Minutes of the Faculty Senate | Faculty Senate | SIU

Meeting convened at 1:05 p.m. by Ramanarayanan Viswanathan, President.

ROLL CALL

Members present: Edward J. Alfrey, James S. Allen, Robert D. Benford, Joseph Brown, Terry Clark, Jon D. Davey, Paula K. Davis, Lisabeth DiLalla, Stephen D. Ebbs, Carl R. Flowers, Philip C. Howze, H. Randy Hughes, Kathryn A. Hytten, Mary E. Lamb, Douglas W. Lind, John D. McIntyre, Lori Merrill-Fink, Ryan Netzley (for Mark A. Amos), Don Rice (ex officio), R. William Rowley, Pamela A. Smoot, Gerald R. Spittler, Peggy Stockdale, Spyros Tragoudas (ex officio), Fernando Trevino (ex officio), Ramanarayanan Viswanathan, Matt R. Whiles, John R. Winings, David S. Worrells, Kay M. Zivkovich.

Members absent: Allan Karnes (ex officio), Russ Trimble (ex officio).

Members absent without proxy: Gary Apgar, Peter Borgia, Maureen D. Francis, Sanjeev Kumar, David A. Lightfoot, Aldo D. Migone.

Visitors and guests: John Benshoff (Rehabilitation Institute), Alejandro Caceres (Foreign Languages and Literatures), David Carlson (Library Affairs), Roger Tedrick (Board of Trustees), Victoria Valle (Enrollment Management).

MINUTES

The minutes of the regular meeting on October 9, 2007, were approved as presented.

REPORTS

1. R. Viswanathan thanked all who participated in the October 25 fall faculty meeting, particularly Terry Clark, who moderated. R. Viswanathan also expressed thanks to Board of Trustees Chair Roger Tedrick for attending today's Senate meeting, noting he would like the visits to be an annual event. Also welcomed was Victoria Valle, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management.

R. Viswanathan commented on the plagiarism report drafted by the blue ribbon committee, which included himself, D. Worrells, P. Stockdale and P. Howze. The committee thoroughly studied the dissertation of President Poshard and the allegations of plagiarism within the historical context before arriving at the recommendations contained in the report. Afterward, members of the committee met with the Edwardsville Faculty Senate Executive Committee, who came to campus and attended the fall faculty meeting. R. Viswanathan added that he, D. Worrells, P. Stockdale and P. Howze went to the Edwardsville campus with Vice President John Haller on November 2 to meet with their student senate group. He and P. Stockdale also met with the SIUC Graduate and Professional Student Council. That group approved a resolution supporting the process used by the committee, as well as its findings.

R. Viswanathan reported that J. Haller will be reconstituting the blue ribbon committee and adding two student members and an alumni who holds a PhD. The same will be done at the Edwardsville campus. The committee will use the plagiarism report to draft a policy that will be circulated to all constituency groups. When the policy comes back to the Senate, he would like both the Undergraduate Education Policy Committee and the Governance Committee to take up this issue and develop a joint resolution. Depending on how the policy is drafted, the Senate could make some modifications or suggestions prior to its submission to the Board for approval. Interim Provost Rice indicated that once a policy has been approved by both campuses, each campus will then formulate its own procedures in support of the policy, noting there are different structures on the two campuses. He added that the constituency groups are going to be very important in following that up and dealing with the procedural issues.

