Minutes of the Faculty Senate

Meeting convened at 1:0 p.m. by William Recktenwald, President.

ROLL CALL

Members present: Om P. Agrawal, Mark Amos (for James S. Allen), Ken B. Anderson, Gary Apgar, Kimberly Asner-Self, Connie J. Baker, Rita Cheng (ex officio), Tsuchin Chu, Lisabeth A. DiLalla, Stephen D. Ebbs, Qingfeng Ge, Stephanie Graves, Allan L. Karnes, Meera Komarraju, John T. Legier, Douglas W. Lind, Beverly Love (for Lisa B. Brooten), James A. MacLean, John W. Nicklow (ex officio), William Recktenwald, Nicole K. Roberts, Benjamin F. Rodriguez, Jose R. Ruiz, Gerald R. Spittler, Brooke H. H. Thibeault, Stacy Thompson, James A. Wall, S. Jonathan Wiesen.

Members absent: Scott Ishman (ex officio).

Members absent without proxy: Ira J. Altman, Blaine Bartholomew, Ronald A. Caffey, Sandra K. Collins, James E. Garvey, Jyotsna Kapur, Michelle Kibby-Faglier, Mary E. Lamb, Marla H. Mallette, Diane Muzio.

Visitors and guests: Brian Nelson (Undergraduate Student Government), Codell Rodriguez (Southern Illinoisan).

MINUTES

The minutes from the meeting on May 10, 2011, were approved as presented.

REPORTS

1. W. Recktenwald welcomed B. Nelson, President of the Undergraduate Student Government. He also reported: a) J. Allen has been appointed as Senate parliamentarian for the year; b) R. Caffey has submitted his resignation as a Senator from the College of Liberal Arts. An election to replace him will be held once the fall semester begins. Senators from that college should encourage their colleagues to stand for election; c) he has attended several meetings, including the graduate graduation ceremonies with S. Ishman.

2. Chancellor Cheng reported: a) there are currently 100 more students attending SIUC than there were this time last year. This is the first time in five years that there has been an increase in summer enrollment. Fall is tracking up as well, though it is too soon to give numbers. Off campus enrollment is also looking healthy, mostly a result of the distance education activities. There are still issues being addressed at the military and other off campus sites, but she hopes to see some improvements there; b) there is hope that FY12 will be much better than FY11 as a result of the work that has been done in addressing the campus's financial issues last year. The structural deficit going into FY12 is nowhere near what it was in FY11, nor are the state budget cuts; additionally, there was a tuition increase. The campus is looking at a 2-2.5% permanent cut across campus, though there will be differentiations based on enrollment growth and academic versus non-academic areas. All deans and directors have indicated they can do this without layoffs. She noted that the unpaid days saved approximately 65 full time jobs; c) on the research side, the University recently received a $7 million grant from the Buffet Foundation for agricultural research, which will make research on track to be equivalent or slightly above last year. Staffing changes will occur in ORDA and the Graduate School through retirements and other changes; she and J. Koropchak will be working closely to make sure the research infrastructure of the campus remains solid; d) marketing and branding efforts continue. There is much more emphasis in student recruitment on academic programs. A priority list is being developed on what the new image documents will look like, beginning with prospective student materials and prospective student web pages. A different look for the campus will be rolled out in the fall as it relates to research and academics impacting student learning. Connected to that is the effort on customer service. A firm called Norton Norris has been hired to conduct "train the trainers" activities on campus. Norton Norris specializes in higher education interactions with the public, mostly between staff and students. Also, procedures and practices in all of the recruitment will be examined, with emphasis on the details; e) the University has slipped behind peers in the amount of financial aid that is given to students and is looking at ways to use more of the anticipated revenue wisely. There may be less net revenue per student, but more students; so, at the end of the day, there will be a much more positive bottom line; g) throughout the year, some reorganization was done with as a result of the distance education initiative. Instructional Support Services (ISS) in the library has adopted a new course management tool, D2L (Desire2Learn) and that entire unit will be reformed into a center for teaching excellence. She sees ISS as being key to the distance education initiatives, as well as to the incorporation of various technology into the classrooms; h) a review of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure has resulted in the launch of a search for a CIO (Chief Information Officer). A recommendation was made to move the IT function to the Provost's office, which has been done; i) compliments to the Math and English faculties for the work they are doing in the first year courses. The Math faculty will greatly expand the number of sections being offered to first year freshmen in basic math using the technology in the classroom. Parallel to that, the English composition faculty received a $40,000 grant from the Illinois Student Assistance Program, and they have launched eight pilot projects for at risk students to see if they can get those students through English 101 and 102 in one year; j) starting in the fall, the first floor of the library will be open 24-7. This is a result of input that came directly from students [Note: The library's "Extended Hours Area" will remain open all night (24 hours on Sundays-Thursdays beginning August 22. The Extended Hours Area includes the Coffee Commons, Rotunda and Computer Lab 139 on the north side of the first floor. On Friday and Saturday evenings, the Extended Hours Area will close in conjunction with the library's normal hours]; k) the campus has almost $495 million of deferred maintenance, and this very real financial threat must be addressed. Some initiatives have been taken through the FEMA money, insurance dollars, facility maintenance fees and the Physical Plant budget. There are some campus buildings that cannot handle the power that is needed, and this will be addressed using state dollars that were given through the capital renewal. Through the facilities maintenance fee, [the needs of] Faner Hall (south end) have been addressed; l) some technology was put into 25 classrooms this summer. Classroom improvements have not been done for about three years [as a result of] the budget cutting that was done in the years prior to her arrival. There are now have 50 classrooms with technology. Other improvements include the Mass Communication and Media Arts roof project; new greenhouses that will be installed over the next month; and the Automotive Technology Center at the airport, which is on time and on budget now that the state Supreme Court approved financing for that project; m) there are many improvements to student services that will be unfolding this fall, particularly for the first semester/first year students. A task force has been formed to look at graduation traditions. With students attending convocation on the way in and graduation on the way out, she wants to make sure everything possible is done in order to retain students once they are here and then retain good relations with them as alumni once they leave; n) she just met with the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, and in the fall there will be full-fledged, campus-wide conversations around the campus's strategic long range planning.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

