UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #5 --
September 23, 2003
1. The meeting was called to order at 1:01 p.m. on Tuesday,
September 23, 2003 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall,
Chairperson Beckman presiding. All members except Ms. Grubman were
present.
2. Chairperson Beckman announced that a Board of Governors
meeting would be held that evening at Rhode Island College. The URI
Writing Program proposal is on the agenda of BOG Academic and Student
Affairs Committee, scheduled to meet on Friday, September 25, 2003.
Chairperson Beckman indicated that she planned to attend both
meetings.
3. The agenda for the upcoming Faculty Senate Meeting #1 on
September 25, 2003 was reviewed.
a. Chairperson Beckman discussed the wording of a
Power Point presentation she will give on Goals for this year's
Faculty Senate.
b. An overview of the Joint Strategic Policy Committee meetings
will be given by Vice Chairperson Hollinshead.
c. Chairperson Beckman reported that the Faculty Senate Executive
committee will be hosting the reception at the University Club after
the first Faculty Senate meeting, and requested that donations for
the reception be given to the Faculty Senate URI Foundation account.
Various college deans will sponsor future receptions.
4. The Executive Committee was brought up to date on the
following matters of business that had been considered previously:
a. Committees:
1) Dan Sheinen will replace Russ Koza on the
Curricular Advisory Committee. Judy VanWyk has agreed to serve on the
Judicial Board.
2) Ms. Grubman will draft a charge to the Library Committee,
which will probably be available in a few weeks. FSEC will table this
item during the upcoming Faculty Senate meeting since the item is
still pending.
3) Also still pending, and to be tabled, is the charge for the ad
hoc Committee on Graduate Education and Research. It cannot be
written until the FSEC meets with the new chair, Bob Rodgers; also,
representatives from CELS and GSO still need to appointed. The
estimated time frame for completing these tasks is a few weeks.
4) The FSEC still needs to draft a specific charge to the
Teaching Effectiveness Committee.
b. Policies:
1) AAUP Executive Director Frank Annunziato agreed to
look at the Policy for a Safe Work Environment.
2) The Small Research Vessel policy should be voted on directly
by the Faculty Senate. It will be placed on the agenda of the October
30th meeting.
c. It was agreed that whoever is hired to fill the new, revised
position of Vice President for Administration, should serve as an
ex-officio member of the Faculty Senate. We recommend that the
wording in the Faculty Senate Constitution be changed to reflect the
new title for this position. It will be placed on the agenda of the
next Faculty Senate meeting.
d. Chairperson Beckman expressed concern that all proposals for
department transfer to a different college, whether initiated by the
department faculty or the Dean of the College, should be handled
fairly and evaluated using a standard process for change in program
as outlined in the University Manual. The proposal should be
evaluated by the department, the College curriculum committee of both
colleges, the Faculty of both colleges, the Faculty Senate Curricular
Affairs Committee, then the Faculty Senate and finally the Board of
Governors. Chairperson Beckman will either meet with the Provost
within the next two days or will draft a letter to the Provost
expressing concern of College Deans not following process.
e. Members of the FSEC continued to express concern regarding the
deficiencies of the PCA as an analysis tool and that administrative
decisions were possibly being based on faulty data in that report. We
should push to have the proposed complement, a Program Quality
Review, to be administered throughout the university as soon as
possible.
f. The state of the URI Budget will be given in the October
Faculty Senate meeting by Interim Vice President Barrett. A
discussion of the format to be used in that presentation ensued.
g. ASFCCE Issues: Chairperson Beckman revised a note drafted by
Ms. Grubman and sent it to Vince Petronio regarding his concerns.
h. Regarding the JSPC, several items of concern were raised and
mentioned as possible discussion topics with President Carothers when
he attends the next FSEC meeting on September 30. Topics include the
following: ways to encourage a more dynamic interaction during JSPC
meetings; an eagerness to proceed from an information-gathering mode
to a decision-making mode; sending out a PCA supplement to capture
better non-metric issues, issues that are not in the Strategic Plan
(specifically those key issues that were selected out but are still
ongoing); evaluation metrics should be chosen based upon how well
they measure progress towards achieving the mission and goals of URI,
and not simply chosen based on items that are easy to quantify and
measure.
6. Unfinished Business:
We will ask Ms. Grubman if FSEC is due to get an Athletic Report
this year.
Chairperson Beckman reported that she'd spoken with Jack Warner,
RI Commissioner for Higher Education and was pleased to report that
he is a good communicator with a very positive agenda. He is willing
to speak to the Faculty Senate about his goals. She proposed
tentatively scheduling Dr. Warner to speak at the January Faculty
Senate Meeting.
7. New Business:
Possible discussion topics for the Provost when she attends an
upcoming FSEC meeting include the following:
Follow-up discussion of her presentation at the recent JSPC
meeting on the process she uses for program evaluation and faculty
hiring decisions.
Administrative/academic decisions in her office have been made
and are continuing to be made by people who are serving in an interim
status. When will the search for the Vice Provost position be
conducted?
Additional topics may come up during next week's discussion with
President Carothers.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:38 pm.
Respectfully
submitted,
G. Faye Boudreaux-Bartels