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
- Election of Senate Secretary, Audrey Folsom
- Election of Vice-President, Kacie Altom
- Reappointment of Parliamentarian, Kevin Hennings
All appointments motions were carried out (I failed to note the individual motions and seconds)
New Business
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Dominque Hallet – Library Survey
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
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Meredith McFadden – Institutional Repository
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.
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Campus fees
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.
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2025-26 goals for Faculty Senate
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)