November 13, 2013

FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
November 13, 2013

Present: John Allen, Steve Barkan, Jason Bolton, Richard Borgman, Dick Brucher, Stephen Coghlan, Micheal Montgomery for George Criner, Scott Dunning, Janet Fairman, Michael Grillo, Dennis King, Judy Kuhns-Hastings, Mary Ellin Logue, James McClymer, Robert Milardo, Harlan Onsrud, Michael Peterson, Jay Rasaiah, Andrew Reeve, Brian Robinson, Thomas Sandford, Allan Smith, David Townsend, Clayton Wheeler, David Yarborough, Bob Rice, Michael Scott, Howard Segal, Kathryn Slott, Mark Wells, Gail Werrbach, Susan Wheaton, David Yarborough, William Dee Nichols, Jeff Hecker, Janet Waldron, Alicia Bolduc (Stud. Gov), Melvin Johnson, Charles Rote

Absent: Emmanuel Boss, Ian Bricknell, William Congleton, Mauricio da Cunha, Benildo de los Reyes, Charlsye Diaz, Marcia Douglas, Dylan Dryer, Thane Fremouw, Robert Gundersen, Ramesh Gupta, Gordon Hamilton, Steven Kimball, Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, Paul Myer, Martha Novy-Broderick, Ray Pelletier, Jonathan Rubin, Paul W. Ferguson, Carol Kim, Peter C. Altmann, Abigail Jones (Grad Stud Gov).

The meeting was called to order at 3:17 pm

I. Welcome and Announcements:

II. Approval of October 16, 2013 Minutes

Vote: Motion approved.

III. Committee Reports

BOT Rep – Robert Rice
There is a two day BOT meeting starting Sunday. Ph.D. in Communication and $300,000 in gifts to buy furniture for the Art Commons is on the agenda for approval. There will be a serious discussion regarding Study Group that’s at USM and UMaine. Fall enrollment declined with the exception of UMaine and Fort Kent. The Student Code of Conduct will be discussed due to Title 9 amendments that need to be added. The document is revised every 3-5 years. There will be discussion at UMaine regarding a security policy. This is due to USM losing all the master keys to the campus. The cost to change out locks will be $200,000 to $400,000. Bob will speak Sunday at BOT regarding Shared Governance.

Academic Affairs –Richard Borgman & Judy Kuhns-Hastings
Working on afternoon class schedule adjustment from Mon., Wed., Fri. classes to Mon. Wed. Student Government will solicit student opinions and next week will meet with Mike Scott regarding classrooms. Also looking at faculty authored material used in the classroom and transfer credits. A comment was made that there are few classrooms in the 70-120 seat range. For years there was a target of a 30-40 range but once you get to the 50-70 it falls apart.

Constitution & Bylaws – Mick Peterson
Worked with Bob Rice on where the Faculty Handbook is/was, how it is archived, and going forward. Harlan stated that there is a version on the Faculty Senate website from 2003 that says draft but it was approved and those minutes are available on the Faculty Senate website. Draft should be dropped from that document.

Research & Scholarship – Emmanuel Boss & Mauricio de Cunha
First Research and Scholarship Committee meeting Fall 2013 was Oct. 31st, 2013.

Summary:
1. The VPR indicated that she has been in learning mode for the last 7 weeks. She has been working towards gathering necessary information for her future decisions, through meetings with the heads of all the units where research is performed on campus (including all the deans, and director of schools/department that are research oriented).

2. She reiterated that she is very interested in interacting and learning from all who care about research on campus, as already reported in the Senate by Mauricio after his first meeting with her in Sept. 2013.

3. She will be traveling to the EPSCOR meeting and is planning to meet with several VPR from the NE region from which she hopes to learn.

4. Indirect return is on the table with support from the administration, and the VPR indicated that it will be implemented. No details as of yet on to whom (units, researchers) and when.

