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Louisiana Tech University Senate – May Minutes

Monday, May 15 at 4:00-5:00 p.m., Wyly Auditorium

Call to Order – The April 24, 2023 meeting of the University Senate was called to order at 4:00 p.m. in Wyly Auditorium by President, Louis Reis.
Welcome – President, Louis Reis, COES
Roll Call – Alicia Kimbell recorded attendance; a quorum was met
Approval of April 2023 Minutes – a motion to approve the minutes was made by Joseph Williams and seconded by Kirby Colvin; all approved
Updates:
1. Senate Awards
  1. Packets have been uploaded to Moodle; please review
  2. Each senate member should have received nine emails for the polls
  3. Poll vote links open until May 31^st; rank choice voting
2. Deficiency Exam Letter
  1. Shelcie Menard-Harvey and the committee are still working on finalizing language and will hopefully have it finished this summer
3. Officer Elections for Next School Year
  1. President – Louis Reis (3^rd and final year)
    1. Motion to close election made by Matthew Hartmann; all approved
  2. Vice President – Kathleen Heiden (2^nd year)
    1. Motion to close election made by Matthew Hartmann/Shelcie Menard-Harvey; all approved
  3. Treasurer – Matthew Hartmann (2^nd year)
    1. Motion to close election made by Joseph Williams; all approved
  4. Parliamentarian – Kacie Mennie (2^nd year)
    1. Motion to close election made by Joseph Williams; all approved
4. QEP
  1. Keri King, Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Document Management
    1. Last visited with the University Senate in October
    2. Still on projected timeline
    3. Dialogue teams ranked the top 8 priorities
    4. Faculty and student survey sent out
    5. 687 recorded responses – advising was top priority
    6. Huge positive impact on campus
    7. Report to CADS & APC
      1. Steering committee received approval to focus on advising
      2. Work closely with Workday Student
Adjournment – Meeting was adjourned for official business at 4:19 p.m.; a motion was made by Ashley Osborne and seconded by Joseph Williams; all approved
Guest Speaker – President Guice: Remarks & Q&A
1. Keeping eyes on Baton Rouge
  1. Important decisions being made by legislature
  2. The state has a $2 billion surplus
  3. Dr. Henderson and all university presidents had the opportunity to meet with the senate
    1. Working with Regents to put together a budget plan
2. What’s happening on House Bill 2
  1. Strong position in house with our local representative
  2. CTH is in the cue for renovations
  3. GTM will be redesigned
3. Budget
  1. $120 – $125M operating budget
    1. Covers everything except facilities
    2. $32M of that comes from the state on 7/1
    3. $14.6M of that goes back to BR for unfunded accrued liability (UAL)
    4. $4.5M is repaid to OGB (retirees and current employees)
    5. $11M for employee benefits
    6. $2.5M to run university
      1. The rest would have to come from tuition and fees
  2. $2 – 3M extra was spent on energy costs that were unpredicted
  3. 62% of overall budget is in salaries and benefits
4. Enrollments
  1. Have declined a little each year; past three years have dropped 1 – 3 % headcount
  2. Every institution across the state lost enrollments this past year
  3. 1% decrease in enrollments last fall
  4. Every 100 students we gain or lose makes a huge impact
  5. Next year is looking good
    1. Predicting 11,800 students in the Fall Quarter
    2. Recruiting Texas hard
      1. Waive out-of-state fees for TX, AR, MS
    3. Estimating a 9% increase in freshmen class
      1. Problem is students are graduating early
5. Hiring
  1. Can’t hire until we see what enrollments will be
  2. 40 more faculty positions now than we had in 2013
    1. Student count has basically remained the same
  3. Last year we had highest faculty pay increase of any other in our system
  4. Last year we did not receive state funding for staff (only faculty) but staff were given raises regardless