Governance Committee

Chair: Francine R. Margolius

Dr. Margolius commended the hard work of her committee members namely Subbi P. Mathur, Nancy McKeehan, Janice Hundley, Joli Cerveny, Betsy Pilcher, Gail Pashek and Eberhard Voit. She mentioned that all these members were ready and willing to help with the governance duties as assigned by her. She lists the following as the major committee accomplishments for the year:

Faculty Handbook: The revised Faculty Handbook will be on the web shortly and will be the contract for the faculty.

Elections: The turn over for this year's election was the highest in many years. She mentioned that the electronic voting still has some bugs that need to be cleaned out. But she was happy with the outcome of the elections and the participation of the colleges.

Academic Affairs Committee

Chair: Philippe Arnaud

Dr. Arnaud commended the hard work by his committee in identifying major issues regarding facutly compensation, including problems relating to distribution of indirect costs of grant monnies. The committee members were: Subbi P. Mathur, Barry Hainer, Paul Gold, Jennie Ariail, DeAnna Cheek, Joan Olson, Tara Hulsey, Gary Gilkeson and John Bosso. Indirect Costs Sub committee: Eberhard Voit (Chair), Gail Pashek, Narendra L. Banik, Kit Simpson, Paul Gold, Carlos Salinas and Susan Tate. The Committee is awaiting access to obtaining data on compensation from the Office of the Provost with the help of the Senate Chair. The Committee will share the data with the Gender Equity Committee.

University Affairs Committee

Chair: Mary P. Mauldin

The University Affairs Committee comprising of Mary P. Mauldin (Chair), Kit Simpson, Sally Self, Terry OÍBrien, Janice Hundley, Luis Leite, Benjamin Saunders and Connie Best, dealt with important issues of continuity and communication.The Committee held an orientation for new Senators between 3 and 6 PM on Thursday, September 5. This orientation meeting was very well attended. She also mentioned about revamping the electoral process and incorporate the changes into our bylaws. Dr. Kilpatrick charged Francine Margolius as the veteran senator to facilitate the electoral process on our next meeting on October 1, 2002.

Faculty Affairs Committee

Chair: Subbi P. Mathur

Subbi P. Mathur applauded the efforts of her hard working committee members Philippe Arnaud, Dean Schuyler, Ramita Bonadonna, John Malley, Katherine Chessman, Peter Kobes, Joann Sullivan, Richard Hernandez and Timothy Carter. Together they organized two workshops, one for the Faculty Senate on Tenure Policy and the other for the General Faculty on Tenure and Mentoring. More importantly, they worked to revise the current Tenure Policy in the Faculty Handbook. The document incorporated comments from all senators and from the faculty senate legal counsel, and was presented in the form of a motion for voting. The Revised Tenure Policy was unanimously approved by the Faculty Senate, after a minor revision. {Details: The senators voted unanimously (in our previous meetings we had required a quorum only for passing the minutes, but a simple majority of those present was sufficient to pass a motion; Examples are: March 5 and May 7 meetings when we passed the revised Criminal Background Search, Conflict of Interest and Outside Activities Policies). Comments from the floor:

• To make uniform Tenure requirements description. However, it was pointed out that these documents vary from college to college and are in the Appendix. Revision of the Appendix on Tenure Requirements can be taken up by the next year's Faculty Affairs Committee.
• To change the line of command bypassing the Chair of the Department. However, this is not the standard practice.
• To bring in "up or out" kind of action for granting tenure within a certain time period. This was not favorably received.
• To mention non-college affiliated departments along with colleges, since some faculty members belong to a non-college affiliated department. This suggestion was accepted and the policy was revised accordingly. }

The presentation at the Faculty Forum will be done at the Chair's convenience. The next step will be for the Senate Chair to forward the Revised Tenure Policy to the Deans' Council.