2025-2026

Faculty Senate Minutes for the 2025-26 academic year

April 17th, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

April 17, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Kacie Altom, Richard Segall, Karen Graham, Rob Williams, Rashele Wade, Eric Dry, Suzanne Melescue, Alexandr Sokolov, Michael Cooper, Julie King, Kristen Sumler, Kim Vickrey, Hao Yang Teng, Jason Causey, John Hershberger, Scott Mangan, Rollin Tusalem, Veronika Scudamore, Stephanie Hoeckley, Toccara Carter, Anne McGee, Mark Lewis, Dwayne Powell, Guolei Zhou, Ibrahim Duyar, Savannah Cormier, Jamie Passmore

 

Proxy Attendees: John Howard for Jeremy Weeks, Kacie Altom for Audrey Folsom, Julie King for Eric West, Joy Goode for Robert Bradley, Angelo Brown for Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh

 

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Calvin White, Alyssa Wells, John Hollander

 

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Pradeep Mishra, DayDay Robinson, Gary Edwards, Bert Greenwalt

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00pm by Amanda Mohler.

Order of the day:  Motion to approve the order of the day by Rashele, seconded by Kim; all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the April 3, 2026, meeting minutes was made by Richard Segall and seconded by Karen Graham; all in favor, the motion carried.

 

New Business

Proposal: Academic Standing Requirement for Accelerated Master’s Program Students

-Question raised as to why a decision on this would be required by the Faculty Senate, not left in the hands of the individual program. 

-Point made that when sitting on shared governance committees, we are representing our constituents, not just ourselves.  Therefore, committee work should be communicated with constituents and a call made for feedback to ensure all have input. When votes are made, the member should vote based on the opinions of their constituents rather than their personal opinions.  It was discussed that there are other proposals being made as well that have not been communicated to the faculty they affect. There is no complaint against the policy, just that it wasn’t shared. The role of shared gov committees is to make sure the process works, and that didn’t happen in this instance.

-Questions about the proposal:

Is there a probationary period or would removal be immediate?

Are there early warning systems or supports in place?

How will this be explained to students before they enroll in the accelerated master’s program?

-Is there anything that can be done to make sure that proposals are sent in a more timely manner to give faculty a better chance to review them?

-Is there accountability for committee members to ensure they are doing their part?

-Alexander S. motioned to support the proposal as written.  The motion was seconded by Eric Dry.  No additional discussion.  Motion carries.

Provost Updates and Q&A

 

-Accountability—states he is pressuring deans and department chairs to hold people accountable in evaluations.  This is in response to the question about accountability in committee work.

 

-When committees are formed, we need to make sure that there are some senior-level professors on committees as well.

 

-Good year, enrollment is up, graduation rate is up, retention is up, key performance indicators are up. Research is up (from 5th to 3rd) in state for research expenditures only behind UofA and UAMS.

 

-We have a better footing financially than last year or two years ago.

- We are looking at another record enrollment for freshmen next year as well

 

-New arts and engineering center

-New building on the farm

-Indoor baseball facilities have been started as well

 

-Equity policy feedback is still welcome. Over the summer, the provost will work with department heads and finalize the policy. It was stated that this is a “College-driven policy” and a grievance policy will go along with this to provide an outlet if you believe your salary was not fairly considered. It was unclear if the policy presented at the previous meeting was the same policy the provost was referring to, in that he mentioned PRT committee involvement in the process, but the policy presented at Faculty Senate did not include PRT committees. There were 9 faculty requests for equity review this year. 

-The provost indicates that faculty salaries were in his top two biggest requests for the upcoming budget. He asked for a 2% raise for all faculty and recognizes that this does not close the gap in regard to pay as much as he would like to be able to, but indicates the money to do more simply isn’t available.  He has asked the CFO to find 2.5% next year.

-Some changes are being made in an attempt to save money.  For instance, if only one faculty is using office space on a floor, that faculty member may be asked to move to a different space so the lights and thermostat can be shut off on the other floor and money can be saved.

-Fees will increase a bit to fund budget requests.  Parking will go up $20.  Did not know about contract spaces at this time.

-Vet school will admit 120 students in the fall.  Applications opened 2 weeks ago: 714 completed applications; 70 offers made; 67 accepted; 800 applications in process

 

Q&A

As written, there’s no self-nomination for equity, so how can grievance be a thing? As written, the PRT committee wasn’t the one doing the review; it was chairs, etc. We were told the policy as written wasn’t changing, but the provost indicates that he has not finalized the policy and it is still open for feedback.  

How long do we have to give feedback? There is no deadline set at this time.

If we do not increase the pay of current faculty, but hire in new, less experienced faculty at higher salaries, don’t we risk losing seasoned faculty? Are we ok with that? We cannot solve salary compression by compressing others.  There’s a market rate. The people we can hire at the rates we hired in at we don’t want.  “Ma’am, there is nothing I can do about that. I don’t like it, but it is the way it works.”

Is the 2% for everyone? Provost stated that was his request

How can vet school make offers without seeing all apps? If someone meets rigorous standards, they are being admitted. 120 is a hard cap number due to space, pedagogy, faculty, etc. Building should be done in June and will be holding classes in the building in August.

Is there another vet school going in in Cabot? Lyon College is attempting to establish a vet school, but they are having issues getting started.  They are suing their accreditor at the moment.

Michelle Summers—International Sponsorships

3 things impacting hiring

$100K fee; if in states and in status, we would be excused from the fee.  Only applies if the applicant is living out of the country.  There is a SPSIC processing pause for 139 countries.  If interested in which countries are involved, you may contact Michelle.

Last month, a prevailing wage increase was proposed; will increase minimum requirements; comments go until end of next month

Stay in touch if hiring an international candidate

What is the new minimum? Duties are sent in and then ranked, and the minimum is determined based on position, level, and duties

New expectations for deans about sponsorships from provost

We don’t want to fund temp or one-year assignments for VISA.  Needs to be long-term or tenure track…3-5 years is considered “long-term” (H1BU)

OPT is different (paid for by the person)

It’s not fair to the person if we bring them in, work them hard, and then not commit to them for long enough; 1 year is not helping them move toward permanent resident status

If a department has a visiting assistant and likes them after the first year and wishes to hire them into an open line, that position can go ahead and be offered. You don’t have to wait until the end of the 3 years.

Updates

John will be taking over in August in the new academic year, and senate will meet in Lab Science West (LSW) 334 in Fall; will send map out

 

Committee Updates or reports?

None

 

Meeting adjourned by Amanda Mohler

Minutes Recorded by Kacie Altom

April 3rd, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

April 3rd, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh, Richard Segall, Karen Graham, Rob Williams, Rashele Wade, Eric Dry, Suzanne Melescue, Alexandr Sokolov, Michael Cooper, Julie King, Kristen Sumler, Kim Vickrey, Hao Yang Teng, Jason Causey, John Hershberger, Scott Mangan, Rollin Tusalem, Veronika Scudamore, Stephanie Hoeckley, Toccara Carter, Anne McGee, Eric West.

Proxy Attendees: John Howard for Jeremy Weeks, Matthew Harmon for Kacie Altom

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Dominque White, Blake Walker, Jill Simons

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Pradeep Mishra, Guolei Zhou, DayDay Robinson, Gary Edwards, Ibrahim Duyar, Joy Goode (for Robert Bradley), Bert Greenwalt, Jamie Passmore, Mark Lewis, Savannah Cormier, Dwayne Powell

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Amanda Mohler.

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Rashele Wade, seconded by Rob Williams; all are in favor, the motion carried.

