February 1, 2017

DRAFT FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
February 1, 2017

Present: Bob Bayer, Jason Bolton, Erik Blomberg, Emmanuel Boss, Tony Brinkley, Laura Cowan, Mauricio da Cunha, Farahad Dastoor, Paula Drewniany, Scott Dunning, Thane Fremouw, Per Garder, Michael Grillo, Chris Grindrod for Nancy Hall, Sam Hanes, Zhihe Jin, Leonard Kass, David Kress, Jordan LaBouff, David Marcinkowski, George Markowsky, Patti Miles, Sidney Mitchell, William Nichols, Clint Relyea, Bob Rice, Deborah Rogers, Deborah Saber, Michael Scott, Kathryn Slott, David Townsend, Shihfen Tu, Mark Wells, Clayton Wheeler, President Susan Hunter, Provost Jeff Hecker, Jen Bonnet (PEAC), Brian Preziosi (Grad Stud Gov)

Absent: John Allen, Dean Astumian, Sudarshan Chawathe, Amy Fried, Jason Harkins, Peter Koons, Brian McGill, Grant Miles, Brian Olsen (sabbatical), Howard Segal, John Singer, Owen Smith, Mona Therrien, Andrew Thomas, Gail Werrbach, Carol Kim, Peter C. Altmann (CEAC), Hashim Allah (Stud. Gov.)

The meeting was called to order at 3:20 pm

I.  Welcome, Announcements and Comments:
A survey will be done of freshman and senior students. The survey will gather information on how students perceive their time on campus. The University Credit Union has pledged $1 for each participant, up to $1500.

II.  Approval of Minutes
December 14, 2016
Approved

III. Committee Reports
BOT Rep – Patti Miles
The BOT met this past weekend. BOT Reps met with the Chancellor regarding a document to be drafted listing duties of campus reps, it will be distributed for everyone to view. BOT Reps are appointed to represent faculty not their own views. One duty will be to pole faculty regarding their thoughts. During the meeting there was public comment regarding UMaine Machias, the Board of Visitors want to keep Machias a viable campus. All campuses need to work on financial stability. The Vice Chancellor spoke about fixing problems identified through APRIP. Machias enrollment is down 11% in the last five years, the partnership with UMaine will help maintain four-year degrees.

Q. Are there new BOT members?
A. Bonnie Newsome has stepped down; she’s becoming a faculty member. President Hunter stated there are a couple new BOT members and an open seat.

Academic Affairs – Michael Grillo
The Infosilm results are in with 24 responses. Infosilm works because of Kim Page, Roberta Hussey, etc. There will be a motion today under New Business.

Constitution & Bylaws – David Townsend
The committee met to go over a draft resolution regarding the Faculty Senate Constitution. The question of how to accommodate adjunct faculty and if they need to be full-time or if part-time can be considered. Also discussed, the number of faculty members per college. Some language needs to be cleaned up. Provost Hecker stated, The Maine Business School functions as a college, Honors College does also.

Research & Scholarship – Emmanuel Boss & Mauricio de Cunha
The committee had approximately 18 surveys come back. The committee hopes to work on it over the next week and send to senators. There will be a resolution addressing the importance of research; it is being worked on for a later meeting.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Grant Miles
The committee met with Claire Strickland in advance of the upcoming budget presentation. Grant Miles encourages people to log on to the President’s website to see the presentation and make comments.

Service & Outreach – Jason Bolton
The committee met with President Hunter regarding a mission statement. It was determined that a review and assessment of Blue Sky would be a better use of time. The committee will look at Blue Sky to be sure points are being met. President Hunter commented that it was a great meeting and she looks forward to the next meeting.

Committee on Committees – Michael Grillo
There are currently no open committees, over the next year there may be many due to strategic plans and NEASC.

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Sid Mitchell
No report.

General Education – Farahad Dastoor & David Townsend
The committee will start regular meetings shortly. The committee did meet with Provost Hecker and Jeff St. John regarding assessment of outcomes. The committee still needs additional members.

Q.  Since the committee needs additional members, how many?
A.  We can use additional members but not so many that it becomes difficult to schedule meetings. There currently isn’t a member from Engineering.

Ad Hoc IT – Michael Scott & Patti Miles
No report.

Ad Hoc Shared Governance – Jason Harkins
The committee met last week and continues to create a survey to bring to the next elected members meeting.

University Environment – Kathryn Slott & Clint Relyea
The committee is setting up a meeting next week. Patti did a survey, 188 responses will be passed on to the ITSC.

Reports of Faculty Members on Committees of the Administration
No report.

