Faculty Senate

Here are the basic principles that must be followed:

1. State law requires that salary increases for non-community college higher education faculty, staff, and administrators be based on “merit,” as determined by performance evaluations. This means that across-the-board salary increases are not allowed. It also means that only those with positive annual evaluations are eligible for merit.
2. Whether or not an institution provides merit increases depends on the budget decisions of that institution. In two-and-a-half decades, TAMIU has provided some merit increases in all but one year, a year in which the state required that we return a sizable part of the money it had allocated to us. Many regional universities in the A&M System have skipped providing merit for a few years because of budgetary problems.
3. To be eligible for merit, employees must be employed by TAMIU for six months immediately preceding the merit effective date. Employees who have received salary increases within six months of the merit effective date, because of promotion or equity adjustments, are not eligible for the first round of merit increases following the promotion. After that initial merit round, they are, of course, eligible for future merit increases.

This is the process for determining merit increases:

1. When merit is announced, it is announced as a percentage. That percentage is based on the total amount of money available for merit if every eligible full-time employee received merit based on that percentage. This percentage, say for example, 2%, is called the merit pool. But, we cannot give everyone a salary increase identical to the merit pool percentage (see #1 above). Because merit has to be based on the merit of their “performance” over the past year in comparison to their colleagues, some will get more than the announced merit pool and some will get less than that.
2. Each college gets an interactive, fillable excel file listing every single eligible fulltime employee and their current salaries. Each department within the college has its own tab within the excel file. At the bottom of the excel sheet is the total amount of merit (in dollars) that can be allocated. . That total amount is based on the merit pool amount (say 2%) of the salaries of all eligible full-time employees in the department. It does not include vacant positions, however.
3. The chair or the dean, depending on the college, decides upon the percentage of increase for each employee in the department based on their last annual performance evaluation in comparison to the evaluations of their colleagues in that department. The excel sheet, in a separate column, will calculate the dollar amount for that employee that the percentage generates and keep an ongoing total at the end of the column so that the chair can keep track of whether or not the total amount available has been allocated or exceeded. Also, once the percentage for an employee is entered, the sheet in another column will calculate the person’s annual salary if that merit increase is approved.
4. Obviously, a 2.2% recommendation for a person making $80,000 will consume more of the total merit available than a 2.2% recommendation for a person making $55,000. The goal of the chair is to award every single dollar of merit in the department merit pool allocation, so multiple adjustments will have to be made to do that. Those adjustments, however, must be balanced by the need not only to use every dollar available without exceeding the budget but also by the need to align merit recommendations with performance comparisons within the unit. In general, however, if someone gets an increase above the merit pool percentage, someone will inevitably get less.
5. If the department chair initiates the process, the dean of the college reviews the recommendations, and, if necessary and justified, makes adjustments to those recommendations, in consultation with the chair.
6. The dean sends the college’s merit recommendations to the provost, and the provost makes adjustments to those recommendations, if needed, and in consultation with the dean.
7. The provost sends the merit recommendations of the division to the president. The president reviews all of the recommendations by all of the Vice Presidents and may question or ask for justification for those recommendations.
8. Top sum up: at each level, then, the merit recommendations are reviewed to ensure two things: one, that there is an adequate range of distribution to indicate that the recommendations are based on merit differentials and are not “across the- board” increases and, two, that recommendations align with annual evaluations within a unit. If you have questions, ask your dean or the provost

1. Faculty may have full Save for Summer (S4F) amount deducted. S4S payments will be paid July 1st, August 1st, and September 1st. 
2. Faculty may have half S4S amount deducted. S4S payments will be paid July 1st, August 1st, and September 1st.  
3. Faculty may have NO S4S amount deducted. S4S payments will be paid July 1st, August 1st, and September 1st.
4. Faculty may STOP their S4S deduction in May and receive all their S4S funds in their June 1st paycheck (cancellation form must be sent to payroll by May 10th).  If faculty choose this option, they MUST re-enroll in S4S by September 10th for the following fiscal year if they want to particpate in S4S. 

• S4S pays out over the summer months July 1st, August 1st, and September 1st. 
• The August payroll (paid 9/1) also includes ½ month of regular salary since the 9-month term starts 8/16. 

Insurance Considerations 

For insurance deductions, new faculty in their 1st year are not eligible for 12/9* insurance deductions.  This means that they may have May + summer (June, July & August) insurances deducted on this check, if they have enough.  If not, they will be billed for summer insurance premiums. Existing faculty on 12/9 insurance will only have May premiums deducted.    

*12/9 insurance deductions = total annual insurance premiums (12 months) divided by 9 and only deducted from September (10/1 paycheck) to May (6/1 paycheck). 

