April 30, 2014

FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
April 30, 2014

Present: John Allen, Steve Barkan, Jason Bolton, Richard Borgman, Emmanuel Boss, Dick Brucher, Mauricio da Cunha, Janet Fairman, Michael Grillo, Gordon Hamilton, Dennis King, Judy Kuhns-Hastings, Mary Ellin Logue, James McClymer, Robert Milardo, Martha Novy-Broderick, Harlan Onsrud, Michael Peterson, Andrew Reeve, Brian Robinson, Thomas Sandford, Michael Scott, Howard Segal, David Townsend, Gail Werrbach, Clayton Wheeler, David Yarborough, Bob Rice, Kathryn Slott, William Dee Nichols, Jeff Hecker, Carol Kim, Melvin Johnson, Abilgail Jones (Grad Stud Gov).

Absent: Ian Bricknell, Stephen Coghlan, William Congleton, Benildo de los Reyes, Charlsye Diaz, Marcia Douglas, Dylan Dryer, Scott Dunning, Thane Fremouw, Robert Gundersen, Ramesh Gupta, Steven Kimball, Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, Michael Montgomery for George Criner, Paul Myer, Ray Pelletier, Jay Rasaiah, Jonathan Rubin, Mark Wells, Susan Wheaton, Paul W. Ferguson, Charles Rote Peter C. Altmann, Lindsay Nutter (Stud. Gov)

The meeting was called to order at 3:20 pm

I.          Welcome and Announcements:

The May 28, 2014 Full Senate meeting will not be held. The Elected Members meeting scheduled for May 14, in the Coe Room at the Union, will be held. Jimmy Jung, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Jeff Hecker, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost will address the senate at that meeting.

About a third of the Final Reports from committees are in.

II.        Approval of April 2, 2014 Minutes

Vote: Motion carried.

III.       Committee Reports

BOT Rep – Robert Rice 
Mid May will be a two-day BOT meeting in Bangor. A finance meeting will be held prior to the two days with all campus Presidents reporting their budgets. Some facilities are being discussed, Cutler/Ambulance bay, Museum of Art lease extension, and more being discussed totaling approximately $250,000. Also presenting at that time will be Mr. Thompson from, what is now called, US:IT. He indicates that in FY15 there will be $116,000 savings from campus structure, Procurement Services will present changes in FTE from 34 down to 27. There will be some savings for FY 14-16 in travel, approximately, $769,000. ME Funding is changing with The Small Campus Initiative. The initiative for online/distance education is being consolidated to UMaine Augusta. A committee has been set up but not aware of any UMaine representation on the committee. Part of that committee’s charge is to coordinate duplication of courses.

Q. Any news of access to the matrix. Chancellor stated at the last meeting that it would be made available.
A. Harlan has asked about that formula and the Chancellor told him to make the request to the System. Harlan stated it’s not just the formula, but the entire data set as well.

Q. Centralization of online course, can UMA be involved if they have no graduate program?
A. Not sure, but believe it’s just the coordination.

Q. Is it the idea that all online courses go to a degree from UMA and not UMaine?
A.  Bob didn’t believe that was the case. It is supposed to be just a coordination to eliminate redundancy.

In the case of courses from UMaine, it is assumed credit would be given from here.

Q. Will fees come back to UMaine?
A. No detail on that. If the service isn’t used we shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Q. Michael is on the UMaine Distance Education Committee.
Is there a way to get a grasp instead of giving an opinion and told “…thank you, move along”?
When concerns are raised, how do we get traction?
A. The Provost said he didn’t know. He wrote saying UMaine should be represented, wrote again requesting a reply, wrote again with no reply. Then told they didn’t think Orono was interested to which he responded Orono was very interested and he’d volunteer himself. At that point he was told the Chancellor wanted to keep the committee small.

Q. If online courses are another way of delivery of academic courses and we have control of academics doesn’t that mean they have control of our academics? If there are five Psych courses and they want to have only three they’re controlling it.
A. They’re to coordinate, not control.

