MINUTES UAF FACULTY SENATE MEETING #58 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1995 WOOD CENTER BALLROOM
I The meeting was called to order by President Heyne at 1:35 p.m. A. ROLL CALL MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Alexander, B. Biswas, N. Bandopadhyay, S. Creed, J. Beget, J. Gerlach, C. Bischak, D. Nance, K. Braddock, J. Weingartner, T. Carlson, R. (M. Tumeo) Craven, J. Curda, L. OTHERS PRESENT: Hallsten, D. Ducharme, J. He'bert, M. Gregory, G. Heyne, E. Layral, S. Illingworth, R. Martin, W. Jennings, M. Wadlow, J. Juday, G. Kelley, J. (W. Smoker) Layer, P. Lynch, D. McBeath, G. McFadden, T. McLean-Nelson, D. (B. Wilson) Morgan, J. Perkins, M. Pippenger, M. (K. Abramowicz) Ralonde, R Reynolds, J. Schatz, M. Seifert, R. Summerville, S. Swazo, N. Thomas, D. Wade, C. Walworth, J NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT: NON-VOTING MEMBERS ABSENT: Scholle, M. - President, UAFSC Hayes, J. - President, ASUAF Alexander, V. - Dean, SFOS Graduate student Hedahl, G. - Dean, CLA Tremarello, A - Director, A&R B. The minutes to Meeting #57 (April 24, 1995) were amended under IX, G. - Other New Business to include the following list of schools/departments some of whose faculty Senator Swazo was acting on behalf of: Philosophy/Humanities, TVC, CRA/IAC, SME, GI, Library Science, English, Music, Physical Education, Justice, Geography, Sociology, and CCC. The minutes were then approved as amended. C. The agenda was approved as distributed via e-mail. II Status of Chancellor's Office Actions A. Motions Approved: 1. Amend Section 3 (ARTICLE V: Committees) STANDING and PERMANENT, of the Bylaws pertaining to the Graduate Council. 2. Delete Section 3 (ARTICLE V: Committees) PERMANENT, B & C, of the Bylaws pertaining to Graduate Council. 3. Motion to approve the Unit Criteria of the Art Department, Library Science, College of Natural Science, Mathematical Sciences, and School of Engineering. B. Motions Pending: none III Comments from Chancellor Wadlow - Chancellor urged everyone to meet the new faculty on campus. The Chancellor has sent to the Senate leadership a request to develop policy which addresses faculty/student consensual amorous relations. This has been assigned to the Faculty Affairs Committee, Dorothy Jones is available to supply assistance to the Senate. The Chancellor has not proposed a specific policy but has provided a number of illustrations of recently adopted policies from different universities, as well as the AAUP policy. There is a wide range of actions and policies. The Grievance Council procedures and the Regents' policy on grievance is under review with the intent of revising some of the current policies that govern the Grievance Council operations. Related to that, UAF finally has a grievance handbook that is available for the council members as well as the hearing panels. Dorothy Jones will be tracking the review and proposed revision being conducted statewide. The Chancellor wants to be sure that UAF faculty and staff that have actively participated in the Council and who have been involved in training sessions have an opportunity to propose changes in the policy based on their hands-on experience. This will be an opportunity to make changes that would provide for more equitable, fair procedures, as well as one that is more expeditious and allows some informal resolution. Regent Mike Kelly chairs the committee that will deal with this and is eager to have a good policy. The Board of Regents has decided to conduct a review of all academic policies. It began a couple of months ago in the Academic Affairs committee now chaired by Virginia Breeze. The stage at which the review is now at is there is a compilation of all academic policies with some proposed changes. The Faculty Senate needs to watch this very carefully. The Provost is very concerned that we watch this and we don't let things move ahead without ample review and input on our part. The Chancellor spoke on the new salary policy for non- bargaining unit faculty. For years there has been talk about having a salary policy that is not based entirely on across-the-board raises. There has been talk about having a salary policy that allows rewarding really good performance by individuals. The Board of Regents worked with these ideas. There is a great deal of controversy and not everyone is happy with the policy the Board has approved. The university will be implementing it during the course of the year. Both the Provost and the Chancellor are committed to having widespread faculty involvement in the development of the procedures to be used, the criteria to be employed and the actual carrying out of the Board's policy. The Chancellor believes that the policy and the implementation of the policy should be driven by the faculty. This is an opportunity for the faculty to help shape how it will be implemented. After a year's experience then we can look at what was done, evaluate it, and propose changes. There is a mechanism in place with the Alliance, the Academic Affairs Committee of the Regents, as well as the Systemwide Academic