November 20, 2019
FACULTY SENATE MINUTES
November 20, 2019
Present: David Barrett, David Batuski, Erik Blomberg, Amy Booth, Kristina Cammen, Mauricio da Cunha, Paula Drewniany, Phil Dunn, Nuri Emanetoglu, Per Garder, Torsten Hahmann, Heather Hamlin, Sam Hanes, Leonard Kass, Amanda Klemmer, Margo Lukens, Robson Machado, Robert Meulenberg, Grant Miles, Patti Miles, William Nichols, Christopher Nightingale, Elizabeth Payne, Nigel Pitt, Deborah Rogers, Deborah Saber, Holly Schreiber, Michael Scott, Mohsen Shahinpoor, Kathryn Slott, Andrew Thomas, David Townsend, Peter Van Walsum, Todd Zoroya, President Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Faye Gilbert Interim Provost, Claire Strickland CBO, Robert Dana, Ken Ralph, Chris Lindstrom, Kimberly Whitehead Chief of Staff, Jen Bonnet (PEAC),
Absent: Donald Beith, Alice Bruce, Stephanie Burnett, Julie DellaMattera, Mark Haggerty, Emily Haigh, Judith Josiah-Martin, Anil Raj Kizha, Colt Knight, Peter Koons, Sara Lello, Natalie Machamer, Molly MacLean, Renae Moran, Timothy Reagan, Laura Rickard, Mary “MJ” Sedlock, Howard Segal, John Singer, Sean Smith, Phil Trostel, Stephanie Welcomer, Mark Wells, Xudong Zheng, VP Research Kody Varahramyan, Jennifer Chiarell (CEAC), SuriyaPrakaash LakshmiBalasubramaniam (Grad Stud Gov) Camryn Hammill (Undergrad Rep)
The meeting was called to order at 3:15 pm
I. Welcome, Announcements and Comments
No announcements.
II. Approval of Minutes
October 16, 2019
Approved
III. Committee Reports
Academic Affairs – William “Dee” Nichols
No report.
Gen Ed – Subcommittee of Academic Affairs – Sam Hanes
There will be a forum, Bangor Room Memorial Union, tomorrow at 3:00 pm. The five people that attended the General Education Institute will present and discuss what is being done and needs to be done in General Education.
Constitution & Bylaws – Grant Miles
No report.
Research & Scholarship – Sean Smith, Deborah Saber & Nuri Emanetoglu
The committee met yesterday to discuss how research is moving forward within UMaine. Infrastructure needs to support capacity. For example, had discussion regarding undergraduates being involved in research and a concern for safety in labs. The committee is looking for any ideas/suggestions so a survey will be distributed to seek input from Faculty Senate. Labs have chemicals, high voltage, lasers etc. so how should safety be managed. Sean Smith hires outside people to supervise students in the field for safety.
Comments: There is a safety person on campus that can help with issues, Jeremy Sales and a risk manager, Gretchen Catlin on the Augusta campus but helps out here.
Research infrastructure was surveyed years ago, maybe go back and see what’s been done.
If student numbers are going to be increased in research they’ll need training but also need supervision while in the labs. Some supervisors can only supervise one or two students, any more would need additional supervision.
This topic was presented to the Vice President for Research but rejected. David Townsend said President Ferrini-Mundy encouraged it to be resubmitted. She commented that it will be looked at
again, some items have been addressed, and there is a draft response that needs updating. She’d like to have it back to Faculty Senate in the next few weeks.
Finance & Institutional Planning – Mauricio da Cunha & Mike Scott
The committee met with President Ferrini-Mundy to discuss planning, budget, etc. There is a consideration to have a research course as a General Education credit.
Comments: Mike Scott mentioned Jeff Hecker is looking at the budget process, a new committee will look into it. President Ferrini-Mundy stated, Jeff is looking at center and institute Directors; how planning is done, hiring, etc. The committee will come back with a proposal on how to move the process for additional transparency. This will set up engagement so plans are linked to processes. There are documents on how things are currently done. She suggested Jeff attend a Faculty Senate meeting to give updates.
President Ferrini-Mundy stated, undergraduates involved in research and engagement leads to more students staying. All first years could have an opportunity to be involved in research, hence a Gen Ed course in research.
FIPCE, Academic Affairs, and Gen Ed will have a joint meeting to discuss this topic.
University Environment – Erik Blomberg
December 4, committee is meeting with Stewart Harvey from Facilities. Erik stated he sits on the Campus Space Committee and they are looking for space for Student Accessibility Services. Additional staff has been hired, one item that needed to be done, the second is more space.
Service & Outreach – Colt Knight
No report.
Committee on Committees – Grant Miles
Dean review committees, and others, are filled.
Program Creation & Reorganization Review – Margo Lukens
The new procedure for expediting processes is being used. An MS in Athletic Training is being created into a full proposal. There’s a January 17, 2020 UMaine System meeting so the proposal needs to be done by December 3, for a Dec 4 Faculty Senate meeting. If approved, things can move forward.
The new procedures allow for quicker turnaround. Moving forward, new proposals need to state where programs will be housed.
Q. The timeline seems aggressive. What’s the process to let campus and other departments know?
A. Interim Provost Gilbert stated that March seems like a more realistic timeline than January.
Other campuses have brought their program to the BOT already, accreditation guided those.
