Minutes

The University of Texas<= /st1:PlaceName> at Brownsville and = Texas Southmost College<= /b>

Academic Sena= te Minutes

February 11, 2005

I.        =     Call to Order

Ms. Cantu called the February 11, 2005 meeting of the Academic Senate to = order at 1:10 p.m. in = SETB 2548.

Members of the Senate in attendance included: Mr. Steve Benton (s), Ms. Ethel Cantu (*), Ms. Carol Collinsworth (s), M= r. Roberto Cortina (s), Dr. Charles Dameron, Dr. W= illiam C. Davis (s), Mr. Doug Ferrier, Mr. Victor Fuhro, Dr. Therese Gallegos (s), Mr. Wiilliam Harris (ex-officio), Ms. Mabel Hockaday (s), Dr. Geral= d Hollier (s), Dr. Edward Hymson (*), Dr. Charles Lacke= y, Ms. Julie Larson (*), Dr. Genaro Lopez (s), Dr. Emi= r Macari, Dr. Jose Martin, Mr. Dom= ingoMolina, Dr. Eldon Nelson, Dr. Rafael Otero, Dr. Gerson Peltz (s), Ms. Cheryl Phelps (s), Mr. Jay Phillips, Dr. Ruth Ann Ragland, Mr. Mahan= dran Rajasuriar (s), Dr. Renee Rubin (s), Dr. Carl Stockton, Ms. Mary Sullivan, = Ms. Thelma Sullivan, Dr. John Sutterby (s), Mr. Tom Welther (*), and Dr. Paul-Hermann Zieschang.

Visitors included:&nb= sp; Mr. Julio Ledezma and Dr. Mrinal Murgh.

Ms. Cantu welcomed two new senators: Ms. Carol Collins= worth and Dr. Genaro Lopez.

II.        =    Review and Approval of the Minutes

Ms. Cantu called for a review of the minutes from the January 21, 2005 Academic Senate meeting.&= nbsp; Hearing no corrections or additions, the minutes stood approved as written.

III.        = Presentation/Discussion: Bond Construction

Dr. Martin presented the following PowerPoint presenta= tion to the Senate regarding the bond construction package.

Projects Approved by the Board of Trustees

·        Music Education Building

üüüüüü·        General Use Classrooms

üüüüü·        Kinesiology Building

üüüüü·        ITECC

üüüüüü        =             &nb= sp;

·        Library

üüüü·        Center for Early Childhood Studies

üüüüüü·        Biomedical Outreach

üüüüüüüü

Proposed Locations

      Dr. Martin presented a map of the Master Plan with the proposed new buildings on it.

      Senators reviewed the proposed locations.

Assumptions

·        Plan to spend proceeds in three years or les= s.

·        First year construction expenditures are 10%= of building costs

·        Second-and-third year expenditures are &frac= 12; of total building costs

·        Fourth year construction expenditures equal = the balance

·        Use all money=3D 68 million dollars

Alternative scenarios=

·        Scenario1- all projects are completed in six years. Projects are staggered= . Five million dollars for workforce training is held back for three years.&nbs= p; Arbitrage earnings are possible.

·        Scenario 2- all projects are completed in fo= ur years. Fourteen million dolla= rs is available for workforce training immediately. Arbitrage earnings are limited. Demanding schedules as all projects begin at the same time.

Financial Issues

·        Construction cost inflation

·        Interest rate changes

·        Arbitrage

·        Issuance cost

Conclusi= on

·        Both scenarios are doable

·        Board of Trustees will determine what scenar= io to proceed with

Following a brief discuss= ion, Ms. Cantu thanked Dr. Martin for his presentation.

IV.        =    Senate President’s Report

Ms. Cantu had three items= in her report.

Response= from the Coordinating Board- I received a letter from Raymund Paredes, Commissioner of Higher Education,= Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, in reply to the letter and Academ= ic Senate resolution that I sent to him expressing our concern about comm= ents made at the Faculty Advisory Council meeting in December regarding approval of doctoral programs.

