Faculty Senate of Virginia Tech

August meeting minutes

August 26th, 2003

Senators in Attendance: Susan Anderson, Rick Ashley, Carlyle Brewster, Helen Crawford, Sam Easterling, Leon Geyer, Bill Greenberg, Mike Gregg, Frank Gwazdauskas, Tom Hammett, Valerie Hardcastle, Bernice Hausman, Sam Hicks, Kathleen Jones, Rakesh Kapania, Brad Klein, Ann-Marie Knoblauch, Ellen Krupar, Jack Lesko, Amy Nelson, Sean O'Keefe, David Radcliffe, Kerry Redican, Susanna Rinehart, Kamal Rojiani, Nan Seamans, Edd Sewell, Jim Weaver, Dennis Welch, Sharon Witonsky, Brian Woerner, Diane Zahm, Shep Zedaker

 

Senators not in Attendance: Larry Alexander, Carol Burch-Brown, Terry Clements, Jack Cranford, Richard Goff, Ian Herring, Michael Lambur, Shelley Martin, Jim Pease, Shelly Nichols Richardson, Yonsenia White, Randy Wynne

 

President Diane Zahm called the meeting to order at 7:15pm following the reception and dinner.

 

Members introduced themselves by name, department and college.

 

Commission Reports:

§         Sam Easterling, VP Faculty Senate and Chair of the Commission on Faculty Affairs announced that the CFA would be meeting twice a month on Fridays, from 3pm –5pm.

 

§         Rakesh Kapania, chair of the Commission on Graduate Studies and Policies, announced that the commission’s first meeting would be on September 17th.

 

§         Senate members of the newly formed Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity Commission announced that the Commission needs one more representative from the Faculty Senate. Valerie Hardcastle was nominated and selected by unanimous vote.

 

The question was raised as to what the protocol will be regarding Commissions and Committees in relation to the restructuring. Diane Zahm said that the general rule for now is that members should continue to serve if their commissions have not expired.

 

Report on BOV meeting (Diane Zahm)

Diane Zahm reported that the BOV meeting was generally very positive. The Finance and Budget Committee will be working on updating the Strategic Plan. The committee approved the proposed expansion of the west side of Lane Stadium. Jake Lutz (chair of the Finance and Budget Committee) committed to getting VT to the 60th percentile in faculty salaries. Diane suggested that senators might want to email Lutz with thanks and support.

Both Diane and Sam Easterling reported that the newly appointed BOV members were very positive additions to the Board.

Bernice Hausman asked about hosting a reception for the BOV. Diane responded that it is a problem of scheduling, but that she will keep trying – possibly getting Senators invited to an already scheduled BOV reception.

 

 

Discussion of Representation on Faculty Senate following the restructuring:

A proposal was made to consider the possibility of representation by department (i.e., one senator elected from each department), with additional “at-large” members elected from each college.

The following points/questions emerged from the discussion:

§         Would departmental representation lead to divisiveness and “turf battles”, senators becoming advocates for their own departments?

§         How would it change the total number of senators? Too large?

§         It bears on the issue of communication – it could strengthen communication because every department would have a senator to report back to their own department

§         Shouldn’t that communication happen via technology? The website, emailed minutes, etc.

§         Our current organizational structure seems to avoid divisiveness

§         With more senators, would it be hard to have a quorum?

§         It was recommended that we should send minutes DIRECTLY to all faculty via all-faculty listserv.

§         What are the models at other universities? The example was given of Auburn, where there was initial resistance to expansion, but where expansion improved life for the faculty, and the influence of the Senate was strengthened.

§         Expansion could strengthen morale, and add cohesion to the faculty.

§         We need to know the number of faculty in each department.

§         Compared to many other institutions, we don’t have real input within our governance system.

§         Could/should smaller departments be bunched together, and share one representative?

 

The creation of a work group/committee was suggested. Diane Zahm, Leon Geyer, Edd Sewell, and Kerry Redican agreed to serve.

 

Diane reminded senators that we need members for the Reconciliation, Ethics, and Review Committees. Diane will send out an email asking for nominations to those three committees.

 

Report on Faculty Senate of Virginia  (Susan Anderson)

 

Susan, Diane, Edd Sewell and Tom Sherman attended the August 23rd meeting in Richmond.

Ed Flippen spoke and responded to questions on his assessment of the environment concerning higher education, and his vision. He talked about the fact that higher education is “not on the radar screen”; that legislators want “accountability”; that faculty must market themselves; perceptions matter; legislators will listen.

FSV voted to support the following initiatives with legislators in 2003-04:

§         Push for faculty to be on BOVs

§         Support a “Higher Education Lobby Day”, cosponsored with AAUP

§         Discuss need for faculty salaries to reach at least the 60th percentile

§         Discuss Funding for Base Adequacy recommendations, faculty control of curriculum, and difficulty of new prescription drug plan for lower income state employees.

 

The FSV also decided to look into possibility of switching from the Optional Retirement Plan to the VRS

 

Discussed supporting a tuition reduction for employee dependents (decided not to pursue at this time).

Will invite all Presidents and Vice Presidents of faculty senates throughout VA to the March FSV meeting to discuss hiring a lobbyist/organizer.

Next FSV meeting is Saturday, November 15th.

 

The public needs to know what we do.

We need to find a variety of means to educate people about what we do.

 

Other issues:

The question was raised as to whether the Senate should have fewer meetings.

 

The Computer Privacy Policy draft has gone to CFA.

 

Possible speakers for the 2003-04 Faculty Senate meetings?

 

Steger; McNamee; Tom Tillar; the Deans; State Delegates – perhaps with Faculty and Staff Senates together; a speaker on the retirement systems

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm.

 

[Minutes taken by Susanna Rinehart]