 

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the March 20th, 2026, meeting minutes was made by Richard Segall and seconded by Matt Harmon; all in favor, the motion carried.

 

New Business

Dr. Dominque White & Blake Walker Access & Accommodations

Access and Accommodation Services has 6 full-time staff and 1 part-time staff.

They manage the golf cart transportation system and special seating, etc.

They only serve registered students, including those with temporary impairments. This includes on-campus and AOS students.

They service all accommodations across campus for students.

There is an online form to complete to register for the services. No deadline. Accommodation is not retroactive. Documentation is kept private. Registration does not have to be repeated each semester, but they have to request to use their accommodations each semester. That is also not retroactive.  

Typical accommodations were presented (extended time, excused absences, note-taking, etc.)

Reasonable accommodations are not meant to fundamentally alter or eliminate essential course requirements. There must not be an undue burden on the institution or risk to the health and safety of the other students.

Questions to ask: Is there another reasonable alternative? What is essential?

Setting up accommodations is an interactive process that involves students, AAS staff, and many other people, such as faculty and advisors. Accommodation can change over time.

A rule of thumb is: “If we can do it, we probably should.”

Many students have multiple conditions.

AAS is available to come to your department for info sessions.

 

Question about a 2-to-3-week absence in a 7-week term. Can that be retroactive? It depends on the circumstances (hospitalization?). It might be a case for issuing an incomplete.

Question about allowance to turn things in late. How late can they turn it in? Up to one day, up to two, or up to three days late. There is a concern that they may get so far behind that they cannot catch up in shorter terms. The end of the term is the final due date/deadline.

Questions about students claiming that their accommodation covers them watching shows during class. That is not a thing from the AAS office. It’s a trend to calm anxiety.

Concern about accommodation for students in deadline-oriented degree programs – students with accommodations are not equipped to deal with the workplace deadlines, and employers are complaining. AAS is to accommodate for their current environment, not their future employment. Although people can get workplace accommodation in certain workplaces.

Should we define what is essential for our degree or program? It is something to explore. They have to meet the essential core skills of their discipline. AAS accommodates for access, not for success. 

Is there an indication on their transcript or record that they had accommodations? No.

Accommodations don’t always translate to the employment conditions they are entering. Are we tracking our graduates who have accommodation to see how they are doing once they leave here? It’s a project that has begun, but we don’t have much data yet.

 

Dr. Jill Simons, Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning & Antonio Jones, A-State Online Faculty Support – Canvas Accessibility

 

Accessibility updates due to new regulations for digital content.

3 tools can help you (found in course settings, navigation, find it, enable it, and save):

1.      Tidy Up

2.      UDOIT/UFIXIT

3.      Canvas accessibility checker.

Some colleagues do not upload videos properly and don’t understand why it may not be compliant.

There is more scrutiny now. Content and files should be at 90% compliance.

Is it retroactive? No. We cannot change courses that have already been published and completed.

How specific does the alternative text have to be? It depends.

The deadline is April 24th, but we mostly need to show progress. Work on Spring courses and upcoming summer ones. Courses that have students in them are the priority.

Resources will be sent to the faculty to help.

 

Old Business
Committee Reports and Updates

None.

 

4:21 pm adjourned by Amanda Mohler

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom

March 20th, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

March 20, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh, Richard Segall, Karen Graham, Gary Edwards, Suzanne Melescue, Alexandr Sokolov, Michael Cooper, Savannah Cormier, Dwayne Powell, Kim Vickrey, Hao Yang Teng, Jason Causey, John Hershberger, Scott Mangan, Stephanie Hoeckley, Toccara Carter, Kacie Altom, Anne McGee, Eric West, Bert Greenwalt, Jamie Passmore, Mark Lewis.

 

Proxy Attendees: John Howard for Jeremy Weeks, Cheryl Knight for Rashele Wade, Karen Graham for Robert Williams, Karen Graham for Ibrahim Duyar, Joy Goode for Robert Bradley, Kevin Berry for Kristen Sumler, Robert Robinette for Eric Dry,

 

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Jim Washam, Annette Hux, Jeff Bailey, Jennifer Bouldin, Cherisse Jones-Branch, Stacy Walz, Mickey Latour, Nikesha Nesbitt, Steve Beaupre, Alyssa Wells, Will McLean, Tiffany Keb

 

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Pradeep Mishra, Rollin Tusalem, Julie King, Veronika Scudamore, Guolei Zhou, DayDay Robinson.

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Amanda Mohler.

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Kacie Altom, seconded by Alexander Sokolov; all are in favor, the motion carried.

 

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the March 6th, 2026, meeting minutes was made by Richard Segall and seconded by Karen Graham; all in favor, the motion carried.

 

Provost Q&A by Will McLean

  1. Last spring, there was a discussion regarding the possibility of reduced parking fees for adjunct instructors. Has the administration taken any steps toward addressing this issue?  They are in budget building and haven't gotten to the parking fees section yet. We will look at it. TBD. It has to get board approval. Parking will get worse as enrollment increases and the veterinary school opens, but you can ride the trolley for free across campus .
  1. As the university shifts toward a more research intensive model, faculty are being encouraged to increase their research activity. Those who are not research‑ focused‑ may see their teaching loads adjusted accordingly. Could you clarify what level of annual research output is considered sufficient to meet the expectations of a ‘research faculty’ member? It depends, it varies from college to college in the same way as the PRT document requirement varies. It is a the departmental and college-level decision.

  2. Are Department Chairs and Program Directors held to the same expectations to conduct research as faculty are? No, they have a different set of responsibilities. They can be research-active as they can get to it (usually in the summer). Often, they are already tenured and aren’t trying to meet the same requirements as pre-tenured faculty.
New Business:  
Dean’s Faculty Equity Proposal - Steve Beaupre, Dean of the Graduate School

The deans met weekly from July through October 2025. They developed working principles for Faculty Equity.

They evaluated the Faculty Senate policy proposal vs the Dean’s proposal. The Dean’s policy proposal was then modified. There were many similarities between the two proposals and a few differences. Some of the key differences were that the faculty senate proposal requested a) an automatic, statistical, institution‑wide annual review, whereas the dean’s proposal has a nomination‑based, objective, performance‑driven process, initiated by unit leaders; b)  faculty senate requested that it apply to all faculty except during tenure/promotion year, whereas the dean’s proposal applies to full‑time faculty with sustained excellence; adjuncts and temps are excluded; c) procedural steps of the deans’ proposal such as it being a multi‑step nomination and review process tied to annual review, evaluations based on internal unit comparison + performance evaluation, self‑nominations are not allowed, performance required for eligibility, the dean recommends; provost approves/denies

 

A question was asked about a situation where the chair is ignoring a faculty equity issue. If a chair is not being proactive about equity reviews, and there is a problem in the chain of command, the faculty can approach the dean directly.

 

Review of the Proposal from the Deans

Purpose: Disparities in faculty salary can arise in a variety of normal and justifiable ways, including baseline percent merit or cost of living adjustments over time, differences in assigned responsibilities, retention packages, performance or merit, salary compression, promotion, and return of administrators to faculty ranks, among others. Faculty within a given rank, with a similar time-in-rank, similar credentials, similar productivity over time, and qualifications, should be paid similarly and according to factors relevant to their academic position. The purpose of this policy is to ensure fair and equitable compensation for faculty by identifying and correcting salary disparities that are not attributable to normal factors such as those listed above. The intention of this policy is to support faculty retention, morale, and institutional excellence.

 

Guiding Principles:

Point of clarification: the unit leader is who you hand your annual review in to

 

Eligibility:

 

Nomination Process – Unit Review

Added comment by dean Beaupre: Units vary in size and it may be difficult to evaluate small units. A skeleton plan is in the works to address this issue.

