23 October 2024

Attendance

Present:

Senators: Henri Akono, Jonathan Barron, Keith Berube, Timothy Bowden, Sudarshan Chawathe, Sabrina DeTurk, Paula Drewniany, Esther Enright, Allison Gardner, Nils Haëntjens, Matt Hawkyard, Liliana Herakova, Ellen Hostert, Lee Karp-Boss, Jesse Kaye-Schiess, Benjamin King, Amanda Klemmer, Garret Lee, Danielle Levesque, Sarah Lindahl, Roberto Lopez-Anido, Ivan Manev, Will Manion, Craig Mason, Shannon McCoy, Derek Michaud, William Nichols, William Otto, Elizabeth Payne, Jennifer Perry, Aaron Putnam, Deborah Rogers, Amber Roth, MJ Sedlock, Kathryn Slott, Rosemary Smith, Timothy Waring, Jay Wason, Manuel Woersdoerfer, Todd Zoroya

Guests: Debra Allen, Dean Hannah Carter, Dean Robert Dana, Angela Fileccia, Dean Giovanna Guidoboni, Dean Emily Haddad, Jude Killy, Associate Provost Scott Marzilli, Nolan Merz, Associate Provost Gabriel Paquette, Michelle Rogers, Dean Diane Rowland, Hazel Sparks, Vice President Kelly Sparks, Vice President Kody Varahramyan, Dean Megan Walsh, Dean Ellen Weinauer

Absent: 

Senators: Mahdi Al Badrawi, Karen Beeftink, Amy Booth, Jack Buttcane, Seth Campbell, Bill DeSisto, Phillip Dickens, Alexis Foster, C. Matt Graham, Jianjun Hao, Cynthia Isenhour, Kelly Jaksa, Bashir Khoda, Steven Kimball, Sara Lello, Roberto Lopez-Anido, Colleen Marzilli, Glenda Pereira, Robert Rice, Susan Smith, Peter Van Walsum, Tingting Ye

Welcome, Announcements

• Amanda Klemmer opened the meeting with the Land Acknowledgement.
• She also acknowledged the very successful Homecoming Weekend, including athletics wins.
• She further announced that there is a new intent to plan from UMA for an associate degree in Psychology available for senators to review.

Announcements and Updates from Administration

• VP Sparks provided an update on the SRE process, highlighting the substantive work done by many across campus. Phase 2 is wrapping and Phase 3 is getting underway. A new theme 14, around administrative efficiencies, has also been launched. A working retreat was held on October 10 focusing on four key themes and ideas from that retreat will guide next steps. A list is also being compiled of “just do it” ideas that can be worked on in the short term. Deb Allen and her team will be contributing data to help in clustering of ideas and determination of which concepts can be worked on through existing groups. All of this work will roll-up into the multi-year financial plan for the university.
• Dee Nichols asked if next week the faculty would be made aware of the summaries of the work of the working groups?
  • VP Sparks answered that faculty senate committees can request that information from any of the working groups. She will discuss with the President whether the PowerPoint presentation from the working groups can be made available.
    • Dee reiterated that it is important for senators and others to be able to share information with faculty more broadly.
    • Lee Karp-Boss agreed about the critical need for sharing work to date, even if it remains incomplete.
• Chief of Staff Rogers provided an update on the Provost search; she has met with the search consultant and the process of setting up materials is underway. The President’s office is currently reviewing nominations for members of the search committee.
  • Dee asked about the status of other open searches, including Student Accessibility Services, Deans, Facilities, etc.
    • Dean Dana reported that the SAS position is under review for posting. VP Sparks reported that a search for a facilities position is underway.
• Dean Dana announced that Andrea Gifford will be appointed as Dean of Students in an interim capacity.
• Associate Provost Marzilli announced that, post-census, we ended with an 83.4% retention rate for first year students.

Questions of the Administration

• Amanda Klemmer relayed a question from a faculty member about the status of EPIC proposals submitted last spring and not hearing anything back. VP Vahrahmayan recommended contacting Ali Abedi for a response to that question.

New Business

• Dee Nichols moved to approve the May 2024 and September 2024 minutes with the changes recommended from the floor. The motion passed with 4 abstentions.

