FS Meeting Nov 27, 2018 Transcript
Good afternoon. Iím going to call the meeting
to order. And the first thing that we do is
to make sure that you sign the role sheets
in the back.
Whether youíre a guest, or member, or proxy,
or alternate. The alternates and proxies that
I have for today: Bryan McCann for Stuart
Irvine, Jeff Brooks for Will Monroe, Jose
Torres for Rafael Orozco, Donghui Zhang for
Roger Laine, and also for Prosanta Chakrabarty
and Vince LiCata, Sonya Wiley for Cassandra
Chaney, James Matthews for Daniel Sheehy,
Elecia Lathon for Kwame Agyemang, Kristin
Stair for Brett Collier and Kai Aryana for
Cathy Williams.
Are there any other alternates or proxies?
All right, yes?
Iím a proxy for Greg Sioles. Ok, and you
are? Matt Vangjel. Thank you, Matt.
Any other proxies or alternates? Iím a proxy
for Carl Motsenbocker as well.
Ok. Any others? All right, thank you.
Now we have our guests introduce themselves
and Mr. Glenn you would lead on.
Iím Tom Glenn, student systems modernization
project. Stacie Haynie, interim provost. Matt
Lee, academic affairs. Jane Cassidy, academic
affairs. Arend Van Gemmert, college of human
sciences and education. Sasha Thackaberry,
digital and continuing ed.
All right. Thank you very much.
Did we have anybody sign up for public comments?
All right. Our faculty senate coordinator
has indicated that we did not have any contact
by individuals wanting to make a public comment
on any of our agenda items. I also did not,
so, we will proceed to the consideration of
the October 22 minutes.
Do I hear a motion to accept the minutes with
provisional changes? Suresh, second Aly.
So now that motion is on floor. Are there
changes that we need to make in the minutes
that anybody has caught?
Seeing no changes, then Iíll go ahead and
call for the vote. All in favor of accepting
the minutes with any minor changes, typographical
or other errors we can make later, say aye?
Aye. All opposed, no? Any abstentions? All
right, thank you.
We will proceed now, then, to my presidentís
report and Iíve tried to be as brief as possible.
That doesnít mean that Iíll get the job
accomplished because it seems like a lot has
happened in a month even though I was gone
for a week of that.
Council of Faculty Advisors met at the same
time as the board of supervisor meeting and
there were only 3 of us present, so, we didnít
really accomplish very much. The major activities
that occurred at the board of supervisors
meeting were primarily would what I would
call routine agenda items.
They did approve our ethics institute here
at LSU and then a letter of intent for MS
and support management, awarding of post-humous
degree to Adam Dows and then LSU-A asked to
develop a post baccalaureate certificate for
the practitioner-teacher program, sorry, and
LSU-S to award a post-humous degree.
The major things were presentation, honor
supplier diversity program and thatís pretty
important because weíre trying to improve
both the vendor offerings as well as provide
opportunities to disadvantaged firms in Louisiana.
Health sciences in new orleans, if you know
exactly where that health science center is,
itís just right downtown new orleans and
so, thereís almost always an item that theyíre
remodeling or that theyíre trade spaces with
other downtown areas so that they can both
consolidate and expand their offerings there.
In their hospital and their educational program.
Phi Kappa Si fraternity house design was approved
and thereís the new clinical building at
LSU vet med was named Stevenís pet clinic.
So those were the basic aspects that were
presented at the board of supervisor meeting.
Dr. Cope and I did meet with Andrea Ballinger,
our chief technical officer, at the end of
last month and talked about various things,
mostly concentrating on IT and the needs that
we as faculty have in regard to IT.
Dr. Cope and Dr. Lopez and I did meet with
vice president Layzell, and so, we talked
about several aspects with Dr. Layzell and
our associate vice president Tyler Kuerney.
And we, there were two searches that are ongoing.
Once was for vice president for public safety
and that resulted in a decision not to hire
the candidates that were brought in.
And then we will begin the search for associate
vice president for human resources to fill
that vacancy and that search process, a search
firm theyíre hired, Sturac ????, will actually
be coordinating the search because it wouldnít
be very expediate or timely to have our HR
department conduct a search for their own
corrector. So, the search committee will work
with the outside firm on that and I do happen
to be on the search committee.
Dr. Cope and Dr. Lopez and I did stress to
Dr. Layzell the urgency and immediacy to have
a more consistant procedure for our administrative
searches. And so, we really need to have standard
operating procedures because there, thereís
always going to be turn over, and so, we need
to have a mechanism on how search committees
are formed, what the role of HR is in the
searches, what the role of the search committee
chair is, what the role of the search committee
is, and some degree of uniformity on what
we expect. Which level of administrators do
expect public forums, which levels do we not
expect public forums and those type things.
So, weíll be working with administration
and finance on, on that. I happened the see
Tommy Smith, who is a joint budget person
between finance administration and academic
affairs, and heís agreed to see if he can
help us out in regard to the cost of faculty
searches, the cost of HR funds and the cost
of new salaries versus retention.
And, one of our goals is, weíve had raises
two years in a row and it would be nice for
us to make a very strong case for continuing
to have raises, but it always comes down to
finance.
So, Iím going to try and work with Tommy
and Iíve got the blessing of interim provost
and of Dr. Layzell, that if we have some data,
then we can determine exactly what financial
situation weíre in regarding retention versus
having to hire in replacement faculty members
in that regard.
So, weíre going to make a case based on data
and not just pulling the heart strings and
good will of our board of supervisors and
everybody else up the line.
We also talked about this whole process of
only united way being able to be our charitable
deduction from pay checks and, so, weíre
still negotiating on really, whoís in charge
of that and what the rules are for that. And
so, for those of you who have asked, and Iím
going to pick on you specifically, but several
of you are concerned about that and so we
are going to see what kind of mechanisms are
in place.
Right now, it requires presidential approval
and the, I guess, guidelines that arenít
really policy indicate that if 15 or more
faculty members ask, then thatís how the
consideration process goes.
We probably need a slightly more formal guideline
than that.
We did ask Dr. Layzell about the budget outlook
and his situation, the situation that as long
as the taxes come in, the same levels that
they did last year, and it looks like they
are, then we should probably be at about the
same levels we have been for the last two
years.
Which is then comforting because we can make
some plans that we wouldnít ordinarily be
able to make.
Next meeting, I met with Dr. Cassidy, our
senior vice provost, Gosh, I canít remember
the things we talked about because it seemed
like one topic would flow into another, and
obviously, all kinds of things regarding policy
statements, finances, retention, faculty decisions,
so, facilities and how facilities are assigned.
But, we had an extremely good meeting and
thatís led to a couple email exchanges on
other topics that Iíll talk about later.
Dr. Cope and Dr. Lopez and I did meet with
our vice president Jose Aviles and the admissions
director Danny Barrow and the associate director
Emmet Brown to talk about the exceptions that
have been so highly publicized. And we were
fairly well assured that in most cases, the
exceptions are justified but weíre still
looking for a little bit more data on the
Louisiana students who didnít meet the 3-point
grade point.
Thereís probably perfectly good reasons but
in order for us as a faculty to be in sync
with our academic affairs and with enrollment
management, we need to make sure that, yes,
indeed, that is happening.
And what Iíve done, and some of you still
might want to volunteer, we will have an admissions
exceptions committee to help with those officers
who are making those decisions. So, again,
weíre doing our diligence and being responsible
for developing educational policy and that
way their office isnít hanging out there
all by itself. That, oh theyíre having staff
people make the decisions that weíll have
a group of faculty members, some of you who
have volunteered, and Iíve got others from
the admissions standards and honors committee,
that will actually then be ready to assist
and actually help them to make decisions on
the one, preparedness, and two, the chances
for success of those students who are granted
exceptions.
We call them exceptions. Weíd really like
to change the conversation to non-regular
admissions because realistically, when you
talk about an exception, itís like, oh, weíre
really breaking the rules and what weíve
done with the algorithm that is set up, is
that weíve identified students that can be
successful if we provide the right resources
and support, but, they just donít meet our
regular admissions standards.
So, weíre trying to shift the terminology
a little bit and weíll actually be working
with the board of regents to see if they will
actually change their terminology also.
Campus honorary degree committee, is chaired
by Dr. Cassidy, and so, that committee met.
And we determined that the two nominations
for honorary degree did meet the criteria
that will bring both recognition and honor
to them and to LSU and so those will be announced
sometime, yes, early next spring.
In plenty of time for the spring commencement
at which time the honorary degrees will be
awarded.
Dr. Haynie and I met with student government
senator McKinney. Two years ago, in September,
the student government passed one of their
resolutions that they wanted to have a student
bill of rights. And, at that time, it was
passed to the executive committee, and so
Kevin led us in examining that and we, after
looking at the list of rights that they wanted,
determined that a lot of what they wanted
were already guidelines in policy.
They were just scattered among different policy
statements. And so, I was pretty well prepared
then for our meeting. And then in a conversation
that provost Haynie and I had had previously,
we decided letís not necessarily have a bill
of rights for students because they already
have a code of student conduct and most of
the things that they wanted are already codified
in a policy or a guideline anyway.
Why donít we try to turn this, and Catherine
agreed, that we need to turn that into guidelines
for students and faculty. So, that we have
a single page or a double page, so, that itís
fairly quick reference for what faculty should
do in helping students to succeed, and students
also have not only the rights to know where
they stand in a course, but they also have
the responsibility to attend class.
They also have the responsibility to be there
when you turn back assignments. And so, we
want this to be a, yes, weíre all in this
together, but each side has both rights and
responsibilities, privileges and benefits
if you will.
So, thatís a direction that weíre going
to head with student government. Obviously,
Dr. Haynie and I will be really receptive
to any concepts that you would have, but weíll
be presenting some of those brief comments
probably to our January meeting.
Executive committee did meet, again, with
provost Haynie for our monthly meeting and
we talked about lots of different things.
Let me see if I can find my notes.
I donít see them here. Maybe I didnít bring
them. Nope, didnít bring those.
I donít remember what we talked about. Many,
many topics.
Oh, yes. Once of the important things that
we found in PS-111, is thatís a review of
specific administrative officers. Including
deans, department heads and chairs, and provost,
and chancellors.
And faculty are involved at various aspects
in each of those processes. However, what
weíre finding is that thereís really no
faculty oversight or no mechanism for input
for associate deans, assistant deans, associate
heads, associate directors, assistant directors
of schools, those type things.
And so, weíll be working with academic affairs
and with finance and administration to see
how we can do that. Some of the continuing
that we talked with Dr. Haynie about, obviously,
the admissions exceptions, the non-regular
admissions pop up in just about every meeting,
because every time thereís another new story
come out, then we get faculty requests for,
wait, whatís going on now. And, quite honestly,
those of you who attended the forum with our
previous candidate, realize that, yes, if
we donít have holistic-type admissions, if
we donít take a close look at candidates,
even if they appear to meet our requirements
for admission and success, then weíre really
not doing LSU, weíre not doing the state,
weíre not doing the region and the citizens
we serve a justice.
And so, in that regard, itís pretty easy
to make the case that, as long as weíre not
lowering our standards and as long as our
students successful, then weíre probably
pretty well on that right track.
In regard to one of those news stories that
came out in the Reveille, and I must admit
that I probably wasnít as careful with my
words with the reveille reporter as I usually
am. He just caught me on a good day for him
and a bad day for me, I guess. But, realistically,
I did meet with president Alexander and vice
president Aviles about my comments. What I
intended to say was that we were still looking
for a little bit more transparency and it
got turned around that thereís no transparency
with the faculty. So, again, not quite what
I intended and probably didnít watch my words
closely enough. The other aspect that came
out was that in some aspects we donít have
the communication coming out of lake shore
in the university administration building
that we would like. And that came out as a
direct derogatory that weíre not getting
any communication from that office and, again,
Iím not going to say that I got called onto
the carpet, but, my seat was a little warm
for a couple of minutes.
And so, in that regard then, after that, Jose
left and so Dr. Alexander and I had a conversation
about several different things and Iíll cover
a couple of those in just a minute.
I may have, refresh my memory, and certain
things just keep coming up over and over.
One of those is Moodle. How Moodle doesnít
perform as well as we like, whatís going
to happen to Moodle, what weíre doing with
Moodle 3 which may or may not be a replacement
for our current Moodle, and the support that
we have from IT, and the transfer from a service
desk into a faculty technology center thatís
all encompassing. All of those things just
kind of keep circulating over and over and
over.
So, those of you who have problems getting
response from IT, or you donít have a ticket
that you understand, well, theyíre still
in the movement process, but we are makes
strides.
So, itís another case, I wonít say itís
another case of our other software program
thatís taken us a couple years for us to
swallow, but weíre getting there.