Save for Summer Authorization Form – To enroll, revise, or cancel Save for Summer 

Spring 2024

• January 19, 2024 at 7pm
• February 16, 2024 at 7pm
• March 14, 2024 at 7pm (Thursday) (First day of Spring Break) * subject to change based on Spring Break work schedule
• April 19, 2024 at 7pm (Friday)
• May 17, 2023 at 7pm (Friday)

Summer 2024

• June 14, 2024 at 6pm (Friday)
• July 12, 2024 at 6pm (Friday)
• August 16, 2024 at 6pm (Friday)

 Throughout this period, users may experience intermittent access to various campus systems (University website, telephones, Banner, and others). Off-campus access to primary instructional applications such as University email and Blackboard will not be impacted.  Feel free to contact OIT via email at helpdesk@tamiu.edu or via phone (326-2310) if you have any additional questions.

 As you may know, our TAMIU Books IncludED program is intended to include ALL required course materials including required textbooks, course packs, monographs, and access codes.  The program does not include supporting or consumable course materials such as art supplies, lab kits, or scrubs. Thus, when you order textbooks and other allowable course materials via the TAMIU Follett Discover portal, make sure you specify that the books/materials are required.

As important reminders,

1. Faculty may not require students to purchase any course materials outside of the TAMIU Books IncludED program (except for the aforementioned consumables). If you submit by the deadline, there should be no issue provisioning the course materials you want.  If students are required to purchase materials outside of the program, the charges will be refunded to the student and charged to the respective department.
2. Ordering textbooks is the responsibility of faculty. For adjuncts, the responsibility for ordering textbooks falls on the chair or dean.
3. Any issues faculty or students may experience with the program should be directed to our dedicated email, booksincluded@tamiu.edu. Working with Follett, our bookstore provider, we are committed to fixing any issues within hours, not days or weeks, but this needs to be a cooperative effort for the success of our students. Thus, as soon as there is an issue, email booksincluded@tamiu.edu. Several people, including the bookstore, receive the email and can fix the issue quickly.    
4. For more information on our cost-saving program, now in its third year, please visit https://www.tamiu.edu/books-included.shtml.

If you are using the same materials as the prior semester, pursuing Open Educational Resources materials or will not be using any materials at all, this information must be entered into the TAMIU Follett Discover portal. You may easily access items you have ordered in the past by clicking on My Library.

TAMIU Course Material Adoption Portal

Follett Discover allows you to easily discover, research, and adopt course materials all in one place. In addition to adopting traditional print materials, Follett Discover makes it easy to search and adopt non-traditional materials such as open education resources. 

Follett Discover also allow the adoption of news articles and custom access codes. Please allow ample ordering time for non-traditional course material items. 

1. Log into your LMS/Blackboard
2. Select Follett Discover or the Follett Discover icon (tamiu.follettdiscover.com)
3. Start discovering!

 Course Material Adoption Accuracy

To ensure an efficient course material adoption process, confirm the ISBN number of your adoption with your publisher representative prior to entering the data in Follett Discover.

ISBNs differ between standalone eBooks and courseware (MindTap, Connect, WebAssign, CNOW, FlatWorld, ZyBooks, CertifyTeacher, etc.). If you are unsure, reach out to your publisher representative or the TAMIU Bookstore for assistance.

Contact Information for the Bookstore:

Ivan Fuentes

956-326-2080

i.fuentes@follett.com 

5201 University Blvd, Laredo, Texas, Senator Judith Zaffirini Student Success Center, 1st floor, Room 115.

TAMIU Books IncludED Program

TAMIU Books IncludED takes the hassle out of course material shopping! The cost of course materials are automatically included in the tuition and fee bill. Reminder that only required materials are made available on Day One of classes. Additionally, if a course pack needs to be created with custom materials please reach out to your store team.

If you need help with the ordering process, please refer to this guide  and/or  video.

For information regarding adopting books and using the Ebook tools, please refer to the video.

If you have a concern or are experiencing problems with ordering or student access, please email  booksincluded@tamiu.edu. 

If your course does not appear, you may still order books. Simply click on Tools and then Follett Discover. A video will explain the process.

If your students have questions, please direct them to the Books IncludED website.

Faculty members at TAMIU who are teaching online courses shall incorporate proctoring solutions, with Respondus being one of the recommended options. The decision to use Lockdown Browser and Monitor is at the discretion of the faculty member, allowing them the flexibility to determine the extent of their usage. This flexibility enables faculty members to choose between using Lockdown Browser Proctoring solution to capture the student's video or utilizing Monitor to capture both the student and the monitor screen videos during online assessments.

TAMIU supports faculty members in taking measures to enhance the security and integrity of online exams. If faculty members believe that monitoring both hand movements and the student's environment during online exams would reduce the likelihood of unauthorized online searches or external assistance, they have the freedom to implement additional measures. To facilitate this, eLearning offers webcams that students can check out to ensure a suitable monitoring setup. Additionally, there is an instructional video that demonstrates how students can effectively use a standing mirror for the environment check before starting their exams; eLearning also promotes this video.