W. Recktenwald asked the Chancellor to address the hiring freeze to clarify how [it is being handled]. Chancellor Cheng responded that the campus is still under a hiring freeze, similar to what it has had throughout the year, i.e., there are multiple layers of approval before any hire is made, ending with her. There is a lot of scrutiny as to whether it is affordable, whether it is necessary and whether there are alternative ways to conducting business without that hire. Hiring has never stopped completely because the University is very departmentalized, so a vacancy in one area may not be able to be taken care of by another area. She is looking at shared services and restructuring across the campus. There are some key administrative hires needed. She mentioned the CIO, but there are also some internal searches that have been allowed. Openings in recruitment areas will not go vacant, so there are seven service centers in community colleges that will be filled. Additionally, grant funded positions will be okay to hire in the event someone who might be laid off could possibly be absorbed on the grant.

REPORTS (cont.)

3. Provost Nicklow reported: a) the IBHE has approved the Ph.D program in Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Master of Arts in Art History and Visual Culture; b) there were a number of accreditations over the last month, including the Masters in Public Health; several others received renewals (College of Business, Fire Service Management, Interior Design, School of Music). A deferral was made for the Theater Department to allow them additional time to respond to some observations identified in the self study; c) [his office is] launching some new increased improvements in recruitment and admissions. As of July 1, the 2012 recruitment cycle was officially launched, and the current cycle is being phased out. The next cycle has the new holistic admission criteria. Over the last several months, he has worked diligently with colleges to identify what their criteria would be and how they would conduct their admissions decisions. One of the initiatives is the search and fulfillment campaign. The plan is to increase the purchase of names by 20%, with the goal of having around 450,000 names in the pool. Three or four vacant recruiter positions have been filled, and they will search for a recruiter with some unique skills (bi-lingual, for example) available to parents and prospective students who visit the campus. He would like to look at all the materials, such as the view book, in Spanish as well. The view book will be coming out, hopefully within the next month or so and will be distributed in mass over the next few months; d) he expressed appreciation to the departments and colleges for stepping up in the recruitment process. He is seeing increases in very specific areas, very targeted disciplines where faculty have called or sent letters; e) the University is operating a pilot program called MAP 2+2, which allows students at community colleges to bank unused MAP grant funds. The program is supported by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), and SIUC is one of only a few in the state that were approved this year. The program is not available to all programs because there has to be a guarantee that the student can finish in two years; f) the deans have submitted their 3, 5 and 7% budget reduction scenarios, and he has been working with them to plan and prioritize how to meet the 2-2.5% reduction; g) there are two searches for which he has asked the Senate for representation; one is the associate provost for academic programs (formerly associate provost for academic affairs). He has heard overwhelmingly from the deans and colleges that there is a significant gap there in accreditation, in processing Form 90s, in making and communicating catalog changes, etc. There is currently a gap in service, and the position is needed to maintain the quality and accreditation of programs. The other position is the associate provost [and dean] for University College. This position is needed to make sure there are coordinated and comprehensive services across all the units within the College (student support programs, Honors, Core Curriculum and Saluki First Year); h) there have been a series of changes, effective July 1, to the Higher Education Act. One of those is focused on satisfactory academic progress by students. In the past, students not making satisfactory academic progress had one year to raise