MINUTES OF THE
FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2013
Johnson Center room 244, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Present:
Jim Bennett, Lisa Billingham, Charlene Douglas, Star
Muir, Peter Pober, Peter Stearns, Susan Trencher.
I. Approval of Minutes of March 25th and April 15, 2013: The minutes were
approved as distributed.
Chair Charlene Douglas
welcomed everyone to her first Executive Committee meeting. Lisa Billingham attended the meeting as
representative from the Faculty Matters Committee. Suzanne Slayden will serve
as Parliamentarian this year. Linda
Monson and Kathryn Jacobsen will serve as Sergeants-at-Arms; pending response
on Chair pro tem. New Senator
Orientation will take place Wednesday, August 28th from 3:00 – 4:00
p.m. in Robinson Hall B113. President
Cabrera will address the Senate on October 9, 2013 and April 2, 2014. We await Rector Clemente’s response to our
invitation to address the Faculty Senate for the fall and spring terms.
Charlene recently had lunch with Frank Neville to discuss the Thunderbird situation. Concerns were expressed about involvement between firm which bought Thunderbird. President Cabrera previously served as President of the Thunderbird School of Management before becoming President of Mason (effective July 1, 2012).
Report from Provost
Stearns: Provost Stearns will offer
remarks and his annual list of goals for AY 13-14 at the September 4th
Faculty Senate meeting. (Attachment
A). He also provided updates about two sets
of negotiations involving the university in a for-profit entity and requested
faculty representatives. The EXC
is strongly interested in FS representation as these negotiations go forward. Chair Douglas will ask Provost
Stearns for more detailed information about the committee/group to be
assembled, how many faculty representatives are needed. A committee member remarked that Georgetown
University recently lowered tuition for on-line courses, and feels GMU is way
behind on this issue.
“INTO”: One of three possible marketing partners, a United
Kingdom-based unit which recruits international students. Profits split in half for the first year
(students pay out-of-state tuition), and they take 7% of profits the second
year (also out-of-state tuition?). At
Oregon State University, there has been a significant increase of international
students, bringing in a lot of additional revenue. Additional revenues at Oregon State
University allowed hiring of additional 175 – 200 tenured/tenure-track faculty. Concept well worth pursuing. He requested one or more faculty
representatives to participate in serious negotiations beginning in
mid-September. Goal for decision
December 2013 in order to begin with entering class Fall 2014. Provost Stearns also noted some nervousness
among ELI staff regarding negotiations. Other
candidates are Pearson, deLoriat, and Blackboard. All have some distinctive advantages and
disadvantages.
Discussion: Concern expressed about Access
Program enrollment (changes) and the need for investment in back-end
capacity. Provost Stearns agreed. They would do the marketing and at some level
they would have internal structure. In response to a question raised, Provost Stearns
responded that we would collaboratively run the SISA program. Mason would be
entirely responsible for academic side - hiring of faculty, vetting of courses,
standards, etc. The length of the
contract (35 years)! other universities’ expectations unfulfilled, and its
impact upon current 2:1:1 programs with China and enrollment at the Songdo
campus were also stressed. The English
Language Institute (ELI) now falls under University Life/Office of the Provost,
an improvement from its previous position under CHSS.
Marketing On-Line
Education: Negotiations may occur with one
of several for-profit entities for marketing some components of on-line
education, such as 24/7 basis, they can do things we simply cannot. Charlene Douglas volunteered to serve as a
faculty representative. Perhaps to also ask Goodlett Mc Daniel (Associate
Provost for Distance Education) to attend an Executive Committee or Faculty
Senate meeting to bring us up to speed on this.
Important to include non-traditional students in on-line marketing.
Benefits for same sex couples: The Executive Committee agreed
to work on a resolution for the October 9th Faculty Senate
meeting. Suggestions included
consultation with Human Resources on present policy in the state of Virginia
(which does not recognize same sex marriages), as well as Sr. Vice President
J.J. Davis. Important to create an
environment where this issue can be discussed.
Several committee members recalled resolutions approved by the BOV, Faculty
Senate, and Staff Senate in the spring of 2010 to change Virginia law to
prohibit discrimination on basis of sexual orientation in response to actions
taken by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli at that time. Some believe same sex professors will flee
Virginia if Attorney General Cuccinelli is elected governor this November. We will discuss this further at luncheon on
the 30th.
