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Louisiana Tech University Senate – October Minutes

Monday, October 24 at 4:00-5:00 pm, Wyly Auditorium

  1. Call to Order – The October 24, 2022 meeting of the University Senate was called to order at 4:01 p.m. in Wyly Auditorium by President, Louis Reis.
  2. Welcome – President, Louis Reis, COES
  3. Roll Call – Alicia Kimbell recorded attendance; a quorum was met
  4. Approval of September 2022 Minutes – a motion to approve the minutes was made by Matthew Hartmann and seconded by Becki Clark; all approved
  5. Guest Speaker – Keri King, Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning (OIERP)
    1. New role in this office
    2. Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) – currently in the beginning phase
      1. First plan developed was the BARC; last plan was Blue Fire
      2. Part of accreditation with SACSCOC; must be achieved to satisfy SACSCOC Standard 7.2
      3. Dialogue teams will meet over the next couple of months
        1. Consists of external stakeholders, representatives from every college, student success specialists, and students
      4. Hoping to implement new plan in Fall 2023
      5. Faculty/staff and student surveys completed – still trying to analyze results of surveys
      6. This QEP will focus on enhancing student success; the last one focused on improving student learning outcomes
      7. Focus teams
        1. Will look at barriers to student success in reaching milestones
        2. List priorities
        3. Literature review/assess our resources
        4. Currently in the beginning phase
      8. SACSCOC will visit in Spring 2025
  6. Updates
    1. State Tenure Taskforce
      1. Supposed to have met on 10/25 but was rescheduled for 11/17
      2. Committee is supposed to terminate by 3/1/23
    2. Reimbursement Procedures
      1. Will bring about changes in the way equipment is purchased
      2. Sam Wallace has visited with the various departments for feedback; he still needs to meet with one more area
      3. Nearly complete and will soon implement the process
    3. Meeting with Dr. Guice (10/10/22)
      1. Climate Survey
        1. There are no current plans for sending one out
        2. Seemed supportive of the senate sending out another survey
        3. Offered to assist with a possible template to use
          1. Louis Reis asked the senate for volunteers to lead a committee on this matter
      2. Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)
        1. Surveys have been sent out to receive input from faculty/staff/students
        2. Dialogue teams selected
        3. Revolves around retention/recruitment
      3. Instructor “distinctions”
        1. Supportive of the idea
        2. Current policy aligns with other universities
      4.  Recession
        1. Likely to feel it next academic year
        2. Can weather it if we keep enrollment up
    4. Meeting with Dr. McConathy (scheduled 10/28/22)
      1. Policy 1405 – Evaluation of Administrators
        1. Possibly request the formation of a committee (with representation from the senate) to develop an appropriate template for administrator evaluations
      2. Policy 2106 – Workload & Policy 2108 – Evaluation of Faculty
        1. Continuing discussions on policy, will try to look through last year’s data
        2. Continuing discussions on the disparities between workload from college to college
      3. Instructor “distinctions”
        1. Continuing discussions; comes down to not agreeing on language
  1. New Business
    1. Deficiency Exams & Graduation Walk Procedure
      1. Concerns originally submitted by Shelcie Menard-Harvey
      2. Questioning the use of the exams; only allowed for students graduating in the current quarter
      3. Additional information is posted on Moodle for senate members to read
      4. Better/consistent language is needed
      5. Raised more general concerns about graduation procedures
      6. Creation of a committee to look into this
        1. Shelcie will serve as committee chair
        2. Sign up list will be on Moodle for joining committee
    2. IRB and Internet Server Privacy
      1. Concerns originally submitted by Tom Stafford
      2. Ethical concern about private & personal data collected for research stored on Tech servers/cloud
      3. New technology policy grants Tech IT staff the ability to review all materials (including sensitive materials) that should be protected
      4. Will try to schedule Tom Hoover for the January meeting
    3. New Items from the Floor – none
  1. Adjournment
    1. Meeting was adjourned at 4:52 p.m. with a motion from Matthew Hartmann/Joseph Williams; all approved