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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting

Minutes #10

October 28, 2008

1. The meeting was called to order at 2: 00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Martin presiding. All members were present.

2. The draft Minutes for Executive Committee Meetings #6 and #8 were approved. Draft Minutes for Executive Committee Meeting #9, October 21, 2008 were distributed. The Executive Committee agreed to review the October 21 minutes during the coming week.

3. Announcements/Correspondence

a. Chairperson Martin announced that the Disability Summit went very well. She said that about 75 people from around the state had attended and that she and Professor Roush had received very positive feedback about the event.

b. Ms. Grubman reported that the FSEC's next Meeting with President Carothers had been postponed until November 18, 2008.

c. The Executive Committee discussed materials on financing of public higher education that had been forwarded by Senators Ordonez and Costello. Following discussion, it was agreed that the article. "Public Universities at Risk: 7 Damaging Myths" from the October 31, 2008 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, provided a very different view of issues related to alternative funding. It was agreed to add the article to the list of Alternative Funding Models on the web at http://www.uri.edu/facsen/The_Chronicle_of_Higher_Ed_Newfield.pdf

d. Ms. Grubman reminded the Executive Committee that they would not meet on the following Tuesday, Election Day. She said that the next FSEC meeting would be held on Wednesday, November 12, which would follow a Tuesday schedule.

4. The Executive Committee reviewed the previous Faculty Senate meeting, which was held on October 23, 2008. Chairperson Martin and Vice Chairperson Costello noted that although they had explained that they couldn't answer specific questions about alternative models, several Senators asked for more information.

It was agreed that, with President Carothers and Vice President Weygand available for the discussion of alternative models, there would be a greater opportunity for Senators to raise questions that the Chair and Vice Chair had not been able to answer. It was further agreed to remind Senators about a week before the November 20 meeting to read the materials posted at http://www.uri.edu/facsen/Alternative_Funding_links.htm

5. The Executive Committee discussed potential issues to raise at the next meeting of the JSPC, which was scheduled for November 13, 2008. The Executive Committee agreed that it was important for them to reinforce their concerns about staffing to prevent the current untenable situation from becoming the new normal. It was agreed that in addition to following up on the discussion of academic quality as it relates to teaching, they should raise issues about support for research as a matter of faculty concern.

6. The Executive Committee met with Provost DeHayes from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m. accompanied the President. The following matters were discussed:

a. Graduate Education and Research at URI: Provost DeHayes said that finding funds to offset the out-of-state tuition for graduate research assistants remained a very high priority. He said that his hope the previous spring to be able to fund some research assistants through a competitive process had fallen by the wayside in light of the financial situation. He said that he hadn't been able to come up with the funds necessary for initiating the program that he had envisioned. The Provost indicated that the idea was still on his list and that hopefully, funds might be set-aside for this purpose in the future.

Provost DeHayes agreed with the FSEC that he should appoint an interim dean of the graduate school. He said that he was looking for a faculty member who was committed to graduate education to serve in the position and recommend a clear direction for the Graduate School. He indicated that he wanted a fresh look at the Graduate School's functions, including graduate admissions, curriculum responsibilities, and graduate program quality issues

He said that he had spoken to a few faculty members who are involved with graduate education, but had not been able to identify a person at that time. He said that one problem was that there were no funds budgeted for the position. For example, the Associate Deans' positions had been supported with funds previously assigned to their academic department.

The Executive Committee noted that staffing continued to be a serious problem for the Graduate School, which had over the past few years steadily lost a number of experienced people. They noted that after years of support staff reductions, they recently lost the technical assistant this fall after the spring retirement of the Executive Assistant.

b. Faculty concerns about delivery of quality undergraduate programs: The Executive Committee said that in light of problems with large classes and pressures on departments to add students to sections of courses, they weren't convinced about the accuracy of the Provost's data on faculty student ratio. In response to their questions, Provost DeHayes said the data was based on the 07-08 academic year. He also acknowledged that the faculty hires in fall 2008 were based on searches authorized and conducted prior to the spring 2008 faculty retirements.

Provost DeHayes went on to explain that the University appeared to have a larger number of classes and sections than might be expected based on enrollment. He noted that other data indicated that UConn had 4500 more students, but the same number of classes and sections and that UNH which was comparable in size to URI offered 580 fewer courses.

The Provost suggested that the data did indicate that the University may not be using its human resources efficiently and said that it was an area that should be reviewed. He told the FSEC that 60% of General Education courses were are taught by part-time and non tenure-track faculty. He proposed that colleges and departments consider offering fewer general education courses, possibly for 4-credits and structuring their curriculums differently. He said the goal would be to improve the quality of the offerings as well as make better use of resources.

c. Faculty Forum: The Provost and Executive Committee discussed their perceptions along with feedback from faculty members regarding the October 16, Faculty Forum. It was agreed that it had accomplished the desire to bring faculty members together and had started some discussion. However, in order for any momentum to continue, another, more focused forum should be held before the end of the semester. This time the question would "What should a URI graduate know, be able to do and stand for." Preliminary plans for a second forum in December were discussed. [NOTE: subsequent to the meeting it was determined that there were significant problems with holding the forum before the end of the calendar year and the Executive Committee and Provost DeHayes agreed not to pursue it further at that time.]

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Black Grubman