October 17, 2007

Faculty Senate Minutes

OCTOBER 17, 2007

Present: Andrei Alyokhin, Edward Ashworth, Bahman Baktiari, Barbara Beers, Daniel Belknap, Richard Blanke, Emmanuel Boxx, Thomas Brann, Rodney Bushway, Joe Carr, Hsiang-Tai Cheng, William Congleton, Dorothy Croall, Marcia Davidson, Patrick Devanney, Michael Eckardt, Alaric Faulkner, Leslie Fields, Per Garder, Gail Garthwait, Jim Gilbert, William Halteman, Brandon Hartt, Michael Hastings, Christine Hockensmith, Dianne Hoff, Karen Horton, Sue Hunter, Cary Jenson, Mel Johnson, Scott Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Al Kezis, Deborah Killam, Karl Kreutz, David Lambert, Larry Latour, Molly MacLean, Kathleen March, James McClymer, Tina Passman, Howard Patterson, Mick Peterson, Bob Rice, Daniel Sandweiss, Kathryn Slott, Touradj Solouki, Claire Strickland, Edna Mora Szymanski, Shihfen Tu, Janet Waldron, David Wihry.

Absent: Carla Billitteri, Douglas Bousfield, Tony Brinkley, Fei Chai, Alan Cobo-Lewis, Steve Cohn, Scott Colling, Raphael DiLuzio, Sue Estler, Jacques Ferland, Saundra Gardner, Duane Hanselman, Michael Kinnison, Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, Irv Kornfield, Roger Merchant, Ngo Vinh Long, Harlan Onsrud, Gregory Porter, Allan Smith, Roy Turner, Stephanie Welcomer, Beth Wiemann, Vivian Wu.

Welcome and signing in:

Announcements – Dr. James Gilbert, Faculty Senate President

Dr. Gilbert opened with a statement regarding some advance announcements that were distributed to the senate:

I sent out advance announcements last night that included items that were not vetted by the administration. I was to wait for okay from the President’s Office on the makeup and procedures for appointing Senate Members on the Academic Affairs Budget Advisory Committee and the Provost’s Faculty Advisory Committee. I had included item 4 regarding restrictions on AFUM leadership.

I was excited that we were going to be putting Senate representatives onto these committees this year, and I wanted to tell everyone. Thus, I sent the e-mail out because I couldn’t wait to tell you.

There will be no point 4; Topics in the Committees will be Academic in nature.

I have discussed this issue with UMaine’s AFUM Leadership, and Jim McClymer and I will be issuing a joint e-mail tonight or tomorrow morning to put this topic to rest.

These are the advance announcements Dr. Gilbert was referencing:

1. There will be no kitchen cabinet for the President. The President and the Provost will meet with the Executive Committee.

2. The Provost will add 4 more individuals to the Academic Affairs Budget Advisory Team, to be chosen from 6 nominees from the Faculty Senate.

3. The Provost will add 6 more individuals to the Provost’s Faculty Advisory Committee, to be selected by the Faculty Senate.

4. The only restriction on these nominations is that the nominees not be members of the executive committee of UM’s AFUM so as to avoid situations that may compromise any negotiation process or require a lawyer to be present.

5. It would be the intent of this arrangement for representatives of these committees to report regularly to the Faculty Senate, so that all information is available to the faculty.

6. The Faculty Senate and the Graduate School are working on a coordination of their academic procedures for approving new programs. More information will follow.

The Minutes from the September 19 Faculty Senate meeting were approved.

Committee Reports:

BOT Representative – Dr. Robert Rice

The Board of Trustees will meet November 4 and 5 in Augusta. He will have a report at the next full members meeting.

Academic Affairs – Dr. Beth Wiemann

The Academic Affairs committee has met once to discuss the learning outcomes assessment process for general education courses. We are working with the UPCC and the Center for Teaching Excellence on this project, and will be meeting again later next week with Associate Provost Sue Hunter on this and other issues. For anyone interested in learning more about outcomes assessment in general, the Center for Teaching Excellence has information about a conference in Worcester, at the College of the Holy Cross, on Nov. 2nd. Please contact John Hwalek if you are interested.

Constitution & Bylaws – Dr. Dianne Hoff

The committee will meet next week.

University Environment – Dr. Stephanie Welcomer

The Environment Committee is comprised of Per Garder, Daniel Belknap, and Sandy Gardner, and Alaric Faulkner, and myself. We are currently charged with looking into accessibility to Memorial Gym for running, and access and costs of swimming in Wallace Pool. Additionally we also are charged with investigating e-mail costs of $10.00/month for alumni. We have made some progress in addressing these issues. Robert Dana agreed to lower Pool fees from $225 to $175 per year. This includes a locker. Swim times have also been improved to include 6:00-8:00 Monday mornings and 7:30-8:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These times are in addition to the already-scheduled 11:00-1:00 lap swims. To facilitate access to Wallace Pool, the Recreation Department has made available 40 men’s lockers and 40 women’s lockers in the Memorial Gym. We are continuing to work on the access issue with the Recreation Department to ensure continued lap swimming times in addition to the mid-day swim.

