I.         Welcome and Introductions
II.        Approval of Minutes from May 4, 2004 [forthcoming]
III.       President's Report
IV.       Faculty Handbook [attached]
V.        Meetings with elected Campus Representatives to Faculty Senate Executive Committee

Present: Abell, Anderson, Andrews, Bogacki, , Briceland, Brock, Brookman, G. Brophy, Canfield, Churn (alternate), Cooper (alternate), Corey, Cramer, Deanda, Dery , Donnell, Ellington, Fernandez-Ward, Ghosh, Gordon, Gower, Green, Guidarelli, Harvie, Hutchinson, Ingroff, Iuorno, Johnson, Kinney, Lewis, Longest,  Martin, Masho, Mays (alternate), McCain, McMahon, Moon, Munoz, Murphy-Judy, Nichols, Olds, Pitts, Poynor , Putman, Ream, Robnolt, Saladino, Sarkozi, Sawicki, Seago, Sholley, Simons, Straus, Szari, Tait (alternate), Taylor, Thoma,  Turman, Valerie, Welleford, Wynne.

Absent: Abbott, Adera, Bick (excused), Carpenter, Cummins (excused), Dent, Getty, Harvie, Pyles, Spede (excused), Spindle (excused), Sutherland (excused).
 

---

 

 1. Senators in attendance introduced themselves.

2. The minutes of the May 4th meeting were approved.

3. Vice-President Kathryn Murphy-Judy distributed a committee preferences sign-up sheet so that senators could sign-up for Faculty Senate committees of interest to them and cross themselves off of past committees if no longer interested. Each senator is required to belong to at least one senate committee. Alternates are invited to participate in committees, but not required to do so.

4. President Judy Lewis reported the following:
 

--The Bylaws of the Faculty document has been amended by the VCU Board   of Visitors. The phrase that reads “the name of this organization is the faculty” has been changed by the VCU University Attorney. The essence of the document has not been changed by this editorial change, though this change in a document voted upon by the faculty did cause some concern.

--At their May meeting, the VCU Board of Visitors, Judy Lewis was selected as the faculty representative on the Board of Visitors for the coming year. The student representative is the MCV campus student government president.

--At the August Board of Visitors meeting, many decisions were announced on the distribution of new money at VCU, though the decision-making process that led to these choices is unclear. About $1 million remains to be distributed at the November Board of Visitors meeting. Among decisions announced were a 3% faculty salary increase plus a one-time merit-based bonus allocation to be made this winter. These budget distributions are now on the VCU web site at http://www.vcu.edu/finance/budget.htm

--Forty campus buildings were damaged by Tropical Storm Gaston last week

--A question was raised whether building maintenance reserve funds were part of the new allotment and the answer given was that they were not.

--The new VCU Master Site Plan , now on the web at http://www.vcu.edu/fmd/   was approved at the August Board of Visitors meeting. Representatives of the ACORN organization were in attendance to protest the planned demolition of the West Hospital and School of Nursing buildings. Artifacts of these buildings apparently will be preserved.

--Faculty evaluation of all deans and the library director have now been completed. What, if any, feedback may result is unclear. Interim Provost Steve Gottfredson is supportive of continuing this process.

--Domestic partner benefits remains to be debated by the VCU vice-presidents—this was not done before Provost McDavis left VCU.

--No news was reported about proposed changes in the VCU Promotion and Tenure document. Senator Poynor noted that this arose from the university P & T committee and urged that it be followed up on.

--Several committee appointment opportunities are currently available, particularly with Honor Council and the new VCU Tie Committee.

--Four VCU Faculty will be honored at the September 23rd convocation ceremony.

--The QEP (Quality Enhancement Plan) discussed last year has been renamed “Reinforcing Engagement and Learning “ with the new acronym “REAL”. The student-centered university initiative will be integrated into that project.

--A strategic planning commission will be named soon. President Lewis has already been named to a Strategic Planning Executive Committee

--A search committee for a new VCU Provost will be named soon also.

5. The VCU Faculty Handbook revision has been delayed so that Human Resources can review the text against recent changes for accuracy. The handbook thus, will not be approved at the November Board of Visitors meeting. President Lewis will redistribute the handbook after Human Resources revisions are complete.

6. President Lewis stressed that the Faculty Senate will be focusing on improved communication with faculty this year and that the two elected campus representatives on the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Dianne Simons on the MCV Campus and Gary Sarkozi on the Monroe Park Campus, will take leading roles in this initiative.

7. President Lewis noted that the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual) organization reception will be held here in the VCU Student Commons on September 14th at 5PM and all faculty are invited.

8. The remainder of the meeting was devoted to discussions among the two campus faculty groups led by Dianne Simons and Gary Sarkozi on how to improve communication between the Faculty Senate and the individual faculty on each campus.
 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:12 p.m.

---

       _____________________
       Dan Ream, Secretary