Meeting called to order with a quorum at 7:05 p.m.

Present: Edmund Acevedo, Donna Adler, Milam Aiken, Aileen Ajootian, John Bentley, Robert Brown, John Bruce,Victoria Bush, Judith Cassidy, Kirsten Dellinger, Rick Elam, Michelle Emanuel, Laurdella Foulkes-Levy, Matthew Hall, Charles Ingene, Ahmed Kishk, Amy E. Mark, Rosemary Oliphant-Ingham, Anne Quinney, James Reid, David Rock, Warren Steel, Ken Sufka, Diane Tidwell, Annette Trefzer, Joseph Urgo, Nancy Wiggers, Haidong Wu, Jordan Zjawiony

Absent: Brahram Alidaee, Deborah Barker*, Nancy Bercaw*, Luca Bombelli, Wei-Yin Chen, Daisy Cheng*, Laurie Cozad, Gregg Davidson*, Steven Davis, Kris Gilliland, Clifford Ochs*, Charles Ross, Bobbie Smothers*, Steven Stodghill, Waheed Uddin, Charles West, Dawn Wilkins*
* Prior notification

I. Old Business
A. Minutes of the May 8, 2003 Senate meeting were approved without dissent. minutes_20030500.html

II. Announcements

A. Dr. Christy Wyandt has been selected at the Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

B. John Bentley is the new chair of Finance committee replacing John Schetz.

C. Beginning September 2, 2003, Weir Hall has been open on a 24 hour basis from Sunday, 1:00 p.m. through Friday, 6:00 p.m. It will also be open on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

III. New Business
A. Academic Affairs committee will caucus after the meeting to elect a chair to replace Michael Ponton.

B. Dr. Eftink, Dean of the Graduate School would like to implement a plan for the position of Assistant Dean of the Graduate School (which is vacant). His suggestion is to have this position to be filled on a rotating basis, with 2-3 year terms, by a current faculty member.

Discussion:

• short terms create administrators who are closer to the faculty;
• would give experience to aspiring administrators;
• concern that it will be difficult to get up to speed;
• recommendation that there is a six month overlap as part of a three year term;
• recommend that Dr. Eftink attend the next meeting to answer questions.

C. Request to dissolve the "University Health and Safety" Standing Committee
Senator Cassidy moved that the Senate of the Faculty approved the dissolution of the University Health and Safety Committee /2nd Senator Bruce. Motion passed without dissent.

D. Student Athlete Absentee Policy
Senator Cassidy moved to adopt the Proposed Statement /2nd Senator Steele. Senator Bentley moved to table this motion /2nd Senator Adler; Hand count: yeas 19 / nays 3 / abstains 0. Chair Rock assigned this issue to the Academic Affairs committee.

Discussion:

• Friendly amendment: change "should" to "must" in the second-to-last sentence;
• how would this policy interact with other program policies-e.g. US101 absents policy, or First Year Seminar, or Law School re: accreditation and absences;
• problem should be handled by scheduling instead of being thrust on the faculty member;
• students may not take a class if they are scheduled to miss more than that class allows;
• some schools have a note in the policy that includes a clause re: participatory clause;
• **only noted as a student absent policy in the university catalog;
• additional comments were made by Karen Schiferl, department of student athletics.

E. Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics: (COIA website)
Senator Brown moved that the University of Mississippi join the coalition and endorse their mission /2nd Senator Adler. Hand count: yeas 18 / nays 0 / abstains 9

Discussion:

• will address the issue of student athletes ability to attend all of the games and maintain their school work;
• joining the coalition would mean that we support reform in athletics-we still are allowed to endorse or not endorse specific policies;
• strictly a faculty governance organization, not athletics or administrators;
• group has significant credibility with the NCAA currently;
• coalition is mostly in favor of defending the rights of student athletes.

F. Health Insurance Update
Over the last year university employees were not covered in the emergency room at Baptist because the emergency room doctors in the Shumacker Group never signed a contract to join the network; however, faculty would have been fully covered at urgent care; Human Resources and Senator Rock met with Baptist administrators to straighten this out; Diane Kemp (1-888-950-1350) is the contact who indicated that the hospital will go back and reduce the bill; must be persistent.

G. Committee on Elections
Discussion:

• Incredible amount of time spent on filling committee positions;
• Senate is not using the committee positions to the maximum because it is difficult find faculty members to fill and who are interested enough to attend;
• System is too cumbersome and between two many different offices;
• Solution: move the elections to the Office of the Provost; the Office of the Provost would send the open positions to the Deans and the chairs; the deans and chairs would then suggest faculty; the Office of the Provost would ensure that the faculty member is qualified to serve; the Office of the Provost would then send the list to the Senate for approval;
• Preferred solution: Senators from each unit nominate the faculty and send the slate to the Senate for approval;
• The present and previous chairs will meet to come up with a new proposals.

H. Reports from the Committees

1. Academic Affairs, Chair TBA: no new business
2. Academic Support Services, Michelle Emanuel
Spam Survey: Senator Reid moved to support the survey as written /2nd Senator Adler. Motion passed without dissent. To see a draft of the survey, click here.
3. Faculty Governance, Chair Joe Urgo
Quadrennial Review of Administrators: To see a draft of the suggestions, click here.
The suggestions from the Governance Committee for the Provost's consideration was tabled in the spring pending additional suggestions by Senators-suggestions were not made.
Friendly amendment by Senator Bentley to remove "higher level administrators" to plain "administrators" in all placed / accepted by Senator Urgo;
Friendly amendment by Senator Ingene to change "might" to "should" / Senator Urgo did not accept this friendly amendment as he is interested in seeing this proposal pass the Council of Academic Administrators; Senator Mark moved to approve the quadrennial review of administrators /2nd Senator Reid. Motion passed without dissent.
Some senators would like to see the results of the faculty comments, even if in a synopsis form. This issue will be assigned to committee and tackled at a later date.
4. Finance Committee, Chair John Bentley; no new business.
5. University Services: Chair, James Reid; no new business.

I. Faculty Forum
Having the Provost and Chancellor, Vice Chancellors, Human Resources and other guests at the Senate meeting:

• Goes on too long;
• Senators ask questions that can't be answered;
• Suggestion: Senate moderate a forum where ALL of the administrators are present;
• Questions should be sent ahead of time to the Senate
• Questions should be asked anonymously by a moderator
• There will be further discussion of ground rules and structure by a task force composed of Senators: Oliphant-Ingham, Rock, Bentley, Acevedo, Bruce, Brown, and Kishk.

J. Report from Senator Elam, faculty senate representative to the Athletic Committee: change of not keeping Colonel Reb as a mascot was announced for the first time in the first athletic committee meeting and that there was a contest was already set up and that this committee was assigned to make the decision.
Discussion: Senators feel like they have no real power on committees thus not anxious to join.

Meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.