Finklestein Grievance:
Original grievance decided, but no feedback received from President Cabrera
(per annual report of the Grievance Committee April 2013), need for procedural
response.
B. Budget and
Resources – Susan Trencher
Some responses for the summer school teaching survey were lost in email
transition, still have about 80 left. To
discuss in the future problem of units not complying with Faculty Handbook
provided it meets (enrollment) requirements.
Example of minimum enrollments in CHSS of 12 students for undergraduate
courses, 10 students for graduate students.
SOM has summer classes with 100 undergraduate students, cutting the
number of faculty to pay. Under the old
system, as long as faculty salary paid, you can have the class. Policies vary across units under present decentralized
system.
All the nominations to
the Faculty Senate Standing Committees and University Standing Committees are
filled. Some terms were staggered as
needed.
Chair Muir distributed
the O&O log for 2012-2013. Two carry
over issues remain: Review of standing
committee charges and request from the Registrar’s office about different
calendar term lengths in SOM-MBA program.
SOL has its own academic calendar.
To continue search for
alternate venues for Faculty Senate meetings?
Present venue does not allow us to teleconference. Venue at Mason Inn expensive, involves
subcontractors, and no technical support.
Does not know what pressure there is to teleconference FS meetings,
needs a sense of group whether or not to put energy and time into this. Facilities available in Arlington and Prince
William campuses to do this, not large enough facilities in Fairfax. The Executive Committee agreed not to pursue
this issue further due to lack of venue in Fairfax.
Discussion: To ask Faculty
Senators to serve as ambassadors to departments/units without one? In the past Senators have visited departments
to explain what Faculty Senate does. Some Senators willing to be ambassadors but
not willing to be a target for complaints about the university. To establish a newsletter to highlight
important issues – “FS Digest/Highlights”.
To ask Provost Stearns for funding to hire a graduate students, also to
link into Monday e-file university announcements. With less content than FS Minutes, but
clearer format.
BOV Faculty Representatives’ reports to the
Senate: We will ask them to routinely report to the
Faculty Senate and check the dates of their previous reports. As the BOV
Committees will not meet until October 2nd, no updates from APDUC
for next FS meeting.
University Food Committee:
Increase from $5.25 TO $6.00 for meals at Bistro. It costs the university $8.95 per meal,
effectively underwritten for years.
Board of Visitors: There have been discussions between the
Board, Renate Guilford and Brian Walther about BOV concerns about references to
shared governance in the Faculty Handbook.
Provost Stearns does not know their current status. The portions under discussion were quite
limited. The Executive Committee will
ask Suzanne Slayden (Chair of the Faculty Handbook Revision Committee) to
provide an update, also to determine whether appropriate to report to the
Senate at our next meeting. Chair
Douglas also noted there have been changes in BOV Membership, and new Visitors
would not have known about this.
Enrollment: Provost Stearns also reported enrollment is
good, freshman class is good.
Provost Search
Committee: The composition of the Provost
Search Committee will be finalized very soon.
Adding that he is not part of the process, Provost Stearns suggested
Senate chair Charlene Douglas ask Frank Neville (Chief of Staff) about its
progress. Three faculty members were
elected to serve on the committee last summer.
The committee chair will be a faculty member. There will be four additional faculty
appointees. Several Executive Committee
members complained about the timing of the summer ballot. It should have been distributed before the
end of the academic year. Mode of
on-campus mail voting supplemented by sending ballots via US Mail, need to
address electronic voting.
Task Force on Textbook Affordability: Star Muir serves on this Task Force and believes the Provost Office will
create subgroups, including a committee with faculty, to address this
issue. The whole market is being turned
upside down; students can buy textbooks on line more cheaply than in the
bookstore. Other options include
“bundling” course materials by faculty, and e-books. The university receives revenues from
textbook sales at the bookstore; at present Barnes and Noble cannot have
another entity selling textbooks. Star
volunteered to serve as a faculty representative on a future committee, and
appreciates any suggestions you may have.
Respectfully
submitted,
Meg Caniano
Faculty Senate clerk
ATTACHMENT A
Issues
for consideration for Academic Year 2013 – 2014
September
4, 2013
Peter
N. Stearns, Provost and Executive Vice President
·
Dean recruitment
·
Major efforts: Songdo;
INTO; Mason Online, Executive Education
·
Strategic plan
·
Budget focus
·
Retention and
recruitment at all levels
·
Research (medical
education)
·
Global planning
consortium
·
Balance; Provost
transition