5. The VPR is working with ORSP to look for possibilities to better streamline their work.

6. The VPR is hoping to meet monthly with research unit directors and, separately, with the URC. She has formed a small committee to align her activities with those of the Blue Sky plan.

7. The committee is looking to engage both VPR and VPF to explore novel ways by which the university could commit resources that are currently not in the VPR’s budget in order to bring significant additional grants to campus.

Finance & Institutional Planning – James McClymer & Tom Sandford

Next meeting is next Wednesday at 1:30. Discussion will be bond issues and transparency in academic funding.

University Environment –Mike Scott & OPEN
Will meet next Wednesday to discuss the classroom situation. I have a request in to Janet Waldron’s office to set up a meeting to discuss a report from this summer regarding classrooms, the Bond issue with regards to STEM Classroom upgrades and renovations. Along with this I have a student doing an informal assessment of some of our larger classrooms. There are issues regarding ADA compliance that we are also looking into. Ann Smith from disability services will be invited to meet with the committee.

We will also hold a joint meeting with Academic Affairs committee.

Library Advisory – Robert Rice & Howard Segal
The Digital Commons has 8,290 items that have been downloaded 214,000 times. Orono is the only Digital Commons in the UMaine System. The new rooms in the Information Commons are being used as planned as well as other rooms being checked out by students. Discussion, the Grad Board is looking at adding the research from the Grad Expo in the Spring to the Digital Commons.

Service & Outreach – Martha Broderick & David Yarborough
The Carnegie status application asks for a University-wide, accepted definition for community engagement. It does not require that we adopt the definition as supplied by the Carnegie Foundation but this seems reasonable and expedient.

Committee on Committees – OPEN
There is a notice going out tomorrow to fill committee openings.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Brian Robinson & Mick Peterson
The Institute for Leadership public meeting, the initial meeting was delayed, will be sometime in the first two weeks of December.

General Education — Harlan Onsrud

Update Report to the University of Maine Faculty Senate on Progress of the

UMS General Education and Credit Transfer Working Group

Report from: Faculty Senate General Education Committee

The University of Maine System has convened a UMS Credit Transfer and General Education Working Group which is also engaging the registrars and transfer credit administrators from each of the UMS campuses. The immediate goal of the effort is to better facilitate transparency and ease in the transfer of credit for meeting general education requirements among the UMS campuses.

At the outset it should be noted that inconsistency exists among the General Education course categories across the campuses. Further, even if the same category exists on two campuses (e.g. Math / Quantitative Literacy), the student outcomes listed within that category will typically differ. No attempt is being made to achieve consistent General Education course categories among the campuses nor will an attempt be made to achieve consistent student outcomes within categories. Each campus desires to maintain its own uniqueness in terms of identity, perspectives and student experiences.

The UMS working group has documented the general education requirements on each campus (see General Education Courses as listed under each campus at https://umaine.edu/csit/transfer-of-course-credits-among-the-university-programs/ … look at the bottom of each pdf file).

The working group has also identified the individual courses and/or groups of courses that meet the general education requirements on each campus (see the document at http://umaine.edu/facultysenate/?attachment_id=1979).

In the past, which undergraduate courses on another campus would be accepted for credit as equivalent to a course on your campus was accomplished on an ad hoc basis “as needed” as students applied to transfer courses to your campus. Before accepting the course as equivalent, the faculty unit teaching the course would be consulted to ensure that the course would be accepted as equivalent. The courses that have transferred in the past and their equivalencies were listed in Maine Street (Faculty Center > Advisor Center > Transfer Course Equivalencies)

Rather than continue the ad hoc approach, the registrars and transfer credit administrators have recently looked at every course at every other UMS campus to determine whether those courses at the other campuses would be accepted as equivalents on their home campus and explicitly for which courses, if any. The academic program units are being consulted in the instance of questionable equivalent courses.

