made to what the University is learning from these events to make the University better. From a broader budgetary perspective, the decline in oil prices and drastically lower sales tax revenue will impact funding from the state, so deans and managers are being asked to model a 5% and a 10% budget reduction. There should be a clearer picture from the state later in the summer.
Finally, Texas A&M has responded with great focus, intentionality, and quality, much due to the faculty.

President Young took questions and comments from the following Senators:
Saurabh Vishnubhakat, School of Law
Rebecca Burns, College of Nursing

Speaker Klein thanked President Young for speaking to the Senate. He then introduced the next guest speakers, Student Body President Mikey Jaillet, and next year’s Student Body President and current Speaker of the Student Senate, Eric Mendoza.

Mikey Jaillet spoke first, sharing student perspectives, thanking faculty for the huge effort at getting classes online in order to continue the semester. He stressed the ongoing need for both students and faculty to stay flexible. He further thanked the Faculty Senate for moving so quickly to approve the Pass/Fail option. He expressed gratitude for being able to work with Speaker Klein this past year. He then introduced the next Student Body President, Eric Mendoza.

Eric Mendoza touched on the changes in the way the Student Senate has done business in the past weeks, much like the Faculty Senate. He shared priorities for him in the coming year, and hopes to continue the relationship with the Faculty Senate. He expressed students’ gratitude for the spring semester grade changes, and reasons why these changes are so helpful to them. He wants to stand united with the Faculty Senate on efforts to uphold academic integrity, especially while working online. He shared a representative story of a faculty member who demonstrated flexibility during these difficulty times and how appreciative students are of this flexibility.

The following faculty Senators asked questions of the student leaders:
Sara Rowe, College of Liberal Arts
Deb Banerjee, College of Engineering

Speaker Klein thanked Mikey and Eric for speaking to the Senate.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. Jocelyn Widmer, Assistant Provost for Academic Innovation
Dr. Juan Garza, Assistant Vice President for Academic Services & Director of Provost Information Technology Office

Drs. Widmer and Garza provided the following updates on the new learning management system (LMS):

First, a few high-level milestones reached over the past two months amidst our response to COVID19, which both Provost IT Office and Office for Academic Innovation are heavily involved
Change Management: We are building off the lessons learned from the Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites to inform our way forward, particularly with respect to communication, training, and engagement plans. Canvas is following our progress and ensuring we are able to build off this, particularly in the Change Management process through which they are guiding us.
DOJ Audit Inquiry: We will be submitting a response to the DOJ Audit Inquiry. What we learned in February is that the LMS will be the central gateway through which any follow-up investigation will route. Our response will be forward-facing to Canvas and any further investigation likely will not commence until we have courses live in Canvas. We will be able to ensure the accessibility of Canvas tools, the universal TAMU template, and will be teaching best practices on accessibility in a digital learning environment as we launch our Canvas training programs. We will not be able to ensure these same accessibility measures for content not in the centrally-supported LMS if the DOJ requires further investigation into content after we are fully operational in Canvas.
Help Desk Central: We mentioned in February that we are working through a new support partnership whereby Tier 1 support will be handled by the Division of IT Help Desk Central, Tier 2 through the Office for Academic Innovation Service Desk, and Tier 3 through Provost IT. These conversations were put on hold during the initial COVID19 response and are set to pick back up soon. As this service model shifts, we will ensure communication channels are in place.
AI, PITO, HDC Staff Training: In late February a consultant from Canvas was onsite for a 1-day training for LMS support staff. We have resumed that internal staff training with an intensive 3-week curriculum facilitated by live virtual Canvas training sessions.
LMS Advisory Committee: This committee has convened a few times recently and will begin to meet with greater frequency.
LMS - the hierarchy is complete; SSO integration is complete.
First pass at the data load process is being completed this week for testing. Permissions and role definitions are being reviewed. Overall LTI integration process is being examined (this includes historical integrations as well on contractual reviews for these).
Will begin discussions for revised approach for LTI request review and testing, and Canvas middleware development discussions have begun.