One of the things that will happen, and, again,
Dr. Haynie and I have corresponded with Dean
Queen in music and dramatic arts, is that
we think that if weíre going to be an all-encompassing,
comprehensive university, we need to have
more activities.
Now that weíre requiring freshmen, without
a good reason, to live on campus and if we
want to draw the community into campus, and
if we want to have ourselves be enriched with
all the different cultural aspects that a
university can and should provide, then we
probably need to promote that a little bit.
So, weíre going to be working with music
and dramatic arts as well as auxiliary services,
and academic affairs, and faculty senate,
to what we can do to move some of those aspects
forward.
So, that will be on the horizon and one of
the things weíll talk about for spring.
Last, but not least, those of you who get
grants and contracts, even though workday
is prescribed in some manner, in other aspects,
theyíre really still doesnít give us the
data we need for how each of us needs to account
for our time.
And so, in that regard, weíre going to be
examining that so that, one, the faculty are
protected, but, secondly, so that the university
actually knows for our reporting mechanisms
on who is doing what at any point in time.
So, again, thatís a tweaking of the workday
systems thatís going to have to take place.
So, Iíll answer any quick questions you have
about the meetings that I and the executive
committee have been involved with.
Yes? Regarding non-regular admission. Is this
something going to be like what do we do with
a graduate student probation, or this is,
because a regular and non-regular is confusing.
You say non-regular, for me, itís like probation,
which means if the student doesnít continue
to achieve certain level, they would be just
dropped.
No. So exception may be more suitable.
Whatís that? About the non-regular admission
of students. Because we have standards, for
the university for undergraduates, then those
will be non-performing students to those particular
standards, So, thereís all kinds of different
ways.
Because they are enrolled. They are being
treated equal, so, they are all regular students.
Right?
Yes, they come in as regular students. Theyíre
not, they donít have any different categorization
that a student who does meet. Yes, and that
makes, in some aspects, those are going to
be difficult to track and make sure that,
indeed, they are meeting the same normal benchmarks
of succeeding in their courses, graduating
at the same rates, staying here at the university
until they do graduate, etc.
But, those are some of the things that enrollment
management is working on. So, thatís a good
question, Aly. But, itís not the same as
with graduate programs where they got some
degree of proven abilities to succeed in a
difficult program. They just donít quite
meet our requirements.
Thatís an interesting concept though. Yes?
Just to say that, one youíre correct, thereís
too many missing minutes. The board of regents
had given this label of exceptions, but we
donít do that. Weíre not labeling the students.
Theyíve been, gone through our process and
in the evaluation and criteria before the
admissions staff with faculty input. We can
certainly track students to determine, of
you come in with this GPA, and this ACT, and
this type of letter of recommendation, and
from this school, and from this area, we can
know the difference in the type of that student
and in fact, this year, using a fairly sophisticated
algorithm with, that Elgilhada has utilized
in prior years, we have prediction about every
student at LSU. And we work to identify those
who need the resources.
Now, what we know is that we sometimes stereotype
those students as not being capable. In fact,
the student at the highest risk of not returning
in the following year is the students whose
fall semester GPA has a greater differential
from their high school GPA.
Thatís the single most critical barrier in
terms of significance. So, if 
you come in here and youíre a 4.0, and you
make a 3,2, youíre devastated.
Like, I gotta leave here. You come in here,
you achieve 2,75, and in high school you had
a 2,9, you rocked it.
Youíre good. Youíre coming back. So, we
have to be really careful that we donít make
assumptions about students and that weíre
trying to, to inform ourselves and updated
in our processes that assist our [?], assist
our student life staff, assist all of our
colleges, to identify those students who need
help and make sure they get it and connect
with our resources. So, for us, their admitted
students.
We donít want to label that student. We want
to love up and raise them and make sure we
connect them to the resources, whatever that
may be for that student to help.
Hopefully, most if not all of you, have received
messages from your deanís office that weíre
maintaining a standard, but we can identify
some of those at-risk students either for
not staying because of financial reasons,
family reasons, or they just donít feel like
they belong because they donít perform as
well as they did in high school. Itís up
to us to also help and maintain the standards.
So, hopefully youíre received that message
from your dean about that. Thereís another
question back there?
Yes. Sure, this may have come up when you
had the meeting about the bill of rights issue,
but, I was just thinking in terms of a graduate
student bill of rights, that becoming an increasingly
prevalent practice at peer institutions, such
as UC Boulder, Nebraska-Lincoln, Arizona State,
University of Michigan, all of those have
adopted a graduate student bill of rights.
And events such as the November 14th panel,
I think speak to graduate studentsí kind
of occupy a very different space in the university
than undergraduates.
So, I guess, my question is if that came up
at all and second, I would maybe urge us to
consider that?
Yeah, Iím going to answer your question in
three parts. First, is Iíll talk about the
intellectual rights studies panel in a minute,
but this was strictly a conversation about
undergraduates and because our graduate student
body has not been as active in student government
even though they have representatives, as
the undergraduates. Quite honestly, thatís
why we need a stronger student government
organization so that they can kind of take
up their own difficulties in their own crusades.
It has become apparent, and so, it just segways
right into the very first topic on the seminars.
I was able to participate in a panel discussion,
along with our chief intellectual officer
Andy Moss, and, who else was on the panel.
Yes, our ombuds person, Aretha Neidecken,
and then we also had a faculty member from
sciences, and so, basically, we were exploring
what rights do students, graduate students,
have to the intellectual property that they
develop.
And the answer is, we have policies on that,
but the policies, because theyíre more legal-ies
than what I would call plain English. Theyíre
sometimes confusing. And because graduate
students, particularly in the sciences and
engineering, almost are always dual individuals.
Both graduate students and employees on an
assistantship, then that also complicates
the issue.
And then we have graduate students, because
weíve hired in so many, what I would call,
new assistant professors who are on the cutting
edge, hopefully, of their scholarship, and
they find, a graduate student finds out that
that new faculty member can actually contribute
and actually may be the one to be a major
professor, then there are personality conflicts
with when they want to switch major professors
and in the middle of a program, they may have
already developed some scholarly activity
with their more senior professor that they
started with, so, all of those things we didnít
really resolve anything other than, yes, we
do have policies on intellectual rights, but
what are the other rights of graduate students
at the university.
And so, thatís going to be a continuing conversation.
Iím not sure that faculty senate is in a
position to sponsor a seminar on that, but
I think thereís a good possibility that interim
dean Richardson will cohost with us so that
we explore some more of these, again, in another
open forum.
The graduate students there, one of their
major complaints is thereís no mechanism
for if a major professor coerces, bullies,
or otherwise tries to intimidate them. And,
in that regard, we donít have a bullying
policy on campus or anything in regard to
a hostile work environment, or those type
things.
So, Iím not sure we need a bullying policy,
per say, but again, maybe we do.
So, those will be aspects for you to think
about, and perhaps we can address in the spring
as a senate or as an ad hoc committee or however
you think best. But, think about those things.
There are some graduate students, particularly
the international students that come. One,
theyíre unfamiliar with the culture, two,
theyíre unfamiliar with campus, three, theyíre
usually unfamiliar with how a graduate program
ought to operate, and, unfortunately, we do
have some graduate faculty members who do
take advantage of their naivety, or theyíre
unsuspecting, or theyíre just lack of knowledge
about what rights that they really just do
have in a university setting.
So, again, we probably need to address that.
Itís a sensitive issue but one, again, that
if weíre going to be the comprehensive university
that we want to be, then we need to make that
that group is protected.
If we look at one of our goals is to, not
only maintain, but also increase the graduate
population, then it becomes even more important
for us to be able to say that, yes, we have
these policies in place that are protective
of our graduate students, and hereís where
the expectations are for graduate faculty
members and major advisors.
So, thank you for that. Yes, Lily? Just maybe
a thought. People already can envision that
bullying is a very real thing, but thereís
also a predatory nature that can occur. That
itís not just a bullying for bullying sake,
or, you know, kids could tell you about bullying
in schools, but thereís a predatory nature
that can emerge. Not only with our graduate
students, but with vulnerable junior faculty
as well.
And there are some schools that have looked
at that and published about kind of the benevolent
predator, you know, that Iíll help you because
Iíve had these years of experience.
I mean, weíve all met somebody, you know,
theyíre not here, but. So, Iím interested
in this topic, so.
Not to suggest that itís endemic situation,
but it certainly, it certainly goes on.
People build their careers on studentís work,
as well as newer faculty. All the time.
One of the things, one of the power dynamics,
is that we went for several years and we were
only able to hire minimal numbers of faculty.
And so, as a result, we have large numbers
of senior faculty, we have very minimal of
associate professors, and we have now, starting
to have a large contingent of assistant professors.
Who are way stronger than a lot of we were
when we started. Exactly, and so, depending
upon the department, there may be a few single,
a few handful of faculty members who actually
then hold those other 25 or 30 faculty members
in the palm of their hand as far as promotion
and decision and tenure decisions.
And so, we just have to be aware of those
power dynamics in regard to how our policies
operate because, quite honestly, weíre entering
into a new era of, how do things really work
under the existing policies that were fine
for 10, 15, 20 years, but now, are they still
going to work.
And so, Lily has brought up an outstanding
point of, that there are all different types
of coercion, predation, and bullying that
can occur at many different levels.
And that includes just hostile work environments
that faculty donít like me and is there another
department I can transfer to?
Just because youíre able to move from one
department to another, or from one college
to another, doesnít mean that those ill feelings
donít follow.
And so, in that regard, weíll talk about
the role of our adjudication committee in
just a couple minutes.
Faculty senate did sponsor an investment retirement
seminar. We were fortunate to have Don Chance
and Gaston Reinoso. Donís in economics, Gaston
is our interim co-director of HRM and they
talked about all the different benefits and
things.
Even though attendance was low because thatís
the day it was cold and rainy, weíre going
to try and rehold that in the spring. I would,
I would urge those of you, unless youíre
independently wealthy, or just donít care
about whoís going to take care of you in
your old age, there were some good points.
Iíve say through several of them and I learn
something every time. So, I would urge that
when we sponsor again, I think we got that
that weíll post on the website and so weíll
try and go a slightly different direction
for the spring seminar, but again, weíll
have that continuing topic and thatís why
we have Dr. Cope on our agenda for later this
afternoon. To explain some of the difficulties
with both of our retirement systems and point
out some of the problems there.
We will be sponsoring an animal in society
forum on February 26. That will be an evening
event and we will have a panel discussion.
We will have a world-renowned animal ethicist.
We have our animal caretaker of our mascot
and a couple of other speakers who will be
participating in that.
Weíre going to reinitiate the scholarship
with our deansí seminars. Two years ago,
if my memoryís right on that one, we did
sponsor the first one with Dean Deelia from
coast and the environment, talking about his
scholarly activities in relation to his area
in coast and the environment.
And so, Iíve got two other deans that we
will, that we will move ahead on in that regard.
We will also sponsor seminars on all those
other topics. Because one of the things that
we as faculty senate need to do is to provide
training and educational opportunities.
And so, in the questionnaire that we handed
out in September, those were the ones that
got the most responses, so weíll move on
that.
I want to remind you of the executive vice
president and provost candidates seminars,
open forums. One was today, Dr. Haynieís
will be tomorrow at 2:30, Dr. Weineck from
University of Idaho will be on December 4th
at 1:00, and Dr. Singell from university,
Indiana University, will be at 10:15 on the
6th.
Thatís your opportunity to ask questions
and get to meet the candidates that weíre
bringing in.
The association of Louisiana faculty senates
and the summit meeting will be this Saturday.
Weíre going to have governor Edwards educational
advisor Mr. Songy, and then, presentations
on grievances, political advocacy, and humanities
and liberal arts, AAUP officers, and I donít
need to remind you that Brooks Ellwood is
one of our national officers representing
the southern region.
Status updates. We just talked about the executive
vice president and provost search, which is
ongoing. The associate vice president for
public safety ended in a no candidate being
selected. Strategic communications consultant
is being brought in and Iíll be meeting with
those the week after next.
Iím working on faculty athletic representative
replacement. Iíve been in communication with
Dr. Alexander about that and, so, weíve got
three names that have been submitted, and,
so, Iím negotiating with him to make sure
that we have the right person because, one,
itís a large time commitment, two, theyíre
one of five people who can represent the university
to NCAA and SEC, and third, they do represent
the faculty so we want to get the right person
in that slot.
Faculty adjudication committee, I still need
a couple more nominees for colleges so that
we have some broad representation and I will
be meeting with the university planning council
tomorrow morning to explain the direction
of why we are going with adjudication rather
than strictly grievance.
And how that fits with the ombuds person we
now have.