An immediate goal of each UMS campus is to mark each course within PeopleSoft that meets their general education requirements. Once accomplished, anyone will be able to see whether any course on any other UMS campus meets a general education requirement on that campus and, if so, which specific general education requirement is met.

The assumption is being made that if a student fully meets a general education requirement on another UMS campus, such as for Quantitative Literacy / Math, the student will be given credit for fully meeting the General Education requirement on the campus to which they are transferring. This is true even though the course itself might fail to substitute for any specific course on the new campus (e.g. counts only as a 1xxx transfer course).

Some UMS campuses do not have equivalent categories for General Education courses that are found on other campuses. By example, several campuses do not have an explicit Ethics course requirement. On those campuses, the accreditation requirement for “ethics” might be fulfilled through components in, for example, a set of three “core curriculum” courses. If a student takes those three courses they meet the “ethics” requirement. Thus, in order to acquire full credit for the “ethics” requirement they would need to take all three of those courses and all three of those courses might transfer only as 1xxx courses. If they take only two of the three courses then the student would not acquire a transfer of the ethics general education requirement.

The UMS Credit Transfer and General Education Work Group includes:
UM – Al Kezis, Associate Dean; Harlan Onsrud, President of Faculty Senate & Professor of Spatial Informatics
UMA- Sheri Fraser, Dean of Enrollment Services
UMF – George Miller, Asst Professor of Philosophy; Chair of Interdisciplinary and General Education Committee
UMFK – Scott Brickman, Chair of Arts and Sciences
UMM – William Otto, Chair of Environmental and Biological Sciences; Chair of Faculty Program Review and Evaluation Committee
UMPI – Ray Rice, Professor of English
USM – Thomas Parchman, Associate Professor of Music; Susan McWilliams, Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education

Additional persons involved in regular communications and meetings on this topic from UMS and the campuses include:

rosar@maine.edu, alan.kezis@maine.edu, george.miller@maine.edu, harlan.onsrud@maine.edu, raymond.rice@umpi.edu, brickman@maine.edu, fraser@maine.edu, parchman@maine.edu, william.otto@maine.edu, susan.mcwilliams@maine.edu, srand@maine.edu, carlad@maine.edu, annie@maine.edu, kimberly.page@maine.edu, linda@maine.edu, kathy.k.davis@umpi.edu, humberto.portellez@maine.edu, mark.schenk@maine.edu, lorelei.locke@umpi.edu, kathyo@maine.edu, denice_tucker@umit.maine.edu, bvigue@maine.edu, heidin@maine.edu, jlapping@maine.edu, triciad@maine.edu, rachel.tracy@maine.edu, tonilynn@maine.edu, hunter@maine.edu, peter.cook@maine.edu

Discussion: Meetings continually going on.

It was mentioned that North Carolina broke courses in to categories and students taking a Gen Ed course at one campus could transfer it to any other campus. The process should be transparent/easy with a core that is agreed upon. The debate continues between campuses and continues to come up at the BOT.

Ad Hoc IT – Michael Scott & OPEN
Waiting for a meeting to be scheduled out of Janet Waldron’s office. Seth Tyler will be joining the committee. At some point the Environment Committee and Ad Hoc IT Advisory committee will hold a joining session to discuss Classroom Technology issues. There will be an open forum on December 5 but Mike would like to meet with Janet Waldron before that forum.

Committee of the Administration

The Blue Sky Advance Team meets tomorrow. Jeff Hecker and Harlan stated that there will be an open forum on December 3. This forum will focus on signature and emerging programs. There will also be an open forum in February regarding retention and graduation rates. In April another forum will be scheduled with the topic to be determined.

Q.
It would be helpful to see different iterations and how they changed over time. The point is not to rehash the issue but to show it’s been discussed already.

