MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #19 – October 13November 22, 2010

1. The meeting was called to order at 11:00 a.m. in the President’s Conference Room in Green Hall. Present were Senators Barbour, Ciccomascolo, Honhart, Larsen, and Swallow; President Dooley

2. Academic Scheduling Issues

President Dooley believes that the final exam period may be too long. The universities with which he is familiar do not have two weeks between the end of classes and the last exams. Finishing on 22 or 23 December is hard on all students and makes URI less able to attract out-of-state and international students. Problems with scheduling and reading days were discussed as well as the potential impact if the University moved toward evening classes. The FSEC will pass this query on to the Academic Standards and Calendar Committee for review.

3. Board of Governor's Strategic Plan

President Dooley gave the FSEC copies of the current draft of the Plan, and he discussed it. President and FSEC agreed, on first reading, that the Plan was unsurprising and the University was already moving on most of the major issues.

Senator Barbour asked if copies of the Management letters could be given to the JCAP NEASC subcommittee to help with their work. President Dooley agreed. Chair Swallow asked for copies for the FSEC.

4. President Dooley said that he felt that the success of the "Yes on 2" Campaign was essentially a referendum on the value of URI. The margin of success shows impressive support by the people of the state.

5. The President also distributed a copy of another draft document entitled "Strategic Priorities for the University of Rhode Island 2010." This listed his four "Transformational Goals" and five or six "key elements" for each goal. The key elements are still in flux, but closely match what he has discussed previously in public forums.

Discussion of a point within the "Strategic Priorities" document to raise money to create a substantial discretionary fund that could function as a "venture capital fund" controlled by the President. One use would be to allow the University to respond more nimbly to retirements by allowing departments to hire replacements for retiring faculty before the retirement takes place, allowing for (perhaps) several years of overlap and greater departmental continuity as well a more nimble reactions to changes in scholarship and research directions.

Respectfully Submitted,

Peter Larsen