November 19, 2003

Faculty Senate Minutes

November 19, 2003

PRESENT: Jim Acheson, Peggy Agouris, Dean Astumian, Robert Bayer, Darlene Bay, Mary Ellen Symanski  (for Mary Brakey), Thomas Brann, Robert Cashon, Laura Cowan, Richard Eason, Michael Eckert, Todd Gabe, Gail Garthwait, Alexander Grab, Michael Greenwood, Michael Grillo, Paul Grosswiler, Vince Guiseppe, Robert Gundersen, Ludlow Hallman, Marie Hayes, James Horan, Michael Howard, Carlos Islam, George Jacobson, Mel Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Dennis King, John Maddaus, Deirdre Mageean, Chuck Maguire, Kathleen March, Jim McClymer, John McDonough, Martha McNamara, Charles Moody, Howard Patterson, Bryan Pearce, Joyce Rumery, Linda Rottman, Thomas Sandford, Christa Schwintzer, Gregory Sinnett, Janet Spector, Stellos Tavantzis, Michael Vayda, Janet Waldron, Cassie Stevens Walker, Jim Warhola.

ABSENT: Michele Alexander, Eisso Atzema, Douglas Bousfield, Thomas Christensen, Eugene Del Vecchio, Mahmoud El-Begearmi, Alla Gamarnik, Sandy Gardner, Stephen Gilson, Nancy Hall, Dianne Hoff, Peter Hoff, Dana Humphrey, Scott Johnson, Joseph Kelley, Irv Kornfield, David Lambert, Daniel Lux, Stephen Marks, Matthew Rodrigue, Douglas Ruthven, Dan Sandweiss, Bruce Segee, Andrew Thomas, Ken Tudor, Roy Turner, Bob Whelan, Gregory White, Dave Yarborough.

I. Welcome and Signing in

The meeting was called to order at 3:16 P. M.

II. Approval of minutes

The amended minutes from the 9/24/03 meeting, and the minutes from the 10/22/03 meeting were approved.

III. Announcements of the President

Senate President Bryan Pearce announced that the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate met with representatives of the UMS Strategic Plan, Board of Visitors, and President Peter Hoff. The topic of these discussions has been how the faculty can work with the Administration to bring the share of the State’s budget for higher education back to 16%, and convince the people that the University is important to the economic development of the State. Senators and other faculty were encouraged to share their ideas on this subject with the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate.

IV. Dialogue with the administration

Library Task Force update:

Three senators, President Bryan Pearce, Diane Hoff and Jim Warhola are members of the LTF. The LTF has been preparing its recommendations, and will soon present its report to the Faculty Senate.

Joyce Rumery, Interim Director of Libraries, presented the following report:

Fogler Library Journals:

FY 04 base budget for journals was $2,273,306. This amount was not enough to continue the journal subscriptions.

Provost Kennedy added a total of $600,000 to the journal budget for FY04.  The $600,000 will be added to the base budget for journals in FY 05.

$300,000 was used to continue subscriptions and to acquire MUSE and Web of Science.  Cuts were still needed to balance the budget:

334 subscriptions were discontinued as of January 2004.

567 subscriptions were discontinued and electronic access was maintained.

The title list for the 901 titles affected is at http://library.umaine.edu/colldev/Serials2003/FY04cancel_Nov.htm
Two databases were purchased:

Project MUSE offers over 220 full-text journal titles from 37 scholarly publishers and covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others. To search, go to http://muse.jhu.edu/search/search.pl

Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded®, Social Sciences Citation Index®, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index™ It covers current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from approximately 8,500 of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. To search, go to

http://isi3.isiknowledge.com/portal.cgi/wos

The second $300,000 for new journals comes from funds that carry restrictions on their use. The two fund sources are the Information Technology fee and the Maine Economic Improvement Fund.

New journal requests may be made at: http://library.umaine.edu/colldev/Serials2003/newserials.htm

During the discussion that followed her presentation, Rumery pointed out that part of the problem is that the journal publishers’ subscription cycles do not match the UM budget cycle. She reiterated that the main mission of the LTF is to set long-term processes for the library acquisitions. She then explained that the criteria for cutting journals were 1) electronic availability, and 2) low use.

Michael Howard asked about the restrictions on the funds for new journals. Provost Kennedy responded that they found out that some of the R&D funds ($150,000) could be used for the library but that these funds are restricted to the 7 areas established by the legislature.  An amount of $150,000 from Information Technology could also be added to the library budget but with restrictions in terms of using it for electronic access. The LTF will address questions regarding 1) the use of these restricted funds for reinstatement of journals, and 2) journal reinstatement vs. journal price.