Bond Construction Workshop- I attended the workshop for the TSC Board of Trustees on January 22 to consider construction projects to be funded = by the November 2 Bond Issue. The main issues under discussion were construction priorities and timelines. The following projects were prioritized as URGENT:&= nbsp; music education for classrooms, practice and performance needs; classrooms of medium and large size to provide more capaci= ty; kinesiology to be built at th= e same time as the Wellness and Recreation.

Academic Senate Elections- the Executive Committee has set Friday, March 11= as the deadline for filing nominations for senators and officers of the Academic Senate and has set Friday, April 1 as the deadline for voting. Please encourage individuals interested in faculty governance to run for office. The election is being conduct= ed by Tom Welther, Vice President.

V.        =     Partnership Committee Reports

There were no reports.

VI.        =    Report: Senate Elections for Senators from Business and Science, Math and Technology

Mr. Welther reported that= two special elections were held to elect one new senator from the College of Science, Math and Technology to replace Domingo Molina and one new senator from the = School of Business to replace Rafael Otero.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Mr. Welther reported that the elec= tion in the College of Science, Math and Technology went smoothly and = Dr. Genaro Lopez was elected to replace Domingo Molina bu= t the election in the School of Business encount= ered some problems. Mr. Welther sa= id that, although the election was conducted on the honor system, Mr. Welther received more ballots than he had distributed and faculty voted for candida= tes who did not consent to run. M= r. Welther identified the problems and ran a second election which was tightly controlled. Mr. Welther repor= ted that Ms. Collinsworth won the election- the vote was Ms. Collinsworth-ten a= nd Ms Celaya- eight.

VII.        = HOOP Policies

A. HOOP 7.5.1- “Selection of Department Chairs and Academic Program Directors”- this was the first reading of this policy before the Academic Senate. Dr. Gallegos and Dr. Rubin present= ed the policy. Dr. Gallegos and Dr. = Rubin explained that the substantial change to the policy occurred under Section “B2” where subsections “a”, “b” and “c” were added. Senators reviewed the changes and the following discussion followed.=

Mr. Phillips suggested th= e words, “secret paper ballot” in subsection “a” be removed = and adjust Section “B1b” to read, “the vote shall be a secret ballot in which all full time department voting faculty shall participant”. Dr. Sutte= rby suggested removing the word, “conducting” in “B2a” = and replacing with “facilitating”.=

Dr. Gallegos moved to app= rove first read of the policy with the following friendly amendment: “a secret paper ballot in wh= ich all full time department voting faculty shall participate will be used̶= 1;. Dr. Hollier seconded the motion and the motion carried. This policy will return to the Sen= ate for a second reading.

B. HOOP 7.2.2- “Graduate Faculty”- this was the first reading of this policy before the Academ= ic Senate. Dr. Lackey presented = this policy and pointed out that there were many modifications to the policy. He said that the proposed changes included the streamlining of graduate faculty membership. Senators reviewed the proposed modifications and the following discussion ensued.

Dr. Stockton pointed out = that the policy as written precludes deans from serving on thesis or comprehensive examination committee. Dr. Hy= mson said that if a faculty member is hired as a research faculty member, he/she should be entitled under either full graduate or associate graduate members= hip to the Graduate Committee. Dr. Rubin moved to approve first read of the policy. Dr. Sutterby seconded the motion.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Dr. Hymson proposed the following friendly amendment: move to s= trike D1e and add to E2d a new d- “serve as chair of a thesis committee or comprehensive examination committee with department/school graduate faculty support”. Dr. Rubin acc= epted the friendly amendment. The m= otion carried and the first read of the policy was approved. This policy will appear before the Senate for a second read.

VIII.         New Business

There was one item of = 220;New Business”.

