George Mason University
Approved Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting
March 19, 2003
Present: E. Blaisten-Barojas, L. Brown, P. Buchanan, R. Coffinberger,
M. De Nys, E. Elstun, D. Kuebrich
Esther Elstun, acting Chair in Jim Bennett’s absence, opened the meeting
at 12:03 pm.
I. Approval of Minutes
The Minutes of the March 5, 2003 Executive Committee meeting were approved as
distributed.
II. Announcements
There were no announcements.
III. Old Business
There was no old business.
IV. Reports from Senate Standing Committee Chairs
E. Organization & Operations
Due to the School of Computational Sciences’ presentation of concerns
about the allocation of Senate seats for AY 2003-2004, it was agreed that this
matter would be addressed first.
The first concern dealt with whether University Life should have been considered
in the allocation process. The Executive Committee agreed that, upon further
study, it did not meet the Faculty Handbook’s criteria to be considered
as one of
the units that receive allocation according to the Faculty Senate Charter. The
Krasnow Institute is also a questionable participant in the allocation process,
and further investigation will be done to see if it meets the criteria. It is
a moot point
this year, however, since the Krasnow Institute only made up 0.002% of the total
FTE.
The second concern involved the “pooling” of institutes. According
to the Charter, “all independent Collegiate Units, Institutes, or Academic
Units which do not individually equal or exceed the threshold size will be pooled
into a single Collegiate Unit for purposes of allocating Senate seats.”
[Note: The threshold size this year is 24 FTEs per the Charter’s formula.]
There were originally four members in the pooled unit when the policy was implemented,
but all of them except ICAR are now full-fledged schools with their own representation.
If University Life and Krasnow Institute don’t meet the criteria for allocation,
there are no other units for ICAR to “pool” with. The Executive
Committee agreed that this is a problem, but it will take a revision in the
Charter to for it to be fixed.
The issue came up concerning which faculty are eligible to be counted based
on the Charter’s specification that “instructional faculty refers
to full-time and part-time faculty with support from appropriated funds.”
The O&O Chair clarified that
there are three types of faculty at GMU: Administrative, Research, and Instructional.
According to the Charter, only those faculty designated Instructional should
be included in the FTE counts for allocation purposes. Research faculty would
not be eligible in any case, since their support comes from Ledger 5&6 (grants
and other restricted funds), not appropriated funds.
Another SCS concern was the duplication of faculty in different units. Instead
of splitting their FTE between schools, SCS wanted to verify that faculty who
taught in different LAUs were 100% counted in the school of their primary affiliation.
Their final concern was the apparent inconsistency in the rounding-up process.
The O&O Chair agreed to review the documents that SCS submitted and reconfigure
the allocation where necessary. He will also respond directly to the SCS Dean
and reissue allocation letters as needed.
The Executive Committee agreed that Section I.B of the Charter needs to be revised
in the near future to clear up the ambiguities concerning pooling units and
which faculty FTEs can be considered when determining allocation.
A. Academic Policies
No report.
B. Facilities & Support Services & Library
No report.
C. Faculty Matters
No report.
D. Nominations
No report.
V. New Business
There was no new business.
VI. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 1:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Debi Siler
Clerk, Faculty Senate