NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY
   
MEETING OF THE FACULTY SENATE
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
4:00 P.M.
Workman 101
MINUTES

1. Call to order.  Dr. Dave Westpfahl, Chair, called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m.

2. Approval of the minutes of March 4, 200. A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes. The motion passed unanimously.

3. Announcements.

Dr. Peter F. Gerity announced that academic contracts will be out on April 15, and faculty have a 30-day window in which to return the signed contracts to the Office for Academic Affairs. He explained that 25 percent is taken off the top of the 3 percent salary pool and used for tenure promotions and promotions to full professor, with the balance returned to the pool. Gerity said President López accepted a recommendation to roll the pool into the salary template because the pool is so small this year. After promotions, Chairs will receive the final merit percentages by the end of the week. The academic contracts will run from August 11, 2008 to May 17, 2009, a week before fall classes start, to catch up with the payroll cycle Otherwise, Gerity said faculty would not receive their first payroll check for a full month.
                                   
Gerity cited the recent publicity garnered by Paul Krehbiel, Bill Rison and Ron Thomas, and graduate student Harald Edens, in the journal Nature Geoscience and in a front-page article by John Fleck in the Albuquerque Journal; an article on Penny Boston’s successful search for microbes in a miles-deep cave in Mexico, as featured in the Santa Fe New Mexican; and the discovery of a fossil at the Bosque del Apache publicized by local and state media.

Ken Minschwaner returned to the topic of merit raises, suggesting that a larger percentage be taken from the salary pool to deal with compression and inversion issues; and that perhaps the merit plan needs to be revisited. Gerity replied that he was open to having a task force revisit the template, but warned that raises will continue to be low for the foreseeable future. “They won’t jump 10 percent anytime soon,” he said. Faculty in some fields are being paid higher starting salaries because of the competition from industry. It’s market-driven, he said. John Wilson, like Minschwaner a member of the committee that last reviewed the merit policy, volunteered to revisit the plan.

Richard Sonnenfeld reported on a meeting of faculty from physics, chemistry and E&ES with Peter Gerity and Lonnie Marquez to discuss the need for an ongoing budget line-item to support the recruitment of graduate students. With approval from Dr. Lopez, Lonnie Marquez agreed to start this line item for the 2008-2009 year at $50,000 a year, institute-wide. The funds would be administered by Graduate Dean Dave Johnson. Sonnenfeld said departments should respond to the call for proposals from the Graduate Dean. In general, proposals specify how they would use the money to increase the number and quality of the graduate students they enroll. Wilson noted that the E&ES Department has been doing its own recruitment for some time on an ad hoc basis, which goes beyond having teaching assistants, he said. Gerity commented that some universities earmark overhead research funds in their line-item budgets for recruitment.

Sharon Sessions announced that she had collected 30 signatures on a petition to make the Children’s Center program available children less than two years. Even down to six months to 18 months would be a huge relief for young faculty. Gerity agreed that expanding the program would be a benefit, but raised issues of licensing, certification, staff and facilities that would require financing. He urged that supporters carefully analyze the issue, and suggested that Sessions meet with Ricardo Maestas, the university administrator who oversees the center. On that subject, Elaine DeBrine-Howell asked that anyone with outdated computers donate them to the day care center in Playas.

4. Committee Reports

a. Ad Hoc Committee on Conferral of Special Degrees (attachment)
Graduate Dean Dave Johnson introduced revisions to a proposal on granting degrees out of the current sequence. Scott Zeman introduced the proposal at last month’s meeting. Johnson explained that many employers, particularly in government, now require a degree showing the date of completion, even before a job can be offered. Clearly, changes are needed to be responsive to the students, he said. The attachment outlined three proposals: 1. Routine Degree Approval Process, adding an August degree date to accommodate summer completions; 2. Special Approval Process; and 3. Electronic Faculty Consent, intended to result in approval response times of two months or less. Johnson moved to adopt the first and third parts of the proposal. Brian Borchers seconded the motion. During the discussion that followed, Johnson said the process was not one of self-identification, that degree audits would be performed, and that the changes won’t solve everything, there still was the matter of having regental approval, perhaps through special teleconference meetings. “If we miss someone, the second part of the motion will help pick up the pieces,” he said. Richard Sonnenfeld proposed a friendly amendment requiring a quorum for degree approval, which Johnson did not accept. Gerity suggested entrusting department chairs as a legal quorum; and Johnson added that the first line of defense would be the student’s advisor, whose signature is required on the intent-to-graduate form. The motion passed on a 27 – 2 vote.

Johnson then moved to accept the second part of the proposal, the Special Approval Process, which would benefit graduate students who complete degree requirements out of sequence. The motion was seconded by Dr. Lorie Liebrock. Bill Stone stated that there would be as many as seven approval dates a year. We have six or seven already, responded Gerity, with the MST pool. The Special Approval Process includes special batch deadlines – two weeks prior to the next regularly scheduled regents meeting in Spring and Fall; and at the close of registration for the summer session. The names of students approved by this process will be immediately presented to the Board of Regents. The date of degree for those approved will be the date when approval was made by the Regents. The motion passed unanimously.

1. Old Business – None.

1. New Business – None.

1. Adjournment. Westpfahl adjourned the meeting at 5:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Valerie Kimble