Faculty Senate Meeting, September 16, 2025

Minutes

2024/2025 FACULTY SENATE

Tuesday, September 16th, 2025

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Virtual Meeting-Teams

1.     Call to Order and Roll Call

1.1. Call to Order: 2:01 pm

1.2. Roll Call (8 needed for quorum):

2.     Approval of minutes: August 2025

2.1. Motion made by Spencer Lewis, second by Darlene Aranda.

2.2. Send any edits or corrections to Gar.

3.    Old Business

3.1. Cruz formally introduced and welcomed Karla Kirk as the newest member of the Faculty Senate.

3.2. Jessica and Bentley presented the three redesign mock-ups of the Faculty Senate website.

3.2.1. Spencer expressed concern about the current phrasing of “Advocating for Employee Welfare” being too vague, since we only serve System employees, not the institution employees.

3.2.2. Cruz put forward that she would create a poll for Faculty Senate members to vote on their favorites, and to recommend elements they liked.

3.2.3. Glenn asked about ability to upload agendas and minutes to the website. Bentley indicated that that was a major functionality feature he would like to include in the redesign.

4.     Guest: Chair of Chairs Jinger Doe

4.1. Jinger described her roles as Chair of Chairs, such as facilitating meetings between other faculty senate chairs, NSHE Legal Counsel, the Chancellor, etc. As well as giving a joint statement on behalf of all the Senates to the Board at quarterly meetings.

4.2. Cruz asked Jinger about the issues that the Chair of Chairs would like to share with our faculty senate. Jinger brought up the proposed changes to Title 4 Chapter 4 (collective bargaining) and the unknown potential impact on employees. Jinger also brought up the proposed changes to post-tenure review and the uncertainties surrounding that.

4.3. Jinger asked what she could advocate for on our behalf. Glen mentioned the issue of our senate’s lack of clear purpose or involvement. Jinger expressed concern that this Chancellor does not include the Chair-of-Chairs in his cabinet, as past chancellors have. Her advice for being relevant was to advocate and to push hard and ask questions.

4.4. Spencer requested that Cruz inquire with the Chancellor about the Chair-of-Chairs’ exclusion from the Cabinet. He also asked about the involvement of the Chair-of-Chairs with the Nevada Faculty Alliance. She spoke on the similar aims of the two bodies (better conditions for faculty, student success). Facutly senates must be more circumspect and strategic to make sure that we are “asked to the table” and Nevada Faculty Alliance, coming from “the outside” can be more aggressive. The focus is on constituent feedback.

4.5. Jinger offered to champion issues that we had concerns about bringing forward, because the ramifications may affect her less due to her dual role as Chair-of-Chairs and as a tenured faculty member.

5. Chair’s report
   • Cruz would like to invite Chris Viton to talk about budgets and better explain the funding formula.
   • Cruz announced the emeritus nominees: Ed Boog, and Angela Palmer. There were questions about our role in the past and the processes used for emeritus. Cruz she was going to reach out to Kelly Scherado and will invite her to be a guest speaker to answer more questions.
6. New Business
   • Cruz brought forward emeritus and our role in it.
7. Next Meeting
   • Tuesday, October 21, 2025, at 2:00 pm. ** Update: Meeting time has been changed to 2:30 pm

8.     Adjournment

8.1. Motion to adjourn by Spencer, seconded by Glenn

8.2. Meeting adjourned at 3:00 pm

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