Council for ample opportunity to propose revisions based on the first-year experience. There is a lot of material faculty elsewhere have gone through which can be drawn upon. Another part of the policy that is often overlooked is that the Chancellor may allocate differentially to the colleges/schools the amounts of salary increases. The Chancellor doesn't intend to do this in an arbitrary way. Some criteria need to be developed, understood by everyone, and implemented with faculty input. Program Assessment has now become a day-to-day activity. UAF is on schedule with the actions that are supposed to be implemented this year. The Chancellor makes a written report to the Board every meeting. The Chancellor wants UAF to be prepared to accelerate the program assessment process. This can occur on two fronts--one would be the acceleration of implementating the actions already approved by the Board of Regents. The second type would be to accelerate the evaluation beyond the actions which have been approved for the next three years by the Board. If we accelerate we will probably do both. So it will be gradual and graduated in each instance. In order to prepare we held a critique of the program assessment last June. The summary is included in an attachment to the agenda. The Chancellor is implementing one of the recommendations: to set up a small group which will review all of the studies made in recent years about reallocation and shifting of resources. That committee will look for ideas from the past which we might use today. Paul Reichardt has agreed to chair the committee. John Craven, Dana Thomas, John Phillips, Peggy Shumaker, and Charlie Dexter are members of the committee. The Chancellor next spoke on the financial picture for the current year. There are still some uncertainties. We are unsure of what this fall's tuition revenue will be and won't know the final story until next spring. We can all work hard to improve the number of students who stay at UAF. After four years of significant, continual reallocation UAF's budget is in decent shape. We don't face this year with a four million shortfall like we did a couple of those years. If we implement the program assessment as planned, if we retain students between first semester and second, if the tuition revenue projection is accurate and we keep the students, we will be able to get through this year without significant acceleration of the program assessment process. Our current picture is good because as we look toward the future and listen to what the projection about the state of Alaska fiscal gap and how it is growing, we don't want to start next year in a deficit position, and we will not be doing that. Related to the financial picture is enrollment. The number of applications were significantly less than in previous years. With a lot of hard work by many individuals the enrollment is down only 4.5%. The rural figures are still not in except for Tanana Valley Campus. The Kuskokwim enrollment looks very strong. The freshman enrollment is down. We will have to begin immediately to acknowledge this and devise our enrollment strategy for next year accordingly. One of the key parts of this will be to step up our retention efforts. The second element is to focus on securing transfer students. The Enrollment Strategy Board will begin to figure out an aggressive recruiting strategy for transfer students. Related to the whole revenue situation is alternative sources of revenue. One of these is private fund raising. There have been two orientation sessions involving deans and directors to enlist their help in securing additional private funds or private in-kind support. Next week we will be fund raising in Seattle. Scott Smiley will be participating in a major effort to secure additional private funds for the field of fisheries. Another major gift will be announced during the first week of October. MAPCO has renewed its equipment grant this year. The Chancellor expected informal discussion of themes and new programs she learned about while in Washington last week. One theme is that the change underway in Washington is permanent. Because of our experience here at UAF we are well positioned to cope with the changes. We are already engaged in the solutions being proposed. Agencies are talking about alternative sources and partnerships. Federal agencies are initiating new programs in response to critics of higher education which fit in with what we do at UAF. One of the newer ones is overhauling, and revising undergraduate education in science and engineering. This is a new approach by NSF. Another program responds to the charge that faculty separate research and teaching too much. The idea of this program aimed at young faculty is for them to present proposals that will link their research to their classroom teaching. Joli Morgan indicated that Kuskokwim Campus staff and faculty have worked very hard on recruitment and this semester they have 400 students, 71 full time. They have also been selected as a site for a one-stop shop in which the state of Alaska's job corp center is moving to