The Faculty Senate met Thursday for the first time this semester to welcome 20 new senators and discuss the individual committee projects for the 2007-2008 school year.After spending an academic year working on a new faculty tenure and promotion appeal policy and producing a draft last August, the Tenure, Promotion and Grievance Committee will continue to work on the policy, TPG chairwoman Dianna Newbern said.

“We have to get more input on the draft the committee wrote this summer and write another draft, but overall we are 90 percent complete,” Newbern said.

Academic Excellence Committee chairman Blaise Ferrandino said after tackling the plus/minus system, the committee will now study the university’s current policy for retaking courses and replacing grades.

Juan Floyd-Thomas of the Faculty Governance Committee said the FGC will continue to work on the multiyear, multi-faced project of revising and editing the Faculty Senate Handbook.

The Committee on Committees has planned to gather an accurate and updated e-mail list serve for the entire faculty eligible for the University Committee membership.

CoC chairwoman Sally Fortenberry said a full-time list serve would have helped when collecting research and input for the new tenure policy and will be an asset for future projects that need committee input.

The Student Relations Committee, that has been working with the First Year Experience and the Integrity Council, is planning an integrity week for students this fall.

Also, the committee will implement the Honor Code in fall 2008.

David Bedford , SRC chairman, said the Honor Code, which is a student-initiated project, will establish a student-led procedure for dealing with violations of academic integrity.

Nowell Donovan , provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the Faculty Senate will be soon looking for a new dean for the Neeley School of Business and for the College of Communication . Hiring will be completed in April.

“Hiring will be a serious enterprise because the quality of our deans shows the quality of the colleges,” Donovan said.