Minutes of the Faculty Senate

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Meeting convened at 1:02 p.m. by Ramanarayanan Viswanathan, President.

ROLL CALL

Members present: Edward J. Alfrey, Robert D. Benford, Joseph Brown, Terry Clark, Brad Colwell (ex officio), Julia Colyar (for Kathryn A. Hytten), Jon D. Davey, Paula K. Davis, Stephen D. Ebbs, Carl R. Flowers, Maureen D. Francis, Philip C. Howze, Allan Karnes (ex officio), Sanjeev Kumar, Aldo D. Migone, Don Rice (ex officio), R. William Rowley, Gerald R. Spittler, Peggy Stockdale, Fernando Trevino (ex officio), Ramanarayanan Viswanathan, Matt R. Whiles, John R. Winings, David S. Worrells, Kay M. Zivkovich.

Members absent: Russ Trimble (ex officio).

Members absent without proxy: James S. Allen, Mark A. Amos, David J.Anthony, Gary Apgar, Peter Borgia, Uday Desai, Lisabeth DiLalla, Patrick J. Kelley, David A. Lightfoot, John D. McIntyre, Pamela A. Smoot.

Visitors and Guests: Davd Carlson (Library Affairs), John Cotter (Aviation Technologies), Kent Hsiao (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Sarah Lohman (Daily Egyptian), Susan Tulis (Library Affairs).

MINUTES

The minutes of the regular meeting on May 8, 2007, were corrected under Question and Answer Session to change "Interim Provost Dunn" to "Interim Chancellor Dunn." Minutes were approved as corrected.

REPORTS

1. On behalf of the Faculty Senate, R. Viswanathan welcomed Chancellor Trevino to the meeting. R. Viswanathan then reported that earlier in the day, he attended a presentation by President Poshard on enrollment. Two related issues of interest to faculty were defining student profiles and admission standards. The profile defines the kind of student the University is looking for data shows that the average ACT score is 22; however, 30% of this institution's incoming freshman students fall between 12-17 in Math and English. The challenge is how to retain that group of students. The Senate should be prepared to address these issues when they are brought before the group. R. Viswanathan reported another issue that was raised was defining recruitment and retention as a salary base for faculty. There needs to be a mechanism for measuring this, as faculty already talk with and advise students in corridors, during office hours, etc. President Poshard expressed that if faculty, especially tenure track faculty, are doing some of this work, they should get credit toward service when they go for promotion and tenure. R. Viswanathan did not believe this would be a problem, but believes it would need to be defined so everyone would understand how it would work.

2. Chancellor Trevino expressed his pleasure at the opportunity to work with the Faculty Senate and with being one of the newest members of the faculty. He commented that one of the things that struck him about President Poshard's remarks was the data that shows SIUC's six year graduation rate to be 41% (17% below the state average). Chancellor Trevino believes it is everyone's job to attempt to deal with this issue, as well as improve recruitment efforts.

R. Benford commented that the University's largest revenue stream is tuition. He would encourage the new administration to think deeply about how resources might be invested in teaching areas for things like a teaching/learning center, grants for training graduate students, etc. Those types of activities take place at most campuses but are not done here in a very organized fashion. There need to be resources and leadership in order to begin turning things around. It is not to say the University does not have excellent teachers; it is just not rewarded. At tenure and promotion time, it is all about the research portfolio and not the teaching portfolio. R. Benford believes there needs to be some rethinking of that in terms of the competitive environment now.

J. Brown indicated that this past year, President Poshard called several task forces together to investigate diversity programs on campus. One of those task forces was chaired by outgoing Associate Provost Tom Calhoun, and it was quite extensive in studying those programs that seem to have a much better success rate at retaining and graduating minority students. J. Brown expressed disappointment that none of that was part of Vice President Haller's remarks. He recommended that before Associate Provost Calhoun leaves, someone obtain and make good use of his report. R. Viswanathan asked Interim Provost Rice if he would obtain the report. Interim Provost Rice responded that he would do so and would be speaking to that issue shortly.