 

Nomination Process – College-level review by the college leadership team to produce a short list 

 

Funding and Implementation:

 

Protected Classification:

Nothing in this policy shall be construed to preclude or preempt a faculty member from initiating a complaint or grievance alleging that a salary disparity has arisen due to discrimination based on a protected classification, such as sex, race, religion, or disability.

 

Discussion:

Faculty salary issues can be best addressed by taking a hard look at the hard budget and how funds are allocated. Class sizes are another issue that other institutions deal with differently. We have a lot of small classes, therefore high educational costs.

Are chairs required to put equity issues up? No, they may not have equity issues. The dean’s leadership team is a check and balance on this process and on the chairs. The deans evaluate all the salaries from their college and can identify issues.

Could there be issues of favoritism within units? The dean’s leadership team is a check and balance on this process and on the chairs.

How does this address faculty retention if we don’t address CUPA issues? Retention offers can be made before a faculty walks out the door. This is separate pool of money from the equity pool. However, the offer for a job at a different institution must be in writing and for a comparable position at a comparable institution.

How are we proposing to make classes bigger? It is a separate process from this.

What about faculty CIP code classification, as it affects CUPA? Can we petition to change that? It is set at hire based on your transcript. A faculty member would have to speak to their dean about that.

Protected classification question – can a person affected bring it up? This is a Title VII or Title IX issue first. Don’t assume it can’t be resolved at that level, report the issue.

Could we lose our high-level productive faculty if they don’t see a chance to get an increase in salary? That is not per say an equity issue. If they threaten to leave, and have an offer from elsewhere (a written offer from an aspirant institution for a similar position), then it can be submitted as a retention offer. The chair or dean can match the other offer, but there is a process.

Will faculty be informed if they were nominated for an equity adjustment and what the outcome was? We would wait until the provost makes his decision before we notify faculty.

We are trying to find the best solution to a sticky problem.

This is the policy going forward.

 

Old Business

Updates – Dominique White will come and talk about Access and Accommodations

A request was made to report to faculty senate what is being discussed at SGOC.

 

Committee Reports and Updates

None.

 

4:05 pm adjourned by Amanda Mohler

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom

March 6th, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

March 6, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Richard Segall, Karen Graham, Julie King, Gary Edwards, Suzanne Melescue, Alexandr Sokolov, Eric Dry, Rashele Wade, Kristen Sumler, John Howard, Michael Cooper, Savannah Cormier, Dwayne Powell, Kim Vickrey, Hao Yang Teng, Guolei Zhou, Jason Causey, Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh, John Hershberger, Scott Mangan, Stephanie Hoeckley, Toccara Carter

 Proxy Attendees: John Howard for Jeremy Weeks, Trinity Pullam for Kacie Altom, Audrey Folsom for Eric West, Karen Graham for Robert Williams, Karen Graham for Ibrahim Duyar

 Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Taron Robinson

 Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Pradeep Mishra, Jamie Passmore, Bert Greenwalt, Rollin Tusalem, Veronika Scudamore, Anne McGee, DayDay Robinson, Mark Lewis.

 The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Amanda Mohler.

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric Dry, seconded by Rashele Wade; all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the February 20, 2026, meeting minutes was made by Richard Segall and seconded by Karen Graham; all in favor, the motion carried.

 

New Business
1. Taron Robinson, Director of International Programs

Resources offered by International Programs: well-being and campus integration for international students. They can do one-on-one consultations with the student to help meet their needs.

ELA = English Learning Academy – A 6-week, 5 days a week, academy whose purpose is to help them be more proficient in the English language. (more details at https://www.astate.edu/academics/global-opportunities/english-learning-academy/index.html )

The office can provide best practices for the classroom.

The International Student Office's main goal is to help them with their immigration paperwork (the I-20) and keep them in compliance. They must have 12 credit hours per semester, and only 3 of those can be online. Graduate students need 9 credit hours per semester, and 3 can be online.

Are summer courses required for international students? They do not have to take summer classes, and they can stay here for the summer.

The students are given all of this information during orientation.

The office offers a weekly shuttle service to go shopping in town. The office pays for it.

For airport traffic, a shuttle runs during designated days and times that align with the start and end of semesters. Students are given this information, and travel is aligned to this window. The shuttle does not run mid-semester for just one student going on a trip.

Transportation to and from clinicals for international students can be an issue for clinical programs such as those in MLRS.

1) What level of support is given to international students whose first language is not English in terms of writing quality (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc) and learning specific formatting styles like APA?

There is tutoring, and we work with the writing center.

2) Are international students counseled in terms of their major and what they can do with their degree if they are planning to return to their country of origin? (Does the country recognize their degree, especially for health care practitioners?)

Those conversations happen at the institution/program level. We talk to them about their plans after graduation.  We work with them to find jobs that fit their degree or to travel back home. They must be employed in their field of study to stay in the US.  We monitor them as they are employed (OPT) for a year. In STEM fields, they can do an additional 2 years.

Can they change their major? Yes, they can do that. It is updated in their I-20.

It is hard to tell if they can practice in the field they studied in their home country.

Do you have a list of businesses that sponsor H1B visas? We do not. And the $100,000 H1B visa fee is scaring off some people.

On 3/11, our immigration attorney will hold a meeting in Centennial Hall to answer questions.

 

  1. Student learning needs.

Some faculty have expressed concerns about patterns of behavior in this generation of students.

Students do not read and look for the easy way out. Students are coming in lacking foundational knowledge to be successful in the courses. They are not college-ready.  

We are seeing a lot more accommodations for social anxiety and speaking publicly, which can be an issue in certain jobs. 

Online students can be an issue. They want extensions beyond the academic calendar. Or they want accommodation beyond what is in the document.

Faculty need more support to deal with all these expectations. We need help helping the students.

 

A faculty member brought up a concern about the LEARNS Act and the ability to have tenure removed.

 

Old Business

 

Committee Reports and Updates

None.

The Equity Policy will be presented at the next meeting.

 

3:58 pm adjourned by Amanda Mohler

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom

February 20th, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

February 20, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Richard Segall, Karen Graham, Robert Williams, Gary Edwards, Suzanne Melescue, Jamie Passmore, Ibrahim Duyar, Alexandr Sokolov, Eric Dry, Rashele Wade, Kristen Sumler, Savannah Cormier, Dwayne Powell, Kim Vickrey, Eric West, Guolei Zhou, Bert Greenwalt, Jason Causey, Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh, John Hershberger, Rollin Tusalem, Veronika Scudamore, Scott Mangan, Anne McGee, Stephanie Hoeckley, Toccara Carter, DayDay Robinson, Mark Lewis, Jeremy Weeks

 Proxy Attendees: Katie Camden for Kacie Altom, Eric West for Julie King

 Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Calvin White, Will McLean, Alyssa Wells

 Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Robert Bradley, Pradeep Mishra, Hao Yang Teng

 The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Amanda Mohler.

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric Dry, seconded by Rashele Wade; all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the February 6, 2026, meeting minutes was made by Richard Segall and seconded by Eric West; all in favor, the motion carried.

 

New Business
Provost updates and Q&A

Census data is all good, with measurable growth. We are at a 20-year high for retention, same for our graduation rate. It is the highest it has ever been.

Registration starts March 9th. Let us know if you have any issues.

The Spring semester has been quiet, outside of the snowstorm.