Our lactation rooms are up and going and there
is a map. Unfortunately, theyíre still pretty
hard to find unless you know exactly where.
So, Iím going to be trying to persuade Strat
Comm to change and actually have A-Z so that
theyíre a little more obvious so visitors
to campus can find where those rooms are on
campus.
Our regular employees now have wanted those
facilities, then obviously they know how to
schedule and those type things.
Parental leave policy, thatís going to require
some legislative changes and then the executive
committee and I have been involved in all
kinds of these policy statements and PMS,
so Iíve just listed those, so you can see.
Most of those are in the process of either
minor changes. PM-79, freedom of speech, PM-80,
both of those were legislatively mandated.
So, if you look at those and you say, ah,
we canít do that, we donít have a choice.
Because the wording is almost exactly the
same as it was in the statutes.
We will be operating on drafting and finalizing,
and weíll be presenting to you next fall,
next spring, principles of academic freedom
and tenure.
That will fit along with the free speech thing
that weíve got. I wasnít able to go to the
student government meeting on clicker management.
Obviously, thatís a concern to them so that
they have some degree of consistency.
So, Iíll be visiting with Stuart Lockett
on that.
And last, but not least, we know that we have
to make all of our websites and the materials
that we put on our websites accessible. That
means that we have to meet ADA requirements.
I decided that if I was going to be a faculty
leader, I needed to find out how to do or
what to do, and, on the one hand, once you
know how to make either your word files, or
your PDF files, or your excel files, or your
PowerPoints accessible, then itís just a
matter of plug and chug through.
But getting that initial hump is probably
going to take a little bit more training or
at least some kind of a guide sheet.
So, Iíll be working with Susannah to see
if we can come up with that, that meets Strategic
Communication and ITís recommendations. And
obviously, Dr. Lee, whoís our university
chair on that guidance committee.
Weíll be working with him also.
Things for spring. Weíre going to have to
elect officers, executive committee. What
I want to do beforehand, is to reinvigorate
the policy committees, most of which are languishing
in the colleges, and thatís where faculty
actually learn about whatís going on in their
college and have input on educational policy.
We need to reinvigorate our salary equity
study and Iíve already talked about the reviews
of associate and assistant deans.
And the other aspect, now that we have PS-36T,
and we know that itís going to be fairly
operational, and we need to go back and revise
our campus implementation and dismissal cause
procedures, and Dr. Cassidy will be spear-heading
that.
Reminders, holiday on campus is tonight. If
you havenít checked on your online course
evaluations, urge your students to do that
so that they understand they have input into
how courses are actually conducted and most
of us who get course evaluations, we know
that theyíre usually a bell-shaped curve
of those evaluations.
So, urge your students to do that because
there has been a lot of effort put into making
it easier for them to do.
Last but not least, faculty club. Julia, where
did you go?
Yes, you want to come up to the front or stand?
Julia Ledet is the president of our faculty
club and sheís going to explain, I think,
that they usually meet in the club union square
that used to be the faculty club, but this
is the separate social organization.
Right. So, here we go.
Well, thank you and I see, Lily Allenís back
there, sheís been a long-time faculty club
member and so has Fabio up here, a long-time
member.
I am Julia Ledet, instructor in the Math department,
but current president of the faculty club
and Ken, thank you for that, and I will follow
up with some of your comments, because you
did say that we need to have more activities.
And that is what faculty club is about. To
give you a little bit of history of the group,
faculty club was incorporated in 1939.
It has been here a long time and it started
with a group of professors meeting to drink
coffee and visit and read and play board games.
In 1937, Troy Middleton, who was dean of administration
at the time, organized a committee to build
the faculty club building. The building is
a direct result of this social group.
So, weíre still meeting. We meet most Fridays
from 4:30 to 6:30, usually at the club. Sometimes
we might change locations up a little bit.
We do have some events coming up. I sent the
email about the dinner dance, which is Saturday
night. If youíre interested in going to that,
we would love to have you there.
I know the reservations for the meal closed
yesterday, but I think we have some leeway
in there that we can take care of a few more
people.
And in fact, if you want to come just for
the dancing, that starts at 8. No need to
have a reservation for the meal. Just come
on.
We have rock and rouge playing on Saturday
night, so weíre excited about that.
Theyíre going to play from 8 to 11pm and
itís always a fun time. Some of the other
events, we have Don Chance whoís going to
be playing at the TFIG on December 7.
So, if you want to come out and relax at the
end of finals week, thatís 4:30 to 6:30 on
December 7.
We do have, we do things like a spring welcome
back. We did a fall welcome back. The spring
welcome back is scheduled for January 11th
and itís usually a pretty good turn out and
weíll have food and visiting.
Sometimes Don will play at the welcome backs
as well. Weíre not just a social group, we
do some fundraising.
The last 10 years, we did fundraisers for
the greater Baton Rouge food bank. That event
is usually held this week, but weíve actually
moved it to the spring semester.
Weíve raised, within the span of an hour
and a half, some years itís been $1,000,
some years itís been almost $10,000.
All of it going straight to the food bank,
so, thatís one of my favorite events that
we do. This year, again, thatís moving to
the spring. Iíve talked with the management
of the faculty club a few weeks ago, and they
were like, you know, they were thinking about
doing a celebration for the 80th anniversary
of the building, which they thought maybe
we can combine these two.
Iíve talked with Don about a music event
where Don might play, we get some singer-songwriters
from the Baton Rouge area to play, and along
with that, the fundraising for the food bank
or whatever group we, you know, want to support
at that time.
We did take a vote that we would support the
food bank, but, again, every year we kind
of evaluate that and decide who weíre going
to support.
By the way, the food bank does directly support
the food pantry on campus. So, some of your
contributions there are coming straight back
to the campus.
We do a crawfish boil in the spring. We do
a fall tailgate, a football tailgate in the
fall and the best thing Iíve found about
faculty club, is that Iíve met people from
across the campus.
And if youíre in a meeting, and somebody
comments on, well, we need to talk to somebody
from such and such department, well, I know
somebody. I know who to put you in touch with.
So, itís been a great way to network with
others across the campus and we would love
to see you at the dinner dance or, or December
7th with Don Chance.
Are there any questions for me? Yes?
Events are for club members or for everybody?
Well, everybody. But how do you publicize?
Well, we, see thatís one of reasons why I
wanted to talk to this group because we donít
get a lot of publicity.
Itís mainly word of mouth, or sometimes an
email will go out. Itís very hard to get
a broadcast email at the university.
So, we have our email list of previous contacts,
that weíll send those emails, but, weíd
love to put you on the email list.
So. Yes? So, did you say what the dues are?
Oh, the dues. Right, oh, theyíre a bargain.
Thank you for that. For first time members,
the dues are $35 a year, and for renewing
members, the dues are $70 a year.
For retirees, itís $35 a year.
So, itís a bargain.
We have auxiliary members as well. Right.
So, youíre probably just getting to that,
but, weíre kind of a hidden gem, and the
thing is, that we might take it for granted
that we have this fabulous place, that weíre
actually kind of being pushed out of.
Weíre now squatters in the club in union
square. What did used to be, we used to have
lockers and people would bring in their scotch
and their soda or whatever. We have drinkers
and non-drinkers alike, so, itís not just
a drinking club.
Itís a social club. But drinking does occur.
With some fundraising. Yes, and itís also
a very cool place from the people from the
outside come into the faculty club because
we often have people from the community more
excited about it than we can be, so, I think
that itís languished some and itís kind
of aged.
Thereís no upstairs anymore, you know. We
sneak up there and see the dilapidated ruins
and this and that.
So, if youíve got other questions, you can
meet with Julia or Lily or Fabio after.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Julia. Thank you.
Thereís also some private party with gelato.
So, if you pay $35 for this year, they may
taste some of our few hundred dollarsí worth
of wine from Italy and
Thatís right. So, I do have some membership
forms if youíre interested and.
Why donít you leave those in the back when
they turn in their nametags?
That would be great.
Thank you. Thank you, Julia. Thank you.
Our next topic is Dr. Thackaberry. She is
our vice provost for digital and continuing
education and I think weíve got it cued up
and there is yourÖ
Fantastic, thank you.
Hi everybody. As Ken mentioned, Iím Sasha
and I am here on behalf of digital and continuing
ed. For those of your who remember, it was
very late in the day when I came to visit
you for the first-time last spring, so now
hard feelings if you donít remember every
word I said.
But I did want to come in and, again, thank
you for the opportunity, to update you on
our progress and what weíve been doing and
also answer any questions. Itís a big university,
thereís a lot of things going on, and so
you may have some questions about what weíre
doing and Iím really happy to answer those.
The more transparent we can be, the better
our team works together.
All right, so, we have official goals, and
these are kind of our north stars for everything
we do. So, weíre focused on the expansion
of online programming and also alternative
credentials, more workforce things over on
the continuing ed side.
And for everything we do, our number one goal
is high quality, tier one, learning experiences.
I canít say that enough. Weíre not expanding
at the expense of academic quality.
That is our north star. World class customer.
Service looks very different for post-traditional
learners who are online. They donít know
the difference between financial aid and bursar,
or they donít care, one or the other.
And sometimes they need help navigating our
systems, which werenít really built for customer
service, right.
And I want to make sure to put a little asterisk
on that. That is not saying that the students
are always the customer.
Right? So, that not people coming in and saying
Iím the customer and you have to do for me
in your class. Thatís not what this is about.
Itís about moving some of those administrative
barriers, so students can focus on learning.
And then in a sustainable and scalable model,
So, youíve probably noticed, every single
day, in higher ed chronicle, thereís another
thing about another university launching an
online program. Or, sometimes conversing about
an online program.
But, it is not a world in which we cannot
play in the space anymore. And part of that
is due to more post-traditional learners coming
back and needing that continual education
as well as the demographic shift.
So, those two things together are really driving
this. Itís important that what we do in this
space is fiscally responsible for the institution.
And it can be a real economic driver when
itís done right with academic quality at
the center of it and we see that as an opportunity
for the university.
So, hereís where we are. So, we have, I donít
know if I mentioned this before, but we have
about an 80-page current state analysis, that
we conducted at about 3 months in.
The team has been fantastic and if anyoneís
really interested in the state of the state
as of, pretty much when I got here, we have
some reading material for you.
So, hit me up on email and I will send a copy
your way. And really, weíre starting kind
of at ground zero. Right? So, in terms of
the arch of online, flagships are kind of
last in the category of being ready for online,
and of the flagship category, weíre towards
the tail end.
Iím just keeping real, yaíll. Ok. So, we
have a lot of modernization to do to kind
of catch up with where we need to be, but
also, keeping in mind that we canít build
it today. Itís too late for today. The flagship
has sailed. We have to build two years out,
three years out, five years out.
So, we have to be a little innovative of about
how we think about programs and how we think
about supporting our students.
We make a commitment to them. When they come
to us, just like with our new first-time,
full-time freshmen, and itís a responsibility
that we have that if we admit them to make
sure that weíre doing everything possible
to support their work.
So, weíre really dealing with infrastructure.
Everything from partnering with IT to make
sure we can actually offer undergraduate,
online degrees which we currently canít from
a systems perspective.
Working to modernize the look, feel, function
of our courses so that students get an experience
that is contemporary. And everything from
responsive design to what a micro-video looks
like online.
And then, next year weíre really going to
focus on program expansion. So, weíre going
to try to launch, basically, a program every
term starting next year once we have the infrastructure
in place.
And weíve spoken, I know Iíve spoken with
some of you about some specific programs.
But itís really exciting. Thereís a lot
of potential and a lot of energy around this
and weíre really excited about what the future
could bring.
We do have to have those infrastructure pieces
in place before we grow. If we grew now, it
would break, which isnít good.
But, weíre getting there. Weíre getting
there. And then, year three is really focusing
on growth and institutional sustainability.
And Iím going to talk a little bit about,
I donít remember how many of you knew this,
but we have, or we had, a vendor called academic
partnerships that we worked with for many
years, and we have since insourced those marketing
or minimum retention services much, much faster
than I had originally hoped for.
And so, weíre very excited about that and
Iím going to tell you a little bit about
it.
But, the first thing, is always our programs.
Our programs and our courses.
Our academic reputation cannot be put at risk.
Sometimes we call that our brand. We canít
our brand at risk. But itís really what we
do and our product at the end of the day is
not our learning experiences, itís our students
in the world.
So, how well did we do at preparing our students
for the world and for their workable world?
But, in terms of what weíre doing, from a
practical standpoint, is weíre supporting
new programs. So, we currently have 8 programs
that we supported that we with AP and there
were 2 other programs that were on campus
that never went through AP.
And so, we have a total of 10 programs. Which
is not a lot of programs. So, we need offer
works, the interesting thing is though, weíre
gathering data, finally, weíre gathering
data on this stuff.
