December 15, 2010

FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES
DECEMBER 15, 2010

Present: Steve Abbott, Edward Ashworth, Douglas Bousfield, Tony Brinkley, Joe Carr, Ted Coladarci, Gail Dana Sacco, Robert Dana, Michael Eckardt, Susan Erich, Gail Garthwait, James Gilbert, John Gregory, Michael Grillo, Mazie Hough, Al Kezis, Deborah Killam, Dennis King, Irv Kornfield, Judy Kuhns-Hastings, Yvon Labbe, O.J. Logue, James McClymer, David Morrison, Harlan Onsrud, Richard Pattenaude, Paul Rawson, Bob Rice, Thomas Sandford, Dan Sandweiss, Ann Schonberger, Michael Scott, Steven Shaler, Evelyn Silver, Phillip Silver, Kathryn Slott, Kristin Sobolik, Touradj Solouki, Clarie Strickland, Shihfen Tu, Roy Turner, Janet Waldron, Chuck Wallace, James Warhola, Jeff Weinberger, Beth Wiemann.
Absent: Bill Livingston, David Marcincowski, Sid Mitchell, Tina Passman, Howard Patterson, Justin Poland, Andrew Reeve, Scott See, Susan Lambrecht Smith, Claire Sullivan, Mark Wells, Vivian Wu, Huijie Xue.

The meeting was called to order at 3:15 pm.

Chancellor Richard Pattenaude was the invited speaker.

Committee reports were submitted in writing:

BOT Rep – Robert Rice (gave his report at the meeting)
Dr. Rice gave an update on the Presidential Search Committee’s progress to date. December 10 the committee met to review the information from those contacts and to review several new applications. The committee is very positive about the candidate pool. The committee will invite eight or nine candidates for neutral site interviews which will be done in early January. They will then pare down to three or four candidates to invite for campus visits. These visits are tentatively scheduled for the last week of January and first week of February.

Academic Affairs – Judy Kuhns-Hastings
The committee is having a joint meeting with the Environment Committee and Tammy Light from the Office of Student Records regarding computer scheduling of classrooms in late January.
The committee is also looking at the University Policy regarding placement of final exams only in the final exam week.

Constitution & Bylaws – James Warhola
No Report.

Research & Scholarship – Janet Fairman
No Report.

Finance & Institutional Planning – James McClymer
No Report.

University Environment – Mike Scott
No Report.

Library Advisory – Howard Segal
No Report.

Service & Outreach – Deborah Killam & Claire Sullivan
No Report.

Committee on Committees – Roy Turner
No Report.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Harlan Onsrud
The Committee has a report and motion on the agenda.

General Education – Tina Passman
I attended the annual assessment conference held by NEASC in early December, funded by the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Assessment. Many thanks to Jeff St. John. It was worthwhile in terms of gaining better knowledge about assessment in the New England area and where we stand, as well as other ideas which will be shared with the Gen Ed Committee at a later date.

The Writing Intensive Focus Group had a very productive workshop, led by Harvey Kail, Dec. 10. We “test drove” a scoring guide based on the proposed new Student Learning Outcomes, and have found ways to improve and clarify the outcomes, which we will do before submitting them to the Gen Ed Committee and then the elected members of the Senate for further vetting. Many thanks to this group for two solid hours of work, and to Harvey Kail for leading the exercise.

The General Education Committee website is up. Please check it for updates on the progress of the committee: http://umaine.edu/gened/

We will roll out the Student learning Outcomes as we refine them during the second semester, as well as attending to other logistical matters with the UPCC and Institutional Studies regarding implementation and data collection.

Many thanks to the ever-faithful and hardworking General Education Committee and the faculty external to the committee who have aided in this very complex endeavor!

Ad Hoc IT Advisory – Irving Kornfield & Mike Scott
No Report.

Committees of the Administration Reports
None presented.

Old Business:
Report and Motion from the PCRRC

The motion to support the full report passed 25 in favor, none against, no abstentions.

Presentation by University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude

The Chancellor began by saying that we can no long count on the State for higher education funding, there is no assumption on an increase in state funding.

New Challenges/New Directions is the plan for the future. There are three goals:
1. Affordable and accessible education opportunities
2. Financial sustainability
3. To better serve the people of Maine

He stated that he and Provost Hunter had just returned from a press conference with the Maine Development Foundation. Over 1,000 business people submitted a statement about what the business community wants in an educated public.

We can’t cut our way to quality. The system is working on revenue generation with Noel Levitz by enhancing enrollments. There are many partners working with this group. The common theme is that education is the future of Maine.

The system needs to continue to build respect and credibility and show that we are helping ourselves. When he speaks with the governor he shows what we are doing and gives other examples such as our marketing campaign.

In the spirit of transparency all financial reports are on the chancellor’s web-site. We have to be reasonable and pragmatic but we do deserve support from the state. We have made an aggressive request for 4% increase in our budget for the next two years.
There is a clear awareness by the BOT that each campus is cutting as much as they can, they same scenario is occurring across the country.

The Public Agenda has been a major item of conversation. He has met with the Commissioner of Education. One topic of discussion is the differing needs of rural Maine versus the more populated areas of southern Maine. We are assessing the needs of what the citizens and businesses need for educational opportunities.

The Strategic Investment Fund is a long term project. It has a multi-year life. For small camuses like UMFK and UMPI it is one of the best things to happen to them. It gives these campuses an investment capital. The two longest term projects funded last year went to UMaine.

There is a slightly stronger emphasis on enrollment with clearer guidelines. There will be some projects, in rare instances, that there will be multi-year funding. Things like academic quality, attracting and retaining students and serving the people are proposals that are valuable to the system.

There are 188,000 people with college credit but no degree in Maine.

Someone stated that a class such as BIO400 at UMaine is an entirely different class than is offered at the other campuses. How is a student to decide which class to take especially when financial restraints are a major deciding factor? Transfers will still look at the content and syllabi of classes. There is a possibility that e-tuition will equalize the credit hour tuition rates between campuses. However, most students take classes close to home. He hopes that faculty will work harder on sharing with other campuses.

He continues to educate the BOT, the Governor and the legislature about our unique mission, especially the amount of graduate research done at UMaine. Bob Kennedy has been very forward about our position as the Land Grant Institution in Maine. UMaine is not compared to the other campuses.

In the next decade high school classes will decline by 10%. Add in the increasing market penetration by the community colleges and our enrollment will most certainly decline. He doesn’t see us moving away from the fundamental faculty model, or the concept of faculty changing.

Do we know what citizens actually want? He said we see trends in what people actually sign up for. Nursing Education, for instance, tends to trend up and down over time. He stated that five years from now we will still have strong humanities.

We need a centralized UMS brand. But at the same time differentiating missions of each campus. The system will be doing some marketing soon to make people aware of what is available here in Maine.

The meetings was adjourned after 4:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Slott, Secretary