January 26, 2005

Faculty Senate Minutes

JANUARY 26, 2005

Present:  Aria Amirbahman, Robert Bayer, Richard Borgman, Mary Brakey, Sandy Caron, Laura Cowan, John Daigle, Scott Delcourt, Raphael DiLuzio, Marcia Douglas, Michael Eckardt, Mahmoud El-Begearmi, Amy Fried, Todd Gabe, Doug Gelinas, James Gilbert, Michael Greenwood, Nancy Hall, Ludlow Hallman, William Halteman, Mike Hastings, Marie Hayes, Dianne Hoff, James Horan, Dana Humphrey, Daniel Innis, Mel Johnson, Scott Johnson, Len Kass, Robert Kennedy, Dennis King, David Kotecki, Michael Mack, John Mahon, Kathleen March, Stephen Marks, Jim McClymer (for Dean Astumian), Brigham McNaughton, Jessica Miller, Harlan Onsrud, Howard Patterson, Michael Peterson, Alan Rossenwasser, Linda Rottman, Douglas Ruthven, Ann Schonberger, JulieAnn Scott, Michael Scott, Evelyn Silver, Kathryn Slott, Mario Teisl, Roy Turner, Gregory White

Absent:  Jim Acheson, Peggy Agouris, Eisso Atzema, Carla Billitteri, Rodney Bushway, Robert Cashon, Nellie Cyr, Stephen Gilson, Alexander Grab, Robert Gundersen, John Jemison, David Lambert, John Maddaus, Paul Rawson, Liam Riordan, Thomas Sandford, Touradj Solouki, Stellos Tavantzis, Michael Vayda, Bob Whelan

Meeting was called to order at 3:20.

Welcome and Signing In

Minutes from December 15 meeting were approved.

Announcements:  President Patterson opened the meeting by stating that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee would be meeting with the Chancellor the following week and he asked for items for discussion from the senate members.  He mentioned Governor Baldacci’s speech which was televised the evening before and said that the Governor had appointed John Rohman to be in charge of a committee on creative economy.  If any senators have an interest in serving on the committee they are to e-mail Todd Gabe who will forward the names to Mr. Rohman.

Questions for Administrators

President Kennedy gave the senate an update on the Board of Trustees and Board of Visitors meetings he attended.

Brandon Libby has been approved as a student representative to the Board of Visitors.  Because of the storm, the two day meeting was condensed to one day.  Joyce Rumery has been approved as Dean of Libraries.  Honorary Degree candidates were approved.

The Governor was able to meet for a full hour with the Board of Visitors.  Governor Baldacci is very supportive of UMaine.  President Kennedy was very pleased with how much time the BOV was able to spend with legislators.

Provost John Mahon gave an update on promotion and tenure.  The P&T committee met with all the deans.  Then Provost Mahon met with the three faculty members chosen to be on the P&T Committee, Kathleen March, Frank Drummond and Geoffrey Thorpe.  In those cases where there were lingering concerns, he met again with the peer review committees, and he said that he found those meetings extremely illuminating.

Kathleen March added that the meetings were very helpful.  She stated that faculty members should review their departmental promotion & tenure guidelines.

A question was asked regarding the number of people who were up for promotion & tenure.  Provost Mahon said there were 30, however he could not give figures as to how many were up for promotion and how many were up for tenure as he did not remember.

A question was asked about when people would find out decisions.  Individuals will receive their letters around January 28.  The BOT will meet in March to make the final decisions as they are the final authority.

Committee Reports:

Committee on Committees – Jim Horan

The Provost had asked for a list of names for the SP Campus Implementation committees, which were submitted to the Provost.

Also names submitted for the search committees for the Dean of the Graduate School and the Vice Provost for undergraduate education last year, were approved again for this year.

Research & Public Service – Doug Ruthven

Finalists for the MAPI awards will be giving public presentation of their proposals on February 1 and February 8, these meetings are open to all.  The University Research Council met on January 18, much of that meeting was spent on discussion of presentation of a draft report by Dr. Habib Dagher on a plan to increase R&D activities on campus.

