UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

Kingston, Rhode Island

FACULTY SENATE

MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #32

May 11, 2004

1. The meeting was called to order at 10:31 a.m. on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Beckman presiding. All members were present.

2. The minutes of Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meetings #30, April 27, 2004 and #31, May 4, 2004 were approved as revised.

3. Announcements/Correspondence

a. Chairperson Beckman announced that she had received a copy of correspondence between Senator Wayne Lee and the chair of the Council for Research with regard to renaming the URI Transportation Center.

It was noted that the Council for Research had not resubmitted the URI Transportation Center proposal to the Senate for its May 13 meeting.

b. Senator Martin reported that she had been asked by the chair of the Department of English to inform the Executive Committee that the English Department had not agreed to pursue a program at the Providence Campus for incoming freshmen.

Ms. Grubman said that Senator Feldman had indicated to the Senate that the only two departments who had agreed to pursue programs in Providence at this time were Psychology and Human Development & Family Studies. She said that to avoid any further misunderstanding she would include this information in the Minutes of the meeting.

c. Senator Rosen announced that the College of Arts and Sciences faculty had met the previous afternoon and had voted not to permit the Department of Biological Sciences to leave the college. Discussion ensued as to possible reasons for and ramifications of the negative vote.

d. Senator Rosen reported on the first Director of Athletics candidate open interview, which he had attended the previous day. He noted that members of the press had attended the interview as well.

4. The Executive Committee reviewed the Agenda for Faculty Senate Meeting #9, May 13, 2004 and discussed the process of the election, which would proceed throughout the meeting.

5. The Executive Committee discussed matters relative to the JSPC:

a. Chairperson Beckman reported that Ms. Morrissey had asked that the 2004-05 Executive Committee select a member to replace Senator Grubman-Black as the JSPC's representative to the Space Enhancement, Design, and Allocation Committee (SEDA). Senator Grubman-Black said that he was willing to bring the new member up to date on SEDA's activities.

b. Vice Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels noted that the Capital Projects "golf course" item had been identified in the April 1 JSPC minutes as the "golf learning center" and suggested that it would be helpful to get more information about the project.

c. The Executive Committee discussed the priorities that had been identified at the May 5 JSPC meeting and agreed that the next step would be to see how they have been incorporated into the Proposed Fiscal '06 Budget.

Senator Rosen said that he had been in contact with Ms. Morrissey and Ms. Barrett about the possibility of giving the members of the JSPC an opportunity to review the Fiscal '05 budget at the same time it is forwarded to the Board of Governors in June.

6. Chairperson Beckman reported on the progress of the Beta testing of the portfolio model. She noted that since Mr. Murphy wanted to have seven different programs to present to the President, three additional pairs of faculty members have met with Mr. Murphy about their programs. These were Professors Derbyshire and Wood regarding Communication Studies, Senators Oviatt and Rossby on the Graduate School of Oceanography and Professors Veyera and Sodhi on programs in the College of Engineering.

7. The Executive Committee reviewed the Senate's accomplishments during the 2003-04 academic year. They agreed that they had put a great deal of effort toward making shared governance a reality and hoped that they had made progress with regard to improving communications between faculty and the administration. The Executive Committee identified the following issues upon which they might have had an impact:

a. Completion of the revised General Education program for undergraduates entering in the fall 2004;

b. Stimulating interest in graduate education and research by asking Professor Rodgers to chair the ad hoc committee on Graduate Education and Research and by encouraging the committee to move forward during the next academic year;

c. Working to revitalize the Library Committee, including the encouragement of a fund-raising opportunity between the committee and Vice President Beagle on the capital campaign;

d. Upheld the University's faculty governance process by reminding faculty and administrators to adhere to UNIVERSITY MANUAL policies and procedures;

e. Establishing a committee that was able to move the concept of admissions to the Providence campus forward in a thoughtful and thorough manner responsive to the Faculty Senate's concerns.

The Executive Committee considered possible advice they might give the 2004-05 Executive Committee. They agreed that it was important that the new committee continue with efforts to improve communications between the faculty and the administration to foster shared governance.

8. Chairperson Beckman expressed her appreciation to the members of the Executive Committee and was thanked in turn for her leadership.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Black Grubman