Snowstorm FYI - We cannot do a transition to online instruction for in-class instruction courses, per the state legislature. It is the same for the public school system. We cleared the FNB arena quickly because we do not have the power to stop an athletic event.  We cleared the parking lot due to liability issues regarding people attending the athletic events at the FNB. Residential life is always the first area on campus to be cleared, then the student union, then major thoroughfares. Academic buildings are cleared last. We make the decision to open the campus based on the public school system and what they are doing. Next, it is about being able to walk around campus safely and get in and out of buildings.  This was a rare event for this area. We had to manage it to the best of our ability. We did use outside contractors, but they could not keep up (and they were expensive).

Q- Is there a way to say our classes are hybrid? No, it throws us out of HLC and ADHE compliance, and it risks federal and state funding. It’s kind of a “truth in advertising” thing. We have to be consistent in our course format offerings all the way through. AOS is a separate thing because it has always been an all-online modality.

Q- Is there a way to let people know earlier that we are closed? No, we have to play it day by day. Typically, we get a little bit of snow, and then we come back to school. This was an unusual event. We were waiting for the local school districts to make decisions because so many of our employees are parents. We were ready to go with announcements by noon the day before. In the past, we waited until early morning that day to decide to close.

Q- A student asked if we were still going to have Spring Break. Yes, we are having Spring break. He argues that he paid for a whole semester and that he is short a week. This was unusual. Each faculty is an expert to decide how to make up the material so the student gets what they need from the course.

 

Submitted Question: Is there anything that can be done to support A-State employees who use on-campus housing and must now relocate?

Context: We have allowed faculty and staff to stay in on-campus housing. It was never meant to be permanent. It is a great perk. Some staff had been living on campus for a decade or more. Our housing was not full, so we did not make an issue. We understand that affordable housing is tough in this area. We (Dr. White and his family) had a hard time finding housing when we moved to this area. With the record enrollment, we have to free up the housing for the students.

We also need to make room for 120 veterinary students coming to campus. The housing was built and funded as student housing, not staff and faculty housing, so we must stay in compliance with the intent of the funding.

The University Housing Department will help those who received the email to move out by June 15th with letters of reference and to find open housing in town. We cannot help you pay for moving expenses. This impacts 33 people/families.

This is the result of our on-campus housing being full. It hadn’t been full since 2015.

The provost understands the circumstance it puts these 33 people in.

Reach out to Natalie Eskew or Martha Spack with any questions about this situation.

 

Q- Any thoughts about building housing for faculty? Faculty housing is a leftover remnant of the past, and we are not doing that anymore. It is too cost-prohibitive for us due to the tie to state funding. Universities are not building dorms anymore. It is too costly. For example, to tear down Kays Hall and replace it with the same number of beds, it would cost us $98 million, whereas a private contractor can do it for $33 million.

 

Todd Clark, Chief Marketing & Communication Officer, Review of A-State’s Website 

 

Todd Clark has been with A-State for 19 years. Changing a website is a daunting task. His team started the process in 2023. We partnered with a company called I-Factory, a national leader in university website building.  The new focus is on prospective students and their families, to showcase what we have to offer. The old website had info that was important, but was cluttering the website and did not give a good impression (such as grievance procedure links, etc..)

We wanted to make it more searchable and easier to find info. During this process, we launched the Pack Portal.

Our style is more marketing-based now, so that students can easily find what they are interested in.

We had 40,000 pages managed by people who did not have IT training. We now have 4,000 pages. We moved from a .cms system to Modern Campus. It has great functionality. We also had ADA accessibility issues with the old website. The new system takes care of that. We have a 98% ADA accessibility score. We are getting lots of new traffic on the website since it launched. We have a team of 5 people managing IT tickets to improve the website and fix small issues.

The A-Z index was heavily used and is missed. TC is open to conversations about how to make something similar, but you should expect strict rules.

They are evaluating the analytics and fine-tuning the website. It is a work in progress.

The campus calendar is hard to find.  TC can fix that.

The search function can take a while to keep up. The Google crawler is slow. We are seeing search function improvements.

 

Q- Can we improve the KB? Like set favorites?

You can bookmark things in your browser.

The IT team is doing fabulous work with the tickets.

For accessibility, we need to keep PDFs to a bare minimum. It is very hard to make them accessible. Word documents converted to PDF are better than a scanned PDF document.

Clicking on Faculty and Staff pages in a department takes people to the dean’s page, then everyone is on that page, and we have to scroll to find the person. Can we get better staff pages?

Can we get phone numbers in the KB?

Outlook can be a good place to search for people.

Using the search feature in Pack Portal is another good place to find people and phone numbers.

If you find things that are not functional, or want to share feedback, email web@astate.edu

This is an ongoing project we are working on. We are using analytics to dial it in and keep it relevant and up to date.

Email Todd if you are doing interesting things that can be captured and used on the website.

 

Old Business
Committee Reports and Updates

Hans is working on updating the PRT document.

The Provost and Chancellor are presenting the new faculty equity proposal next month, 3/20/26.

There are a few issues with graduation completion checks, and faculty are still listed as advisors. And students are still emailing faculty as advisors.

 

4:18 pm adjourned by Amanda Mohler

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom

February 6th, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

February 6, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Kacie Altom, Richard Segall, Gary Edwards, Suzanne Melescue,

Jamie Passmore, Ibrahim Duyar, Alexandr Sokolov, Eric Dry, Rashele Wade, Kristen Sumler, Savannah Cormier, Dwayne Powell, Kim Vickrey, Eric West, Guolei Zhou, Jason Causey, Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh, Karen Graham, Robert Williams, John Hershberger, Julie King, Hao Yang Teng, Scott Mangan, Anne McGee, Stephanie Hoeckley, Toccara Carter, John Howard

 

Proxy Attendees: John Howard for Jeremy Weeks, Kacie Altom for Audrey Folsom

 

Guests: Kevin Berry, Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian),

 

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Robert Bradley, Pradeep Mishra, Veronika Scudamore, Rollin Tusalem, Bert Greenwalt, DayDay Robinson, Mark Lewis

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00pm by Amanda Mohler.

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric Dry, seconded by Eric West; all are in favor, the motion carried.

 

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the January 16, 2026, meeting minutes was made by Richard Segall and seconded by Karen Graham; all in favor, the motion carried.

 

New Business

Kevin Berry ESL Instructor/Conversation Partners Coordinator

Kevin introduced the topic of Conversation Partners for students enrolled in the English Learning Academy intensively studying English in preparation for another educational program.  The purpose of the program is to establish and foster communication and connection between ESL Learners and domestic/first language English speakers through informal discourse. While in the English Learning Academy, students attend classes the majority of the day 4-5 days a week.  There are five levels of competency, and students are considered for Conversation Partners when they have in levels 3-5.  Currently students enrolled in the program are from a variety of other countries including Japan, China, South Korea, Egypt, Brazil, and Nepal.  This is dynamic and changes semester to semester.

 

As a member of the Conversation Partners program, students would be matched with a Native English Speaker, or someone who is a proficient English speaker.  It is preferred that the partners be current students, employees, or faculty members.  Alumni may participate on a case by case basis. The students provide their preferences (such as gender, background, etc.), and attempts are made to match them with someone that meets their preferences when possible. Kevin oversees the matching process. After being matched, the student and their partner are expected to meet for at least one hour each week.  The partner completes a log.  Topics of conversation do not have to be academic in nature but must be appropriate based on culture and guidelines outlined in the handbook. This program benefits both the student and their partner.  Benefits for the student include, but are not limited to cultural immersion, informal language exchange, and opportunities to meet assignment requirements. Benefits for the native speaker include cross cultural exposure, language building, teaching practice, resume building, service hours, friendships, making connections, and breaking down barriers.

