November 18, 2015

DRAFT FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
November 18, 2015

Present: John Allen, Dean Astumian, Eisso Atzema (for Paula Drewniany), Bob Bayer, Erik Blomberg, Tony Brinkley, Dick Brucher, Mauricio da Cunha, Farahad Dastoor, Amy Fried, Michael Grillo, Marie Hayes, Zhihe Jin, Leonard Kass, Robert Lilieholm, Sara Lindsay, Patti Miles, William Nichols, Michael Peterson, Charles Rote, Jonathan Rubin, Thomas Sandford, Michael Scott, Howard Segal, Mary Shea, Kathryn Slott, Andrew Thomas, David Townsend, Shihfen Tu, Clayton Wheeler, President Susan Hunter, Jeff Hecker, Carol Kim, Piper Black (Grad Stud Gov)

Absent: Jason Bolton, Sandy Butler, Sudarshan Chawathe, Laura Cowan, Scott Dunning, Thane Fremouw, Jason Harkins, Scott Johnson, Jordan LaBouff, David Marcinkowski, Grant Miles, Sidney Mitchell, Brian Olsen, Deborah Rogers, Allan Smith, Owen Smith, Mona Therrien, Mark Wells, Robert Strong, Bonita Grindle (PEAC), Peter C. Altmann (CEAC), Austin Madden (Stud. Gov.)

The meeting was called to order at 3:20 pm

I. Welcome, Announcements and Comments:

II. Approval of Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of Ocotber 21, 2014 will be available at the December Full Senate meeting.

III. Committee Reports
BOT Rep – Patti Miles
The BOT Academic Affairs committee discussed the UMaine academic calendar change; the student survey was presented during that meeting. The BOT voted to change spring break at UMaine. Several things were discussed including an enrollment report. One topic was Outcomes Based Funding and how UMaine receives more for transfer students. The Health Care Audit saved the System approximately $525,000 and the Windmill Project received $3.7 million.

The State of IT report showed a need of $17 million (350 classrooms) and infrastructure of $24 million to support wireless. There will be a detailed plan by January.

Discussion: Someone asked about being scheduled to teach in rooms with no projectors and IT stating it will be a year before any projectors are available. Cindy Mitchell continues to work on complaints and IT is trying to be transparent and get any issues taken care of. Contact Cindy regarding any issues.

The Unified Online proposal was changed and comments from the Academic Affairs committee were incorporated.

Academic Affairs – Marie Hayes
The committee has scheduled a meeting for December 9. The discussion will include Unified Online and planning for a presentation from Monique LaRocque.

Constitution & Bylaws – Mike Scott
No report.

Research & Scholarship – Scott Johnson & Mauricio de Cunha
No report.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Grant Miles & Jonathan Rubin
No report.

University Environment – Tom Sandford & David Townsend
The committee met with Peter Schilling regarding innovation and teaching standards and the process for changes. It was suggested that the student evaluation form include a line, or two, for student comment regarding classroom conditions.

Library Advisory – Robert Rice & Howard Segal
The committee met yesterday and discussed the implementation of One University and students taking classes from other campuses not having database access. It would be costly to open access. Bob said there are 205 databases at UMaine, 95 at USM, and 35 at UMaine Machias. To expand access would cost approximately $10 million, based on FTE. This access issue needs to be addressed in the planning for Unified Online and One University.

Service & Outreach – Jason Bolton
No report.

Committee on Committees – Executive Committee
No report.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Sid Mitchell
No report.

General Education – David Townsend
The committee met with George Criner regarding the Gen Ed Transfer Block. Jeff Hecker mentioned discussions are currently taking place with the Community College System. Analyses were done a couple years ago showing a student transferring from a community college did as well as students starting college at UMaine.

The winter term has 550 students registered, Mick stated engineering students are happy having winter term. It was asked what the additional $25 fee was for. The money is partly to support tech and Peter Schilling.

How will the winter term help students graduate early when the credits are counted in the spring semester? It was stated that it needed to be done that way due to Financial Aid rules and that winter term is to catch students up if they take fewer than 15 credit hours in a semester.

Ad Hoc IT – Michael Scott & Patti Miles
The committee will be meeting soon, currently plan on Dick Thompson attending the meeting. Discussions will include UMaine having input into the IT Initiative.

Ad Hoc Shared Governance – Michael Grillo
The committee has met a couple of times and the plan is to have each committee member from particular colleges speak with senators in that college. There is still one college needing representation on the committee. The committee would also like to find out what Committees of the Administration there are and have faculty on them so there will be shared governance in that area as well.

Ad Hoc Sexual Discrimination
No report.

Ad Hoc Committee of the Provost on Faculty Development – Mike Scott
Provost Hecker indicated that there are different committees and offices currently looking at faculty development.  The Provost is working to have this centralized so that it is easier to get the information needed. Question/Comment:  It seems we have institutional ways to help individual faculty members rather than really helping to develop the faculty as a whole. Question/Comment: Online courses are delivered mostly by adjuncts and by regular faculty on overload;  this is counter-productive to promoting research.

IV. Questions of the Administration
Q. In regards to the calendar and two-week break, who has control?
A. Other Land Grants don’t have a two-week break. The process of input from students and faculty was discussed at the Chief Academic Officers (CAO) meeting and a recommendation was made. Of the six campuses, UMaine is the only campus that is different. UMaine Augusta’s consideration was that they had a lot of students with children. Alternative Spring Break can be done in a week. There will be one-week break in March.

Q. On Veteran’s Day there were no classes unless the class met only one day a week. Some students were upset they didn’t get the day off. One student said he was involved in a campus activity and needed to leave before class was over. Buildings weren’t unlocked and the office to scan tests was also closed. Why were UMaine Veterans activities scheduled on every other day except Veterans Day?
A. It was a week of veteran’s celebrations, the actual day was for people to participate in activities elsewhere. The 11:30 event the student was talking about was a dedication for a fallen soldier. Logistics will need to be worked out in the future.

Q. Regarding signature, emerging, and foundation [ADD] courses; has foundation been rolled out?
A. Math, Chemistry, and Physics have been rolled out.

Q. We were told to do Gen Ed through Foundation and that there would be a balance. Then we find that’s not so.
A. Math, Chemistry, and Physics are all Gen Ed. These courses feed the growing programs at UMaine.
Comment: I thought there’d be a more equitable distribution. We need to be strategic with the resources available.
We would like more transparency and collaborativeness about the priorities concerning the budget and academic programs.

Q. What about ENG 101?
A. That’s being worked on but Math is currently the biggest problem.

Q. There was a questionnaire last summer to faculty and staff from UM System regarding changes that were going on. Were the results released?
A. Provost Hecker said he had no idea what happened to it but he’d try to find out.

Q. While registering a student, is there someone/someplace we can direct them when they have issues relating to financial aid etc.?
A. Dr. Dana, there is an Ombudsman that can help or direct students.

Q. Concerning the Human Resources net incremental budget: the money we had in the budget before to pay for services like Human Resources and IT has been taken away and given to the System, but now we are being billed for those same services.
A. President Hunter said Ryan Low will give a presentation on Dec. 7, regarding Unified Financials.

V. Old Business
None

VI. New Business
None

Adjourned at 4:55 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Kathryn Slott

Prepared by Kim Junkins