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Faculty Senate: March meeting summary

March 12, 2007

Faculty Senate Meeting March 8, 2007 Link to full meeting agenda packet (PDF).

Chair's Report:

• Chair Guy Hoelzer reported that four candidates for the ombudsman position had been on campus for day-long interviews. The candidates were all local. The search committee was scheduled to meet tomorrow, Friday, March 9 to discuss feedback from interviewing groups.
• The Dean of the College of Science David Westfall would be stepping down in June for retirement. It appeared that an interim dean would be appointed until fall when a search would begin for a new dean.
• A group was formed on campus to develop a Request for Proposal for a new child care facility. The group would be looking at a commercial vendor for a child care center that would support and compliment what is currently available on campus. The site that was currently being considered was the old Bishop Manogue site.
• The senate was asked to comment on partial winter campus closure. While The senate had no strong opinions at this point on campus closure, comments from senators included that:
  • it didn't really affect them
  • they would like to see the library open during the closure
  • if a building was closed that the heat be turned down
  • it was unfair to force people to take annual leave
  • for some administrative and classified the closure was seen as a morale booster
  • during the closure, people come in with their space heaters to work which would appear to offset some of the energy savings
  • the closure creates a hardship on some departments as they have reports that must be finalized during the time period of the closure

Results of the University Bylaws Vote: Proposed changes to the University of Nevada, Reno bylaws distributed for faculty vote in February was approved by the faculty with 100 votes for and 1 opposed. Hoelzer chose to open the vote to electronic voting and felt that increased the number of votes received. The executive board and the senate office were considering offering electronic voting again in the future for those who were unconcerned about remaining anonymous.

Planning Principles for Effort Reporting: At its last meeting, the task force articulated a set of principles that should guide whatever mechanisms are put into place. Hoelzer asked if the senate had any comments on the principles. These principles and other information can be found at the OSPA website.

Executive Board Nominating Committee Election: The following senators were elected to the nominating committee: Donnelyn Curtis, Greg Gardella, Elliott Parker, Stefanie Scoppettone, and JoAnne Skelly.

Proposed Changes to the Faculty Senate Bylaws:

• the outgoing senate elect the following year's executive board at the last meeting of the senate year
• changing the title of the vice chair to chair-elect
• allowing senators to be elected as chair-elect later in their term
• changing senate service restrictions from four and a half years in six contiguous years to four years in five consecutive years
• neither the chair nor chair-elect would represent their unit, but the senate as a whole, and the units from which the chair and chair-elect are drawn would be allowed to elect another representative to serve for the period of their service and chair and chair-elect

After some discussion, the senate agreed to have the executive board incorporate several revisions to the language and present it to the senate at the next meeting for review and vote.

New Business: The senate is scheduled for a reapportionment of senators and the executive board had been considering several options. This discussion will continue throughout this senate year as a decision will be made by the incoming senate for elections in 2008. President Glick will be speaking at a special meeting of the senate on April 5.