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September 29, 2014

1. Call to Order:  

The September 29, 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:  Travis Atkison, Kim Barlow, Andrew Cline, and Greg Schelonka.     

3.  Approval of Minutes:  May 2014

A motion to accept the May 2014 minutes was made by David Merchant and seconded by Rhonda Boyd; the minutes were approved without change.

4a. Guest 1: Dr. Jim King, VP for Student Affairs – “Update on the QEP”

  • New QEP program tells the story of the mission of Tech
  • Mission: Improve student learning outcomes and differentiation
  • Testing group of faculty/staff/alumni/externals (n=160)
  • Four components
    • Develop one course with two parts: FYE100: lab workshop for 1st time students & COMM101: (3 hrs) counts as one GER class
    • BARC Communication Commons
    • Professional Development for teachers and staff
    • Renovated facilities
  • Multidimensional learning goals:
    • 1st year experience
    • Student development initiative
    • Communication process
    • Leadership
    • Teamwork
    • Collaboration
  • Recruiting and Retention are #1 priority to fulfill the 20/20 goal of 15,000 student enrollment
  • New buzz-word is FIRE:
    • First year
    • Innovative
    • Relationship
    • Experiences
  • Three distinct goals:
  • New program will be required for all incoming freshman and will replace University Seminar with FYE100 & COMM101 as a (3-hour) unit
  • Will begin phasing program in as a test module in Winter 2016 and with modification, will move forward to full implementation within one full academic year

4b. Guest 2: Katie McKinney McGowen, HR – “Healthcare Changes”

Katie focused on explaining the material sent to all employees regarding the new health care options. The deadline for enrollment is November 30, 2014.

5. New Business/Announcements:

  • APC meeting report: Motion to skip this report was made by Rhonda Boyd and seconded by Kathleen Heiden. By unanimous vote, this agenda item was tabled for a later discussion.
  • Employee Satisfaction Survey
    • Much discussion about the wisdom and purpose of hosting an employee satisfaction survey was held.
    • The result of that discussion seemed to be a consensus that people need to be asked so we can take the temperature of University morale.
    • Call to question was posed as to whether we continue, send, restructure, or discard the survey. The motion to vote on “Do you want to send out the survey?” was made by Jeff Pike and seconded by Steven Toaddy. The vote was unanimous in the affirmative.
    • Goal of the survey is to establish where morale is at Louisiana Tech and to give discussion points and enhance productivity of the Senate body.
    • Findings will be an internal measure only and findings will not be published
    • Findings will be used as a benchmark for morale
    • Results will provide some comparative data
    • Survey will be entirely anonymous
  • New Committee Assignments were briefly discussed, and remainder of agenda was tabled because of time constraints. Motion to table was made by Steven Toaddy and seconded by Justin Cavalier

6. Voluntary Remarks:

None

7. Adjournment:  A motion to adjourn was made by Justin Cavalier and seconded by Dave Merchant. The meeting adjourned at 5:28 p.m.

Sandi Richardson, Recording Secretary