IV. Open Comments from the Administration

Q.
What’s going on with Purchasing and are UMaine concerns being heard?

A.
Janet Waldron stated, if troubles arise to let her know. There was a backlog initially during transition but believes that has been taken care of, or most of it. The reorganization on procurements side is almost complete with hiring/realigning of positions. The next module is travel, which Claire Strickland’s office has been handling. Since the person handling travel is leaving for a new position it will fall to the System. There will be a memo coming later regarding the RFP on travel. If any issues arise regarding procurement or IT please let Janet know in case she’s not aware of it already.

Q.
Regarding travel, a recent conference gave a United Nations hotel rate of $140 if you booked yourself but if you booked through a travel agent the rate was $400. Will there be something in place for exceptions?

A.
Janet Waldron assumes there will be something in the contract with the travel agency but will double check since the idea is to save money.

Q.
Question regarding transferability between campuses, is there a means for courses that students take that may meet requirements on paper but not necessarily in reality or practice? Is there a mechanism to protect the quality or character of curriculum?

A.
There are three areas now, Nursing, Business, and Computer Science Information. They are getting the faculty together in those disciplines to discuss those issues.

It was mentioned again that North Carolina had a mechanism that the units discussed what counted. Accreditations need to be taken in to account also.

Q.
Can Jimmy Jung comment on the Open House?

A.
There were approximately 1,400 and about 16% from out-of-state. The setup was better for out-of-state families to attend.

Comment:

Transfer issue, some departments have strong articulation agreements with other campuses and Community Colleges. It’s a strong program that works well together with some other campuses using the same texts, etc.

V. Old Business
None

VI. New Business

Motion to Update the Policy on Requirements for a University of Maine Undergraduate Degree

Background

The Faculty Senate Constitution, Section 1, Article 3 on Jurisdiction states as follows:

Degree requirements. Subject to other provisions of this Constitution, the Senate shall have the authority to act in behalf of the faculty in establishing University-wide degree requirements.

As the Faculty Senate revises and updates the Faculty Handbook, it intends to adopt and reaffirm policies related to degree requirement and curriculum matters that are already in place subject to minor revisions and updates. Among the policies found in the existing Student Handbook published at http://www.umaine.edu/handbook/ (including but not limited to the section on Awarding of Degrees found at http://umaine.edu/handbook/academics/awarding-of-degrees/) are those that relate to the granting of University of Maine undergraduate degrees.

Motion

The Faculty Senate moves that the policies on granting University of Maine undergraduate degrees are hereby adopted and reconfirmed with minor changes as follows:

Policy on Requirements for a University of Maine Undergraduate Degree

The faculty of the University of Maine determines the requirements for all degrees awarded by the University. The faculty determines that an undergraduate baccalaureate degree requires all of the following:

The student must accumulate a minimum of 120 credit hours. The program in which the student is registered may have additional requirements.

The student must receive acceptable grades in all courses required by his or her academic major.

The student must achieve an accumulative average of not less than 2.0 in University of Maine courses. The program in which the student is registered may have additional requirements.

A minimum of 30 credits originating from the University of Maine Campus is required for the attainment of any bachelor’s degree. This policy can be fulfilled in one of two ways: 1) by taking 30 credits in the senior year, or 2) by taking 30 credits at the 300 to 400 level during any year of study.

There are two exceptions to this policy:

Exception 1. Students who have already completed three or more years at the University of Maine (minimum of 90 credits of University of Maine courses) when, in the opinion of the student’s academic program faculty in consultation with the student’s dean, there is sufficient and valid reason to complete the senior year elsewhere.

Exception 2. Students who have completed a minimum of three years of work at the University of Maine and who have been admitted to an accredited professional school of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, or divinity. With the approval of the student’s dean in consultation with the student’s program faculty, these students may qualify for the appropriate bachelor’s degree at the University of Maine upon receipt of the professional degree.

Transfer credits applicable to the granting of a University of Maine undergraduate degree normally must be from a school accredited by one of the following regional accrediting bodies:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
New England Association of Schools and Colleges
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Western Association of Schools and Colleges

For international colleges or universities, the international equivalent of regional accreditation or Ministry of Education recognition will be considered.

