December 13, 2017

FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
December 13, 2017

Present: Dean Astumian, Susan Bennett-Armistead, Erik Blomberg, Jason Bolton, Rick Borgman, Emmanuel Boss, Alice Bruce, Dick Brucher, Mauricio da Cunha, Farahad Dastoor, Phil Dunn, Mark Haggerty, Torsten Hahmann, Nancy Hall, Valerie Herbert, Robson Machado, Robert Meulenberg, Grant Miles, William Nichols, Christopher Nightingale, Nigel Pitt, Deborah Saber, Michael Scott, Howard Segal, Kathryn Slott, Andrew Thomas, David Townsend, Phil Trostel, Stephanie Welcomer, Mark Wells, Gail Werrbach, Clayton Wheeler, VP Research Kody Varahramyan, Brian Preziosi (Grad Stud Gov), Jen Bonnet (PEAC),

Absent: Tony Brinkley, Julie DellaMattera, Paula Drewniany, Scott Dunning, Nuri Emanetoglu, Thane Fremouw, Per Garder, Sam Hanes, Leonard Kass, Margaret Killinger, Anil Raj Kizha, Peter Koons, Patti Miles, Michael Montgomery, Renae Moran, Paul Grosswiler for Laura Rickard, John Singer, Mona Therrien, , Seth Tyler, Xudong Zheng, President Susan Hunter, Provost Jeff Hecker, Bentley Simpson (Undergrad Rep)

The meeting was called to order at 3:20 pm

I. Welcome, Announcements and Comments:
Mike Scott stated President Hunter and Provost Hecker were in Boston at a NEASC meeting, Jeff St. John attended for Questions of the Administration.

II. Approval of Minutes
November 15, 2017
Approved

III. Committee Reports
BOT – Patti Miles
No report.

Comments: Mike Scott commented on the new policy, Institutional Authority on Political Matters. He discussed the policy with the Provost and President regarding, it will be disseminated for comment prior to approval.

Howard Segal commented that he’d inquired regarding Shawn Moody being on the BOT and Community College Board while running for Governor and if it’s a conflict of interest. Dan Demeritt, Dir. of Public Affairs for UMaine System, told him Mr. Moody would not be resigning since he is a volunteer therefore no conflict of interest. The BOT currently has no policy in place on the topic.

Q. Regarding the new political policy, there are faculty who write Bangor Daily News Op Ed’s regularly, does this mean they could no longer do that?
Someone stated that, as read, it was more that it couldn’t be done on university time with university equipment.
Mike Scott said the policy is going to be distributed and faculty need to read it and make comment.

Academic Affairs – William “Dee” Nichols
The committee met yesterday inviting Provost Hecker and Jeff St. John, and Sarah Doheny from Financial Aid. They discussed Think 30 and data for the 2014 graduation rate compared to peer institutions. UMaine had a 40% four year graduation rate while Peer Institutions were 64-70%. This meant that UMaine students graduated with more debt compared to students at other institutions. Since Think 30 was instituted students are more in line with other institutions. If a student takes less than 15 credit hours it only affects institutional aid not Federal and State Financial Aid. Students need to visit the UMaine Financial Aid Office with any questions. If a student takes less than 15 credit hours they can apply to use the institutional funds during summer session.

A draft handout was distributed during the meeting regarding Gender & Teaching Evaluations Committee, part of the Provost’s Council for Advancing Women Faculty. It lists guidelines for evaluations

Q. Is the Think 30 presentation on slides or a written document?
A. Jeff St. John stated they offered updates in the Provost annual report.

Q. There are so many policies, is there a central place faculty can find policies?
A. An FAQ will be developed for faculty, students, and parents.
Comment: It would be better to read the actual policy. Jeff St. John said he’d take that back for discussion.

Q.  Were there discussions comparing UMaine students and others with course load?
A.  No, the discussion was about four year graduation rates.

Comment: Dave Townsend said this has been a topic in his unit since most students graduate with more than 120 credit hours in four years. A student can average 15 credit hours a semester but nearly impossible to always take 15 credits each semester.

Dee said they’re looking to see if load could be structured with 16 credit hours one semester and 14 another. It’s still 30 credits a year

— Academic Affairs subcommittee – General Education – Farahad Dastoor
The Faculty Handbook, as stated online, is a product of the Constitutions & Bylaws Committee. If there were substantial changes it would come to Faculty Senate from that committee.

Constitution & Bylaws – David Townsend
Dave Townsend stated Constitution and Bylaws need to be modified. For instance, the Faculty Handbook changes, issues like that should be stated there rather than everything being handed to the committee.

Dave also stated, Constitution and Bylaws also need to be looked at because the Provost should not have a vote in Faculty Senate, same with graduate rep and undergrad rep. If everyone has a vote it’s less a faculty senate. Faculty senators need to be elected to senate where representatives are not.

Research & Scholarship – Deborah Saber & Peter Koons
The committee met with Dr. Varahramyan, a continuation from a previous meeting. The discussion regarded seed funding offered by UMaine and discussed the funding going to basic research as opposed to applied. The VPR stated they are balanced out with the awards given out. They also discussed the impact of the tax bill on students and how there doesn’t appear to be much communication regarding the issue. There are also concerns with Concur. Also discussed is a concern that the BOT doesn’t understand research or its importance. The committee will be working on a motion to increase awareness for the BOT. The next meeting is Friday at 8:30 in the Union.

Finance & Institutional Planning – Mauricio da Cunha
There will be a meeting with Claire Strickland on January 19 and two more meetings scheduled after that, March and April.

Q.  What is the timing of new funding model?
A.  Don’t know.
Comment: There may be only one more year on the current funding model.

