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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting

Minute

Meeting #15

December 9, 2003

1. The meeting was called to order at 1:05 p.m. on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Beckman presiding. All members were present.

2. The minutes from Executive Committee Meeting #14, December 2, 2003 were approved as revised.

3. Announcements/Correspondence:

a. The Executive Committee reviewed a draft letter from Chairperson Beckman to Professor Kunz in response to his memorandum regarding the CAC's consideration of two temporary film studies courses and approved it in final form. They agreed to limit their response to Professor Kunz rather than copying in the members of the CAC as they had discussed previously.

b. The Agenda for the December 12 Meeting of the Board of Governors Academic and Student Affairs Committee was circulated for information. Chairperson Beckman noted that the proposal for an Au.D. and a presentation from Commissioner Warner on PreK-16 were two items she felt would be of interest to the faculty at URI. She said that she would make every effort to attend the meeting.

c. An announcement and call for papers for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education was circulated for information. It was agreed to forward the materials to Vice President Dougan, who might want to consider sending someone from the Division of Student Affairs or from the Tolerance Task Force to the conference.

4. The Executive Committee reviewed the Agenda for the December 11 Faculty Senate Meeting.

Chairperson Beckman informed the Executive Committee that she and Ms. Grubman had been contacted by faculty members from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering about concerns that the review of the URI Transportation Center had not included consultation with the members of the CVE department about its possible relationship to the Rhode Island Transportation Research Center.

After discussion, Senator Boudreaux-Bartels agreed to follow-up with the concerns raised by the College of Engineering faculty. She said that she would suggest to both Professor Euler, Chair of the Council for Research, and Vice Provost Trubatch that the Report of the Council for Research on the URI Transportation Center be removed from the December 11 Agenda to allow time to consult with concerned faculty members before bringing a recommendation to the Senate. An alternative proposal was that Senator Boudreaux-Bartels would move to refer the report back to the Council for Research.

Chairperson Beckman said that she would alert the President about the matter and Ms. Grubman agreed to inform Dr. Horn, the Director of the Transportation Center, of the possibility that the report would either be removed from the Agenda or referred to committee.

5. The Executive Committee met with Provost Swan from 1:30-2:30. The following matters were considered:

a. Establishing a task force to consider reorganization proposals: The Provost and the Executive Committee decided that the charge to the task force should include consideration of whether an academic reorganization is in the University's best interest, and if it is, to recommend an appropriate model.

They discussed limiting the size of the task force to follow-up on the academic organization report to approximately seven faculty members representing the three colleges that have been specifically identified in the report and at least one professional school. Provost Swan suggested that the membership include junior faculty members who may have a greater stake in the future of the University.

b. Simultaneous review of cost-quality issues: Provost Swan discussed with the Executive Committee the FSEC's proposal for simultaneous consideration of both the cost and the quality review processes. It was agreed to wait for the responses by department chairs to the PCA accompaniment/complement before proceeding to propose that the JSPC establish a task force to review both processes.

c. Following up on issues and concerns related to the Providence Campus: The Executive Committee discussed with the Provost the Senate's disapproval of the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation at the November 20 meeting. It was agreed that postponing consideration pending further information or to referring the report back to the committee might have been better alternatives. Provost Swan said that the Administration continues to be interested in finding ways to develop the Providence Campus and to make better use of the facilities.

It was agreed that it might be appropriate to propose that the Senate establish an ad hoc committee to look at the quality, staffing and resource issues related to a proposal to admit undergraduates directly from high school to the Providence Campus. Provost Swan suggested that the committee be asked to look at how different scenarios based on admitting various numbers of students might affect the University.

d. Addressing concerns related to library journals: Provost Swan distributed copies of an article from Brown University's George Street Journal on the rising prices of journals for academic libraries. She also shared with the Executive Committee President Carothers' notes from a recent meeting of the New England College Presidents at which concerns and possible strategies for dealing with the large increase in cost of academic journals had been discussed.

Provost Swan proposed that the Senate Library Committee be asked to learn what other schools are doing in light of the steep increases in costs and to consider possible options for URI. She noted that Vice Provost Gandel would be able to provide a great deal of information on this issue.

In response to the Executive Committee's question about the inclusion of Faculty Senate Meetings on the Council of Deans Agenda, Provost Swan explained that she used this item as a way to remind the Council about the Agenda for upcoming meetings and also to review matters that had been raised at the previous Senate Meeting.

When Provost Swan left the meeting, the Executive Committee resumed its regular order of business.

6. The Executive Committee discussed the Search for a Vice President for Administration:

a. Chairperson Beckman reported on the interview with Daniel Morissette, Senior Vice President and CFO of Finch University/The Chicago Medical School, on Friday December 5, 2003.

b. Chairperson Beckman reminded the committee that next candidate was Stephen Long, Associate Director for Management and Executive Vice President Officer of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, NIH, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She said that the interview was scheduled for Friday, December 12 at 1:15 in the President's conference room in Green Hall and she circulated his vitae for information.

c. Ms. Grubman announced that the fourth candidate for the position is Robert Weygand, former RI Congressman and President of the New England Board of Higher Education. She said that he was scheduled to meet with the Executive Committee on Tuesday, December 16 at 1:15 p.m. during their regular meeting time.

It was noted that not all of the members of the Executive Committee would be able to attend the meeting because of scheduling conflicts during the final exam period.

7. Ms. Grubman distributed blank schedules for the spring 2004 semester and asked members of the Executive Committee to complete them by the next meeting.

8. The Executive Committee reviewed material prepared by Senator Rosen on changes in financial support for state agencies, including Higher Education from FY '94 through FY '02. The Executive Committee agreed that the information would also be of interest to the members of the JSPC.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Black Grubman