Some of us are data geeks. Thereís no researchers
in the room, right?
So, just trying to make sure everyoneís awake.
So, our data is showing us that people are
coming to the website and searching for online
degrees, and then leaving because we donít
have them.
So, thatís great on two fronts. One, it shows
that if we build it, they will come. And two,
our marketingís going to be a lot more reasonable
than we thought.
Right? So, I came from, most recently, from
Southern New Hampshire University and they
had to sell that brand. Nobody knew what Southern
New Hampshire University was like 5 years
ago. Right?
We donít have to sell the brand of Louisiana
State University. We just have to have higher
quality learning experiences available online.
And Iím really passionate about this stuff
because I was a non-traditional student. When
I was working on my Ph.D. I had one baby,
I mean, I had one existing baby and then I
had a second baby. And I was working more
than full-time and Iím working my way through
a Ph.D. program.
If I couldnít have done that, if I couldnít
have, I took every single online course I
could take because otherwise it would not
have worked with my life.
And this is opportunity for a lot of people.
I, my Ph.D. is from Kent State University.
The other options were Acapella, Waldon, right?
Things that fit into my life.
We need to make sure our LSU fit into the
lives of the world, to facilitate that. Right?
It was more painful. There were a lot of people
who I was working with who went the fully
online acapella route or Waldon route. They
had their EDDís before I had my Ph.D.
And there were a couple of moments where I
was a little annoyed by that.
But, I wanted the degree that had greater
value and I think that itís important that
weíre able to provide that to our students.
So, thereís really two kinds of programs
weíre focusing on. The first one is scalable
programs.
So, thereís certain programs that we know
have bigger play in the marketplace. Right?
So, one is the bachelorís in interdisciplinary
studies. Itís basically a degree completion
degree.
We have a fair amount of people who have left
LSU, who would love to have that LSU degree.
Right? Maybe life happens. Right? And weíd
love to invite them back to finish that degree
so that they can go forth in their lives and
conquer.
Right? Itís kind of hard to do that when
you have some college, no degree. Itís also
really economically imperative. Right?
So, we talk a lot about our mission of social
and economic mobility. This is getting to
those students who are capable of success,
but just arenít capable of physical presence.
Right? And I think thatís a really good way
if extension of the mission. And then, more
special focus programs.
So, this came about as thereís programs that
are interested in putting their programs for
whom a couple hundred students would be pretty
significant for them.
And we want to find a way to support that,
while recognizing we canít invest the same
amount of institutional resources in it because
the institution is not going to kind of see
that RY in terms of being able to resource
everyone.
My personal goal is that in a few years, Iíve
said this before and Iím not kidding. I would
love to be at the point where itís great
if we get state funding, but, weíre not as
dependent on it.
That would be a fantastic world to live in.
Right?
So, for our scalable programs, this is really,
I actually like the screen at the back much
better.
Thereís kind of this focus that we have that
provides everything as stackable. So, education
is at this point in time, activity, in over
in the world.
And so, itís important that when people come
back, theyíre going to need, I have a Ph.D.,
itís not the last credential Iíll ever get.
Iím going to go back and get more credentials.
I started a course here called cloud computing.
I need a little additional time before I do
my cloud computing credential, but, those
stackable pieces are really important for
students.
So, that they come to us, maybe theyíre not
ready for their full graduate degree, but
they want to work on a certificate. We need
to facilitate that in being able to apply
it towards that masterís degree.
So that we keep our arms open for people in
Louisiana and the region who want to have
a long-term relationship with LSU, not a point
in time experience.
So, and part of this is also, just pragmatic.
Right?
If weíre creating programs, we want to extend
our reach of those programs instead of starting
from scratch. One of the things that you do
very differently in the online degree planning,
is you donít offer tons of options.
So, where I came from, a course cost about
$60,000 to stand up here and weíve driven
the cost down to about $25,000 because weíre
doing it better, frankly. Weíre doing it
better.
But thatís still a lot of money degree. Right?
To stand it out. So, youíre looking at the
ROY on that. You want to make sure that youíre
not creating a whole buffet of options for
students because itís very difficult to maintain
that over time.
And weíre also data driven, which means when
we work with our partners, we go out and actually
have industry analysis done, we work with
ed-adventures right now. We need to get on
burning glass subscription. We need to be
able to do this in house. Weíre not there
yet.
So, that we can have those resources in house
and someone who can actually do the industry
analysis properly. But weíre getting there.
Which is, it is really exciting. But, the
idea is that weíre prioritizing programs
kind of based on these two components.
The one is really, programs that we think
are going to scale. That we think are going
to be really effective. High need for students
in Louisiana.
And then the other one is really the special
focus where a given program has a lot of interest
and we can support that, but in a different
way.
And so, thatís kind of the pieces of it.
We had, you will see on your left, your right,
the special focus. There are one-sheeters
for everything.
So, one of the things that wasnít here, was
anything, like, process, there werenít plans.
We didnít have a project manager. There was
no way to track where a course was in design
and development. We didnít have a process
for design development.
All of these pieces need to be put into place.
But, faculty donít need to be experts on
what we do.
Otherwise, you wouldnít need us. Itís field.
So, what weíve done is try to kind of create
everything in a format thatís easily digestible,
one-sheeters that have process, so that we
can facilitate your work in a way that is
time-respectful to you and also brings us
closer to a really good learning experience
for our students online.
And, I know youíre going to get excited about
this, the accessibility part. So, that accessibility
course that you mentioned, we actually have
that live.
We were going to have 30 slots for our December
3rd course, and weíre at like 70-something.
So, thereís been a lot of demand. So, itís
available fully online or blended format.
Itís gone out several times in the academic
affairs newsletters, so please do sign up
and encourage folks to sign up.
Itís also in a more modern learning experience
that Iím going to show you in a minute.
And weíre hoping that you will want to adopt
that for your own online courses. But weíre
here in order to support that.
Also, to provide structure for courses. So,
if youíre interested in using the template,
this is for anybody.
If you teach one online course, we can help
you with that online course by giving you
the template. Itís already predesigned. You
can come to us for training, weíd love to
hear from you.
And, also for the fully online degrees. So,
I obviously weíre focused on getting degrees
up, but weíre here to support every single
faculty member with their online learning.
If you can see, I donít how small this is
for you cause Iím standing right up here,
but, we have, again, itís just a one-sheeter
that helps explain it.
So, our LXDs, our learning experience designers,
which is kind of the evolution of instructional
design, that role, we have what we call a
course anatomy which has kind of a very codified
structure on the front end.
It doesnít mean you divert from it. Different
courses have different needs.
But, in general itís a really good default
template for looking at, you know, what is
your assessment strategy for the course, how
can we build informative assessment to make
sure that the workload doesnít crazy.
How do you build enough engagement for students
to make sure that they feel like theyíre
a LSU student? Right?
Theyíre not just checking boxes.
So, this is our original template. Who, I
know some of you have taught an LSU online.
Has anyone seen? Yeah, youíve seen it.
So, this is one of my favorite screenshots.
So, that thing in the middle, itís an image
thatís hyperlinked. So, each of those little
modules, if you can see, it says week one,
week two. You click on those and it will give
you a jump, but itís not responsive. And
do you see that happy little scroll there
on the bottom?
Itís like a scroll bar for the image. Itís
very interesting.
So, this was the original template. That was
provided to us by our partner. Right?
And so, the partnership with AP, they had
some very, they put some things out, frankly,
that werenítí best practice at the time.
Like, this was never best practice. But, we
definitely know a lot more about it now in
terms of how to do structure.
And that is, thereís a little bit of a UI
component to it. Right? A little bit of how
we know the eye works in a website, frankly,
and how we can kind of facilitate that to
the extent that our systems allow.
So, this was the scroll. Everybody love Moodle
scroll?
I love Moodle scroll.
Ok, but, this kept going. That was like step
2 at the bottom. And it kept scrolls for like
6 steps.
So, we had like, so, what we did was worked
on a new template and we had a very kind faculty
member who agreed to serve as our victim as
we did this.
But if you can see the start here button on
the left, thereís like the course syllabus,
expectations is in a block over there, and
then we had created just little hyperlinks
to the area and you could have seen the rest
of, like each module has a couple of sentences,
then your measurable learning objectives,
yada, yada.
And then we decided we didnít like that.
That wasnít good.
Better, but not good. So, this is what it
looks like now. This Iím really proud of.
So, we worked with ITS and we implemented
a new theme in Moodle. Our Moodle over at
continuing ed. This is live in Moodle for
LSU online and I believe as of the 18th? Iím
not 100% sure on that.
It is available in Moodle at large. So, all
of you have access to this theme, itís called
a snap thing.
You will have noticed it. Anybody noticed
any changes in their course on November 18th?
Probably not, no. You shouldnít have. If
you did, then thatís the wrong answer.
You can go in and turn it on. Yourself. But,
itís there, itís hidden. Itís actually
been there. We just enabled it.
And then we can get you this template. If
youíre interested in this template, we have
two versions.
We have one for the 7-week version for the
fully online courses, and we have one 15-week
version, or, I like to use the 7-week version
one because then, you know, you can put 2
weeks into a module.
But, again, it has a very template, placeholders
for images, placeholders for tags, hereís
where you put this. You know, for folks who
want it, itís available.
None of this is required. Our job is to facilitate.
So, this was, my full name is Alexandera.
This is what it looks like when I log in.
Or what it looked like at LSU online. This
is what it looks like now.
So, a lot more modern interface. Again, and
youíll notice that we have university resources
on the left, academic support in the middle,
and then your learner concierge.
So, we have concierge service now for online
programs. Every student who comes in, gets
a named individual who will communicate with
them and with financial aid on their behalf.
Bursar, weíll connect back. Weíll call them,
this was a big thing, call them and make sure
that they click complete registration.
So, we have solved the technology issue with
a human element. But thatís ok, weíre getting
there.
Step after step.
So, each of those, weíre not reinventing
the wheel. Right? Folks had tutoring here.
We donít need to reinvent tutoring.
Thereís amazing academic support services
in the academic success center. There are
a bunch of really cool stuff out there, so
we just curate it out.
Those two buckets have websites behind them
that are curations.
Of those resources. Again, itís just getting
it to the student.
You would have to do a lot of hunting to find
each tutoring as an individual student. If
you didnít know where to go with the academic
success center.
So, this is kind of what weíve done to date.
Our goal is to build 87 courses by this time
next year.
Thatís a really tall order. But, we canít
launch programs that we donít have courses
for.
Right? So, thatís a really big part of it.
So, the customer service piece. So, one of
my, actually probably the thing I am most
proud of since my time here, is building a
team.
So, we are assembling a fantastic team of
people and I get so excited to get to go to
work with these folks, but, one of the folks
we managed to get was that we managed to get
someone to come over from the dark side.
So, Pierce, I donít know if you guys know
that Pearson has these types of services too.
OPM services at, they gobbled up this company
called emedet, which before that was called,
I think, compass path or something.
And Sharla Bentcast whoís our new CMO, she
lived through all of that, so, she was crucial
in getting her here, building the team.
Renee Renegar from LSU online, sheís been
here for a while, she is now running our learner
engagement team which is those learner concierges.
Making sure that all of our students are connected
with and feel like theyíre LSU students.
Thatís that single point of contact piece.
Thatís really crucial in retention.
Right? So, retention online is very different
than retention face to face.
Itís so much easier to just disappear online.
Itís like, itís almost as easy as ghostling
someone youíre dating and never talking to
them ever again.
I donít recommend that.
So, but itís very easy for them leave because
no oneís going to ask them where they are,
so itís important for us to create those
connections.
And that retention piece, is, again, our concierge
role.
So, what sheís working on is, and Iím going
to show you a couple screenshots in a minute,
of the different traffic sources that weíre
trying to create.
One of the troubles that we were having is
getting information on what was actually going
on for marketing.
Now weíre controlling that, so we have the
information as to whatís going on and you
can respond really fast.
There are some fantastic programs in the marketplace
that are helping us. We just hired two web
developers in order to recreate our whole
web presence, so we can actually use the search
engine in optimization.
So, folks who are looking for us, know where
to find us which is really important.
So, this is an example of the construction
management landing page, alla AP.
So, not a fantastic use of space. Not the
most compelling. A really interesting user
agreement fine print situation there.
Iím going to come back to that.
And this is the after of actually the masterís
in ed leadership. So, youíll notice that
heavy text of user agreement type language
isnít there.
So, thatís on a hyperlink. If you go to I
agree, and itíll say privacy, it says privacy
agreement, and you click on privacy to get
the agreement, thereís data behind that.
The reason that whole statement isnít there,
is your conversion to filling out the form
goes down 8% when itís there.
