UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #7 -- October
7, 2003
1. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday,
October 7, 2003 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall,
Chairperson Beckman presiding. All members were present.
2. The minutes of Executive Committee Meetings #5, September 23,
2003, and #6, September 30, 2003 were approved with minor changes.
3. Announcements/Correspondence
a. Chairperson Beckman distributed to those members
who had not already received them, copies of a letter to the
Executive Committee from a number of faculty members in the College
of Arts and Sciences. The letter expressed concern about the progress
of administrative reorganization proposals that had not been
initiated by faculty and did not appear to follow the appropriate
process for faculty consideration.
The Executive Committee agreed that they would share the letter
with Provost Swan that afternoon. They also decided that they would
discuss it further at their next meeting by which time everyone would
have had the opportunity to read and think about the letter.
b. At the request of AAUP Executive Director Frank Annunziato,
Ms. Grubman distributed copies of a memorandum concerning the
appointment of a second interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs,
which the AAUP had written to the Provost. The Executive Committee
noted that the memorandum was relevant to their meeting with the
Provost.
c. Chairperson Beckman announced that she had received an inquiry
from James Madison University with regard to adjunct positions. It
was agreed that Chairperson Beckman should refer the questioner to
both Assistant Provost Katz and the AAUP.
d. The Executive Committee briefly discussed an e-mail message
they had received from President Carothers in which he reported that
the governor has rejected the '05 budget request and had returned it
to Higher Education to be resubmitted with a 10% cut.
It was noted that the President had said that the matter would be
discussed at their next JSPC Meeting and the Executive Committee
decided to consider it at the Executive Committee meeting immediately
preceding the JSPC meeting.
e. Chairperson Beckman distributed copies of the AAUP's
Indicators of Sound Governance, which President Carothers had
suggested they discuss. She asked the members of the Executive
Committee to review the survey by their next meeting.
4. The Executive Committee met with Provost Swan from 1:30 to
2:30 p.m. The following matters were considered:
a. The appointment of a second interim Vice Provost
for Academic Affairs: The Executive Committee expressed their concern
that a vice provost position has been filled with two successive
interim basis personnel. The Executive Committee noted that they had
received a copy of the AAUP's memorandum to the Provost expressing
similar concerns to theirs, along with those that were union-related.
Provost Swan said that she had to fill the position quickly when
Vice Provost Lord resigned and had asked Professor Rhodes to fill in
for a two-year interim period. She said that she had a very limited
timeframe and a significant amount of business to be dealt with when
Dr. Rhodes said that he wanted to return to CELS. She felt at that
time a pressing need to bring someone who would need relatively
little training and could move into the position almost immediately.
The Provost noted that Interim Vice Provost Swift had worked in
academic affairs with Vice Provost Lord for several years. Provost
Swan said that she believed that Professor Swift could move into the
position with relatively little disruption. The Provost said that she
had asked the Affirmative Action Office for permission to fill the
position on a two-year interim basis without a search and had been
given authorization to do so.
With regard to a search for a continuing Vice Provost, Provost
Swan indicated that she expected to put a search committee together
by December 2004 and would hope to have someone selected the
following spring. The Provost explained that a hiring freeze would
have no effect on the position because she expected it to be filled
by an internal candidate.
b. Proposed Reorganization of Programs and/or Colleges: The
Executive Committee expressed their concern that multiple
reorganization proposals were circulating around campus and were
causing many faculty members to raise questions about what is
happening at the Deans' level in this regard and also how
reorganization proposals were to be evaluated. The Executive
Committee shared with Provost Swan the letter they had just received
from faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences. They also
noted that they had discussed a related governance issue with
representatives from the College of the Environment and Life
Sciences.
Provost Swan explained that she had asked Deans Brownell,
McKinney and Seemann to serve as a subcommittee to explore numerous
options for consideration by the Council of Deans. She indicated that
she expected several alternative models for consideration by
November.
The Provost agreed that reorganization proposals must be
evaluated by department and college faculty, the Curricular Affairs
Committee and the full Faculty Senate before anything could be
brought forward by the President to the Board of Governors. The
Executive Committee asked Provost Swan to remind the Deans, many of
whom were relatively new to the University, about the processes
outlined in the Senate By-laws and the University Manual, as well as
in the by-laws developed by each of the colleges. Provost Swan
assured the Executive Committee that she would do so.
The Executive Committee noted that most initiatives of the kind
being discussed traditionally originate with the faculty. They urged
that the faculty become involved as early as possible in the process.
The Executive Committee reiterated the position of previous
committees that when faculty were put in the position of reacting to
proposals rather than initiating them, comments, questions and
suggestions could easily be misinterpreted as reactionary or
obstructionist. The Executive Committee proposed that college
meetings be scheduled as soon as some of the alternatives were
identified to allow faculty to begin to raise appropriate questions.
They also suggested that some time be allocated at the November
Faculty Senate meeting to discuss the alternatives under
consideration.
c. Payment for work during the summer: Provost Swan assured the
Executive Committee that they would receive payment for attending the
JSPC meetings during the summer as promised by President Carothers
last spring.
d PCA Accompaniment Report (College-Department-Interdisciplinary
Program Profile): The Executive Committee expressed their concern
about the lack of follow-up by her office with regard to
disseminating the proposed accompaniment to the PCA. Senator
Hollinshead said that while the President's Committee on the PCA did
not see the accompaniment as replacing qualitative reviews of
programs, they had made the effort to provide the departments with
the opportunity to clarify, correct, and comment on the data as part
of the PCA process.
After discussion, Provost Swan agreed that the departmental
accompaniment to the PCA data would be distributed to departments as
a pilot project. The purpose of the pilot would be to discover
whether chairs find them helpful for documenting qualitative aspects
of programs and to ask for suggestions to clarify and improve the
instrument.
Provost Swan left the meeting at 3:30 p.m. and the Executive
Committee resumed consideration of the agenda.
5. The Executive Committee was brought up to date on the
following matters of business related to Faculty Senate Committees:
a. Teaching Effectiveness Committee: The Executive
Committee reviewed the matters which they planned to refer to the
committee, which included possibly reinstituting the student survey
of teaching which had last been conducted in 1995-96, and
consideration of some of Senator Rollo-Koster's suggestions related
to improving retention.
The Executive Committee agreed that if Professor Holmes could
meet with them at 3:15 on October 14, they would begin their next
meeting an hour later even if not everyone would be able to stay for
the full time.
b. Library Committee: Ms. Grubman said that she would try to find
out which faculty members serve as liaisons for their colleges to the
University Library in order that the Executive Committee would have
additional names for potential members of the Library Committee. She
also agreed to draft a specific charge to the committee based upon
previous discussions.
c. Graduate Education, Research and Outreach: Chairperson Beckman
reported that Senator Rodgers had indicated that he was willing to
meet with them on October 21 to discuss a charge for the ad hoc
committee.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Sheila Black Grubman