UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

Kingston, Rhode Island

FACULTY SENATE

MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #17 ­ January 19, 2005

 

1.  The meeting was called to order at 1:05 p.m. on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels presiding. All members were present except Senator Rice.

 

2.  The minutes of Executive Committee Meetings #15, December 7, 2004 and #16, December 14, 2004 were approved.

 

3.  Announcements/Correspondence:

   

    a.  Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels announced that Senator Rice had attended the Board of Governors Academic and Student Affairs Committee Meeting on Friday, December 17 and planned to report to the Executive Committee on January 26.

 

    b.  Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels reported on the Board of Governors Meeting of January 10, 2005.  She noted that the Board had approved a recommendation that the three public institutions revise their mission statements by November 2005. It was agreed that this matter should be considered by the JSPC.  Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels also reported that the Board had received reports on enrollment rates for members of minority populations at CCRI, RIC and URI.

 

c.  Members of the Executive Committee who had attended the January 10 Student Learning Outcomes Workshop at the Radisson Airport Hotel reported on the all-day workshop. There was some discussion about the list of future workshops, their number and time commitment. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels was asked to contact Vice Provost Swift to learn more about the upcoming workshops and to suggest that the participants learn in advance about the goals for each of the subsequent workshops.  Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels also agreed to get more information about the website that was being developed for the Student Outcomes Assessment projects.

 

    d.  The Executive Committee reviewed correspondence between a parent and President Carothers on final exams and agreed that the late date for the finals had been especially inconvenient for faculty members and students because exams for prime time Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes had been scheduled for December 23.  Ms. Grubman reported that she had shared the correspondence with the chair of the Academic Standards and Calendar Committee along with e-mail messages from Senator Grubman-Black on Saturday exams.

 

       It was agreed that the UNIVERSITY MANUAL regulations for the calendar (Sections 8.70.10-40), including the requirement that the fall semester must end before Christmas, has resulted in semesters that faculty and students found awkward and uncomfortable.

 

       Ms. Grubman said that she expected that the Academic Standards and Calendar Committee might propose changes in the existing calendars from 05-06 as well as the calendars for 2009-10 and 2010-11 early in the spring semester.

 

4.  The Executive Committee discussed the following matters related to committees:

 

    a.  They agreed to ask Senator Linda Welters to replace Professor Xiao on the Council for Research during the spring semester while he was on sabbatical leave and noted that Professor Gerry Tyler would replace Professor Galen Johnson as chair of the Honors Program and Visiting Scholars Committee while Professor Johnson was on sabbatical leave.    

 

    b.  Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels announced that President Carothers had appointed Ms. Newman chair of the Space Enhancement Design and Allocation Committee (SEDA) and that Mr. Wyman had been appointed Vice Chair of the committee.

 

c.     Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels reported with regard to the activities of the Ad Hoc Committee on Graduate Education and Research on their survey of the different types of work that graduate students perform at URI, and the various forms of funding support.  She said that the Ad Hoc Committee had also met with Vice Provost Trubatch on a related document that the Graduate School is compiling listing information on Graduate Assistants, Research Assistants and other graduate students who have half or more of their tuition funded through various URI accounts.

 

    d.  The Executive Committee agreed to schedule their meeting with members of the CBUM Committee for 1:30 p.m. on February 2. 

 

    e.  Ms. Grubman reported that she had written to chairs of several committees urging them to report to the Senate in February or March rather than waiting until April or May.

   

5.  The Executive Committee reviewed a draft Agenda for Faculty Senate Meeting #5, January 27, 2005 and approved it in final form.  They asked Ms. Grubman to do her best to ensure that background materials were on the web as soon as possible so Senators have the information they would need in advance of the meeting.

 

6.  The Executive Committee considered the following matters of continuing concern:

 

    a.  The Murphy Program Review Model:  The Executive Committee reviewed the comments, questions and suggestions that Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels and Senators Martin and Rice had developed during their line-by-line review of the questions and potential answers in the two surveys used in Murphyıs model.  After discussion of some of the comments and questions, it was agreed that a number of issues would have to be resolved and clarifications made before the Executive Committee would be able to consider whether they would support the model.  Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that she would raise the Executive Committeeıs concerns at next weekıs meeting of the Ad Hoc Taskforce on Academic Assessment.

   

b.  JSPC: The Executive Committee discussed the Agenda for the January 24 meeting.  They noted that the main items on the Agenda concerned the classroom utilization study, space policy and Senator Rosenıs request with regard to fostering and enhancing interdisciplinary activities at URI and bridging the perceived barriers between colleges, divisions and departments.

 

The Executive Committee agreed that the current scheduling of the final Spring semester meeting of the JSPC for May 16 was problematic. The new Executive Committee will have been elected only a few days before, on May 12, with little time to go through JSPC Orientation. The current Executive Committee would be more familiar with spring semester JSPC activities but would no longer serve in an official capacity. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels agreed to propose that the JSPC committee meet one week earlier, on May 9.

 

    c.  Space Policy:  After discussion of the revised Space Policy and Senator Kowalskiıs answers to earlier questions, the Executive Committee agreed that the policy did not require approval by the Faculty Senate.

 

7.  The Executive Committee considered the possibility of holding a special meeting to discuss the questions on the Murphy Program Review Model and budget priorities for the JSPC.  It was agreed to wait until their next meeting to decide whether special meetings would be necessary.

 

8.  The Executive Committee reviewed a form from Health Services that contains absence excuse information about ill students for employers and athletics coaches. This form appears inconsistent with the stated policy of Health Services that they do not provide students with excuses from classes because of illness.

 

    After discussion, it was agreed to ask Provost Swan to inform Health Services that whenever they examine a student who is too ill to attend classes, then they must provide that student with a medical excuse to miss class(es) when faculty members require such documentation as part of their attendance or examination policy.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.

 

                      Respectfully submitted,    

                      Sheila Black Grubman