A. Announcements.
1) Chairperson Long announced that it was the last regularly scheduled meeting of the Faculty Senate for the following Senators:
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Engineering
Shanette Harris
Leon Thiem
Donna Hughes
Richard Vaccaro
Leonard Kahn
Betty Liu
College of Human Science & Services
Kevin McClure
John Long
Thomas Morin
Robert Marshal
Mohammed Sharif
Fritz Wenisch
College of Nursing
Jean Schmieding
College of Business Administration
Chet Hickox
College of Pharmacy
Russell Koza
Khurram Rana
College of the Environment & Life Sciences
Graduate School of Oceanography
Peter August
Kenneth Rahn
Marjorie Caldwell
Donald McCreight
Daniel Murray
Chairperson Long asked the Senate to join him in expressing appreciation to the outgoing Senators for their service to the Faculty Senate and the University.
2) Chairperson Long announced that the deans of the various colleges have informed the Faculty Senate Office that elections have been completed and the following senators will take their seats at the May 11 meeting:
3) Chairperson Long introduced Vice Provost Rockett who reported on the difficulty of obtaining a quorum for meetings of the Graduate Faculty. He then requested that the Executive Committee ask the Constitution, By-Laws and University Manual Committee to consider a revision to section 4.70.11 of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL.
College of Arts & Sciences
College of Engineering
Paul Arakelian
Shashanka Mitra
Andre Ariew
George Veyera
Norman Finizio
Norbert Hedderich
College of Human Science & Services
Charles Kaufman
Robert Felner
Mustafa Kulenovic
Colleen Karow
Suren Malik
Norbert Mundorf
College of Nursing
Yngve Ramstad
Mary Sullivan
College of the Environment & Life Sciences
Reinhard Frohlich
Chong Lee
Murn Nippo
Peter Paton
B. Vice Chairperson Honhart said that the Minutes of Executive Committee Meetings #21 and #22 appeared on pages 3-7 of the Agenda. He asked if there were any questions. There were none.
C. Vice Chairperson Honhart moved approval of the establishment of a joint ad hoc committee on enrollment growth as follows:
Charge: To consider whether it is in the best interests of the University of Rhode Island to increase the size of the student body over the next several years. As part of this consideration, the committee shall address admissions standards, access, pressure on both general education and degree programs, clinical opportunities, dormitory and academic building renovation schedules, financial aid pressures, and other issues deemed necessary by the President, the Faculty Senate or the ad hoc committee.
This Committee shall report and make preliminary recommendations for enrollment policy to the Faculty Senate and the President by December 2000.
Membership:
- Sandy Hicks, EDC
- Tom Husband, NRS
- William Ohley, ELE
- C B. Peters, SOC,
- Glen Ramsay, ECN
- David Taggart, Dean of Admissions
- Kathleen Mallon, Director of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research
- Blair M. Lord, Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Services
- Chip Yensan, Director of Residential Life (or designee)
- Megan Weber, representative of the Student Senate
- Representative of the Graduate Student Association, appointed by the President of the GSA.
The motion carried.
A. President Carothers announced that he had approved all of the Bills listed on the Agenda: #99-00--17, #99-00--18, #99-00&emdash;19 and #99-00&emdash;20. He noted that a portion of Bill #99-00&emdash;17 still requires confirmation by the Board of Governors.
B. President Carothers said that he was very interested in hearing from the ad hoc committee on enrollment growth in light of recent increases in applications for admission to the University. He said that the University had so many qualified applicants for fall 2000 that the Office of Admissions has begun notifying people on the waiting list to inform them that there was little possibility of admission.
President Carothers reported on discussions about the State cap on FTE positions. He said that the Board of Governors had decided to ask that third party positions be exempted from the cap and that the cap be lowered accordingly. President Carothers said that no relief was expected before the end of the current fiscal year. He also reported that legislative hearings on the capital budget were underway.
The President also reported on the increase in the University's endowment, noting that our endowment grew by $10,000,000. He expressed appreciation to Mr. Coleman and Mr. Carlotti for their astute investments and the Division of University Advancement for their fund raising. He noted that the URI Foundation is giving the University 3.75 million dollars for the 2000-01 academic year.
