Faculty Senate held its monthly meeting on Nov.  19 in the Rita Laden Senate Chambers in the Joe Crowley Student Union.

Below are a few key items from the Senate meeting provided by Faculty Senate Chair David Sanders and Faculty Senate staff:

Administrative Faculty NSHE Code Changes

There are two proposed NSHE Code Changes that will be voted on at the Dec. 3-4 Board of Regents meeting.

1)      Shortening of Termination Notice for Faculty Hired after Dec. 15, 2015 from 1 year to 60 days

2)      Ability to Transfer Administrative Faculty among TMCC, WNC and the University of Nevada, Reno by the Chancellor.  The Chancellor can also choose to transfer Administrative Faculty among the southern institutions.

The Faculty Senate unanimously approved a resolution on the importance of our Administrative Faculty and the negative impact of these proposed changes.  The Faculty Senate Executive Board has developed position papers on both changes. In addition, Chair David Sanders has been working with the NSHE Council of Chairs to express concerns to NSHE Leadership.  The resolution and supporting documents can be found on the Faculty Senate website.

Canvas will replace Blackboard as Learning Management System with WebCampus

The last semester that courses will be offered on Blackboard will be the spring 2016 semester.  Canvas will begin during 2016 Summer Session.  Faculty training will begin around mid-February 2016.  Although the interface will be dramatically different from what we've been using, Canvas does represent, by all counts, a significant improvement for faculty and students.

NFA/Faculty Senate Co-sponsored Compensation Forum

On Oct. 28, a forum was held on faculty compensation, compression and deferred compensation.  More than 100 people attended.  The forum provided a great opportunity to give the status of compensation and to receive input from attendees.  

NSHE Compensation Committee

A NSHE Compensation Committee has been formed. The purpose of the committee is to develop recommendations on how to structure compensation within NSHE.  The committee held its first meeting on Nov.  24 and are to produce a final report by February. The committee members are presidents, students, and faculty, and each group receives two votes.  University representatives include President Marc Johnson, James Puccinelli (student), David Sanders (Faculty Senate) and Glenn Miller (NFA).

Campus Conversations

Our Campus Conversation on Growth occurred on Oct. 21. A summary is on the Faculty Senate's "What's New Webpage."

The final Campus Conversation for this semester will occur Monday, Nov. 30, from 4-5 p.m., JCSU Great Room, and the subject will be Junior/Early Career Faculty Retention and Mentoring.  Come join the conversation.  Faculty attendance and participation are very important, and we hope to see you there-but if you cannot make it, there will be a live stream of the meeting.

Winter Commencement

The 2015 Winter Commencement Exercises for 2015 will take place at the Lawlor Event Center on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 8:00 a.m. The ceremony will be granting both undergraduate and graduate degrees for all of the colleges.  We encourage you to attend. 

President's Holiday Social will be held Tuesday, Dec. 8 from 4-5:30 p.m. in JCSU Ballrooms.  This is a nice opportunity for faculty and staff to come together and enjoy the holiday season.

Remember to Like the Faculty Senate Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/unrfacultysenate[facebook.com]