12 February 2025

February 12, 2025 Minutes


Attendance

Present:

Senators: Allison Gardner, Amanda Klemmer, Amber Roth, Colleen Marzilli, Danielle Levesque, Derek A. Michaud, Ivan Manev, Jack Buttcane, Jean Henri Akono Ada, Jesse Kaye-Schiess, Jianjun Hao, Jonathan Barron, Kathryn Slott, Kelly Jaksa, Lee Karp-Boss, Matt Hawkyard, MJ Sedlock, Nils Haëntjens, Paula Drewniany, Sara Lello, Timothy Waring, William Nichols, Benjamin L. King, Cynthia Isenhour, Ellen Hostert, Glenda Pereira, Jay Wason, Karen Beeftink, Liliana Herakova, Manuel Woersdoerfer, Rosemary Smith, Sabrina DeTurk, Sarah Lindahl, Seth Campbell, Shannon McCoy, Sudarshan Chawathe, Timothy Bowden, Todd Zoroya, Will Manion, William Otto

Guests: Andrea Gifford, Angela Fileccia, Daisy D. Singh, Debra Allen, Diane Rowland, Ellen Weinauer, Emily Haddad, Ezekiel Kimball, Giovanna Guidoboni, Gabriel Paquette, Hannah Carter, James Ward IV, Jason Charland, Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Karen Pelletreau, Kelly Sparks, Kody Varahramyan, Megan Walsh, Peter Schilling, Ryan Weatherbee, Scott Marzilli, W. Sam Carrell

Absent: 

Senators: Aaron Putnam, Alexis Foster, Amy Booth, Bashir Khoda, Bill DeSisto, C. Matt Graham, Craig Mason, Elizabeth Payne, Esther Enright, Garret Lee, Jennifer Perry, Keith Berube, Mahdi Al Badrawi, Peter Van Walsum, Phillip Dickens, Robert Rice, Roberto Lopez-Anido, Steven Kimball, Susan Smith, Tingting Ye

Welcome & Announcements

  • Sara Lello opened the meeting with the Land Acknowledgement.
  • EVPAA/Provost search has launched; Amanda is co-chairing with Habib Dagher
  • The UM System has launched a website with updates about issues related to the Federal Government transition
  • Capital projects website has been launched; VP Sparks provided the information that one part is to make requests and the other is to provide updates on what is happening
  • Amanda noted that Presidential Awards nominations are due this week
  • Amanda encouraged faculty members to sign up to attend Commencement this year

Announcements and Updates from Administration

  • President Ferrini-Mundy announced that the State of the University address will be on March 6 and the Board of Trustees meeting will be on campus on March 10.
  • Associate Provost Paquette also encouraged the submission of nominations for the presidential awards and faculty attendance at Commencement
  • VP Sparks announced that at the next Space Committee meeting they will be reviewing the annual call requests for facilities projects

Questions of Administration

  • Jay Wason asked for an update on the status of heating problems in Nutting Hall; VP Sparks said that she was not currently aware of the issue and will follow up with Jay and other affected faculty
  • MJ Sedlock raised a concern that Facilities staff are encouraged to move slowly on projects to increase billable hours; VP Sparks explained that she is working with Facilities to discourage that practice and to move towards preventative maintenance and to ensure that preventative maintenance is not charged as a billable expense
  • A senator online raised a question about the recent cap on NIH indirect rates and asked for comment on that; President Ferrini-Mundy encouraged faculty to refer to the UM System website for updates on these and similar issues. Maine was one of the states to seek a temporary restraining order against this change, which has now been paused. Faculty should continue their work and contact Chris Boynton in the Office of Research Administration with any questions.
  • Allie Gardner raised a question about replacement of motor pool vehicles and whether a reduction in the fleet will have a negative impact on faculty and students. VP Sparks responded that she has asked for a strategy to electrify the UMaine fleet and to conduct a usage study to inform that strategy. She will follow up to ensure that this process is not holding up purchases that would be needed to facilitate faculty and student work, particularly summer research projects.
  • Ben King raised concerns about changes and instability in the NIH and asked when we might first notice if there would be changes to our receipt of funds through our regular billing processes. Both President Ferrini-Mundy and VP Varahramyan noted that no changes have been identified yet, that their offices will communicate as soon as any information is forthcoming, and asked that faculty keep the lines of communication open.
  • Kathy Slott raised a question about whether the University is still recycling. VP Sparks stated that we are and that she will communicate with facilities staff to ensure that they understand this.
  • Nils Haëntjens raised a question about the supercomputer at UMaine now being a fee-for-service and asked whether any other research services/tools are likely to move from free to paid. VP Varahramyan explained that this change was made to align with best practices for CORE services and that there is an intention to keep rates reasonable. The VPR Office is also open to assisting faculty who may need to use such services but do not have sufficient start-up or other funds to do so.
  • Lee Karp-Boss raised a question about support for facilities such as the supercomputer when they are realigned to ARC-SIM and CORE. VP Varahramyan acknowledged that we need to work with the UM System to ensure that we have sufficient staff for these systems.

