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January 17th, 2025

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY SENATE MEETING

January 17th, 2025

Reynolds 222

 

Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Alexandr Sokolov, Shanon Brantley, Katie Camden, Kristen Sumler, John Hershberger, Stephanie Hoeckley, Savannah Cormier, Jessica Curtis, Sarah Scott, Pradeep Mishra, Donna Caldwell, Trinity Pullam, Jamie Pasmore, Ed Salo, Toccara Carter, Suzanne Melescue, Hung-Chi Su, Guolei Zhou, Khem Aryal, Scott Mangan, Hao Yang Teng, LTC Morgan Weatherly, Kim Vickrey, Mark Lewis, Richard Segall, Eric Dry, Bert Greenwalt, Argelia Lorence

Proxy Attendees: Rebecca Wellborn for Rashele Wade, Sarah Scott for Karen Graham, Banafsheh Aghayeeabianeh for Veena Kulkarni, Eric West for Julie King, Veronica Scudamore for Paul Finnicum, Ibrahim Duyar for Robert Williams 

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

Absentees: Zahid Hossain, DayDay Robinson, Rollin Tusalem, Gary Edwards, Robert Williams, Dwayne Powell

 

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 Donna Parker all in favor, motion carried.

Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the December 6th, 2024, meeting minutes by Richard Segall seconded by John Hershberger, all in favor, motion carried.

 

Provost Q&A

  1. Welcome back, we had the highest December graduation this year, and we have a great start to the Spring term.
  2. How are clinical hours accounted for in the faculty workload?
    1. We haven’t tackled the faculty workload yet. Academic Affairs (AA) is not touching clinical hours because there is a variance between disciplines. They are set by colleges and departments due to accreditation requirements. The deans decide this. Right now we do not have a formula. Workload is discipline-set, AA does not override this.
  3. How are the credit workloads delineated among faculty in the college/department?
    1. It is department-specific. The percentage distribution of workload for a faculty can change between departments due to accrediting agency requirements. AA will not set these.
    2. If there are concerns about inter-department equity issues, where do we take them? To the program director (or coordinator), then the department chair, then the dean. Follow the grievance progress. It only comes up to AA if the dean cannot resolve it. Teaching load reductions must be justified. AA only checks productivity.
  4. Can workloads for the upcoming terms be sent out by the chairs/dean by a specific deadline to allow for better preparation?
    1. The provost will address this with the deans next week.
  5. Comments on the State of the State Address by the Governor. We are prepped for all the issues she talked about. We got praised. We are doing it right, we are getting in front of it. We will make our own future. This is part of what our chancellor and provost are doing in Little Rock and why they spend a lot of time there.
  6. Where is DEI going? We have been successful in making DEI more expansive to include everyone. We have widened the circle to address everyone’s issues. Narrowing the circle gets us in trouble. We are being strategic and we are talking to our senators and representatives.
  7. Thank you for what you do. Have a great semester!

 

 

New Business

  1. Spring tasks:
    1. The equity committee is in place and they are working on a document for the senate and provost to review.
    2. Alexandr Sokolov is almost done with the proposal for non-tenure track promotion.
    3. Should we have an ombudsperson for issues within departments/colleges? A national organization (AAUP) protects faculty and could be instated on campus and this person would be the representative for the faculty. This person would support the faculty in the grievance process. Could we put an ad-hoc committee together to gauge interest and study what is done elsewhere? Joining AAUP does have a cost. This advocacy would help the faculty resolve the issue possibly before it goes through the grievance process. Which senator would like to chair this committee? Jessica Curtis agreed to be chair. Motion to approve by Sarah Scott and seconded by Katie Camden. Motion passes.
    4. Any other projects we want to work on? Fix the IRB process. There are issues throughout the process for all the colleges. We can put an ad-hoc committee together to study the issues faculty are having with IRB approval across campus. Who wants to chair? Katie Camden will chair the IRB one. Sarah Scott motioned for approval and Eric Dry seconded. Motion passes.

 

Old business.

  1. What happened to the team-teaching proposal? It will be sent to the chancellor soon.

The meeting was adjourned by Amanda Mohler at 3:44 pm.

Minutes prepared by Audrey Folsom, approved on 2/7/2025 (uploaded to KB on 10/14/2025)

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