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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Joint Strategic Planning Committee

August 20, 2003

1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Green Hall Conference Room

Attendance: Robert L. Carothers, M. Beverly Swan, Bob Beagle, Tom Dougan, Ann Morrissey, Abu Bakr, Judy Beckman, Mary Hollinshead, Faye Boudreaux-Bartels, Steve Grubman-Black, Michael Rice, Bill Rosen, Sheila Black Grubman, Kevin Lopes, Soledade Surrette, Linda Barrett

Annoucements:

a. President Carothers reported that the Board of Governors had met the previous afternoon at the Narragansett Bay Campus. The Board held a retreat from 12:00 noon until 3:30 p.m. after which they held their regular open meeting. President Carothers noted that it had been the first time all of the Presidents and Vice Presidents had been invited to the Board's retreat. He also said that it was the first time in a number of years that the Board had such a large number of new members (7) and that it was the first time in his experience that the Board membership included people (3) who were familiar with academic communities.

b. Kevin Lopes reported on the Student Senate's plans to re-institute Midnight Madness on October 17 and thanked Vice President Beagle for his support.

Minutes: The minutes of the July 23, 2003 meeting were approved.

University Budget: Linda Barrett reviewed for the committee the approved budget for FY'04. She noted that the '04 budget allocation represents a 1% increase in state appropriation and reflected a 7% increase in tuition. The combination of tuition and fee rates thus will increase by 5.9%.

Some of the enhancements that Linda Barrett noted in the Fiscal '04 Budget allocation, that are part of the Strategic Plan, were:

  • Six new continuing tenure-track faculty positions (600 was used as the base number for faculty thus there would be 606 faculty by the end of fiscal '04)
  • An increase of $300,000 to the Library base for library capital.
  • An increase in the Communication fee of approximately $2,000,000, which will be divided between the Library and Computing Services as follows: 47% for the Library and 53% for Computing.
  • A new allocation of $150,000 for merit-based scholarships for highly qualified transfer students.
  • An allocation of $200,000 for the first phase of the capital campaign.
  • An infusion of $150,000 for Biotechnology training.

It was noted that a separate line item has been added to the budget to 'attract/retain students' during FY '04 in the amount of $530,000.

Linda Barrett explained that her staff was in the process of completing the Fiscal '05 budget request for the Office of Higher Education based on recent guidelines.

Included in the FY '05 Budget request were:

  • New continuing tenure-track faculty positions will increase by 6 FTEs (606 + 6 = 612).
  • An increase of $300,000 to the Library base for library capital.
  • 150,000 for merit-based scholarships for highly qualified transfer students.

Linda Barrett agreed to provide members of the JSPC with copies of the FY '05 Budget request when it becomes available.

Linda Barrett reported that the proposed Fiscal '06 Budget would include the following:

  • 8 new continuing tenure-track faculty positions (612 + 8= 620).
  • An increase of $400,000 to the Library base for library capital. For a total of $1,000,000 for the three-year period.
  • An increase of $200,000 for merit-based scholarships for highly qualified transfer students bringing the total to $500,000.
  • An allocation of an additional 10.9% for general scholarships to attract and retrain students and to provide additional scholarships to need based students
  • An increase in the budget for the Shepard's facility operations. The previous two budgets received level funding from the DOA even though the contract indicates they will increase their share each year.

It was agreed that it would be the fiscal '06 budget where the JSPC could be expected to have an impact.

Concerns were raised about the following budget-related matters:

  • The timing and cost of Independence Hall renovations, including funding for a Surge Building for classroom space (which had been included in the Legislature's requested Bond Issue for 2004 but not included in the Board of Governors' list of capital projects for 2005-09).
  • The Department of Administration's role with regard to the Shepard Building (increase in space requirements for offices and programs not related to ASFCCE, i.e. the Met School; and the Directors' decisions not to follow-through on the original agreement with regard to inflationary costs).
  • Delaying any proposal to move the responsibility for summer session to Kingston as the Kingston campus and the College of Continuing Education begin to work more closely together.
  • Challenges facing ASFCCE as other colleges and universities in the state compete for students by providing continuing education programs at similar cost to URI. Provost Swan noted that she expected a proposal to change admissions policy at ASFCCE to be brought forward for consideration during the Fall semester. She also noted that she would be meeting with ASFCCE personnel on September 9th to discuss the future of continuing education at URI.
  • The continual increase in costs for Blue Cross and Blue Shield in combination with the State's agreement for its employees.
  • The State's refusal to permit the inclusion of estimated salary increases and associated benefits into the '04 and '05 budget requests.

Future Meetings: It was agreed to set aside the September 18 meeting to discuss academic planning.

Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on September 4 at 1:00 p.m. Agenda items will include an update on communications efforts and an update on the status of capital improvements; a progress report on metrics for monitoring the Strategic Plan, including efforts to work with IITS to integrate data systems; and a discussion of the next step in building the FY'06 Budget.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:54 p.m.