IV.  Announcements and Updates from the Administration
The search committee for Vice President of Research and Dean of the Graduate School has selected finalists. The information should be on the website by the end of February.

The NSFA Dean search is currently meeting and will be moving to Skype interviews shortly.

Update on College Bylaws: Honors College faculty have approved bylaws, Education and Human Development faculty have voted, CLAS revised their existing bylaws and will send to faculty for a vote shortly, Engineering faculty are set to vote, Maine Business School are revising and faculty will vote soon, NSFA is working on a first draft currently and will send to faculty this semester.

The Student Symposium group met with Student Government/Graduate Student Government and will be sending out a call for judges. Information can be found on the Graduate School website (tinyurl.com/umss17judge).

Infosilm Survey – the feedback is appreciated. Jeff St. John and Kim will meet with Michael Grillo with feedback.

Provost Hecker wanted it known that this year non-tenured faculty are eligible for teaching awards.

There will be an Academic Affairs Faculty Forum on February 16, 2017, 3:00 – 4:30 in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union.

V.  Questions of the Administration

Q.  Comment: after reading that UMaine Machias has 745 students, several UMaine faculty teach that many, or more, students.
A.  President Hunter said UMaine is not putting money in to UMaine Machias. They are coming with a balanced budget; the BOT will not close that campus. The campuses will keep everything separate.

Comment: It was stated that it appears like working with Machias will be an opportunity.

Q.  Is it a good idea there won’t be a name change? I would assume the UMaine name would be helpful to promote this but how will anyone know if the website and signs remain the same?
A.  President Hunter said there would be no name change; the name and degrees will say UMaine Machias. The BOT will vote in March and a transition will occur in July.

Q.  Does Machias have a President?
A.  They have an Interim President, that position was temporary from the beginning. They’ll have an Executive Dean.

Q.  What is the nature of the relationship and how will it affect accreditation?
A.  The wording will be Regional Campus, not Branch Campus, and fall under UMaine accreditation. Faculty will be independent; i.e., Marine Science faculty will remain UMaine Machias faculty not rolled in to UMaine.

Q.  It was mentioned that Machias employees wear many hats, can some of their streamlining work at UMaine?
A..When someone does so many different jobs everything’s not getting done. You have coaches doing Enrollment Management, a Marketing person that is 10% on that job. You can’t be efficient being spread so thin. President Hunter will be going down with the Chancellor and both presidents will meet with the campus community and that evening with the Machias community.

Q.  Won’t this put a burden on UMaine employees by adding extra time dedicated to UMaine Machias?
A.  President Hunter said there’s a need to be realistic about the roll in the state. The legislature is watching and looking to UMaine, as the Flagship, to work collaboratively to sustain and stabilize UMaine Machias. Closing the campus is not an option.

Q.  Do we know how many students’ they need to break even?
A.  No.

Q.  It seems like enrollment is a critical factor, what’s going on with UMaine Enrollment Management?
A.  It was stated that Joel Wincowski is contracted through August 31, 2017. The Provost stated a variety of ways are being explored but he’s unsure how successful a national search would be. Joel was contracted through a registry and they’d like to try that one more time once he’s done. People in a registry are usually retired looking for temporary positions. UMaine needs someone to continue what’s been created not to revamp everything.

Q.  A recent email from the Vice President for Research stated they’re adding 15 days for grant proposals needing matching funds. They’ve already added changes in ORSP. Researchers won’t submit proposals if the timeline is too long because researchers can’t respond quickly to requests for proposals. It makes us less competitive.
A. The issue is when match is needed, there needs to be time to find the funds. If someone allows 10 days and they need a million dollars in match it’s difficult. More time allows the office to be more creative in finding match dollars.

VI.  Old Business
None

VII. New Business
Commitment to Global Scholarship Resolution
Academic Affairs Committee
1 February, 2017

Where the pursuit of knowledge is a universal human right, and scholarship historically has and continues to best advance through open, global collaboration, the Faculty of the University of Maine joins with our colleagues across the globe in condemning the “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” order issued by US President Donald Trump. The presidential dictate runs counter to three vital aspects of the University of Maine: 1) our equal opportunity for all, non-discrimination policies, 2) our commitment to making our students global citizens, ready for the future, and 3) our pragmatic need for drawing students in a globally competitive market. Beyond the obvious call for universal human compassion and how this decree will cause global instability lie beyond the scope of this resolution, given our constitutional purview, we need look specifically to how this dictate affects our ability to meet our responsibilities as a Faculty as described by University policies.

