The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College

Academic Senate Minutes

December 17, 2004

I. Call to Order

Ms. Cantu called the December 17, 2004 meeting of the Academic Senate to order at 1:10 p.m. in the SETB 3^rd Floor Conference Room.

Members of the Senate in attendance included: Dr. Betsy Boze, Ms. Ethel Cantu (*), Mr. Roberto Cortina (s), Dr. Charles Dameron, Dr. Therese Gallegos (s), Dr. Gerald Hollier (s), Dr. Charles Lackey, Ms. Julie Larson (*), Dr. Jose Martin, Mr. Domingo Molina (s), Dr. Rafael Otero (s), Mr. Jay Phillips, Mr. Mahandran Rajasuriar (s), Dr. Ruth Ann Ragland, Dr. Renee Rubin (s), Dr. Hilda Silva, Dr. Carl Stockton, Ms. Thelma Sullivan (s), Dr. John Sutterby (s), and Mr. Tom Welther (s).

Visitors included: Dr. David Pearson and Dr. Rey Ramirez.

II. Review and Approve of the Minutes

Ms. Cantu called for review of the minutes from the November 19, 2004 Academic Senate meeting. There were two corrections to the minutes: under Section VII: HOOP Policies- C- second to the last sentence, the words, “since this was the first reading” should be struck and the last sentence should be struck.

Hearing no further corrections or additions, the minutes stood approved as corrected.

III. Presentation/Discussion: Tuition and Fee Increases

Dr. Hilda Silva, VPSA, provided the Senate with an update on tuition and fee increases. The following is a summary of her presentation.

Designated Tuition would increase from $38.00 per semester credit hour to $44.00 per semester credit hour. This increase would be used to hire additional faculty and staff and to establish a student employment fund.

Graduate Tuition Differential would increase $5.00 for graduate students for a tuition differential of $19.00. This increase would be used to defray costs associated with higher costs of providing graduate courses and to fund graduate/research assistants.

International Education Fee is a proposed new fee of $2.00 which would be charged to every student per semester. This fee would be used to provide funds for students wanting to participate in exchange and/or study-abroad programs.

Medical Services Fee is a proposed new fee of $20.00 per long semester and pro-rated to $10.00 for each summer session, regardless of length. This medical services fee would be used to expand services offered to students at the Student Health Center. Additional

services include mental health care and counseling, dental services, X-ray services, third party insurance billing, satellite clinic at ITEC, and health education and promotion.

Student Recreation Fee is a fee approved on March 3, 2004 through a student referendum of $79.00 per long semester and pro-rated to $39.50 for each summer session.

Dr. Silva pointed out that the fees listed above are compulsory fees-all students pay them and noted the following changes in incidental fees.

SPED Assessment Instrument Fee is a proposed new $25.00 fee for graduate students enrolled in SPED 6301, SPED 6302, SPED 6303, SPED 6307, SPED 6309, SPED 6600 and ESPY 6315. This fee is to be charged per course and will be used to defray costs associated with updating and replacing assessment instruments, which are used in the majority of courses to complete the masters program for educational diagnosticians.

Outdoor Education Course Fee is a proposed new $20.00 fee for students enrolled in KINEU 2304. This fee would be used to defray coats for fee(s) associated with ropes/ adventure activities and to replace equipment.

Developmental Writing Fee is a proposed new fee of $10.00 per semester for students enrolled in ENGL 0320 and ENGL 0321. This fee would be used to defray the cost of operating computer classrooms, including salaries, equipment, and supplies.

Following a discussion, Ms. Cantu thanked Dr. Silva for her presentation.

IV. Senate President’s Report

Ms. Cantu had five items in her report.