3. Interim Provost Rice reported: a) Gary Kolb will act as the interim dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, replacing Dean Pendakur; Jay Means has started in his position as dean for the College of Science; Alan Vaux has accepted the position of dean for the College of Liberal Arts; and Kenneth Teitelbaum will begin as dean for the College of Education and Human Services on August 1; b) Patricia Elmore (formally acting dean for Education and Human Services) has been appointed to replace T. Calhoun as the Interim Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. Also, Susan Logue (Library Affairs) has been given a 50% appointment as Acting Associate Provost for Academic Administration. She will be responsible for responding to issues/concerns of both the Faculty Association and the Non Tenure Track Faculty Association. S. Logue will also work with departments and colleges on amendments for operating papers, sabbatical requests, hiring/separation issues and immigration issues; c) he is in the process of searching for an Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management. A qualified candidate has been identified, and she will be returning to campus within the next two weeks. He would like to have a person in place before the start of fall semester; d) there will be [four] administrative searches conducted next fiscal year for which the Senate will be asked for representatives. One will be for the dean of Mass Communication and Media Arts; another will be for an Assistant Director for Touch of Nature; and the third will be for a director of Admissions. In addition, Steve Yarbrough will be retiring as director of Continuing Education, and Susan Edgren will be interim director while a national search is conducted for a new director; e) earlier in the day, President Poshard held what he called a "mini summit" on enrollment. His target audience was deans, associate deans, vice chancellors and those currently working in enrollment management (chairs, directors, academic advisors). He presented much data on the demographic profile of the region and those areas where the University attempts to recruit students. He presented data on the number of students enrolled and retained and what percentage of students are recruited from the top 10% of their high school class. He then went through issues he believes must be resolved in order to improve recruitment and retention. Some of those initiatives will be pursued over the next year. Many of the details in the report will be shared at various times, particularly with UEPC. Interim Provost Rice believes that committee should meet with the President and discuss some of these points; f) the issue of diversity among the student body is being examined, in particular the success rates of minority students, which falls below the success rates of white students. Associate Provost Calhoun's report has not been broadly released, but will be circulated and will be a matter of discussion for UEPC and the Task Force for Enrollment Management. Interim Provost Rice reported that at the last Board of Trustees meeting, President Poshard gave an overview of successes and failures of the University in accomplishing goals set forth in FY07. One of the areas where it failed miserably was in hiring faculty of under-represented groups. The President has made it clear that the institution cannot continue to do business as usual with respect to hiring practices. Interim Provost Rice believes one of the primary problems is that the search committees that are formed are, in fact, screening committees. Current practice cannot continue if the University is to continue building on a commitment of multiculturalism. He has promised the President that he will meet with each search committee and discuss diversity, headhunting and bringing more unrepresented groups into the applicant pool. The whole search process will be approached differently. This will be discussed further in the future.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

1. P. Stockdale asked if there will be searches for faculty hiring. Interim Provost Rice responded that there are some searches being conducted with respect to the faculty hiring initiative. He has promised those departments they could continue those searches because they did not achieve their goals; they did not feel their applicant pools were strong enough, so those searches will go on to the degree that there are vacancies as a result of retirements, resignations, or other losses, and the departments and deans want to have searches. Interim Provost Rice indicated he will more closely monitor the nature of the applicant pools. He pointed out that another issue the President is very aware needs to be resolved is that of departments, primarily those in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts, that have to turn away students. Resources are going to be reallocated to provide teachers in departments that need more faculty effort in order to [open more slots for students]. R. Viswanathan asked how those funds would be generated. Interim Provost Rice responded that he will look closely at requests for hire. He believes a better job can be done managing some of the departmental budgets, particularly with how much money is being put aside, for example, for summer support as opposed to actually making hires. There has been discussion about several initiatives that might bring non tenure track faculty to some of these programs where the expectation for research is less. Multiple efforts will be made to bring in money.

2. P. Howze pointed out that spouse hires seems to be a very difficult issue to address, particularly when it comes to the faculty. The University is losing many good people by not being able to accommodate or provide work for a spouse. He asked if there is an intent to refocus in that area. Interim Provost Rice responded that there has not been a central pool of money to create jobs. It has always been at the good will of departments and colleges to bring in a spouse. For those who have a professional degree in some other area, the question then is whether another department/college can hire that person in a part-time position. He has had conversations with the Carbondale mayor about using the services of his office to at least direct spouses or significant others who do not have academic degrees/aspirations to potential employers in the region. The real answer is to attempt to create a pool of money to help supplement positions in units that [would benefit from a spousal hire]. There has been much discussion on this issue, but no solutions.

3. R. Benford asked where the discussion is with respect to providing some kind of tuition relief for contiguous states/counties. Interim Provost Rice responded that there has been discussion about becoming part of the Midwest consortium and reducing the tuition rates for people coming out of those areas. There has also been discussion about making in-state tuition available those students. Vice President Haller has had conversations with the IBHE about whether or not this can be done. The new director of IBHE has said that the IBHE will not interfere with how the University sets its tuition. Consequently, this is an issue he will be bringing to UEPC once Vice Chancellor Haller provides him with the figures on how this might work and at what rate the tuition can be set.

REPORTS (cont.)

