Faculty Senate Agenda – March 7, 2017
Senators in Attendance: Rachna Prakash, Patrick Alexander, Kris Belden-Adams, Patrick Curtis, Brice Noonan, Esteban Urea-Benavides, Randy Wadkins, Chris Mullen, Aileen Ajootian, Tossi Ikuta, Feng Wang, Alex Yakovlev, Peter Reed, Mark Walker, Andrew O’Reilly, Paul Loprinzi, Zachary Kagan Guthrie, Vivian Ibrahim, Jarod Roll, Alysia Burton Steele, Deborah Wenger, Antonia Eliason, Stacey Lantagne, Eric Lambert, Michelle Emanuel, Amy Gibson, Vishal Gupta, Sumali Conlon, Sandra Spiroff, Sara Wellman, Thomas Peattie, Mary Roseman, Chalet Tan, Meagen Rosenthal, James Bos, Breese Quinn, Ben Jones, Marilyn Mendolia, Javier Boyas, Marcos Mendoza, Minjoo Oh, Roy Thurston, William Sumrall, Rory Ledbetter, Derek Cowherd, and Robert Cummings.
• Call Meeting to Order
o 6:01 call to order
• Approval of February 14, 2017 Minutes
o Minutes approved
• Dr. Ron Rychlak – Faculty Athletic Representative
o Ron will bring us up to speed on NCAA violations/allegations/sanctions and answer questions (to the extent he is able).
o Overall GPA for student athletes is 3.0 for two semesters in a row for the first time in history
o NCAA investigation began 5 years ago with women’s basketball and a newly hired coach and assistant coach that brought students with them
 Through an internal investigation, the University identified issues with coaches writing papers for students
• All coaches and students were removed before they played
 Football has 15 level one violations
• The previous head coach had found a way to get fraudulent ACT scores for incoming students
o The University tried to investigate as they were suspicious of the student situation, but after several attempts they could not make headway
• One of the more serious current accusations is “lack of institutional control”
• Chancellor Vitter wanted to bring in an expert to evaluate the athletics department
o Outside organization did an evaluation
 See previous minutes from 2016/17 for a few of these changes
• Ex. Restructured athletic compliance committee, added an additional faculty member as chair
• NCAA interviewed students that didn’t come to the University and some additional allegations were brought forward
o Ex. Potentially paying students for visits to campus, or providing rides inappropriately
• From the academic side, we have good checks and balances in place
• On the non-academic side, we might have had issues with hiring, but there are going to be people there who break the rules occasionally
• The outside evaluators did not see a situation wherein the athletics department was over reaching their role
o We have had some bad actors, but the athletics department is trying their best to address them going forward
o Questions:
 Q: As athletics, has been described as the “front porch of the university” what are the implications to the university?
 A: It is a black eye, there has been some speculation that applications are down as a consequence. Ole Miss basketball is number 4 in the SEC – because of consistency within the coaching etc. Our administration is concerned with doing things the right way, and they are trying.
 Q: Were there any other sports involved besides football?
 A: All football
 Q: You said we have 15 level 1 charges, how does that compare to other SEC schools?
 A: It is a lot more. And they are serious. In particular, the lack of institutional control (along with the academic charges). We hope to be
able to establish we are not guilty of some of them and that we did in fact catch the two academic charges internally. On the ACT testing issue, we have since learned that all of the students were taking the test at the same testing location where the coach had a deal with the facility.
• Q: Given that we have so many charges, doesn’t that show we have some problem?
• A: Certainly, we have a problem, but we are trying to address the problem appropriately.
 Q: One of the things that I have heard is that the schools that get really hit hard by the NCAA are those that make changes and are starting to become more competitive with the larger institutions and there are forces in place that do not want this to happen. Have you heard this before?
 A: I have heard that said. But it doesn’t forgive what has happened here.
 Q: With respect to the post-season ban I think I read somewhere that we will be forgoing 7-8 million dollars, is that true?
 A: Yes, that is true.
• Q: Does that effect academics?
• A: That will be covered within Athletics.
• Committee Reports
o Academic Instructional Affairs
 No report
o Academic Conduct
 No report
o Finance & Benefits
 No report
o Development & Planning
 No report
o Governance
 No report
o Research & Creative Achievement n\
 No report
o University Services
 No report
• Old Business
o Update on Consensual Relationship policy
 The executive committee reviewed the revised policy and made a number of other recommendations, which are being added and will be brought back to that committee
• The Senate will see that policy again
o Update on status of Provost search
 Were waiting for IHL approval to hire a head-hunting firm
 Four senate representatives were sent onto the committee
 The search will get underway after spring break
o Testing center survey – Dr. Zack Gutherie
 Accessibility committee will be sending a survey around about developing a testing site on campus to help with students who struggle with accessibility
o Report on meeting of Support & Research Faculty – 24 Feb.
 Will likely seek representation on Faculty Senate
• Was a productive meeting
• There was lots of interest in getting representation, as they face lots of issues and do not have anywhere to go
• Most other schools have wrapped Support and Research Faculty into the larger faculty senate
o Brice Noonan asked the group to come up with some ideas about how such an integration would work – best practices
• Would like to speak to the Senate before the end of this year – though this does not mean that any changes would be made this year
• Q: About what percentage of faculty senates have the proposed representation?
• A: I don’t have a specific number, but based on their research many do
• New Business
o New ombudsperson
 Paul Caffera – started last Monday – I exist to ensure fairness on campus. Would like to come to departmental meetings to get to know people.
• Went to school on an athletics scholarship
• Used to run a mediation company in various locations (24 years)
• Moved to this position after many years of seeing disputes at the tail end and decided that there should be a better way to help address these issues
o Representative for the electronic tenure dossier committee
 Randy Wadkins – Chemistry and Biochemesity
o Prepare chairs for senate elections for the next academic year
 This year will be more complicated because we are rolling out the first phase of the three-year term commitment (to enhance continuity)
• Adjournment
o Adjourned 6:44