Faculty Senate - January 2026 Minutes

*Proxy

Call to Order: 3:36 PM
Not Present: Dr. Phillis Bunch, Staff Senate Representative

Special Guests: Dr. Marcy Brown Marsden, Provost

1. Process related to compliance with Senate Bill 37 and House Bill 229
   
   • Dr. Brown Marsden presented the flowchart and described the following process to ensure compliance with Chancellor Creighton’s memo to the TTU System & Senate Bill 37 and House Bill 229 (especially content on sexual identity & sexual orientation):
     1. Need to review every course for that content. Courses that require content for licensure & certification, so those processed were different.
     2. Need to review every course for that content. Courses that require content for licensure & certification, so those processed were different.
     3. 1456 Courses to Review. 96% (1405) Complete
     4. Deans identified 58 (4%) courses with content on gender identity
     5. 56 (4%) courses with content on sexual orientation
   • Academic, Clinical, and Student Affairs Committee (from across the system) will review results from the flowchart style survey after the . (Request overview of survey from MBM), results of which go through the ACS Committee/Board.
   • Dr. Leimer asked for guidance regarding teaching about ethnic identity. Chancellor’s memo did not require course review on content related to race and ethnicity. His memo specifies that faculty should not advocate for ideologies of superiority or supremacy or discrimination, but content related to ethnic or racial identity is not prohibited or limited.
   • Dr. Machado asked regarding nursing about identities that may be disproportionately impacted by health issues as conveyed in data and studies. Dr. Brown Marsden indicated that covering academic studies is appropriate, and Dean Killion is also well-prepared to give guidance to faculty in Gunn HSHS.
2. Updates from the Gardner Institute Sensemaking Session
   • Dr. Brown Marsden explained the relationship with the Gardner Institute, previously shared with the Faculty Senate.
   • 35 Faculty and Staff from across colleges & programs that serve students reviewed data from Gardner surveys & institutional data to identify, brainstorm, and plan for addressing issues.
   • Gardner Engagements to begin in 2026:
     1. Five-Year Strategic Plan
     2. Cost: $75K total (over five years); two and a half more students would have to stay with us for four years in order for us to recover that cost.
     3. As of Monday, our Fall to Spring retention was up by 3.2%, which is the active work of advisors, faculty, and student support. Over 400 students were going to be voided, but that number has dropped to 8.
     4. Dr. Coenen and Dr. Slavens added that the sensemaking event seemed highly productive, purposeful, and encouraging.
     5. Professor Fulton asked if there will be tracking of how many hours students are working. These numbers seem to be increasing.
     6. Dr. Brown Marsden indicated that it will be a part of the Emergency Aid initiatives. There may be possible approaches to on-campus work that can help address that. Students are more loan-averse. Intake surveys to ask questions about work hours.
3. Weather announcements will be made by Friday morning at 6 AM

Housekeeping:

• Approval of Agenda – Dr. Lei motioned, and Dr. Leimer seconded. Majority approved.

• Approval of Minutes – Dr. Shawver motioned to approve with the corrections, and Dr. Machado seconded. Majority approved.

Unfinished Business:

1. Assessment Platform Efficiency and Workload
   • Dr. Coenen explained that Dr. Eboneigh Harris distributed a survey to all deans and faculty responsible for assessment seeking feedback on the platform and submission process. Dr. Coenen said that she would provide an overview of the comments from faculty about the Assessment platform to the Assessment committee by the end of the month but that faculty should still provide Dr. Harris with feedback on the survey distributed from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. The form allows anonymous submissions and will aid the Assessment committee in organizing and applying the feedback.
   • Dr. Slavens indicated that this meeting has been re-organized to allow more time for discussing the Faculty Policies under review. We will briefly hear committee reports, and then move to Current Business.

Committee and Other Reports:

1. Academic Council - Dr. Darla Diltz
   Met yesterday and all submitted courses were approved.
2. Administrative Council - Dr. Dawn Slavens
   No new policy changes yet.
3. Student Allocations Council - Dr. Michelle Hall
   No report.
4. Athletics Council - Dr. Catherine Gaharan
   No report.
5. Student Affairs & Enrollment Council - Dr. Bev Stiles
   Met in the fall for a tour of the MEC & SSC and discussed enrollment issues (similar to Gardner Institute). Dr. Lamb should be able to join Faculty Senate to discuss those details.
6. University Celebration of Scholarship - Dr. Darla Diltz
   Meets tomorrow.
7. Emergency Management Committee - Dr. Kimberly Onstott
   Meets Monday.
8. Leadership Advisory Council - Dr. Dawn Slavens
   No report.
9. Other Committee Reports -
   Lead the Stampede (Leadership Training from Cammie Dean), welcomes referrals and recommendations.

Current Business/Information Sharing:

1. Update from Dr. Adam Lei on Roth Option in TSA Retirement Plans
   • ORP or TRS, but there are two other voluntary OPT7 & Tax-sheltered Annuity plan. We have been asking for a TSA plan since 2024. Previously they said they were asking TTU system. Now they are checking with vendors, but it appears that we are progressing.
   • Courtney (Grimes) that the University was in the process of checking with the vendors to make the Roth options available.
   • Once finalized, supposedly faculty members would receive a notification from the University. I think this is good news and would be appropriate for our December Faculty Senate meeting as an information item (also as a follow up to one of our September 2025 meeting agenda items).
2. MSU Policy Review - Faculty Policies
   • Dr. Slavens introduced Appendix A. the MSU Faculty Policies under review. Faculty have had over a month to review the contents of the Teams folder (accessible to Faculty Senators when logged in to their Microsoft accounts) provided by Dr. Brown Marsden prior to our December Senate Social. (For instructions on accessing and reviewing documents in Teams, see Dr. Stacia Miller’s Tutorial.)
   • Provost Brown Marsden’s document, “Policy edit information to Faculty Senate 11.17.25” explained which policies had significant or minor revisions and which would be reviewed later. Specific revisions are reviewable by policy number in the “OP 06.XX policy edits” folder.
   • The revisions with any substantive faculty comments were collected into “Appendix A. MSU Policy Review - Faculty Policies” and reviewed by faculty during the meeting. Additional faculty comments during the meeting are noted in the appendix and below:
     1. OP 06.04 Academic Freedom and Academic Responsibility - Several faculty said that this policy needs to reflect the limitations of state and federal legislation.
     2. Faculty broadly agreed with Dr. Sarah Cobb’s recommendation that OP 06.06 Dismissal of Faculty for Cause & OP 06.07 Faculty Due Process should be combined. Faculty also agreed that dismissal process should have consistent appeal processes regardless of dismissal type.
     3. OP 06.40 Faculty Compensation - Faculty comments request that broader framing of financial health of the institution is needed for this policy's accuracy, sustainability, and longevity.

New Business: None

Announcements: None

Meeting adjourned at 5:06 PM. Dr. Diltz made a motion to adjourn, and Professor Young seconded. The motion to adjourn passed by a majority.

Submitted,
Dr. Hillary Coenen, Faculty Senate Secretary
Dr. Dawn Slavens, Faculty Senate Presiding Officer

Meetings & Deadlines:
The next Executive Committee meeting with the President is rescheduled for February 6th at 3PM.
Agenda items for the next meeting should be submitted to Dr. Slavens by Noon on Jan. 30th .
The next Executive Committee meeting will be Feb. 2nd at 3:30 PM.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will be Feb. 12th at 3:30 PM.