December 18, 2019
FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
December 18, 2019
Present: David Barrett, David Batuski, Erik Blomberg, Amy Booth, Alice Bruce, Mauricio da Cunha, Paula Drewniany, Phil Dunn, Mark Haggerty, Torsten Hahmann, Sam Hanes, Leonard Kass, Anil Raj Kizha, Sara Lello, Margo Lukens, Natalie Machamer, Molly MacLean, Grant Miles, Patti Miles, William Nichols, Christopher Nightingale, Elizabeth Payne, Nigel Pitt, Deborah Saber, Holly Schreiber, Michael Scott, Howard Segal, David Townsend, Phil Trostel, Peter Van Walsum, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Faye Gilbert Interim Provost, VP Research Kody Varahramyan, Claire Strickland CBO, Robert Dana, Ken Ralph, Chris Lindstrom, Kimberly Whitehead Chief of Staff, Jen Bonnet (PEAC), SuriyaPrakaash LakshmiBalasubramaniam (Grad Stud Gov)
Absent: Donald Beith, Stephanie Burnett, Kristina Cammen, Julie DellaMattera, Nuri Emanetoglu, Per Garder, Emily Haigh, Heather Hamlin, Judith Josiah-Martin, Amanda Klemmer, Colt Knight, Peter Koons, Robson Machado, Robert Meulenberg, Renae Moran, Timothy Reagan, Laura Rickard, Deborah Rogers, Mary “MJ” Sedlock, Mohsen Shahinpoor, John Singer, Kathryn Slott, Sean Smith, Andrew Thomas, Stephanie Welcomer, Mark Wells, Xudong Zheng, Todd Zoroya, Jennifer Chiarell (CEAC), Camryn Hammill (Undergrad Rep)
The meeting was called to order at 3:16 pm
I. Welcome, Announcements and Comments
No announcements.
II. Approval of Minutes
November 20, 2019
Approved with edits.
III. Committee Reports
BOT – Patti Miles
No report.
Academic Affairs – William “Dee” Nichols
Report combined with Gen Ed.
Gen Ed – Subcommittee of Academic Affairs – Sam Hanes
The committee met on the 10th with the Academic Affairs Committee. There was a Provost Forum the previous month with recommendations and plans on creating working groups. In spring semester, a call will be put out for volunteers to work on Gen Ed working groups. The committee would like to encourage people to participate. An email will be sent after the first of the year.
Constitution & Bylaws – Grant Miles
No report.
Research & Scholarship – Sean Smith, Deborah Saber & Nuri Emanetoglu
Met yesterday regarding safety and research. Amanda Ashe and Jeremy Sales were invited to that meeting. Discussed, options, responsibility, safety environment, etc. Amanda said she gets alerted to safety concerns through PARS and refers those concerns to Jeremy. Jeremy spoke on his responsibility and what he does in his department. He provides safety outreach to all UMaine employees, educates managers so they can train their employees, students, etc. There’s a link on the UMS webpage. There will be a meeting Friday with FIPCE, President Ferrini-Mundy and Interim Provost Gilbert.
Q. Do you think this information will help keep undergraduates safe?
A. Jeremy is trying to figure out ways to make things safe with such a huge community.
Q. What about UMaine, do we have our own people?
A. They’re UM System but located here.
Most research institutes have mandatory training. Once in PARS, if it shows risks, it could be followed up from there.
Finance & Institutional Planning – Mauricio da Cunha & Mike Scott
Met with the Research & Scholarship committee to prepare an agenda for Friday’s meeting with the Provost and President.
Institutional planning side, Mike Scott and Alice Bruce are on a committee chaired by former Provost Jeff Hecker that is reviewing the budgeting process.
Concerned with $17 million in cuts, breakdown and what attributed to that. There’s concern on campus and we want to see what exactly it means. Some things don’t seem to match up and also to minimize rumors that go around.
University Environment – Erik Blomberg
The committee met last week with Stewart Harvey, Facilities Director, to discuss the risk of asbestos in labs and offices and quality of drinking water. If someone suspects asbestos in their space they should call the Work Control number at Facilities. Asbestos abatement is worked on year-round on campus assessing any issues. The quality of drinking water on campus, water comes from the Town of Orono and it’s tested in the Union once a month. Hydrants are flushed once a year. Any concerns about water, contact facilities and they can have Orono test the fountains.
