Texas State’s Faculty Senate met with multiple college liaisons during its Oct. 20 meeting to review faculty concerns regarding the university, such as employee retention and campus safety.
Liaisons from the College of Applied Arts, College of Fine Arts and Communication and College of Liberal Arts spoke with the Senate and represented different programs such as language, photography, anthropology and sociology. Each liaison had an opportunity to present their concerns to the Senate.
Among the concerns addressed, liaisons mentioned understaffing throughout university departments, underpaid salaries, lack of research funding, COVID-19 restrictions and disparity in workload for non-tenured faculty.
A liaison from the College of Fine Arts and Communication commented on the incident that led to an increase of university police throughout campus last week, stating the situation made him worry about campus safety. He added the university should better communicate similar situations in the future.
Other liaisons also questioned the university’s need to support its faculty mental health and have upfront policies on campus carry. A liaison pointed out that due to a new Texas law, it is no longer required for citizens to have a permit or training to openly carry a gun and asked if Texas State would be making its open-carry regulations clear for visitors and its university community.
However, Faculty Senate mentioned the concealed carry policy for the university was up for review in June but is in the process of being addressed at a later date.
After listening to the liaisons, the Senate conducted a debrief and decided to bring up the liaison’s concerns at its next Faculty Senate meeting with the President’s Academic Advisory Group (PAAG).
The Senate also discussed policies up for review, which will be the general workplace policy, due Oct. 25; procurement card acceptable use terms, due on Oct. 27; and employee termination separation grievance procedures, due Oct. 25.