NUMBER 5

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Faculty Senate

MINUTES
Faculty Senate Meeting – January 31, 2008

A. Announcements

1) Chairperson Miller said that he had been asked to remind the Senate that URI’s Equity Forum is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. in the Memorial Union.  He explained that the purpose of the Forum is to give the community an opportunity to examine how equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts are organized on campus. The Equity Coalition encourages all faculty and staff to please join them in a facilitated conversation about potential organizational models that would best match the needs of the University.  

2) Chairperson Miller reported that Vice President Tom Dougan had asked for a few minutes to tell the Senate about a new program initiated through the Student Affairs and University Dining Services.
    
Vice President Dougan distributed flyers announcing “Office Hours at Rhody Market,” which encouraged faculty to hold office hours at the market and offered to provide cookies and beverages if reservations were made in advance.  Vice President Dougan said that the program was open to all faculty members and noted that this might be especially useful for instructors and adjunct faculty who did not have adequate office space.

3) Chairperson Miller thanked Vice President Dougan and the Division of Student Affairs for graciously agreeing to sponsor the reception that afternoon.  He invited everyone to join Vice President Dougan and the Executive Committee at the University Club after the Senate meeting.

B. Vice Chairperson Martin said that the Minutes of Executive Committee Meetings #13 through #15 appeared on pages 4-10 of the Agenda and asked if there were any questions.

Discussion ensued during which Chairperson Miller, Vice Chairperson Martin and Assistant Provost Katz responded to questions about the Executive Committee minutes.

C. Vice Chairperson Martin said that the Minutes of the November 29, 2007 meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Committee appeared on pages 11-12 of the Agenda and asked if there were any questions.  There were none.

D. Vice Chairperson Martin placed in nomination the names of Senator James Agostinucci from the Department of Physical Therapy and Senator Margaret Ordonez from the Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design for the vacant position on the Executive Committee.

Chairperson Miller asked if there were any nominations from the floor.

A motion was made to close nominations.  The motion carried.

Chairperson Miller appointed Assistant Provost Katz and Associate Dean Killingbeck tellers for the election.

Ballots were distributed and collected and the tellers left the meeting to determine the results of the election.

E. Vice Chairperson Martin moved approval of the following resolution recommended by the Executive Committee:  

Whereas:  Provost Swan left the Faculty Senate in 1981 to become the Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs and

Whereas: She ascended to Vice-Provost for Academic Programs and Services from 1988 until 1991 and

Whereas: She has served in her capacity as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for 17 years and

Whereas: She has always advanced the causes of faculty justly and with efficacy and never turned away from faculty voices and

Whereas: She has served as a role-model for women to achieve all that they can, and to keep their sense of humor while doing so and

Whereas: She has been inspirational and compassionate as an educator and as a friend to women stricken with breast cancer and

Whereas: She has given countless 18-hour days, seven-day weeks, and put her own needs last in the service of this University for the last 37 years and

Whereas: She is an administrator beloved by every constituency on campus

Therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED That the Faculty Senate is grateful for her long and fair service in her capacity as Provost and welcomes her return to faculty status with open arms, open hearts, and open minds.

The resolution was adopted by unanimous vote.  Chairperson Miller then presented Provost Swan with flowers on behalf of the Executive Committee.

C. Vice President Weygand apologized for the delay in the report. He then presented the State of the Budget address for the 2007-08 academic year using a series of slides prepared by the Budget Office. He expressed his appreciation to Ms. Barrett and Ms. Rand and their staff for their efforts to prepare materials for the report. (These slides are available on the web at http://www.uri.edu/facsen/State_of_Budget_07.pdf)

Vice President Weygand responded to questions during and immediately following the presentation.

A.  President Carothers said that he had approved all of the legislation forwarded to him after the December Faculty Senate meeting and noted that Bill #07-08—10 The Four Hundred Fifty-Fifth Report of the Curricular Affairs Committee: Proposal for a School of Communication, which was subject to Board approval had been approved at the Board’s January 28 meeting.  President Carothers then expressed his satisfaction with the Board’s decision to rename Independence Hall in honor of Provost M. Beverly Swan. He said that the next step would be final approval of the name “Swan Hall” by the General Assembly later in the spring.   

B. President Carothers elaborated on Vice President Weygand’s budget report by outlining the current budget situation, which included both a possible rescission in the FY’08 budget and a significant reduction of state support in the FY’09 Budget.  He noted that these reductions accelerated the date by which the university could conceivably receive no state support.  He said that the situation could not possibly continue to that point and that a lot of painful choices would have to made in order to keep the University moving forward.

President Carothers then responded to questions from the floor.

A. Senator Honhart presented the Four Hundred Fifty-Seventh Report of the Curricular Affairs Committee, which appeared on pages 13-15 of the Agenda.