Research & Public Service – Dr. Touradj Solouki

The Research and Public Service Committee is in process of collection

statistical data and preparing reports on improving funding opportunities by

promoting infrastructure/institutional support and enhanced training (e.g.,

the new PI support, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs

considerations, post and pre award support, utilization of the local and

external expertise, creating incentives for proposal submission, etc). We

are currently in process of :

1- Reviewing the focal points from the University’s “Strategic Goals” and the University Research Council Report as they relate to our common goals and improving the university rankings

2- Identifying the overlapping areas of interest between our committee’s goals and the “Faculty Incentives” subcommittee’s targets and synchronizing our efforts

3- Collecting data on “significant” parameters (from UMaine + two sets of academic institutions {five “current competitors” plus five additional higher-ranking universities that we anticipate/would like to compete against in the near future})for statistical analyses

Finance & Institutional Planning – Dr. William Halteman (for Dr. Suzanne Estler)

The committee will be meeting to discuss the findings of the assessment of the physical plant that is being done now.

Library Advisory Committee – Dr. Emmanuel Boss

The library committee met on 9-27-2007.

The committee needs more members out of NSFA (5/6 members are from NSFA and one is from LAS).

Learned that UMaine will have access for the next 4.5yr to the ‘Freedom collection’ of Science Direct.

Urgent need for library facility upgrade (e.g. no climate control). Despite continuous faculty senate pressure no funds have been requested for the library in the previous and current bond issues.

Explored the issue of sponsored collections, copyrights, and an institutional repository, where scholarly materials produce at UMaine can be housed.

Service & Outreach Committee – Dr. Kathleen March

The Service & Outreach Committee met on Oct. 3 and discussed its agenda for the year. This includes scheduling meetings with key individuals and groups regarding service and engagement issues: the Provost, NEASC coordinators, the gen ed committee, Maine Campus Compact, the Bodwell Center, USM’s community engagement office, and others. Some of the issues the committee is looking at are: creating a template for linking service to scholarship; grant opportunities; a way to showcase community engagement

projects in progress at UMaine (such as a round table in spring 2008). The next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 17.

Committee on Committees – Dr. William Halteman

The committee is looking for one person to serve a 3 year term on the Student Employment Advisory Committee, one person to serve a 3 year term on the Commencement Committee, and 1 person to serve on the Parking and Transportation Committee.

PCRRC – Dr. David Wihry

The PCRRC has completed its deliberations on the proposed move of the Public Administration (PA) department into the School of Policy and International Affairs (SPIA). The letter to Senate President Gilbert explaining the committee’s decision is available at its web site in the “Actions” folder within the “Public Administration” folder. The committee found that a move of PA to SPIA would be inconsistent with the current status of SPIA as a “virtual” entity, the enabling documents of which make no reference to undergraduate and graduate degree programs, or the housing of faculty lines, as within SPIA’s scope of functions. Interested parties are encouraged to examine the full text of the committee’s decision.

Announcements:

The Public Administration proposed move to School of Policy and International Affairs has been reviewed by the PCRRC Committee, there will be no discussion about this item during today’s meeting.

Questions for Administrators:

UMaine President Robert Kennedy opened the discussion by touching on some things that are happening on campus. He said he had talked to many different people and groups during homecoming weekend and was very pleased with comments he heard.

Enrollment is over 12,000 students this year. We have 9% more students than in 2006. There is a 13% increase in students from Maine. He gave credit to admissions staff, the dean’s, etc. UMaine is the only campus in the system with an increase in enrollment. This year 165 students from York (100 from York alone) and Cumberland counties decided to attend UMaine and considering their proximity to other institutions in New England that is a very good indicator as to how well perceived our campus and programs have become.

We have a 37% increase in student transfers from Maine’s Community College system.

There will be 50 PhD’s awarded this year. President Kennedy noted that the faculty is a big reason for the growth in this number. Along with the increased enrollment comes larger class size, which means that we will have to hire more faculty.

Progress on fundraising is excellent: 72 million dollars have been raised at this time, half way to the goal of 150 million.

