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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Joint Strategic Planning Committee

Thursday, October 7, 2004

1:00 - 2:35 p.m.

Green Hall President's Conference Room

Attendance: Robert Carothers, Beverly Swan, Tom Dougan, Robert Weygand, Faye Boudreaux-Bartels, Celest Martin, Karen Ramsay, Bill Rosen, Michael Rice, Jim Kowalski, Vince Petronio, Kevin Lopes, Ann Morrissey, Abu Bakr. Guests: Dorothy Escribano, Tom McElroy, and Tom Murphy.

Announcements: President Carothers introduced Vince Petronio, whom he had appointed to the JSPC to fill the staff position previously held by Soledade Surrette.

Provost Swan reported on the progress toward complying fully with the Board of Governors' mandate with regard to student outcomes assessment. She said that a successful workshop on Assessing Student Learning and Electronic Portfolios, which was jointly organized by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences, had been held recently at the Narragansett Bay Campus and that Senate Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels had attended. The Provost announced that she had appointed a Student Learning Improvement Assessment Advisory Committee (SLIAAC) to advise her office as the University works toward complying with the Board's mandate.

Provost Swan also announced the appointment of three new women faculty members, two in engineering and one in the sciences, under the auspices of the NSF Advance Grant.

Student Senate President Lopes reported on efforts to keep the campus calm during the upcoming series between the Yankees and the Red Sox. He also noted that the playoffs would also coincide with "Midnight Madness."

Student Senate President Lopes indicated that he believed that the student body is being unfairly double charged for use of the Ryan Center for student events such as for "Midnight Madness." He said that while student fees for the Ryan Center had been significantly raised, students would still have to contribute towards Ryan Center rental fees factored in to the cost of Midnight Madness tickets.

President Carothers indicated that some resources had been set aside to underwrite a few university activities scheduled for the Ryan Center. He asked Vice President Weygand to work with the Student Senate to allocate some of these funds to subsidize student participation in the "Midnight Madness" event.

Student Senate President Lopes reminded the JSPC of the unfair burden on students with regard to parking. He said that the students were still at a disadvantage with regard to the lack of available parking despite the fees students pay for the privilege. He thought it unfair that student tickets for Ryan Center events included a parking fee. Students who live on campus walk to the Ryan Center and commuter students have already paid a campus parking fee.

President Carothers and Vice President Weygand outlined plans to improve the parking situation for students.

Senator Rice suggested that the time may be appropriate to revisit greater collaboration with RIPTA by expanding participation the U-Pass program beyond Kingston.

Minutes: The minutes of the August 5, 2004 and the September 9, 2004 meetings were approved as distributed.

Academic Portfolio Assessment Presentation: Mr. Murphy shared with the JSPC his PowerPoint presentation on the Academic Program Assessment model and responded to questions about his presentation. (The PowerPoint presentation is available as a PDF file on the web at http://www.uri.edu/facsen/AcAssess_Model_9-23-04.html.)

Agenda for next meeting: The JSPC agreed that they would devote the October 21 meeting to a discussion of new funding strategies for higher education. Ms. Morrissey said that she had been collecting materials on this topic and would provide the committee with them well in advance of the meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 2:35 p.m.