[Lu_faculty] FW: Faculty Senate

[James Showalter]

From: jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com
To: jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com
Subject: Faculty Senate
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2015 11:03:10 -0500


















August 7, 2015

Faculty,

 

The Faculty Senate met at
the beginning of the Spring, 2015, term for the first time.  In a very
close election, I was elected chair by one vote (jlshowalter at langston.edu).
  Dr. Elicia Pollard (epollard at langston.edu) was elected Chair
Elect,  and Ms. Ahomdju Umadjela Holmes (aumadjela at langston.edu)
was elected Secretary.    Due to the late start of the Senate,
 we voted to not have elections for a new Senate in April, 2015,  but
to put the next election off until April, 2016.  

 

I think it fair to say we
Senators are frustrated a bit because we have spent a great deal of time this
past spring ironing out details of the Constitution.  

 

We spent the first full
meeting discussing an ambiguous clause in the Faculty Senate Constitution that
disqualifies from the Senate anyone with a position appointed by the
administration.   The rationale for this clause is that such a person
might be influenced by that association to be more pro-administration.
 But the effect of the clause was to throw in doubt nearly a third of the
elected senators for having titles such as "Coordinator of the Math
Lab".  We voted to simply consider all senators elected by schools in
the Fall, 2014 term, to be elected.  

 

There was another matter
concerning the at-large senators:  The Constitution calls for them to be
nominated and then elected by the full faculty.  We did not have that
election, hence the e-mail you received this spring from Dr. Pollard asking you
to vote to confirm the existing at-large senators.  The results of all
this procedural stuff:  We have nearly the full Senate as chosen last
Fall.  

 

One final problem was the
mandate in the Constitution to meet on the first Tuesday of each month during
the regular school terms.  That conflicted with the IRB, a very important
committee that was also mandated to meet at that time.  After Dr.
Mundende, Chair of the IRB,  graciously conceded that time slot twice,
 the Senate decided to move to the Thursday at 11:00 a.m. time slot.
 We will ask the Faculty to allow a more flexible meeting time via a vote
on a constitutional amendment at our Teacher's Institute.

 

We spent one meeting with
Dr. Kent Smith, President of Langston.  He is very open, very quick, very
engaging, and for over an hour there was a fine give and take between the
President and the senators.  I think we are very lucky to have Dr. Smith
representing our school to the public and trying to lead us through the current
budgetary briar patch.   In our last meeting we met with Dr. Clyde
Montgomery, Vice President for Academic Affairs,  and again there was a
lot of good give and take.  He has been a staunch supporter of the
academic budgets during our tough Budget Committee meetings.  The meetings
with both men were models of the direct meetings with administrators that the
Faculty Senate needs to have in the future. 

 

We also spent a good bit of
time talking about setting up committees for the Faculty Senate.  These
are distinct from University committees and will help the Senate have a voice
and put forth faculty concerns.  I urge all faculty to consider working on
one of our committees for they are truly our committees.  Since we have
three campuses,  we will do some of that work via e-mail and some via
video conferencing.   Please consider being on a committee:  We need
many workers.  A list of those committees, and of their interim chairs who
will build the committees,  is appended to this e-mail.  

 

The President's
Administrative Council has met only sporadically during the Spring semester.
 This is due, in part, to the President's busy schedule.  I also
think the President acts more directly with his Vice Presidents now than when I
was Interim Faculty Representative.  He is not trying to hide anything,
 but he's had several years to get his team in place and I think he feels
comfortable with them.  There was not a lot done in that council this
semester that is of note here. Because of my teaching schedule during the
school term, I can meet for only an hour of what is usually a two hour meeting.
 I asked Dr. Smith to allow  Dr. Pollard, Faculty Senate Chair Elect,
 to attend the Council starting in the fall semester and cover the time
I'm gone, and the President readily agreed.

 

The budget is a great
concern.  The fact is that we are in extremely tight budgetary
circumstances and one of the few areas in which the University has wiggle room
is in academic spending.  Over 80% of the budget is essentially
non-discretionary, tied up in contracts and personnel,  so there's little
left where we can cut.  The State Legislature finally came out with a
patched together budget, a budget with less of a deficit due to broad use of
one-time moneys.  That might mean a bit less hurt for Langston this year,
 but I fear it bodes ill for next year. 

 

I truly look forward to
this Fall when I think the Faculty Senate can finally start working on policies
of concern to the faculty at Langston University.  I have wanted a Faculty
Senate since I got to campus in the Fall of 1988, so this is a long-delayed
dream for me.

 

Please contact me, Dr.
Pollard (who will be the next chair starting in the Fall, 2016 term), Mrs.
Holmes, or any other member of the Faculty Senate if you have questions or
ideas.   We must work together to establish the faculty's voice.

 

Jim Showalter

Chair,  Langston
University Faculty Senate

 

 

 

Appendix I:  
Standing Committees and Interim Chairs*

 

Academic Affairs  

--Dr. Andre Washington
 (alwashington at langston.edu)

 

Budget  

--Mrs. Angela Thomas
 (althomas at langston.edu)

 

Faculty Welfare and
Development  

--Dr. Yvonne Montgomery
 (ykmontgomery at langston.edu)

 

Personnel Policies  

--Dr. Joanna Mann  (jmann at langston.edu)

 

Elections 

--Dr. Meshack Sagini
 (mmsagini at langston.edu)

 

*Permanent chairs for the
2015-16 year will be elected by the committee once it is organized.

 

 

 

Appendix II:  
Langston University Faculty Senators

 

Library

Kate Corbett   (kcorbett at langston.edu)

Jameka Lewis  (jblewis at langston.edu)

Shirley Tatus  (sbtatum at langston.edu)

 

Ag & Applied Sciences

Raymond Faucette  (rffaucette at langston.edu)

Donna Foster  (dlfoster at langston.edu)

Roger Merkel  (rmerkel at langston.edu)

 

Arts and Sciences

Betsy Showalter  (bsshowalter at langston.edu)

Edmund Kloh  (enkloh at langston.edu)

Meshack Sagini  (mmsagini at langston.edu)

Art Williams  (wart at langston.edu)

James Showalter, chair
 (jlshowalter at langston.edu)

 

Education and Behavioral
Sciences

Edward Manyibe  (eomanyibe at langston.edu)

Orlenthea McGowan  (osmcgowan at langston.edu)

Yvonne Montgomery  (ykmontgomery at langston.edu)

Andre Washington  (alwashington at langston.edu)

 

Business

I-Lin Huang  (ilhuang at langston.edu)

Hossien Sarjeh-Payma (hsarjehpayma at langston.edu)

 

Nursing and Health
Professions

Darlington Mundende  (dcmundende at langston.edu)

Lynnie Skeen  (liskeen at langston.edu)

Cassandra Eng [non-voting]
 (caseng at langston.edu)

Ahondju Umadjela,
 secretary  (aumadjela at langston.edu)

 

Physical Therapy

Philip George  (pgeorge at langston.edu)

Elicia Pollard,  chair
elect  (epollard at langston.edu)

 

At-Large Representatives

Joanna Mann (jmann at langston.edu)

James Quinn  (jjquinn at langston.edu)

Angela Thomas  (althomas at langston.edu)

 

 

 		 	   		   		 	   		  
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