Academic Affairs –Richard Borgman & Judy Kuhns-Hastings
Four motions coming up.

Constitution & Bylaws – Mick Peterson
Motions coming up.

Research & Scholarship – Emmanuel Boss & Mauricio de Cunha
Writing the Final Report.

Finance & Institutional Planning – James McClymer & Tom Sandford
Writing the Final Report and a motion coming up.

University Environment –Mike Scott & OPEN
Met with Polly Moutevelis-Burgess and Judy Ryan, all programs should continue including the staff loan program. It will be housed on campus, unclear where at this time.

Library Advisory – Robert Rice & Howard Segal
Submitted the Annual Report

Service & Outreach – Martha Broderick & David Yarborough
Annual Report is done.

Committee on Committees – OPEN
The committee will be submitting the names for the Scientific Misconduct Committee.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Brian Robinson & Mick Peterson
Two open meetings on three program eliminations with upcoming motions today. These were delayed due to the Work to Rule.

General Education  — Harlan Onsrud
Meeting next week. Working on a Block Transfer with all campuses and then a small Block Transfer proposal coming from the Maine Community Colleges. The proposals may be distributed in the next couple of weeks.

Ad Hoc IT – Michael Scott & OPEN
One last meeting with Joyce’s ITS and Dick Thompson will give a final report for the reorganization of IT.
There were four positions eliminated on this campus.

Harlan thanked all the Committee Chairs and members for their work this year.

Committee of the Administration

IV.       Open Comments from the Administration

Harlan stated that Faculty Senate Executive Committee members were invited to the Board of Visitors meeting and it was very productive.

Provost Hecker said he’d like to relay the President’s thanks for attending the Board of Visitors (BOV) meeting. The President also apologized for not attending this meeting but he was meeting with the Chancellor and Chair and Vice Chair of the BOT regarding some of the questions from the faculty. Basically, how do we maintain the integrity of the Flagship Campus?

BOV meeting was very successful, comments and questions were on target and set the tone, and helped to prepare the BOV to meet with the Chancellor later in the day.

The comments from the meeting when the BOV met with Blue Sky Faculty Fellows, it had a positive impact. One BOV member wanted to provide an alternative approach to the financial model. They will come back in a couple months with something. The BOV did feel the frustration, all in all a high quality session.

Q. Would like to recommend that meetings with the BOV happen two or three times a year. They can be better advocates with information.
A. The BOV did ask what they could do to help. They also toured campus facilities and interacted with students and faculty.

Q. Where do we stand with the Faculty Satisfaction Survey?
A. The National Standard study is reasonable, cost wise, but there was only one week to gather information and have it included in their data. There will be a survey of faculty climate for internal data. Checking into other platforms, COACH is one but it’s very expensive. It’s unfortunate because it was thought that this was a good idea.

Q. Blue Sky recommendation update, specifically what Faculty Senate developed and delivered to different committees?
A. The Signature Program – Provost Hecker thanked Faculty Senate for their input and the letter sent it was a good starting point. Having it open was a good idea and having outside parties is also good.

There were 56 proposals submitted. The process narrowed it down to five concepts to provide full proposals. In the Emerging Area some were asked to work as groups. The deadline was moved to allow for those groups to develop since they’d never met together. There were 10 full proposals for Emerging Areas. By the end of May there should be an announcement.

Meeting with the Deans over the summer as well as with the fundraising partners. Meeting with Jake Ward to look at the Signature/Emerging areas and how to relate to bond opportunities.

Q. Retention and Graduation rates.
A. A very interesting committee this year

Best practices and retention, looking at current practices, self-imposing a deadline of June 15 to address retention and graduation. It’s likely there will be some pilot programs starting next year.

An incentive program wasn’t met with enthusiasm. The committee is looking at the issue a different way by looking at data on students reaching their junior year and graduation rates in two years.  Looked at students that were juniors in 2007, 2009, and 2011 and the percentage of graduations. With incentives it’s unclear how to proceed. Do we look at a unit’s own data instead of a baseline and say “make it better.” Prefer to challenge departments with what is in their control.