Update on SRE Process

  • President Ferrini-Mundy explained that after information from SRE Phases II and III was received she, in conjunction with the senior administration, narrowed down to four main areas that would be explored in greater depth and established SRE Implementation Groups around those areas:
    • Academic Portfolio Review
    • Research Portfolio Review
    • Administrative Structure
    • Materials Science/Workforce Development/Manufacturing
  • The leaders of each group (Associate Provost Paquette for academics, VP Varahramyan for research, VP Sparks for administration, VP Ward for manufacturing and materials) provided a brief update on the work of each implementation group.
  • Tim Waring asked if this round of reports would be made available for review. President Ferrini-Mundy replied that she still needs to read and review them first before deciding what is made public. Tim followed up with concerns about the constitution and charge of the SRE Implementation Groups and lack of transparency around those. President Ferrini-Mundy acknowledged that there has been less communication around this than desired but that the transition in Washington has been commanding substantial attention and detracting from other tasks. She is working to provide an explanation of what is currently being done in the SRE IG’s, identifying who the members are, and putting together a steering group to coordinate and seek feedback.

New Business

  • December 18, 2024 minutes were approved.
  • A motion from the Senate Board of Trustees Representative, Ivan Manev, to request that the Board of Trustees include a report from the faculty representative(s) as a standing item on its meeting agenda was approved.
  • A motion from the Academic Affairs Committee that the Faculty Senate support the policy and procedural recommendations of the Task Force on Credit for Prior Learning was approved.
  • A motion from the Academic Affairs Committee that the Faculty Senate support the recommendations of the University Teaching Council Task Force on Formative Course Observations was approved.
  • A motion from the Academic Affairs Committee that the Faculty Senate support the guidelines of the University Teaching Council Task Force on Generative AI syllabus language was approved.
  • A motion from the Academic Affairs Committee that the Faculty Senate support the guidelines of the University Teaching Council Task Force on Orientation to Active Learning Classrooms was approved.

Committee Updates

Committee on Committees – Esther Enright

  • No report.

Academic Affairs – Dee Nichols and Allie Gardner

  • Dee Nichols announced that there is a new deadline (2/27) for General Education Categories, Single Designation and Policies Update. The committee sent the following instructions for carrying out this work:
  1. Familiarize yourself, in collaboration with your department colleagues, the courses in your department carrying Gen Ed designations. Most of these courses may be found here.
  2. As part of this review, pay particular attention to the courses carrying more than one designation. If you and your colleagues believe that the courses should retain a maximum of two designations, please justify that decision in the comment section. Otherwise, please indicate which of the designations will be removed. This link directs you to a folder with the documents needed to engage in the course designation work. You will find Gen Ed courses that were taught in fall 2024 broken out by college. 
  3. Examine the proposed revised categories and learning outcomes on the courses carrying a Gen Ed designation and offer feedback to the Stewardship Committee where you see anything that is confusing or needs refinement. Our recommendation is to meet with faculty in your unit and complete this form. This form should walk you through the proposed changes to categories, outcomes and policies

We requested that chairs and faculty submit feedback on the proposed revised categories and learning outcomes via the form. 

  • At their January and February meetings the committee will discuss the Accreditation Process for Early College and also examine changes on unified catalog.

Research & Scholarship – Danielle Levesque and Ben King

  • Danielle Levesque announced that the committee will be meeting with Gabe Paquette, Associate Provost of Academic Affairs & Faculty Development on the 19th to discuss resources and support for faculty balancing research and teaching.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Henri Akono

  • Henri Akono shared that a draft of a motion for Re-examination of the UMaine Research Enterprise Structure has been circulated to senators and that feedback is currently being solicited.
  • The committee is starting to review and discuss budgetary information. 
  • They are planning for the upcoming  meeting with the administration scheduled for 2/21.

Environment Committee –Elizabeth Payne and Timothy Waring

  • Tim Waring shared that a draft of a motion to Affirm our Support of the Diverse Campus Community has been circulated to senators and that feedback is currently being solicited.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – MJ Sedlock

  • No report; the committee continues to wait for updates from Provost’s office on creation of a campus-level program elimination process. She requested feedback and suggestions from senators on how to proceed to propose a functional process that could be voted on this semester.

Library – Jonathan Barron

  • No report.

Faculty Information Technology Committee – Sudarshan Chawathe

  • No report.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – Timothy Bowden

  • Tim Bowden reported that the committee discussed support for neurodivergent students, and for advisors/instructors working with such students. It is clear that UMaine lacks the infrastructure, often present at other institutions, to effectively deal with varied student populations (we need a new vocabulary in response to recent issues).
  • Federal edicts impacting DEI will require us to change our approach in order to circumvent suppression of DEI.
  • The committee is still working on developing a motion for universal design

Board of Trustees Representative – Ivan Manev

  • See above regarding a motion proposed by Ivan Manev.
  • No additional report.

Faculty Governance Committee – Bill DeSisto

  • No report. 

Adjourn

Time adjourned: 4:42 pm

Prepared by,
Sabrina DeTurk