On November 6, people will be voting on bond issues. Of particular importance will be questions #2, a $55 million bond targeted at research and development, and #3, $43.5 million bond issue for interior and exterior building renovations and improvements to the state’s community colleges, University campuses and Maine Maritime Academy. The University of Maine expects to receive 11.3 million from that for improvements to the infrastructure. President Kennedy underscored the importance of the bond issues for UMaine. he noted there is a lot of interest outside campus in helping and we can make a case for UMaine as separate from other campuses in the system. He has been working on a vision for the university. Enrollment increases were planned, but the key is more faculty positions. On this topic he looks for a good deal of discussion and faculty input. The master plan has not been made public yet so as not to distract from the bond issue. The plan rests on the reversal of the fiscal situation, and we cannot rely just on the state. We look to be creative with public/private partnerships.

President Kennedy made one additional point regarding funds being returned from the system office. The money comes from over-assessed health benefits and are looking to maximize these funds. We might be able to use them to leverage private funding, perhaps for capital projects or technology.

Questions:

President Gilbert noted that regarding the bond issue, it’s been said part goes to Alumni Hall and part to moving the administration. He asked if this were true and where is the administration moving and who will pay for the move. the response was that the goal is to consolidate the Art Department, but there is a domino effect. The bond money will be for academic priorities. The historic buildings are especially important, although there is only $11 for $300-400 million worth of projects. When Senator Patterson asked about the library and its role in a first rate research institution, President Kennedy replied that there is nothing on the horizon, since the Fogler project would have to be a public/private partnership. There is nothing that would move us in the direction of renovating at this time.

Senator Johnson asked for clarification of the master planning group. The response from the administration was that their goal is to look at the physical facility, the location, and its interaction with the community. The firm is about 1/3 through and is looking at classrooms, the location of buildings, Pope Plaza, and any aspect of the campus physical plant, and technology. Some buildings should be bulldozed.

Senator Passman asked about the rumor that Fogler Library wants to consolidate all department libraries on campus. Dr. Hoff clarified that the rumor comes from the question of where to house the Cohen Center materials. She noted that she is on the library board and no such topic has been mentioned.

Senator McClymer noted that we have a $4 million surplus and yet programs are being reduced and quality is an issue. He was unable to understand this. President Kennedy asked CFO Waldron to respond. Waldron noted that the articles do us a disservice and that there is not really a surplus but a change in cash position. That figure included undesignated endowments. Dr. McClymer asked if the figures could be placed in writing so we could better understand them. Senator Patterson suggested that a letter to the editor would clarify that we’re using all funds very efficiently.

CFO Waldron noted that the capital campaign made a provision of $9 million for the physical plant and $1 for endowment for journals and other operational issues for the library. There is also something for storage facilities and energy improvements to the building.

Senator Belknap noted that many faculty members are concerned about repairing and developing existing strengths rather than going in new directions. President Kennedy replied that he has had discussion with Chancellor Pattenaude about focusing on some critical directions and concentrating on our traditional strengths, trying to make the biggest impact possible with the resources we have. He noted that redirection is necessary.

President Gilbert posed a question which had been submitted to him regarding the possible impact of budget limitations on the NEASC reaccreditation process. Provost Szymanski said it was an interesting question and she was not sure. She noted there is a draft self-study to be ready by the end of December or January. The team doing site visit prior to the actual visit will provide a read on the situation. The Provost also noted that she wants to ask the senate executive committee to join the exit interview with the site visit people.

Senator Wihry noted that resources are obviously an issue. Growing enrollments helps, as long as we’re below capacity. He asked if there is any effort to get additional appropriations as the institution grows. President Kennedy thought we could make a good case for this.

President Gilbert noted that the ad hoc committee on shared governance had not been able to present a report and asked for one at this time. Senator Hoff noted that they had met with the administration and laid out a plan for meeting the BOT mandate to develop a shared governance plan for the campus. They hope to bring in a consultant for a day to allow interested parties to discuss, after which they will begin to develop a draft plan. Senate is charged with developing this plan, but will work with the administration so that it is truly shared. The plan should be completed this year.

Old Business:

The motion to create a committee of Service & Outreach was presented.

Proposed Amendment to Bylaws of the Faculty Senate

Article IV Section 5: Change to read as follows

Article IV Section 5. Research and Scholarship Committee

A. Function. The Committee on Research and Scholarship reviews and makes recommendations to the Senate in matters relating to research including research priorities, research funds, patents, the protection of human and animal subjects, and research safety.

B. Membership. The members of the Committee on Research and Scholarship are the Vice President for Research, and one faculty Senator from each college.

Add the following section to Article IV of the Bylaws

Article IV Section 9: Service & Outreach Committee

A. Function: Reviews and makes recommendations to the Senate regarding service and outreach issues and opportunities that affect the university and its communities.

B. Membership: At least one member from each of the colleges, and one faculty Senator from Cooperative Extension.

This motion is a change to the By-Laws of senate and so has gone through the process of proposal, sending out for comment during a 45 day period, and discussion in senate. There was no discussion at this time, and the motion passed unanimously.

There was no New Business.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen March, Secretary