November 1st, 2024
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY SENATE MEETING
November 1st, 2024
Reynolds 222
Attendees: Amanda Mohler, Audrey Folsom, Pradeep Mishra, Robert Williams, Rashele Wade, Dwayne Powell, Jessica Curtis, Julie King, Katie Camden, Trinity Pullam, Kristen Sumler, Jamie Pasmore, Alexandr Sokolov, Suzanne Melescue, Shanon Brantley, Hao Yang Teng, Guolei Zhou, John Hershberger, Toccara Carter, Stephanie Hoeckley, Ed Salo, Scott Mangan, LTC J. Morgan Weatherly, Mark Lewis, Bert Greenwalt, Richard Segall, Hung-Shi Su, Eric Dry, Veena Kulkarni, Ibrahim Duyar, Asher Pimpleton-Gray
Proxy Attendees: Amanda Wheeler Gryffin (proxy for Paul Finnicum), Robert Williams (proxy for Karen Graham)
Guests: Will McLean, Calvin White
Absentees: Khem Aryal, Donna Caldwell, Savannah Cormier, Gary Edwards, Zahid Hossain, Dayday Robinson, Sarah Scott, Rollin Tusalem, Kim Vickrey
The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm.
Order of the Day: Motion to approve the order of the day by Richard Segall, seconded by Alexandr Sokolov, all in favor, motion carried.
Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve the October 18th, 2024, meeting minutes by Katie C, seconded by John H, all in favor, motion carried.
Provost Q&A
- What professional development opportunities are there for adjunct faculty members? Many of our adjuncts work full-time jobs and cannot commit to a full 7-month ACUE course in addition to their jobs and teaching 1-3 classes. However, many adjuncts have never taught before. What resources are available from A-State to help them learn the best pedagogical practices?
Answer: We are limited to what we can do because they are not full-time and do not have full-time benefits. There should be training at the department and college level for those adjuncts. If they are not competent, they should not be hired.
CETL is accessible to all, and small tutorials will be released by CETL in the near future. If the adjuncts are teaching 9 hours, they might need to be full time.
- I found out recently that students receiving counseling services at A-State only receive a session every other week due to staff shortages. Does A-State plan to return to a model where students can receive counseling every week?
Answer: Academic Affairs does not control counseling services. The Chancellor was consulted and is aware. This is a Dr Spack question (Student Affairs). We have contacted St B and NEA to see what help we can get. The demand is through the roof. We have the most anxious generation. The counseling staff is there, fully staffed, the demand has grown exponentially. It is the same on all campuses.
We are looking for college-ready students, but we need to stop doing that because they do not exist. We need to make the campus ready for the student that is going to arrive. We need more resources there to meet the needs.
- Last year, University Graduate Assistantships were not awarded until the summer. Will that funding be released earlier this academic year?
Answer: We are hiring a grad school dean, and we will look over this process and redistribute the positions according to need. They have not been rearranged or re-evaluated in a while (5 years).
- Are there any plans to increase the compensation A-State offers adjunct employees?
Answer: They are grossly underpaid. To increase pay we need to increase recruitment and retention. They are also thinly used. If they taught larger classes, we could pay them more because we would need less of them (1 adjunct x 60 students vs 3 adjuncts x 20 students). We may need to use more instructors instead of adjuncts. We need to stop the overuse of adjuncts when we don’t need them.
Will added: Look at your curriculum; are you trying to be everything to everyone. Do you have too many electives and therefore need too many adjuncts? There are pilots of 90 hours baccalaureate degrees in other institutions. They are stripping gen eds. This is coming from the state legislation.
- At A-State, there is a shocking lack of funding available for low-income returning students who are not single parents. Would the administration consider creating or advocating for scholarships to allow these students to return to school later in life?
Answer: This administration has spent over $100,000 from the foundation funds to wipe away the balances of struggling students. This was not publicized due to the political climate. Low-income students have great GPAs and ACT scores, these are our Promise Plus students. We are raising more money for needs-based education funding. We are doing it but also simply not publicizing it. We are removing barriers for those students to be able to re-enroll and continue to matriculate through their programs.
Comments from the Provost.
“Camelot is over” we have pressures to provide a workforce pipeline. It is better if we come up with the plans and degrees for it than if it is mandated by the state.
To set the record straight on the bonuses: 9 faculty out of 500 are not getting bonuses (due to high DFW rates). We are doing good. They have been personally notified by the provost, so don’t worry you would have gotten an email from the provost if you are not getting the bonus. The bonus was to reward retention, graduation rates, or recruitment.
New Business
Pradeep Mishra, faculty member and director of printing services: We are invited to come over and see what they can do for us. They are located on the first floor of the Ed Com building (south of the library).
We are encouraged to order from printing services instead of using outside print shops. Admissions sent post cards, 45,000 of them and were going to put address stickers on them. Printing services was able to do it faster and cheaper than the traditional way (no stickers) and saved $100,000.
Check with printing services before you go off campus.
They can print scientific posters. Don't buy a printer, the ink will dry, and it will end up being a waste.
They can make T-shirts in many colors, they simply only stock the traditional A-State colors. They can order more T-shirt colors if we want them. They can only do group orders for T-shirts.
They also work 8-5 M-F so they need lead time for any projects.
They are working on updating the website so you can see all the items available (astate.swagforce.com).
Need a PO to order.
They can also manage outside orders for you if they don’t carry the item you want.
Old business
none
Adjourned by Amanda Mohler at 3:47 pm.
Minutes prepared by Audrey Folsom, approved on 11/15/2024 (uploaded to KB 10/14/2025)