their GPA if they were receiving aid. If their GPA did not rise in the following year, they would not receive aid, or, more typically, would work with an academic advisor and develop an academic plan. As long as they were making some progress, affirmed by the advisor or someone in Financial Aid, they could continue to receive financial aid. What has changed is that it is no longer one year, but a semester. This means there is no warning period, so this fall there were 4,000 undergraduates who received academic progress notices stating they would not receive aid unless they set up an academic plan. Most of them have, but this will be monitored closely to see if, after a year, they are making progress.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

W. Recktenwald asked Provost Nickow to explain what will happen if a school or college loses a position to attrition or some other reason. Will that line then go back to central administration? Provost Nicklow responded that one initiative he is considering is returning all vacant positions to the Provost's office; then, when a position either opens up or is new, the department and dean would appeal to his office for the position. Currently, position control lies in the colleges, and the deans are making decisions on what positions to fill. The Provost's office has no flexibility to make strategic hiring decisions. In addition, his office funds the pay outs on vacation and sick leave. Provost Nicklow indicated that this initiative is still in the early stages of discussion. He has talked with the deans and several of the direct reports at this point. K. Asner-Self asked if there was any thought given to opening it up to programs [who are actually] where the rubber meets the road; for example, she has four programs, but is not a chair or dean. Provost Nicklow responded that he is open to comments and has not proposed anything at this point; however, he does see this as an opportunity. When a position comes open, it will allow him to invest in faculty and their programs--toward enrollment growth and progress. Chancellor Cheng commented that she has seen it work in an environment that has both systems, and she sees the potential for this campus. There are 280 vacant positions across the campus, though they are not all faculty; the hardest hit is the civil service. There has to be some mechanism in play that helps the institution to strategically grow. Thought should be given to strategic hiring for research and for enrollment growth, and chairs and deans having input makes sense in trying to sort that out. There are many different models, and there are provosts out there who manage this quite well in academic affairs. Non-academic units are also being examined, and the big question she asks of those vice chancellors is, "Can we do it differently? Are there ways that we can combine things?" She wants to know they have done all they can before they ask for a hire because resources are very stretched. Provost Nicklow reported that he has asked the deans for input and has left that open in terms of a comment period. He supports faculty taking the issue back to their deans, chairs and directors meetings for additional discussion and feedback.

J. Wiesen expressed concern that there might be a massive shift away from positions that are not as lucrative to those in another area of a college that are. Has that happened at other universities, where there might be fighting for positions? Chancellor Cheng responded that she deliberately stated [that this occur in line with] the University's research goals, and those are not just funded research and strategic hiring[?]; it has to be both; but, there is always that tension. K. Anderson commented that he first became aware of [the Provost's initiative] from faculty in his college (Science), and they are very concerned. This is the first he has heard of anyone articulating the goal of [position control]. He encouraged the administration to get the word out because it is leaking out, and what is leaking out is not a clear picture. K. Asner-Self asked about the timeline, believing some of the anxiety she is hearing is because no one had heard about this prior to the summer. The fear is that a decision will be made without input over the summer. She agreed that getting information out to the faculty, as well as deans and chairs, would be very helpful. It also sets up shared governance and allows faculty to make decisions that are not based on fear.

