Draft Minutes 7 May 2025

May 8, 2025 Draft Minutes

Disclaimer: These are draft minutes, which are scheduled for approval at the next open meeting of the University of Maine Faculty Senate.

Attendance

Present:

Senators: Alexis Foster, Allison Gardner, Amanda Klemmer (President), Amber Roth, Colleen Marzilli, Cynthia Isenhour, Danielle Levesque, Derek A. Michaud, Elizabeth Payne, Ellen Hostert, Esther Enright, Ivan Manev, Jack Buttcane, Jay Wason, Jean Henri Akono Ada, Jennifer Perry, Jesse Kaye-Schiess, Jianjun Hao, Karen Beeftink, Kathryn Slott, Keith Berube, Lee Karp-Boss, Liliana Herakova, Matt Hawkyard, Paula Drewniany, Roberto Lopez-Anido, Sabrina DeTurk (Secretary), Sara Lello, Sarah Lindahl, Seth Campbell, Shannon McCoy, Sudarshan Chawathe, Timothy Bowden, Timothy Waring, Todd Zoroya (Vice President), William Nichols, William Otto

Guests: Adam Kirkland, Daisy D. Singh, Degra Allen, Diane Rowland, Ellen Weinauer, Emily Haddad, Ezekiel Kimball, Gabriel Paquette, Hannah Car5ter, James Ward IV, Jason Charland, Jenny Boyden, Kevin Coughlin, Kody Varahramyan, Peter Schilling, Scott Marzilli, W. Sam Carrell

Absent:
Senators: Bashir Khoda, Benjamin L. King, Bill DeSisto, C. Matt Graham, Craig Mason, Garret Lee, Glenda Pereira, Jonathan Barron, Kelly Jaksa, Mahdi Al Badrawi, Manuel Woersdoerfer, MJ Sedlock, Nils Haentjens, Peter Van Walsum, Phillip Dickens, Robert Rice, Rosemary Smith, Steven Kimball, Susan Smith, Tingting Ye, Will Manion

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 3:03pm.

Land Acknowledgement 

Read by Sabrina DeTurk.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from 9 April 2025 were approved with no corrections.

New Business

  1. Resolution to Endorse the Proposed Reorganization of the College of Education and Human Development
    Submitted by: Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee

    The Chair presented the motion on behalf of MJ Sedlock, who could not be present. 

    Discussion:
    Esther Enright spoke in favor of the motion, saying that the process has been open, with many opportunities for feedback both to the Dean of the College of Education and Human Development (EDHD) and to the Provost’s office. The motion is supported internally by faculty within the college and will save EDHD approximately $70,000.
    Vote: Unanimously approved.
  1. Motion to adopt the Big Ten Academic Association’s “Defending Shared Values of Higher Education” with the New England Landgrant preamble 
    Presented by: Timothy Waring 

    Timothy Waring spoke in favor of the motion and offered some background information. He said that the faculty senates of the other New England Land Grant institutions are working towards passing their own versions of this motion in the time left in their academic years.

    Jennifer Perry moved to pass the motion. Derek Michaud seconded the motion.

    Discussion: No discussion.
    Vote: The motion was approved with 1 abstention. 

Updates From the Administration

  • Gabriel Paquette extended a welcome to Jenny Boyden, who will serve as Interim Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Business Officer beginning June 1st. There were no other updates from the administration.
  • Jake Ward, Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development, summarized the ongoing and escalating challenges resulting from a transition in the federal administration. The University of Maine has begun systematically appealing terminated or paused awards across agencies like the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Department of Energy (DOE), AmeriCorps, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and National Science Foundation (NSF). 6+ appeals have already been filed since last Thursday. Major agencies such as DOE and others have instituted 15% caps on payments for indirect costs (also known as facilities and administrative, or F&A, costs). The Trump Administration recently released its proposed budget for next year, which includes cuts that threaten the future of some student support services and programs (like TRIO). UMaine is keeping in close, daily contact with the congressional delegation to exchange information and seek support for affected programs.

Questions of the Administration

Q: Jay Wason asked if this update could be sent out to faculty more regularly. 
A: Jake Ward replied that he would not mind sending updates more regularly, but that information is changing rapidly and quickly becomes obsolete.

Q: Is the administration coming up with a plan to address the 15% cap?
A: Jake replied that Kelly Sparks and her team have been working with the Office of Research Administration to examine financial impacts were the cap to be set at that level. Some entities are exploring alternatives to a 15% cap, but it seems likely that there will be some things that we are not going to be able to do the same way. Jake said that there is not currently a solution to this problem.

Q: A guest of the senate, Michale Lang (Associate Professor of History) asked why President Ferrini-Mundy has not signed the letter from the American Association of Colleges and Universities. 
A: Some executive committee members in the room mentioned that they had posed the same question to the President during a committee meeting earlier in the week. The Chair offered to forward this question to the President to answer directly. Paula Drewniany asked whether the communication could be forwarded along to the rest of the senate. 

Q: Esther Enright asked for an update on student health and wellbeing.
A: Angela Filecci, Director of the Counseling Center, replied that the response of students to recent events has varied widely, with some students exhibiting greater distress than others. Student life and the Counseling Center have partnered with the Office of International Programs to ensure that they are offering the international students the support they might need. LGBTQ+ students are also being impacted in ways that other students might not be impacted, as are graduate students. Angela said they will be pulling more data next week on the individuals that have received services from the Counseling Center.

