April 4, 2018
FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
April 4, 2018
Present: Dean Astumian, Susan Bennett-Armistead, Erik Blomberg, Mauricio da Cunha, Farahad Dastoor, Paula Drewniany, Phil Dunn, Nuri Emanetoglu, Thane Fremouw, Per Garder, Mark Haggerty, Torsten Hahmann, Valerie Herbert, Robert Meulenberg, Grant Miles, Patti Miles, William Nichols, Christopher Nightingale, Nigel Pitt, Laura Rickard, Deborah Saber, Michael Scott, Howard Segal, Kathryn Slott, Andrew Thomas, David Townsend, Phil Trostel, Seth Tyler, Stephanie Welcomer, Mark Wells, Gail Werrbach, Clayton Wheeler, Xudong Zheng, President Susan Hunter, Jen Bonnet (PEAC),
Absent: Jason Bolton, Rick Borgman, Emmanuel Boss, Tony Brinkley, Alice Bruce, Dick Brucher, Julie DellaMattera, Scott Dunning, Nancy Hall, Sam Hanes, Leonard Kass, Margaret Killinger, Anil Raj Kizha, Peter Koons, Robson Machado, Michael Montgomery, Renae Moran, John Singer, Mona Therrien, Provost Jeff Hecker, VP Research Kody Varahramyan, Bentley Simpson (Undergrad Rep), Brian Preziosi (Grad Stud Gov),
The meeting was called to order at 3:15 pm
I. Welcome, Announcements and Comments:
Mike Scott announced Provost Hecker is away, Jeff St. John will fill in for him.
II. Approval of Minutes
March 7, 2018
Approved
III. Committee Reports
BOT – Patti Miles
No recent BOT meeting but Patti said she looked over the recent Tenure Report for UMaine (which shows the ratio of T/TT faculty to FTE faculty). There were no major changes that stood out. She then looked at a break down by college, there did seem to be some differences. She recommends Faculty Senate representatives look at the report for their college, ratio of tenure track, or ratio of students taught.
Q. A couple years ago there was communication asking if there were too many tenured faculty by a BOT member. Has anything similar come up since?
A. Patti said the numbers have maintained in the last four years.
Academic Affairs – William Nichols
The two motions from the last meeting were approved by President Hunter and will now be distributed to all faculty. The next Gen Ed meeting will be April 11, 3 pm in Merrill 228 A. The focus will be helping to develop policies and procedures for student evaluations. A second issue to be discussed, information on Infosilem for a task force. Quite a bit of feedback has been gathered.
— Academic Affairs subcommittee – General Education – Farahad Dastoor
UMaine System and Community College Block Transfers are being analyzed and the committee will determine the number of students that have used transfers. Gen Ed will be evaluating Western, Culture & Tradition the week after exams. Still looking for people to be part of the scoring.
Q. Will mandatory items for the syllabus be located in the web link?
A. Yes, there is currently a link but it needs to be distributed to all faculty. Jeff St. John stated that when mandatory reporting came about it was said there would be the ability to have a separate page for that information. Currently simplifying the URL and adding the religious holiday language.
Constitution & Bylaws – David Townsend
The new IT Committee has been added to the ByLaws. The creation of the IT Committee did not require a vote by campus faculty since it was is a Bylaws change, not a Constitution change.
Research & Scholarship – Deborah Saber & Peter Koons
The committee met last week and discussed committee progress this year and understanding the Vice President for Research agenda. There is a committee meeting tomorrow.
Comment: At an earlier meeting with the VPR a question regarding the campus Research Office requiring more information than a granting agency. There has been some resolution; the office will now require less information. There will be a town hall style meeting Monday afternoon regarding research.
Q. Are there any announcements regarding The Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR)?
A. It will be April 17, at the Cross Center in Bangor. This is not a student day off.
Finance & Institutional Planning – Mauricio da Cunha
The committee discussed the Unified Fee; one major request was to see about an allocation of funds to new courses. The committee is trying to set up a meeting, currently coordinating dates.