2. R. Tedrick thanked the Senate for the invitation to attend the meeting. He discussed several issues, including: a) the blue ribbon committee report, noting the Board was taken by the confidence and dedication of the committee. It was evident they had given it much thought and worked hard in a very difficult environment; b) the enrollment problem, although he believes as a result of the faculty's help, the University has turned a corner. He also believes the University community will give V. Valle the support she needs and wished her well; c) the resolution from the Edwardsville campus asking President Poshard to step down, which he was disappointed to see. He indicated the Board did listen to the concerns of the Edwardsville faculty, but the Board made what it believed to be the correct decision with respect to where the issue should be adjudicated; d) financing of Saluki Way, pointing out that the Board approved the planning money but still has to approve the final design and financing before it can move ahead. Chancellor Trevino added that at some point a numerical goal has to be set of how many dollars are needed in hand before a shovel is put to the ground. There are approvals at numerous stages, but at present there is no anticipation that University dollars will be used; funding will come from external donations. R. Benford asked if the $83 million includes the cost of maintenance, insurance, utilities, etc. R. Tedrick responded that it does. Chancellor Trevino indicated the plan is to use tickets sales to help fund the operation as well; e) projects to be funded through the capital bill, such as the energy research building and the Transportation Education Center. President Poshard was able to get the Governor's office to add the energy research building to the capital bill, which means if the planning money is approved, then it is likely the building will be funded at some later time. With respect to the Transportation Education Center, that project is at the top of the list, as is the science building for the Edwardsville campus.

3. V. Valle provided the Senate with an update on recruitment and retention initiatives over the last two months. She answered questions from Senators, including: a) how actively are students being recruited from Rend Lake and John A. Logan? She responded that the 2+2 programs and service centers are very important. Her office is aggressively recruiting in the Chicago area as well, as it is important to build name recognition; b) are efforts being made to correct the gender gap at SIUC (it has been suggested that part of the problem is that very qualified women are not being admitted)? V. Valle believed this was a yield issue, and for whatever reason, differential recruiting is not being done, i.e., there are different messages and such that are discussed with women as opposed to with men. This issue has not yet been addressed but will have to be as her office begins to build a prospect pool; c) how can faculty be of assistance to her? V. Valle responded that it is her job to facilitate the building of relationships between faculty and students. Faculty can help by helping to yield students. She is aware that her office has not been as helpful to faculty as it needed to be in terms of providing information in the kind of format that was needed. Her office needs to be able to do that to make the job of yielding students a little easier; d) will SIUC offer in-state tuition to students in the surrounding states? V. Valle responded that there would be substantial fiscal impact to offering in-state tuition to students in Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. Decisions would have to be made as to whether it would apply only to new students and would it be based on GPA or programs, etc. Chancellor Trevino commented that no solid market research has been done on this issue, and if it is not implemented correctly, the University could lose millions of dollars. Interim Provost Rice added that the University has a 3% cap on waivers, and it is unclear whether the in-state rate would be considered a waiver. This question needs to be answered before the administration can address some of the other complications of implementing such a policy; e) is there a place where students can seek guidance if they feel they are unable to continue with school? V. Valle responded that it would depend on what the student is saying; if it is purely how to withdraw, then there is a transitional programs in the registrar's office where students can go. Short of that, the conversation would likely need to be an individual one. J. Brown commented that if a student is at that stage, they are going to talk to a trusted adult. He noted that every faculty person has a role to play in retention. The question is whether faculty see themselves in that capacity; f) is there data that would substantiate that having a vibrant athletics program generates more students? V. Valle responded that it generates name recognition, which does make a difference.

4. S. Tragoudas reported on the November 1 Graduate Council meeting: The Council approved a resolution to establish a Center for Delta Studies, which will be housed in the Department of Anthropology. Funding has been made available by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research for a period of three years. R. Viswanathan asked what the budget line is for the center. S. Tragoudas responded that the amount is $30,000.

R. Benford asked S. Tragoudas if the Graduate Council has taken up the issue of the glitch in graduate fellowships. S. Tragoudas responded that the Council did not discuss the issue. V. Valle indicated that [those particular fellowships were the ones with stipends]. It was unfortunate timing, but those students will not be burdened with those bills; instead, the University will bear the cost. However, the loans that students took out will not be disbursed to them in the spring. They were put in an over-award situation because the stipendship is considered gift aid. She will be working with the Graduate School to carefully review the language on fellowships to see if any have some kind of service component that would allow them to be handled differently. She noted there needs to be a fix in place by mid-spring.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION POLICY COMMITTEE -- P. Smoot, Chair

1. P. Smoot presented for approval the Resolution to Recommend Approval of the RME to Establish a Minor in Rehabilitation Services, College of Education and Human Services (included as Attachment A to the Agenda).