Please contact the Instructional Technologies & Distance Education Office (eLearning) which oversees instructional technology used at TAMIU with any questions regarding the use and implementation of the proctoring solutions.

OIT highly recommends the use of OneDrive (cloud storage) to store or backup information. OneDrive is accessible any time, from any device, and is not subject to the same theft, loss, or failure as portable storage devices.  In the event that a particular use case requires downloading data to a personal storage device, the University’s Acceptable Use policy prohibits sensitive information to be downloaded from University computers to external hard drives.  

Failure to adhere to this policy will pose a high-security risk of data exposure and the assigned user/department of this device will be responsible for any damages if this occurs. Please refer to the University’s Acceptable Use policy.

 The University employs DLP (Data Loss Prevention) software which blocks the transfer of data to portable storage devices attached to University computers. From time to time, this software will incorrectly identify and block the transfer of data.  If this occurs, please submit a request to helpdesk@tamiu.edu and our Security team will assist you.

Student Loaner laptops are University owned devices that are provided with a basic set of pre-installed programs. Installation of additional software is prohibited as per section 1 of the Equipment Loaner Agreement Terms & Conditions. From time to time, students may have a need to install course specific software on these machines. 

Provided the loaner laptop meets the minimum system requirements of the software requested, OIT will work with student loaner laptop recipients to install software that is part of their course curriculum only upon request from their faculty member to the OIT Help Desk. In addition, only software that has been formally reviewed for accessibility and security may be installed on loaner laptops by OIT staff. The request should include the name of the program, the contact information of the student(s), and reference the Security/Accessibility approvals which were secured for the program. For more information, please review the software process.

 Please note that the process above is limited to University owned loaner laptop computers. OIT staff is prohibited from working on student owned devices.

From the Ethics Point website: 

The Texas A&M System assures that reports submitted via the Risk, Fraud and Misconduct Hotline will be handled promptly and discretely. No retaliatory action will be taken against anyone for reporting or inquiring in good faith about potential breaches of the Texas A&M System policies, regulations or member rules or seeking guidance on how to handle suspected breaches. Reports submitted through the hotline will be given careful attention by the Texas A&M System and its members. The process is designed to maintain your anonymity.

Please visit The Texas A&M University System Ethics Point page and/or TAMIU's Risk, Fraud, and Misconduct for detailed information.

The OIT team wants to make sure the support experience exceeds your expectations. If your initial engagement with the Help Desk team has not been handled in a timely manner, or you would like to request a subject matter expert review the solution provided by the Help Desk, you may request an escalation within 24 hours of your initial Help Desk engagement. To request an escalation, you can either call the Help Desk and ask to assign the case to a supervisor or via email by replying to the last email you received from this case and ask to be assigned to a supervisor for review.

Generally, under the U.S. Copyright Act, when a work is created by an employee as part of the employee's regular duties, the employer is considered the “author” and copyright owner of the work. This type of work is referred to as “work for hire.”

However, traditionally universities have not asserted copyright ownership in faculty works, such as journal articles, books, and even teaching or course materials. That is the case here at the A&M System.

As reflected in System Regulation 17.01.01, Section 2.1.3, the A&M System generally allows faculty to retain ownership of certain teaching/course materials. However, there are 3 main exceptions: 

• Commissioned/contracted work: If the work is commissioned or contracted by the System/member, the System/member will have copyright ownership. See System Regulation 17.01.01, Sections 2.2.5 and 2.3.1. However, as stated in the regulation’s definition of “work for hire,” “The general expectation that faculty teach, research and publish does not by itself make intellectual property a work for hire.”
• Significant use of System/Member resources: If significant use of System/member resources have been consumed, the System/member will have copyright ownership. See System Regulation 17.01.01, Sections 2.1.3, 2.2.1, and 2.2.4. However, as stated in Section 2.2.4, “The system does not construe the payment of salary or wages, or the provision of offices or library facilities to an IP creator as constituting significant use of system resources.”
• External Contracts: If the work is created under an external grant or contract between the System/member and the government or non-profit/for-profit company, the System will have copyright ownership. See System Regulation 17.01.01, Section 2.2.1 and 2.2.3.

 If the faculty retains ownership of the teaching/course materials, pursuant to System Regulation 17.01.01, Section 2.1.4, the System retains a royalty-free right to use such materials for educational purposes.

As an example, course materials created by faculty for a class they are teaching would be owned by such faculty. However, creation of brochures, training programs, videos and manuals by faculty, not in connection with a class they are teaching, may be considered commissioned/contracted work owned by System/member.

Intellectual Property is addressed in TAMU System Policy 17.01.01, in particular 2.1.3 and 2.2.1, AND 17.01.04.

