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DAFVM
Faculty Senate
MINUTES
March 24, 2006
Attending: Al Rankins, Cliff Hampton, Deborah Gaddis, Hamid
Borazjani, Wes Burger, Laura Grace, Michael Caprio, Wes Schilling,
Mike Kidd, Bill Evans, Dan Poston, Cody Coyne, Shane Burgess,
Sharon Grace, and Robert Meyer.
Excused
Absences: Kirk Swortzel, Greg Ibendahl, Harvey Gordon,
Linda Andrews, and Mark Shankle.
Absent: Wayne Wilkerson, Joe Fratesi, and KenWilleford.
This
meeting was a makeup meeting from the Division Senate’s
March 9, 2006 meeting. Chair Cliff Hampton convened
the March 9 meeting. The Senate motioned, seconded,
and unanimously approved the February 9, 2006 minutes. The
chair announced the vacancy of the Vice-Chair position, Steve
Nichols, who has resigned from the University. The
chair asked for later comments regarding the filling of the
Vice-Chair position. At 1:30 the chair received notice
that the University was closed due to severe weather. The
Senate motioned, seconded, and unanimously approved the continuation
of the Division Senate meeting on March 23, 2006 at 1:00
p.m. in the Bost Extension Building, Room 205.
March 23, 2006
The meeting
was called to order by the chair, Clifford Hampton. The
chair acknowledged the approval of the February minutes during
the March 9, 2006 meeting prior to adjourning due to severe
weather.
Chair Report: The
chair communicated the need to prepare for officer elections
and directed senators to the attachment covering officer
elections. The senate reviewed
and discussed the election process and who can participate
in the election. The chair also requested senators to review
the provided list of members whose term will expire in May
to ensure the list is correct. He also asked that all
members review the provided term of office to ensure it is
correct. Hampton noted that the 2007-2008 officers needed
to be elected in May. Senate members serving one or two years
on the senate can make nominations of officers. Nominations
should be sent to Cliff Hampton, chair. The last item of
new business during our May meeting should be election of
officers. Elections to fill vacancies of senators
whose terms will expire in May should be held by their departments at this
time.
Report from the Holland Faculty Senate Representative
(Laura Grace):
Grace reported on the Holland Senate’s report regarding
the office of Graduate Studies. The report recommends
the need to hire a leader for the office of Graduate studies. Grace
also noted that concerns expressed by the division senate
regarding the P&T document have been sent to the Vice
President.
It was
noted that non-tenure track faculty on soft money would
not be subject to the new MSU P&T
document, as they will not be granted release salary to serve
on the committee.
Committee Reports: Auxiliary Affairs with Chair Debbie
Gaddis, Bill Evans, Michael Caprio, and Shane Burgess met
on how to increase the Division of Agriculture, and the Land
Grant visibility. They reported as follows:
The Auxiliary
Affairs Committee of DAFVM Faculty Senate was recently
charged with making recommendations to the division senate
about ways to increase the visibility of the division and
the land grant system. We see no easy, short answers
to the charge. The committee was passionate in its discussions.
Feedback to the committee from MSU Extension staff was also
passionate and demonstrated a broad committee to renewing
our land grant mission, and garnering support for that mission
all the way from the individual citizen to the highest points
of government. The committee recommends that the Division
and University take this opportunity to investigate their
place in the state and the world and use their findings to
determine the intellectual, economic, and social State of
the Future.
To this
end, the committee recommends a series of internal and
external brainstorming and fact finding efforts, buttressed
by professional marketing support, to determine state needs
and wants. The committee then recommends that these findings
be used to formulate actions to guide the university for
the coming decades. The committee also recommends that
Agricultural Communications refine the comment packet into
a more readable, cohesive, and cogent document. We
then ask that the Vice President review the document and
consider distributing it to the entire division for further
comment and discussion.
We recommend
that the senate adopt our resolution supporting the committee’s recommendations and that suggestions
from Extension staff be forwarded to Agricultural Communications
and the leaders of the division. Senate embraced the
report. Comments were made that the success of the report
will be institution wide, not just division (DAFVM). Cliff
indicated that we should package the document and send it
to Dr. Watson. He may take it to Ag Communications.
The division senate accepted the Auxiliary Affairs report
with minor modifications. The senate should read the
report, edit it, and then Debbie will package the document.
Ag Communications will possibly do further editing. This
was motioned and seconded.
Faculty Affairs: Hamid
Borazjani, chair, communicated to the senate that their
charge was to get additional feedback on the P&T document from the division’s non-tenure
track faculty. Hamid presented the additional feedback,
which was about two additional points. The senate
approved that Laura will work with Hamid to pull out bullets
from the document and present them at the next meeting.
Resources Report: The
resources committee was charged with identifying justification
why division employees should be able to request vehicles
in grant proposals. Bill
and Dan discussed elements of the pending Fleet Management
Bill presently in the State Legislator. It was suggested
that the committees’ justification could also be utilized
to ensure that the fleet management bill would not implicate
the division. Al mentioned the document on vehicles
is critical for some Ag researchers. The decrease in
vehicles can cripple an individual’s research program. The
committee will draft bullets to present to the Division Senate
at the next meeting
New Business: Action on the vacant Vice-Chair position. Senators
felt that since only two meetings remain prior to the end
of this year’s term of office, no action would be taken
to fill the Vice-Chair position.
Meeting Adjourned at 2:34.
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