Following discussion, Senator Vangermeersch moved approval of the following resolution:
RESOLVED: That the Faculty Senate expresses its appreciation to the URI Foundation and the Division of University Advancement for their successful efforts to increase funding for the endowment for the University of Rhode Island.
The motion carried.
A. Senator Hickox presented the Three Hundred and Eighty-Sixth Report of the Curricular Affairs Committee, which appeared on pages 9-17 of the Agenda. He said that Section I was informational. He asked if there were any questions. There were none.
Senator Hickox said that Section II required confirmation by the Faculty Senate and moved approval. The motion carried.
B. Vice Provost Rockett presented the Curricular Report No. 1999-2000-7 from the Graduate Council to the Faculty Senate, which appeared on pages 18-20 of the Agenda. He announced that the entire report required confirmation by the Faculty Senate and moved approval. The motion carried.
C. Professor Stevenson presented the University College and General Education Committee Report #1999-00-4, which appeared on page 21 of the Agenda.
Professor Stevenson made an editorial correction and noted a typographical error in the report. He then moved approval of the recommended changes to the existing general education program as corrected:
College of Arts and Sciences
1) The assignment of HIS 117, History of Medicine, into the Letters (L) area of the General Education Program.
2) The assignment of HIS 172, Southeast Asian Culture and History, into the Letters (L) area of the General Education Program.
3) Change the name of the East Asia Culture Cluster to the Asia Culture Cluster.
4) The addition of HIS 172 to the Asia Culture Cluster
Honors Program
The assignment of the Honors Colloquium topic for fall 2000, HPR 202 "Nonviolence: Legacies to the Past, Bridges to the Future" into the Letters (L) area of the General Education Program.
Following discussion, the motion carried.
D. Professor Burkett presented the report of the Library Committee for 1999-2000, which appeared on pages 22-28 of the Agenda.
Following discussion, Senator Sharif moved to amend the third recommendation of the Library Committee under "The Dean, Director and staff of University Libraries are:" by inserting a comma after "funds" and adding "research time for library faculty," before "selection of journals." The recommendation would read:
- urged to implement the recommendations of the 1998 and 1999 reports with regard to allocation of funds, research time for library faculty, and selection of journals;
After discussion, the amendment carried.
Senator Peters moved that the Faculty Senate endorse the recommendations of the Library Committee.
Following discussion, the motion carried.
The approved resolution endorses the recommendations of the 1999-2000 Library Committee as follows:
The University administration is urged to raise the Libraries' budget in accord with the recommendations of the 1998 and 1999 reports. To insulate collection development from fluctuations in state funding, efforts should be made to increase the Libraries' endowment and to allocate a share of overhead money to the Libraries.
The Dean, Director, and staff of University Libraries are:
commended for developing a library impact statement for new programs and for working with the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition in efforts to curb inflation in serials prices;
to be supported in their ongoing efforts to develop a copyright compliance statement and to coordinate evaluation of collections and services with the work of the Program Quality Review committee;
urged to implement the recommendations of the 1998 and 1999 reports with regard to allocation of funds, research time for library faculty, and selection of journals;
alert to new opportunities to attain electronic access to an expanded collection of journal articles.
The faculty should continue to seek publication opportunities that keep copyrights within the academic community and to participate in the evaluation of library collections through the Program Quality Review and the library impact statement preparation process.
E. Dean Richmond presented the report of the CAC Subcommittee on Community Service, which appeared, on pages 29-34 of the Agenda. There were no questions from the floor.
F. Professor Foster presented an oral report on behalf of the Faculty Senate's appointees to the Athletics Advisory Board. She provided members of the Senate with an outline of activities of the Athletics Advisory Board and asked Ms. Grubman to post her written report on FacSen-L and to also publish it on the web.
In concluding her oral report, Professor Foster commended Ms. Kelley and the academic advising staff for athletes for their efforts. She then congratulated Senator Don McCreight, chair of the Athletics Advisory Board, on his upcoming retirement.
Respectfully submitted,
Sheila Black Grubman
for ROBERT STROBEL,
Secretary