This is the kind of data weíve never had
before, weíve never had. And so, itís really
important that weíre able to do this ab testing.
Cause itís a, and I know that itís kind
of weird from an academic perspective, to
even have to think about this kind of stuff,
but it is the world.
Everyone is trying to be in this space and
trying to pursue the same students.
In fact, hot off the presses, Iíve had data
from last year.
One sixth of all college students are employed
in online programs.
If you would have said that five years ago,
people would have been like, thatíll never
happen.
All right, so, this is our progress. So, fall
to fall 2017, we had about 764 as of this
fall, 931.
Our fall 2, was 987. We had an almost 99%
yield rate. So, of those students who were
available to register for classes, almost
99% registered.
Which is crazy.
Crazy high. Iím not committing to that. That
may be a metric we never see again because
it is that high.
But, just as an example, Alexandria had a
yield rate of about 70% and thatís the difference
I think between having a partner who works
with a whole bunch of schools, does the whole
thing, very vanilla for everybody, and having
insourcing that.
So that money, those monies arenít going
to Dallas. Theyíre staying here. Weíre hiring
those people here.
And then, weíre actually doing social media
advertising, imagine that.
So, again, that 20% growth year over year,
that is, really, frankly, not as big of a
deal.
I mean, itís good weíre seeing growth, but
thatís under 1,000 students.
Right? I mean, Iíd be impressed with 20%
growth if weíd had like 18,000 students.
Iím not, we donít have programs. We really
need high quality programs.
On the upside, we have a ton of interest in
programs and weíre putting a bunch of programs
through the process right now.
Which is fantastic.
Weíre pacing strong for spring applications.
This data is a couple of weeks old.
And then, the leads are coming in strong,
which is good, but, again, a lot of the SEO
stuff is really important.
If you see these ads, if you, who has never
seen one of our social media ads?
Itís ok, you can tell me if you havenít
seen one.
Thatís a good thing because youíre not our
target audience.
You already have your degree. So, if you guys
were seeing them all over the place, we need
to adjust the algorithm.
I mean, Iím not like writing the algorithm.
We would go to our partners and say, hey,
we need to adjust you seeing these because
we pay for those.
If you do see one of these beautiful ads,
do not click on it because we pay for it.
If you want the links to the programs, I will
happily send you the actual links.
So, this is what, again, we did. Weíre working
right now to put sales force into the fact.
So, sales force is like, and I donít want
anyone to think itís not a replacement for
slate. Slate is moving ahead, weíre API,
weíre getting the data into slate so that
everybody who wants to move their stuff into
slate can do that.
But we need an end to end lifecycle around
so that every single interaction with the
student is tracked. Really, really important.
Also, for the customer service piece, our
students arenít here, you know, from 8 to
4:30, so we have customer service hours now
from 7 to 7.
Which is really important. And when we actually
get enough programs into west coast, weíll
need to do later too.
All right, so then the slightly less fun stuff,
I get a lot less interested about this part.
Itís very important, but the fun stuff is
the learning part.
Iím a former structural designer, so Iím,
I always get geeked out on that stuff.
So, just from a practical business standpoint,
right, this should be a net gain for the institution.
We have the opportunity to build this from
the ground up and be thoughtful about it.
And so, one of the things that weíll do,
as we work with programs, we donít tell you,
we donít say this is the price you should
set.
We will help you make enrollment projections
based on what you feel, like different scenarios.
So, weíll run scenarios for you, like, if
itís this per credit, we would kind of anticipate
this type of enrollment year one, and this
type of growth, so that programs can make
informed decisions and faculty can make informed
decisions about how they want to get involved.
And itís a revenue split, so itís a little
bit different.
And then what weíre doing right now, is weíre
working on strategic planning. Folks from
Alexandria and Eunice are actually coming
in on Thursday.
And we are sitting down with them and figuring
out where we centralize those. Weíre also
going to be working with both of those institutions
so that we have a central identity as LSU
online.
Itís really important that we donít stand
up competing degrees across the brand because
folks donít, sometimes folks donít understand
the difference.
Or the type of degree and so itís really
important that we have clarity on that and
a unified presence.
And then, also, accessibility is up. Weíre
working on our other professional development
pieces and so weíre doing a lot of things
on kind of both of those fronts for full programs.
Oh, did anyone get the survey? So, on the
academic affairs newsletter, the on the engagement
council, the, we sent it out, student government
sent one out to students, it was fantastic.
So, we have a ton, I think weíve had like
over 1,000 responses to the survey.
But, basically, itís getting feedback from
faculty, administration, staff and students
as to what they see the needs.
Matt actually got contacted by someone with
the undergrad student government who wanted
to talk about fully online undergraduate degrees.
Which I was like, this is awesome. So, it
turns out her mom is going back to college
online and canít come here. Thereís no program
for her.
So, she wanted, it was really fascinating.
Wasnít she cool, Matt? I thought she was
so cool.
But, itís just really interesting. So, thatís,
but that is a different type of experience.
Right?
Sheís coming here for that first-time, full-time
kind of embedded experience.
Her mother needs that degree. Weíre the flagship,
right? Thatís like what we do.
That should be what we do.
And then, how we do it. So, this is, again,
if I gave you data on that stuff, I really
get geeked out on this stuff. Which, weíre
trying to act like a startup, within a large
institution.
There is a ton of history. LSU brand and the
LSU academic reputation is very strong. Also,
thereís like some sports teams here.
And so, itís really important, ok, that didnít
play as well as I thought it would.
Iím not, I understand the seven overtimes
thing, but all right.
Sensitive topic.
So, basically what weíre doing is weíre
working on creating a culture that everyone
feels empowered and has expectations to get
back to people, to support faculty, to do
what they say theyíre going to do.
My grandma always said do what you say, and
you say what you do, right?
And this is basically how we work together
as a team and we do win as a team. So, if
you get an email from me and thereís like
hashtag win as a team at the bottom, itís
a thing. Like, the win bar, I donít know
if you can see the win bar.
When we onboard people, because weíre hiring
a lot of people, they have to go on a scavenger
hunt.
Like, this is who we are. We want to be the
team that gets it done. Because weíre getting
it done for you and this is like all of us
together.
So, thatís kind of where we are now. I forgot
stickie notes. Is anybody into human center
design?
So, we do a lot of design sessions, like how
to we make sure that we get, zombie theory
of leadership?
We want all of the brains in the room, best
idea wins. Right?
Pitch your idea, best idea wins. Thatís what
we do.
So, when youíre working with us, itís going
to be a little different, maybe, then what
youíve been used to.
And if weíre working on a program together,
we may send you gentle harassment emails.
Hey, who do I get this answer from or hey,
who do I contact for x, y, and z?
And itís because weíre working at a little
bit of a different pace.
Questions?
Well, thank you Sasha.
Yes?
I am concerned about the monitoring and quality
control of 
the course. How will you do that?
Yep. So, online thereís actually some really
interesting tools.
We have, well, Iíll tell you what we have
now, and Iíll tell you what the field is
doing about this.
So, we have a plagiarism checker, like turn
it in. Right?
Thatís pretty basic. There are like a half
a dozen of those. The proctor you which is
live proctoring. So, thatís also pretty traditional.
Itís a web-based service, you have to show
your ID, they make you do a 360 of the room,
if youíre doing a test on it.
A lot of it goes into your assessment strategy
though. So, depending on the topic it would
look different, but there are some courses
in which you might want the student during
video, their own presentation, and host it
online.
Or, there might be, if you want to do synchronist
sessions, you can do a q & a with students
as some sort of assessment.
There are the technology tools thatís recorded,
but itís really what you want the overall
experience to be.
I teach at Kent in the summer. I teach one
course a year online because thatís like,
I feel like I have to walk the talk.
But, I donít really enjoy it and itís very
hands on and I can spot plagiarism like that.
Like I know, you guys know when itís not
your studentís voice.
And I donít even use turn it in because theyíre
all doing multimedia.
I just type it into google. Right? So, thereís
a lot of different things that you can do
just from a practical perspective.
But, itís really about prevention like it
is for anything else. On the flip side, the
course quality side, weíre going to do a
quality matters check before the courses launch
on all the courses for fully online programs.
Not an official review because an official
review takes 3 months and that takes way too
long.
Quality matters is one tool, there are a lot
of other quality tools out there to assess
courses before they go live.
My favorite is actually from Canada, but,
itís not as well-known down here. If anyone
knows the e-campus albura, they have a quality
standards 2.0 rubric which is really interesting
because it blends some of the universal design.
I think quality matters is a little mechanical.
But, itís still good.
So, those are kind of the two pieces. Thereís
some great remote proctoring, machine proctoring.
Itís really interesting and you can set a,
you can set criteria.
Like, when do you want to see if a red flag
is tripped. I led a pilot of this at my previous
institution with karturio, and our success
rates fell 10% in our math classes.
Which told me it was doing its job. Any other
questions for Sasha?
All right. Thank you.
[clapping]
Our next topic is one thatís pretty important
to succeed as an educational institution,
so, weíve got Kenneth Miles whoís assistant
vice chancellor and executive director of
cox communications academic center for student
athletes.
Heís going to talk, I met with him and we
talked over some difficulties that we still
have with some of our policies, so, heís
going to cover that and get us up to date.
And then, probably in January, we will have
our new faculty representative and our previous
one Bill Demastes to give us an update on
where weíre actually at, so.
Anything what Kenneth tells us, then, weíll
figure out what we need to do on our January
17th meeting also, so.
Thank you, thank you. Any instructions on
how to use this? I gotcha, I gotcha.
Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon.
Yaíll are killing me with your enthusiasm.
[laughter]
I said good afternoon, everybody. If I tell
you, you win a cash prize after we go through
this session, would you pay attention?
Pay off student loans?
[laughter]
Thatís a hell of deal. All right. A couple
things before we get started because I think
this is, like, an impeccable time.
So, roughly 3,650 days ago, I met my team
anniversary here. Which is actually interesting.
Thank you, that deserved kudos for sure. But,
I will tell you whatís even better than that
is the recruiting process that it took to
get me, and Stacie Haynie was vice provost
at the time, that actually ended up hiring
me.
With that being stated, I said, one of things
that Iíve learned since Iíve been here,
is that change is inevitable.
Itís gonna happen. The question is, is how
do we interact with it, how do we deal with
it, how do we cope with it, how do we define
strategies to be able to intertwine our own
philosophies within in and better yet, to
see how it intertwines in alignment with our
own personal values.
We you come to that revolution, success happens
by design. Itís not accidental. Not at all.
Difficult to see, but Iíll explain this to
you thatís important to understand how organizational
structure within the academic center of student
athletes.
I report to Matt Lee for that reason. If there
are any problems, go see him.
[laughter]
Put that in the minutes. All right?
Part of a justice, I guess you could say,
justice league, where a few of us, obviously,
look at the academic enterprise and try to
figure out how we can put our students in
the best position to be successful.
My research and background is in retention
studies. Looking at first-generation, black
students and how they navigate post-secondary
education.
So, when youíre looking at the organizational
structure within the center, it was real simple
to say weíve got an academic affairs unit,
we have a student affairs unit.
Basically, youíre looking at the center between
those two, whatís some underlying fundamentals.
Budget, technology.
Ok? You can increase the likelihood of persistence,
thus increasing the graduation rates.
Pretty simple. Goes back to the early 70s
when Vince Tentell had nothing to do with
his time but lay out with this enigma looks
like.
All right, vision. In order to be able to
execute the things that you want to get the
desired outcomes, youíve got to have a strategic
plan. We have a total team commitment. Everybody
has a role within the team.
So, if a person is actually having struggles,
then we come together to have a kumbaya teamwork
approach to be able to address the issues
and problems.
Or challenges. It doesnít always have to
be a problem.
Or, perhaps we could call it an opportunity.
All right? We want to be able to be transformative
through those support services. So, hereís
what that means in a nutshell.
Our young men, our little men, I can call
them that because Iím bigger than most of
them, come in little and they leave big.
Right? Itís a transformative process.
Cognitively, they come in, in a particular
place and they leave being much more methodical
and not as impulsive, as most of our young
folk think in these days.
Academically, freshman, sophomore, junior,
senior. Thatís how they end up growing academically.
Professionally, have an opportunity to experience
length in profiles.
Right? Social media etiquette.
Resume writing, cover letters, interviewing
skills. So, some of the basics.
Ok? Thatís what the transformative piece
is. This is the place where the magic happens.
Itís like Disney.
Ok? This is where the magic happens.
Mission. Really simple. On a daily basis,
we basically try to help our young men and
women find balance.
Optimal balance between academic and personal
development.
When there is an imbalance, thereís a problem.
