[Lu_faculty] FW: Faculty Senate

[CORBETT, KATHRYN B]

Addendum to the list of standing committees and their Interim Chairs
Student Welfare Committee Interim Chair Kate Corbett

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 14, 2015, at 3:55 PM, "James Showalter" <jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com<mailto:jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com>> wrote:



________________________________
From: jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com<mailto:jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com>
To: jimshowalter48 at hotmail.com<mailto: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<mailto:jlshowalter at langston.edu>).   Dr. Elicia Pollard (epollard at langston.edu<mailto:epollard at langston.edu>) was elected Chair Elect,  and Ms. Ahomdju Umadjela Holmes (aumadjela at langston.edu<mailto: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<mailto:alwashington at langston.edu>)



Budget

--Mrs. Angela Thomas  (althomas at langston.edu<mailto:althomas at langston.edu>)



Faculty Welfare and Development

--Dr. Yvonne Montgomery  (ykmontgomery at langston.edu<mailto:ykmontgomery at langston.edu>)



Personnel Policies

--Dr. Joanna Mann  (jmann at langston.edu<mailto:jmann at langston.edu>)



Elections

--Dr. Meshack Sagini  (mmsagini at langston.edu<mailto: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<mailto:kcorbett at langston.edu>)

Jameka Lewis  (jblewis at langston.edu<mailto:jblewis at langston.edu>)

Shirley Tatus  (sbtatum at langston.edu<mailto:sbtatum at langston.edu>)



Ag & Applied Sciences

Raymond Faucette  (rffaucette at langston.edu<mailto:rffaucette at langston.edu>)

Donna Foster  (dlfoster at langston.edu<mailto:dlfoster at langston.edu>)

Roger Merkel  (rmerkel at langston.edu<mailto:rmerkel at langston.edu>)



Arts and Sciences

Betsy Showalter  (bsshowalter at langston.edu<mailto:bsshowalter at langston.edu>)

Edmund Kloh  (enkloh at langston.edu<mailto:enkloh at langston.edu>)

Meshack Sagini  (mmsagini at langston.edu<mailto:mmsagini at langston.edu>)

Art Williams  (wart at langston.edu<mailto:wart at langston.edu>)

James Showalter, chair  (jlshowalter at langston.edu<mailto:jlshowalter at langston.edu>)



Education and Behavioral Sciences

Edward Manyibe  (eomanyibe at langston.edu<mailto:eomanyibe at langston.edu>)

Orlenthea McGowan  (osmcgowan at langston.edu<mailto:osmcgowan at langston.edu>)

Yvonne Montgomery  (ykmontgomery at langston.edu<mailto:ykmontgomery at langston.edu>)

Andre Washington  (alwashington at langston.edu<mailto:alwashington at langston.edu>)



Business

I-Lin Huang  (ilhuang at langston.edu<mailto:ilhuang at langston.edu>)

Hossien Sarjeh-Payma (hsarjehpayma at langston.edu<mailto:hsarjehpayma at langston.edu>)



Nursing and Health Professions

Darlington Mundende  (dcmundende at langston.edu<mailto:dcmundende at langston.edu>)

Lynnie Skeen  (liskeen at langston.edu<mailto:liskeen at langston.edu>)

Cassandra Eng [non-voting]  (caseng at langston.edu<mailto:caseng at langston.edu>)

Ahondju Umadjela,  secretary  (aumadjela at langston.edu<mailto:aumadjela at langston.edu>)



Physical Therapy

Philip George  (pgeorge at langston.edu<mailto:pgeorge at langston.edu>)

Elicia Pollard,  chair elect  (epollard at langston.edu<mailto:epollard at langston.edu>)



At-Large Representatives

Joanna Mann (jmann at langston.edu<mailto:jmann at langston.edu>)

James Quinn  (jjquinn at langston.edu<mailto:jjquinn at langston.edu>)

Angela Thomas  (althomas at langston.edu<mailto:althomas at langston.edu>)





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