Q. Many factors with sophomores and financial stress. Some students are taking a full load and working full-time jobs yet still barely making it. Is there something for those students?
A. No program but looking at the data to see how they can get help. Jimmy Jung said the Financial Aid office encourages students to revisit Financial Aid especially if circumstances have changed financially or within the family. The SALT program is available, partially online, and run out of Student Employment and Financial Aid. They should also contact Student Affairs to discuss assistance.

Q. Students aren’t prepared with Financial Aid information and then get in trouble and the Business Office is unbendable.
A. The Bursar is amendable and very helpful working closely with Financial Aid. He has been very helpful working with Student Affairs also.

Q.  Signature and Emerging, will proposals be posted and Foundations.
A. There is a reluctance to do that. We’re looking at Foundation leaders at UMaine. The plan is to organize campus discussions in the fall. Looking at Education, Research at Land Grants in the 21st century, and what do we want to see at the UMaine Foundation. We thought this could be pulled together for the spring but it wasn’t possible.

Q. The System gave USM $7 million and UMaine $900,000. Can you explain that?
A. The bottom line is UMaine had sound fiscal management so required less in cuts. USM has a $14 million shortfall and the System is going to use $7 million in rainy day funds to assist with that.

Q. In the past, we were told the Rainy Day Fund had to stay intact now it seems like they’ve changed their mind. This is a one-time allocation, what happens if it’s done again?
A. UMaine is receiving $900,000; it is going in a reserve that doesn’t have to be used currently. Not sure how USM will deal with this.

Q. Incentivizing faculty and campus units for generating new dollars.
A. Not much progress. Exploring online programs and two innovative programs, we’d like to use as pilot program to create a revenue sharing model.

Q. Flagship Internship Programs
A. Jake Ward and Renee Kelly, with faculty involvement, gave a report with good data and recommendations. They recommended a program with a small group to participate.

Q. Pathway 5 regarding Classroom space refresher programs.
A. The Classroom Committee has been reformed. Jeff St. John spoke regarding this issue.

Claude Junkins is the space guy and Stewart Harvey is the Director of Facilities, we’ve been meeting which has led to the Classroom Committee being reformed. The committee is made up of faculty, IT, and facilities. They will be soliciting comments through spring to help identify priorities.

Dave Townsend commented saying he called about 101 Neville and Stewart Harvey, and the Carpenter Shop, showed up the next day. Things are on hold because it happened too fast and he wasn’t prepared for the quick response.

V.        Old Business
None

VI.       New Business

Harlan announced the list of those that volunteered for 2014/2015 Faculty Senate. Mick Peterson for President, Martha Novy-Broderick Vice President, Kathryn Slott for Secretary, and Robert Rice for Board of Trustees Representative. He asked if there were any other nominations wanting to be considered, no response.

Vote: Approved
 

Full Motions can be found at: http://umaine.edu/facultysenate/motions-passed-2/motions-passed-2013-2014/

Motion 1 – Motion to Support a Classroom Scheduling Recommendation

Motion:  The Faculty Senate supports the recommendation above that the University investigate the possibility of adding more two-day-a-week scheduling options as supported by faculty and students.  We request that a response be submitted to the Faculty Senate at the first full Faculty Senate meeting of fall semester, 2014.

Motion Approved
Motion 2 – Motion on a Conflict of Interest Policy Concerning Use of Faculty Authored Instructional Materials

Motion: The Faculty Senate approves the Conflict of Interest Policy Concerning Use of Faculty

Authored Instructional Materials as follows.

 
Motion Approved

Motion 3 to Accept Faculty Handbook Sections 2.5 through 3.8

Motion: The Faculty Senate accepts the above edits to the Faculty Handbook.

Motion Approved
Motion 4 to Accept Faculty Handbook Section 3.6.9

Motion:  The Faculty Senate accepts section 3.6.9 as written above as an addition to the Faculty Handbook.