Fortunate enough, being an educational institution,
itís great to be able to look at these things
and try figure out how to do some things without
actually being crucified for some of the decisions
we make early on.
Our folks have buy in at the end of the day.
Whatís fundamental to any change that occurs
has to be the trust within the system.
Ok? Thatís how this ends up happening.
Values. We have 8 values. We have classes
throughout our facility. Iím a fan of the
pop art period. Andy Warhol is my favorite
artist.
He does a bunch of Marilyn Monroes, he also
did Campbellís soup cans, and the reason
why I like the pop art period because one
of the things within that time is took icons
within the day, all right, normal icons, and
basically made something beautiful out of
it.
And so, essentially what Andy Warhol was saying
was, repetition signifies importance. So,
if you see a bunch of them, it must be important.
So, when you see the values every time, it
must be important.
The thing about values is that it dictates
actions.
A person without values, Iím sure that weíve
run into one or two, but not many, but you
can also think about how that person perhaps
can still grow and learn perhaps when they
mentor, or maybe from a friend or a colleague.
From someone who is willing to help them grow
and develop in that transformative process
as well.
Goals. 4 of them, simple.
Graduate our student athletes. Two, prepare
them for life after. So, meaning, make something
meaningful of the experience that is here.
So, when they leave, they have the ability
to be able to navigate through different worlds,
different arenas, and be able to be successful
in the path that they choose.
The other, promoting, preserving, basically
integrity.
Itís not something that we do or assume that
it simply happens.
All right? Iíll remind you folks that you
do the right thing even when nobodyís looking
and perhaps not even when you have to do it.
Itís just simply what it is. Those are the
things that we end up doing.
And the fourth, goes back to when youíre
on a plane and the notes end up dropping atmospheric
pressure, and mask drops down, and what it
says at the point is put it over yourself
before you help others.
If Iím not providing our team, meaning the
people that work within the center, with the
skills and competencies to be successful and
promoting the growth and development of our
students, then Iím doing them an injustice.
So, we strongly encourage the professional
development piece, recognizing that there
are many things that impact retention, persistence,
graduation.
All right, so, GSR.
Weíre ready to start off, I can tell you
a quick summary. GSR basically tabulates mid-years
into the graduation equation.
All right? Itís a two-way metric.
So, meaning, somebody comes in in January,
all right, theyíll be tabulated within the
equation.
Whereas the federal, first-time, full-time,
fall enrollment. All of these individuals
are receiving some sort of athletic aid that
is counted, walk-ons are not included in the
process.
All right? Everybody got it?
So, here we go. Ah, LSU overall graduation
success rate just came out November 15th.
So, we had a, for lack of a better term, a
dip by 1%, where we had 89% for all of our
student athletes.
Ok? Thatís all of our student athletes. So,
basically, you look at it this way.
Iím into rounding, so, letís say 9 out of
10. So, a person decides they want to come,
they have a 9 out of 10 chance of getting
their degree.
Thatís provided that if you study.
Thatís how that works. Now, so, within the
equation, you have people who will transfer
out, or will leave probably.
So, hereís how it works. For the person who
leaves early. Ok? And theyíve exhausted their
athletic eligibility.
All right? And they do not graduate within
the six year-span. Yes, it does hurt you,
so it is reflective in the numbers.
If they first leave and they have it, then
youíre not penalized, thatís great.
Looking at the federal numbers, regardless
of whatever reason that you would end up leaving,
so, whether or not you stop out, drop out,
or transfer, it will penalize you.
So, if youíve got a cohort of 10, one decides
to leave, the highest you can make is 90%
provided all stay.
Everybody got it?
Youíre going to be tested on this later.
All right.
So, what of the things Iím going to note,
going back very quickly to 2008. Thatís when
I ended up getting here.
Youíre looking right around 69% is where
we were.
Ok? Now, Iíll be the first one to say that
they result of all this is from the collective
efforts of others.
Ok? Thatís not solely one person. It was
a collective effort of academic affairs, of
HR, of the athletic department, deans, schools,
colleges, advisors.
Everybody wanted to do the things that was
necessary to provide support to the students.
And the things that were right.
All right, womenís basketball. Figured you
all would like that one.
You see weíre at 94%. All right, this is
the 2018 numbers.
So, you see FCS, football championship subdivision.
Thatís like your one double A schools.
Overall division one, thatís all division
one schools together, you even got some schools
that have, donít have football as their sponsor
sport, so, thatís included within these numbers.
And youíre looking at FBS, which is football,
both subdivision, which is your power conference.
So, basically, your 1-A schools.
All right. So, when you look at that, you
can say, basically, womenís basketball is
4% higher than what we consider the FBS national
average.
Got it?
Pretty simple. All right.
Uh oh, did I go too fast?
Overall women softball. Ok, we donít need
to spend a whole lot of time talking about
100%.
All right, everybody got it? Weíre good.
See terini, give her a big shout out.
All right. Letís go ahead and look at womenís
track, cross country. They actually put them
together.
So, you see where we are. Weíre at 88%.
All right. So, essentially, weíre 2% lower
than the national average at this point.
Ok?
Womenís golf, 100%. What can I say, women
go get it done.
All right.
Look at that being at least 6% greater than
FCS, 6% greater than the overall division,
and 5% greater than football, bowl subdivision.
And the reason why I ended up doing SEC football
is how theyíre going up against their competitors.
All right? So, thatís why I put them.
Womenís gymnastics. Weíre at 92%. I tell
you what though, itís an interesting range
when you look at the numbers though.
From 100 to 87 isnít it? I think anybody
would kill to have those numbers.
But, clearly, itís telling you what that
population is doing across the country.
Womenís soccer? Another one going to get
it done, 95%. Higher than the national average.
Womenís swimming and diving. See, again,
95%.
See weíre doing pretty good.
Collective effort of all, youíve got to remember
that.
All right, womenís tennis. What can we say,
no need to spend a lot of time on 100%.
Huh, volleyball. Another one. No need to spend
a whole lot of time on that either.
Again, my point is, women get it done. Right?
So, letís look at baseball. 90%. Hereís
what I will tell you though.
Baseball ended up falling from last yearís
numbers by 5%. They were at 95% last year.
The highest that that GSR has ever been.
90% is still pretty darn good.
Football. Football has dropped also. 73%.
The year before it was 74. If you recall,
for those of you that have been here, at least,
now, 5 years, there were 2 years when we were
second behind Vanderbilt, at 77.
In the SEC. Still pretty good. I will tell
you in 2008, when I came, the GSR for football
was 54%.
So that gives you an idea of what the climb
looks like.
Menís basketball. 89%. And greater than the
national average.
The tough thing about menís basketball when
weíre looking at numbers, so, on the federal
side, you know, you might have a small cohort.
So, if you had two people on the team, one
transfers, and they decide they want to go
to Drake University.
All right? The highest graduation rate on
the federal side G-rate is 50% now.
So, that is the highest.
If the person was to leave and is academically
eligible, all right, youíre still working
somewhere between a 90-100% on the GSR side.
Itís depending upon whether or not athletic
eligibility was done or not.
Ok?
Track. 80%. With our menís, 2% lower than
the overall division.
Golf. Menís golf. 88%. We also tied for the
overall division.
Menís swimming and diving. 100%.
Every now and then men get it right.
[laughter]
You know, itís funny, all the women laughed,
and the men are like shut up.
[laughter]
Iím bigger than you all.
I could run laps too.
All right. Menís tennis. 100%. Again, kudos
to our menís tennis team.
Again, overall, okay, so, this is the overall
student athlete GSR. So, youíre looking at
a ranking of between all of the SEC schools.
Weíre at 88%, so, you see weíre in fourth.
Ok? Maybe 9th, excuse me.
All right?
So, I know that someone was going to ask me
about federal rates. So, I did it on one.
I had it put in here.
I already gave you the definition of what
it looks like.
Numbers are a little bit small.
But those that I highlighted, meant that either
student athletes at a higher rate than the
student body, or tied, and they tied at least
one year.
And that was 2011.
So, if you go to 2018, what youíll see is
student athletes graduated at 49%.
All students graduated at 64.
What I also can tell you is that these numbers
are different than the numbers that end up
going publicly through regents and everywhere
else.
And the reason that theyíre different is
they include the medical students in New Orleans.
Ok?
So, when looking at 2018. So, basically, youíre
looking at the cohort from, what is that,
11, 12.
Ok? So, the cohort, so, federal, again, first-time,
full-time enrollees at that time.
Now, very quickly, numbers only tell part
of the story.
All right?
We have a nice building, but I will tell you
that the people that work within the building
actually define the culture.
As I noted before, success doesnít happen
alone, it is the collective efforts of others.
Iím very fortunate to be surrounded by a
talented team.
They are pretty awesome. I say they are smarter
than me and thatís why I like hanging around
folks, so, that I can feel smarter too.
But at the end of the day, what weíre doing
is looking at evaluating and assessing programs
and in that student athletes.
Are we where we want to be? No.
Are we assessing things daily? Yes.
Do we make changes regularly? Yes.
Are there challenges that go along the way?
Yes.
Even within a 10-year span, there still is.
Ok?
The other thing, clearly, Iím not a good
leader because the last time that I was here,
I was trying to lead Kevin Cope into getting
us food here.
[laughter]
Clearly, he didnít get that message to Ken,
so, I need to start on recruitment. Right?
Recruitment and retention go hand in hand.
Everybody knows, right?
So, we could end up doing some sipping, so,
we could do tasting here, and we end up over
at the club.
So, Iím going to help you out, thatís the
plan. Right?
So, itís like graduation. You walk in the
doors, itís a transformative process, and
then you get to the club.
But in all seriousness, any questions?
I know Iím standing between you andÖ
How many student athletes do we have?
How many athletes do we have? So, that counts
all the children?
Iím just kidding.
[laughter]
We have over 500 student athletes.
The numberís fluctuating. Itís been as high
as 575.
Yes sir?
Oh, Iím sorry. Yeah, Nan or Joan first?
Oh, yeah. What do you actually do to retain
the student athletes and to try and get them
to come back to their degree, after they go.
Iíve got a long reach and a good grip.
I say, yep, you hold somebodyís head underneath
the water, guarantee theyíre going to take
a gulp.
So, what do we do to retain? So, when looking
at the retention equation. There are factors
that actually impact the retention.
So, we focus on the things that we can control.
We canít control if a coach ends up leaving
a position and going somewhere else.
Thereís loyalty to that coach so they may
leave.
Those individuals who stay here, we end up
putting them in a highly individualized support
plans for all of our students.
Hereís what it looks like.
So, the investment I told you earlier was
collective. There are weekly meetings with
every coach, or their designee.
We go through the academics of every one of
his students.
So, when you end up getting a young man like
myself, whoís enrolled in 5 classes, taking
15 hours, every class along with the assignments,
quizzes, homeworks, projects, are all with
the grades actually on it, to have an idea.
We donít believe in surprises. Some many
say, well, these young men, young ladies are
in college. They should be able to navigate
this.
Weíre not saying that theyíre not.
But we also recognize students of that investment.
And at the end of the day, weíre trying to
put people in the best position to be successful,
we cannot afford to have some of those mistakes.
So, thatís one of the things. Within that,
thereís also class checking that happens.
Thereís also progress reports that actually
go out and some of you have received our correspondence
through grades first which is one of our platforms
that we use.
The reality is, is that our young men and
young women are coming in our doors, with
many things on their shoulders, at this point
in time, some things that impact their academics
is not necessarily a cognitive issue.
And so, we become a little bit intrusive,
and maybe a little invasive at some point,
but understanding that the goal is being able
to put them in the best position to be successful.
So, that is some of the things that we do
on the retention side of things. To get them
to come back, we have a program called project
graduation.
Project graduation is for those who end up
leaving early, provided that they leave early,
called provided that they are in good academic
standing, excuse me, when they leave early.
They can come back and pay for it just like
they were still here. They still get all the
same resources.
Tutoring, we have two types of tutoring.
Content and strategy tutoring. Strategy helps
with organizational skills, content, something
specific.
And that is how we end up helping our students.
Dr. Martinez. Are those percentages you got
outline, do they reflect student athletes
that leave school early because they become
professional athletes and of that, sort of,
subpopulation, whatís the percentage of those
actually come back and finish?
Well, thatís a good question.
So, the data is not necessarily broken down
by the cohort. The cohort is entered in to
come back and look at.
You can find that though. The thing that I
will tell you, is that on the span, if they
come back within the six years, it will be
reflected within the numbers.
If it goes to 7 years, or 8 years, it would
not be.
Does that make sense? Yeah.
And again, itís only those who received athletic
aid of some sort.
Any other questions?
Feel free. Yes? Just out of general curiosity,
whatís one area that you all are looking
to improve upon?