Messages may be recovered for up to two days after deletion by using the “Recover Deleted Items” option before they are permanently deleted. There are a few options to retain e-mail for a longer period:

• Option 1: Mail may be retained online in the central email servers for an additional 365 days (from date it was received/sent) if they are moved or copied to the server email archive folder either by individually selecting and moving the email message (s) or by a user created rule. Emails retained in this manner will remain accessible to users however they access their mail account (through the web, on their mobile device, or through the Microsoft Outlook client on their machine).
• Option 2: Mail may be retained indefinitely by storing it on the hard drive of a user University computer via a separate archive file. This method will not be controlled by the central email mail server retention policies. Mail stored in this method may only be accessed using the Microsoft Outlook Client installed on your machine and will not be accessible through web mail portal or through any mobile clients (such as phones and tablets). Note: If the hard drive that contains the archive files becomes unusable due to machine failure or loss, these messages will be lost.

E-mail accounts may be blocked for several reasons:

• E-mails containing sensitive data such as PII (Personal Identifiable Information) or PHI (Personal Health Information).
  •  PII consist of a name, address, social security number, UIN, telephone number, email address, etc.
  •  PHI consist of a person’s name, diagnostics, date of birth, medical records, etc.
• Anti-spam could block e-mails of anything it perceives as containing spam.  
• External sources reporting receiving spam from TAMIU e-mail accounts.
• Sending too many emails at once or send emails to too many people. The Help Desk may be contacted at 956-326-2310 or by sending an email request to hotline@tamiu.edu to assist with unblocking email accounts.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, some faculty members are employed for nine months and are thus not guaranteed employment during the summer session. Nonetheless, a significant number of faculty have the opportunity to teach during the summer based on student enrollments, department and/or college needs, and budgetary considerations. When possible, all faculty will be offered the opportunity to teach one session (i.e., class) in the summer. Any additional classes would be offered to faculty based upon rank / seniority within the department. Texas A&M International University offers two sessions each summer. As of September 1996, a “full-time teaching load” is defined as six semester credit hours, or the equivalent, per summer session.

Summer Teaching Guidelines 

Assignment and Number of Courses
Assignment of summer courses should give deference to seniority and rank. Thus, a Regent’s Professor should be assigned to a course first, assuming he/she wants to teach a summer class, as opposed to a tenure-track faculty or adjunct. However, deans should use a round-robin approach to course assignments (i.e., first round of course assignments gives deference to a Regent’s Professor, followed by a full professor, followed by an associate professor, and so on. In this manner, the first round of course assignments gives everyone an opportunity to teach as opposed to assigning two or three courses to a Regent’s Professor during the first round of course assignments while not considering other full-time faculty. Regent’s Professors, followed by full professors, associate professors, and so on can be given a second opportunity to teach courses during the second round-robin course assignments).

Faculty can teach more than two summer courses, although assigning two courses to a single faculty member is preferred (and reflected in the salary rates and caps explained below), especially for first- and second-year tenure-track faculty as the summer should be utilized for research. Also, any full-time faculty who received a PPE score of 2 or below in teaching last year should not teach a summer course as a score of 2 indicates deficiencies in teaching effectiveness. Furthermore, any faculty (tenure-track or tenured) who received a PPE score of 3 in research last year must have a discussion with his/her chair and dean about research progression and whether teaching over the summer would hinder progression toward research. Each college dean will make the decision about whether summer teaching will be approved.
IF a chair or dean must assign more than two courses to one single faculty member, the following guidelines should be taken into consideration. Again, the guidelines below are applicable when assigning faculty more than two summer courses.

• Fixed-term faculty may teach up to three courses.
• Tenured faculty, who have scored 4+ in PPE for research and 4+ in PPE for teaching, may teach up to three courses.
• Tenure-track faculty who have passed midterm review (i.e., started their 4th year at TAMIU fall 2023) and who have scored 4+ in PPE for research and 4+ in PPE for teaching, may teach up to three courses.
Tenure-track faculty in their first and second year at TAMIU should teach only two courses; one course is preferable as they should focus on research.

Summer Pay
The summer salary rate per SCH is 1/36 (or 2.77%) of a full-time faculty member’s 9-month salary. To determine the pay for a faculty member, multiply his/her 9-month salary by .0277 and then multiply that by the # of SCHs for the course.
As was the case last summer (2023), the summer salary cap per 3 SCH for full-time faculty is $6,000 and the SCH cap will remain at 6 SCHs for the summer (which includes maymester, summer I, II, III). If a faculty member teaches anything above 6 SCHs, he/she will be paid an overload at $1,000 per 1 SCH.

Adjuncts
For adjunct faculty who teach throughout the summer, the rate per class is the same as for the fall and spring semesters.