An open forum is still needed.
The Cyber Securing program was fast tracked as a multi-campus program and now UMaine has no part in it.
Q. Academic home requirement, can you elaborate on that?
A. Two hundred and fifty words doesn’t always make things clear. The description should state somewhere where the program is housed.
Library Committee – Howard Segal & Robert Rice
The committee meet a week ago and discussed journals, subscriptions to journals and the cost for each. Looking to have a report in December.
Q. Is the UMaine System’s interest on cost, are they trying to reign UMaine cost or system-wide?
A. Not sure if it goes beyond Orono. This is the third time they’ve tried to negotiate but hope to head off library subscription cutbacks. Not sure of the objective except to centralize acquisitions.
The question is do those making the cuts know the library and its importance? Money was found to stop earlier cuts.
Information Technology Committee – Patti Miles
No report.
BOT – Patti Miles
Patti was unable to attend the last BOT meeting. She did read notes from the meeting and some of the highlights were; BOT voted to pass planning to be accredited for One University. President Ferrini-Mundy stated, it’s Unified Accreditation dropping One University. Potential issues were discussed and how they’d be handled. This has been discussed since 1967, not new.
Robert Placido, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, is a technology person and working on the tech end so Unified Accreditation will be linked for all campuses. He has said there’s a need to adapt and move forward.
Discussions on shared governance across the system needs to be driven by faculty, maybe an Academic Governance working group.
The budget process is done a year in advance. This year, forecasting was off so they discussed how to be better so forecasting is not off in the future.
Only about 30% of Maine High School students come here, need that number up to 40-50%.
Q. Was there discussion of the name change of USM?
A. Yes, UMaine Portland was approved so now the proposal goes to the Legislature.
Regarding the 30% high school students, there used to be a Flagship Forum held in August to reach out to high school councilors to showcase what UMaine had to offer, current issues, speakers, showing them around campus, etc. Not sure why it isn’t held now but may be worth reconsidering.
Ad Hoc Shared Governance
There will be a meeting after Thanksgiving. Taking notes today for additional discussions.
Reports of Faculty Members on Committees of the Administration
No report.
IV. Announcements and Updates from the Administration
President Ferrini-Mundy commented on the amount of good work Faculty Senate does and how impressed she is. There were two announcements; The APLU meeting topics were affordability, security, international students, and faculty. UC System and UC Berkley spoke about their libraries and requiring open access to journals. Also discussed was a focus on student mental health.
The UMaine Capital Campaign has reached $186 million of the $200 million campaign. The next campaign will be discussed soon. UMaine’s Higher Ed Ranking Research standing was 155 now up to 154.
Working to tell the UMaine story. Features of outstanding researchers and scholars are being highlighted. More coming in the spring.
1st Year Student Success Initiative is now loaded on the UMaine website and a handout has been passed around. This will be used to measure accomplishments on the 1st Year Student Initiative and turn it into an annual report.
Tomorrow 3:00 – 4:30 Gen Ed Makeup Budget.
Friday 1:00 – 2:30, recap of previous forums.
December 4, 2:00 – 4:00 in the Bangor Room, Memorial Union. It was mentioned that the meeting coincides with Faculty Senate. Claire will check the time since it coincides with the Faculty Senate meeting.
President Ferrini-Mundy stated they leave for Boston today to make the final presentation to NECHE for accreditation, tomorrow she presents to the commission. A final decision should be received sometime in January.
V. Questions of the Administration
Q. David Townsend commented that the Faculty Senate calendar has been on the web for a year. He said a meeting from 2:00 to 4:00 won’t work.
Comment: Dee said he’d gone over the calendar with those in the administrative offices and thinks they did adjust by an hour from what it had been.
Q. Will the report handed out today be a yearly report?
A. The goal is to take work done by the committee and measure and track 1st Year Student Success. Looking at how to benchmark progress, hope to have an annual report by March each year.
Q. Where is the dollar amount of what’s already in the budget? Are there opportunities to talk about the initiatives and where to go moving forward?
A. Most of the dollar amounts already being spent are highlighted in the draft report handed out. Yes, input will be sought moving forward.
Comment: Provost Gilbert stated having a scholarship program so it can be seen where students get money. Top 3 were scholarship packages, MLA, learning assistantships for large classes, navigate which is in process and how connecting to students for advising.
VI. Old Business
No old business.
VII. New Business
The Executive Committee met last week with President Ferrini-Mundy and Claire Strickland to discuss Unified Accreditation. David is going to form a Study Committee on Unified Accreditation. It’s important to pay attention to detail as they develop over the next couple of years. The Chancellor may not say One University but Unified Accreditation seems like it is the same. The institution could lose if things aren’t done correctly, it’s a large plan. President Ferrini-Mundy said she welcomes a Study Committee. She said she keeps questions that come up and welcomes this, two new questions were added today.
It was mentioned that the UMaine System had guiding principles and that UMaine should have theirs. The attention has been what will help smaller campuses, crucial to the state, but it’s also important that crucial aspects for this Land Grant be preserved.
Adjourned 4:30 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Grant Miles
Prepared by Kim Junkins