FSEC_10m06-07

a. Providence Campus Undergraduate Initiative: Vice Provost Pasquerella reported that Provost Swan was concerned about the disappointingly low admissions for fall 2006 and had asked Vice Provost Pasquerella to discuss the initiative further with Professor Martin.

Members of the Executive Committee raised a number of concerns related to the Providence Campus Initiative. They questioned whether there was any real indication that there is market for an undergraduate program for traditional students at URI in Providence. They also noted that changes to the Providence Campus Initiative, such as permitting undecided students to enroll, would require Senate approval because the legislation had been specific about the enrolling in one of the three approved degree programs. The Executive Committee also suggested that the Senate’s uncertainty about whether there would be adequate support services for Providence undergraduates would have to be addressed, along with whether full-time continuing faculty in Kingston would be permitted to teach in Providence during the day either on overload or as part of their regular teaching load.

The Executive Committee said that they continued to believe that the students for whom the first two-year program was intended would be better served by their initially enrolling at CCRI through the Joint Admissions Agreement and transferring to URI after they complete their first two years. It was further suggested that a better investment for the University might be improving the advising of students who might take advantage of the JAA.

b. Proposal to make SATs optional: The Executive Committee and Vice Provost Pasquerella discussed the concerns raised by Professor Ramsay about the deadline for a report on whether the University should make SATs optional. They talked about whether a decision was needed for Fall 2008 or whether a recommendation might be considered for Fall 2009. Vice Provost Pasquerella said that it was her impression that the decision to move the deadline to January was based on the question to Dean Bonn as to how soon she must have a decision for Fall 2008 admissions.

c. Revising the SETs: Vice Provost Pasquerella brought the Executive Committee up to date on the technical aspects of moving from the legacy system to PeopleSoft or e-campus including costs of sending forms outside the University for processing.

There was general agreement that the SETs in their current form should be reviewed and possibly modified before they are transferred to a new system.

The Executive Committee said that they understood that how the SETs are used and the choice of technical options was a matter between the AAUP and the Board of Governors, but stated that the Teaching Effectiveness Committee (TEC) of the Senate was the appropriate body to recommend modifications to the instrument itself.

The Executive Committee agreed to draft a charge to the Teaching Effectiveness Committee and to ask Vice Provost Pasquerella and the AAUP to review the draft before a charge is forwarded to the TEC.

c. Accreditation Update: In response to a request from the Executive Committee, Senator Kowalski agreed to ask chairs of the subcommittees to consider reporting on some of their findings as part of the NEASC Accreditation Self-Study Report on the next Faculty Senate Agenda.

d. URI 101: Chairperson Rice reported that he had spoken to Professor Honhart about the Executive Committee’s memorandum on the review of URI 101. He said that Professor Honhart had indicated that there were a few changes in the membership of the UCGE Subcommittee on Review of URI 101 and that Professor Honhart expected that they would be able to proceed now that they had specific guidelines for their review.

e. Online Courses: Vice Chairperson Luebke reported that the CAC met the previous afternoon and had approved all of the online courses that had been submitted for summer 2007.