University Environment – Stephanie Welcomer
The committee met with Dr. Dana regarding the October power outage response and concerns. The timing of a closure and late notification so most people were already on campus and then let go. Several issues were discussed, RA’s long hours, closure timing, moving students is law, and access to buildings was a safety issue.

Q.  How would faculty know who to call for lab access during a situation like the power outage?
A.  Calling campus police since no one else is available.

Q.  Is there a policy somewhere we can check?
A.  Not aware of one.
Comment: Is there a contingency plan if power was out to the entire campus? Dr. Dana said students could be housed on campus in generated buildings.

Service & Outreach – Susan Bennett-Armistead
The committee met December 4, to discuss initiatives on campus and how to combine efforts with others. Some don’t do outreach because it’s not part of tenure and others that do a lot. Looking at how to showcase what is being done and an ability to collaborate with others doing the same thing on campus. Margaret Nagel was asked if there’s a list of people or contacts, there is but it needs to be updated. The committee will be meeting with John Rebar, Cooperative Extension, to discuss how they structure their outreach.

Each college has a communications person but it tends to stay within each college. Jeff St. John said the college communication person is the best point for information and stories of what faculty are doing.

Tony Brinkley will be co-chairing this committee going forward.

Committee on Committees – Rick Borgman
There are no requests at the moment. Nancy Hall will chair the committee during spring semester. 

Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Clayton Wheeler
No report.

Library Committee – Howard Segal
No report.

Ad Hoc IT – Patti Miles
The committee has initiated the process to make Ad Hoc IT a full committee. The proposal goes to the Secretary of Faculty Senate and then Constitutions and Bylaws. If it’s a Bylaws change senate votes but if it’s a Constitution issue it must go to all campus faculty for a vote.

Ad Hoc Shared Governance – Grant Miles
The committee is looking at revisiting a shared governance agreement from 2009 to see if it needs to be revised. The committee would also like to look at all College Bylaws for consistency or differences.

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

Q. It appears the Executive Committee of Faculty Senate meets regularly also with the Provost and President but there’s never a report regarding those meetings. It’s confusing for new members of Faculty Senate. Why is there never a report?
A. Normally when committee chairs give reports senate is getting updates from what was discussed at Executive Committee meetings. Motions are discussed during those meetings before being brought to senate.
Comment: It seems it should be transparent and appears there are conversations going on that aren’t reported.

It was mentioned, not sure about Executive Committee, that maybe the meeting with the Provost and President should have minutes to present to senate. It was stated topics of those meetings are discussed during senate. For instance, at the last meeting shared governance was discussed and the 2009 document needing to be looked at. The Ad Hoc Shared Governance committee was charged with looking into it.

V. Announcements and Updates from the Administration
Jeff St. John mentioned there’s a call for proposals for Presidential Awards, due January 8. They’re trying to find a unified timeline for three committees. He encouraged faculty to nominate colleagues, previous years have had small pools. If a person isn’t chosen they remain in the pool for 2 additional years.

The Provost wanted it mentioned that he would welcome further dialog with Faculty Senate regarding the reorganization of the Maine Business School

The BOT/UMaine System counsel will be on campus sometime in January. President Hunter requested there be a forum regarding the policy and concerns.

Q.  Is there a deadline on this issue and why the rush?
A.  Jeff encouraged those points be brought up in January.

VI.  Questions of the Administration
Q.  Regarding Infosilem, there are course agreements with USM and UMM but Infosilem makes it difficult to schedule faculty and classes on multiple campuses.
A.  Jeff St. John stated the Registrar will be looking at the issue.

Q.  There also seems to be a course with a drop in enrollment, significant drop, and wonder if it is how Infosilem schedules. Is there a study regarding this?
A.  There are 1 – 2 years of data and looking at the effects of scheduling.

Q. Isn’t the Department Chair supposed to be able to look at those issues?
A.  The Registrars Office try’s to support Department Chairs knowing there will be changes, hopefully, those are minimal.

Q.  Dave Townsend mentioned he’d always taught classes on Tues./Thurs. and the final was scheduled on Thurs. He checked for information this year but couldn’t be find it until after Labor Day. At that point the syllabus had already been distributed and once information was available it showed the final was on Tuesday. Getting the students to pay attention to that information has been difficult at best.
A.  Kim Page, Registrar, stated it was late this year due to medical reasons.

Q.  Some students have had three exams on the same day this fall, back to back. What is done to avoid that?
A.  That shouldn’t happen and the issue will be checked.

Q.  Is there a policy regarding exam schedule and the number allowed in a day?
A.  There is, the policy is if a student has more than three finals in a day.

Q.  “Does the Bookstore retain any interest in books?” Recently a new faculty member checked the bookstore for a scheduled class of 30 students, seven books were available. If books are not going to be available faculty need to notify students in advance to purchase them elsewhere.
A.  Jeff St. John said he would look in to the issue.
Comment: One colleague checked and found 20 copies for 300 students in 15 sections. The Bookstore stated it was based on Summer Session, there are only 2 sections in summer, 15 sections during the year.

Any overage the Bookstore orders they should be able to return to the publisher. It was stated that a new distributor was being used and books could not be returned any longer.

The University Environment Committee was also asked to look into the issue.

Q.  The new graduate program going to Portland, how will that work with the Graduate School? What roll will the Vice President for Research (VPR) and Dean of the Graduate School have in Portland?
A.  If students are a grad student at UMaine they’re under the Constitution of the UMaine Graduate School.
Comment: But if they have their own Dean and VPR is a Dean who has the ultimate say? The VPR is the UMaine Dean of the Graduate School.

Graduate faculty need to be approved by the VPR.

Dr. Varahramyan said UMaine guidelines need to be followed

VI. Old Business
       None.

VII. New Business
None.

Adjourned 4:35

Respectfully submitted,
Grant Miles

Prepared by Kim Junkins