UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

Kingston, Rhode Island

FACULTY SENATE

MINUTES

 

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #9 - October 21, 2003

 

1. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Beckman presiding. All members were present.

2. The Executive Committee met with Senator Rodgers, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for Graduate Education and Research from 1:00 to 1:50 p.m. Professor Bongsup Cho also attended the meeting at the invitation of Senator Rodgers.

Ms. Grubman distributed materials and references that had been prepared by Senator Kester for the original ad hoc committee in 2002. Discussion of the background for the establishment of the ad hoc committee, its general charge and its membership ensued.

It was agreed that the committee would have a dual focus that would include graduate education at URI in general, as well as connections between graduate education and research.

Senator Rodgers also reported briefly on efforts to change the purchasing regulations since the Board of Governors endorsed the change in April 2003. He provided the Executive Committee with a copy of a revised action plan, which he had developed this fall.

3. The minutes of Executive Committee Meeting #8, October 14, 2003 were approved with minor editorial corrections.

4. Announcements/Correspondence

a. Ms. Grubman reported that the November 25 meeting with Provost Swan had been postponed until December 9.

b. Ms. Grubman announced that Professor Ramstad had agreed to meet with the Executive Committee on October 28 at 2:00 p.m. to report on the recent AAUP Governance Conference with regard to Athletics.

c. Ms. Grubman reported that she had just received official notification that the URI Foundation Competitive Grants program has been cancelled for the second year in a row. Ms. Grubman said that prior to the 2002-03 academic year, the URI Foundation had provided $80,000 annually for competitive grants to support faculty projects ($40,00 in the fall and $40,000 in the spring) and an additional $20,000 each year for faculty assistance grants.

While the Executive Committee acknowledged that this decision was a reflection of the downturn in the stock market, they expressed disappointment over the very tangible loss to the faculty and agreed to ask President Carothers if an alternative source of funding might be identified.

d. A copy of Provost Swan's response to the AAUP memorandum about the position of Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs was circulated for information.

e. A copy of a request by Interim Vice President Barrett that JSPC no longer have Minutes that require approval, which had been forwarded to the all members of the JSPC the previous week was discussed. It was agreed that it was important to keep and publish official minutes of the JSPC and that Ms. Barrett's concerns might be addressed in another way.

f. The Council of Deans Agenda for October 22 was circulated for information.

5. The Executive Committee reviewed the Agenda for Faculty Senate Meeting #2, October 30, 2003, which had been sent to URI Printing Services that morning. It was noted that the slides that accompany the State of the Budget Address had not been available in time for inclusion in the printed agenda and would be distributed at the meeting. Ms. Grubman was asked to encourage the Office of Finance and the Budget to put the slides on the web in advance of the meeting.

6. The Executive Committee was brought up to date on the following matters of continuing concern:

a. Faculty Governance: The Executive Committee discussed Provost Swan's October 15 memorandum to the Council of Deans in which she reminded them of the provisions of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL with regard to meetings of college faculties (Chapter 4), as well as academic regulations (Chapter 8), and University policies (Appendix G).

The Executive Committee acknowledged that Provost Swan's memorandum to the Deans was a direct response to their request.

b. Library Committee: The Executive Committee agreed to the following specific charge to the Library Committee for the 2003-04 academic year:

In addition, Ms Grubman brought the Executive Committee up to date on which faculty members were liaisons with the Library on behalf of their colleges/departments. It was noted that Professor Vocino had posted a message on TheForum-L encouraging faculty members who were interested in serving on the committee, or possibly chairing it, to volunteer to do so. Members of the Executive Committee expressed disappointment that Professor Vocino's plea had not resulted in any volunteers.

The Executive Committee agreed to consider at their next meeting whether the Library Committee should be expanded to include Information Services as well.

c. University Policy: The Executive Committee reviewed the proposed "Computing and Network Use Policy," which had been forwarded to them by Vice Provost Gandel. It was agreed that the policy should be brought to the Faculty Senate for consideration. The Executive Committee asked Ms. Grubman to raise questions and suggest possible changes to Vice Provost Gandel and to request that a revised policy be forwarded to the Executive Committee for consideration by the Senate on November 20.

d. PCA Accompaniment/Complement: The Executive Committee discussed a recent e-mail that the Provost had sent to Chairperson Beckman and Ms. Grubman in response to the committee's request that a pilot project be undertaken to give academic department chairs the opportunity to complete the PCA accompaniment/complement, to comment on the materials, and to suggest questions that might better reflect issues of quality.

The Executive Committee asked Chairperson Beckman to draft a response to the Provost proposing a deadline for the distribution to academic department chairs of the accompaniment/complement and to reaffirm their conviction that a pilot was necessary, if only to learn whether the PCA accompaniment/complement should be modified in order to reflect quality factors more effectively.

e. Fiscal '05 Budget &endash; 10% adjustment: The Executive Committee agreed that it had been unfortunate that the JSPC meeting of October 16 had been cancelled because there wouldn't be any opportunity to provide suggestions for the resubmitted budget before it is sent forward. It was agreed to ask Vice President Barrett to respond to questions about the resubmitted budget at the October 30 Faculty Senate meeting as part of the State of the Budget Address. The Executive Committee also agreed to discuss this issue further at their next meeting in anticipation of the November 6 meeting of the JSPC.

f. Reorganization - Faculty Governance Issues: It was agreed that the Executive Committee should make a public statement in response to the letter from faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chairperson Beckman said that she would draft a statement that would emphasize the official faculty governance process for consideration of reorganization proposals and would share it with the Executive Committee at their next meeting.

With regard to the letter from the Arts and Sciences faculty itself, the Executive Committee agreed to refer to it at the Faculty Senate meeting and to make copies available upon request.*

7. The Executive Committee agreed to postpone their selection of three faculty members for the Administrator Evaluation Committee for Dean Brownell to allow time to consider the list of volunteers.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Black Grubman