UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
FACULTY SENATE
MINUTES

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Meeting #20 – February 18, 2008

a. Provost Swan’s thank you note for the FSEC’s gift of flowers, the resolution and Vice Chairperson Martin’s “poem” at the January 31 Faculty Senate meeting was circulated among members of the Executive Committee.
    
b. Ms. Grubman noted that she had forwarded copies of the materials that Ms. Heenan from the Clarendon Group had shared with members of the FSEC on February 7. Chairperson Miller reminded the committee that the Clarendon Group was conducting a study on Research in Higher Education for the URI Commission on Research and Innovation, chaired by Judge Flanders
    
c. The Executive Committee discussed Senator Costello’s e-mail in which she suggested that the recent shootings in Northern Illinois made it even more important that URI refine its Emergency Alert System.  It was agreed to discuss this with the President when he joined them.  

a. The Executive Committee discussed their meeting with Ms. Heenan from the Clarendon Group. They shared some of the materials that they had received on the study for the URI Commission on Research and Innovation, chaired by Judge Flanders.  President Carothers noted that he was scheduled to meet with Ms. Heenan to discuss the research study within the next week.

President Carothers said that data on schools that receive a significant amount of funding isn’t useful for comparisons.  He noted that Universities that have Medical Schools bring in considerably more funding than Universities without them.

President Carothers indicated that members of the Flanders Commission were primarily concerned with the relationship between research and the economy and would not necessarily share the research values of faculty.
    
b. President Carothers announced that he and Provost Swan would present the University’s response to the Final Report of the NEASC Accreditation Team on February 28.  He said that issues of concern in the final report were related to the University’s lack of funding and URI’s response to decreasing state support.

The President elaborated on the expected budget rescission and the inability of the University to follow through on asset protection and improvement priorities when faced with the cuts.

c. The Executive Committee and the President discussed the University’s Alert System and President Carothers agreed that Mr. Wyman was the appropriate person to speak on the issue.  Also discussed was the FSEC’s concern about the ability of faculty members to respond to potentially dangerous students.     

a. Searches: Chairperson Miller reported that there were four outside candidates for the Dean of the College of Engineering Search.  He said that they had been made public on Friday afternoon.  The candidates are scheduled as follows:

It was noted that the Search for a Dean of the College of Pharmacy continued to be delayed.  The Executive Committee agreed to discuss the Pharmacy Search with Provost Swan when they meet with her on February 25.

b. Branding:  Senator Beauvais reported that she had spoken to Professor Ruby Dholakia about the Branding initiative and the various groups that had been asked to participate in the process.  She said that Professor Dholakia had informed her that with regard to faculty participation, at least two faculty members had served on the Branding Steering Committee, faculty members had been invited to participate in the survey, and representatives of Forge had conducted one-to-one interviews of faculty members. Senator Beauvais reported that Professor Dholakia expected the “Brand” would be unveiled in April.

The Executive Committee asked Senator Beauvais to invite Professor Dholakia to make a presentation on the Branding Initiative at the March 27 Faculty Senate meeting.

c. Administrator Evaluation:  Ms. Grubman reported that the Administrator Evaluation Committee for Dean Seemann had completed their work and had notified the College of the Environment and Life Sciences that they had submitted their report.  

Ms. Grubman said that Dean McKinney’s evaluation had also been completed and that the AEC intended to send a summary of the evaluation to the Human Sciences and Services faculty.  It was noted that forwarding a summary was not typical for Administrator Evaluations but that Dean McKinney had agreed to public distribution.  

Ms. Grubman said that the constituent group for Vice Provost McCray had been notified about the Administrator Evaluation process on February 15 and that she planned to contact Dean Richmond’s constituent group on February 22.

d. Activities of Committees:  The Executive Committee noted that copies of the report of the UCGE Subcommittee on URI 101 had been distributed to the UCGE Committee and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and that as a public document forwarded to Dean Cohen and Dean McKinney. Ms. Grubman reported that the CAC Subcommittee on Course Fees expected to report to the CAC at its March meeting and recommendations would subsequently be forwarded by the CAC to the Senate.

Chairperson Miller announced that the Admissions Advisory Committee had completed their work. He said that it was too late for inclusion in the February 21 Senate Agenda but would be on the March 27 Agenda,

Senator Beauvais reported on the previous week’s meeting of the Academic Program Review Committee (APRC) subcommittee that was working on the AIIM questions.  She said that the Committee felt that the conference room on the third floor of Green Hall needed a whiteboard and that Ms. Grubman had agreed to order one for the conference room (302).  Ms. Grubman said that she had also asked Planning Services and Enrollment Services, which were the other departments that frequently used the conference room, to contribute to the purchase.

a. College of Pharmacy Dean Search
    
b. NEASC Accreditation Report

c. Access to Excellence
    
d. Transition in Academic Affairs.