Q: Lee Karp-Boss asked for more information about recent changes in supporting staff, and asked whether more communications on these changes could be sent to the units.
A: Kody Vararhamyan, Vice President of Research and Dean of the Graduate School, clarified that indeed one person had left and another was on leave. He said that he hopes the staffing issues are temporary, but they are evaluating whether the position that is now vacant will be filled. He said other units are involved and that some aspects of operations go beyond the graduate school.

Q: Matt Hawkyard asked whether the Graduate School could share more information regarding compensation rates for graduate student hires, such as minimum, maximum, and average rates by department.
A: Kody Vararhamyan expressed agreement that more information on rates would be helpful. He clarified that rates are currently frozen due to the collective bargaining, but said that after this is resolved it would be a good idea to start reporting this.

Q: Jennifer Perry asked how changes resulting from collective bargaining will be implemented. For example, will salary changes be communicated to PIs, and will any information be offered on where the money is going to come from?
A: Kody Vararhamyan was reluctant to provide specific details due to rules regarding the collective bargaining process. He assured the senate that there were good people looking at various angles of the process, and clarified that the bargaining is happening at the system level and not specifically with the University of Maine.

Officer & Position Reports

  1. President – Amanda Klemmer

    The Chair congratulated the graduating students and expressed appreciation for the hard work of faculty and staff. She welcomed Joel Farley, the new Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations, and Jenny Boyden, interim Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Business officer. She also issued a thank you to outgoing administrators  John Volin, Kelly Sparks, and Michelle Rogers. The Chair then congratulated the Senate for their work to pass 12 motions this year, and thanked the senators whose terms are concluding. She gave special thanks for the leadership of Todd Zoroya, Ivan Manev, Allison Gardner, Danielle Levesque, and Dee Nichols, who are all leaving the Senate this year.

    Jay Wason proposed creating an award for exceptional service to the senate that could be given out to deserving members in future years. The administrative specialist noted this proposal and will raise it at a future executive committee meeting.
  1. Board of Trustees (BOT) Representative – Ivan Manev

    The BOT Finance, Facilities and Property Committee met on April 16 and April 30. During these meetings, a lot of attention was given to the FY26 budget, which will come before the full Board for a vote on May 19. Data below from the draft FY26 budget:
  • Assumptions:
    • SCH 1.6% growth over FY25 system wide
    • Expansion of YourPace to other campuses
  • Appropriation: increase of $9.58M (4%) + $4M for Paid Family Medical Leave Act
  • Balanced budget: no system reserves will be used
  • UMaine: -$2.1$ in E&G; to be covered by campus reserves ($1.9M and $250K growth in Auxiliary).
  • UMaine tuition increase 2.9% for in-state (both UG and grad) and 3% out of state; mandatory fees 7.7%; room & board 5%
  • Budgeted attrition $1.5M for UMaine; $9.7M UMS

The BOT Academic and Student Affairs Committee met on April 28 and addressed the following:

  • New program proposal: BS in Forest Management from the University of Maine Fort Kent.
  • New program proposal: MS in Digital Marketing Analytics from the University of Southern Maine.
  • … these are the second and third programs recently to move ahead despite concerns from UMaine.

Committee Reports

  1. Academic Affairs Committee – William “Dee” Nichols and Allie Gardner

    Concluded the last meeting in mid April. The student government association has been actively engaged in considering a syllabus bank. Dee was hopeful that the Senate would have an opportunity to hear from the student government, as they deserve to have their voice heard. Dee would like this to happen next year and believes that, despite some concerns about their specific proposal, he believes a compromise is possible.

    General Education Stewardship Committee: Dee and Gabriel Paquette have been trying to find time to meet to discuss changes to course designations with chairs, directors, and associate deans, following recent motions that the Senate approved.

    Dee announced that Jennifer Perry had agreed to chair the Academic Affairs Committee next year. 
  1. Environment Committee – Tim Waring

    The environment committee is working to put forward a revised motion on campus information for immigration actions, with input from the Faculty Senate and Office of International Programs personnel. The committee voted to approve the motion, and President Ferrini-Mundy signaled support for getting students access to information regarding state law and legal resources.
  1. Finance and Institutional Planning Committee – Henri Akono

    Henri met with the senior administration on Friday, April 18.

    Overload analysis presentation (Deb Allen) – There was a lively discussion with various points of view; Spending for distance adjustments has increased 112% since FY18; across units broadly speaking; distribution across faculty rank and gender; whether a campus-wide overload strategy can be crafted; cost components of the overloads vs. contribution margin (CM>0 for about 40% -cautious about inferences at this stage); these were very early conversations; to be continued in Fall 25.

    Enrollments: Report on analyses that examine the potential impact of tariffs on international & Canadian students enrollment (Kevin Coughlin)

    FY26 Budget: $4.6 million additional state appropriation is unlikely to be approved
  1. Information and Technology Committee – Sudarshan Chawathe

    The University’s Information Technology Strategic Council (ITSC) met most recently on April 7. A couple issues raised by faculty (classroom equipment and Google storage limits) were resolved. The committee will meet next on June 12. Items that faculty members would like to raise at the next meeting can be sent to Sudarshan via email. Sudarshan also asked the Senate to consider serving on the Information and Technology Committee.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:06pm.