Dr. Gallegos voiced her concern over the fact tha= t the student evaluations of faculty need to be turned into Tandy but she fe= els that Tandy is not the center of campus. She was wondered if we could = use the UTB/TSC mailboxes (big blue boxes) located in each building to col= lect the evaluations. Dr. Hym= son asked if the boxes were operational.&= nbsp; Mr. Phillips suggested that one particular location in each bui= lding be designated as a collection point for instructor evaluations. Dr. Ragland said she would lo= ok into the matter.

IX.        =    Provost’s Report

Dr. Martin had five items= in his report.

The President made two presentations on behalf of UTB/TSC this week in Aust= in, and another one is coming up next week:

        =             &nb= sp;           a). House Appropriations Committee, and,

        =             &nb= sp;           b). Board of Regents for presentation of the Master Plan.

        =

        =     The President will be appearing before the Senate Finance Committee = on Tuesday

        =      morning.

The bond rating companies were on campus Monday f= or a site visit. They appeare= d to have been positively impressed. We should know the outcome today.

We want to congratulate Dean Jim Holt and Dr. Ton= y Zavaleta on a $350,000 Workforce Training grant = from the State to Amfels. We will be providing training= for new workers and some who wish to improve their training.

We also wish to congratulate Dr. Selma Yznaga of our faculty for her recognition in the= Texas Senate this week. Senator Eddie Lucio recognized her as co-chairwoma= n of the Texas Counseling Association’s Committee on School Counselor Issues. There was a stor= y in today’s Brownsville Herald.

We have about 12,056 students this semester. This is a record enrollment, = and all of us are feeling the urgency to build new buildings to accommodate them! We simply have run= out of space. We know from t= he GearUp folks that 2,700 high school graduates wh= o are academically prepared to go to college will be enrolling somewhere this fall; and we expect many of them to come here. Linda Fo= ssen tells me that the number of applications for admission next fall alrea= dy is up 27 percent from where it was a year ago at this time.

All of t= his is to say that we must be ready to receive these students. Our Scheduling and Course Inventory Office has suggested that one way to quickly open classroom space is to off= er MWF classes from 1 to 1:50 pm, 2 to 2:50 pm and 3 to 3:50 pm and eliminate = MW classes at 1:40-2:55 pm and 3:05-4:20 pm.&= nbsp; This was brought up at Deans and Chairs Council and at Deans Council. Let me review some o= f the advantages:

&nb= sp;

1.&n= bsp;     Increase 71 course sections for MWF traditional cla= ss times.

2.&n= bsp;     Relieves morning “bottle necks”.

3.&n= bsp;     Allow Media Services to provide better service.

4.&n= bsp;     More class equipment will be available (projectors, VCRs, TVs, etc.).

5.&n= bsp;     Scheduling and Course Inventory Office will have be= tter flexibility to accommodate department’s classroom needs.

6.&n= bsp;     Take advantage of staff working Fridays after 12:00 pm. Open areas included Library, Compu= ter Labs, Learning Assistance Center, and the rest of the University offices.

7.&n= bsp;     Once these class times are available, work-studies = will better plan their schedule to accommodate University workload demands. Work-studies will be available to = work between 8:00 am to 12:00 pm or from 1:00 pm t= o 5:00 pm depending on Univer= sity office needs. A short survey = was made on February = 9, 2005 by the Scheduling and Course Inventory Office and it shows that offices are having difficulties finding morning work-studies.

8.&n= bsp;     Students registered for classes between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm will have a better chance to find adequate parking then in the morning.

A very lengthy discussion followed Dr. Martin’s presentation of the change in the MW scheduling= to MWF.

X.        =     Announcements

There was one announcemen= t.

Ms. Cantu announced that the next Academic Senate meeting will be at 1:00= pm on March 11= , 2005 in the SETB 3^rd Floor Conference Room.

XI.        =    Adjournment

The meeting stood adjourn= ed at 5:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Julie Ann Larson

Academic Senate Secretary=