• TSC Board Meeting December 16, 2004- Terry Tomlin of the Music Department presented CD recordings of the Jazz Band to the TSC Board members. The Board then met in Executive Session to discuss real estate. After reconvening, the Board approved the purchase of two Ft. Brown Villas. The Board then accepted the audit of Long & Chilton that reviewed the district’s finances and reported “no findings”. The report showed that the district had an increase of $3.4 million this year in net assets and has a total of $53.1 million in net assets, which represents a healthy balance. The Board heard a briefing on ITECC that focused on economic development and job creation. American Customer Care, a call center, is now located in ITECC and is expected to employ 400 people within three years. This company offers health benefits and is expected to employ many UTB/TSC students. The Board next heard a review from First Southwest Company on the possible ways to finance the bonds recently approved by the voters of the district. The company recommended that the Board use a negotiated sale strategy with local participation of banks and firms. The matter will be studied further in a workshop in January. The construction report highlighted the near-completion of the Mexican Consulate Office in ITECC, the remodeling of the interior of the Officer’s Quarters for use of the News and Information Office, and the progress on the Education and Business complex. The building is expected to be substantially completed by April and available for classes the first summer session. President Garcia has several announcements: Teresa Sullivan and Geri Malandra from UT System will be on campus Friday, December 17 for a review of the Campus Compact; Jude Benavides, PhD, is a new faculty member in the department of Chemistry &Environmental Sciences; the Coordinating Board approved a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management; the Mariachi Escorpion has been invited to play at the Texas Ball for the Inauguration, and 1075 students are eligible to participate in this winter’s commencement. Lastly was a video honoring Raul Besterio produced by the News & Information Office for People Stories. The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is January 20, 2005.

• Admissions Appeals Committee Nominees- the four faculty members the Academic Senate recommended to the Admissions Appeals Committee have been accepted by Hilda Silva, VPSA. She will recommend them to Dr. Garcia for appointment.

• HOOP 7.5.1- “Selection of Department Chairs- since this policy generated so much discussion at the last Academic Senate meeting, the Committee Chair Rafael Otero and the Academic Senate Executive Committee have decided to present this topic for discussion at the general faculty meeting in January. Two issues seemed to surface: clarification on how long an interim chair can serve and the election process for a department chair. This policy will be on the agenda for a subsequent Academic Senate meeting.

• Faculty Advisory Council Meeting, December 2-3, 2004- I have summarized the FAC meeting in a separate document. In this president’s report I do want to call your attention to a particular segment of the meeting. I took offense at the comments of THECB staff member who, after a presentation on funding formulas and probable legislative priorities, stated that the Coordinating Board should not be granting approval for doctoral programs such as a PhD in physics in the fringes of Texas that are not in metropolitan areas. This was an obvious reference to our PhD program in physics. His comment and my personal reaction prompted a discussion among the FAC members that resulted in a referral to FAC’s Faculty Quality Committee and subsequently a resolution that passed unanimously. The resolution recommended that the UT System nominate teaching and research faculty to serve on the new Graduate Advisory Policy Committee of the THECB. Although having faculty representation on this committee would be helpful, it doesn’t address what I see as prejudice against border institutions. I would like to send a strong message protesting this attitude that serves to limit our ability to develop post-graduate programs. I invite interested Senators to work with the Executive Committee on the wording of resolution for the Academic Senate’s consideration at the January meeting.
• Committee to revise student evaluation forms-Bill Adams is the chair of a committee that will consider changes to the student evaluation forms. He would like two or three members of the Academic Senate to join him, Jay Phillips, Mary Sullivan, and Mrinal Mugdh.

V. Faculty Advisory Council Report/ THECB Report: Doctoral Education

In Texas

Ms. Cantu reported on the Faculty Advisory Council meeting held in Austin on December 2-3, 2004. This report features the highlights of the meeting. See the preliminary minutes for details.

Teresa Sullivan, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Regarding the Coordinating Board’s report on doctoral education, Sullivan commented that “you can have more if you have one, but if you have none, then it will be difficult.” The Coordinating Board did create a Graduate Advisory Policy Committee that will have representatives from higher education institutions in Texas. These representatives can be experienced faculty members. Teresa Sullivan and Geri Malandra will be visiting each campus to review the Campus Compact with the president. The Chancellor wants these compacts to be reviewed by faculty. The compact is seen as a short-term (2 yr.) planning document. Sullivan specifically mentioned our Futures Commission as a model for long term planning that allows for faculty and community “buy in”.

Kenneth Shine, Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs

Shine commented that time and effort reporting on federally funded grants is critical and that small campuses are especially vulnerable. He recommended that institutions have a vice president for research. He also discussed the critical nursing shortage and a clash with the Coordinating Board over ADN programs. His view is that most ADN nurses are “not well trained”. He highlighted the collaborations in south Texas among the Schools of Public Health and UTB and UTPA. He indicated that a Bachelor of Public Health was a possibility at one of the campuses.

FAC Chair James Bartlett

The retirement contribution to ORP can be 8.5%. The Campus Life Committee of the Board of Regents chaired by Kraven, for the first time will have a representative from FAC. The FAC Executive Committee will present these four topics at the February 2005 Board of Regents’ meeting: ombudsman for dispute resolution on each UT System component, nursing shortage and nursing faculty issues at health components, system-wide data base for faculty and student research background/interests, and fund set-aside for fundable but unfunded grant proposals.

