Faculty Senate Meeting
April 14, 2003
Minutes

Members Present:  Robert Larsen (Presiding), Steve Betros, Roger Bowles, Dale Bullock, Tinker Clift, Gerald Collum, Todd Ewing, John Falkenbury, Frank Gentry, Ruth Gray, Aniruddh Hathi, Bonnie Hopkins,  Mike Huneke, Garry Ligler, Mark Long, Pat Markham, Linda Martin, Tracy Marshall, Jean Norwood, Lee Poehls, Greg Poston, Stephen Range, George Reamy, Lynn Tilden, Richard Wheet.

President’s Cabinet Meeting – There was a discussion to split graduation ceremonies into two groups for the spring and summer graduation. The fall graduation ceremonies at the H.O.T. coliseum costs $4000 to rent with an additional $1000 to remove the dirt.  The split ceremonies will be held on Saturday in the Gymnasium one at 10:00a.m. and the other at 1:00p.m. to give families time to get here for the graduations.

The University of Texas at Tyler are going to be having a meeting here on campus on Tuesday April the 22^nd in the student rec. center multi-purpose room. There will be two meetings one at 10:00a.m. and another at 1:00p.m.  These meeting are for faculty who want to upgrade there education to bachelor or masters degrees.

The continuing education for Spring of 2003 had 615 students in 51 courses for a total of 18,101 contact hours generated. Last spring there were only 53 students in 8 courses for a total of 2,178 contact hours.

Waco Independent School District is having a Peoples choice awards on Thursday May the 15^th at the Waco convention center in the Chisom Hall at 6:30.m. The cost is $8 a person and you need to RSVP.

Bellmead is having there annual membership banquet on Thursday April the 24^th. Miss Texas will be the guest of honor. The price is $17.50 per person or $90 for a table for 6.

Senator Teel Bivins the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee was not in favor of the TIFF Fund.  The Librarian leading the group for TIFF got hold of him and quote “told Senator Bivins how the cow at the cabbage”.

9-Month Contract 

Proposed 9 month contract for faculty has been finalized. Nine month contracts will be 85% of a 12 month salary.

Return of 10% to TSTC

Motion on floor to return $500 of faculty senate budget to the college for a showing of good faith. The Scholarship Committee Chair wants to keep the money since interim President Stuckly said it was not needed. Scholarship would like to use this money in conjunction with other funds to provide something for students. This motion has now been taken off the floor.

2003 Academic Calendar

The official 2003-2004 academic calendars are now finalized.

Cell Phone Use 

Notice from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives have issued a safety bulletin about the dangers of cell phone use when filling up you vehicle with gas.  Cell phones ringing can ignite the gas fumes causing burns. Most injuries are when people get back into their cars while fueling.

COP 7.30

There is a recommendation to be taken to the V.P. of student learning and to the next President’ Meeting to eliminate three sentences in COP 7.30 section 8 that pertain to the cap of 4 hours overload compensation. Instead of a cap overloads should require the approval of Cluster Directors and the V.P. of Student Learning.

Nomination for 2003-2004 Senate President

Mark Spivey has officially resigned his position of President-Elect of the faculty senate. The floor was opened for nominations to fill the unexpired term to take office the September as President.  Nomination were made and seconded for Mark Long and Richard Wheet. There was a motion to have the actual vote at the May meeting of the faculty senate.

There was a suggestion made to have a candidates forum for the two nominees on Thursday morning April 17^th at 10:00a.m. Due to busy schedules it was decided that Mark and Richard would field questions and answer in a campus wide e-mail.

Meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m.