MINUTES
OF THE
FACULTY SENATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2014
Johnson Center Meeting Room B (room 326), 3:00
– 4:00 p.m.
Present:
Jim Bennett, Charlene Douglas, Mark Houck, Timothy
Leslie, Joe Scimecca, Suzanne Slayden, S. David Wu., Sr. Vice President
J.J.Davis
I. Approval of Minutes of September 25, 2014: The minutes were approved as
distributed.
At our next meeting,
Sr. Vice President J.J. Davis will make a fundraising presentation. Mark Smith, Director, State Government
Relations will provide documents about how we interface with state legislators,
and how to get involved. Kevin Jackson,
of Student Government, will also speak briefly about “Mason Lobbies”. Our students last year eclipsed any other
school there.
Sr. V.P. J.J. Davis reported we are
transitioning from FY 15 budget cuts to FY 16 working groups. Provost Wu met with all of the deans, a
collaborative effort; need to rebuild graduate enrollment process to speed up
application process/content management, admissions decisions made at local
levels. She distributed a draft of the membership
rosters for the FY 2016 Strategic Financial Plan: Key Priorities and Teams
(Enrollment, Budget Model and Accountability Scorecard, Operational Effectiveness: Academic and Administrative, and
Reserve/Debt). Debt levels are coming
down, she noted need for balance to build institutional reserves. In response
to tension in wire in community, she noted fundamentals are strong. We need to communicate this more
effectively. Reduction in state
resources (requires) pivoting, not a crisis.
Freshmen enrollment is at an all-time high and growing. Professor Kenneth DeJong will serve as the
new interim director of the Krasnow Institute.
An interim Vice President for Research from among the current faculty
will be announced soon. Provost Wu has
decided to make a change – three foci (Research Administration, Economic
Development, and all-over Research Development). Please contact Provost Wu for more
information.
Discussion/Questions:
·
Some
committee members expressed concern about the terrible messaging/handling of
Vice President for Research (vacancy).
·
As summer
school is separate from the academic year, can we have a report how it works,
profit margins, how its revenues are distributed? There is a real need for transparency.
Provost Wu
arrived. He has no big announcements,
some updates.
·
The
proposed program in International Security was positively reviewed by SCHEV; it
looks like it will go through. It has
been in the queue for a long time, as was mechanical engineering.
·
Graduate
area enrollment has suffered a downturn for five years in a row; a significant
issue. The response time for graduate
admissions relatively long in comparison to our competitors such as GWU and
Georgetown – could be days, for us it could be months. We need a streamlined applications process,
collecting materials – decision-making occurs in the colleges themselves. The Task Force put together with expedited
goal of September 2015, coordinating with schools/colleges/departments.
·
Finally he
is working on a message. Over the past
couple of months, budget glooms and dooms – bumps in the road – we are a strong
institution, to look at how we move forward as premier public institution in
this region; to put attention back as to why we are here, our collective
mission.
Discussion/Questions:
Will the past
practices of continually adding new programs continue? No, Provost
Wu sees the creation of new degree programs coupled with changing programs
which are no longer relevant and are missing enrollment targets. Need to have stable operation relative to
resources. Not to stop innovative ideas
coming from faculty, but need to think about resource applications. Believes there are many ideas for innovation
– cross-disciplinary work to find more opportunities for students to find their
passion etc. as opposed to sticking with traditional model.
Follow Up: If more cross-disciplinary (programs), then
something disciplinary has to go. Provost Wu sees an evolutionary process,
using example of mining engineering programs which most schools got rid of fifty
years ago. How to manage evolutionary process? Collectively faculty need to make these
academic decisions. For example, Nursing
does a very streamlined job in graduate admissions – we take things off the
books if little enrollment (cited two examples, units do this themselves) and
do not miss enrollment targets. Provost
Wu also noted SCHEV also reviews this every six years – if enrollment below a
certain threshold, it has to go.
B. Budget and Resources – no report
New Senator Elected: Dennis
Sandole (S-CAR).
University Standing Committee Chairs elected: Michael Hurley (CHSS) – Academic Appeals; Betsy
DeMulder (CEHD) – Admissons; Andy Carle (CHHS) Adult Learning and Executive
Education; Lorraine Valdez Pierce (CEHD) – Effective Teaching; Elavie Ndura
(CEHD) – Minority and Diversity Issues; Shelley Wong (CEHD) - Salary Equity
Study;
Paula Petrik (CHSS) – UPTRAC.
Academic Policies
Budget and Resources
Faculty Matters
Nominations
Organization and Operations
Summer School: Chair
Douglas received an email from a tenured faculty member concerned that term
full-time faculty members chosen to teach summer school course over tenured
faculty members to lower costs. From Section 3.3. Summer Salary (Faculty Handbook, p.59 ):
“…Full-time faculty members assigned to teach a summer course shall be
paid 3.33% per credit hour (10% per three-credit course) of their nine-month
salary. If a course is valued at a higher or lower amount for workload purposes
during the academic year, the summer payment will be assigned by the academic
unit accordingly. Every full-time faculty member who wishes to teach in the
summer shall be afforded an opportunity to teach one 3-credit course (or
equivalent) at 10% of their annual nine-month salary, assuming he or she is
qualified to teach the course and that the course meets minimal enrollment
criteria and appropriate scheduling, curricular, and pedagogical needs.
Furthermore, full-time faculty should not be excluded from teaching additional
courses at 10% of their annual nine-month salary when no demonstrated financial
constraints exist. Grievances over what constitutes financial constraints should
be resolved at the local level, but if no agreement can be reached, then the
Provost and the Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee will be the designated
body to resolve the disagreement.”
A
vigorous discussion ensued. Calls for transparency in summer school financing
were reiterated. The question of
full-time term faculty given preference over full-time tenured faculty to teach
is a new one, as full-time
faculty could be either term or tenured. Suggestions
included basing funding on requests from faculty who wish to teach instead of
present allocation of funds to departments based on last year’s enrollment, FTE
targets/amounts. If department chair can
justify course pedagogically, faculty qualified to teach course should be
allowed to do so. The Handbook text does not specify
minimum enrollment; importance of pedagogical needs. Per the Registrar’s
Office, enrollment standards made at the local/deans level. Department chairs should give deans
information to justify funding needed in conjunction with Faculty
Handbook. In a school which hardly
teaches in the summer; 10% of faculty member’s salaries much more than $2,900
per course; questioned enrollment criteria without financial constraints. Others spoke in support of the Faculty
Handbook. Some institutions use
trimester scheduling, in which students required to take a certain number of
summer courses; faculty choose which semesters they wish to teach. Discussion will continue at the next
Executive Committee meeting (Nov. 20th), not for inclusion on the
November 5th Faculty Senate meeting.
There is no place
where faculty can get together for lunch, as one way to foster
interdisciplinary thought.
VII.
Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned
at 4:04 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Meg Caniano
Faculty Senate clerk