NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY

MEETING OF THE FACULTY SENATE

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

4:00 P.M.

Workman 101

MINUTES   

Call to order.   Dr. Westpfahl called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

Approval of the minutes of March 6 and March 20, 2007 (attached).   Approval of the minutes as written was moved and seconded, and the motion passed.

Announcements.   

·         Dr. López presented an overview of the legislative session which New Mexico Tech did very well.   

o        five percent salary increase for Tech faculty and other employees, plus a 0.75 percent allowance for the employee retirement fund;

o        a zero tuition credit for state institutions of higher learning; and

o        $1.5 million plus $2 million will be received for infrastructure;

o        $12 million for matching endowment programs of which Tech will receive $2 million.

o        Mesa will receive $40,000;

o        $264,000 for the Bureau of Geology;

o        $50,000 for ICASA;

o        $50,000 for Science Fair for the International Science Fair;

o        funds for Summer Science Program with Cal Tech;

o        funds for Super Computing;

o        $50,000 for Dr. Inal's pre-engineering program with a match from Sandia of an additional $50,000;

o        funds for the Aerospace Engineering Program which has been funded for the past three years;

o        $275,000 for the planning of the New Bureau of Geology facility;

o        $100,000 for the planning of the Wellness Center;

o        $100,000 for the Golf Course to improve the restrooms, etc.;

o        $60,000 for Mesa to acquire computers.

Questions were raised on the matching endowment funds which Dr. López elaborated on.     Dr. Liebrock asked about the New Mexico Computational Program of which one of the satellite centers will be located at New Mexico Tech.   This also received funding.  

·         Dr. Gerity congratulated Dr. López for gaining the five percent salary increase for faculty and staff and having such a successful legislative session.   He reported that contracts will be sent out on April 15 th and they must be returned by May 15 th .

·         Dr. Borchers briefly stated his own problems involving the TIAA-CREF contributions and that he had turned over his personal TIAA-CREF statements to Lonnie Marquez who was checking into the problem.   Mr. Marquez reported that he reconciled Dr. Borchers payroll deductions internally.  With New Mexico Tech changing the payroll system to Banners, the contribution percentages changing by the State, along with TIAA-CREF undergoing a new software change, it all resulted problems in some of the alternative retirement contributions.  Dr. López reported that New Mexico Tech can only reconcile Tech's payroll records because we do not have access to the individual alternative retirement records.    It is up to the individual to check their own statements.    Mr. Marquez said that any errors found should be brought to his attention and that they will work with TIAA-CREF to rectify the problem. 

·           Dr. Pietrass announced an upcoming workshop for department chairs and senior faculty funded through the NSF PAID grant (Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination).   The workshop will be held on May 17 th and 18th at Sevilleta.  The main goal of the grant is to increase faculty diversity, and to increase faculty retention and success.   An important component is a mentoring program for junior faculty.  Faculty who are interested in the program should contact one of the Tech participants:   Ricardo Maestas, Dave Johnson, Scott Zeman, Sue Dunston, Jean Eilek, Fred Phillips, Claudia Wilson, and herself.

·         Mr. Ellard announced the launch of Tech's institutional repository. Located at http://dspace.nmt.edu   and titled NMT Community Archive , the repository will make available in digital form as much of the research output of the institution as possible. It will include material such as preprints, technical reports, working papers, theses, dissertations, conference papers, images, and more. The archive will also include many of the digital assets generated by normal campus life, such as administrative documents, course notes, newspapers, or learning objects.

Mr. Ellard also announced that for this year online access to journals published by Elsevier will be expanded from our current 71 titles to 1782 publications, with full-text available dating back to 1998. For a full list of the journals now available from Elsevier, see http://www.sciencedirect.com/

·          Dr. Weinkauf announced that the IAS (Institute for Advanced Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory) is sponsoring The First Annual Teaming Workshop of the New Mexico Consortium's Institute for Advanced Studies on April 20 and 21 st at New Mexico Tech.   This workshop is to initiate discussion on possible research collaborations and all interested faculty are encouraged to attend.   

·          Mr. Kloeppel reminded the faculty of the upcoming International Science Fair on May 13-19 in Albuquerque.    New Mexico Tech will have a booth at the convention center and encourages departments or clubs to help display what is going on in their areas showing perceptive students what Tech is all about.    They also need students or faculty to help man the booth.    Anyone departments interested are encouraged to call the Admission Office.

Committee Reports

Dr. Pietrass reported that the Computer Science Department is asking that a Posthumous Degree be awarded to Michael Hogan.    On behalf of the department, Dr. Liebrock moved to grant Michael Hogan a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science.     The motion was seconded by Dr. Johnson.    The motion passed unanimously and the department was encouraged to invite Michael's parents to commencement.

Dr. Pietrass on behalf of the Honorary Degrees and Awards Committee, reported that there are three nominations for the Langmuir Award which are posted on the Academic Affairs webpage for review.     Dr. Bowman suggested that a vote be taken early on the Langmuir Award so that the recipient could participate in commencement.    Dr. Pietrass suggested that an e-mail vote be taken and a decision made by April 15 th .    The recipient can then be invited to attend.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn.   The meeting adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Debby Olguin