Because, obviously, great success, and sort
of just the curiosity of what, where is the
weakness right now?
Ok. So, essentially when I look at it, Iím
very methodical about just about everything.
Even from like the food that I eat.
So, like I eat all my vegetables first and
I eat all of my meat last.
Iím one of those people.
[laughter]
Right? Donít judge. I do it too. Protein
and then the carbs, thatís how I do it.
I like that.
Man after my own heart.
So, first thing I do is I look at facilities,
I look at programs, I look at people.
And so, when I note that I end up evaluating
and assessing everything, I do mean everything.
So, everything from recruiting to the academic
meetings where their advisors are sitting
in meetings with the coaches.
To one on one advising. To tutor assessments
that we give, so, I look at the feedback that
our students give about tutors.
All of those things and the reason why I do
that, because, again, I donít like surprises.
And so, Iíd much rather be on the proactive
side of things, to be able to address things
sooner, than later.
What I also recognize too, is that even though
we have achieved some success, itís still
not where we want to be.
Part of that might be the student athlete
in myself. I should say that I accept that
fact.
Right? And myself where Iím still being competitive.
He knows that heís successful when theyíre
there and they donít have to be.
That is true. We do a math enrichment program.
So, basically the purpose of it, is to be
able to help students who may have some anxiety
phobias regarding math.
And so, one of the best examples that ties
back to that analogy that Ken just noted was,
we basically get people to take the course
prior to.
No credit. Just coming and being able to go
through the material to minimize the anxiety
for the following semester when they actually
enroll in the class.
So, you say what is the impact benefit?
Everywhere from half a letter grade to two
letter grades.
Anything else for Kenneth?
All right, well, thank you very much.
Thank you.
[clapping]
Our next topic is a hard one, but weíve got
the man to do it.
So, Dr. Cope is going to talk to us about
retirement and some of the problems with some
of the plans and then the lawsuit that he
and Roger Laine filed, and heíll give us
an update on the stage of progress.
Kevin?
Well, thank you Kenneth for and old war horse
to come out of the stable.
Let me assure Kenneth Miles that the liquid
rations over here are every bit as sustaining
and retention oriented as the food you requested.
Remember that the gods who are retained forever
in Olympus, live on nectar.
I confirmed that these are artisanal and locally
sourced coffees of the best step, so.
Donít be too skeptical about the liquid world.
Well, I see that the sun is going down. Of
course, this is the dimmest, darkest time
of the year and I suppose after the last two
bursts of optimism, itís something of an
inverse pleasure to be able to deliver and
unstoppable narrative of misery, disappointment,
inadequacy, frustration, incompetence, and
a thousand other problems.
But remember, that many artists have observed
that the stellar scene in the dark of night
is far and away the most interesting.
Certainly, at least of educational value here.
I also want to point out that in the course
of a life at LSU, there are two to three defining
moments.
For those who are young and unusually financially
adept, thereís that moment of recognition
on first arrival at LSU, that the great achievements
of the university donít quite match up with
the retirement plan.
Which is, to put it bluntly in a phrase, among
the worst in the nation.
The second moment of recognition, comes at
the end of life, when those who are not, earlier
on, financially acute, suddenly realize that
might that elderly gentleman in the ten commandments
who is making bricks without straw, that they
shall in expire in hardest, never retiring,
never reparing to those veils and frolics
in life that fall on an academic career grindstone.
And I suppose thereís kind of a third moment,
too, the mid-career moment, when a person
is sometimes hit if having had previous experience
with the recognition that windfall elimination
provision will have an adverse effect even
on social security.
If you are not poor before, the federal government
has joined with the state to grind you deeper
into the ground.
So, Iím going to start off, this is supposed
to be a sort of very technical presentation,
but after this rather robust introduction,
by offering, we have a drama person in the
front row, who appreciates these sorts of
things, offering a few bits of nomenclature
very quickly because I know that the hour
is indeed late.
The first is the member contribution. Very
simple.
This is the amount that you pay directly into
your retirement fund.
And I might say that most of my remarks here
are oriented more toward the optional retirement
plan.
Thereís also, of course, the rather older
plan, the defined benefit plan.
We can talk about that too, later. It suffers
from some of the same problems that this one
does.
But most people beneath the surveys, in fact
most people in this room, are probably on
the optional retirement plan.
The second nomenclature you need to know if
the normal cost.
This is a somewhat more abstract concept.
Until the year 2014, this was a calculated
sum. A cast flow amount that the teacherís
retirement system of Louisiana, or TRSL, needed
in order to cover its expenses and pay out
the benefits that were due in a given year.
Then, that sum was divided by all plan participants.
In practice, what this meant, in most cases,
was the amount of the employer, the LSU contribution,
that actually made its way into your account.
In 2014, owing to legislation, that term was
replaced with the employer transfer amount
and the amount contributed stabilized, gradually
rising to what it is now to its 6.2%.
Weíll talk about that more later on.
Thereís also the total employment contribution,
which is the total amount paid by LSU or any
other university in Louisiana, which you may
be surprised to discover vastly, by multiplier
of some 400%, exceeds what actually what makes
it into your account.
Or, if youíre in the old plan, into the fund
that supports your eventual payout.
And the last term that you need to know is
the unfunded accrued liability.
This is vast public obligation that has resulted
from serious underfunding of the old, defined
benefit plan, teacherís retirement system
of Louisiana, that is now being financed,
advertised over a vast period of time, by
drawing from that total employer contribution,
that total employer contribution that does
not make its way into your account and eventually
into your pocketbook.
If weíre to get a very, very skeletal description
of the problem, it amounts to this: a vast
sum of money is collected, not only from LSU,
but let me express that this is a state-wide
problem, itís not exclusively the ill-doing
of anyone at LSU.
A vast sum of money that is collected from
all universities, that is earmarked as suitable
for retirement plan funding, but is in fact,
diverted to cover this unfunded accrued liability,
which in turn, results from legislative underfunding
of the retirement plan because that money
was spent for some other purpose, such as
a former system president whose name is now
forbidden to be spoken in the best halls,
that name is John Lombardi by the way.
As John Lombardi once said, for the filling
of potholes and provision of parking spots
for students who are driving Mercedes.
It should be noted that roughly 88% of the
participants who benefit from the money that
covers the unfunded liability are, in fact,
in the K-12, the public-school system.
Only 12% of that system is supported by higher
education persons. But, the cast flow coming
from higher education is enormously disproportionate.
So, letís move on. What happened here?
Some glitch delights. What have I done awry,
Susannah?
Ah, there, here it is.
No, thatís a little bit, oh yes, there it
is, thank you very much.
Letís look in skeletal form, once again,
at some of the basic issues here.
And again, this is just a quick recap of some
of those of what I just said.
What exactly is the unfunded, accrued liability?
It is a large debt arising from the underfunding
of the public education retirement fund.
It is imposed on the optional retirement plan
members who were there at the inception of
the optional retirement plan but who reap
no benefits from it.
Represents a de-facto transfer of value from
public employees, generally, to a specific
subset of them.
I call it a K-12 wedge issue because among
the political calculus of the state, this
serves to create an economic disharmony, or
opposition of interest between those in the
K-12 system and those in higher education.
Persons who should be friends, rather than
economic adversaries.
This also, of course, affects the defined
benefit plan, the old plan, although the facts
about this are extremely difficult to trace.
Among the disturbing features is that with
each year that goes by, the teacherís retirement
system website offers less and less information.
I had managed to dig up some of this of recent
ventures simply by searching through google
and other as were internet subterfuges, but
I assure you itís not easy to find.
What is the impact of the unfunded, accrued
liability right now in the year 2018?
Well, you, as mostly members of the optional
retirement plan, contribute 8% of which .05%
disappears into the fee.
For the supposed services that TRSL gives
you.
Next, the employer, LSU, is currently contributing
a whopping total of 28%.
For a total contribution of 36%.
The 6.2% of the employer contribution reaches
employee accounts.
Meaning, that of this 36% of total salary
that reaches TRSL, only 14.15% comes back
to your account.
That is roughly 36 and nine tenths of a percent,
less than half, in other words.
Enmity, this contribution continues spiral
upward, it has grown upwards since the inception
of the fund in 1992.
Now this is a note that is actually pertinent
to persons who have been here for more than
4 years. But, that is significant because
the majority of people in academe hold their
jobs for a long time and so the majority of
people who are in this plan, are affected
by this situation.
Up until 2014, this curious economic construct,
the normal cost, or what made its way into
your accounts from the employer contribution,
was inversely related to the success of TRSL.
So, for example, if TRSL had a good year in
its investments for its defined benefit plan,
it would need less money to fund its expenses
and pay its liabilities.
The normal cost for an ORP member, i.e. what
makes its way to your account, was however,
pegged to that amount.
So, if TRSL, on the defined benefit plan,
in which you have no interest, did extremely
well, you, outside of the plan, were penalized
in an extraordinary economic arrangement.
Just to keep you up to date, perhaps this
is a little bit too small to see, but between
1995, the first year for which data are available,
and the present, this situation has gotten
worse and worse.
You can see the total contribution has gone
way up, but the amount that actually reaches
employees has begun to shrink.
Now, if you want to be a little bit more altruistic
and think not of your situation in retirement,
and your opportunity to conduct research or
take vacations after whatever transition age
will be for you, you might think also in terms
of the public good of higher education and
what the impact of this situation really is
on our institutions in Louisiana.
The total amount contributed to the unfunded,
accrued liability, from Louisiana higher education
institutions, is 300 million or more per year.
That is an astounding sum.
Now, if you want some perspective on that,
LSU accounts are maybe 25, 30% of the total
higher education in this cost in the state.
So, maybe a 100 million, or so is coming out
of the LSU budget.
That money could be used for many other things
other than mending potholes or perhaps providing
services in the pet registry.
Even the bicycle license has been suspended,
so maybe you can pull maybe 10,000 of that
for the reduction in public services.
Now, it is indeed possible that those who
are in the defined benefit plan could feel
the effects of this as well.
If indeed the unfunded accrued liability continues
to spiral over the years, it is not inconceivable
that the older, the defined benefit plan,
could become insolvent.
There are various estimates for that, ranging
from 2019 which is just around the corner.
Thatís not going to happen.
To 2049. But one way of the other, there is
a non-zero probability that those who are
outside of the ORP will also one day face
an insolvency and be in this sort of Detroit
bankrupt situation where a federal receiver
would have to come in and have to take over
part of the pensions, possibly not making
up all of them.
This kind of makes the situation a bit clearer.
It was actually made up in the year 2013,
but, once again, to talk about not making
any progress, the situation has, in fact,
not changed in five years.
And in honor of Kenneth Miles, Iíve asked
our assistants to put some football helmets
up here.
You can see that other SEC schools and a few
other peer schools have total retirement contributions
reaching faculty members in the mid-20s to
low 30 percentage.
LSU over here, you can ignore the last one,
that is a doomsday projection, but, if 2013
had a productivity rate, letís call it, of
14.85%.
That has now slipped again to 14.15%.
I couldnít resist this, but, many people
who have goodness in their heart and desires
to be cooperative in their souls, have asked
me and other executive committee members why
it is that we donít get more support from
the top level of the administration.
And far be it from me to question whether
anyone in the top level in the administration
is driven by personal motives or altruistic
motives or any other kind of motive.
However, just as an example close to home,
I point out that the institution to which
our previous provost repaired after he left
here, has a much better benefits system than
we do.
Giving a yield to the employee of 22.2%.
What the point of that? You know, in American
higher education, the average term of office
for a provost in a R-1 institution is roughly
four and a quarter years.
The average term in office for a president
in a university system such as ours is about
6 to 6 a half years.
This means that it is ultimately economically
irrational for such a person to risk the impugning
that would come with going against the public
officer holders, the legislators, the other
decision makers.
Why not lose a few thousand dollars out of
your retirement plan and look to the greener
pastures that will come along with the next
job?
Now, of course, this is only statistical.
There are, in fact, many people in the upper
administration who are quite high minded.
But over the long term, administration after
administration, and Dr. McMillin and I have
seen more provosts than Queen Elizabeth has
seen prime ministers in our time, you can
assume that some are going to be better than
others.
This effect is going to take place. Also,
thereís no missing the fact that in Louisiana
higher education administration, the structure
is basically pyramidal and authoritarian.
And, therefore, the ultimate answerability
of somebody at the very top level of administration
is to an assortment of state officials, rather
than to the faculty or with respect to faculty
welfare.
This is another graphic just to you an idea
of the total state contribution. LSU is that
low blue bar over to the left.
That requires no comment.
There are other problems besides the strictly
economic ones. One is that there is no choice
in the ORP plan that would allow you to make
the best of a bad situation.
It began as an alternative to a plan that
required a ten-year vesting period.
