November 19, 1997

Faculty Senate Minutes

November 19, 1997

PRESENT: John Alexander, Richard Brucher, Mary Ellen Camire, Ryan Carnegie, Ted Coladarci, George Criner, Lee Davis, Max Egenhofer, Ed Ferguson, Ivan Fernandez, Ivan Fernandez, Virginia Gibson, Mac Gray. Michael Greenwood, Dan Harrison, Jeffrey Hecker, Peter Hoff, James Horan, Dana Humphrey. Fred Irons, George Jacobson, Mel Johnson, In, Kornfield, Philip Locke, James McConnon, Suzanne Moulton, Henry Metcalf, Scott Morelli, Stephen Norton, Hemant Pendse, Connie Perry, Alan Rosenwasser, Steven Sader, Gary Schilmoeller, Therese Shipps, Owen Smith, Kristin Sobolik, Mary Ellen Symanski, David Townsend, Mary Tyler, Gloria Vollmers, Gail Werrbach

ABSENT: Francois Amar, Steven Barkan Tony Brinkley, Christopher Campbell, Steven Colbum, Scott Delcourt, Daniel Dwyer, James Fastook, Tim Griffin, Michael Grillo Roger King, Peter Kieban, Jennifer Nelson, Tina Passman, Howard Segal, Hayden Soule.

I. President Humphrey called the meeting to order at 3:16 p.m. The October 22, 1997 minutes were approved as distributed.

II. ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Mark Anderson, Interim Chief Financial Officer, will review the budget on November 20th.

2. Results from the first Faculty Forum (held in June 1997) are now available in the Faculty Conference folder on First Class and at the Faculty Senate office.

3. The process for the redistribution of UMS resources (including development of a formula) is moving forward.

4. President Humphrey will post upcoming issues (e.g. resolutions) in the Faculty Senate folder on First Class.

III. COMMITTEE REPORTS

Academic Affairs (Gloria Vollmers A resolution modifying the policy on student attendance has been forwarded to the Associate Deans and will come the Senate at the next meeting. Suggestions for the ongoing revision of the Faculty Handbook should be forwarded to Doug Gelinas. With regard to academic climate on campus, the Committee recommends that student focus groups (facilitated by students) be the starling point for identifying common impediments to learning.

Finance and Institutional Planning (Hank Metcalf): Elaine Albright and Mary Casserly met with the Committee on November 6th to continue the review of library finances. Identified issues included: changes in the electronic frontier, planned alterations to the library stacks, and the high inflation of journal and book purchases.

Research and Public Service (David Townsend): The Committee met on November 14th and received a response from Russell Smith, UMS Chief Financial Officer, who will review concerns about charging extramural funding sources for the full fringe benefit rate for non-student employees. University Environment (Richard Brucher): Issues addressed included: possible development of a resolution for establishment of a committee to focus on Instructional Technology issues, and review of the Vision 2000 and Gender Equity in Athletics reports. Phil Pratt will be meeting with the Committee on November 21 to discuss the residential life survey and other ways to assess the academic climate on campus.

Constitution and Bylaws (Mary Ellen Symanski): Robert White, Director of the Division of Lifelong Learning, met with the committee on Nov. 7th and discussed the request for voting membership on the Senate. The Committee is considering this request in light of the broader issues related to administrative and organizational change, and its impact on the Senate. No recommendation is forwarded at this time. Board of Trustees Representative (Ivan Fernandez): The BOT met on November 9 with the following actions taken: UMA request for a name change will not be pursued at this time; lease of land for the UM Alumni House and the building of a dormitory and dining hall at Darling Center were approved.

Topics of discussion included: educational aspirations of Maine high school students, review of the Libra professorships with a report due in January; the Transfer Project (enabling access to student records on

—DISIS); and distribution of resource formula A draft of the distribution of resources formula Will be presented to the BOT and the legislature in January.

IV. Student Union Expansion (Mac Gray): The Union Expansion Committee, consisting of 24 members (half students), has completed the conceptual plan for the union expansion and renovation of the existing space. A copy of the plans is available at the Senate office. The anticipated completion date is Fall 1999.

V. Guest Speakers

1. Dean of Cultural Affairs & Libraries, Elaine Albright:

Fiscal Concerns: The Library has sustained budget cuts due to increased responsibilities for automation, reduction in staff, and increased costs of journals. Inflation has outstripped the amount of money available from the acquisition budget. For example, some science journals have seen a 50% increase in costs. In recent years, the library has borrowed from the book budget in order cover the cost of journals. As the Library’s purchasing power goes down the amount of available information increases, yet the Library has not purchased any new journals in 7 years. Automation: A digital library will not solve all the financial difficulties. The costs of a digital library are more than anticipated: e.g., A bound copy of dissertation abstracts costs $1000; a digital version costs $3000 per year and allows only one user access at a time.
Darling Library: Many of the scientific journals at the Darling Center are duplicates of journals found at Fogler Library. Maintaining two sets of these journals costs $65,000 per year. Dean Albright asked that faculty from Orono and the Darling Center makes decisions about where these journals should reside and/or how to facilitate transfer between sites. Faculty suggested that the Darling Center recovery rate on indirect cost could help. sustain the journal holdings at the Center.

• Renovations: With passage of the bond issue, the library will be able to renovate the stacks, increase accessibility, and address safety issues. However, space for book storage is close to full capacity.

2. Interim Director of Instructional Technology, Jim Patten:

• Resources: Staffing and funding issues are of great concern. There are only 6 IT staff to provide faculty support (e.g. installation of First Class; technology support. Salaries are lower than industry and the workload is extremely high. We need to look at the way we fund technology: How much of It’s budget should be base budgeted and how much fee-for-service? IT services and staff are currently split between 5 buildings. In the future, it is hoped that Lord Hall will be renovated for use as a centralized, consolidated Technology Center.

• Mission: A draft of the IT Mission Statement was distributed with a request for comments.

Recommendations for review of ‘mission overlap’ among departments with technology support and services expertise (IT, CAPS, Public Affairs, the Library ) was discussed.

VI. OLD BUSINESS: The Resolution on Fundamental Changes in the University’s Approach to Research did not go to a vote. The topic will be discussed at the next elected members’ meeting before the resolution is brought forward.

VII. NEW BUSINESS: The proposed Constitutional amendment was given initial presentation. The rationale for this change is to make the Constitution consistent with changes in the administrative structure which are already in place. The vote on the proposed constitutional amendment will occur at the January 21 meeting of the Senate.

(OLD) ARTICLE IV. MEMBERSHIP, Section 3. Administrative Members. Administrative membership of the Senate shall consist of the following persons: Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice Present for Research & Public Service, one elected representative of the Deans’ Council, and the Dean of the Graduate School.

(NEW) Section 3. Administrative Members. Administrative membership of the Senate shall consist of the following persons: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies, and one elected representative of the Deans’ Council.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 p.m. Submitted by Gail B. Werrbach, Secretary

Next meeting is December 10,1997