February 22, 2012

FACULTY SENATE MINUTES

February 22, 2012

Present: Richard Borgman, Dick Brucher, Jack Burt, Sudarshan Chawathe, Janet Fairman, Paul W. Ferguson, Michael Grillo, Robert Gundersen, Dan Harrison, Susan Hunter, Dennis King, David Marcincowski, Stuart Marrs, James McClymer, Robert Milardo, Martha Novy-Broderick, Harlan Onsrud, Ray Pelletier, Bob Rice, Thomas Sandford, Michael Scott, Scott See, Howard Segal, Kathryn Slott, Shihfen Tu, Chuck Wallace, Janet Waldron, Greg White for Phil Trostel, Melvin Johnson, Kurt Klappenbach

Absent: Emmanuel Boss, Douglas Bousfield, Ian Bricknell, William Congleton, Benildo de los Reyes, Marcia Douglas, Dylan Dryer, David Dvorak, Eric Gallandt, Ramesh Gupta, Gordon Hamilton, Duane Hanselman, Samuel Helmke, Clarissa Henry, Deborah Killam, Steven Kimball, Judy Kuhns-Hastings, Bill Livingston, Molly MacLean, Jennifer Moxley, Michael Peterson, Jay Rasaiah, Paul Rawson, Andrew Reeve, Robert Strong, Claire Sullivan, Roy Turner, Mark Wells, Vivian Wu, Anne Pooler

The meeting was called to order at 3:18 pm.

I. Announcements:
No announcements.

Q. Strategic Planning is moving along but needs one clarification, will the website entries close this week or at the end of the month?
A. It’s available until the end of the month.

II. Approval of the Minutes:

Approval of January minutes – unanimous with the following corrections:

Janet Waldron spoke regarding this tuition discount rate and athletic scholarships.

The Tuition discount rate is 41.6%, which represents $48.4 million (which includes Athletic scholarships and Pell grants). The Athletic scholarships are $5.7 million of this total.

III. Committee Reports:

BOT Rep – Robert Rice
Trustees approved Dr. Page as the new Chancellor. There was a finance meeting with a couple purposes; Sitelines report on the state of buildings stated UMaine is in good shape. Getting down to system wide maintenance plan. Energy was discussed; it’s a huge expense but again, UMaine looked good. Executive session: Administration restructuring to save +/- $24 million; hiring a consultant for performance based funding. There were four applicants for consultants. Finance meeting on the 28th and will report on that at the next senate meeting.

Strategic Planning met earlier this week. There were approximately 150, one-page sheets and notes with bullet points by Linda Silka. Thirty or more attended the sessions. Currently synthesizing data down to four or five ideas. Once synthesizing is done the four or five will be brought to listening groups and narrowed down further.
Howard Segal stated he was impressed by the attendance and input, it was very helpful and optimistic

Discussion:
Q. Are consultants paid when they put their bid in?
A. No, it’s cost neutral.

Q. The RFQ for restructuring, is a consultant hired for that also?
A. Yes, looking at ways to economize the system and administration’s basic structure.

Academic Affairs – Shihfen Tu and Richard Borgman
There are two motions under New Business. The committee is working on language for the item regarding finals in the last week of classes and work needs to be done on items of incomplete grades and grade change policy. Some students have complained about professors using their own book as a text, the committee is looking into that.

Constitution & Bylaws –Harlan Onsrud
Working on the rewrite of the Faculty Handbook.

Research & Scholarship –Janet Fairman
A draft was sent to senators of the Strategic Plan for Research. This will be discussed at the March 14 meeting. Survey of faculty research needs will be available near the end of spring break.

Finance & Institutional Planning – James McClymer
Jim explained how Athletic Scholarships affected the discounted rate of Pell Grants. Amendment to January minutes under Approval of Minutes.

University Environment – Mike Scott
Vice President Waldron will present a Power Point presentation at a future meeting.

Library Advisory – Howard Segal
Met today with Joyce Rumery regarding digital commons and access to it. It’s a great asset to the UMaine campus and we’re the only campus that has it.

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

Committee on Committees –Roy Turner
No report.

Program Creation &Reorganization Review–Scott See
No report.

General Education – Tom Sandford
The Student Learning Outcomes for each of the categories will be finished at the meeting next Friday. The next faculty review will post motions to the Faculty Senate website and try to post on a FirstClass folder for comments from faculty. There will be two weeks for comments, hopefully ready by April.

Ad Hoc IT Advisory – Irving Kornfield & Mike Scott
Strategic Plan from consultants will be released in the near future.

Committees of the Administration Representatives
No report.

III. Questions to Administrators

Q. Is Elaine Clark gone?
A. Yes, an Interim Director of Facilities will be announced later but it will be Stuart Harvey. In the meantime, Kathy McIntire will assist if anything needs coordination. The President will realign Facilities Management.

Elaine did a great job and some great things.

