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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  

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