Professor John Nix

The regular monthly meeting of the Faculty Senate for the 2017-2018 academic year was held November 2, 2017, at 3:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room (JPL 4.04.22) with Professor John Nix, Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate, presiding. Professor John Nix said that he is on the budget model task force which meets today. He is also serving on a working group on sexual harassment and invited other senators to join if interested or offer any recommendations they might have. The working group will offer recommendations in response to this year’s CLASE report. Professor Nix is also serving on the tuition and fee proposal task force. This task force will be submitting UTSA’s tuition and fee proposal to the Regents by December 4th. The Regents will then consider the proposal at their February meeting. More information can be found here. In addition, committee agendas and materials can be viewed here. Professor Nix also said that there is an upcoming student forum on Monday, November 13th at 11am in the Retama Auditorium and all students are welcome. The next Faculty Senate meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 7th at 3:30pm.

Dr. Mauli Agrawal

Dr. Agrawal listed the different task forces that are currently operating. First, the Weighted Student Credit Hour Optimization Committee will look at how to best optimize credit hour production, in order to maximize formula funding. Second, the Tuition and Fees Committee will prioritize and recommend options to the President regarding UTSA’s tuition proposal to UT System. The committee is currently looking at adjusting mandatory fees for transportation, automated services, athletics, and student services. Other items being considered include a tuition increase and exploring the possibility of experiential tuition for COB and COE students. The committee will solicit feedback before presenting their recommendations to the President, who will review before submitting for Regents’ approval. Third, the Finance and Budget Modeling Task Force is working with Huron, an outside consultant, to assess various budget models and select one to be implemented at UTSA. Fourth, the Student Success Task Force is working to develop an integrated student success plan to include goals, metrics, accountability, and self-assessment. Fifth, the Strategic Enrollment Task Force is working on a strategic enrollment plan for both campuses as well as for online courses. Sixth, the Provost’s DFW task force is looking at pedagogy and delivery methods for gateway courses with high DFW rates, such as the incorporation of lab time to offer more one-on-one mentoring.

Finally, the Diversity Climate survey, which was supposed to be sent out to faculty/staff in Academic Affairs, will now be spread across the institution, per the President. Since the survey is being expanded there is a need for additional resources in processing the data, so there will be a bit of a delay before the survey is sent out.

Dr. Sakiko Oyama

The Curriculum Committee reviewed a proposal for a concentration in Health Communication to be housed in the Department of Communication. This concentration is designed to benefit students who want to better navigate the health care system, who want to pursue an advanced degree in health communication, and who seek employment in health care-related fields. There are many courses that cover the topic of “health”, particularly under BS in Health and BS in Public Health majors, but none specifically address Health Communication. The committee recommended the proposal for approval. A comment was made that feedback should be sent to the department regarding the need for communication (language component) to underserved populations. There was a motion to approve the committee’s recommendation and the senate voted to approve the proposal. The vote was as follows: 33 approve, 0 do not approve, 1 abstention.