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Faculty Senate meeting minutes, March 7  The meeting was called to order by Dr. Adrian Reuben at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 7. The February minutes were discussed and approved.  Senators Present: Basic Sciences: Dan Knapp, Ed Krug, Harry Margolius, Katherine Meier, Philip Privitera  Clinical Sciences: Linda Austin, Peter Carek, Patrick Flume, Thomas Gettys, Leonie Gordon, Mark Lyles, Janice Key, Adrian Reuben, Dennis Cope  Dental Medicine: Luis Leite, Jon Rampton  Health Professions: Rich Hernandez, Andrea White  Library Science and Informatics: Bobbie Carlson, Elizabeth Connor, Peggy Schachte, Joann Sullivan  Nursing: Elaine Amella, Francine Margolius, Sally Stroud  Pharmacy: Deborah Carson, Jason Cooper, Kurt Lorenz  Staff:  Vivian Hall, Administrative Assistant to the Faculty Senate  Unfinished Business  Details surrounding the Faculty Senate Retreat have been finalized. The retreat will be held in room 125, Gazes Conference on March 14, at 4:30 p.m.  The three discussion topics include Junior Faculty Mentoring, Mission Based Management and Distance Education.  New Business Lisa Saladin was unable to make her presentation on Teaching Excellence. This will be rescheduled for another Senate meeting.  Knapp gave an update on the revised term of appointment document. Faculty Senate representatives and representatives from the Deans’ Council met in October to resolve differences in the proposed revision of the Term of Appointment section of the Faculty Handbook.  A consensus was reached, and immediately after this meeting Knapp drafted a revised document and distributed it to the representatives from both groups. There were no objections to the draft made at that time, and the draft document was subsequently discussed at the Nov. 2 meeting of the Faculty Senate. Following discussion of the last sentence which originally read, “For tenured faculty, the granting of tenure implies continuous reappointment at the same term of appointment.”  The Senate gave informal approval of the document pending replacement of the word “implies” with another term. The document was brought back to the Senate at the Dec. 7 meeting with the term “entails” replacing “implies” in the last sentence. This draft was approved, and since word had been received that the Deans’ Council had also informally approved the original draft document, the formal approval process was initiated where the document was distributed to the faculty (via publication in The Catalyst and e-mail) prior to formal approval by the Senate. Following formal approval at the Jan. 11 Senate meeting, the document was forwarded to the provost for formal approval by the Deans’ Council prior to transmittal to the Board for final approval. It was at this point that it was discovered that the document passed informally by the Deans’ Council earlier was not the same document which had been formally approved by the Senate. The form passed by the Deans’ Council was missing the last sentence referring to tenured faculty, apparently as a result of an error in printing  the original draft which was distributed by e-mail. Dr. Crouch has scheduled the consideration of this document for the March 20 meeting of the Deans’ Council, but has expressed doubt that it will be approved by the deans. If it is not approved, the process will have to be started over from the beginning.  Reuben reported that he met with Dr. Tom Higerd, associate provost for Institutional Research and Assessment to discuss the faculty database.   Higerd told him that a complete  faculty database is being developed and updated which will replace the current database. Higerd expects this project will be completed by late summer. Reuben said that the new database will be a valuable instrument in the next Senate election process, scheduled for late July/August.  Reuben asked Senators to volunteer to serve on one of four councils (Academic, Clinical, Research and Education), as representatives of the Faculty Senate. A suggestion was made to provide Senators with a description of each council.  Reuben reported on the overwhelming e-mail response he has received from various faculty members outlining their concerns about the university’s financial problems. Faculty have reported specific incidences of financial irregularities that have impaired their activities and productivity. As promised, Reuben will submit these examples to  Crouch and Dr. Greenberg outlining faculty concerns.  Other Business Andrea White, chair, Faculty Affairs Committee, reported on the progress of her subcommittee that is discussing faculty salary increases and the current policy on faculty salaries. Faculty members have reported that through the years, there has been an unfair execution of the current policy which penalizes junior and senior faculty and does not allow for cost of living salary increases. She is planning a meeting with Maurice Snook, College of Medicine,  to discuss implementation of faculty salaries within the COM.  Debbie Carson reported on her committee’s cohort study which examines how women at MUSC have been appointed, promoted and granted tenure. The study involves female faculty who were hired between 1985 and 1995. She has solicited the help of the Provost’s Office and the deans to obtain information on these faculty. Carson expects this project to be completed by late summer.  Joann Sullivan reported on the committee that has been studying the recruitment and promotion of minority faculty. Although two of the three committee members no longer serve on the Senate, Reuben recommended that the committee continue to meet and discuss these important issues.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 a.m.  The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 4, at 7:45 am.