 

Application for conversation partners: QR code shared.  Flyers will be posted around campus

Email kberry@astate.edu

 

Q&A

How many students are you looking to partner? 15ish

Would it be available to others who are not native to English and would like to improve too, or would it be just for ELA students? Eventually would like to expand to others, but to start with would just be ELA program students.

 

Old Business
Committee Reports and Updates

 

Will be bringing equity proposal in next few weeks.

 

Todd Clark is coming to go over the website in a meeting in the near future. Share specific questions with Amanda Mohler in preparation for this.

 

International Studies is coming to talk about services.  Send questions to Amanda Mohler in preparation.

 

Titles of faculty on website: Amanda Mohler has been looking into it.  She asked Todd Clark and he provided some additional contacts.  She is still trying to get more information.  Dr. McGee states that she emailed HR and they fixed it quickly.  She also notes that there were a disproportionate number of females listed as Mrs. instead of Dr. as compared to men who were listed as Mr. instead of Dr. from her department.  

 

Do we have any information regarding what is being done about the inappropriate behaviors that occurred on campus?  Amanda Mohler reports that we have simply been told it is being investigated (per the email sent out).  She will try to get additional information.   

 

3:21 pm adjourned by Amanda Mohler

Minutes recorded by Kacie Altom

January 16th, 2026

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

January 16th, 2026

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Audrey Folsom, Alexandr Sokolov, John Hershberger, Julie King, Rashele Wade, Jason Causey, John Howard, Anne McGee, Rollin Tusalem, Bert Greenwalt, Dwayne Powell, Stephanie Hoeckley, Rob Williams, Kristen Sumler, Richard Segall, Veronika Scudamore, Kacie Altom, Hao Yang Teng, Eric Dry, Kim Vickrey, Scott Mangan, Eric West, DayDay Robinson

Toccara Carter, Mark Lewis, Ibrahim Duyar, Gary Edwards

Proxy Attendees: Rob Williams for Karen Graham, John Howard for LTC J. Matt Weeks
 

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Christine Wright, Will McLean, Alyssa Wells, Calvin White
 

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Jamie Pasmore, Robert Bradley, Suzanne Melescue, Pradeep Mishra, Banafsheh Aghayeebianeh, Guolei Zhou, Savannah Cormier

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Amanda Mohler

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric West, seconded by Ibrahim Duyar; all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the November 21st, 2025 meeting minutes by Richard Segall, seconded by Kim Vickrey, all are in favor, and the motion carried.

 

Provost Q&A

Welcome back! It’s been a quiet two weeks. We are 3rd in research productivity now, out of all the research institutions. Reported research and development expenditures increased by 49.6 percent, placing the university third in Arkansas, behind only the University of Arkansas and UAMS. This is where we should be.

We have an 87.7% freshmen retention rate. This is thanks to the advising model.  Our goal is to hit 91%. Retention overall is up 5% points; this is huge. We are now in the low 60%, an improvement. We have kept the same rigor. We have increased resources in the library, we have spent more for library resources than we have spent in the past decade.

The Veterinary School is on track, with glowing reviews from the accrediting body. They visited on January 6th. We are scheduled to admit the first class in the Fall of 2026. It will quickly become self-funded.

We are navigating the political climate and protecting our institution. Note that tenure will not protect you from being let go due to overtly controversial political views expressed publicly.

Our enrollment numbers are up. 

CourseDog is operating in the background to optimize the schedule. It will be live in the fall and will manage our spaces for maximum effective use.

It’s been a really good year so far, and none of this is possible without you.

The Chancellor is externally focused, working for our institution. This will only increase. The day-to-day operations of the campus are under the purview of the provost right now, and Will McLean is stepping into more responsibilities in the provost’s office.

Thank you to Travis Marsico and Dean Nesbitt for working so hard behind the scenes.

Questions for the provost

Any updates on removing the need for accreditation, as Texas did for its law schools? We are watchful and having conversations with the legislators. 

Let’s enjoy our wins.

Any discussion about the LEARNS Act? It’s not going away right now. We cannot hide behind accreditation right now, because national accreditation may be taken away and administered at the state-level.

Will we have to put up the 10 Commandments documents like U of A?. It’s delayed right now; we are waiting on the courts to rule on the issue. For more info, read this article https://arkansasadvocate.com/2025/10/10/university-of-arkansas-installing-ten-commandments-posters-required-by-state-law/

Dean Beaupre and Tiffany Keb will present the new Pay Equity Policy soon.

 

New Business
  1. PRT – Clarification of the PRT process discussed at the end of fall. This clarification is different than what is written in the Handbook. Should we modify the PRT portion of the Handbook? It hasn’t been updated in a long time. Updating it will standardize what document is required in the process and define the involvement of the department chairs. We will look into this. It isn’t fair to change PRT requirements in the 3rd
  2. Spring 2026 Goals: Several speakers are scheduled. Any requests? Does anyone want to be part of the ombudsperson committee? Do we still need it?
  3. Todd Clark – Senators are asking about the A-Z index, could we have it back? Can we get better Staff pages to find contact info? General website navigation help is needed. The Knowledge Base doesn’t always have the correct info, or links are broken.

 

Old business

Committee Reports – nothing to report.

 

 

3:43 pm adjournment by Amanda Mohler.

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom  

November 21st 2025

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

November 21st, 2025

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Audrey Folsom, John Hershberger, Julie King, Rashele Wade, Jason Causey, John Howard, Suzanne Melescue, Anne McGee, Bert Greenwalt, Dwayne Powell, Pradeep Mishra, Stephanie Hoeckley, Rob Williams, Karen Graham, Banafsheh Aghayeebianeh, Kristen Sumler, Richard Segall, Veronika Scudamore, Hao Yang Teng, Guolei Zhou, Eric Dry, Kim Vickrey, Jamie Pasmore, Scott Mangan, Robert Bradley, Eric West, Savannah Cormier,

Toccara Carter, Mark Lewis, Ibrahim Duyar

Proxy Attendees: John Hershberger for Amanda Mohler, John Howard for LTC J. Matt Weeks
 

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Will McLean, Alyssa Wells, Travis Marsico
 

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Kacie Altom, Alexandr Sokolov, Donna Caldwell, Rollin Tusalem, Gary Edwards, DayDay Robinson

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by John Hershberger

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Julie King, seconded by Rob Williams; all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the November 7th, 2025 meeting minutes by Richard Segall, seconded by Eric West, all are in favor, and the motion carried.

 

New Business
Will McLean (Q&A)
  1. At the University PRT committee meeting, it was brought to everyone’s attention that faculty are evaluated on the department and college criteria in place during their 3rd -year review. However, many faculty were under the impression that they were evaluated on the PRT criteria that were in place during their first year. According to the faculty handbook on page 59, “Pre-tenured faculty will be evaluated for tenure and promotion based on the department, college, and university criteria in place during their third year of employment on a pre-tenure appointment.” This statement can be interpreted both ways. Some faculty members interpret this statement as meaning they will be evaluated during their third year, according to the criteria that have been put in place for them. While other faculty interpret this statement that they will be evaluated during their third year based on the current PRT document. It would seem unfair to evaluate faculty on criteria that may change halfway to tenure and promotion. Can you clarify what PRT guidelines are faculty evaluated on during their third-year review?

The document you start with in the first year is the one you are being held accountable to in the third-year review. The provost will give the most liberal interpretation for the faculty, using the most flexibility. The language should be updated for clarity. The majority of the campus is operating with the lens of using the document from the first year. It is important that you meet with your department and college PRT committees, so that you are clear about the process.