campus. Employees from many agencies will be coming into our facility for both educational opportunities and training in one location. The dorm is also full. Don Lynch asked about UAF's enrollment figures. There are 6,606 students and 69,327 SCH. This is down 5.8% for the student credit hours. Norman Swazo asked about the salary policy. The Chancellor indicated that this was a revision of the salary policy so that we can have a policy which rewards performance. It replaces the previous across the board policy. The policy has been approved and the Chancellor and Provost will be working to implement it the way it has been approved. IV Governance Reports A. ASUAF - J. Hayes - None B. Staff Council - M. Scholle The Staff Council met last week. Staff Council worked to get the word out about UAF by selling mugs at the state fair. The money raised went to purchase cookies for students during the first week of registration. It went off very well. The students were grateful to be fed while they were trying to figure out where they were going. Staff Council has been heavily involved in the College Town Day activities. This is an effort to get the college and community back together again. This effort has been going on all summer. Eric Heyne, Joe Hayes and the Chamber of Commerce have all been working hard on this endeavor. Staff Council discussed the faculty salary options that were passed by the Board of Regents. They are hoping that next month, when Don Lynch comes to speak to the Staff Council, he can enlighten them about what the faculty perceive are the problems. Marie has had several conversations with Cheryl Mann and she understands, through Eric's letter and talking with other people, some of the perceived problems. But Staff Council would like to hear from the Senate. Staff Council would like to support the faculty in any way they can, in student recruitment or whatever problems come about. They have been very successful in having the staff morale issue taken care of. They feel that the staff morale is high. They are working hard to keep the students active. They would like to see the faculty gain the morale that the staff has. C. President's Report - E. Heyne Eric indicated that it was good to see the faces of the rural faculty. He encouraged everyone to use good audioconferencing citizenship. Eric's report was attached to the agenda and he asked for any questions. Joli Morgan commented that in 20 years in the bargaining unit the union has never stifled his creativity in teaching. V Public Comments/Questions - none VI Old Business A. Assessment Report - D. Thomas & M. He'bert Eric indicated that the assessment report was not authored by Thomas and He'bert but they were on the committee that produced the report. They can answer any questions about the report. The report has been supplied for your information. Jerry McBeath asked the Chancellor about the two-pronged approach on the evaluation of the C and B list. The Chancellor saw this as a new component of review of the B and C list. She is waiting to see if there is any new ideas looking over the old reports. Jerry also asked about the need for closure on program assessment. Eric indicated that his impression was that the Board anticipates that program assessment is a never-ending process. They want this to be ongoing self-evaluation, self-criticism, self-assessment tied to finances. The Chancellor agreed that it was a very accurate statement. Dana Thomas indicated that as faculty have questions they should feel free to visit with him anytime and he would be happy to share his experiences. Rich Seifert asked Dana if he felt that the process was never- ending. Dana indicated that his perception of program assessment was dynamic in the sense that when he started he felt it was a one- time thing to bring our budget in line and have a review of our programs. Certainly by the time that he was finished with the initial work he saw that it was probably going to be a continuing process. Rich saw this as a central morale problem and felt that someone should mention this to the Regents. Eric noted that the October Board of Regents meeting will be held in Fairbanks and that everyone has three minutes to speak before the Board. VII New Business A. Confirmation of Faculty Appeals & Oversight Committee membership, submitted by Administrative Committee Eric indicated that there has been a problem getting all the spots filled and asked the Senate to approved the members that we have nominated and get this committee working. We will confirm the members that we do have and confirm the remainder at the next meeting. There was no objection to the motion. MOTION PASSED (unanimous) ============== The UAF Faculty Senate moves to confirm the membership of the Faculty Appeals and Oversight Committee membership as follows: Diane Bischak, Associate Professor, SOM Dennis Crawford, Associate Professor, ACE (96) Marvin Falk, Associate Professor, CLA Greg Goering, Associate Professor, SOM DeAnne Hallsten, Professor, CRA Alan Jubenville, Professor, SALRM Vidyadhar. Kamath, Professor, SME Meriam Karlsson, Associate