ARKADELPHIA -- Henderson State University's board of trustees on Friday approved a resolution aimed at allowing people other than trustees and those on the agenda to make comments during board meetings in some situations.
The board also delayed action on President Glen Jones' contract. The panel had been expected to consider an extension of it and perhaps to decide whether to offer him a raise. Jones has typically had a five-year contract extended one year annually.
The public-comment policy was the only one of numerous prospective board policies that trustees considered during a regular meeting on the Arkadelphia campus. Chairman Bruce Moore noted that those measures were not proposals but were a compilation of policies gathered from other universities for trustees to review.
Measures the board did not discuss ranged from one saying trustees should contact the president when they go on campus to one about who should comment on behalf of the administration and the board.
The panel also held no debate on the public-comment measure it approved. Moore said he wanted it to be in effect for the trustees' next regular meeting on Nov. 8.
The board's agenda had indicated it would address Jones' contract. After an executive, or closed, session, the trustees voted in a public meeting to delay any action on the contract.*
In May, tenured faculty members approved a vote of no confidence in the university's administration. The faculty said the board should give Jones a one-year provisional contract and dismiss the three vice presidents immediately. Instead, Jones later quietly approved the vice presidents' contracts, and the board never publicly addressed the faculty vote.
Those actions followed a $3.2 million budget deficit at the start of the past fiscal year. Budget cuts followed, and the board approved a balanced budget earlier this year.
The public-comment measure mirrors Policy 212, which the University of Central Arkansas in Conway adopted most recently in 2011, Moore said.
Among other things, that policy provides that presidents of the faculty and staff senates and the student government association be allowed to address the board twice yearly. That policy also says, "In addition, any person, including the senate presidents, may request to address the board at any meeting."
The UCA policy also says all other requests to address the board are to be submitted in writing to the president no less than 15 days before a meeting and are to include, among other things, "documentation that relief has been sought through appropriate administrative avenues or procedures on campus."
The policy also details how the response to the request should be handled and documented. It also lists certain subjects that people may not bring before the board. They include personnel and student disciplinary actions.
Moore did not say if the board would take up other policy considerations at its next meeting.
State Desk on 09/15/2018
*CORRECTION: Henderson State University’s board of trustees voted in a public meeting Friday to delay any action on President Glen Jones’ contract. In an earlier version of this story, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette incorrectly reported that there was no public vote on the matter.