George Mason University
Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate
March 5, 2003

Senators Present: J. Bennett, A. Berry, D. Boileau, D. Boehm-Davis, B. Brown, P. Buchanan, Y. D. Chung, R. Coffinberger, M. De Nys, R. Diecchio, E. Elstun, M. Ferri, J. High, H.W. Jeong, J. Kozlowski, D. Kuebrich, L. Monson, D. Polsby, P. Regan, L. Rockwood, J. Sanford, S. Slayden, A. Sofer, D. Sprague, P. Stearns, C. Sutton, S. Zoltek

Senators Absent: P. Black, E. Blaisten-Barojas, L. Brown, S. Cobb, S. deMonsabert, M. Deshmukh, T. Friesz, J. Gorrell, H. Gortner, M. Grady, L. Griffiths, K. Haynes, M. Kafatos, C. Kaffenberger, R. Klimoski, W. Kurkul, C. Lerner, P.J. Maddox, B. Manchester, C. Mattusch, A. Merten, J. Metcalf, J. Moore, R. Nadeau, L. Pawloski, W. Reeder, S. Ruth, J. Scimecca, F. Shahrokhi, R. Smith, D. Struppa, E. Sturtevant, S. Trencher, I. Vaisman, J. Zenelis

Guests Present: S. Greenfeld, R. Herron, S. Jones

I. Call to Order
Chair Jim Bennett called the meeting to order at 3:05 p.m. The Minutes of the February 26, 2003 meeting were approved as distributed.

II. Announcements
A. State Legislative Budget Update – Provost Stearns
The General Assembly of Virginia ended their 2003 session with several budget amendments that have a direct impact on George Mason University. The University will experience additional budget cuts and a decrease in funding for health insurance. However, the state did vote to give $650,000 for the maintenance of Academic IV (Innovation Hall) and $4.5 million towards the Prince William III building project.

The state legislature also put a cap on tuition increases. This legislation allows GMU to annualize the surcharge it added this year and then to increase tuition by an additional 5%. In addition, the University may increase tuition 2-3% to cover the increase in health insurance costs. The Provost projected that next year instate undergraduate students will pay the surcharge plus a 7.5-8% tuition increase. There will be a slightly higher increase for graduate and out-of-state students. Growth in enrollment will slow to 250 FTE. The Administration will be discussing its proposed tuition increase with the BOV
on March 20th.

Legislators also provided for a 2.25% salary increase for faculty, contingent upon an increase in state revenue of at least 4.5%. However, such an upsurge in revenue is highly unlikely. The Administration will probably use some of the money raised from the tuition increase to fund selective merit-based raises and correct salary inequities.

There is also a slight delay in building projects since the state has been slow to borrow the money available from the General Obligation Bond. However, construction of the parking deck on Lot B and Research I will begin this year, and renovation of West and Thompson Halls will begin in a year and a half.

B. Special Meeting of the Faculty Senate
The Chair announced that the motions passed at the February 26, 2003 Special Meeting were hand-delivered to Chief of Staff Tom Hennessey on Friday, February 28.

III. Old Business
There was no old business.

IV. Committee Reports and Action Items
A. Executive Committee – Jim Bennett
No report.

B. Academic Policies – Esther Elstun
The Committee has received two new referrals pertaining to academic integrity and refining the language in the Catalog concerning undergraduate prerequisites.

C. Facilities & Support Services & Library – Lorraine Brown
No report.

D. Faculty Matters – Marty De Nys
The Provost delivered the Administrators’ Activities Reports to the President’s Office, and the President assured the Committee that the reports will be available by March 15th. Therefore, the forms for the Faculty Evaluation of Administrators will be distributed later than usual this year, so that the web link to these reports can be included in the material distributed to the faculty. The evaluation instrument has been shortened with the hope of garnering more faculty responses.

The Committee has also received a document from the Provost’s Office concerning the appointment, promotion and retention of fixed-term faculty. The document has been approved by the BOV and the Administration. The Committee will be meeting with the Provost to discuss the issue, and will have an action item for the April meeting.

E. Organization & Operations – Phil Buchanan

Motion #1: The Budget and Resources Committee
The Organization and Operations Committee moves:
That the Faculty Senate establish a Budget and Resources Committee as a standing committee of the Senate. The Committee shall be composed of five Senators.

