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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Joint Strategic Planning Committee

September 4, 2003

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

Green Hall Conference Room

Attendance: Robert L. Carothers, M. Beverly Swan, 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, Linda Barrett, Paul DePace

Annoucements:

a. Kevin Lopes reported that First Night for Freshman Students went extremely well and said that the Fraternities and Sororities had been very helpful by not hosting any parties that evening.

b. President Carothers said that he expected to be able to announce the receipt by the University of a large grant on Alcohol Abuse Prevention in the near future.

c. President Carothers noted that a tentative agreement had been reached between the Board of Governors and the AAUP and with the Graduate Assistants Union. He said that he hoped that the joint committee on health benefits would come back with a proposal acceptable to all sides.

d. Tom Dougan announced that the URI Bookstore had record sales for the first day of the semester.

e. Linda Barrett reported that all state agencies had been asked by the Office of Higher Education, at the request of the State Budget Office, to provide a budget scenario for Fiscal '05 which included1) state appropriation that was 10% less than the FY04 state appropriation. The Office of Higher Education asked that two scenarios be presented: 1) with the entire shortfall made up with tuition increase 2) with a 7% cap on the tuition increase. She said that she had taken the opportunity to provide a third budget scenario, which incorporated a salary increase into scenario 2 above. Linda Barrett explained that all state agencies are asked to do these exercises on an annual basis.

Bill Rosen asked where he should direct colleagues who have suggestions about the state budget and was informed that Bob Higgins, Chair of the Fiscal Fitness group and Steve McAlister might be the appropriate persons to contact.

Minutes: The minutes of the August 20, 2003 meeting were approved.*

Capital Projects: Paul DePace provided the committee with an overview of capital projects and noted that approximately 100 projects were running at the same time.

He reported on the status of plans for the "North Campus" which refers to the area from White Hall to the Fine Arts Center and from Alumni Avenue to Flagg Road. Among the projects under consideration for the area are the proposed new Biotechnology Center-Biological Sciences Building upgrade, the Center for Integrated Learning and Technology (sustainable community building); additional housing for students, and a new Pharmacy building.

Paul DePace informed the committee about plans for utility upgrades, the status of the residence hall upgrades, the Ranger Hall renovation, Lippitt and Tyler Halls, the construction of the Alumni Association Building and the possibility of a second IEP Building.

Paul DePace also outlined what is needed to begin work on Independence Hall using the G. O. Bond funds that were approved by referendum in 1998. He noted that much depended on whether the University would be able to get a new surge building for classrooms or add a second floor to the existing surge building. It was noted that a new surge building would take longer to build but cost the University less money, while the addition of a second floor to the surge building would be more expensive but could be accomplished more quickly.

In addition, Paul De Pace also reported on smaller projects using asset protection funds to upgrade classrooms in the basement of Washburn Hall and refurbish laboratories in Pastore and Woodward.

Metrics for monitoring the Strategic Plan Abu Bakr gave a brief report on the progress on Metrics for monitoring the Strategic Plan, including efforts to work with IITS to integrate data systems. He distributed a sample of the performance measures used by the Naval War College and responded to comments and questions from members of the committee.

Communications Efforts: Ann Morrissey provided the committee with an update on efforts to communicate more effectively about the strategic plan and the efforts of the JSPC and the planning process. She outlined the materials that are currently available on the web through the new PSPD Website and links to the Faculty Senate Website (http://www.uri.edu/facsen/jspc.html). Of particular interest were links to planning projects at the university and databases that could be used by colleges and departments for planning (http://www.uri.edu/pspd/planserv.html).

Next Meeting: Provost Swan agreed to provide the committee with an update on academic planning and indicated that she would spend some time showing historical trends with regard to faculty positions.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:40 p.m.



* Subsequent to the meeting, Ms. Barrett made the two additional corrections to the Minutes of August 20, which provided further clarification regarding the distribution of the Communication Fee and the $1,000,000 increase in the base for Library Capital over the three '04 -'06 budgets. Corrected Minutes for August 20 are attached.