OU’s athletics director and associate vice president for budget and finance discussed athletic department achievements and clarified proposed changes to summer pay actions during the OU Faculty Senate meeting Monday.
After land acknowledgments and an approval of the senate journal for the regular session of Dec. 13, 2021, Keri Kornelson, the faculty senate chair, made several announcements, including the nomination call for faculty volunteers for University and Faculty Senate councils, committee and boards, which was delivered by email Feb. 11. The nominations, including self-nominations, will be due March 4.
Stewart Berkinshaw, associate vice president for budget and finance, clarified questions concerning potential changes to summer pay actions, as was proposed in his October presentation to the faculty senate.
“What the proposal is — again, nothing has been submitted to the president for approval — (the proposal) is really just looking at what was a discrepancy in our system and trying to clean that up,” Berkinshaw said. “I would honestly be proposing this without a strategic plan. This needs to be cleaned up. We're not being fair to everybody who's getting these pay actions, and it's hard to go the other direction when so much is being paid to that supplemental pay category versus the overload category right now.”
Every three years, the ad hoc committee on the faculty senate reapportionment committee reappoints the 50 faculty senators, faculty senator and member of this committee Mike Crespin said.
This year, Crespin said the committee proposes the departments of arts and sciences and fine arts will each lose one seat and architecture and engineering gain one seat. This will be voted on by the faculty senate during its March meeting.
Kornelson also said the university council on faculty awards and honors sent proposed changes to its charter. The changes include updates to names and some duties required, Kornelson said. These changes have been approved by the Provost Office and will also be voted on by the faculty senate during its March meeting.
Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Programs Joe Castiglione spoke during the meeting to commemorate the OU athletics department's yearly success, including the hiring of their own Diversity and Inclusion officer, Nicole Been.
“One of the most diverse aspects of our campus is Intercollegiate Athletics, and our community here within a greater university community always tries to find ways to partner, to be in leadership spaces, yet there are still areas where we need to improve as well,” Castiglione said.
Castiglione also said OU athletics have created programs that have improved success in the classroom, resulting in athletics' cumulative GPA of 3.19. The student-athlete Graduation Success Rate is at 89 percent, a record number, Castiglione said.
The athletics department also created an additional academic award for student-athletes that is now in place for the spring 2022 semester, Castiglione said. The Sooner Success Academic Award allows eligible OU student-athletes to receive a maximum of $5,980 per year.
