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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting

Minute

Meeting #19

February 2, 2005

1. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 2, 2005 in the third floor conference room in Green Hall, Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels presiding. All members were present.

2. The minutes of Executive Committee Meetings #17, January 19, 2005 and #18, January 26, 2005 were approved as revised.

3. Announcements/Correspondence:

a. Ms. Grubman noted that she had sent the Council of Deans Agenda for that morning electronically in order that the Executive Committee has the opportunity to review it in advance of the Council of Deans meeeting. Ms. Grubman said that she would continue to send the Agenda electronically throughout the spring semester.

b. Ms. Grubman announced that President Carothers had approved the Policy on the Allocation and Utilization of Space. She said the policy has been numbered 05-1 and would be placed on the web and in Appendix G of the University Manual. Ms. Grubman said that she would post the policy on FacSen-Bus as well.

c. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels reported that she had seen Vice President Dougan and was pleased to inform the Executive Committee that he was on the mend and back at the University part-time.

4. The Executive Committee reviewed the previous Faculty Senate meeting, which had been held on January 27. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels expressed concern that one of the key appendices to the 428th Report of the CAC was not made available until just prior to the meeting.

The Executive Committee agreed that reports, including materials for the web, should be received by the posted deadline for that Agenda. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that she would announce this policy at the next Senate Meeting. The Executive Committee also talked about whether it was still necessary to publish and distribute paper copies of the Agenda since everything is already provided electronically to the community.

The Executive Committee also discussed President Carothers' announcements at the meeting, with regard to the initiation of three academic administrative searches: 1) Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, 2) Vice Provost for Information Services and 3) Dean of Admissions. It was noted that there did not appear to be many faculty members on the search committees and they agreed to pursue the issue of search committees when they meet with Provost Swan on February 16.

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

a. The Murphy Program Review Model: Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels reported that she and Senators Martin and Rice had met with Assistant Provost Katz and Ms. Morrissey on the Executive Committee's comments and suggestions about some survey questions. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that she was encouraged to note that the Provost had many of the same concerns as the Executive Committee about the wording of questions and the scoring. Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that it was agreed that the appropriate data would be provided for those questions that required relative rankings or numerical data. She also said that some time was spent discussing the need for an alternative to the PCA for gathering financial data.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that the administration had agreed with the Executive Committee that the questions be available on line, but the administration had decided that, rather than add an information technology staff member or hire students, they would contract with a company that could put the model on the web.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that the group planned to meet with Mr. Murphy about his reasons for assigning various weights to the categories and there was some discussion as to whether further consultation with Mr. Murphy was needed. It was agreed to ask several faculty members who were familiar with surveys to review the questions and offer advice before the model was pilot tested another time.

6. The Executive Committee met with Professor Wenisch and Senator Kirschenbaum from the Constitution, By-laws and University Manual Committee (CBUM) with regard to the CBUM Committee's position that it did not appear to be necessary to change the length of terms of Officers and members of the Executive Committee.

Professor Wenisch said that the existing structure of the Executive Committee worked well when the Senate Executive Committee served as a steering committee for reports of committees, but that there had been a subtle shift over the last decades to the Executive Committee's taking a more active role. Examples of the gradual change included the Executive Committee's annual announcement of goals for the upcoming academic year and the Executive Committee's participation on the Joint Strategic Planning Committee. Senator Kirschenbaum said that he did not see the shift in responsibilities as necessarily requiring any change in the length of terms of the members of the Executive Committee.

Professor Wenisch indicated that it was perfectly legitimate for the Executive Committee to propose its own changes to the Constitution or By-Laws without a positive recommendation from the CBUM Committee. If the Executive Committee chooses to do so, they should consult the CBUM Committee on wording and procedural matters.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels asked whether the CBUM Committee had discussed the possibility of proposing a change in the structure of the Executive Committee to include two Vice Chairs. Professor Wenisch and Senator Kirschenbaum said that the Committee had not discussed the advisability of such a change and Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels asked that they do so.

When Professor Wenisch and Senator Kirschenbaum left the meeting, the Executive Committee resumed its regular order of business with item 5, b.

5. b. JSPC: The Executive Committee discussed the Agenda for the February 7 meeting. They noted that, in addition to the classroom utilization study, space, and fostering and enhancing interdisciplinary activities at URI, Vice President Weygand or Ms. Barrett was expected to give a mid-year report on the FY' 05 budget. The time for the meeting would be extended by a half-hour to accommodate the larger Agenda.

Ms. Grubman suggested that the Executive Committee might consider whether they should ask Vice President Weygand to give a brief mid-year review of the FY '05 budget to the Senate at their February meeting.

Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that it was her understanding that the 06 Budget would be on the Agenda for the JSPC's March meeting. She also noted that the May meeting of the JSPC would be rescheduled for May 9.

c. FSEC Survey: Senator Kowalski distributed a preliminary report on the results of the survey. After discussion, it was agreed that the report on the survey results, along with recommendations for the future be included in the Agenda for the February 24 Faculty Senate meeting.

7. The Executive Committee discussed possible topics for their February 9 meeting with President Carothers and agreed that they would finalize the list by e-mail.

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

Respectfully submitted,

Sheila Black Grubman