Equal Opportunity
The University of Maine has a strong commitment to fairness and inclusiveness. Our Office of Equal Opportunity states on its website: “The University of Maine does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, including transgender status and gender expression, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status in employment, education, and all other programs and activities.” (https://umaine.edu/eo/) The University requires all institutional publications to include at minimum the statement “The University of Maine is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.” The Trump presidential dictate, particularly in targeting Muslim peoples, distinctly transgresses our policy, making it impossible for us to fulfill our mission properly.

Global Futures
The University of Maine Mission Statement notes that “The University of Maine advances learning and discovery through excellence and innovation in undergraduate and graduate academic programs while addressing the complex challenges and opportunities of the 21^St Century through research-based knowledge.” (https://umaine.edu/facultysenate/home/mission-statement/) Rather than retreating from these “complex challenges and opportunities” through a decree of exclusion, the University of Maine needs continue to engage with these concerns directly through full inclusiveness of populations from across the globe.

Our Blue Sky Plan notes the importance of a collaborative approach to education “… we can learn and do more together than on our own. Working across structural and cultural barriers is one of the greatest challenges higher education faces.” (p. 13) We can only transcend these barriers by making sure that a full range of diverse cultural perspectives participate in the our academic pursuits.

With over sixty Faculty and Staff members representing twenty-three foreign nations, including those on the presidential dictates exclusion list, we cannot expect to fulfill our academic missions under such decrees. Currently we include as vital members of our scholastic community around forty students from seven nations on the exclusion list, and another eighty students from other Muslim countries. Two of the nations on the exclusion list, Iran and Iraq, are in the top six nations from which we draw students.

Given the Trump presidential dictate, how are we to “Encourage and value diversity through our uniquely diverse community members by tangible programming of UMaine multicultural groups, including international programs.” and “Make international and/or cross-cultural opportunities central to the undergraduate experience.” as our Blue Sky Plan guides us? (pp. 29 & 32) Needless to say, we all understand that in preparing our students for a sustainable future has at its core their readiness to engage productively as global citizens, knowledgeable and at ease with a broad diversity of international cultures. With pride in its definition as a nation of immigrants, the United States can look to its own, ever increasing diversity and predict assuredly that in the centuries to come that other nations will likewise grow and benefit from increasing multi-cultural inclusion with their citizens participatory in productive global interactions.

Economic Sustainability
The American Association of Universities issued a statement voicing a need “to make clear to the world that the United States continues to welcome the most talented individuals from all countries to study, teach, and carry out research and scholarship at our universities. It is vital to our economy and the national interest that we continue to attract the best students, scientists, engineers, and scholars.” (https://www.aau.edu/news/article.aspx?id=18366) Our own Blue Sky Plan echoes this point, in noting the importance of hiring and retaining “… world-class faculty who further these boundaries and provide the best possible education to future leaders.” (p. 28) As Soumya Raychaudhuri, a Harvard Medical School professor, noted in the New York Times on Sunday, 29 January, 2017, “Immigration into the United States is tremendously important to science,” particularly as “There are other countries competing for this talent pool, and walking away from that jeopardizes our standing.” We cannot expect to attract and retain the best Faculty and most promising, internationally competitive students under such a national exclusion.

Given Maine’s demographics, the Blue Sky Plan also states a goal for achieving economic sustainability that sensibly directs us to “Increase enrollment of out-of-state students ranging up to 25%–30%, drawing primarily from New England and international locations.” That the immigration ban appeared through a sudden presidential dictate, and not an inclusive, democratic process involving all three branches of government, has sent a clear signal to other nations that they cannot depend on predictable, stabile policies within the United States, and so should look elsewhere for study, investment, and growth. This observation has also been made by numerous industries sharing this concern. Immigration policies by decree can only destabilize our futures, as a University and as a nation.

The Faculty Senate calls for the Office of the President of the University of Maine to join us in placing the University on record as protesting the US Presidential Order “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” issued by Donald Trump. We stand proudly with our colleagues at the many other colleges and universities who have taken a stand on the folly of this White House decree, and much appreciate our president’s joining her peers at these institutions by extending her recent reaffirmation of the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as the undergraduate and graduate student governments’ statements to the same effect.

Discussion:
Q.  Where does this resolution go once Faculty Senate votes?
A.  It goes in the record and can go public.

Provost Hecker said he prefer it not say it “calls” for the President of UMaine. President Hunter stated, the statement she was part of was crafted by all seven campus presidents.

Some stated they’d like more time to go over the resolution, Michael Grillo said a month is too long to wait.

Vote:    Passed
5 No
0 Abstentions

Adjourned at pm

Respectfully submitted,
Grant Miles

Prepared by Kim Junkins