Minutes
Senate Steering Meeting
September 7, 2021, 3:30pm
Via Zoom

Present, Todd Steury (Chair), Don Mulvaney (Immediate Past Chair), Mark Carpenter (Chair elect), Octavia Tripp (Secretary elect), Ralph Kingston (Secretary), Cheryl Seals, Bob Cochran, Danilea Werner, Bob Norton, Emmett Winn, Laura Kloberg (Senate Administrative Assistant).
Guest presenters: Beverly Marshall, Mitchell Brown.

Chair Steury called the meeting to order at 3.32pm.

Chair opening remarks.  Todd Steury welcomed the Steering Committee and introduced the faculty members who would be presenting.  

Approval of Steering Minutes from June 7, 2021: Approved by unanimous consent.

Steering Discussion of Agenda items for Senate Meeting, September 21, 2021:

Faculty Athletics Representative (Information Item) – Beverly Marshall
Beverly Marshall presented on the work of the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, and in particular the results of its monitoring of student academic progress and graduation rates. This presentation will be made in Senate on 21 September. She also noted the rules on impermissible extra benefits: there can be no special accommodations made for athletes that are not offered and would not be offered to other students. Athletic eligibility must never be a factor in any academic decision.  The Faculty Athletic Representative follows up on any grade changes involving student athletes in order to make sure these rules have been followed.
She also noted that faculty should not sell their discounted tickets to athletics events.
Don Mulvaney asked if the name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights athletes can now sell might ease the burden on athletes who hitherto had struggled financially and might improve success rates. Marshall was not certain that this would be the case.
Marshall also confirmed that NIL activities would not be excused absences.

Handbook Changes on Post-Tenure Review (Pending Action Item) – Mitchell Brown
Mitchell Brown, member of both the Faculty Handbook Review Committee and the Post-tenure review committee, presented proposed language for a change to the post-tenure review process in the Faculty Handbook (3.7.3. Post-Tenure Review.)  This will be presented as a pending action item in Senate in September.

Senate Committee Composition (Pending Action Item) – Mitchell Brown
The Steering Committee looked at two proposed changed to Senate committees, appointing the registrar as chair of the Calendar and Schedules Committee and eliminating the Lectures Committee (Senate Constitution, Article 4, Senate Committees.)
The Lectures committee has not been operational since the demise of the Littleton-Franklin lecture series due to lack of funds.  Danilea Werner asked whether the committee might become newly relevant if a different lecture series is established. Chair Steury noted that the Rules committee has had to continue appointing faculty to the committee even though it has been doing nothing. Ralph Kingston added that a new endowment establishing a lecture fund may have different requirements.  Don Mulvaney asked if the committee might be deactivated rather than abolished.  Kingston noted that the Senate Constitution requires that the Rules Committee fill committees without exception.
Steering agreed unanimously that these items should be presented separately in Senate on 21 September as pending action items. Both will require the approval of 2/3 of senators in October.
Kingston made a motion to postpone bringing the change to the Calendar and Schedules committee to Senate for approval until the spring. It was seconded by Cheryl Seals. After a short discussion, the motion passed and Chair Steury promised to return to the issue in the January Steering Committee meeting.

Changes to University Faculty and Senate Constitutions to officially allow Zoom meetings (Pending Action Item) – Todd Steury
Chair Steury presented two changes, one to the University Faculty Constitution and one to the Senate constitution, to explicitly allow for meetings to be held via the internet, as well as in person. It also made explicit that Senate committees could transact business via the internet. He noted discussion in the Faculty Handbook Review Committee on how these changes allowed the Executive to make decisions for the Faculty meetings, while Senate Steering Committee would make decisions for the Senate Constitution.
After discussion, including on increased participation rates in meetings via zoom in the last year, the Steering Committee agreed unanimously to present the changes to the Senate Constitution and the Faculty Constitution separately as pending action items in the September 21 Senate meeting.

Faculty Handbook Changes on Classroom Policy (Action Item) – Todd Steury
Chair Steury presented proposed language for an addition to 4.2.7 of the Faculty Handbook (Visitors in Classrooms and Other Instructional Settings). This will be voted on as an action item in Senate on 21 September.

A discussion followed on whether or not Steering should act to promote some of the other Handbook items as action items on 21 September, but it was decided by unanimous consent not to do so.

Voting on Senate Meeting Rules & Voting Procedures (Action Item) – Todd Steury
Steury noted that, given the difficulty experienced in the last meeting with Qualtrics polling, Senate would need to change the Rules for Zoom meetings to allow a different voting system. He proposed we vote using Canvas quizzes instead.
Discussion followed. Steury demonstrated the system, explaining that the meeting materials uploaded on canvas will also be available to all faculty via the Senate website as is the norm.  She showed how canvas voting allows participants to be anonymous.
The committee then turned to the practicalities of organizing a vote on this issue in the September 21 meeting. Cheryl Seals noted that specifying canvas in the revised Rules might create the same issue in the future, and the change should say “enhanced voting procedures” instead. This was agreed unanimously.
Don Mulvaney suggested that senators be introduced to the voting system in advance of the actual meeting.  Todd Steury said he would open the canvas site, with a test poll, so senators could explore it in advance.
The Steering committee agreed to act to promote the changes to voting procedures as an action item in the September.
The Steering Committee also unanimously passed a separate motion changing the rules for voting applying only to the September senate meeting. The September 21 meeting would use canvas voting.  Senate would have to vote for the new meeting rules on 21 September for this change to be permanent. The Steering Committee voted unanimously to do this.

Nominations to Senate Committees (Action Item) – Ralph Kingston
Ralph Kingston (Senate Secretary) presented a nomination agreed by the Rules committee to the Senate Retention Committee.

Covid Resource Center Updates – Robert Norton
Chair Steury began by clarifying that this was not going to be an agenda item in the upcoming Senate meeting.  Robert Norton added that, going forward, members of the Covid Resource Center would normally not be presenting to Senate unless there was a substantive change to report or a request from the Steering Committee.  Faculty involved in the CRC were already regularly putting in 12- to 14-hour days. Dr. Fred Kam would also not be attending Senate regularly going forward, though, if he needs to be there, he will be there. Faculty can access the most recent updates on covid policy and protocols on the covid resource center website.  The CRC also intends to directly email faculty with the most important updates, as it has started doing recently.
Discussion followed on the question of how Senate might continue to engage with covid issues. Norton noted that senate leadership will have weekly meetings with the CRC team and other governance group leaders on covid and can bring up issues there. The Steering Committee then explored other means faculty and senators might have to communicate on the topic. Senators and faculty can always email Senate executive members. It was agreed that the Senate exec would find a way to poll senators regularly to establish regular feedback lines. Norton welcomed this idea.
It was also recommended that covid should be on the agenda for the next Faculty meeting.

Approval of Agenda for 9/21/2021 Senate meeting.
The SteeringCommittee unanimously approved the senate agenda as amended.

Other Business – None

Adjournment – Chair Steury adjourned the meeting at 5.14 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Ralph Kingston
Secretary, University Senate