UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #11 – November 6, 2007

1. The meeting was called to order at 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Miller presiding. All members were present except Vice Chairperson Martin.
                    
2. Chairperson Miller announced that he had spoken to Vice Chairperson Martin the previous evening.  He said that she is incapacitated because of a leg injury and must stay off her feet for the remainder to the week.  He reported that Vice Chairperson Martin intended to send a draft of the Executive Committee’s letter to the President regarding the Provost Search later that day.

3. The Executive Committee reviewed the Draft Agenda for Faculty Senate Meeting #3, November 15, 2007.  Ms. Grubman explained that she did not have the materials to accompany Vice President Weygand’s State of the Budget Report and was unsure whether they would arrive in time for the printed Agenda.  It was agreed that the web location of the Budget Report should be on the cover if no materials were forthcoming in time to include them in the printed Agenda.

During their review of the Agenda, the Executive Committee agreed that some items on the CAC Report should be discussed further before they are brought to the Senate.  Ms. Grubman was asked to edit the Four Hundred Fifty Fourth CAC Report by removing the items in question and to inform CAC Chairperson Luebke and the faculty members involved in the proposal.

4. The Executive Committee was brought up to date on ongoing issues:

a. Provost Search:  The Executive Committee confirmed that they were scheduled to meet with President Carothers to discuss the four Provost candidates on Wednesday, November 7 at 3:30 in the afternoon.  It was agreed that they would review the draft letter to the President and bring the final copy to the meeting.

Chairperson Miller noted that the President had scheduled meetings with other groups as well and that there would be an open forum for discussion of the candidates that afternoon from 2-3 p.m. in the second floor conference room in Green Hall.

b. Administrator Evaluation:  Ms. Grubman reported that all of the letters for the evaluation of Dean Seemann which were due on November 1 had been received in the Faculty Senate Office. She said that she and Senator Rosen were scheduled to meet with Dean Seemann’s AEC on November 16.

Ms. Grubman announced that the Administrator Evaluation Committee for Dean McKinney was completed with the addition of Professor Betty Young as the Provost’s appointee and Professor Barbara Newman as the Dean’s appointee.  The full committee is comprised as follows: Martin Bide, Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design, Beth Marcoux, Physical Therapy, Barbara Newman, Human Development and Family Studies, Professor Deborah Riebe, Kinesiology and Betty Young, School of Education.

Ms. Grubman reported that November 15 is the deadline for letters for Dean McKinney’s administrator evaluation.
        
5. The Executive Committee met with Provost Swan from 9:30 to 10:15. The recent visit by the NEASC Accreditation Team, deadlines for the accreditation process and issues that had been raised by the Team in their exit interview were discussed.

6. The Executive Committee met with Ms. Morrissey from 10:30-11:15. They discussed the Executive Committee’s recommendation that rather than spending time listening to reports, the JSPC would be better served if written reports could be forwarded prior to meetings with a short time set aside at meetings for any questions. The Executive Committee said that the meetings of the JSPC should be limited to an hour and that one or two substantive matters related to strategic planning should be considered in depth.

The Executive Committee and Ms. Morrissey spent the remainder of the meeting discussing charges to and membership of three subcommittees that the JSPC had agreed to form in order to follow-up on NEASC recommendations. The three general areas were: 1) Excellence and Access, 2) Responsibility-centered Management, and 3) Faculty-Student Engagement.  Ms. Morrissey said that she would draft the key questions for each of the committees and provide them to the Executive committee after discussion with the President.  The Executive Committee agreed to invite faculty members to participate in the subcommittees, which would be asked to report in April before the majority of members of the current Executive Committee would be out of office.

7. The Executive Committee agreed that they were overcommitted with regard to meetings and would cancel their lunch meeting with Vice Provost Bozylinsky on November 8.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 a.m.

                                        Respectfully submitted,
 
                                        Sheila Black Grubman