Mark Lewis makes a motion to update the language of the PRT section through SGOC. Motion seconded and passed.

 

Will said this is the smoothest semester since the Provost started. Course Dog is launched to maximize space use across campus. The new website has been launched (it will take time to get it all right, be patient). Many changes have happened this semester. 

 

Travis Marsico, Vice Provost for Research, Innovation, and Discovery & Executive Director of the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, FRAC Proposal

FRAC is an internal awards process for research funds. The FRAC proposal seeks one representative per college, except UC. The review process has been improved.

The traditional FRAC award is for up to 20,000 for one year, the Provost Award is for up to 60,000 for 2 years. Plus, there are many more smaller awards available in the FRAC portal, including travel awards. The application review workload is better distributed now. The FRAC committee also handles sabbatical leave awards.

Feedback is given to improve the proposals so that we get more competitive proposals for funding, including external funding.

With the increased funding for research, the committee wants the process to be the smoothest and most efficient it can be, with members who are knowledgeable about research and represent the type of research being done across campus.

Travis talked about how the committee functions throughout the academic year.

FRAC@astate.edu is the email for any questions.

Karen Graham motions for the Faculty Senate to support this proposal, seconded by Julie King. Discussion: Modify the sentence about confirming the appointments. The decision should be at the college level. The committee appointment process should be clarified on the proposal.  

John is moving to amend the motion so that we can do a modification of the proposal, Julie seconds. All in favor of the modification of the document.

 

John Hershberger, Equity Proposal

Amendment to 2.a.i. proposed by John, seconded by Eric Dry:

  1. Address the salary compression issue (to minimize salary compression by raising existing salaries)
  2. Minimize bias (implicit or explicit) in the decision-making process.

All in favor of the amendment.

John made a motion to pass the document as amended: Kim Vickrey seconded. All in favor, motion passes.

 

University Learning Outcomes Proposal

Must be voted on within 21 days. So, we may need to meet on December 5th or do an email vote.

This is an update from the 2017 version. This addresses some semantic issues and aligns it to the current university’s mission.

Would it cause some issues with the assessment measures? Could we keep items III and IV in the same order as the 2017 version so that the alignment of the program learning objectives across campus don’t have to be recoded? Kevin Hennings stated that this would not be an issue and that the ULO could be edited to flip items III and IV.

Motion to table it until December 5th due to needing time for dissemination and review, by John Hershberger, Eric Dry seconded. Motion passed. This would be the only item that needs to be addressed at that time so we can do email feedback and a Qualtrics vote.

 

Old business
Committee Reports

None

 

4:12 pm adjournment by John Hershberger.

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom  

November 7th, 2025

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

November 7th, 2025

Humanities and Social Sciences 1028

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, John Hershberger, Kacie Altom, Alexandr Sokolov, Julie King, Rashele Wade, Jason Causey, Suzanne Melescue, Anne McGee, Bert Greenwalt, Dwayne Powell, Stephanie Hoeckley,  Rob Williams, Karen Graham, Banafsheh Aghayeebianeh, Kristen Sumler, Richard Segall, Veronika Scudamore, Hao Yang Teng, Guolei Zhou, Eric Dry, Jamie Pasmore, Scott Mangan, Robert Bradley, Donna Caldwell, Toccara Carter, Mark Lewis, Ibrahim Duyar, Rollin Tusalem, Gary Edwards, DayDay Robinson

Proxy Attendees: none

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Annette Hux, Loretta McGregor, Nikesha Nesbitt, K.R. Johnson, Sean Binkley, Rocky Wilson, Dionne Haag, Josh Dennis

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Kim Vickrey, LTC J. Matt Weeks, Eric West, Savannah Cormier, Pradeep Mishra

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Amanda Mohler.

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric Dry, seconded by John Hershberger; all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the October 3rd, 2025 meeting minutes by Richard Segall, seconded by Julie King, all are in favor, and the motion carried.

 

New Business
Dr. Nesbitt, Dean of University College & Dr. K.R. Johnson – Study Resources

ATLAS and HOWL (total of 15 students)

What can faculty do to support students in their literacy?

Transition studies students: those students do not meet the normal conditional admittance to the university. They take foundational courses to build them up so they can take college-level courses. https://www.astate.edu/college/university-college/transition-studies/

HOWL transition students are not the same as the transition studies students.

The H.O.W.L. (Helping Our Wolves Learn) Transition Program provides the A-State experience to students with intellectual/developmental disabilities and/or autism.

The A.T.L.A.S. Transition Program Certificate is a non-degree granting program designed to provide students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and/or Autism with a post-secondary education. The certificate program allows individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and/or Autism access to interdisciplinary enrichment and community engagement to empower students to become self-determined leaders in their lives.

This generation is learning differently, across the board, and there is a drop in literacy in the US.

We have resources that the students can use to help them.

The Lupine Wellness Center has some intensive academic resources for those students that have severe deficits.

Are there resources for ESL students to get them ready for our harder courses (such as those offered in the College of Nursing and Health Professions)? There are some in international studies, but most are not admitted through the ESL program. They are admitted on the basis of a TOEFL score. International students are struggling with test-taking. They generally do not meet the AAS accommodations requirements (language barrier is not a learning disability).  

Is accommodating the students through college setting them up for failure in the workplace?

Transfer students are also not at the level that we need, depending on the institution they come from.

You can refer them to the Early Alert system to connect to some resources to help them meet the standards to be successful in the course.

Faculty are the front line to identify struggling students. It is up to us to help them.

If you have a HOWL or ATLAS student in your classroom, you will know because you will be contacted by the staff. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any issues or concerns.

 

Sean Binkley, Assistant Director of Study Abroad

Sean talked about study abroad programs.

There are 3 types:

  1. Short term – 2 to 4 weeks, led by A-State faculty (42 students going this year), are A-State courses
  2. Third-party programs – third-party groups (partner programs and internships) can get course credit if there is an A-State contract (9 students this year)
  3. Long-term exchange – studying at a foreign university for one semester to a year (50 students this year)

Destinations for this Spring and Summer: Greece, Dominica, Netherlands, Mexico, Germany, Taiwan, France

Chinese language learning camp in Taiwan

Exchange destinations: UK - Canterbury Christchurch; Germany - University of Applied Sciences Dusseldorf; Spain - University de Huelva, France - KEDGE business school; Rikkyo university in Japan; Dankook and Dongkuk in South Korea

Application deadlines are usually in February or March. There are basic eligibility requirements. The student needs to have 2 semesters completed.

New initiatives:

  1. Study away (domestic) NYC graphic design 2026
  2. Exploring CIMBA in Italy and Brunel in UK; Galway in Ireland for faculty-led programs

New scholarship: Summer Escape

Passport information sessions are offered twice a semester.

Cost is always an issue, but we try to keep the cost down. Students can apply for the travel voucher program or scholarship to help with costs.

 

Rocky Wilson, Dionne Haag, & Josh Dennis – Textbook Brokers, Inclusive Access Program

Inclusive access is a new program (2023); it is also called Knowledge Now.

It offers:

  1. Day 1 access digitally
  2. Market pricing or better
  3. Billed directly to the student account (separate from tuition and housing)

It does not change the required materials; it changes the delivery and billing mechanism.

Students can opt out. They can opt back in within a certain window if they need to.

You have to set up an LMS link in your Canvas shell for them to access it. That is where they can opt out if they want to.

So far, we have a 98.2% participation rate. Opt-outs are mainly due to course repeats.

8,091 students are participating. 547 courses.

This helps with retention.

Availability is dependent on the publishers, and we can negotiate with them.

