Faculty wishing to express comments about the meeting minutes or other concerns should e-mail the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (facsen@musc.edu) or call the Faculty Senate Office at 792-7862.

Past meeting minutes are located on the Senate website at <www.musc.edu/facsen>. Tuesday, Feb. 2 Minutes taken by Faculty Senate secretary, Debbie Carson, College of Pharmacy.

The meeting was called to order by Dr. Adrian Reuben at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 2. A quorum was established and the agenda approved as well as approval of the January minutes.

Executive Committee Report:

Reuben reported the following:

Elizabeth Huggins from the College of Nursing was being replaced on the Executive Committee by Francine Margolius; Margolius will also take over responsibility as chair of the Governance Committee. Approximately $450 will be spent on computer software and equipment for the senate. The senate will examine the grievance process as this applies to grievances against the president, provost, and board. In the rare circumstances that this could occur review of the Faculty Handbook revisions should return from the Deans’ Council later this week and should be back in the hands of the senate for the next meeting in March.

The revisions to the Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure Proposal were approved by the Deans’ Council and will be placed in the Faculty Handbook.

Senators were selected to serve on two university committees. Dr. Dan Knapp will serve on the Letterhead Committee. Also, Dr. Jerry Webb and Knapp will serve on the Parking Committee.

Negative impact of having several sources of salary on remuneration from NIH funds, was discussed. It is hoped that the board will approve this year the inclusion of UMA salary in the base against which NIH salary support can be requested. Other aspects of the problem have yet to be addressed, such as the place of VA support in calculating the salary base in applying for NIH funding.

Reuben reminded senators that a quorum needs to be present by 7:45 a.m. He requested that senators promote the role of the senate within their own units, and make sure faculty know about the “free speech” options during the regular senate meetings.

Faculty Affairs Committee Report:

Dr. Lyndon Key reported on the progress of the department chair evaluation process. He outlined his committee’s proposed mechanism, which was voted upon and approved by the senate. Key will send the final version of the mechanism for handling the department chair evaluation questionnaires to Reuben. Reuben will pass the document on to the Provost for approval.

Key also reported that the next Faculty Senate Retreat will take place in early April. One item for discussion will be the proposed mergers with other Colleges. Dr. Carson asked that the issues of appointment and promotion of women also be an item for discussion. Senators were asked to submit other items as retreat topics to Key as soon as possible.

University Affairs Committee Report:

The revised Terms of Appointment proposal was presented. The document was voted upon and approved with minor revisions. Reuben will now send the document to the Provost to be considered for inclusion in the latest version of the faculty handbook. Don Tyner presented the quarterly senate budget report.

The Governance Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee had nothing to report.

Women’s Ad Hoc Committee:

Carson reported on the preliminary findings of the committee. She said that several reports have already been generated at the university during the past decade and the committee will need input from the senate as to how the data needs to be analyzed. In addition, it is likely that the colleges will need to supply further detailed information in order to explain accurately the raw data. Dr. Jason Cooper and Dr. David Ward joined the committee.

Other issues for consideration at future meetings were raised including unsatisfactory state of the grant accounting processes and the unsatisfactory state of computer support on campus.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 a.m. The next meeting will be March 2, at 7:45 a.m.