University Environment – Scott Johnson

The committee has been working on an extensive report on the graduate environment, which includes research, education and scholarship.  The co-chairs of the report are Mick Peterson, Doug Ruthven, Todd Gabe and Scott Johnson, all chairs of committees on the faculty senate.  They are hoping to have the report ready for presentation in a month or so.  The other issue pertains to green issues on campus.

A comment was made about the difficulty that students in wheelchairs have getting around campus during the winter months due to the amount of snow and ice on sidewalks.

Academic Affairs – Mick Peterson
There are two primary issues that the committee is considering.  First is general education outcome assessments on new and existing courses.  They would like some representation from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.  Second issue is course evaluations and tools used.  Final issue is to extend the relationship between the Student Advising Center.

Constitution & Bylaws – Marie Hayes

The committee will be meeting on January 27, and one of the issues they will discuss is Faculty Governance as stipulated in the constitution.  They are particularly interested in the senate’s oversight role in degree granting by programs.  Marie has met with the Academic Affairs committee.  There is a problem with continuity with committees changing year to year.

Interdisciplinary Programs – Kathleen March

The committee has met, they are holding a series of Monday lunch discussions/lectures at the Memorial Union.  They are also looking at the INT courses.

Library Advisory Committee – Dianne Hoff

The committee has three major issues.  The importance of faculty being involved in reviewing journals that are being discontinued at the library so that they may have input as to these decisions.  Please check the Fogler Library web-site where this information will be posted.  With the State of State speech last evening, everything the governor mentioned regarding graduate education, and other things affects the library.  What will the library need to support these new programs.  They are going to try to be more specific as to what the library needs to support these programs in the future.  LD198, introduced by Emily Cain, was composed to put 1 million dollars toward Fogler Library.  This money is one-time money to be used for a digital library, but once a digital library is formed with this money it will still need funding in the future.

President Kennedy stated that it was the system office that originally penned the bill.  Dianne Hoff stated that Joyce Rumery was not even aware about the bill.

JulieAnn Scott stated that the cancellation of journals and publications also affects Graduate Students.

Workload Committee – Thomas Sandford

No Report.

BOT Representative – Dana Humphrey

The BOT met on Monday of this week.  BOT approved the mission statement for UMM.  Their mission statement did not include marine science, which as we know is a program here at UMaine.

BOT approved the tourism initiative, Professor Kevin Boyle from UMaine, was instrumental in developing this initiative.  The funding for this program depends on State funding as well as outside sources.  The BOT also approved funding for capital improvements on campus including $8.5 million for classrooms, $8 million for renovations to Aubert Hall, and $2.5 million for the Maine Center for the Arts.  Joyce Rumery was approved of Dean of Libraries.

The state budget has been alluded to.  The Chancellor has said that the Governor has agreed to a cascade affect, which means if there is money left over that $2 million will be set aside for MEIF and $1.5 facility maintenance.  The Chancellor has announced the formation of a system-wide committee for shared governance.  The faculty representatives to the BOT from all campuses have pushed for this.  The pupose of this is to gather information.  The committee will be chaired by the Chancellor, and will include the Vice Chancellor, Elsa Nunez, one president, and 3 BOT faculty representatives and a few others.  They are charged with reporting back to the BOT in September of this year.

There will be committees formed across the system to study the nine Strategic Plan directions, there will be one faculty member for each committee from each of the campuses.  There will also be one BOT faculty representative on each committee.  Each of the directions has an implementation timeline.  The timelines for these committees are outlined in the report which is on the UMS web-site.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Todd Gabe The committee will be bringing a motion to the table at the February meeting regarding Graduate Student Housing.

President Patterson introduced Dr. Michael Eckardt, Vice President for Research, guest speaker. He gave a performance report regarding applications for grants and awards, and showed the increase in the amount of faculty who are applying for this money.  He spoke about patents and the numbers associated with this campus.  He made a point that his office is promoting the University to various outside constituencies.  He talked about revenue streams, grants, outside funding, we are currently at $78 million. Last year we had $30 million in congressional initiatives, up 24 percent from the year before.  The state has an R&D bond, the governor is very supportive.  Dr. Eckardt pointed out the three members of the Board of Visitors talked to the Governor about Fogler Library.