January 30, 2008

Faculty Senate Minutes

JANUARY 30, 2008

Present: Edward Ashworth, Daniel Belknap, Richard Blanke, Emmanuel Boss, Thomas Brann, Tony Brinkley, Sharon Buchanan, Rodney Bushway, Joe Carr, Steve Cohn, William Congleton, Dorothy Croall, Robert Dana, Patrick Devanney, Catherine Elliott, Sue Estler, Alaric Faulkner, Per Garder, Jim Gilbert, William Halteman, Christine Hockensmith, Dianne Hoff (via phone), Sue Hunter, Cary Jenson, Robert Kennedy, Irv Kornfield, Karl Kreutz, Yvon Labbe, David Lambert, Molly MacLean, Kathleen March, James McClymer, Abtin Mehdizadegan, Anja Nohe, Harlan Onsrud, Tina Passman, Bob Rice, Joyce Rumery, Dan Sandweiss, Evelyn Silver, Kathryn Slott, Touradj Solouki, Edna Szymanski, Claire Strickland, Janet Waldron, Beth Wiemann, David Wihry, Vivian Wu.

Absent: Andrei Alyokhin, Carla Billitteri, Douglas Bousfield, Fei Chai, Hsiang-Tai Cheng, Alan Cobo-Lewis, Marcia Davidson, Raphael DiLuzio, Jacques Ferland, Saundra Gardner, Duane Hanselman, Scott Johnson, Deborah Killam, Michael Kinnison, Dorothy Klimis Zacas, David Lambert, Larry Latour, Craig Mason, Ngo Vinh Long, Howard Patterson, Mick Peterson, Gregory Porter, Allan Smith, Shihfel Tu, Roy Turner, Stephanie Welcomer.

Senate President James Gilbert introduced Janet Waldron, VP for Administration & Finance, at 3:15 pm. She gave a power point presentation on our current financial position, projections for FYE 2008, identifying FY09 issues, reconciling position management and some variables to future budgets depending on tuition increases, funding from the state, etc. She discussed the projected impact of a 5% reduction in funding and FY09 budget timelines.

The senate meeting was called to order at 4:04 pm.

The Minutes from the December 12, 2007 meeting were approved.

Committee Reports:

Board of Trustees Representative – Dr. Robert Rice

The number of degrees conferred by each campus was noted. There were 1393 in UMS at undergraduate level, 475 masters, and 50 doctorates. UMaine has 38.2% of all the graduates. An MA in Education was approved at UMF, although there are no full-time faculty members. It uses the cohort model. The Chancellor’s agenda for action was approved. It contains some elements of the strategic plan. The King Courtyard will begin construction in late siring. Stodder Complex will be revamped into the graduate school ($4.3 million). Colvin Hall will be renovated ($2.3 million). N Research grants and contracts: UMaine received $78 million for FY07, which is 56% of UMS. New turf will be installed on athletic fields ($2.2 million).

Academic Affairs – Dr. Beth Wiemann

The committee met before the start of classes to discuss grades and when academic action would be triggered. They also discussed gen eds and noted that responses are being received from chairs regarding each of the categories.

Constitution & Bylaws – Dr. Dianne Hoff

The committee will have motions to present at the next meeting.

Research & Scholarship – Touradj Solouki

No new report. A 15-question survey should be available in a few days, with the link to be diswtributed.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Dr. Suzanne Estler

Today’s faculty senate meeting will include Janet Waldron, VP for Administration and Finance regarding budget planning for 2008-2009 giving a brief overview of issues the committee continues to discuss in depth.

Several co-sponsored events or those directly relevant to understanding the University’s budget and planning activities have recently occurred or are scheduled.

•Sasaki—Evolving Masterplan—Scheduled for Faculty Senate, February 27 and for open presentation 6 pm Buchanan House

•Co-Sponsored, Jon Sorensen, Competitive Energy Services, University of Maine Energy Markets, January 24. In an informative session key messages, grossly simplified:

Energy markets from which the University powers itself are complex, and extremely volatile in costs. In its relationship with CES and Sorenson, VP Waldron’s office has developed the capacity to respond quickly to market changes and has been able to contain, to some extent, some of the rapidly increasing costs for electric and heating power. The consulting costs are far below the costs mitigated through their advice and expertise.

•Faculty Senate Budget Presentation, Janet Waldron, January 30

•Provost’s Open Meeting re: AABAC, Provost Edna Symanski, January 17

•President’s long-term vision presentation to Faculty, January 24

Library Advisory Committee – Dr. Emmanuel Boss

A subcommittee of the library committee has been busy laying the ground to

what will be needed to establish and institutional repository (IR) at

UMaine. Expect motions in the next few meetings. We will have a guest,

Marilyn Billings a librarian form UMass Amherst, in our next elected members

meeting. She will introduce and discuss with us her experience establishing

an IR at her university (see http://scholarworks.umass.edu/).