Sitelines does list Facilities Management. The Buildings Committee has started up for the Memorial Gym renovation and new planetarium. The planetarium will be on Hilltop, left of the Ornamental Gardens.

Q. Update on enrollment management position, optimistic?
A. Ted Coladarci commented that the committee meets today at 4:45 and will be making a recommendation to Provost Hunter. President Ferguson said the committee has done a great job.

Q. Is there a start date?
A. Trying to do that ASAP but negotiable.

Q. Performance based funding, where can faculty proactively influence, positively work with administration?
A. Depends on how this goes. Observation, outcome is not one size fits all, it’s unique to land grant institutions. Faculty should be engaged to make sure they have input.

Q. Any other institution similar on how they work?
A. University of Texas is going through process to identify what administration want as high quality education. They’re discussing a performance matrix we’d be proud of. UMaine faculty will need to be engaged.

Q. Any idea with a new Chancellor how the process will unfold?
A. We’re not there yet.

IV. Old Business
None.

V. New Business
There are two motions.

Motion re. Participation Policy for Online Courses
Motion re. Participation Policy for Online Courses (as amended and approved)

From: The Academic Affairs Committee
Date: February 22, 2012

Discussion:

Revised federal regulation requires that the University of Maine have a written policy specific to participation in an online class (a policy distinct from the policy for a regular live class). This requirement is due to a revision in to Title IV of the Higher Education Act and is known as the Federal Program Integrity Rules, which became effective July 1, 2011.

Peggy Crawford of Financial Aid provided this explanation:

New Rule: Documenting Attendance

ED notes “a student logging in with no participation thereafter many indicate that the student is not even present at the computer past that point. There is also a potential that someone other than the student may have logged into a class using the student’s information. . . . an institution must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically-related activity, such as by contributing to an online discussion or initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question.”

This rule is part of determining last date of attendance and the new definition of “academically-related activity.”

Further, in developing the policy, “it seemed appropriate to focus on ‘participation’ instead of ‘attendance.’”

The policy below seeks to provide an indication to the students about what “participation” might entail, while leaving the actual details to the faculty member as delineated in his or her course syllabus. We must have a policy and the committee is comfortable with the wording because the policy clearly leaves the details of defining participation to the faculty member.

Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the following language for the Undergraduate Catalog:

The University of Maine expects all students enrolled in online coursework to actively participate in the course. For fully asynchronous courses and for asynchronous elements of hybrid courses, “participation” is defined as the student’s virtual presence for, and participation in discussions, activities, and related forms of electronic contact occurring in a course’s learning environment(s): e.g. participation in on-line discussion about academic matters, podcast viewing, group writing sessions, whole-class or one-on-one chat, completion of assignments. Broad discretion regarding the required frequency and quality of a student’s participation rests with the instructor of record and should be delineated in the course syllabus.

Discussion:

Most examples are for participation, most seem to be more synchronous.

Vote: Approved 22, No0, Abstention 0.

Motion Two: The Undergraduate Catalog descriptions of minors and concentrations.
Motion re. the Undergraduate Catalog descriptions of minors and concentrations (as amended and approved)

From: The Academic Affairs Committee
Date: February 22, 2012

Discussion: The language below originated with the Associate Deans and Directors group to address two issues of omission in the Undergraduate Catalog. (1) The Undergraduate Catalog contains no complete definition of minors. Although the Faculty Senate decided that a minimum of 18 credits is to be required of all minors, other questions have arisen about who is eligible to declare minors and about when and how minors are to be listed on transcripts. The description seeks to address those issues. (2) The Undergraduate Catalog contains no current description of an academic concentration within a major. This language seeks to address this omission, and is intended to allow academic units as much discretion as possible in shaping the size and content of their concentrations.

Note that there is a distinction between a minor and a concentration. Because a concentration is part of a major, it must be completed at the time the baccalaureate is awarded. On the other hand, a student can complete a minor within a two-year period after gaining their undergraduate degree. A minor shows on the transcript when declared. A concentration shows on the transcript only when completed.

These descriptions seem—to the committee—fair and reasoned.

Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the following language for the Undergraduate Catalog:

Minors
Minors are sets of courses designed to provide a student with substantial knowledge of a subject area outside of their major course of study. A minor is available to any degree-matriculated student as long as the program of study for the minor does not significantly overlap with the student’s major course of study. The unit or units involved will determine how much overlap is appropriate at the time of declaration. Normally no more than one third of the requirements for the minor can overlap with the major requirements.

A student’s transcript will indicate a declared minor. However, students need to officially declare their minor with the department, unit, or school where the minor is offered. If this is not done, there is no guarantee that proper certification of the minor will appear on the final transcript. If a student begins work on a minor but fails to meet all of the requirements, there is no penalty.

Discussion:
Concentration is finished once graduated.

Minor allows two years, after graduation, to be completed but must be declared prior to graduation. Limiting it to two years was not stipulated before.

Vote: Yes 23, No 0, Abstention 0.

VII. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 4:11 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Slott