QEP Budget Subcommittee Meeting Minutes February 7, 2012

In attendance: Marc Mascolo (chair), Mario Incorvaia, Michael Price, Gwen Carlock, Donna Brooks, Cathy MacGowan, Nancy Remler, John Kraft

Excused: Bob LeFavi, Nick Mangee

  1. Before discussions commenced, Marc Mascolo handed out copies of the informal budget composed by him, Laura Barrett, and Doug Frazier. Nancy Remler handed out copies of the assessment rubric, which the Commission on Colleges will use to evaluate the QEP document.
  2. Discussion began with a quick explanation of the “straw man” budget just handed out. Mascolo reported that the budget does not include expenses incurred by the marketing committee, and that committee will submit a report to him as soon as it can. Mascolo then suggested that the committee review the items on the “straw man” budget one by one to determine where funds to support each item will come from. As discussion continued several questions/suggestions arose:

·  The recommended budget for the pilot seminars does not have to be addressed because it is not part of the actual QEP. Academic Affairs will worry about how to cover funds for the pilots.

·  So far the university has not decided yet whether the seminar will be offered as a one-credit replacing a P.E. course in the core curriculum or whether it will be offered as an additional one-credit course in the core. That decision will determine whether the QEP will generate new funds or simply reallocate them. So really the committee has two tasks: 1) figure out a budget with one additional hour in the core and 2) figure out a budget with one replaced hour in the core.

·  For purposes of figuring out this budget, the committee should address this task with respect to first-semester, first-time freshmen. Later, as the QEP continues its work, the university will have to figure in how to support seminars for transfer freshmen or part-time freshmen.

·  The College of Education supports the prospect of replacing one P.E. hour with an FYE seminar. The College of Education is also willing to convert PEBC 2000 to a two-credit course.

·  Additional pay for faculty could cause significant challenges for personnel in payroll as well as for the Teachers Retirement System. Perhaps a reasonable way to avoid such challenges is to offer the funds to the deans’ offices’ travel budgets, and those funds can be disbursed to the faculty teaching seminars as overloads. An idea arose suggesting the additional funds be offered as summer salaries.

·  John Kraft said he would ask Laura Barrett and Doug Frazier to poll faculty to get a sense of whether most of them prefer to earn overload pay or bank the credit hours toward a course release.

·  Even though the university intends to offer faculty incentives for teaching these seminars, the plan as written overlooks any incentives offered to advisement personnel who might teach these courses. Comp pay will be problematic for payroll and the Teachers Retirement System. On committee member suggested offering staff members an additional part-time teaching contract. Another suggestion arose proposing conversion of positions to account for those teaching responsibilities or adding an additional advisor line with a job description that includes teaching first-year seminars. John Kraft stated he would like to raise this matter with the steering committee.

·  Item number 6 on the “straw man” budget isn’t a concern because it has to do with student activity fees, not the university budget. John Kraft asked whether the university should add a course fee to the first-year seminar. Marc Mascolo advised against it because students already pay $660.00 in fees as it is.

3.  Once discussion of the “straw man” budget was complete, John Kraft recommended that the committee examine other QEP documents as models for a budget section. He provided copies of the College of Charleston’s budget section. He then referred to the QEP document rubric handed out earlier and mentioned that the “exceptional” rating is what the committee should shoot for.

4.  Nancy Remler then emphasized that the deadline for committee reports is February 28 so that she can prepare the QEP document for a March 9 deadline. Marc Mascolo said he would submit a Doodle poll to determine the committee’s next meeting.

5.  The meeting adjourned at 2:20 pm.