Professor, SALRM Walt Peterson, Instructor, CRA Nag Rao, Professor, CLA Wayne Vandre, Professor, ACE Daniel Walsh, Associate Professor, SME EFFECTIVE: Immediately ********************* B. Resolution on Regents' policy on non-bargaining unit faculty compensation, submitted by Administrative Committee Don Lynch passed out his comments on the proposed policy. Speaking on the resolution, he indicated that Regents policy has nothing in common with what was passed last year. He attended two Regents meeting and a subcommittee meeting which considered this matter. The opinions of the three faculty Senates and the Faculty Alliance were completely, totally, and absolutely ignored. There is no opportunity for the viewpoint of this body or the Alliance to be heard at the Regents except during the public comment period. The second point is that no more than 80% of the faculty would get raises every year. The raises would range between 2 and 10%. That means that 1/5th of our faculty every year can anticipate never getting a raise. Looking at the budget for UAF, one-third of the state money goes to support instruction. That is the area the Regents are most concerned about. Research faculty bring in $90 million. Half the faculty are research faculty and can we deny them a paltry 2% raise when they bring in $90 million a year? The policy does leave the raises up to the discretion of the Chancellor. She has told us here and the Provost indicated to us that they want to include the faculty in the evaluation process. We are going to spend a lot of time evaluating each other. The amounts involved in raises might just about pay for the time we are involved in evaluating each other. Don commented that the new policy was insulting, divisive, and not responsive to the work of the campuses. The last section is almost word for word like the UAA Faculty Senate resolution. This resolution will be sent to UAS and he felt they would agreed with it. He then recommended that the Senate pass the resolution. Jerry McBeath asked what we can do with this resolution. Don indicated that he was hopeful that the Regents would listen when they see this coming from all three Faculty Senates. Eric commented on the approval process of the Board of Regents. The Board approves the policies. The regulations are formulated by Statewide Administration. Statewide shows the BOR the regulations but they don't vote on the regulations. Statewide is whom the Alliance negotiated with. The Alliance only spoke to the Regents at their meeting on this issue. The Alliance spoke with Statewide for months and appeared to be approaching a compromise, and then Statewide gave the Regents three options. The Regents indicated their preference which was the 80% option. Don indicated that at the August Regents meeting they were given a copy of the regulations. They understood them and asserted they have the right to approve anything connected with salary increases. Don also clarified that at the July meeting of the Board of Regents Human Resources Committee the compensation policy suggested by the Faculty Alliance and voted on and approved by all three Faculty Senates was totally ignored. The question was called. There was no objection to the resolution and it passed unanimously. RESOLUTION PASSED (unanimous) ================== WHEREAS, the recently adopted Regents' policy on non-bargaining unit faculty compensation has nothing in common with the UAF Faculty Senate and statewide Faculty Alliance recommendations for faculty compensation developed over the last year in consultation with the Systemwide Academic Council; and WHEREAS, Regents' policy assumes that at least one-fifth of University of Alaska faculty are not satisfactorily performing their jobs and therefore do not deserve annual raises, and furthermore asks faculty to identify those undeserving professors; and WHEREAS, Regents' policy allows for a maximum of fourth-fifths of the faculty to receive annual raises in a given year, but does not offer any minimum, so that ³annual² raises are actually entirely discretionary; and WHEREAS, Regents' policy also includes an explicitly ³discretionary² fund for administrators to grant raises to whomever they please, including raises for promotion of anywhere between zero and ten percent; and WHEREAS, Regents' policy is insulting, divisive, and not responsive to the collaborative work of faculty on all three campuses; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That the UAF Faculty Senate joins the UAA Faculty Senate in urging the Board of Regents immediately to suspend the new policy and hold adequate public hearings to consider adoption of the UA Faculty Alliance recommended compensation policy. ******************** VIII Committee Reports A. Curricular Affairs - Dana Thomas The following Curricular Affairs Report was submitted as a handout at the Faculty Senate meeting by Dana Thomas. Dana indicated that items 2 a & b were motions that the committee hopes to bring before the Faculty Senate at the next meeting. The next meeting is September 28th at 11:30 a.m. If you have any concerns Dana suggested that you attend. Two other comments: 1) For the first time Curricular Affairs is going to be taking a planning approach to its business. They will establish a rotational review of academic policies. 