Next, will be a shift to the training and support model developed. They are working hard to get the system in place as soon as possible. Faculty who elect to use Canvas will receive focused training and assistance with migration needs during their respective wave. The AI Service Desk will prioritize help tickets for each wave to ensure we can support the campus community and onboard as many faculty as possible by the official launch for the fall 2020 semester. They are also supporting TAMU’s commitment to Keep Teaching during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Wave 1: Faculty teaching in Summer 2 who elect to use Canvas; School/College Academic Technologists who can serve in a train-the-trainer capacity
Wave 2: Faculty who want to build from scratch and teach in Canvas for Fall 2020
Wave 3: Faculty who require assistance migrating Blackboard courses to Canvas to teach in Fall 2020
Wave 4: Faculty teaching in Spring 2021 who elect to use Canvas
Wave 5: Final effort to migrate all courses out of Blackboard by the end of Summer 2021 so that the university is fully migrated to Canvas for Fall 2021.

Steps to Help Faculty Plan Ahead:

www.KeepTeaching.tamu.edu will shift to a guide to support best practices for teaching and learning in an online learning environment for faculty who will teach Summer 1 and during the 10-week Summer term. These same best practices will be promoted in the shift to Canvas. Any faculty can review this resource and plan ahead for a move to Canvas. Available early May 2020.
www.LMS.tamu.edu is in development now and will draw on lessons learned from www.KeepTeaching.tamu.edu and www.KeepLearning.tamu.edu. This resource will contain steps to clean up your course in Blackboard, which are best practices developed by Canvas and recommended for all faculty ahead of transitioning. Available early May 2020.
On-Demand training resources will be available for all faculty as we begin training and supporting Wave 1. While subsequent waves will not yet have access to Canvas, these will be helpful resources you may familiarize yourself with ahead of time. Available Early June 2020.
Academic Technologists in the Schools/Colleges will be trained and supported during Wave 1 and will serve as a key resource throughout the Canvas implementation. Beginning early June 2020.
Social media channels to provide tips and tricks specific to Keep Teaching and Learning, which will shift to focus on the Canvas implementation in the coming months. Available now!

Dr. Widmer and Dr. Garza took questions from the following Senators:
Tony Cahill, College of Engineering
Matt Taylor, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Patrick Burkart, College of Liberal Arts
Beth McNeill, College of Education & Human Development

Speaker Andrew Klein then shared several announcements:

From Dr. Heather Wilkinson, Associate Dean of Faculties, regarding a faculty briefing on Student Course Evaluation Task Force Recommendations held on April 29, 2020 from 10-11am via Zoom.
Speaker Klein encouraged all to attend the weekly virtual Coffee Conversations sponsored by the Dean of Faculties every Friday from 8:30am-10am.
The due date to submit nominations for three Faculty Senate awards – the Stadelmann Award, the new Faculty Senate Service Award, and the new Shared Governance Award – has been extended to Friday, April 24 at 5:00pm.

SPEAKER COMMENTS

Speaker Klein reflected on how much has happened since the Senate’s last regular meeting in February. He applauded faculty and administrators for accomplishing so much in so little time, and hoped all could take some pride in this. He emphasized Texas A&M’s faculty and students are renowned for their strength and resiliency, and that Aggies will get through this difficulty time.
Speaker Klein encouraged faculty with concerns to bring them to the Senate to make sure they get to the attention of the person who can most directly address it. There are many concerns about what the fall semester will bring. He personally thanked the President and the Provost and her team for being receptive to the Senate’s input and taking seriously the concerns and ideas brought forward.
He shared his belief that shared governance can, and is, working at Texas A&M University. During his tenure he has tried to stress that if the seeds of shared governance are not sown in good times, you cannot expect its fruits to be harvested in times of need. He thanked the Executive Committee of the Senate for their quick and thoughtful responses to address the important issues faced by the University and its faculty.
Speaker Klein also shared that Faculty Senates across the state have been communicating about what each school is doing, and he has been asked for advice from some of our system schools’ senates. Senate interactions with our UT colleagues have been strengthened, underscoring the importance of such events as our Joint Meeting, held just a bit more than a month ago.
Updates on Senate business included:

