Running head: FIELD OBSERVATION 1

Field Observation of a Faculty Senate Meeting

Zachary Weyher

Georgia Southern University

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Field Observation of a Faculty Senate Meeting

Recap

I attended the faculty senate meeting that was held March 23, 2016 from 4:00 to 6:00 in

Nessmith-Lane Ballroom. This meeting began with the motion and approval of the agenda for

that day. There were small housekeeping items with who was present and not but it was pretty

much straight to business. The first action item after the meeting began was to approve the

minutes from the February meeting. One change was made for attendance reasons. Jessica

Minihan was supposed to give the librarians report, but was not in attendance. The report was

approved anyway. The undergraduate committee report was postponed until after the graduate

committee report do to Cheryl Aasheims late arrival. Dustin Anderson gave the graduate

committee report followed by Cheryls undergraduate report. There was no general education

committee report this meeting. Next up was Jean Bartels to give the Presidential report.

She covered a variety of topics involving money, projects, legislation, and various

concerns. Georgia Southern was approved by the Board of Regents to have the full 3% merit

increase for next years budget. There will not be any raises to the cost of tuition. This is true

for all the schools in the University System of Georgia. With no tuition increase the allocation of

money will be reevaluated. The end-of-year money will also be conservative this year to help

with some infrastructure needs. Deans will be able to submit needs. The University System of

Georgia is in strong protest of HB 859, which involves campus carry. Georgia Southern and Dr.

Bartels stand with the USG, and she was able to write a letter to the Governor. The bill is

currently on his desk waiting for action. Sexual harassment on campus was the next topic she

covered. Several policies were changed by the USG and they will be reflected in the procedures

and handbooks. The Board of Regents interviewed the top three Presidential candidates and
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Georgia Southern is in the search for a new Chief of the University Police Department. This

concludes the presidential report.

Diana Cone delivered the Provosts Report. She updated to group on the status of the

Military Science Building. It is on schedule and drafts were taken to USG office for approval.

Student ratings of instruction used to be filled out on ScanTron sheets but now will be done on

regular paper due to an upgrade in software. This will be much more cost effective and will take

place next fall.

Patricia Humphrey reiterated the updates on the Presidential search as well as the Police

Chief search that Dr. Bartels mentioned earlier in the meeting. Requests for Information was the

next discussion point. The one that I found to be most interesting was the one discussing the

athletic budget increases. The athletic budget increased from $8.3 million to $13.5 million in

2014 due to the school moving to FBS. This increase was because of additional scholarships and

sports being added. What was the interesting part was the fact that this fee was voted on in 2013,

but students today are paying it without having any say in the vote. This raised some discussion

and was going to be discussed with the Student Government Association.

Errol Spence, the Vice President of Academic Affairs for the Student Government

Association was the next to speak. His proposed amendment to the faculty handbook was the

main portion of the meeting. Currently, The University does not issue an excuse to students for

class absences. In case of absences as a result of illness, representation of the University in

athletic and other activities, or special situations, instructors may be informed of the reasons for

absences, but these are not excuses. What they proposed was to remove representation of the

University in athletic and other activities and add a section that states, Students participating in

authorized activities as an official representative of the university (i.e. athletic events, delegate to
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regional or national meetings or conferences, participation in university-sponsored

performances) will not receive academic penalties and, in consultation with the instructor of

record, will be given reasonable opportunities to complete assignments and exams or given

compensatory assignment(s) if needed. The student must provide written confirmation from a

faculty or staff advisor to the course instructor(s) not fewer than 10 days prior to the date for

which the student will be absent from the class. The student is responsible for all material

presented in class and for all announcements and assignments. When possible, students are

expected to complete these assignments before their absences. In the event of a disagreement

regarding this policy, an appeal may be made by either the student or instructor of record to the

corresponding College Dean. There was long discussion on this amendment but it eventually

passed with a vote of 31 to 9.

Following that long discussion, there was a resolution to the concealed carry law in

opposition of it and that passed unanimously. The meeting was then adjourned after no

announcements needed to be made.

Analysis

The Faculty Senate meeting seemed like an obvious meeting to attend because I think it

may be the most important meeting that is held, but also open to the public. The Faculty Senate

is a meeting that you can go to any campus across the country and see them being held,

regardless of the size, cost, or age of the school. Most of the time these are productive meetings

which have an agenda and goals to achieve. Georgia Southern uses the functional style of a

Faculty Senate meeting. This means it is, the most traditional rendering of the structure of

faculty senates, a senate primarily represents and protects the faculty interest in academic

decisions. Members are elected from the faculty, the group is led by a chair or president, and
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various committees undertake the duties of the senate. By-laws or other governing documents

guide the work, and advisory statements are issued through deliberation and formalized voting

processes (Melear, 2013, p. 53). Patricia Humphrey served as the Senate Moderator and was

the one responsible for adjournment, voting, and the general flow of the meeting. She served as

a very good moderator and I especially liked when the meeting would start to get out of control

or off topic she would be quick to get it back to the assigned agenda.