Early registration for student athletes:

George Jacobson, the faculty representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) gave a history of the case. Last year, the Academic affairs committee of the Athletic Advisory Board (AAB) recommended that the Board ask the Provost to consider early registration so that  student athletes might receive a class schedule that gives them the best possible chance to succeed academically. The NCAA requires us to pay special attention to the academic progress of the student athletes. The Office of Academic support services is paid for by NCAA funds. Academic awards for student athletes are used as incentives for encouraging academic achievement. Because of geographic location our student athletes have relatively long trips, the shortest ones being to Boston or New Hampshire. Despite that, the AAB  established the “10% rule”, approved the Faculty Senate. According to the rule, when schedules are put together for next year’s competition, they should not require any student to be absent from more than 10% of any class. However, it is difficult to schedule all travel at the end of the week . In courses that have several sections, student athletes, especially in their first or second year, often cannot register for sections that help them avoid missing classes. The new process applies only to students in their semester of competition, and for low level classes, thus not interfering with juniors and seniors trying to get into classes they need.

A few senators were concerned about other groups that might deserve similar treatment but no changes to the process were proposed formally.

Approximately 150 first- and second-year student athletes were eligible for early registration this semester. As a straw vote suggested, the consensus among the Senators was that although this is not the ideal solution, it is a solution they can live with at the present time.

V.   Committee Reports

A.  Michael Grillo (University Environment)

Issues that are being considered:

1) Section project of the CED: How it originated, what are the potential benefits and problems.

2) How the university determines replacement of faculty or new faculty positions. It is desirable to have a clear process regarding these issues.

3) Camera surveillance at Memorial Union: Who reviews the tapes; how is the information used.

4) Parking and status of the Parking Committee. Provost Kennedy and Janet Waldron, Vice President for Administration, reported that the Parking Committee is under reconstitution and will be interacting with the Campus Planning Committee.

B. Peggy Agouris (Research and Public Service).

In view of hiring a new director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP), it is important to have some ideas on how to improve the efficiency of this office, and share them with the new director. The committee is studying the findings of prior reviews regarding the role of the ORSP.

A subcommittee was formed to explore increasing the efficiency of the ORSP. The personnel at the ORSP feel they are underappreciated and understaffed.

The Research and Public Service Committee is also looking at other institutions in terms of how the faculty views the function of Sponsored Programs.

Another subcommittee was formed and is looking into ways of streamlining grant proposal submission.

C.  Darlene Bay (Finance and Institutional Planning).

Issues that are being considered: Strategic planning of UM and UMS; campus physical plan: how to avoid surprises in the future; faculty number changes in the past several years.

D.  Marie Hayes (Academic Affairs)

Several subcommittees have been formed; three of them were highlighted:

NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) Interim Report Subcommittee: The mission of this committee is related to the Faculty Senate motion of 1/21/03 that the five-year interim report (for accreditation) to NEASC be a joint effort of the Academic Affairs Committee and the Faculty Senate. Vice President Gelinas provided all the documents that need to be reviewed. The two competing strategies (groups) are 1) to reduce the general education requirements to a few courses or 2) have strict rules regarding assessment of learning outcomes. There are concerns about timing since the report is due next March. Coordination as well as time are needed to formalize a joined response, especially where differences (between the committee and the Faculty Senate) emerge regarding issues such as general education requirements.

Graduate Education Subcommittee: Issues being considered: 1) Reallocation of graduate assistantships; 2) Use of graduate students to: a) cover curriculum needs or b) obtain research experience in addition to covering curriculum needs.

Subcommittee examining the issue of student teaching evaluations used as a marker for determining course quality or as a tool for peer evaluation of faculty for tenure and promotion. Consideration is being given in terms of using peer evaluation as an additional tool for teaching evaluation.

E. Jim Acheson (Committee on Committees)

A search committee is being formed for the position of the Director of Human Resources.

F. Howard Patterson (Constitution and By-laws)

Central issue is the Faculty Handbook that has been approved by the Faculty Senate but not the Administration. The committee will try to put together a Handbook that is acceptable to both sides.

G. Jim Warhola (Interdisciplinary Programs)

The committee presented the matrix for Undergraduate Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Programs. After feedback from the Senate and the rest of the faculty the matrix will be formally introduced at the December Full Faculty Senate meeting.

H. Tom Sandford (Workload Analysis)

The Committee has met with Vice President Doug Gelinas who indicated that workload responsibilities lie at the Deans’ level and are not determined by a metric used for all colleges. The committee is fully supportive of this process. Such a metric has never been used for resource allocation.

