Minutes of the Faculty Affairs Meeting

December 10, 2010 (approved 1-28-11, 4, 0, 2)

Present: M. Lewandowski, L. Sperry, R. Guell (Exec Liaison), J. West, D. Nichols, L. Behrendt, H. Ganapathy-Coleman, K. Harris, A. Solesky (SPF Advocate), N. Rogers (AA Liaison)

Absent: None

The meeting was called to order at 2:35 p.m. in Cunningham Library room 028.

  1. Approval of the minutes of 12-3-10 (5-0-1)
  2. Reports
  3. Academic Affairs (Rogers)
  4. President Bradley made a budget presentation to his advisory council, and is predicting a 2% cut in the non-instructional area.
  5. Forty faculty searches have been approved, 20 tenure track and 20 special purpose
  6. Decision about what lines will be special purpose will be decided before the university closes for the holidays
  7. Executive Committee Liaison (Guell)
  8. The performance document has been altered in a minor way, and will come forward in Senate next week along with constitutional changes. Senate will vote on when to start the two week clock regarding the voting process. If the vote is unanimous, the two week clock will start on January 10, 2011; if not unanimous the clock will start on January 3, 2011.
  9. Movement of Safety from CNHHS to COT will be on the Senate agenda next week and some other curricular changes may also go forward.
  10. The change of 20 of the 40 faculty lines to special purpose was explained by the Provost as related to the request to the deans for a long-term vision from each regarding where their college is going and what they need in conjunction with the vision. There was not enough time to engage in a full conversation, and in retrospect there was regret of the announcement of 40 tenure track positions. All involved admit that this process was not handled well, and agree that more conversation is necessary regarding a middle layer of faculty between tenure track and contract faculty.
  11. Special Purpose Faculty Advocate (Solesky)
  12. Will special purpose faculty receive raises?
  13. Nancy Rogers will check with Mark Green; Green’s response was that those who were full-time last year and full-time this year (37 total) will receive raises in January 2011.
  14. FAC Chair (Sperry)
  15. Exec voted on the faculty senator attendance policy
  16. If faculty are on leave, they must notify senate and an alternate will be chosen to replace them.
  17. If any other senator misses two meetings in a year, they will receive a reminder; after the third missed meeting the senator will lose their seat and the college would need to provide a new senator.
  18. Old Business
  19. Annual audit of faculty elections
  20. A third question was added in the procedure section: Were all individuals participating in the election eligible to participate?
  21. L. Sperry presented a draft of a recommendation for the audit of faculty senator elections:

Goal:Work with Faculty Senate Secretary to ensure fair, legal, and timely elections of faculty senators each year.

Each year, the Executive Committee will appoint an Electioneer who is capable with electronic survey technology to develop the ballots.

  1. The Electioneer will work with the Faculty Senate Secretary and the Chair of FAC.
  2. Current lists of tenured and tenure-track faculty by College will be requested from Academic Affairs. The lists must be accurate as of the term of each election.
  3. The Chair of FAC is responsible for verifying the eligibility of each Senate nominee and the eligibility of each person who nominated the individual, based on the current lists of tenured and tenure-track faculty from each College.
  4. The Electioneer will develop as many electronic surveys as necessary to carry out a particular year’s election. Each college needs its own survey. This information will be shared with the Chair of FAC.
  5. The Electioneer will send out the ballots anonymously.
  6. The electronic compilation of results from each survey will be shared with the Chair of FAC. Independently, the Chair of FAC and the Electioneer will report the results of the election to the Executive Committee.

1. Added the following sentence to number one: All communication about the election will be held in confidence among those individuals.

2.In number two, changed the last sentence to read: The lists must be accurate as of the time of each election.

3.In number five the sentence will read: The Electioneer will send out the ballots with confidentiality maintained.

4.

  1. It was moved and seconded that these changes be accepted. Motion passed (7-0-0)
  1. Summer school minimum enrollment policy
  2. Discussion included:

1.What do the students in cancelled classes do for summer school?

2.We need to maximize the constants—classrooms, air-conditioning, paper—only flux is in the cost of faculty pay.

3.It was noted that summer school has always focused on faculty. It was agreed that there is a need to have a comprehensive conversation about what students need and what will best meet their needs.

  1. The committee decided to send the charge back to Exec through Liaison Guell for them to decide the appropriate committee to conduct this investigation.

The meeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Behrendt, Secretary ’10-‘11