The functional Faculty Senate meetings serve similar purposes across various universities

across the country. Some of these goals include advocating for faculty viewpoints on all issues

in which faculty perceive themselves as stakeholders, promoting communication between faculty

and other groups on campus, and making recommendations on university policy and governance

issues of concern to faculty (Faculty Senate, 2016, para. 2). All of these were demonstrated at

the Georgia Southern Faculty Senate meeting. The faculty viewpoints were represented on all

issues due to the make up of the senate. Their viewpoints were given on both faculty issues as

well as issues dealing with other groups, such as athletics. This meeting was filled with lots of

recommendations on policy and governance, the main two being absences and canceled carry on

campus. The importance of these meetings cannot be understated when a university has self

governed faculty. With self governance, many faculty members may feel unprepared to lead

meetings (Lundquist, Misra, 2016, para. 7). This is something that could be caused by the

status of individuals in the room, the importance of topics to be covered, or even having to lead

their peers. The Faculty Senate meetings can help faculty members grow as much as a student

can grow having to lead a class discussion.

One thing that I noticed from this meeting is that everything was focused on what was

best for the students that attend the university. Often times when decisions come out people
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question if it is in the best interest of the students or university. From attending just one Faculty

Senate meeting, you could see how the faculty definitely want what is best. The ACPA states

that Student affairs must model what we wish for our students: an ever increasing capacity for

learning and self-reflection (Kuh, 2008, p. 5). This can be seen at the meeting pertaining to the

discussion on student absences. While there were people arguing both sides of this amendment,

both of them were trying to argue for what they thought was in the best interest of the students.

Jim Harris took the strongest stance against the change. He feels that teachers would have the

best say on whether a student can or cannot miss a class. His biggest concern was the fact that

most teachers already have a specific attendance policy that allows several absences. His fear is

that a student might take advantage and use those absences on top of their excused absences for a

designated University event and miss upwards of 8 or 9 classes. At first I thought Jim Harris was

trying to be stubborn and hold onto the power of controlling absences. The more I listened to

him, the more you could hear the sincerity in his voice, and how he wants all of his students to be

set up for success. Frankly, if his students are missing many classes there is no way they can be

successful.

A main problem facing higher education across the country is the issue of decreases in

enrollment and decreases in funding. This topic was brought up and addressed by Dr. Jean

Bartels. With the decreased funding but also the decline in enrollment means Georgia Southern

does not have any additional funds. Next years budget will be much stricter than it has in the

past when funding was not cut. Ways to work around these cuts include increasing class sizes

up to 25% of the total starting enrollment, eliminating programs, reducing library hours, cutting

extracurricular activities, cutting support services, and hiring fewer teaching faculty, student

assistants and part-time student employees (Newell, 2009, p. 1). While not all these methods
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were discussed or will be taken, I feel that it is very important to outline all the possible ways to

survive the cuts. Dr. Bartels only mentioned eliminating two declining programs, ones that were

going to be eliminated anyway. Dr. Bartels way of managing these strict budget cuts is to reflect

that strictness in the next fiscal year. She understands that before she starts making massive

changes to the University, you should first just try to make do with what you have.

This meeting demonstrated the power of self governance. It was during this that I was

swayed from being against self governing faculty to supporting it. The Faculty Senate meetings

serve as a great way to grow the University by providing leadership opportunities to the faculty.

This senate did a good job during the meeting managing themselves, moving through the agenda,

and providing a great example of the importance of a functional style of meeting to a student like

myself.
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References

Faculty Senate Purpose Statement. (2016). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

http://www.txstate.edu/facultysenate/about/purpose-statement.html

Kuh, G. (2008). The Student Learning Imperative: Implications for Student Affairs. ACPA

College Student Educators International. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

https://georgiasouthern.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/259347/viewContent/488813

2/View.

Lundquist, J., & Misra, J. (2016, April 14). Tips for making academic meetings valuable and

productive (essay) | Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/04/14/tips-making-academic-meetings-

valuable-and-productive-essay

Melear, K. B. (2013). The role of internal governance, committees, and advisory groups. In P.J.

Schloss & K.M. Cragg (Ed.), Organization and administration in higher education (pp.

50-54). New York, NY: Routledge.

Newell, M. (2009). Higher Education Budget Cuts: How are they Affecting Students? California

Postsecondary Education Commission, 09(27), 1-4. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED510306.pdf