It is possible to have multiple semesters or years of access to the same textbook.  

Contact bookstore@astate.edu

If a student drops before the census date, they should get a refund. After that date, there is no refund.

 

Proposals: Faculty Senate Pay Equity Advisory Policy and FRAC Structure & Terms
Faculty Senate Pay Equity.

4.a.i - Why 86.5%? It was pulled from economic data for the region. Should we modify this?

3.a.3 - Why 2 per college? There are different sizes of colleges; some have more faculty than others. Maybe use a percentage?

 

FRAC – there will be someone to answer questions about this next meeting (11/21/2025)

 

Old business
Committee Reports

None

 

4:45 pm adjournment by Amanda Mohler

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom  

 

October 3rd, 2025

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY 

FACULTY SENATE MEETING 

October 3rd, 2025 

Reynolds 204 

  

Attendees: Audrey Folsom, John Hershberger, Kacie Altom, Julie King, Rashele Wade, Jason Causey, Suzanne Melescue, Anne McGee, Dwayne Powell, Stephanie Hoeckley,  Rob Williams, Karen Graham, Banafsheh Aghayeebianeh, Eric West, Kristen Sumler, Richard Segall, Hao Yang Teng, Guolei Zhou, Eric Dry, Scott Mangan, Donna Caldwell, Savannah Cormier, Toccara Carter, Mark Lewis, Bert Greenwalt, Ibrahim Duyar, Pradeep Mishra, Rollin Tusalem, Gary Edwards, DayDay Robinson, LTC J. Matt Weeks 
 

Proxy Attendees: Kacie Altom for Amanda Mohler and Jamie Pasmore, Eric Scudamore for Veronika Scudamore, Chiqian Zhang as proxy for Alexandr Sokolov 

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Will McLean, Alyssa Wells, Madeline Ragland, John Howard, Tom Moore 

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Kim Vickrey, Robert Bradley 

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Kacie Altom.  

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by John Hershberger, seconded by Rashele Wade, all are in favor, the motion carried.  
 

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the September 19th, 2025 meeting minutes by Richard Segall, seconded by Rob Williams, all are in favor, and the motion carried. 

 

New Business 
Madeline Ragland, Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Student Services. 
Commencement announcement 

December commencement was packed last year so we will add a 2nd ceremony in December. There will be a 10 am and a 2 pm ceremony in December and May. Campus communication will go out the week of 10/6/2025. 

We will keep this format going forward. We will no longer have an August commencement ceremony. The students finishing in August can choose to walk in May or December. Pinning and hooding ceremonies can continue as scheduled as the departments and programs wish.  

Why are we eliminating August? Spacing, funding, and staffing considerations. It aligns with best practices for universities across the nation.  

Questions: Will the lineup of colleges change? Will the split between morning and afternoon assignment change? A: Not planned but will consider. We plan to try to distribute the attendees evenly between the 2 commencements. We could consider alternating which colleges attend morning or afternoon between December and May.  

A concern was brought up about the graduates leaving after they receive their diploma. The “leave as they receive their diploma” order was approved by the board of trustees. It helps with traffic.  

A concern was brought up about the faculty seating rearrangement to greet the graduates from their college during commencement. It causes some confusion when we come and go. Maybe we need a clearer announcement for when the colleges switch and a more orderly way to rotate.  

 

Old business  
Committee Reports  

Equity Policy – the plan is to have the Equity policy by the end of the fall semester. The faculty senate needs to vote on it on 11/21. It will go out to the senators by 11/5 so that they can share it with their faculty. We will discuss it on 11/7. 

Have we seen the dean’s version of the provost’s Equity policy yet? No.  

The provost’s policy will be available for feedback from the Faculty Senate. It is currently with legal counsel. 

The Faculty Senate’s version of the Equity policy is your opportunity to advocate for what we want in the policy. The provost will take it into consideration for the final draft of the Equity Policy 

 

The Financial Aid and Scholarship Committee has new roles. It will hear financial aid appeals and help with scholarship applications that are “orphaned” (they don’t already belong to a specific college or department). Historically, appeals were processed by the financial aid office, which poses a conflict of interest.  

 

Secretary’s update about Faculty Senate Minutes storage after the website change:  

The new website design strongly discourages the use of PDFs and Word documents. It’s an accessibility issue. We want to be ADA-compliant. The new website launches soon (this fall), therefore, we have not posted any of the newly approved minutes. After a discussion with Chris Boothman and Todd Clark, the Faculty Senate executive committee opted to use the Knowledge Base to post the approved Faculty Senate minutes for this academic year and going forward. The Faculty Senate will have a page in the Knowledge Base, and minutes will be posted as webpages there. We have 20+ years of historical Faculty Senate Minutes in PDF format. Eric Dry suggested that we use the Institutional Repository to house the historical Faculty Senate minutes. We will coordinate with the library to make this happen.  

 

3:31 pm adjournment by Kacie Altom 

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom   

 

September 19th, 2025

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

September 19th, 2025

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, John Hershberger, Julie King, Jason Causey, Suzanne Melescue, Anne McGee, Dwayne Powell, Stephanie Hoeckley, Jamie Pasmore, Rob Williams, Karen Graham, Bana Aghayeebianeh, Eric West, Kristen Sumler, Kim Vickrey, Alexandr Sokolov, Richard Segall, Hao Yang Teng, Eric Dry, Scott Mangan, Donna Caldwell, Savannah Cormier, Toccara Carter, Mark Lewis, Bert Greenwalt, Ibrahim Duyar, Pradeep Mishra, Rollin Tusalem, Gary Edwards, Robert Bradley, Veronika Scudamore, DayDay Robinson, Maj. Jeremey Matt Weeks

Proxy Attendees: Addie Fleming for Kacie Altom, Fredrick Webb for Rashele Wade

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Russ Hannah, Todd Shields, Calvin White, Will McLean, Alyssa Wells, Ray Benson, Tom Moore, Matt Harmon, Johnny Richwine

Absentees: Marceline Thompson-Hayes, Guolei Zhou

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm.

 

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric Dry, seconded by Eric West, all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the September 5th, 2025 meeting minutes by Richard Segall, seconded by Rob Williams, all are in favor, and the motion carried.

 

Chancellor & Provost Q&A
  1. Provost: Thank you for all the hard work and welcome. Smoothest start in the last 5 years because of the work and changes put in tplace. Thank you for teaching larger classes. This is good for financial security. All metrics are going in the right direction. Wingate Hall and Vet school are well underway. Record enrollment. Freshman class of 2300 students, 2100 on campus.
  2. Chancellor:  2nd visit for the vet school in January, MArch approval, students admitted in Fall 2026. Freshmen to Physician got over 100 million views. NYIT is expanding their DO cohort and adding a PA program. We may renovate the Education Leadership building (or demolish it) to expand NYIT. Workforce project with ASU-Newport and ANC partnership (students start there and finish with us) like the PEAK innovation center. Steel testing and research center moves forward. We can be the third-party tester for steel testing. 800 school closings last year. We are staying ahead of it. Number of 18 yr olds is down. Board passed an increase in tuition and fees. We made sure we were still cheaper than competitors. It did not hurt enrollment.
  3. Considering the current practices taking place throughout the nation, what is the University and University Police doing to ensure the safety of international students?

We are meeting with those students in private (for their protection) and they have a plan. As a state institution we must comply with the law. Dr. Hannah: we have had extensive conversation with UPD about our concern for our students. We have had discussions about protocol with UPD and legal counsel.

