ABOUT

December 15, 2014 

1. Call to Order:

The December 15, 2014 meeting of the University Senate was called to order at 4:00 p.m. in the Ropp Center, Room 105, by President Michael Swanbom.

2.  Roll Call:  Sandi Richardson

Senators absent from the meeting and without excuse or proxy: Teddy Allen, Rhonda Boyd, Jamie Hancock, and Markus Wobisch.

3.  Approval of Minutes:  September, October, and November 2014

A motion to accept the September minutes was made by Shawn Trivette and seconded by Steven Toaddy. The vote to accept was unanimous.
A motion to accept the October minutes was made by Greg Schelonka and seconded by David Merchant. The vote to accept was unanimous.
A motion to accept the November minutes was made by Greg Schelonka and seconded by David Merchant. The vote to accept was unanimous.

4. Guest Speaker: President Les Guice

Dr. Guice shared the “State of the University” at mid-year, and was pleased to report a measure of success for Louisiana Tech in the way of legislative support in the initiatives requested: leaving our budget at 2013 level, allowing us to keep the increased tuition and fees, and funding of the WISE program ($2.66 million). Overall enrollment is up by 300+ students, and Louisiana Tech remains one of the best bargains for students to get an excellent education for a reasonable price. There are three major capital outlay programs that have received approval for 2015: (1) 20,000 sq. ft. wing for the College of Business, (2) 110,000 sq. ft. Engineering & Science building, and $3 million water project across campus to update the existing infrastructure.

Increasing enrollment remains a primary objective. At present, there is a recruiting focus in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Four new billboards have been rented to run in conjunction with the football playoff in the hopes of raising brand awareness. A recruiter has been hired to work this market and has already yielded 47 new students.

5. Old Business

• Social Media Policy
  • After brief review, a motion to accept the revised version of the social media policy was made by Ernie Rufleth and seconded by Steven Toaddy. The vote was unanimous.
• Survey results update:
  • Julie Rutledge created documents with sanitized data to be forwarded to Dr. Guice.
  • The executive committee is working to amend the Senate Constitution to provide for institutional memory by changing the President and Vice President offices to have no term limits. Justin Kavalir is drafting the policy document.
  • ALFS meeting update:
    • HotelPlanner remains an active topic. There is a need to collect data to support the claim that it is more financially feasible to use other sources for securing hotel reservations rather than HotelPlanner.
    • Community College representative is traveling around the state making a very compelling case for the need to fully fund the community college initiative.
    • Grambling faculty has issued a no-confidence vote in their current administration.
• Committee assignments issued
  • CITDL has created a Moodle page for the University Senate and will populate it very soon.

6. New Business/Announcements:

7. Voluntary Remarks:

None

8. Adjournment:  A motion to adjourn was made by Steven Toaddy and seconded by David Merchant. The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Sandi Richardson, Recording Secretary