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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting

Minute

Meeting #3

September 14, 2004

1. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels presiding. All members were present.

2. The minutes of Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #3, September 2, 2004, were approved as revised.

3. Announcements/Correspondence:

a. Ms. Grubman announced that the following guests had been scheduled for future Executive Committee meetings:

  • President Carothers and Provost Swan on October 5 at 1:00 p.m.
  • Vice Provost Trubatch on November 9 from 1:30-2:30
  • Vice President Weygand on November 16 from 1:30-2:30

b. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels shared a draft of her welcome letter to faculty as Chair of the Faculty Senate. During discussion, a number of suggestions were made with regard to the letter and the list of goals for the 2004-05 academic year. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that she would forward a revised draft to members of the Executive Committee and asked that they review the revision and make further suggestions.

Having accepted "identifying substantive, and possibly unvoiced, faculty concerns" as one of their goals, the Executive Committee agreed to pursue the possibility of a brief faculty survey at their next meeting.

c. Ms. Grubman distributed copies of an article titled "The Cheating Culture," Prism 25, 26 September 2004 issue, which had been forwarded by Ombud Vincent Rose. Members of the Executive Committee agreed to read the article during the ensuing week and to consider how to follow-up on the issue of scholastic integrity at their next meeting.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said she had read an article suggested by Dr. Bette Erickson on cultural differences among international students as they affect questions of plagiarism and would try to obtain copies for the Executive Committee.

d. The following materials were circulated for information:

1) A memorandum inviting members of the Executive Committee to a Meeting on Bond Issues on September 17 at 10:00 a.m. in the second floor conference room in Green Hall;

2) The Agenda for the September 17 meeting of Board of Governors Academic and Student Affairs Committee;

3) The Agenda for the Board of Governors Meeting of September 20, 2004.

Ms. Grubman agreed to forward the PDF versions of the two Board agenda to the entire Executive Committee to give them an opportunity to open relevant attachments.

4. The final draft of the Agenda for Faculty Senate Meeting #1, September 23, 2004 was reviewed and approved in final form.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels announced that Provost Swan had agreed to sponsor the reception at the first Faculty Senate Meeting. Discussion ensued about future receptions and possible guest speakers.

5. Matters of Continuing Concern:

a. SEDA: Senator Kowalski announced that Ms. Annie Newman had been hired as the University Planner. He said that she would report directly to Vice President Weygand.

b. Mr. Murphy's Factor Analysis model (academic assessment): Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels confirmed that Mr. Murphy would report to the Senate at its first meeting before presenting his model to the JSPC. She said that she had agreed to outline for the Senate some of the concerns about the PCA and PQR, which gave some of the impetus to the President's decision to hire Mr. Murphy to develop the factor analysis model for URI.

c. Student Learning Assessment: Ms. Grubman distributed copies of the University's timeline for outcomes assessment development. It was noted that the Provost's Office had developed the timeline in consultation with a number of faculty members and deans in response to the Board of Governors' mandate.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that timelines for URI and for RIC and CCRI were on the Agenda for both the September 17 meeting of the Board of Governors Academic and Student Affairs Committee and the September 20 meeting of the full Board.

After discussion, the Executive Committee agreed to invite Interim Vice Provost Swift to a subsequent meeting to discuss the timeline and other matters related to student outcomes assessment.

d. President's Management Letter: The Executive Committee agreed that it would be helpful if copies of the updated metrics for the President's Strategic Plan were available before they discussed the management letter further. Ms. Grubman said that she would try to obtain the updated information which had been requested by Vice Chairperson Rosen at the most recent meeting of the JSPC.

e. URI Web Policy: The Executive Committee decided that the Web Advisory Committee should be asked to review the issues raised by Professor Donna Hughes during the summer, including an interpretation as to whether the web policy had simply been clarified or actually amended by President Carothers' statement regarding faculty websites.

6. The Executive Committee discussed the September 9th meeting of the JSPC at which Vice President Weygand reported on the status of capital projects and facilities planning and Ms. Barrett responded to questions about the Fiscal '06 Budget. It was noted that the proposed budget did reflect some of the items recommended by last year's FSEC including enhanced funding for the Library, for PeopleSoft support, for research and outreach, and for new scholarship funds for junior and senior students who have significantly improved their GPA since freshmen year.

Vice Chairperson Rosen repeated the suggestion he had made to the President at that meeting that the JSPC consider possible strategies that the University might develop in order to become more self-sufficient.

7. The Executive Committee discussed three issues that had been brought forward by Senator Ramsay. The first was related to parking policy and difficulties faced by commuter students who cannot take advantage of the Library room that is kept open 24 hours/day or who work in the Cigar Office into the early morning hours because commuter students are not permitted to park overnight. The second issue related to both parking and PeopleSoft implementation because there is no uncomplicated way to permit exceptions to parking regulations in unusual situations. The example given concerned the difficulty for temporary employees to obtain hangtags for parking. The third issue was directly related to PeopleSoft implementation: a transfer student accepted admission on-line, but the acceptance was coded as "denied" by PeopleSoft. This dropped the student's name causing him to be "lost."

The Executive Committee discussed the need for an administrative officer, possibly the Ombud, who could help solve problems related to the University's bureaucracy when they arise.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Black Grubman