UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #18 – February 4, 2008

a. The Executive Committee welcomed the newest member of the FSEC, Senator Margaret Ordonez, who had been elected to replace Senator Fastovsky at the January 31 Faculty Senate Meeting.
    
b. Ms. Grubman reported that the Board of Governors had approved all of the legislation forwarded by the Academic and Student Affairs Subcommittee when they met January 28, 2008. Everyone agreed that the Board’s approval of the renaming of Independence Hall for Provost Swan that evening had been very exciting and welcome news for the URI community

c. Chairperson Miller reported that the following meetings had been scheduled since their last FSEC meeting:

1) Vice Provost Pasquerella is rescheduled for March 3;

2) Provost De Hayes will meet with the FSEC on March 10;
        
3) The meeting with Ms. Christine Heenan is scheduled for February 7 at 4:00 p.m.  at the UClub.

d. Ms. Grubman announced that Provost Swan had approved the transfer of funds for travel for the members of the FSEC.  She said that as soon as the money was transferred into the Faculty Senate Budget, she would complete the paperwork for members of the Executive Committee.  

e. It was noted that Professor Rice had agreed to represent the FSEC Committee at the January 31 meeting of the Master Plan Review Team because it conflicted with Vice Chairperson Martin’s class. Ms. Grubman distributed copies of Professor Rice’s report of the meeting.

a. Searches: Chairperson Miller reported that there were a small number of candidates who were being scheduled for interviews for the Dean of Engineering. He noted that Dr. De Hayes planned to speak to each of the candidates before they were scheduled.

b. Administrator Evaluation: Ms. Grubman reported that it was her understanding that both Dean Seemann’s and Dean McKinney’s Administrator Evaluation Committees had completed their work and would be forwarding reports to the Deans and the Provost shortly.

She said that Provost Swan was scheduled to meet with Senator Rosen, Vice Provost McCray, Dean Richmond and herself later that week to discuss the Administrator Evaluation process.

c. JSPC:  The Executive Committee was informed that the next meeting of the JSPC wouldn’t be held until March 6 and that meeting would be a joint meeting of the JSPC and Council of Deans on the Branding Initiative.  She said that the next regular meeting of the JSPC was scheduled for April 3.    

d. Activities of Committees:  The Executive Committee discussed the survey that had been forwarded to faculty on behalf of the Joint Classroom Steering Committee (JCSC) and asked Ms. Grubman to contact Mr. Porter to learn more about the survey.

In addition, Ms. Grubman said that the JCSC and the Learning Outcomes Oversight Committee (LOOC) had both been established during the 2007-08 academic year. She said that she would contact the chairs of the committees about scheduling reports to the Faculty Senate this spring.

Chairperson Miller said that the Admissions Advisory Committee had asked for an extension for their report to the Senate and should be on the Agenda for either the February or March Faculty Senate Meeting.

Senator Kovarsky announced that the first meeting of the JSPC Subcommittee on Access to Excellence was scheduled for later that week. He said that he would keep the FSEC apprised of the subcommittee’s discussions. The members of the Subcommittee are: Abu Bakr, Lynn Pasquerella, Dana Kovarsky, Cindy Bonn, Bette Erikson, Carla Simonini, Domingo Morel, Barbara O’Brien, Jeffrey Seemann, Lew Pakula and Ray Wright.