M. Komarraju asked to hear more about the strategy [for centralizing position control]. Provost Nicklow responded that it is a mix of criteria in terms of how a program is reviewed; it is enrollment, it is credit hours, it is how consistent is it with the University's mission. When a dean has to argue for a position, s/he will make the case in an entrepreneurial way (i.e., enrollment growth); that does not always mean just revenue; they can look at other criteria. Chancellor Cheng commented that the few hires made last year in the faculty ranks were based on the criteria Provost Nicklow just mentioned, but it was done ad hoc rather than strategically. She would like to put in place a formula that is more transparent than the loudest voice and a better sense of purpose for why some these lines are filled and why some are left lines open. There is not enough money for all the lines. G. Apgar commented that from his department's perspective, the last of the 12-month hires are approaching that time when they are very seriously considering retirement. When summer orientations occur on Fridays, and there is only one 12- month employee, it becomes difficult. He hoped that a long term plan will [be put in place] that might alleviate that upcoming problem.

K. Anderson expressed concern that moving position control to the Provost's office will make it more difficult for those departments with specific disciplinary needs to get that message through. There will be so many layers between the Provost and "where the rubber hits the road," that information of that kind may never get to him when the decisions are being made. Provost Nicklow believes a dean has to be able to understand and justify adequately the need for the position and be able to convey that need. At this point, he has deans asking to fill every vacant position, and he is not sure the strategy is there, e.g. is retention being considered in the filling of the position? Is research being considered? [He] is not sure at this time whether there will be a template for proposing or filling a position. There is specific criteria that would need to be addressed and focused around recruitment, retention and research. Every program is going to have unique needs, and the deans and chairs must be able to adequately convey that information to him. If it would not happen under that model, it is not happening now. S. Graves asked what will happen to [the flexibility that colleges/units normally have with open positions] if positions go back to the Provost's office and then there are cuts. Provost Nicklow responded that this year, all the vacant salary lines were swept and used, anyway. He acknowledged there will be a loss of flexibility; at the same time, he believes if there are additional reductions and those vacant lines are not there, he cannot pass the same reduction along. His office would absorb the cuts through many of those open lines internally. Chancellor Cheng noted they are unsure how many lines will be left after the 2- 2.5% giveback because almost every dean indicated they would be giving back lines to get the budget straight.

REPORTS (cont.)

4. M. Amos discussed the new Saluki Startup scheduled for August 19.

5. Reports were submitted by faculty representatives who serve on various University committees (included as Attachment A to the Agenda). W. Recktenwald asked Chancellor Cheng if she would address some of the issues in L. Brooten's Engineering search committee report when L. Brooten is in attendance at the September meeting. Chancellor Cheng responded she would do so. Additional reports were submitted for the following committees: Computing Advisory; Provost Screening Committee; and Strategic Enrollment Planning (see appendix 1 to the minutes).

6. A. Karnes reported on the June meeting of the Faculty Advisory Council (FAC) to the IBHE (see appendix 2 to the minutes). J. Legier commented on the full page newspaper ad for Midcontinent University touting 18 months, and only one day in class, to obtain a bachelor's degree. How can the University compete with that kind of advertising here in southern Illinois? A. Karnes responded that the rulings coming down by the Board are aimed at making it harder for [these institutions] to be granted approval.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL -- None.

COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES -- K. Asner-Self, Chair

K. Asner-Self presented for approval the University Committee Assignments (included as Attachment B to the Agenda). She indicated there were a surprisingly low number of responses to the volunteer solicitation; consequently, most people received their first choice. Chancellor Cheng commented that she was unaware there was a Commencement Committee. She will look at that and perhaps invite those committee members to participate in the [commencement] task force. Also, she will be looking at possibly paring down the Honorary Degrees and Distinguished Service Award Selection Committee, as it is a rather large committee.

Nominations were approved on a voice vote.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION POLICY COMMITTEE -- S. Ebbs/S. Graves, Co-Chairs

1. S. Ebbs presented for approval the Resolution to Approve the 2011-2012 Internal and External Program Reviewers (included as Attachment C to the Agenda).