Which is of course at least 4 years, longer
than the minimum probationary period.
Therefore, a new person coming in not knowing
whether he or she would receive tenure, is
more likely to go with the optional retirement
plan.
Likewise, optional retirement plan members
do not have any choice as to their financial
vendors.
There are only 3 currently. The auditing of
those vendors is done by private state auditors
who are under contract to the state executive
branch and who are not accountable in any
way to public employees.
And the lack of independence from various
state agencies opens a certain amount of conflict
of interest questions.
There are governance problems with the current
arrangements.
The optional retirement plan is managed by
teacherís retirement system, but members,
or rather participants I should say, in the
optional retirement plan, are not considered
members and not allowed to vote.
Therefore, they have no representation. Indeed,
they are taxed through their fee without representation,
per the American revolution.
Higher education has only one representative
on the board despite contributing the lionís
share of revenues.
TRSL management, including, Iíll mention
another name, Marine Westguard and former
director, routinely testified against faculty
governance representatives.
I have testified against him myself many times
at legislative hearings and never once seen
her take a faculty position.
The new regime seems to be a little bit more
benevolent, but not much so.
And, of course, there have been exit penalties
proposed that in effect the present system
from ever coming to an end.
Ascension parish did leave the state retirement
plan system, but at a cost that nearly bankrupted
the parish.
Comparison to best practices.
No other university system has a comparable
governance or retirement system.
Comparable state institutions offer systems
that are designed for higher education professionals,
where as ours is designed for rank and file,
sort of, civil service employees.
The entailing of the UAL as I previously mentioned,
was questionable legality, and there is some
uncertainty with regard to the exemption of
the plan from social security.
Weíll talk about that more in just a moment,
but to put it very briefly, the ORP was designed
as if it were a social security supplement
plan, but there was no social security.
It became a free-standing plan in its own
right.
The fifth set of problems, this is the last
of the problems before we look at some of
the accidents under way, remains to customer
service.
There is no supervision whatsoever of the
vendors except to vet their financials.
The vendors are selected by persons other
than their clients.
Poor vendor customer service. We have many
evidences of colleagues who have attempted
to get an appointment with a customer service
representative, only to be told that the wait
time is in weeks or even in months.
Next to impossible to get data. Poor websites.
And very confusing statements, interfaces
and documentation.
Not to mention the fact that such basic financial
operations as calling for a transfer between
funds are oftentimes nigh on impossible in
these very confusing and backward environments.
Now to what Dr. McMillin has identified as
the painful topic, and that is that as a result
of failure to deal with this over the long
haul, and Iíll say that this problem came
to surface in the year 2009, and faculty governance
officials and I, myself, and many, many others,
have dealt with the system office, the board
of regents, assorted legislators, the house
retirement committee, just about an governmental
body you please, and have gotten nowhere other
than to increase the employer contribution
effective deal rate from 5.2 to 6.2%.
Which is still about 15% below where it needs
to be.
So, a few years ago, four or five years ago,
these things being slow matters, the former
benefits committee chair, Roger Laine, and
I filed a lawsuit against TRSL, the teacherís
retirement system of Louisiana, and also against
the LSU board of supervisors, no, not against
LSU itself, but against the board of supervisors.
What are the items addressed in this lawsuit?
In brief. The first is, is that the lawsuit
seeks to determine who is the actual employer
of employees.
Through many years of invasion, the university
system has at very various times that the
employer is the campus, the system, the state,
half a dozen other bodies.
This in order to avoid being charged with
the responsibility for the retirement system.
And, indeed, if you look on your statement,
you will see that the statement attributes
the retirement system not to this campus,
but to the LSU board of supervisors, which
in turn, denies that they have any financier
responsibility.
Next, the lawsuit is directed at both the
LSU system and TRSL because these two groups
are entangled in the plan and we are attempting
to dis-entangle them, so we can find out who
is responsible for what.
Oops, Susannah, we have had another blackout.
Thank you very much.
All right, Iím two steps ahead there. The
third item that has covered in the lawsuit
is to determine whether LSU is actually meeting
the criteria for exemption from social security.
The university argument is that, in fact,
the total contribution is above the threshold
of 8%.
But, so much of this derives from employee
contribution, that legal heads have questioned
whether or not this might be a real cause
for exemption.
Next, the lawsuit seeks to determine whether
funds that are earmarked for retirement can
be diverted to some other purpose.
The university expressly identifies those
funds that are going into the unfunded accrued
liability as retirement payments.
It appears contrary to federal law to mark
them as such and then allow them to be used
for some other purpose.
Similarly, item five, seeks to determine whether
the diverting of those funds that are earmarked
for individual employees to some other holder,
is a violation of the constitutional takings
clause.
Item six addressed in the lawsuit, is a very
serious one.
Asking whether or not the university in conformity
with civil rights legislation, treats all
employees equally.
There are two systems out there. The TRSL
defined benefits system and the optional retirement
plan.
We have determined that even if you made the
absolute maximum investments over the long
term, there is no way that the optional retirement
plan can possibly deliver the same benefit
that the defined plan is delivering.
This is, of course, in part because the defined
benefit plan is insolvent. It is still, nevertheless,
delivering those benefits.
Moreover, there is unequal treatment of employees
with regard to such things as investment counseling.
The defined benefit plan has a whole staff
of financial advisors for which faculty members
in the other plan would have to pay.
Item number seven, to move it along here,
good, no blackout.
The lawsuit questions the governance of the
retirement plan and whether it is legal to
compel employees to participate in a governance
system at a cost, while denying them any opportunity
to participate in that governance system.
And finally, the lawsuit, again very seriously,
questions whether TRSL or the LSU system,
through their negligence, through their refusal
to monitor the vendors and their representatives,
through their failure to deliver proper investment
advice, through their restriction the kinds
of investments that are available to employees,
has fallen short with regard to the financier
duties that were imposed on all financial
vendors, at least up until the recent revision
under the Trump regime.
But, weíre still grandfathered in.
The lawsuit stats. Fortunately, good news
here, amidst all of this bleakness, the lawsuit
is making good progress.
The first step, Judge Janice Clark of the
19th state judicial court, heard the case
a couple of years ago to determine whether
it had merit.
In a somewhat amusing situation, straight
out of the stories of mayor Luke Housen, LSU
and TRSL fielded a team of five attorneys
plus two or three assistants against the one
attorney representing the faculty.
Nevertheless, Judge Clark determined that
the case had merit and had the right to go
forward.
LSU then asked for dismissal of the case to
a full panel of the 19th judicial court.
That 3-judge panel, again, much to the surprise
of TRSL and the LSU system, determined that,
indeed, the employees have a right to ask
all of these questions and permitted the case
to go forward.
And, about two or three months ago, the first
set of depositions involving a variety of
high-ranking TRSL and LSU systems officials
were taken.
There will be another set of depositions sometime
soon.
So, there is more to come on this. This is
a very preliminary, very barebones, very skeletal,
very basic introduction to the problem.
As I said, itís very technical and I suppose
that some of this was a little bit too technical
given the speed at which weíre going at this
late hour, but at any rate, we are working
on it and you should, as you go back and as
you reflect during these yuletide seasons,
think about the situation that confronts you.
At the very least, write to your legislators,
show up at the LSU board of supervisors meeting,
find an item on which you can comment, and
complain about this gross misconduct and money
laundering scheme.
Thank you.
[clapping]
So, with that, do you have quick questions
for Kevin about all the information heís
presented?
Are you so depressed that you canít even
think about it?
Yes? Yes, Jim?
I wanted to applaud you for your efforts and
I havenít been following them until today,
really, but, anyway, Iím curious who is your
lawyer and whoís paying for it?
Oh well, thereís the third question that,
so many names are never mentioned on this
campus. Iíve already mentioned two of them.
The third one thatís never mentioned on this
campus is in fact the attorney thatís engaged
here and thatís Jill Craft downtown.
Who is, shall we say, not the most commonly
invited guest at LSU tea parties.
Nevertheless, Joe Craft is working for this.
The first couple of years Joe Craft did this
on what is commonly called a contingency basis.
However, that is no longer the case, and we
are paying, Roger and I are paying for it
on a hourly basis.
The total fees accrued so far are in the vicinity
of 12,000, 12,500.
There was a few years ago, a crowd funding
campaign that was organized LSUnited and a
few other noble-minded persons on the campus.
This was done in a third-party basis so that
there would no appearance of impropriety.
That reduced the amount due currently to a
little over $6,000.
But thatís still hanging out there waiting
to see whatís going to happen.
Any other questions for Kevin? Yes?
Where does President Alexander stand on his
opinions and?
Well, to give as balanced a presentation as
possible, it can be observed that for whatever
reason, President Alexander, early in his
career here, attempted to raise the employer
contribution or as it is called now, the employer
transfer rate.
And he succeeded in that, or at least appeared
to have succeeded.
At the time, it was at 5.2% and under state
legislation, it could have fallen in the next
year to as low as 3.78%.
And, fortunately, he was willing to go along
with a program that would gradually raise
that over the course of four or five years
to what it is now.
That having been said, the way in which this
was accomplished was interesting.
It was presented in terms of recruitment and
retention which can be viewed optimistically
and altruistically as a concern for the university,
or it can be viewed negatively as a simply
pragmatic institutional sort of concern, rather
than a concern for faculty welfare.
Unfortunately, to go to the other side of
it, in the last two or three years, the interest
in the presidentís office seems to have faded
somewhat.
Itís as though the president seems to think
that he has taken care of it now.
Maybe he doesnít really think that, but,
there is no great momentum in that office
at this moment to deal with the problem.
Yes?
Could this also be pursued by a complaint
to some federal agency, like the IRS or social
security administration with the loss of social
security?
Well, this is one of the elements in the lawsuit
that is, social security is a much harder
nut to crack.
And I have to admit, I am not an attorney
myself. I was terrified that our law school
colleagues might be here and immediately begin
to subject me to some kind of cross interrogation,
but with regard to technicalities, Iím not
really competent to answer.
I can only observe that attorney Craft decided
to try this in a state court first before
moving up to the federal zone.
All right, thank you very much Kevin.
We appreciate that.
[clapping]
Thanks for staying so long and Mandi, our
vice president, Lopez, is going to faculty
senate resolution 18-02.
The process will be if we pass the resolution,
is then, we will begin to work with administration
to actually develop a protocol or a policy
statement so that everybody knows exactly
what is going on.
Susannah has graciously found the three different
universities that have similar protocol, for
your reference.
That doesnít mean weíll adopt them, it means
that those are examples that weíll probably
use in developing our own policy.
So, Mandi?
This is the university protocol for death
of an LSU employee, sponsored by Faculty Senate
Executive Committee in support of the Staff
Senate Resolution 18-01 Implementation of
University Protocol Following the Death of
an LSU Employee.
Whereas Louisiana State University does not
currently have a standard University-wide
protocol available to guide campus departments
through the appropriate actions following
the death of an employee,
Whereas the loss of an employee can be devastating
to families and work colleagues, a standard
protocol or checklist could easily guide departments
through the necessary administrative actions
and communications to ensure everything is
handled in a sensitive, appropriate, and highly
coordinated manner,
Whereas the LSU Strategic Plan 2025 recognizes
the importance of creating a community in
which all faculty and staff are valued for
their contributions in their respective roles.
This should not only include creating a culture
of support for current employees following
the death of a colleague, but should also
recognize the contribution of the deceased
employee, which can provide comfort to the
loved ones of the deceased,
Whereas Louisiana State University does have
a similar process in place following the death
of a student with PS-63 Procedure for Notice
when a Regularly Enrolled Student Dies,
Whereas universities such as University of
North Carolina at Charlotte, University of
Illinois at Chicago, Utah Valley University
and others have similar protocol and resources
in place,
Therefore, be it resolved that the LSU Administration,
with adequate staff and faculty representation,
develop an appropriate protocol and resources
to follow when there is a death of a LSU employee.
So, because itís already been entered as
a resolution and this is a second reading,
the floor is open for any discussions, changes
in wording, concept, whatever.
So, the floor is open.
Seeing that there is no reason for discussion,
then we will vote.
All those in favor of accepting faculty senate
resolution 18-02, please say aye.
Aye.
All opposed, no?
Any abstentions?
All right, thank you very much.
Do I hear motion to adjourn?
Second?
All in favor, just leave.
[laughter]
As youíre walking out, our next meeting is
not until January 17.
So, weíll send out a notice the first day
you hit class.
The second thing youíll do after you figure
out, oh, Iíve got to be back here, is youíll
get an announcement from Susannah with our
tentative draft and procedures that weíll
follow in the spring.
So, we wonít see you, so, have a good final
week.
Donít be too hard on those students and have
a good holiday season.
Thank you.