If you are interested in learning more about IRs and what they could do for

us please see:

Links to academic IRs at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/about.html

The case for IR: http://www.arl.org/sparc/bm~doc/ir_final_release_102.pdf

Links on copyright of scholarly materials: http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/

and: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm

Article on the use of IR in the humanities :

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1133&context=libra

ryscience

It comes from University of Nebraska at Lincoln. If you log into their IR

at:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/

and click on policies you can see how they dealt with copyright issues.

More on copyright and creative commons from a conference at UMaine:

http://commons.umaine.edu/coic/agenda.htm

Service & Outreach – Dr. Kathleen March

The Committee has met several times to develop a budget for the support from Provost Szymanski and to arrange a schedule for a series of 4 retreats on community engagement and higher education, one of which will be a Problem-Based Service-Learning workshop at the end of the spring semester or early summer. The retreats will focus on the Carnegie Foundation category of Community Engagement and determining the appropriateness of this category for the University of Maine.

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/index.asp?key=1213

“Community Engagement describes the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.”

Three members of Service & Outreach will attend the Outreach Scholarship Conference at Penn State in October 2008.

http://www.outreach.psu.edu/outreach-scholarship/

The Service & Outreach Committee of Faculty Senate proposes to utilize the $5,000 provided by The Provost in the following way

1. Use an RFP to elicit mini-proposals on 2 areas for faculty service-learning projects. RFP follows. Total awarded for projects: $2,250 X 2 = $4,500.
2. Invest the remainder in a newsletter to be sent to all faculty members. The newsletter will present the concept of community engagement and the higher education classroom. It will showcase 2 projects that are currently being carried out on campus and list others to be profiled in future newsletters. This will be a single, 2-sided newsletter. The intention is to develop awareness of this educational methodology.

Objectives of Funding:

To provide a framework for people who might not understand SL but who would like to know more

To promote interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary thinking, if not projects

To promote curriculum infusion of SL methodology and community engagement of university members

To guide work in such a way as to establish a firm foundation for the scholarship and learning potential of engagement through the curriculum

To ensure that there is recognition of the work done in community and public engagement projects, both as educators and scholars and as learners

To facilitate the collaboration with community partners and ensure that it is one of mutual respect, learning, and benefit

To identify projects in a collaborative and organic fashion(

Project areas to be funded:

1. Literacy (in the broad definition of the term)
2. Public Health, the Environment, and Human Need

Committee on Committees – Dr. William Halteman

The Parking and Transportation Committee has a seat open for a senate nominated faculty member to serve a three year renewable term.

The Employee Recognition and Retirement Banquet needs a representative nominated by the senate.

Program Creation, Review & Reorganization – Dr. David Wihry

They are reviewing a proposed graduate program in School of Policy and International Affairs.

Ad Hoc Committee on Shared Governance – Dr. Dianne Hoff, Dr. Robert Rice

They will have a rough draft and preamble prepared for comment soon. They are waiting for comments from the administration.

University Environment – Dr. Stephanie Welcomer

The committee is anticipating an upcoming motion that will change the charge of the committee. The committee is also initiating conversations with Sandra Caron and Amy Fried regarding a proposal to alternatives to teaching. Conversations are continuing on access to pool and locker rooms. They will also be looking at campus lighting.

Announcements

President Gilbert noted that he had a letter from President Kennedy approving the two motions in the minutes. PCRRC is now a permanent committee. There was also the motion to establish senate representation on several of the Provost’s boards and committees.

Discussion with Administrators:

There was a question on how the King Plaza would be financed. President Kennedy noted that much is part of the Sasaki Plan and pertains to landscaping. It is the area between South Stevens and the Memorial Union, which we have long intended to beautify. CFO Waldron noted that it is a work in progress and we have a capital project account for $75,000. We need to do landscaping around the MCA anyway and some funds are associated with the arboretum.

A question was asked regarding the strategic plan implementation, as to when it will be available and if faculty will be able to discuss it. Graduate Dean Sandweiss noted the committee members for 2006-07 and said there was a town meeting and a discussion in senate a year ago. The plan is available on the Provost’s web site. It lists first year priorities. Since then we’ve been trying to gather date and should be ready to report in February. Lessons learned have been to gather data in a more timely manner and they will be reporting on all aspects of the strategic plan. It was noted that there were not many faculty on the committee. Dean Sandweiss noted they were nominees from senate.

There was a question on the capital campaign and how far toward the goal of $150 million we’ve progressed. Barbara Beers will be asked to respond to queries on this topic.

There was a question concerning the graduate school and whether the renovations were brought to senate before enacted.

President Kennedy noted that he will speak with the executive committee for plans on the bond money for capital improvements. He believes we can leverage private moneys and have been gathering anecdotal information on priorities people have for projects.

An update was requested on NEASC planning. Provost Szymanski noted we should have mock visit in April. The actual site visit is March 2009. We’re trying to make progress in the gen eds area. The goal is to have community conversations May – October. Len ass was thanked for his leadership on NEASC.

President Gilbert reminded everyone of the Sasaki report on campus planning for the February full senate meeting.

Old Business:

No Old Business

New Business:

No New Business

The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen March

Secretary