Jeffrey Phelps. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Phelps presented information on a revision of the funding formulas for higher education. These new formulas try to capture the total cost for teaching. After reviewing several tables of formula-related information, he offered some observations on legislative priorities. As funding for Medicaid increases, funding for higher education decreases. The Texas legislature will probably fund according to this list of priorities: Medicaid, prisons, schools, state agencies, higher education. He then offered comments about being more cost effective, including a comment about not approving doctoral programs in the “fringes” of the state with no major metropolitan areas.

Geri Malandra, Vice Chancellor for Accountability

There are differences between the Coordinating Board and the UT System over accountability measures. The audience for the accountability reports is the Texas Legislature.

FAC Committee Reports

Quality: Resolution: Whereas graduate education at the doctoral level involves teaching and research faculty as well as administrators and whereas teaching and research faculty are primary responsible for the creation and implementation of the curricula for doctoral programs, the FAC recommends that the UT System nominate non-administrative teaching and research faculty to serve on the Coordinating Board’s Graduate Advisory Policy Committee.

Governance: Definition of “Non-administrative faculty”: teaching, research, and clinical faculty below the level of chair, with the exception of term-limited, rotating chairs.

Academic Affairs: Investigate pattern of submission and approval of post-graduate programs by the Coordinating Board.

VI. Academic Standards and Student Records Committee Report

Mr. Welther, Chair of the Academic Standards and Student Records Committee, provided the Senate with the following report. Mr. Welther reported that this committee has been looking at the suspension and probation policies on campus. Mr. Welther reported that in terms of suspension and probation- there are two policies- one involving academics and one in connection with financial aid. Mr. Welther explained that when students must stop out because of financial aid suspension, they go to the Business Office and apply for an emergency loan, because while they may be on financial aid suspension, they may not be on academic suspension. Mr. Welther further explained that once students lose financial aid, they are in a financial spiral because they apply for loans that they can’t repay. Mr. Welther said he has asked the Registrar to look at how many students have below a 2.0 GPA. Mr. Welther also said his committee is looking at whether financial aid suspension and academic suspension should be tied together. Mr. Welther concluded his report by saying that the committee needs to look at more data- maybe two semesters worth of data to make a recommendation. Ms. Cantu thanked Mr. Welther for his report.

VII. Evaluation of Administrators/Level of Confidence Question

Ms. Cantu reported that this was issue raised by Dr. Davis (who could not attend this meeting) who wanted a question put on administrators’ evaluations regarding their leadership ability and the level of confidence faculty had in their leadership. Dr. Davis via Ms. Cantu suggested the following statement be added to administrators’ evaluations:

Overall I rate the leadership of this person as…. Several Senate members objected to this statement, saying that it doesn’t fit on the Likert Scale (strongly agree…). Dr. Boze suggested that the statement be changed to I have confidence in this person’s leadership.

Mr. Cortina moved that this statement be added to administrators’ evaluations. Mr. Welther seconded the motion. The motion passed.

VIII. HOOP Policy 7.3.1- “Faculty Responsibilities and Workload”

Mr. Phillips presented HOOP Policy 7.3.1- “Faculty Responsibilities and Workload” to the Senate for a first read. Mr. Phillips explained that basically the changes to the policy occurred in Section E where the policy describes the changes in the workload procedure. Under the revised policy, the department chair will meet with all probationary and tenured faculty in an annual workload planning conference to determine the faculty member’s instructional workload and mix of other responsibilities for the coming year and review the accomplishments of the preceding year. A faculty workload plan detailing the faculty member’s instructional workload and mix of responsibilities for the coming year shall be developed as a result of the annual planning conference. Probationary faculty members will continue to meet with the department chair and dean to discuss the faculty member’s instructional workload and mix of other responsibilities for the coming year and review the accomplishments of the preceding year. Tenured faculty members may meet with the department chair and dean to discuss the faculty member’s instructional workload and mix of responsibilities for the coming year and review the accomplishments of the preceding year. This meeting is optional, but shall occur upon the request of the faculty member, the Chair or the Dean.

Following a brief discussion, Dr. Otero moved to approve first reading of this policy. Dr. Hollier seconded the motion and the motion carried. This policy will appear before the Senate for a second read.

