April 28, 2010

FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
April 28, 2010
Present: Andrei Alyokhin, Jason Bolton, Douglas Bousfield, Rodney Bushway, Joe Carr, Fei Chai, Ted Coladarci, William Congleton, Robert Dana, Michael Eckardt, Catherine Elliott, Janet Fairman, Robert Franzosa, Per Garder, Michael Grillo, William Halteman, Kirsten Jacobson, Deborah Killam, Dennis King, Irv Kornfield, Judy Kuhns-Hastings, Kathleen March, Stuart Marrs, Craig Mason, Sid Mitchell, David Morrison, Harlan Onsrud, Tina Passman, Paul Rawson, Robert Rice, Steven Sader, Dan Sandweiss, Michael Scott, Evelyn Silver, Phillip Silver, Kathryn Slott, Susan lambrecht Smith, Claire Strickland, Shihfen Tu, Janet Waldron, Stephanie Welcomer, Mark Wells, Nate Wildes, Xuijie Xue.
Absent: Dan Belknap, Thomas Brann, Charis Campbell, Steve Cohn, Raphael DiLuzio, Cynthia Erdley, Susan Erich, Todd Gabe, Duane Hanselman, Cary Jenson, Michael Kinnison, Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, Karl Kreutz, Larry Latour, Jim McClymer, Howard Patterson, Justin Poland, Touradj Solouki, Roy Turner, Vivian Wu.

The meeting opened at 3:15 pm.

Senate President Kuhns-Hastings announced that discussions regarding the common calendar has been postponed until after January. She also announced that she had sent a letter to Todd Saucier regarding the budget cuts and had received a reply.
The minutes from the March 31, 2010 senate meeting were approved.

Committee Reports:
Board of Trustees Rep – Dr. Robert Rice
The next BOT meeting will be in mid-May at UMFK. No agenda had been sent yet. The BOT is promoting Bond Referendums #1 and #2. Bond question 1 pertains to wind energy and energy improvements. 15,000 jobs anticipated. The bond is for 26.5 million dollars. Bond question 2 pertains to stimulating economic development, research and development processes, and substantial investment in the Brunswick Naval Air Station.
Academic Affairs – Dr. Tina Passman
There is a resolution on today’s agenda regarding academic forgiveness and transcript evaluation processes. These will be voted on at the May 26 senate meeting. The committee is proposing a new policy that would bring us more in line with other land grant universities. She thanked Ted Coladarci and Phil Pratt for the information they have provided the committee in giving the committee names of faculty that teach the majority of certain gen eds. A survey will be sent to those faculty identified.
Constitution & Bylaws – Dr. Michael Grillo
No report.
Research & Scholarship – Dr. Janet Fairman
The committee is working on 3 initiatives. The return of end cost, a small portion returns to a small number of professors who receive large grants. The committee is developing a list of successful grant
professors hoping they will volunteer to serve on a panel in the fall semester for a half-day session surrounding methods and tips on how to submit a successful grant proposal. The committee would also like for these people to review grant proposals before they are submitted. Dr. Fairman also handed out a survey that was sent to all graduate coordinators asking what they need for scholarly research. 49 of 66 graduate areas responded. One major focus was finding ways to lower the cost of specified software. Some programs are available free of charge, but come companies only allow free programs on either faculty or student or computer cluster computers. Some programs are only free for a limited time.
Dr. Kornfield stated that this information would be valuable to the new Ad Hoc IT Committee. Dr. Fairman stated that IT would send out a survey asking if departments were still using software that had been obtained by IT.
Finance Committee – Dr. Craig Mason
No Report.
Environment Committee – Dr. Dan Belknap
No Report.
Library Advisory Committee – Dr. Howard Segal
No Report.
Service & Outreach Committee – Debroah Killam
The committee will meet on May 5.
Committee on Committees – Dr. Shihfen Tu
The committee is gathering nominees to serve on the presidential search committee. They are also looking for people to serve on the presidential teaching award committee.
Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Dr. Harlan Onsrud
There are no new program proposals, no proposals for closing programs and no proposals for reorganization at this time.
Student Government – Nate Wildes
Ben Goodman, a student senator, has been approved to serve as student representative on the Board of Trustees. Nate Wildes and Katie Foster will serve on the presidential search committee.
Association of Graduate Students – Jason Bolton
The AGS held its election, James Dupree will serve at president next year. He also announced that the Graduate Student Expo would be held in two days and encouraged everyone to attend.
Judy Kuhns-Hastings stated that the senate has a list of names of people willing to serve on the presidential search committee, Craig Mason, Robert Rice, Stephanie Welcomer, Harlan Onsrud, Dan Belknap, Roy Turner and Catherine Elliott from Cooperative Extension. Someone questioned the method of how these people were nominated. Judy said that the senate would send out a request to all faculty for other names to serve on the committee.
Discussion with Administrators:
Michael Grillo asked President Kennedy when the final recommendation from Provost Hunter would be released. Dr. Kennedy answered that he would be addressing the campus community on Tuesday, May
4 at 10 a.m. at the Collins Center. He would also address the reinstatement of funds from the State of Maine at the time also.
Stephanie Welcomer asked Janet Waldron about the bond that would provide funds for renovation of the Field House, would these funds be on our balance sheet or the state’s? Janet replied that we are issued the bond on a 10 year term, the state gives us $850 thousand a year to pay down the principal and interest of the bond. This works to our advantage on our financial statement.
Craig Mason stated that is would be good to get rid of asbestos in the Field House. Will other buildings on campus be looked at also? Janet said that we try to assess and evaluate whatever the issues are. Any concerns should be reported.
A question was asked why the Field House was a priority. Kathryn Slott said that 10 years ago the Athletic Advisory Board identified the field house as its number one priority, there were a number of reasons why it was negotiated away from the bond that year. She also pointed out that it isn’t just members of the campus who use the field house. There are a lot of people from the community who use it and there are other events held there such as the annual Sportman’s Show, Craft Fair, etc. Bob Kennedy said that the legislature is interested and receptive to health and safety issues, such as the Center for the Arts and Aubert Hall projects.
Stephanie Welcomer asked how the numbers were looking for the fall semester, accepted and confirmed students. Stuart Marrs said that we are down 5% on confirmations. Sue Hunter also stated that we have better numbers at this point in time than we did last year at this time. The phoning campaign and the accepted students’ day were very successful. Bob Kennedy pointed out that other universities in New England are experiencing something similar to what we are. May 1 is the date for confirming.
Nate Wildes asked if Hilltop Dorms were being shut down because of low enrollment. Janet Waldron said no.
Kathryn Slott asked if the low number of confirms was due to APPWG. Stuart Marrs replied that applications are up 7% and acceptances are up 4%. AAPWG did not drive away prospective students. Sue Hunter also pointed out that our application numbers were up three years in a row, but last fall we were down 317 applications, APPWG did not affect that number.
Tina Passman asked if there was going to be another APPWG process next year, is this just the beginning or are we done. Bob Kennedy said the process is done.
Sid Mitchell asked about the numbers of returning students. Claire Strickland replied that we are a bit ahead of last year. We are seeing more graduate students than last year. We seem to be retaining students better than in the past.