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Home › University Senate › Minutes › Louisiana Tech University Senate – October Minutes

Monday, October 25 at 4:00-5:00 pm, Wyly Auditorium

  1. Call to Order – The October 25, 2021 meeting of the University Senate was called to order at 4:00 p.m. in Wyly Auditorium/Zoom Session by President, Louis Reis.
  2. Welcome – President, Louis Reis, COES
  3. Roll Call – Alicia Kimbell recorded the attendees as they logged into Zoom as well as those that attended in person; a quorum was met
  4. Approval of September 2021 Minutes – a motion to approve the minutes was made by John Worsencroft and seconded by Joanna Ward; all approved
  5. COVID-19 Survey
    • Louis Reis met with Adam McGuirt on 10/22
    • Infections related to campus have been relatively low
    • Mask mandate ends 10/27; governor’s decision pending on lifting mandate
    • 62% of faculty/staff responded to Workday survey regarding vaccination status; 80% of respondents indicated that they have been vaccinated
      • Information is being reported to ULS
      • Senate members expressed concerns with reported vaccine status being tied to employee information in HR
    • Students need to submit vaccine status before registering for Winter Quarter
  1. Policy Updates
    • Policy 2108 – Evaluation of Faculty
      • Submitted clarification for the purpose of documenting changes in workload percentage breakdown
        • Should not negatively affect evaluations
        • Helps with tenure requirements
      • There is a need for a more universal definition of workload and percentages
    • Policy 1301 – Policy on Policies
      • Requests that the University Senate be inserted into this policy as a committee to approve any university policy revisions prior to being brought to the APC for final approval
      • Both Justin Kavalir and Dr. Guice show support for this revision
  • Louis Reis will add this to the agenda for next APC meeting
    • Policy 1405 – Evaluation of Administrators
      • Each college interprets this policy a little differently
      • A request will be made to change the wording so faculty/staff can evaluate deans and associate deans annually
  • Dr. Guice seems supportive of this request
  1. Meeting with Dr. Guice on 10/14
    • $1 billion surplus in state budget; high chance for raises again to be more competitive with SREB average
    • 2030 strategic framework – priorities align with some of the work of the senate
      • Improve communication, accountability, competitiveness
    • Louis Reis asked if there were any concerns or questions that the senate may want to ask for next month’s meeting
  1. Committee Updates
    • Communication Committee – no updates
    • Technology Committee
      • Two forums (Workday Issues, HIPAA Requirements) have been posted to the senate Moodle page and those in the committee should be able to view and respond
    • Workload Committee
  1. Future Meetings for Louis Reis, University Senate President
    • Tom Hoover, October 28th
    • McConathy, October 28th
    • Guice, November 11th
    • APC, November 18th
  1. Senate Awards
    • It was brought to the senate’s attention that the stipends were not the full amount of the awards and deductions were taken out of the amount. Louis Reis will check to see what happened and how this can be handled differently in the future.
  1. Adjournment
    • The meeting was adjourned at 5:04 p.m. with a motion from Kathleen Heiden/John Worsencroft; all approved