UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

Kingston, Rhode Island

FACULTY SENATE

MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #20

February 10, 2004

1. The meeting was called to order at 10: 35 a.m. on Tuesday, February 10, 2004 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Beckman presiding. All members were present except Senator Grubman-Black.

2. The minutes of Meeting #19, February 2, 2004 were approved as revised.

3. Announcements/Correspondence:

a. The Agenda for the February 11 meeting of the Council of Deans was circulated for information. It was noted that the Board of Governors' issue of outcomes assessment had been identified as one of the items under Provost Swan's announcements.

b. Ms. Grubman distributed materials on the proposal for a Research Corporation, which had been forwarded by Vice Provost Janett Trubatch. Ms Grubman said that Vice Provost Trubatch had asked to meet with the Executive Committee to discuss the proposal. It was agreed to schedule a meeting with the Vice Provost in March.

Chairperson Beckman noted that the idea for a Research Corporation had been one of the recommendations of the ACRA Subcommittee the previous year and that former Vice Provost Tom Rockett had originally initiated the concept.

4. The Executive Committee reviewed a preliminary draft Agenda for Faculty Senate Meeting #6, February 26, 2004. Ms. Grubman noted that the deadline for the Agenda was the following day and suggested that additional reports might arrive later.

The Executive Committee agreed to invite Mr. Murphy to participate in a special forum on the portfolio decision model that had been discussed by the JSPC.

5. The Executive Committee met with Professor Onorato from 11:15 to 11:55. They discussed the membership of the Library Committee, which was now complete and agreed to ask the Senate to extend the terms of the committee members by another year in light of delay in starting the committee during the current academic year. Professor Onorato, who had chaired the Library Committee in the early 90's, said that he was familiar with some of the issues that had already been identified. He reported that issues such as the skyrocketing costs of some journals and the possibility that some scientific organizations might decide not to retain copies of e-journals beyond a specific time limit had been mentioned as long as ten years ago.

Professor Onoroto said that he looked forward to meeting with Vice Provost Beagle to discuss the Library Committee's potential role in developing fundraising strategies for the Library in the upcoming Capital Campaign.

The Executive Committee then left the Green Hall conference room for the University Club where they were scheduled to meet with Mr. Murphy on his portfolio model.

6. The meeting reconvened at 12:00 noon in the University Club. All members of the Executive Committee were present in addition to Mr. Murphy.

During their lunch meeting, Mr. Murphy provided the Executive Committee with information on the factors upon which the portfolio analysis might be based, which were the result of his previous meeting with the JSPC Task Force that had included Chairperson Beckman, Vice Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels and Senator Martin.

The Executive Committee said that as many faculty as possible should participate in meetings with Mr. Murphy to develop the quality, values and cost factors for the analysis. One possibility discussed was to invite members of the Senate who were not on the Executive Committee to form the faculty groups that would advise Mr. Murphy. Mr. Murphy suggested that it might be helpful if he was able to meet with some Senators before he presented his portfolio model to the Faculty Senate. He said that he hoped it would be possible to schedule meetings with groups of faculty prior to the February 26 meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

 

Sheila Black Grubman