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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Joint Strategic Planning Committee

Thursday, August 5, 2004

10:30 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Green Hall President's Conference Room

Attendance: Robert Carothers, Beverly Swan, Tom Dougan, Faye Boudreaux-Bartels, Celest Martin, Karen Ramsay, Bill Rosen, Michael Rice, Jim Kowalski, Ann Morrissey, Abu Bakr. Guests: Linda Barrett and Tom McElroy

Announcements: Faculty Senate Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels said that the Faculty Senate Executive Committee had met twice as a committee during the summer, in addition to attending orientation meetings for new JSPC members. At one of the FSEC meetings, they were joined by members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Admissions to the Providence Campus, which has met regularly during the summer months. In addition, Senator Kowalski, Ms. Grubman and the chairs of the CAC and CBUM Committee met to clarify the appropriate process for consideration of the Providence Campus proposal.

Faculty Senate Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels reported that members of the Executive Committee had attended a workshop on student outcomes assessment at the Alton Jones Campus sponsored by the Provost's Office. Also, she had been part of a group of faculty and administrators from URI who attended an AAC&U Greater Expectations Institute in Utah to study and explore successful campus outcomes assessment processes.

Vice President Dougan announced that the Office of Student Life had received a NIAAA grant on substance abuse for the joint URI-Narragansett group that has been working on this issue.

President Carothers introduced Tom McElroy, the new Director of Athletics, whom the President had invited to attend the meeting.

Minutes: The minutes of the June 22, 2004 meeting were approved as distributed.

FY '05 Budget Update: President Carothers distributed a memorandum on revised allocation for the Fiscal '05 budget, which had been sent to the Vice Presidents, Deans and Directors. Ms. Barrett briefly reported on the University's effort to accommodate the Rhode Island Legislature's reductions in the URI budget by $1.2 million and responded to questions.

FY '06 Budget: Ms. Barrett reported on the proposed budget, which will be based on the allocation for Fiscal '05. She identified for the Committee those areas that had been supported in response to priorities that had been identified by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and were commensurate with the President's Strategic Plan.

Graduate Assistant Funding Review: Senate Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels thanked Ms. Morrissey and graduate student, Ms. Adviye Tolunay, working with PSPD for their efforts to help the Ad Hoc Committee on Graduate Education and Research (GERC) obtain actual information on (i) the different sources of financial support URI currently gives to graduate students and (ii) the different types of work or services that graduate students provide in return for that support.

Discussion ensued with regard to the necessity of obtaining the information on graduate students before any discussion could take place with regard to the reallocation of graduate assistantships proposed in the President's Strategic Plan.

Senate Chairperson Boudreaux-Bartels noted that GERC, working with PSPD, was developing a survey of departments on different types of financial support for graduate students and whether the student workload is in teaching, research or administration.

SEDA Update: Professor Kowalski reported on the activities of the Space Enhancement, Design and Allocation Committee since he replaced Professor Grubman-Black as the JSPC's designee to the committee. He noted that the group had developed guidelines for allocation of space, which was to be forwarded to the Executive Committee for their determination as to whether Faculty Senate approval is required.

JSPC Communications: Ms. Morrissey asked whether the committee believed that communication efforts about the JSPC's activities were adequate. It was noted that several efforts had been made to keep the University faculty apprised of the committee's activities (posting of JSPC Minutes on the FacSen-Bus List, the Senate's website and inclusion in the Faculty Senate Agenda), but it is still to be determined whether additional efforts are required to ensure that the entire campus community is informed about the activities of the JSPC.

Next meeting: It was agreed to meet next on September 9 at 1:00 p.m. Mr. DePace would provide the committee with an update on facilities and capital projects.

Fall meeting schedule: The following Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. were set for JSPC meetings: September 9, October 7*, October 21, November 4, December 2, and December 16.

The meeting adjourned at 12:15 p.m.

* Determined subsequent to the meeting.