UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #16 – January 16, 2008

a. The Executive Committee discussed Senator Fastovsky’s decision to resign from the Executive Committee because of his major time commitments during the spring semester and regretfully accepted his resignation.

Ms. Grubman reported that there was a provision in 5.5 of the Faculty Senate By-Laws for a resignation on the Executive Committee:

5.5 Should a vacancy occur in the Executive Committee two months or more before the annual election, it shall be filled at the next regular Senate meeting by an election held in the same manner as the regular election of officers, except that the Executive Committee shall act as nominating committee.

The Executive Committee reviewed a list of Senators and discussed possible nominees for the January 31 Agenda.

b. Ms. Grubman reported that she had received Board of Governors materials on Admissions and SATs and had forwarded them by e-mail.  Members of the Executive Committee noted that they had reviewed the materials.

c. Chairperson Miller noted that when Professor Rice represented the FSEC at the Master Plan Review Team, he successfully began a campaign to restore the World War I Veterans’ Plaque that had disappeared from Upper College Road and a ceremony was being planned for the spring to coincide with eightieth anniversary of the original plaque dedication, June 16, 2008.
    
d. Vice Chairperson Martin agreed to attend the Board of Governors’ Academic and Student Affairs Committee Meeting on January 25. 2008.

e. The Executive Committee discussed correspondence between President Carothers and Dean Brownell on beginning an effort to look at sophomore retention. It was noted that the Executive Committee had received the correspondence because the President remembered that the Executive Committee had expressed interest in looking beyond the freshman year.

a. Searches:  Chairperson Miller reported that Dr. De Hayes had the opportunity to meet with the Search Committee for the Dean of the College of Engineering.
It was noted that the appointment of the Search Committee for the Dean of the College of Pharmacy had been delayed until the spring semester.

b. Administrator Evaluation:  Ms. Grubman reported that she had begun working on compiling the constituency groups for the two administrators scheduled for evaluation during the spring semester.  She said that obtaining the list of potential faculty participants was more complex than it had been for college deans and outlined the parameters of the constituency groups for the Executive Committee:

Vice Provost for Urban Programs:  all continuing faculty who are currently teaching, or who have taught at the Feinstein College of Continuing Education in the preceding three years and academic department chairpersons who participate in programs at ASFCCE;

Dean of University College and Special Academic Programs:  all continuing faculty who are currently teaching URI 101 or who have served as advisors to University College during the three years immediately preceding the evaluation.

c. JSPC: The Executive Committee reviewed the JSPC Agenda for January 17 and discussed the appointment of the members of the Access to Excellence Subcommittee.

d. Committees:  Senator Beauvais reported on the discussions of the Academic Program Review Committee (APRC) with Professor Stevenson, who had responded to the committee’s request for feedback from faculty members and department chairs.  She said that he had raised a number of issues about validity and reliability of the results and that the APRC planned to look more deeply into the questions and the data that had been generated.  She noted that Professor Stevenson had agreed to participate in the review.