Justification: The current ad hoc budget committee (chaired by Richard Coffinberger) has successfully kept the Faculty Senate informed of the University’s budget and fiscal affairs. Further, the committee has had some influence on shaping the direction of the budget in the University. Therefore, it is fitting and proper to establish a new standing committee of the Faculty Senate to carry on the work of the ad hoc budget committee.

Charge: The responsibilities of the Committee are:
A. To keep the Faculty Senate and the faculty at large fully informed of all budget issues and resource allocation decisions; and
B. To provide the University's Board of Visitors, as well as its President, Provost, Deans, and Institute Directors, a faculty perspective on all budgetary issues and resource allocation decisions; and
C. To study and review the University’s facilities and support services, including the Library, and to provide the Senate recommendations for improving the existing operations.

The functions of the Committee shall include:
A. Representing the interests of the faculty in the budgetary process and educating the faculty about University policies and procedures for developing budgets and making resource allocation decisions; and
B. Collecting, analyzing, and distributing data to enhance the transparency of all of the University's sources of funds and the allocation of said funds to achieve its Mission; and
C. Monitoring the physical facilities and auxiliary services, such as the bookstore and other concessions at the University, to assess how they can better serve the academic enterprise; and
D. Advising the Senate on matters pertaining to the on-going improvement, development, and operation of the Library so that it can better serve the academic enterprise.

A friendly amendment was offered and accepted to remove the two “alls” (shown in bold) from the charge and function sections.

The motion passed unanimously.

Motion #2: The Facilities and Support Services and Library Committee
The Organization and Operations Committee moves:
That the Facilities and Support Services and Library Committee be eliminated as a standing committee.

Justification: The charge of the Facilities and Support Services and Library Committee has been incorporated into the charge of the new Budget and Resources Committee and thus is not necessary.

The motion passed unanimously.

Motion #3: Allocation of AY2003-2004 Senate Seats per Academic Unit
The Organization and Operations Committee submitted the following allocation of Senate seats per academic unit for the AY 2003-2004:

Phil Buchanan noted that the allocation changed this year due to the Faculty Senate Charter modification allowing part-time and adjunct professors to be counted in unit FTEs. University Life has representation due to the English Language Institute faculty. Since University Life and Krasnow Institute have small FTEs, they share a seat.

A motion was made by Don Boileau to adopt the allocation as presented, and it was seconded and passed unanimously.

F. Nominations – Rick Coffinberger
The Committee submitted a slate of nominees for the Task Force on Reporting Satisfactory Academic Standards. Rick Coffinberger noted that the slate was incomplete, since there is to be five members (in addition to the Registrar and
Provost Appointee Doris Bitler) and the slate only contained three: Jane Flinn, Hal Gortner, and Bob Ehrlich. Because of the short time period between Senate meetings and the inclement weather, the Committee had only received responses
from the three nominees presented. It was pointed out that all of the nominees were from CAS, and Rick Coffinberger answered that the additional nominees will come from other units. The Senate agreed to vote on the three offered
nominees and complete the membership at the April Senate meeting.

A motion was made and seconded to accept the submitted slate of nominates. It passed unanimously.

G. Ad Hoc Budget Committee – Rick Coffinberger
No report.

V. New Business
There was no new business.

VI. Remarks for the Good of the General Faculty
The Clerk reported that, because of workloads and budget cuts, the Staff Senate has been reduced from 45 to 16 members and has disbanded all of their committees but two. The Staff Senate’s major project for the spring is the Staff Enrichment Day on March 13th, which they hope to make an annual event.

It was noted that there appears to be a lot of repairs needed to buildings and grounds, many of which are due to the harsh weather this year.

It was suggested that the Faculty Senate recognize and thank state legislators that were supportive of higher education during the 2002-2003 session. The Executive Committee will follow up with this initiative.

It was mentioned that SCHEV is considering the addition of a non-voting student representative, even though there is no faculty representation on the Council. It was advocated that this, along with the idea of a non-voting faculty representative on the BOV, should receive more emphasis from the Senate next year.

Stan Zoltek announced that the AAUP meeting on University Governance will be held on March 19th from 3-5 pm in SUB II.

VI. Adjournment
A motion to adjourn was requested, and it was so moved and seconded. The meeting adjourned at 3:34 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
David Kuebrich
Secretary, Faculty Senate

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