Senators present:

Basic Sciences: Knapp, Margolius, Meier, Webb, Martin, Schmidt
Clinical Sciences: Bailey, Carek, Kellner, Key J, Key L, Reuben, Tate
Dental Medicine: Leite, Rampton
Health Professions: Bacro, Keil, White
Library & Informatics: Connor, Mauldin, Sullivan, Tyner
Nursing: Mayo, Michel
Pharmacy: Carson, Cooper, Nappi

Staff: Cassano
Guests: Bob Poyer

Meeting was called to order by Dr. Adrian Reuben at 7:30 am on Thursday, November 5, 1998. A quorum was established and the agenda approved. Approval of the October minutes were deferred until they could be posted on the Web.

Dr. Reuben introduced Pat Cassano as the Faculty Senate Administrative Assistant. Mr. Cassano will be responsible for bringing the attendance forms to the meetings so that an accurate record of attendance will be maintained.

Dr. Reuben reported on the Executive Meeting minutes from October 22, 1998. Items discussed included the need for a better Public Relations campaign by the Faculty Senate to assure that all faculty know the purpose of the Senate and are kept abreast of Senate activities. Mechanisms to accomplish this could include a newsletter, publication of the meeting minutes in the Catalyst, introduction of a "5-Minute Free Speech" slot at the end of each Senate meeting to allow faculty at large to have input to the Senate. The Executive Committee also would like the Senate to consider changing the election process for Chair so that a Chair-elect would be an option and to address the issue of promotion of women and minority faculty members.

Sub Committee Reports:

University Affairs Committee

Bob Poyer gave a brief description of the UAC duties. Last year, this committee reviewed the Senate budget, hired staff to support the Senate, placed articles in the Catalyst. The focus for the coming year may include review the University budget and review of University programs for physical development and policies on services to the faculty. Thierry Bacro was elected Chair of the University Affairs Committee for 1998-99 term.

Faculty Affairs Committee

Lyndon Key was elected as the new chair and briefly stated some of the accomplishments of this committee in the past year which included planning Faculty Senate retreats and development of a Department Chair evaluation.

Academic Affairs Committee

Jean Nappi has agreed to remain chair of this committee until completion of the ATP Guidelines, at which time, Jerry Webb will take the chair's position for the remainder of the year. Dr. Nappi reported that the committee last year developed a policy regarding review of tenured faculty which was approved by MUSC Board of Trustees in February 1998 and assisted Dr. Connie Best in evaluating a policy for dealing with cases of sexual harassment for non-classified employees. The ATP Guidelines sub-committee will bring the draft document back to the full Academic Affairs committee this month. It is hoped that the document will be brought before the Faculty Senate for discussion by the December meeting. Dr. Reuben will look into the addition of himself and Dr. Kellner onto the University Tenure Committee.

Governance Committee

Yvonne Michel, last year's chair, gave a report on the duties of this committee which includes running the Faculty Senate elections and revisions of the Faculty Handbook. She reported that the current Handbook revisions are with Dr. Greenberg and we hope to have the revised Handbook available close to the first of the year. Other issues that this committee expects to look into in the coming year are sabbatical leave and mechanisms to quickly update Faculty Handbook via electronic means. Elizabeth Huggins was elected as the new chair.

Don Tyner gave the financial report. The Senate is expected to be well within budget for the coming year.

In closing the meeting, Dr. Reuben announced that the charge to the Terms of Appointment adhoc committee would now be given to the University Affairs Committee since the two thirds of the adhoc committee are no longer on the Senate. The Terms of Appointment information needs to now be discuss in a full committee.

The meeting adjouned at 8:30am.

Faculty Senate of the Medical University of South Carolina
URL: http://www.musc.edu/facsen/
Last Modified : October 2, 1998 - ESH