2) UAF will be visited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges for an accreditation review on October 24-25, 1995. Dana was involved in drafting the accreditation report and one thing that he learned was that UAF added quite a few more certificate, degree programs and minors than we deleted. Dana strongly encouraged the school/college curriculum review committees to look seriously at any new proposals from a budget sense. Eric indicated that the Curricular Affairs committee would be taking the lead in the review of academic policies that the Regents is undertaking. CURRICULAR AFFAIRS REPORT Curricular Affairs met on August 31 and September 12. There was not a quorum at the August 31 meeting so only informal discussion occurred; no action was taken. At the September 12 meeting the committee met and discussed the following items: 1) A rotational review of academic policies. A subcommittee of Ann Tremarello, John Craven, Gail Gregory, and Maynard Perkins will compile a draft list of policies and recommend an order of review of such policies. 2) Course Compression - the committee formulated and internally approved two motions which are to be submitted for the Senate's consideration at the next meeting of the Senate. These are: a) Any course compressed to less than six weeks must be approved by the college or school's curriculum council. Furthermore, any core course compressed to less than 6 weeks must be approved by the Core Review Committee. Passed 6 yeas and 3 nays. b) Any new course proposal shall have a section indicating those course compression formats in which the course will be taught. Only those formats approved will be allowed for scheduling. Passed 6 yeas, 1 abstained. The curricular affairs committee will meet at 11:30am Thursday September 28, 1995 to continue its work on the topics listed below. Any individual interested in any of these topics or other issues within the purview of curricular affairs is welcome to attend. - Cleaning up the deadlines for last day to add, drop, withdraw, change from credit to audit, etc. - Guidelines for interdisciplinary baccalaureate degrees. - Deletion of courses listed in the catalog which have not been offered within a reasonable length of time. - Cleaning up the new grade appeals policy; in particular, what if the department head is the instructor, what if the student completes all course requirements and the instructor issues an NB or I. - Review of 500 level course policies; in particular, not subject to course compression policies and petitionable for credit issues. - Review credit by exam policy - Formulation of a motion regarding a comprehensive review of the Core Curriculum. B. Committee to Nominate Commencement Speakers & Honorary Degree Recipients - David Hales A CHCSHDR report was attached to the agenda. IX Discussion Items Joli Morgan spoke on the difficulties Kuskokwim campus encountered in ordering books for classes because of the centralized ordering. Glenn Juday asked how the Senate can play a constructive role in initiating a serious proposal to the Board of Regents to eliminate one layer of administration at the university. Dana Thomas indicated that the Regents have looked at this issue and it always comes into play with the unity issue. They are considering the possibility of a single accreditation systemwide rather than three separate accreditations. The implications are significant for all of us. It may impact promotion and tenure as well. The biggest single thing affecting our budget in the state is that the Regents and possibly the Legislature don't have a realistic view of the distinctions between the three campuses and what they should be doing. Glenn asked the Senators to take this issue back to their constituents. X Members' Comments/Questions Madeline Schatz commented on the Music Department's Arctic Chamber Orchestra's tour around the state. There are eight faculty members who travel with the Orchestra, as well as twelve community members and eight students. The tour goes into the schools all through the state. Most of the people involved donate their time to do this and we act as good will ambassadors to the state from the university. Michael Jennings announced that the Legislative and Fiscal Affairs committee will meet on September 22. Senator Reynolds will take the lead on budget matters and Michael will take the lead on legislative matters. Linda Curda asked that there be some consideration on Senate meeting dates to coincide with Board of Regents meetings in the future. A reminder that the October Senate meeting will be held in the Butrovich Building in the Regents Conference Room. XI Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 3:10 p.m. Tapes of this Faculty Senate meeting are in the Governance Office, 312 Signers' Hall if anyone wishes to listen to the complete tapes. Submitted by Sheri Layral, Faculty Senate Secretary.