IX. New Business

There were three items of “New Business”.

• Mr. Molina voiced his concern over why there is no policy for department chairs in terms of their workload. He asked why the six hour policy was not enforced. He said there is a wide variation of the number of hours department chairs are teaching.

Ms. Cantu said that she will put this item on the agenda for a future meeting.

• Mr. Molina wanted the Senate to know how much he enjoyed “Blackboard”. He said it is a great program and he was wondering if there could be a required workshop for the use of “Blackboard”. Dr. Ragland said that one of the professional development workshops will be on using “Blackboard”. Ms. Cantu said that it is better to encourage faculty rather than make it a requirement.

• Dr. Rubin voiced her concern over regalia for commencement. She said renting the regalia is expensive and wondered if it wouldn’t be better for faculty to buy it. She said in October you don’t know if you are going to Commencement and if you don’t go and order your regalia, you have to pay for it. Perhaps there is a better system of dealing with this issue.

X. Provost’s Report

Dr. Martin had eight items in his report.

• UT System Vice Chancellor Teresa Sullivan and Assistant Vice Chancellor Geri Malandra were on campus this morning to visit with us about our compact. We will be talking with you more about that later. We are making good progress on our compact, and we’ll have good information to report. Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Malandra send their regards to you.

• Dr. Betsy Boze has announced her decision to step down as Dean of the School of Business after more than 10 years. During her tenure, the School of Business has doubled its enrollment and has been a driving force for innovation as the School of Business endeavors to extend services to a community that has been long underserved.

Her leadership allowed us to play a vital role in the Telecampus MBA, which allowed campus colleagues like Dr. Lackey and Mr. Zavaletta to reach hundreds of students outside of our region. I also want to mention that no one has fought harder for higher salaries for the faculty than Dr. Boze

Dr. Boze’s decision is based on family reasons, and we wish to express our best wishes to her. She will return to teaching in September.

Dr. Eli Pena has announced his decision to step down as Director of Advising, and will return to teaching. It is hard to formulate in a few words, how much we all owe to Dr. Pena, the workload of his department, and his own superhuman efforts. We can all rest a bit easier today because he and his staff are still trying to address all the challenges that surface as we prepare for graduation. For both Dr. Boze and Dr. Pena we expect great things, and I know I foresee the future when I state that, from Dr. Boze and Dr. Pena, the best is yet to come.

• We had the dedication of the Bahia Grande Greenhouse last week and successfully launched UTB/TSC’s cooperation with our partners and the community in the largest wetlands project in the United States. We want to especially thank three members of our faculty for their work on the Bahia Grande Project: Dr. David Hicks, Dr. Elizabeth Heise, and Professor Mary Jane Shands, all of the College of Science, Math, and Technology.

• You all have heard, I’m sure, that the Coordinating Board finally has approved our Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Management. We want to congratulate Dean Chip Dameron and Dr. John Robey and their faculty for this wonderful accomplishment that will open opportunities for many in our community.

• SACS recently held its annual meeting in Atlanta December 4-7. We were represented by Dr. Chip Dameron who led our self-study in 1997-98; Dr. Mrinal Mugdh, Director of Institutional Research and Planning; and Dr. Ruth Ann Ragland. Our SACS visit will be in 2007, so you’ll be hearing a lot about that very soon.

• Graduation will be tomorrow. We will have three ceremonies; at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m. at Jacob Brown Auditorium. Speakers will be TSC Board of Trustee members. Board Chairman Chester Gonzales will speak at 10 a.m., Dr. Roberto Robles will speak at the 2 p.m. ceremony; and Mrs. Cardenas will be the 6 p.m. speaker.

• We have four search committees that are in the process of being appointed: Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, and Director of Advising.

• We wish Professor Joe Lacher a quick recuperation from his by-pass surgery this week. Our reports indicate he is doing well.

XI. Announcements

There were two announcements.

· The General Faculty Meeting will be from 11-12:30 on Wednesday, January 12 in the SETB Lecture Hall. On the agenda will be a report from the Welfare Committee on salaries, a discussion on the election of department chairs, and a discussion on recognition of tenure, promotion, and exceptional merit. Please encourage faculty members to attend this meeting.

· The next Academic Senate meeting is at 1 p.m. on January 21 in the SETB 3^rd Floor Conference Room.

XII. Adjournment

The meeting stood adjourned at 2:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Julie Ann Larson

Academic Senate Secretary