Resolution was approved on a voice vote.

2. P. Smoot presented for approval the Resolution to Recommend Approval of the RME to Establish a Minor in Native American Studies, College of Liberal Arts (included as Attachment B to the Agenda). Interim Provost Rice asked if the minor would be housed in the college or in an academic unit of the college. P. Smoot responded that it would be housed in the Anthropology Department. One of the comments made was that rather than having one person oversee the program, there would be a steering committee of three people to insure that, should someone leave, the program would not die. R. Viswanathan asked if there is enough interest in having such a program since the Native American population itself is small. P. Smoot responded that, according to those who would be on the steering committee, the interest is there. They also expect the minor to attract more students. R. Benford asked about the resource implications. In addition, he has noticed that the University has been adding ethnic studies programs and questioned whether there will eventually be an administrative canopy for those programs. Interim Provost Rice responded that there has been no recent conversation about centralizing these programs. There have been informal, ongoing conversations about a center for cultural studies that would be multidisciplinary, and potentially it could be the umbrella for these various minors. P. Howze pointed out that there are great centers for Native American literature in the country; SIUC is not one of them. He suggested that if there is going to be such a source of study, there needs to be a baseline amount of funding so the library collection can cope with at least readings and lectures. He estimated that even a small corpus would be $250,000. P. Smoot responded that this question was asked, and the committee was told that grants would be pursued in order to obtain library resources.

Resolution was approved, with one abstention, on a voice vote.

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES -- S. Kumar, Chair

P. Stockdale (for S. Kumar) presented for approval the nomination of Allan Karnes, Professor, Accountancy, to serve on the Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Committee (to complete the remaining one year term of Jason Howell).

Nomination was approved on a voice vote.

BUDGET COMMITTEE -- T. Clark, Chair

T. Clark reported the Chancellor's Planning and Budget Committee continues to look at how to fill the hole in the budget. Interim Provost Rice noted the paperwork is being prepared for both a fee and tuition increase. There was discussion about possibly advocating a minimum tuition increase of 9%, but to suggest the possibility of a range anywhere between 9-13%. The reasoning behind this is that quite often Edwardsville and Carbondale are the first universities in the state to declare what their increases will be; then, the other universities come back with larger increases. The President is very concerned that SIU not stand out with respect to other universities and that it be in the same ballpark so arguments can be made to the legislature. Interim Provost Rice indicated he is unsure what the final figures will be, but if it is over a single digit increase, then that money will be returned to students in the form of financial aid. Chancellor Trevino added that the University needs to be mindful of staying affordable, but at the same time recognize the need for more scholarship assistance. D. Worrells noted the recurring issue for him is the inability of the state to address funding of the Illinois Veterans Grant (IVG). That issue continues to plague SIUC.

FACULTY STATUS AND WELFARE COMMITTEE -- None.

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE -- None.

OLD BUSINESS -- None.

NEW BUSINESS

1. R. Viswanathan reported the new procedures for the Judicial Review Board are now in place. Nominations have been received, and the Executive Council and Committee on Committees have had a preliminary meeting to review the list. A final slate of candidates will be brought to the Senate for a vote at the December meeting.

2. J. Allen, noting the time and energy devoted to the task of reviewing the President's dissertation and thesis, believed it was well worth thanking Senate representatives R. Viswanathan, P. Stockdale, D. Worrells and P. Howze for their work. A round of applause followed.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

K. Zivkovich extended an invitation to all to attend the November 30 Art Over Easy Fund Raiser for the School of Art and Design. It is their major fund raiser for the year, with proceeds going to scholarships and the new building fund.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 2:44 p.m.