Senator Honhart noted that Section I was informational.  There were no questions.

Senator Honhart said that Section II required confirmation by the Faculty Senate and moved approval.  The motion carried.

Senator Honhart announced that Section III was a joint report of the Curricular Affairs Committee and Graduate Council on 400-level courses. He said that the entire section was informational and asked if there were any questions. There were none.  

B. In Vice Provost Pasquerella’s absence, Dean Killingbeck presented the Curricular Report No. 2007-08-3 from the Graduate Council to the Faculty Senate, which appeared on pages 16-17 of the Agenda.   

Dean Killingbeck said that Section I of the Report was informational and asked if there were any questions.  There were none.

Dean Killingbeck said that Section II required confirmation by the Faculty Senate and move approval.

Discussion ensued.

Following discussion, it was agreed to make editorial revisions to Section II, item C, 1, a.  

The motion to approve Section II as revised editorially was approved.

C. Dean Killingbeck introduced the Curricular Report No. 2007-08-1A from the Graduate Council to the Faculty Senate:  Proposal for a Master of Arts Degree in Special Education which appeared on pages 18 to 36 of the Agenda.

On behalf of the Graduate Council, Dean Killingbeck moved approval of the proposal for the Master of Arts degree in Special Education at the Class A level.

Discussion ensued.

Following discussion, Senator Leo moved to amend the recommendation by replacing Class A level with Class B level.

Discussion ensued on the amendment.

Following discussion, the amendment carried.

Discussion resumed on the main motion.

Following discussion, the motion to approve the proposal for the Master of Arts degree in Special Education at the Class B level carried.

B. Professor Hicks presented the University College and General Education Committee Report #07-08-2, which appeared on pages 37-38 of the Agenda.

Professor Hicks moved approval of recommendation I, that HPR 312 topic “Dwarves and Elves: the World According to Tolkien” be added into the Fine Arts and Literature (A) Core Area.

Discussion ensued.

After discussion, the motion carried.
    
Professor Hicks moved approval of recommendation II: that section 8.15.12 of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL be amended to read as follows:  

8.15.12 Students who earn credit for CLEP General Examinations shall be allowed to apply these credits toward the General Education requirements in the following manner:

Humanities Examinations:      ART 1XA = 3 credits
                                ENG 1XA = 3 credits

Natural Sciences Examination: XXX 1XN = 6 credits

Social Science and History Examinations: SOC 1XS = 3 credits
                                            HIS 1XL - 3 credits
                
English Composition (with essay): WRT 1XECw = 3 credits
                                    WRT 2XECw = 3 credits

Mathematics: MTH 1XMQ = 3 credits
                              MTH 1XX = 3 credits

The motion carried.

E. Professor Carson introduced the Report of the Library Committee, which appeared on pages 39-40 of the Agenda.  He then moved approval of the following resolution recommended by the Library Committee, which was adapted from the Cornell University Faculty Senate resolution on scholarly publishing:

WHEREAS certain publishers of scholarly journals continually raise their prices far above the level that could be reasonably justified by their costs, and

WHEREAS the activities of these publishers directly depend upon the continued participation of faculty at University of Rhode Island and similar institutions acting as editors, reviewers, and authors, and

WHEREAS a lasting solution to this problem requires not only interim measures but also a long range plan, and

WHEREAS publication in open access journals and repositories is an increasingly effective option for scholarly communication,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT
The Senate calls upon all faculty to become familiar with the pricing policies of journals in their specialty.

The Senate strongly urges tenured faculty to cease supporting publishers who engage in exorbitant pricing, by not submitting papers to, or refereeing for, the journals sold by those publishers, and by resigning from their editorial boards if more reasonable pricing policies are not forthcoming.
The Senate strongly urges the University Library to negotiate vigorously with publishers who engage in exorbitant pricing and to reduce serial acquisitions from these publishers based on a reasonable measure of those subscriptions’ relative importance to the collection, taking into account any particular needs of scholars in certain disciplinary areas.

The Senate strongly encourages all faculty, and especially tenured faculty, to consider publishing in open access, rather than restricted access, journals or in reasonably priced journals that make their contents openly accessible shortly after publication.

The Senate strongly urges all faculty to negotiate with the journals in which they publish either to retain copyright rights and transfer only the right of first print and electronic publication, or to retain at a minimum the right of post print archiving.

The Senate strongly urges all faculty to deposit preprint or post print copies of articles in an open access repository such as discipline-specific repositories or the University of Rhode Island’s Digital Commons Repository.

Discussion ensued    

  Following discussion, the motion carried.  

Chairperson Miller asked if there was any Unfinished Business.  There was none,

Chairperson Miller asked if there was any New Business.  There was none.