The Faculty Senate election process continues. Please encourage your college faculty to vote and consider running for a leadership position. The election timeline has been adjusted as a result of recent events. Look for emails regarding the elections.
A task-force has continued to work on updating Minimum Syllabus Requirements. The Senate is projected to review the document in May, followed by a vote in June.
The EC made the decision to delay further changes to the Senate bylaws and constitution until the fall. Senator Bruce Neville was thanked for his tireless work this year on these changes.
Committees: work will soon wrap up for the year; please send your written report to the Senate office no later than Friday, May 1^st.

Speaker Klein concluded with encouraging words to Senators, invoking the phrase: “We are the Aggies the Aggies are we.” He encouraged flexibility and compassion be offered to colleagues, staff, and students.

MOTION – Attachment A – Passed – FS.37.332
Parliamentarian Dale Rice presented a motion to temporarily adopt online voting for Faculty Senate meetings through August, 2020. The motion was seconded and passed.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The motion passed to approve the February 10, 2020 minutes as distributed. Attachment B – Passed
The motion passed to approve the March 16, 2020 minutes as distributed. Attachment C – Passed

CONSENT AGENDA

The motion passed to approve the March 16, 2020 Consent Agenda as presented. Passed
The motion passed to approve the April 13, 2020 Consent Agenda as presented. Passed
(Full Consent Agenda with FS #’s can be found below Adjournment.)

COMMENTS ON CURRICULAR ITEMS

Speaker Klein highlighted the large number of Law courses just approved, reminding all of the huge effort the Law School has undertaken to join this institution, and welcoming the School of Law aboard. He added that Secretary Ferdinand and he enjoyed their trip to Dallas/Ft. Worth before spring break where they appreciated the hospitality of the Senators from Law and Dentistry.

He then asked if any Senators wished to highlight any other curricular items. None did, but Senator Clint Magill, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, commented as he had done previously on the inability to identify changes when looking at the course material. Speaker Klein replied that the same task force that is working on Minimum Syllabus Requirements is looking into this limitation with the software.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

No unfinished business was conducted.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Core Curriculum Council Course Report – Attachment D – Passed – FS.37.329
The motion passed to approve the Core Curriculum Course Report as presented. (CCC Report with FS # can be found below Adjournment.)

OTHER COMMITTEE REPORTS

SEBAC Report – Attachment E – For Informational Review – FS.37.330
SEBAC Representative Greg Heim, Mays Business School

Retirement Plan Discussion – Attachment F – For Informational Review – FS.37.330
SEBAC Representative Greg Heim, Mays Business School

Questions and comments were made by the following Senators:
Rebecca Burns, College of Nursing
Adam Kolasinski, Mays Business School
Joan Wolf, College of Liberal Arts
Julie Harlin, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Angie Hill Price, College of Engineering
Heather Ramsey, College of Science

NEW BUSINESS

Recommendation of May 2020 Degree Candidates
TOTAL – 10,805
TAMU-Main – 9,014
TAMU-Galveston – 254
TAMU-HSC – 775
TAMU-Law – 148
TAMU-Qatar – 96
TAMU-VMBS – 518

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

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

Speaker-Elect John Stallone convened the Committee of the Whole.

Julie Harlin, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Senator Harlin wanted to recognize the effort of administrators over the past six weeks to engage in shared governance related to academic issues. They sought recommendations and implemented those put forward by the Faculty Senate.

Speaker-Elect John Stallone turned the meeting back over to Speaker Klein.

ADJOURN

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