Draft Minutes 11 March 2026

March 16, 2026 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: Henri Akono, Dean Astumian, Jonathan Barron, Karen Beeftink, Keith Berube, Amy Booth (Nicholas May), Timothy Bowden, Seth Campbell (Aaron Putnam), Erin P. Carter, Matthew Chatfield, Bill DeSisto, Paula Drewniany, Sara Flanagan, Kathleen Gillon, William Gramlich, Michael Grillo, Jianjun Hao, Nils Haëntjens, Matt Hawkyard, Liliana Herakova, Ellen Hostert, Kelly Jaksa, Lauren Jacobs, Lee Karp-Boss, Benjamin L. King, Steven Kimball, Amanda Klemmer (non-voting), Eric Landis, Sarah Lindahl, Roberto Lopez-Anido, Will Manion, Colleen Marzilli, Craig Mason, Brian McGill, Robert Meulenberg, Grant Miles, Derek Michaud, Jennifer Perry, Danielle Pelletier, Amber Roth, MJ Sedlock, Camerin Seigars, Kathryn Slott, Ek Han Tan, Timothy Waring, Jay Wason III, Vince Weaver

Guests: Debra Allen, Will Biberstein, Brenn Borror, Jenny Boyden, Jason Charland, Sabrina DeTurk, Scott Delcourt, Carter Emerson, Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Angela Fileccia, Andrea Gifford, Abigail Goodspeed, Giovanna Guidoboni, Emily Haddad, Jason Harkins, Ellen Hostert, Jude Killy, Ezekiel Kimball, Adam Kirkland, Nicole Lawrence, Scott Marzilli, Gabriel Paquette, Diane Rowland, Peter Schilling, Daisy Singh, James Ward IV, Ryan Weatherbee, Ellen Weinauer

Absent:

Senators: Jack Buttcane, Sudarshan Chawathe, Phillip Dickens, Heather Falconer, Alexis Foster, C. Matt Graham, Greg Howard, Bashir Khoda, Shannon McCoy, William Otto, Glenda Pereira, Susan Smith

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 3:07 pm. The land acknowledgement was read by Sen. Seigars.

Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the previous Open Senate meeting on February 11, 2026 were approved with no revisions.

Announcements

President Amanda Klemmer announced the nominees for Senate President (Sen. Henri Akono, Sen. Brian McGill), Vice President (Sen. Colleen Marzilli, Sen. MJ Sedlock), and Secretary. President Klemmer called for additional nominations, particularly for the Secretary position. The following announcements were also made:

  • Request for faculty volunteers at the 2026 commencement ceremonies
  • Announcement of the free parenting awareness fair and car seat installation on Saturday, March 28 from 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM in the Belgrade Parking Lot
  • The Elected Members Committee will convene following a brief recess at 4:30 PM to discuss potential actions related to faculty concerns regarding Presidential leadership at UMaine.
  • The Administration announced the appointment of Shaleen Jain as the new Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and the promotion of Debra Allen to Associate Provost for Institutional Research and Assessment. President Ferrini-Mundy also announced two new searches would soon commence for the positions of 1) Dean of Students and 2) Vice President for Finance and Administration & Chief Business Officer.

Questions of the Administration

In response to a request made by President Ferrini-Mundy about enrollment yield rates, Sen. Weaver expressed that as a father of an accepted but-not-yet committed student, it is difficult for him to recommend that his child, or any other high school seniors, attend UMaine because of a lack of confidence in the administration’s ability to guarantee a good learning environment over the next four years. He also expressed a lack of confidence that tuition dollars would be spent in a fiscally responsible fashion. The administration thanked Sen. Weaver for his comment. 

Sen. Gramlich asked about administrative costs associated with the critical hire process and whether there was a plan in place to start moving away from this process. Jake Ward IV, Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Resources and Engagement, responded that the critical hire process has allowed for greater information sharing and coordination regarding the allocation of University resources. President Ferrini-Mundy said the administration would be interested in reconsidering how to improve the process later this year, after summer hiring is complete. Sen. Sedlock drew attention to redundancies in the critical hire process and recommended that it be streamlined, especially for seasonal/periodic positions. The administration reiterated that the funding landscape is complex, with many different sources, and that continued assessment of threats to funding will be necessary moving forward.

Sen. McGill expressed concern that a continued and protracted hiring freeze will negatively impact academic excellence at UMaine. He asked the administration to provide clarity on its plans to address this issue. President Ferrini-Mundy and Provost Paquette clarified that there are still positions being filled (including replacements and adjuncts) but that these processes are more tightly controlled by the college and unit level. Coming up with a long-term solution will require community conversation informed by the results of the individual colleges’ academic portfolio review processes. Provost Paquette offered to work with Associate Provost Allen to compile faculty hiring data (part- and full-time) over the past ten years, which could be shared with the Finance and Institutional Planning Committee of the Senate and then with the broader Senate. Sen. McGill thanked the administration and urged them to also consider the hiring of staff as well as faculty.

New Business

Five motions were proposed by various committee chairs and discussed by the full Senate:

SM 2605: Resolution Regarding Evaluation of a Per-Credit-Hour Fee Model for Artificial Intelligence Tools 

Submitted by the Faculty Information Technology Committee

Sen. Marzilli (Co-Chair of the Faculty Information Technology Committee) read the motion aloud for the Senate. There was no discussion. The motion was approved unanimously.

Supporting documentation for the motion can be found here.

SM 2606: Resolution Regarding Use of Ally for Title II Compliance and Protection of Faculty Intellectual Property

Submitted by the Faculty Information Technology Committee

Sen. Marzilli read the motion aloud for the Senate. Sen. McGill spoke in favor of the motion and noted that both SM 2606 and SM 2605 are being proposed in response to decisions that have already been made without faculty consultation. The motion was approved unanimously.

SM 2607: Motion to Request Administrative Guidance and Fiscal Support for Graduate Worker Contract Implementation

Submitted by the Research and Scholarship Committee

Secretary Wason (Co-Chair of the Research and Scholarship Committee) read the motion aloud for the Senate. There was no discussion. The motion was approved with one abstention.

SM 2608: Resolution to Endorse the Proposal to Eliminate the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) Spanish

Submitted by the Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee

Sen. Sedlock (Co-Chair of the Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee) presented the motion. Sen. Jacobs expressed concern that elimination would result in there being no graduate-level Spanish program in the entire University of Maine System. A friendly amendment was made adding the following sentence to the “rationale” section of SM 2608: “While this does not change our decision, we do find it regrettable that the elimination of this degree results in there being no graduate-level Spanish program in the entire University of Maine System.”

SM 2608 was approved with two abstentions.

SM 2609: Resolution to Endorse the Proposal to suspend bachelor’s degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences in the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences

Submitted by the Program Creation and Reorganization Review Committee

Sen. Sedlock presented SM 2609 and outlined the program suspension process. Sen. Waring commented that future programs that are under consideration for elimination should be suspended instead as this process is cost-free and allows the University to retain the program for up to three years in the event that it is needed in the future.

SM 2609 was approved with three abstentions.

Committee Reports

Various standing committees gave oral reports, which did not differ substantially from their written reports. Written committee reports can be found on the faculty senate website.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 4:02pm.