General updates from Vice Chancellor Jeff St. John

• The Vice Chancellor announced that the system-wide retention rate for first year students was 75.7% – highest in 20 years in the UMS system.
• He provided two updates around faculty advocacy:
  • Chancellor Malloy has identified some one-time system level dollars to support faculty mental health initiatives. The UMaine task force on mental health was instrumental in identifying the needs, including telehealth resources, onboarding resources, and ongoing professional development particularly around responding to faculty, students, and staff at risk for self harm or other mental health crises.
  • UMS has opted to renew the Zoom contract based on faculty support for remaining on that platform.
• The Vice Chancellor explained that the new UMS CIO has decoupled “repaving Maine Street” from efforts to improve transfer processes. 
• The Tourism, Recreation, and Hospitality minor was approved last spring by campuses across the system. The SWAC group has come forward with recommendations for how to conduct program outcomes assessment efficiently across the participating universities.
• Craig Mason raised some points of faculty concern for the system office to consider:
  • Frustrations around centralized IT, particularly around purchasing of small items needed for teaching.
  • Frustrations around receiving approvals for hiring adjunct faculty.
  • How will initiatives and activities coming out of the system office (e.g., microcredentials and repaving Maine Street) be assessed/reviewed? Also why are things like microcredentials, which are academic credentials, not housed in academic units?
  • What role will/should faculty have in evaluating what is happening in the system office?
• VC St. John acknowledged these concerns and that addressing them would take too long for this meeting, however he volunteered to come back to senate and/or to individual colleges/departments to discuss concerns.
  • Lee Karp Boss followed up to suggest that a major pain point is that the system tries to make processes all fit one mold whereas individual universities and colleges need to be able to do things in ways that work for them.
• Kathy Slott raised a question about the staffing of the counseling center and whether they are back to full staff?
  • Angela Fileccia confirmed that hiring is completed and the counseling center is fully staffed with no waiting list.
• Todd Zoroya raised that the mental health task force recommended the reinstitution of an on-campus EAP staff member. VC St. John acknowledged the desirability of such a resource is shared across many campuses and that the issue is under consideration at the system level.

Committee Updates

Committee on Committees – Esther Enright

• No report.

Academic Affairs – Dee Nichols and Allie Gardner

• The General Education Stewardship Committee reported on new gen ed categories and outcomes. The Committee discussed the academic freedom policies and guidelines brought forward last year. The Committee reviewed  two University Teaching Council updates/proposals (re active learning classroom use and peer course observations). They are also looking at other issues brought by colleagues: identification of UM/UMM classes in the catalog, response rates for online SETs, policies for gen AI in writing intensive courses, and GLEAN notetaking software concerns.
• Dee Nichols noted that the Gen Ed Stewardship Committee met with the College of Engineering and Computing and the Business School to discuss gen ed recommendations and potential impacts in those colleges.

Research & Scholarship – Danielle Levesque and Ben King

• The committee met for the first time on Oct 9th to discuss plans for the year. They will need to coordinate with the SRE teams but are working on a survey of research resources, needs, etc in line with the transition from R2 to R1. We will be looking at what allowed tenured faculty to succeed and what barriers exist to research and student funding on campus.
• The high turnover and lack of experienced personnel in ORA was brought to the administration during the 10/17 meeting with the Executive Committee and Administration as a barrier to grant submission. A more agile office will allow us to respond to more calls.
• Office of Research Compliance updates:
  • The Office of Science and Technology Policy published the long-awaited Research Security Program Guidelines [as required by NSPM-33] on July 9, 2024.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Henri Akono

• The committee met on 10/9/2024 and discussed working steps related to the scholarship pilot motion. They also had some discussion with leaders of SRE working groups #3 (Karissa Tilbury) and #2 (Amanda Klemmer and Deb Allen) and prepared for the FIPC meeting with the administration.
• The committee met with members of the administration (Provost Volin, VP & CBO Sparks, VP Coughlin, and VPR Varahramyan) on Friday 10/11/2024; discussed summer 2024 enrollment and some update on campus infrastructure; also discussed tuition hold (which is a question from a faculty member) from various points of view (budgetary – bad debts; others); there will be further work on this issue.

Environment Committee –Elizabeth Payne and Timothy Waring

• Committee met and discussed zero-carbon initiatives as well as potential for a survey on campus morale. They will prioritize activities at their next meeting.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – MJ Sedlock

• The committee is asking the Provost’s Office to create campus-level procedure for program eliminations so that PCRRC review policy can be written to fit within this.
• The committee is working with VCASA to recommend revisions to APLs relevant to PCRRC work.

Library – Jonathan Barron

• The committee had their first meeting on October 22. Dean Singh presented a detailed outline of her vision for the library, outlined her charge, and the various units over which she presides. She also described such ongoing activities as the Salon Series.  Budget and staffing issues were discussed as well.

Faculty Information Technology Committee

• No report. This committee is still in need of a faculty senator as chair.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – Timothy Bowden

• The committee had their first meeting on October 9th and discussed compiling a list of all UMaine and UMS units that have a DEI component. They also discussed potential physical accessibility issues on both Orono and Machias campuses. Finally, they had a discussion about campus processes since the demise of the Rising Tide Center, with a general consensus that the Rising Tide Center was hugely impactful.

Board of Trustees Representative – Ivan Manev

• No report.

Keegan Tripp, President of Undergraduate Student Government

• Keegan came to introduce himself and briefly discussed goals for collaboration and shared governance between faculty senate and student government. 
• Hazel Sparks introduced herself as the undergraduate student government representative to the faculty senate for this academic year.

Adjourn

Time adjourned: 4:33pm

Prepared by,
Sabrina DeTurk