Discussion: The Provost stated that it’s mostly what he wanted and a good policy.

Q. What reason would there be to reduce a student’s grade? Six months seems too long.
A. Rick stated the policy is more about possible errors in grading and added an appeal level.
Comment: Six months still seems long.
A. A student may wait, say over the summer, to talk to a faculty member about a grade. The time frame came about because of that scenario.

Motion Approved
MOTION 5 – Motions to Eliminate the Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Arts in Public Management

Motion: The Faculty Senate supports the recommendation of the PCRRC to eliminate the Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the former Department of Public Administration.

Motion Approved

Motion: The Faculty Senate supports the recommendation of the PCRRC to eliminate the B.A. in Public Management from the former Department of Public Administration.

Motion Approved
MOTION 6 – Motion to Eliminate the Masters of Music in Conducting from the School of Performing Arts

Motion:  The Faculty Senate supports the recommendation of the PCRRC to eliminate the Masters of Music in Conducting from the School of Performing Arts.

Motion Approved
MOTION 7 – The Faculty Senate Accept the above Edits to the Faculty Handbook Chapter 6

Comments: Mike Scott mentioned that contact information in the computer and IT sections will be changing shortly. Someone stated that the information could be corrected once that happens and the motion should be voted on as is.

Motion Approved
RESOLUTION

Resolution by the University of Maine Faculty Senate

to University of Maine System and the Board of Trustees concerning

Financial Sustainability and Academic Excellence

Whereas:

  • For FY 13, FY 14 and FY 15, the State of Maine has held appropriations to the University of Maine System flat or with small net reductions and The University of Maine System Board of Trustees, froze tuition and fee revenue for in-state undergraduate students for three years (FY 13, FY 14 and FY 15)

Whereas

  • The impact of System-wide services consolidation and financial re-distribution thus far seem to have had a negative impact on our academic mission, our students, our staff and our faculty at the University of Maine.

Whereas:

  • Past declines in enrollment at UMaine prior to 2012 and consistently throughout the University of Maine System, catalyzed by the declining high school demographic, resulted in significant revenue loss.

Whereas:

  • It is critical that the faculty and staff receive salaries, salary increases and benefits that must be budgeted.

Whereas:

  • Our strategic plan, called The Blue Sky Plan, was created as a growth model to develop new financial resources in support of academic and research excellence that has addressed about 47% the total structural gap

Whereas:

  • The Chancellor has called for new and significant System changes to close the gap.

Resolution:

We therefore call on the Chancellor of the University of Maine System and the Board of Trustees of the University of Maine System to:

  • Recognize more fully the potentially negative impact on our students, staff and faculty of system wide initiatives that ultimately destabilize and disrupt academics and services at the Flagship campus of the University of Maine System without more substantive, critical and open examination in consultation with the UMaine community to ensure that the national stature of the University of Maine is not diminished.
  • Stand in partnership with the UMaine leadership of the President and Cabinet in addressing the FY 15 budget challenges, while attempting to limit the negative impact on UMaine’s tripartite mission of teaching, research, and service.
  • Move more expeditiously and substantively to develop and propose a course of action that will define specifically how the System will increase public support for and investment in higher education, reduce costs and still maintain mission excellence at the campus level. The UMaine Faculty Senate would be pleased to participate in such substantive and visionary planning.
  • Ensure through future planning that the success achieved by Maine’s Flagship University in advancing its truly international academic and research reputation is not diminished by any System goals and actions inconsistent with the University of Maine’s unique mission and excellence or substantive funding requirements as a nationally ranked, land grant research university.

Stand in support of our successful strategic planning effort both now and in the future as a model in setting a course of financial sustainability and academic excellence for UMS.

Comment: Bob said he will be reading the Resolution at the Board of Trustees meeting if approved.

Motion Approved
Bob Rice mentioned that this was Harlan’s last Full Senate meeting after two years as President. He thanked him for the hard work. Applause

Adjourned at 4:50 pm

Respectfully submitted

Kathryn Slott