Faculty Constitution

1
Faculty Constitution Amendment
Referendum November 9 15, 2016
2
Faculty ConstitutionIt shall be the purpose of
the senate to

• Make recommendations on University policy and
  governance issues of concern to faculty
• Advocate for faculty viewpoints on all issues in
  which faculty perceive themselves as
  stakeholders
• Solicit faculty perceptions, suggestions, and
  recommendations
• Seek accurate data for use in advocating
  positions taken by faculty
• Promote communication among faculty, and between
  faculty and other groups on campus
• Protect academic freedom and improve faculty
  salaries and working conditions and
• Assure the opportunity for faculty participation
  in fiscal planning and decision-making.

3
Faculty Constitution

• Definitions
• Faculty members are those persons who hold
  academic rank of lecturer or higher.
• Faculty voters are those faculty members,
  exclusive of per course faculty, who hold
  academic rank in a department at a rate of 50 or
  more and who do not hold an administrative
  appointment outside of their College.

4

• Faculty Constitution
• The Senate is a body of approximately fifteen
  faculty members elected by the faculty voters to
  represent proportionally the faculty members of
  each college.
• No college will ever be represented by fewer than
  one senator no more than one senator will be
  from any academic department.

5

• The full Faculty Senate comprises elected
  senators representing academic colleges and
  senate liaisons who are elected in all other
  departments in the colleges and by the
  Professionals Librarians/Curators.
• Liaisons communicate individual faculty and
  department/school concerns to the Faculty Senate.
  The full senate meets each long semester./school
  faculties and the Senate

6

• Senates role in shared governance
• Meets monthly with President and Provost (PAAG)
• Appoints members to senate committees and faculty
  representatives for university-level committees
• Reviews UPPSs and PPSs
• Authorizes curriculum changes
• Governance network
• Senate chair serves on the Council of Academic
  Deans (CAD) and the Council of Chairs

7
Oversight of faculty peer review processes

• Academic Computing Program
• Excellence in Part-Time Teaching Award
• Faculty Development Leave
• Nontenure Line Faculty Workload Release
• Piper Professor Nomination
• Research Enhancement Program
• University Lecturers Program
• University Performing Arts Series

8
From Adjunct to Nontenure Line

• Prior to 2015, Adjunct referred to any faculty
  member whose appointment does not lead to tenure.
• At the request of constituency representatives,
  Adjunct Faculty was changed to Nontenure Line
  Faculty
• Faculty who teach less than 50 are referred to
  as Per Course Faculty (a subset of nontenure
  line faculty)

9
Faculty Growth
10
Full-Time and Part-Time
11

• Initiatives to Engage
• Nontenure Line Faculty
• Committee Appointments
• Revision of membership criteria to include more
  NLF
• Nontenure Line Faculty Committee
• Awards
• Piper Professor Award criteria revised to include
  NLF
• Part-time Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence
• Resource Programs
• Research Enhancement Program (CI)
• NLF Workload Release Program
• NLF orientations
• NLF open dialogs and NLF survey in 2014-15

12
Nontenure Line Faculty Committee

• College representatives conduct peer review for
  Excellence Awards for Part-time Teaching and NLF
  Workload Release Program
• NLF website and accomplishments
• Review of PPSs impacting NLF
• Collection departmental policies
• University-wide NLF orientation sessions before
  long semesters, piloted in 2014-15

13
Current Eligibility for Senate Membership

• Members of the Faculty Senate are faculty voters,
  exclusive of departmental chairs and other
  quasi-administrators as determined by the Faculty
  Senate, who have
• the rank of assistant professor or higher, have
  tenure,
• are paid at a rate of one-hundred percent from
  funds budgeted for faculty salaries, and
• have at least three years of full-time service at
  TXST.

14
Senate Eligibility Numbers (Fall 2015 figures)

• College
• Applied Arts
• Business
• Education
• FAC
• Health Pro.
• Liberal Arts
• SE
• Total
• Tenured
• 43
• 56
• 65
• 74
• 23
• 156

15
Proposed Amendment

• Members of the Faculty Senate are faculty voters,
  exclusive of departmental chairs and other
  quasi-administrators as determined by the Faculty
  Senate, who have six or more years of full-time
  appointment at Texas State, including the three
  years prior to the election cycle.

16
Ratification Requirements

• At least 2/5 of the faculty voters cast ballots
  and
• At least 2/3 of those casting ballots vote in
  favor of the proposal
• Voting will be conducted online November 9-16.