MINUTES
October 14, 2004

ATTENDING: Linda Andrews, Eugene Columbus, Jacque Deeds, Bill Evans, Debbie Gaddis, Laurie Grace, Darren Hudson, Steve Nichols, Dan Poston, Dan Reynolds, Wes Schilling, Mark Shankle

October's meeting was held in Stoneville, Mississippi at the Delta Research and Extension Center.

The minutes from last month's meeting were approved.

Faculty Senate Resolution: Darren Hudson presented the resolution concerning mature tree protection which was proposed at last month's Senate meeting. The resolution was approved pending verbage change. Dr. Hudson will present the resolution to Dr. Vance Watson after the requested change is made.

Committee Assignments: Dr. Hudson presented committee assignments (see attachment). He also went over the committee functions (see attachment).

The first order of committee business will be for the Charter and Bylaws (Jacque Deeds, Chairperson) committee to study the reapportionment of departmental representation. Each unit should have adequate representation and Dr. Deeds has already requested from Human Resources a listing of faculty make-up by department. With this information, the committee will be able to determine how much representation is appropriate per department and then Dr. Hudson will contact department heads to assure that these needs are met. This charge was moved to the Charter and Bylaws Committee by unanimous vote.

Dr. Deeds will determine by reviewing the bylaws if the DAFVM Faculty Senate is able to conduct official business by email and teleconference.

Promotion and Tenure Guidelines: Dan Reynolds brought up an issue about the timeline for Promotion and Tenure documents within the division. Apparently, there is some lack of consistency among departments about when these documents should arrive at the academic office level. He requested that the Division's guidelines include a September 15 deadline for the academic department to receive the documents. It was of concern that, particularly for the branch stations whose packages must be reviewed by both their unit head and an academic department head, it could sometimes be confusing since different departments seem to have different requirements.

This issue was remanded to the Faculty Affairs committee for study and a proposal to be implemented in 2005.

Holland Faculty Senate Report: Dr. Deeds reported on the Holland Faculty Senate meeting. Beginning December, there will be two separate graduations. For the December graduation, they will be held on Friday night and Saturday. Our Division's graduation is Friday night. Beginning in May, there will be two on Saturday. Dr. Deeds said that faculty was strongly urged to attend and it was suggested to the Provost that the university then buy regalia for faculty. It will be considered.

The CHARMS exhibit (history of agriculture) is up in the library and everyone was urged to look at it.

Beginning in the fall, there will be a new registration system. Students should be able to put into the computer the classes they want to take and the available sections will be automatically shown.

The University Planning Committee is doing traffic studies to determine traffic patterns on campus, particularly at 5-Points, to try to ease traffic issues.

Cell Phone Policy: There is a new policy on cell phones on campus. Those employees eligible ("traveling professionals") will turn their university phones back into their office and they will purchase their own and be given a $40 monthly allowance for their cell phone. The phone will then be their personal phone.

Next Meeting: Our next meeting is scheduled for November 11 at 1:00. This coincides with the MSU-ES Annual Conference. While this will be a good time to have it since many will be on campus, Dr. Hudson will check to be sure there are no conflicts with other important meetings. Please submit agenda items for the next meeting as soon as possible.

Meeting adjourned.

SUBMITTED BY: Joy Odom

APPROVED BY: Darren Hudson, Chair, DAFVM Faculty Senate

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