University Environment – Stephanie Welcomer
There is a motion under New Business.
Service & Outreach – Susan Bennett-Armistead
The committee discussed comments from Dean Rebar and how Service and Outreach may be linked to retention. It was thought that a survey currently being conducted may be helpful but there’s nothing there, which means the committee will do a survey of Department Chairs later this summer.
Committee on Committees – Nancy Hall
The Faculty Senate election of Officers will be under New Business.
Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Clayton Wheeler
No report.
Library Committee – Howard Segal
Vice Chancellor Neely has created an Integration Dean for Library Resources with a challenge to examine resources across all campuses. The team met on February 16, but no solution for all library resources being available to all campuses. The funding isn’t available to provide access to all campuses at this time.
There will be a new library catalogue search option coming this summer, The Maine Campus will be digitized and added to the Digital Commons, there will be new signage, and painting will be done in the President’s room due to a leak.
Ad Hoc IT – Patti Miles
The IT Ad Hoc committee is now a permanent committee.
IV. Ad Hoc Shared Governance – Grant Miles
No report.
Reports of Faculty Members on Committees of the Administration
No report
VI.Announcements and Updates from the Administration
President Hunter discussed the University of Michigan changing the name of a building named for C.C. Little. C.C. Little was UMaine President from 1922 – 1925 and the University of Michigan 1925 – 1929. He founded the Jackson Laboratory while at UMaine. She stated that since she’s at the end of her tenure as president she’d give the information to her replacement and, Faculty Senate, student groups, etc. could add input.
Q. Why are they changing the name?
A. C.C. Little was a geneticist and President of the American Eugenics Society. People may conclude he was racists and sexist but he was also paid by tobacco companies to show smoking wasn’t harmful.
The campus and/or President can’t rename buildings, only the BOT has authority.
V. Questions of the Administration
Q. Do you have any idea who the next President will be?
A. President Hunter said she has “no information to share.” The Chancellors office is handling the search.
Q. It was asked if the top 12 scholarship recipients from the Science Fair are tracked to see if they are accepted and plan on attending UMaine?
A. Jeff St. John said he’d find out but that Admissions normally tracks that information.
Q. Is there a mechanism of tracking to see which students accept, which don’t, what is the return rate?
A. UMaine was asked to offer scholarships last year and this year asked again. The Science Fair was advertised more this year because of the scholarships and there was an increase in applications for the fair. UMaine offered 12 full scholarships, UNE 2 or 3, UMA 2. UMaine will be tracking to see how best to recruit in the future.
Q. Does a letter go out to participants asking them to look into UMaine?
A. Next year Admissions staff will be present at the Science Fair. Ted Colardarci does track students to see where they attend, if not UMaine.
V. Old Business
None.
VII. New Business
Motion for Supporting Childcare Facilities and Resources at UMaine
Environment Committee
April 4, 2018
Summary:
Availability of quality childcare is important for promoting campus diversity, faculty retention, and student success. The demand for on-campus childcare is nearly four times greater than present capacity at the UMaine Children’s Center; the current waiting list is 236 children, and there are only 79 slots within the program. Few viable alternatives exist within the region. This motion proposes a joint effort between the Faculty Senate and University Administration to identify current limitations to on-campus childcare and recommend solutions for expanding childcare availability to the UMaine community.
Background:
Recruiting and retaining faculty often hinges on providing services that allow faculty to maintain work-life balance, such as accessible childcare. Quality childcare has the potential to attract a more diverse workforce. Natural economic growth, along with an aging population in Maine, necessitates recruitment and retention of younger workers from diverse backgrounds (Maine State Chamber of Commerce & Maine Development Foundation, 2010; Ready Nation, 2016); the University of Maine is no exception.