Q. With asbestos, you said if someone becomes aware of an issue – how do they become aware?
A. One is if a renovation is scheduled, an assessment is done. Janitorial staff are also trained to spot some issues, i.e., pipes with disrupted asbestos wrapping.
Q. Have they ever done a periodic inspection?
A. In residence halls yes.
Comment: One thing is floor tiles and the protocol is to keep a thick coat of wax on the floors.
Service & Outreach – Colt Knight
No report.
Committee on Committees – Grant Miles
No open requests.
Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Margo Lukens
There’s a motion under New Business. Something else just came through, Student Records in MaineStreet, if a department changes the name of a current major it is technically considered a new program. Just changing the name will trigger the new program process even with no additional resources needed.
Comments: Terminology came in to play. Students wanted to use a concentration as a major and MaineStreet flagged it. Math has made similar changes in previous years by changing designators. And a name change in the major for Statistics did require it to go through PCRRC.
Comments: Discussion on the limited notification before the public hearing and whether the motion should be tabled. It was stated that the program has to move from an undergrad to graduate program. If it’s tabled does that mean the program can’t move forward?
Chris Nightingale stated, the UM System was not happy about UMaine doing the program, they wanted USM and UMPI to have it. If the plan is approved for the other two campuses in January and UMaine comes in later we may not be approved. UMaine must move to an MS to continue. The administration was asked if this is a legitimate concern. Interim Provost Gilbert said the other programs have already been approved. UMaine does want to be part of the collaborative so moving quickly is important. Chris stated that if the program is not approved they’d continue as an undergraduate program but students wouldn’t be able to sit for licensure in 49 of 50 states.
Library Committee – Howard Segal & Robert Rice
The presentation room on the second floor of the Library is up and running. It’s great for students to practice upcoming presentations.
In the ongoing work on Unified Accreditation, the Chancellor wants to reduce duplicates in libraries across the system. System libraries have actually been monitoring this for some time. But if Fogler is expanded to give access across all campuses the estimated cost is between $6 and $7 million. Budget cuts are complete for this year, databases were cut and monographs reduced. There will be an additional cut that will be discussed at the next committee meeting and reported to senate at the February meeting.
Information Technology Committee – Patti Miles
Seventy percent of faculty are currently using the online teaching evaluations. Working on making it work correctly and where comments go. It will link well with Bright Space, the new learning management system. The committee asked Robin to look into current use of software packages. Costs, numbers using, etc. Approx. $150,000 is spent on software packages. Shared services costs have been increasing considerably and the numbers don’t make sense. Claire said she would work with Patti to go over the numbers.
Claire stated that Ryan Lowe has offered to present appropriations and shared services to Faculty Senate.
Ad Hoc Shared Governance
The committee met and looked at current policies. Policies were signed in 2011, a lot of details on how things are/should be done. There is also a statement from the UMaine System. One item is their reference to expediency and figuring exactly what that is.
President Ferrini-Mundy asked if the document would be shared with her. Grant will send her the link.
Reports of Faculty Members on Committees of the Administration
Grant stated he attended a meeting where companies were giving proposals to operate the travel booking portion of CONCUR. There’s a program that runs behind CONCUR for booking and about only 30% currently book travel using it. Discussed was cost savings, waving change fees for some higher fares, etc. There are things going on to help make it more user friendly.
Comments: A few years ago other outlets were less expensive. Grant stated some cost is that travel may have a refundable aspect through CONCUR.
IV. Announcements and Updates from the Administration
President Ferrini-Mundy said Unified Accreditation is still being discussed. The chancellor has put together work teams and moving to campus groups for discussions on faculty governance.
The meeting with NECHE went well. The state has released a 10-year economic development plan. The major focus is on development of talent and students who may remain in Maine. The chancellors note on retention, it was discussed in budget discussions a nd systemwide.
President Ferrini-Mundy visited Oakridge National Lab and stated there is substantial potential for research collaboration there. There was also a meeting with Angus King and Susan Collins regarding proactive work with their offices and areas of expertise to provide information on campus research and give input into policy issues.
Interim Provost Gilbert stated she’s looking forward to next semester working on the Strategic Vision Values and creating metrics. Next semester the 1st Year Student Success Committee will be asked to evaluate to show clearly how things have progressed.