VI. Other Business

Michael Grillo presented the following motions on behalf of the Library and University Environment Committees:

ASSOCIATE VICE-PRESIDENT FOR LIBRARIES MOTION
The Library Committee, The Library Head Motion

Faculty Senate, November 2003

Introduction:

Upon the retirement of Dr. Elaine Albright as the Dean of Cultural Affairs and Libraries, the University of Maine has sought to replace her with someone in a lesser position, the Head of Libraries.  As a Dean, Dr. Albright reported directly to the Provost, a placement which included her in all major University discussions on funding, academic planning, and assessment.  The proposed Head of Libraries would report to the Associate Vice-President of Academic Affairs, which would remove this vital Library representative from these important discussions.  A search of other Carnegie Doctoral Research Intensive Universities reveals that the position is most typically defined as a dean or associate vice-president, reporting directly to the equivalent of our Provost.

Motion:

Recognizing that the Library is the heart of the University, in its providing vital services to all disciplines, the Faculty Senate asks that the President of the University redefine the Head of Libraries position to an Associate Vice-President of Libraries, reporting directly to the Provost and included in funding, academic planning, and assessment meetings.

Vote on motion: Thirty in favor, 3 abstentions. Motion passed.

EMERGENCY FUNDING FOR FOGLER LIBRARY MOTION

The Library Committee, Emergency Funding for Fogler Library Motion

Faculty Senate, November 2003

Introduction:

Due to escalating journal costs and flat funding for the library_s base budget, Fogler Library faced a $650,000 deficit in its acquisitions budget last summer.  The Provost was able to redirect $300,000 to this problem, but that still left a huge deficit, resulting in 901 academic journals being cut or changed to electronic-only versions. This was done with only minimal communication and input from the faculty, and it negatively affected both the teaching and research capabilities of the faculty and students of this university.  There is another $350,000 dollars set aside for acquiring new journals in order to allow those programs and professors who have no materials in their field to acquire core journals.  Although this is a worthy cause, there is still no process in place for how this money will be allocated or for how to balance equity issues across campus.  The Library Task Force and the Faculty Senate Library Committee are working on this issue, but it will take some time to develop a process, particularly if the input from constituents throughout the university is sought.  In the meantime, many core journals are being lost from our collection.

Motion:

Recognizing that the cuts to journals this summer affected core journals in many disciplines, the Faculty Senate asks the Provost of the University to release the $350,000 earmarked for purchasing new journals and redirect it for the most needed journals, including reinstatements.  We are requesting this allocation for just one year in order to give the Library Task Force and the Faculty Senate time to develop a process that is fair to all departments for acquiring new journals, replacing existing journals, and/or for culling journals as necessary.

Vote on motion: Thirty one in favor, 2 abstentions. Motion passed.

ESTABLISHING A CLEAR PROCESS FOR DETERMINING FACULTY POSITIONS

The Environment Committee, Faculty Senate, November 2003

Introduction:

Over the past year, the process for determining new faculty positions and the replacement of faculty members in existing positions vacated by retirements, departures, and terminations, has changed substantially.  Currently, all determinations now reside in the Office of the Provost, who apportions funding according to the general guidelines set forth by the Strategic Plan and the Incentivized Budget Plan.  Unfortunately, the faculty perceive themselves as becoming increasingly alienated from the process, which in this distancing, makes it increasingly difficult for departments and colleges to plan for the future as their disciplines change and grow.

Motion:

The Faculty Senate asks that the Office of the Provost write a clear policy for determining decisions about the creation of new faculty positions and retention of vacated positions that departments and colleges deem as needing replacement.  We ask that the Office of Provost include faculty representatives of the five colleges in their draughting of these policies, that they have these guidelines in place by January, 2004, and that they publish them permanently through ready access in the University’s web pages.

Provost Kennedy suggested two amendments: 1) …that they have these guidelines in place by 15 February 2004, and 2) …faculty representatives of the five colleges and Cooperative Extension in their draughting of these policies…

Jim Horan offered another friendly amendment: …the office of the Provostin conjunction with faculty representatives of the five colleges as elected by faculty of these colleges…

Vote on amendments:  Twenty nine in favor, 3 opposed, and one abstained. The amendments passed.

Provost Kennedy indicated that new positions are dictated by priorities (according to the Strategic Plan) and sources of funding. He also pointed out that, in regards to faculty replacements, funds for positions of departing faculty stay in the college. However, a certain percentage of these funds goes to the Provost’s office to cover increased current-year costs.

The motion was tabled.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:09 P. M.

Respectfully submitted,
Stellos Tavantzis, Secretary