MINUTES

 

UTMB Faculty Senate

November 10, 2003

4:30 p.m. - 6:20 p.m.

Caduceus Room

 

Senators present:  S. Ayachi; C. Baker; M. Best; V. Braciale; D. Breitkopf; B. Budelmann (Chair-elect); B. Camune; S. Gerik; A. Hudson Jones; C. Jansen; M. Kanz; R. Lederman (Chair); H. Li; S. Mitra; A. Pou; R. Rahr; C. Stroup-Benham; C. Thomas; D. Trevino; C. Wigg; Mark Winter.

 

  1. Motion made and seconded to approve agenda and October 13, 2003 minutes.
  2. Chair Report – Dr. Lederman

A. The Deans of the four schools have been invited to present to the Senate their plans for 360 degree administrative evaluations to include input from faculty.  The Board of Regents standard for administrative review is every seven years.  However, UTMB conducts administrative reviews annually.

B.     Faculty Advisory Council (FAC) – the Dec. 4th and 5th meeting will include discussion of the following issues:

                                                                          i.      Review APT criteria for non-tenure faculty

                                                                        ii.      Ratio of faculty to administration

C.     The Senate needs to determine what we can do with the Faculty Satisfaction Survey results conducted by UT System and consider how pertinent they are to us. We achieved a 38% response rate, less than the desired faculty representative rate of 70-80%. 

D. Other planned agenda topics at the Dec. 4th and 5th FAC meeting include:

·        Currently, UT System offers tenure only to full-time faculty. There is a proposal under consideration to provide tenure to part-time faculty. This would most likely pertain to women with young families, and would involve a decrease in workload and a lengthening of time till tenure review. 

·        Another issue pertains to salary compression of longer-term tenured faculty. Many long-term faculty are at a salary level comparable to that being offered new faculty.

 E.  Faculty Salary Study – Dean Watson requested input from the Senate regarding this   study.

 F.  It was noted that there are difficulties in getting faculty to serve on the UTMB Institutional Review Board.  One senator noted that Dr. Lemon had told faculty he wants to make service “incentivized.”  Dean Watson felt that compensation for this service would be a conflict of interest.  Senators noted that faculty service on committees has to be recognized.

  1.  Comments from the President – Dr. Stobo
    1. He has reviewed the results from the Faculty Satisfaction Survey conducted by the FAC and supported by the UT System.  He stated that we will take their survey and extract pertinent issues and distribute them for review.
    2. A review of the Faculty Salary Survey is being conducted by Watson & Wyatt.  Good methodology was used and the results will show outliers of gender and ethnicity.  President Stobo met with the Deans to discuss results.  C. Stroup-Benham reminded the Senators that the information is pulled from the Human Resources Management System, and faculty must be encouraged to update/correct their information.  Once analyses are completed, a communication plan will be put in place to disseminate the findings.
    3. Senator Carolyn Jensen thanked Dr. Stobo for his recent President’s rounds of SAHS, and stated it was a great communication tool.
  2. Chair-Elect Report – Dr. Budelmann
    1. Attended FAC with Dr. Lederman. One issue was the Regents’ increase of tuition at UT System universities.  Dr. Stobo has stated there will not be a tuition increase for UTMB at this time.
    2. Faculty Satisfaction Survey results were considered biased, based on a statistical review report, and it was difficult to say with assurance what the Survey says about the faculty population in general (demographics of respondents were not the same as demographics of the UT population).
    3. Almost no good reports on PeopleSoft.
  3. 360 Degree evaluation of Deans – Dr. Watson Report
    1. Each year Dr. Watson, along with other president’s council members, provides a list of evaluators for themselves. This includes peers, direct reports, and customers.  These evaluators provide feedback on her performance and management and her perceived strengths and weaknesses.  Dr. Watson meets with an outside, unbiased coach to obtain the most benefit from the results.  She has chosen faculty as customers to evaluate her in the past.   Results of evaluators are kept anonymous.  One problem is that around twelve persons evaluate the Deans & she is often picked to evaluate other administrators.  It is a very time consuming process, but noteworthy.
  4. Faculty Club update – S. Gerik, Chair, Faculty Quality Comm.
    1. Presented plans and schematics for the décor of the club.  It will have approximately 2K square feet.  This will include a lounge and food service area.  The total cost is estimated at 1.5 million dollars, which includes some structural maintenance in addition to remodeling.  The plan is for the Faculty Club to be open from 7AM-6PM, serve food, and beer & wine after 5PM.  The estimated completion date is in a year.
  5. PeopleSoft Update – Ralph Farr, Jeff Bonnardel, Mike Tramonte
    1. The system is improving with gradual modifications. Training classes and user groups have been formed.  Collective feedback is helping to correct the system as needed.  All modifications will ensure future compatibility with system software upgrades and new versions.
    2. When asked about ORACLE buying out PeopleSoft, ORACLE has stated they will honor contracts and customer support.
  6. Motion to adjourn made and seconded.