V. Questions of the Administration
Q. With the state’s 10-year plan, is there an opportunity for the University to parallel that plan?
A. President Ferrini-Mundy stated it’s a great idea and should be explored. She said the plan is available online.
Q. Yesterday the Provost Council discussed changing commencement this year. Where does that stand?
A. Assume it’s with PhD graduates.
Comments: The change was based on feedback from the last few years. It has not been announced publicly yet. Dave said changing things at this point could create issues with people’s travel.
Comment: Thanking the administration for making the budget process more transparent.
The Student Symposium has been rescheduled to campus from the Cross Center in Bangor. Friday April 17, activities will be taking place all week. The Vice President for Research stated, if it works out well on campus it will remain here.
VI. Old Business
No old business.
VII. New Business
University of Maine Faculty Senate Motion on
Proposed MS in Athletic Training
December 18, 2019
Motion:
The University of Maine has offered an athletic training education program (ATEP) to its students since the mid-1960s at the baccalaureate level. This program is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). CAATE Standards are changing and will require ATEPs to educate students at the graduate level for graduates to be eligible to sit for the national certification examination (a requirement for licensure to practice athletic training in Maine and most US States) beginning in the fall of 2022, students will no longer be certification exam eligible if they are not matriculated into a graduate degree program. Institutional research shows that the field of athletic training is a growth field with higher than average demand for new athletic trainers in the future. Because of this, the University of Maine School of Kinesiology, Physical Education, and Athletic Training (KPEAT) is seeking to begin a new degree program offering a Master of Science in Athletic Training and to eliminate the present Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training degree via a teach-out process to accommodate present students. The University of Maine System and Board of Trustees are accepting an application from the University of Southern Maine (USM) and the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) seeking to develop their own joint master’s program. The University of Maine College of Education and Development and Provost have been notified that adding the University of Maine to a joint program with overlapping course offerings and curriculum would be welcomed. Because both USM and UMPI see their CAATE accreditations expiring at the end of the present academic year, a joint proposal will be brought forward by these two schools in January seeking BOT approval to develop a program that will begin in the fall of 2020.
The University of Maine proposal includes a 3+2 option for undergraduates from UMPI, USM, or the University of Maine Exercise Science program to complete baccalaureate work and be guaranteed acceptance into the stand-alone UM Master’s program (given successful completion of prerequisite work at a satisfactory level). Additionally, students completing Bachelor’s degrees from any institution (UMS or otherwise) could apply for and be accepted into the UM Master’s program (so long as they meet prerequisite requirements). UM students that enter the 3+2 program will be offered the option to complete a capstone project and additional course work and graduate with a Bachelor’s of Exercise Science degree, if they elect to withdraw from the graduate program upon completion of the third year of the program. Academically rigorous prerequisite coursework would be required of all students, including successful completion of core science courses with minimum grades. Students in the UM Master’s program would be required to complete a thesis as part of program requirements and complete all coursework to satisfy CAATE standards requirements. Projections completed by the School of KPEAT and the Provost’s Office support the belief that annual cohorts of 12-20 could be recruited with minimal new resource requirements (one additional faculty line requested has already been approved).
Given this information, PCRRC recommends that the faculty senate vote to recommend that the School of Kinesiology, Physical Education, and Recreation move forward with its proposal for a Master of Science in Athletic Training degree program.
MOTION: that the School of Kinesiology, Physical Education, and Recreation move forward to create a Master of Science in Athletic Training degree program.
Discussion: Chris Nightingale stated this issue is due to the Athletic Training Board changing to students needing an MS to sit for boards. There’s no need to increase resources if approved, one line was added previously. Current faculty will move to MS program.
Q. Students can transition from BS to MS, will that eliminate the BS?
A. Yes. There would be a concentration, pre-Athletic Training that feeds the MS program.
Q. It was stated that UMaine students can do a 3+2, a capstone of additional work if they withdraw from the MS. Does this mean the BS in Exercise Science is a 3-year program?
A. There will be an offer to continue for a 4th year capstone with additional course work.
Q. If students need an MS to be exam eligible what will they do if they opt for a BS?
A. Options can include occupational therapy, personal trainer, or recreation jobs.
Vote: Approved unanimously.
Adjourned 4:30 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Grant Miles
Prepared by Kim Junkins