Lack of adequate support for childcare has a disproportionate effect on women’s careers relative to men’s. Having children is the single most consistent predictor of women dropping out of academia at all levels, while for men having a family is positively associated with career advancement (Chronicles of Higher Ed; www.chronicle.com/article/The-Baby-Penalty/140813). Providing adequate childcare is one way to support women in professional environments that can work towards (although not completely overcome) this so-called ‘baby penalty’ (PNAS; www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1803153115).
The University of Maine aims to provide family-friendly policies through campus programs, such as the University of Maine’s Children’s Center, and through initiatives, such as the Rising Tide Center. The “Support for Growing Families” document, which can be found through the Rising Tide Center webpage devoted to Achieving Work-Life Balance, states the following with respect to child care:
“We know how difficult it can be to find a safe, loving daycare provider for your children. And leaving your infant or toddler there day after day can be hard. Fortunately, the University offers quality childcare programs where your child may be just moments away from your office. Take a walk between classes to visit your child, or have lunch with your toddler. You’ll be able to focus on your work knowing that your little one is close by in a safe, state certified program.”
A brochure produced by UMaine Human Resources, available on the same web page, states that: “The university operates child care facilities for infants and preschool children, and cares for children 5 years old or younger in its child study programs.”
Both of these documents suggest to prospective faculty, staff, and students that on-campus childcare is available and easily accessible. However, at present a very large gap exists between the need for childcare among the university community, and the capacity of UMaine to provide it. As reported by the Director of the Childcare Center, there are currently 236 children on the active waiting list for enrollment in campus child care, including: 18 unborn, 54 infants, 43 toddlers, 33 2.5-3.5 year olds, and 88 3.5-5.5 year olds. The current capacity within the Childcare Center is 79 children (12 infant, 12 toddler, 15 infant/toddler, 20 2.5-3.5 and 20 3.5-5.5). Nearly all (~95%) of those on the waiting list are children of UMaine faculty, students, or staff.
The gap between demand for on-campus childcare and supply is enormous -1 available space for every 4 children – and this doesn’t include those families who do not join the list because their odds of receiving a space are slim. This results in a large volume of faculty, staff and students unable to access on-campus childcare, and options for off-campus care (e.g., private providers, or venues such as the YMCA) are limited and typically have similar waiting times. This problem will continue to compound as the University experiences turnover associated with faculty retirements and new hires. Between 2012 and 2016, 127 tenure track faculty were hired across campus (statics from human resources), and many of these newly hired faculty are early-career and more likely to be at a stage in life where they have young children or are starting families. Thus, the problem of childcare availability is likely to compound in coming years, and as cited earlier will have a larger negative effect on women faculty.
Though UMaine has stated intentions to support its families in work-life balance, the university is not delivering facilities correspondent to long-standing trends and future increases in demand. As a result the opportunity to attract a diverse workforce to campus is reduced, and there is a very real a risk of losing current faculty and staff. There is not an easy solution to this problem, but it is one that deserves greater attention and that must be addressed to promote diversity and inclusivity within our campus.
Motion: The Faculty Senate believes that providing accessible childcare is critical to supporting faculty, staff and students at the University of Maine. The Faculty Senate further believes that the current gap in UMaine childcare supply (79 spaces) vs. demand (236 waiting for spaces) is unacceptable. The Senate moves to join the University Administration in forming a Campus Childcare Task Force to examine supply/demand trends, resource availability, and space needs, and prescribe steps to improve capacity of on-campus childcare. We suggest that this task force be composed of one faculty member from each college, two staff members, an undergraduate and a graduate student, the Director of the Childcare Center, a member of the University Senate Environment Committee, and at least one member of the Administration. The task force is asked to provide an update on its progress by October 2018 and deliver recommendations to The Faculty Senate and University Administration by December 2018.
Vote: Approved
Election of Officers:
President: David Townsend
Vice President: William “Dee” Nichols
BOT Rep: Patti Miles
Secretary: Grant Miles
Adjourned 3:55 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Grant Miles
Prepared by Kim Junkins