FSU Faculty Senate Meeting

MINUTES : September 18, 2008

In attendance: Wu,J.; Nagdas, S.; Dilday,C.; Johnson, O.; White-Oyler,D.; Darnell, M.; Mongkuo, M.; Swinford, D.; O’Shea, M.; Orban, M.; Peacock, J.; Hernandez-Hinek, S.; Martin, S.; Griffiths, H.; Klomegah, R.; Bhattcharya, S.; Jing, W.; Milanov, V.; Wu, B.; Barlow, M.; Taylor, A.; Williams, J.; Okhomina, D.; Ellis, W.; Wood, P.; Elliott, G.; Heastie, S.; Hilton, D.; Twum, M.; Senaratne, D.; Taylor, A.; Williams, T.; Mattox, J.; Autrey, D.; Han, S.; Radford-Curry, B.

Call to Order

Meeting was called to order by J. Mattox, Chair of the Faculty Senate.

ITEM #1 Report by the Provost, Dr. Jon Young. Discussed current findings regarding retention and graduation rates. Dr. Young announced the allotment of faculty development funds as a separate line item and encouraged faculty to develop proposals for submission a.s.a.p. He requested three representatives from the faculty senate to serve on the Research Funding Advisory Committee. A. Taylor raised a question of limits. The construct is still in early stages, more information to come. Faculty raised more questions regarding release time and completion periods.

A motion was made and seconded to approve the Plan for the use of FSU Faculty Development Funds presented by the Provost pending approval by Chancellor. The Motion was approved unanimously. The senate later elected Shubo Han, Maurice Mangkuo, and Soni Martin to be the Senate representatives on the Research Funding Advisory Committee that this plan specifies that considers proposals for the use of these funds.

ITEM #2 Adoption of Agenda

Motion to approve by H. Griffiths, second by M. Mongkuo. Motion carries.

ITEM #3 Approval of the minutes of the 8/15/08 meeting.

Motion to approve the minutes by D. Autrey, second by H. Griffiths. Motion carries.

ITEM #4 Report from the Chair.

Chair, J. Mattox, reported on developments regarding a course on the philosophy, history, and theory of capitalism using Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as a text that the business school promised to develop in exchange for a grant from BB&T. Provost Blackshire-Belay had indicated to Mattox that she would obtain a written statement from the Dean of the Business School indicating that:

1. That the instructor will be free to choose the text (or texts, required, or suggested) as he/she sees fit.

2. That the course will go through the same course approval process as all other courses when the full course proposal is complete (with the possibility that it will not be approved by any of the bodies that review it including the Senate Academic Affairs Committee, and the full Faculty Senate).

Provost Blackshire-Belay did successfully ask Dean Tavakoli for a written statement on the first item (but did not share it with Mattox). After Provost Young heard Mattox’s report at this meeting, written responses were obtained from Dean Tavakoli offering a satisfactory expression of intention regarding both items. Thus, this issue was resolved without formal senate action.

Mattox announced that Dr. B. Radford-Curry, vice-chair of the Senate, had been appointed to be a ¾ time assistant dean, but did not wish to resign from the senate. He asked for suggestions from the senate delegates regarding the appointment of deans as senators. Discussion commenced. Mattox added that he had researched practice on other UNC campuses regarding deans in the senate, and found that it is generally not done. The Senate Executive Committee had considered this issue on 9/11/08. With Mattox & Radford-Curry out of the room, they resolved to approach the Chair of Government and History for a response. Chair Ademiluyi made the decision to not contest Dr. Radford-Curry’s status as a senator. Senators inquired about the status of current by-laws regarding limits. Our bylaws preclude a full-time dean from being elected to the senate, but not a part-time dean. Soni Martin noted that the presence of a dean as a normal senator could impede the functioning of the senate. Several senators expressed support for Dr. Radford-Curry’s continued status as a senator.

ITEM #5 The Senate executive committee put forward the following motion regarding Senate voting practice on contentious issues:

The Chair of the Senate shall call for a roll-call vote on any resolution or motion that he/she judges to reflect significant lack of consensus. In this case, the minutes of the meeting will reflect the vote cast by each senator in attendance, yea, nea, or abstaining.

A simple majority of the body will suffice to overrule the chair’s decision on the method of the vote (after a motion to overrule has been made, seconded, and appropriately discussed). Thus, the body may specify a role-call vote when the chair has asked for a voice vote, or the body may specify a voice vote when the chair has asked for a role-call vote.

Unanimously approved.

ITEM #6 Election of UNC- Mission Statement representatives

D. Hilton nominates Dr. Oliver Johnson.

L. Barlow nominates S. Hernandez-Hinek

Elected by acclamation.

ITEM #7 Election of University Budget Committee representatives.

T. Williams nominates U. Taylor, K. Charles, and J. Wu.

Elected by acclamation. The Chancellor later agreed to T. Williams also being on this committee.

ITEM #8 Election of Shared Governance Committee representatives.

Elected members were 1. M. Mongkuo,2. S. Heastie, 3. M. Orban, 4. D. Okhomina, 5. J. Breitzer.

Meeting Adjourned.