4. Reports were submitted by faculty representatives on various University committees (included as Attachment A to the Agenda). J. Cotter, one of the Faculty Senate representatives on the Computing Advisory Committee, thanked the Senate for the opportunity to serve on the committee. He commented that one of the things he noticed about the committee was that members representing the various groups did not seem to have a tremendous amount of computer expertise. To a great extent, meetings consisted of a briefing from Information Technology about what was happening and what policy was about to be set. This happened a couple of times a year. J. Cotter indicated the committee did not accomplish much, though he believes there is a tremendous opportunity for some good to come from the committee. He noted that he also served on the search committee for an Information Technology director and in doing so had an opportunity to meet with the perspective candidates. Both of the top candidates stressed the need for a very active and involved computer advisory committee that could advise the IT director about the needs of the campus from a computing point of view. J. Cotter believes the Senate has a conduit in its representatives on the committee, whereby it can effect change in the way computing activities and infrastructure are brought about. However, that channel is not being used.

Interim Provost Rice noted that the Computing Advisory Committee is supposed to be advisory to the Provost. It is interesting to him that, certainly since he has been interim provost, there has been no information coming in from the committee. He also does not recall any conversations about the committee with past Provost Dunn. Interim Provost Rice indicated he needed to contact the head of the committee to start opening up a dialogue. With respect to computing on campus, he indicated that the Senate may be aware that the University has an information technology minor, which was set up in about 2001 and began admitting students in 2002. The data on that program shows that between 2002- 2006, there have been 21 students who have taken and graduated with the minor at a cost of $2.6 million. That is a lot of money per student. It is costing now $221,000 an academic year to maintain support for the minor, and at best there are 20 enrolled in the minor any given year. That is $10,000 a student. He wanted to give the Senate a heads up that the minor will be eliminated. He noted there are various reviews being done currently on programs with minors.

5. A. Karnes reported on the July meeting of the Faculty Advisory Council to the IBHE (see appendix). J. Brown asked if the document, "Improving Teacher Quality," was shared with the Public Policy Institute. A. Karnes responded that it has not. J. Brown suggested [A. Karnes] might want to talk with Mike Lawrence about the report, given the previous initiatives the Institute has sponsored and the fact that there are new deans of Education and Liberal Arts. The Public Policy Institute may be able to more effectively coordinate this effort, particularly since from Paul Simon's time on they have been talking about teacher quality reform, education and all those issues in the state. A. Karnes agreed it is a good idea, [although it will first go through the Provost's office.]

6. B. Colwell reported the Graduate Council last met on May 3. At that meeting, Spyros Tragoudas was elected chair, and he was elected vice chair. Also elected were the four standing committee chairs. B. Colwell indicated the Council was scheduled for a special meeting on July 13, but that has been cancelled. The Council may attempt to meet in August.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

P. Stockdale reported: 1) there was discussion on the fall faculty meeting. She and D. Worrells will work on planning the event. She indicated any suggestions would be welcome. Possible topics include some of the issues that were raised at last year's fall meeting, such as better communication between the Senate and its constituents. It was suggested one way to do that would be to issue a web-based communique once a semester targeted to specific issues. She will be asking committee chairs to provide some type of report that could be added to the publication; b) there was discussion about the Executive Council meeting more often with the Chancellor in order to have more input into the decision-making. The possibility of conducting evaluations of senior administrators was also discussed; c) changes to the "Grievance Procedure for Faculty," in particular to the sections related to the Judicial Review Board, have been approved by the Board of Trustees. It is likely that there will be a staggering of members' terms as those members whose terms expire this year leave the Board.

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES -- S. Kumar, Chair

1. S. Kumar presented for approval the University Committee Assignments (included as Attachment C to the Agenda). He indicated the that those who volunteered this year were given preference. The committee reviewed some of the comments made by volunteers as to why they wanted to serve on a particular committee. The committee also looked at the ranks of those who volunteered for certain committees, as well as attempted to diversify volunteers among the colleges.

University Committee Assignments approved on a voice vote.

2. S. Kumar noted the committee has received no requests as yet for search committee representatives.

BUDGET COMMITTEE -- T. Clark, Chair

T. Clark reported the committee met in May. He commented that there has been concern for some years about the kind of budget model on which the University operates. With state funds drying up, enrollment going down and problems with image, it seems to be a model which is not sustainable. When he first chaired the Budget Committee three years ago, that committee discussed what it could do to actually change something. Out of those discussions came an initiative to begin addressing some of the image and marketing issues at the institutional level. On the basis of that, he sits on the Chancellor's Planning and Budget Advisory Committee and has been an advocate of the Senate on that committee. He is also acting director for a new entity on campus called Barking Dawg Productions, an in-house ad agency. They are in the process of bench marking and looking at what other universities have done. They are also looking at on-demand television in Chicago; are working on outdoor campaigns in Chicago, Springfield and other places; and are looking at some of the efforts of other colleges in Illinois. He hoped to show some specific ideas by the fall faculty meeting.

FACULTY STATUS AND WELFARE COMMITTEE -- None.

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE -- None.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION POLICY COMMITTEE -- None.

OLD BUSINESS -- None.

NEW BUSINESS -- None.

ANNOUNCEMENTS -- None.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 2:11 p.m.