 

  1. Learning Support Services states that, "there is not an established resource to assist students with reading, but we are working towards remedying that." (Kyle Walker, 9/16/25). Can you inform us about the status of this remedy? Will the remedy be robust enough to fully meet the need, considering high school seniors have had the worst reading scores since 1992?

Learn to read until 3rd grade, then read to learn. This is a national trend. We have beefed up UC to address this issue. We are supporting this effort by increasing the resources of UC. We are dealing with these issues.  

 

  1. On the agenda for A-State’s Board of Trustees meeting, a discussion was held to rescind the current telecommuting policy and replace it with a new remote work policy. Can you update the faculty on this policy change and explain what it means for the faculty?

That was tabled and not passed. It must be in compliance with the governor’s executive order that applies to executive administrators like the provost and chancellor (they cannot be remote). We are making sure that the policy makes sense. From now on you must be in a contiguous state to be hired into AOS in a remote work position. A system level policy. This is due to workmen’s compensation programs and healthcare coverage. Tenure-track positions will not be 100% online.

  1. Parking: parking passes for adjuncts – can the cost be adjusted? That is a valid point. We do have enough parking on campus. You will have to walk more.

 

New Business

Dr. Hannah.
1. Equity pool of $60,000 – why is it so small, can we make it higher? It would have to come through the budget process. It would have to come from somewhere else.

Provost - Legal does have our updated faculty equity policy. It will come before the Faculty Senate for feedback soon. We can evaluate it with the one that the Faculty Senate Equity Committee has developed.

2. Outstanding balances from the Fall term will prevent students from registering for Spring classes. Can we put a framework in place to help students register? We will work with any students that need help. Refer students to the emergency fund for issues that come up and are hard to deal with.

The Chancellor and Provost thank you for all your hard work.

 

Old business
Committee Reports

Equity Policy – can we look at the policy with all the feedback soon? A suggestion is that a letter of recommendation could come from the faculty senate committee, or maybe from PRT committee to support pay equity requests. How would we deal with the workload? Do we need to form a university-level committee for Equity? Do we need to work with the budget committee to increase the equity pool?

 

Toccara brought up concerns about the students’ high bills and their inability to purchase books for their classes. She suggests doing inclusive access through the bookstore so they have the book for the class at the beginning of the class and it is billed as part of the tuition. It is a higher price for some books. A kit can be a book. Toccara will send info about this.

The meeting was adjourned by Amanda Mohler at 3:39 pm

 

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom, approved on 10/3/2025  (uploaded to KB 10/14/2025)

 

September 5th, 2025

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

September 5th, 2025

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Jason Causey, Rashele Wade, Suzanne Melescue, Anne McGee, Dwayne Powell, Stephanie Hoeckley, Kacie Altom, Jamie Pasmore, Rob Williams, Karen Graham, Kristen Sumler, Kim Vickrey, Richard Segall, Hao Yang Teng, Guolei Zhou, Eric Dry, Scott Mangan, Veena Kulkarni, Mark Lewis, Bert Greenwalt, Ibrahim Duyar, Pradeep Mishra, Rollin Tusalem, Gary Edwards, Robert Bradley, Veronika Scudamore, DayDay Robinson, Maj. Jeremey Matt Weeks, Marceline Thompson-Hayes

Proxy Attendees: Amy Hyman for Julie King

Guests: Kevin Hennings (parliamentarian), Meredith McFadden, Dominique Halett

Absentees: John Hershberger, Savannah Cormier, Alexandr Sokolov, Bana Aghayeebianeh, Eric West, Donna Caldwell, Toccara Carter

 

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm.

Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Eric Dry, seconded by Rob Williams, all are in favor, the motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: The motion to approve the April 18th, 2025 meeting minutes by Eric Dry, seconded by Ibrahim Duyar, all are in favor, and the motion was carried out.

 

Appointments

  1. Election of Senate Secretary, Audrey Folsom
  2. Election of Vice-President, Kacie Altom
  3. Reappointment of Parliamentarian, Kevin Hennings

All appointments motions were carried out (I failed to note the individual motions and seconds)

 

New Business

To help with our R2 status, the library would like to know your needs. The survey was sent on the faculty list-serv. It closes 9/12

“The library is conducting a brief survey (approx. 10 minutes) to determine the research needs of faculty and to help us to make decisions on what programs/services we might want to implement in the future. This survey will be used to determine research needs of faculty and to help us to make decisions on what programs/services we might want to implement in the future.  Your answers will help us better support our faculty's research.  We need to better understand the needs of our faculty.

 

The survey will be open until Friday, September 12, 2025, 5pm.   All responses are anonymous.” https://astate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9tsgmq5tC88d2Xs  

 

ARCH – AState Research and Creativity Hub – to support our research focus. https://arch.astate.edu/

Digital commons platform from Elsevier with collections and archives, scholarly and creative works. It’s an open-access platform. You can submit your published works, conference presentations, photos, recordings, etc. to be listed there. Email Meredith for submission. “Under the ARCH” houses short videos that tell everyone about the work that you do. It is in the vein of the 3-minute thesis format. If you are interested in being featured in “Under the ARCH” contact Meredith McFadden. We have unlimited storage space there. Create@State posters will be housed in ARCH this year.

Nursing tuition increased to pay for facilities upgrades across campus (for deferred maintenance). Practicum courses were assessed $86 per credit hour, and an additional $46 for regular face-to-face credit hours, on and off-campus. A total of $183,000 more was paid by nursing students this fall. The average nursing student is paying anywhere from $500 to $1,100 more than other students. The nursing faculty was notified by the parents of students. We do not know the originator of the extra fees (but they were approved by the Board of Trustees in June and this was discussed in the June EC meeting). The fees are to cover deferred maintenance across campus, in spaces beyond the buildings that the nursing students use. Senators should look at your students’ fees, for nursing one was called a nursing clinical fee but it is not being used for clinical practices/courses. The money is not coming to the school of nursing or the college. Parents investigated and noticed that it is not listed on the website as a fee either. Nursing leadership has reached out to Academic Affairs for an explanation. This may be the topic of the next faculty senate meeting with the provost. You can ask your students if they have noticed any additional fees that were not charged in previous semesters.

Ombudsman committee will continue this year and needs a new chair. “Do we need an ombudsperson on campus?” That is the main question this committee is trying to address.

The IRB committee will also continue and needs a new chair or co-chair. The goal is to better understand the IRB process for research and to help streamline and improve the review process.

Both committees have very dedicated members that are willing to do the work. We need a senator to chair each one, per the bylaws.

Karen Graham will chair the IRB, motion by Kacie Altom, seconded by Dwayne Powell. All in favor. The motion carries.

Rashelle Wade will chair the ombudsman committee, motion by Ibrahim Duyar, seconded by Eric Dry. All in favor. The motion carries.

The Chancellor is coming to the 9/19 meeting (with the Provost) and to the 10/3 one.

Concerns about Pay Equity were brought up and about how obscure the process is to apply for an equity adjustement. Many faculty are unaware that the process even exists. There should be a central page on our website for this info. The info is housed in the Faculty Handbook.

The Pay Equity committee is still working on their proposal. They are still accepting comments on their draft proposal. The draft proposal will be added to our Faculty Senate Teams. John is co-chairing with Joseph. Equity Salary Review Salary.docx

Suggestion: Using Teams to host faculty senate meetings to open up the opportunity for online faculty. The Faculty Senate Bylaws would have to be amended to allow for this. We can explore this option. 

Old business
Committee Reports

None

The meeting was adjourned by Amanda Mohler at 3:55 pm.

Minutes recorded by Audrey Folsom, approved on 9/19/2025  (uploaded to KB 10/14/2025)