Chair’s Report to the Steering Committee, February 26, 2013

A draft of a “glitch bill” is being circulated. It postpones the implementation of the Gen Ed requirements to the years 2015-2016. It also restores the base requirements to 36 credit hours from the 30 in HB 7135. These are welcomed changes but we await passage before we make any further changes.

The College of Business is in the process of revising its Policies and Procedures Manual and a task force has been set up for this process. In response to faculty suggestions, an Open Forum/Discussion Board on Blackboard is being established. Faculty may see the document in Blackboard “CB Policies and Procedures Manual” and scan through its contents. Faculty may use the link "Feedback on P&P Manual" in the Discussion Boardto post comments/recommendations pertaining to the revisions in the P&P Manual.
They may check the option "Post Message as Anonymous" in order to post anonymously.
The P&P Manual items that are posted in the “CB Policies and Procedures Manuals” area are works in progress and have not yet been fully voted on by the task force.

At the last meeting of the Faculty Senate on Thursday February 21, 2013, the Motion on the environment from the Environment and Planning Committee was tabled pending revisions. At their meeting on February 25, the motion was discusses and revised and will be presented to the Steering Committee at their next meeting.

At the Steering Committee scheduled for Tuesday February 26, 2013, we will be discussing HB 7135 and the role of the State Legislature to determine policy and/or manage curriculum issues. The consensus is that those matters are the responsibility of the Board of Governors not the Legislature. That will be the focus of the Committee with the possible drafting a sense of the Senate Motion to encourage the Board of Governors to exercise its responsibilities in these matters.

In discussing the recent publications in the Miami Herald regarding Academic Partnership and its relationship with FIU for providing online services to students in Latin America, the Provost reiterated there were no such arrangements and that the University is still trying to ascertain the viability of such a project.

The Provost mentioned that there were currently about 1000 students enrolled in the five courses offered in the FIU MOOC’s project.

“President Obama didn't mention accreditation in his State of the Union address on last Tuesday evening. But in a supplemental document released after the speech, the president made it clear that he is seeking major changes in the accountability system for higher education.

In the middle of the nine-page document, "The President's Plan for a Strong Middle Class and a Strong America," Mr. Obama laid out his broad intent to hold "colleges accountable for cost, value, and quality," including a call to set benchmarks for affordability and student outcomes as criteria for receiving federal student financial aid. Regional and national accreditors are now the primary gatekeepers for access to those dollars”. The Chronicle 2/13/13.

Is the Florida Governor and the President looking at performance based funding?

Regards,

C Delano Gray

Chairman