If course work was completed at a school not regionally accredited, a student may specifically request that their course work be considered for transfer. These recommendations include, but are not limited to:

The educational quality of the sending institution.
The comparability of credit to be transferred to the University of Maine.
Applicability of the credit in relation to the programs being offered at the University of Maine.
Additional documentation that the student may be required to provide regarding the course work for transferability.

See Transfer Credit Policy for details on transferring in credits from other schools or for courses taken while in the military service.

Discussion:

This policy is on the books but periodically revised. It’s a common policy across the US but UMaine’s policy didn’t appear to have ever been looked at by UMaine faculty. The transfer credits from accredited schools has been tightened to the big 6 accreditations since several schools cite accreditation but bodies granting those are unknown.

Comment:

Noticing that a lot of schools claim “membership” but not accreditations.
Exception 2 came from the BOT back in the 70’s and probably has only been used once, if ever.

Q.
Does this affect students that travel abroad, and how would that work?

A.
No.

Comment: Any student wanting to Study Abroad has to go through the preapproval process anyway.

Q.
Provost Hecker asked, if the Motion vetted by Faculty or the Academic Affairs Committee, and why Senate wants this done so quickly?

A.
There have been discussions on what constitutes a degree from outside the University so Faculty Senate discussed adopting a policy. The motion went to Executive Committee but not active Academic Affairs Committee. Individuals can put forth a motion, which is then discussed, on the floor. These policies have changed over time and it’s not known by who or when. This gives ownership to the Faculty and Senate.

Comment: This issue has come up in discussion at the BOT level. There is a policy in the Student Handbook but it’s unclear who wrote that policy. The topic was discussed at an Elected Members meeting.

Q.
The Student Catalog needs be updated so should there be a date added to this?

Also this should follow the State Department of Education policy?

A.
The catalog comes out in September and is on a yearly calendar, correct? Students under the previous catalog follow that catalog. This new policy would apply to those incoming students once it’s in the catalog.

Comment:

This is an existing policy that does not change just reiterates what constitutes a degree from UMaine.

Motion to Amend the Motion on the floor from:

To:

A minimum of 30 credits originating from the University of Maine Campus is required for the attainment of any bachelor’s degree. This policy can be fulfilled by taking 30 credits at the 300 or higher level over any year of study.

Discussion:

Q.
Not seeing the need for the change.

A.
This is how things come to the Senate, taking a 20-year policy and putting it back on the floor. Instead of having someone change the policy at will the faculty is taking ownership. There have been discussions regarding this issue so there’s a need for the policy.

Comment: Not sure this is something that needs Administration approval per Faculty Senate By-laws. That should be double-checked but pretty sure that’s the case.

Motion: Approved

Motion to accept a General Definition for Community Engagement Service and Outreach Committee Recommendation, November 2013

Rationale:

The Service and Outreach Committee of the Faculty Senate is recommending passage of the following motion, which includes a general definition for Community Engagement at the University of Maine. We are recommending this definition for Community Engagement because the new report from the President’s roundtable mentions the Carnegie definition and it is more inclusive of all the types of Community Engagement activities that might be engaged in or through a land grant institution like the University of Maine. The definition can be found below and at the Carnegie website:

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 (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/descriptions/community_engagement.php?key=1213

Motion:

The Faculty Senate of the University of Maine adopts the following general definition for Community Engagement. This definition will serve as a guide in the development of Community Engagement opportunities and partnerships between students, University of Maine faculty and staff, and communities throughout the State of Maine and beyond. Community Engagement at the University of Maine is defined as 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 (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching).

Discussion:

Motion: Approved

Adjourned at 4:55 pm

Respectfully submitted
Kathryn Slott

UMaine Alert

Faculty Senate

November 13, 2013