The University of Southern Mississippi
Faculty Senate
Minutes for the Meeting of May 7, 2010
216 Thad Cochran Center
Members Present and Represented (by proxy): H. Annulis (phone), J. Bass, D. Beckett, J. Brannock, D. Bristol (phone), B. Burgess, D. Daves, A. Davis , D. Davis, J. Evans, D. Fletcher (Reischman), B. George, C. Goggin, T. Gould, A. Haley, S. Hauer, N. Howell, S. Howell, M. Klinedinst (Young) , T. Lipscomb, D. Lunsford (phone), M. Lux, C. McCormick (Evans), J. McGuire (Gould), J. Meyer, C. Meyers, S. Oshrin, R. Pandy (Evans), C. Rakocinski (Redalje), D. Redalje, T. Rehner, S. Reischman , S. Rouse (Lipscomb), K. Rushing, J.H. Shin (J. Meyer), B. Spencer, D. Tingstrom, T. Welsh, J. Wolfe, A. Young
Member Absent: J. Burnett
1.0 Call to order
Pres. Evans called the meeting to order at 2:03 pm.
2.0 Approval of the agenda
The agenda was approved--with amendments moving the officer nominations to follow officer reports and the Campus Master Planning Committee to be the first committee report--by voice vote.
3.0 Approval of the minutes
Minutes for the meeting of April 9, 2010 were approved by voice vote.
4.0 Remarks from the administration
4.1 Provost Lyman
Prov. Lyman said he wanted to officially yet intangibly thank all members of the University Priorities Committee and all of its “victims”—all who are filling out reports. It is a tremendous, burden, he said, but he had seen conscientious attention to detail in the interests of making decisions on a rational, objective basis. There had been requests to make that gratitude tangible, but the series of cuts recently required by the governor were absorbed centrally by the university had reduced his discretionary dollars to zero. Thus, there will be no payments to UPC members—there were also issues of department chairs and program heads working on into the summer, and APG worked into the summer last year, so tangible reward was not forthcoming.
Prov. Lyman said he intends to see that this UPC process become a permanent part of the this university, once this initial round is complete. For this, he did want to recognize the extraordinary efforts being put in.
The finalized APG cuts, to take effect July 1 this year, were discussed. There had been concerns about the rapidity of the process, with much done over last summer, yet most of the fine-tuning, appeals, and adjustments continued through half of the academic year, the provost said. Most appeals—not all-resulted in adjustments. Thus, the July deadline for the UPC process should not be looked at as the end of the process, but as a beginning of a process. The July deadline is somewhat artificial. One deadline that is mandatory is the issue of terminal contracts by September 1, but those may be rescinded as two were this year.
Cuts from the APG process to take effect in July totaled $10 million. A total of $600,000 in cuts will be covered by enrollment growth from this year, not budgeted for now so will cover this upcoming year. Also, $300,000 or so will result from revenue to be negotiated from OPDEO, Fred Varnado’s office overseeing continuing education programs. That puts the figure close to the $11 million needed to account for 2010-2011 budget cuts. Of faculty positions, 34 were cut for a reduction of $2 million, and 27 staff positions were cut for an additional $1 million.
Sen. Hauer noted the $250,000 cut to the university libraries seemed draconian. Most were empty staff positions, Lyman, said, including a head of special collections.
Prov. Lyman pointed out that academic departments were not singled out for cuts; their cuts were far less than their percentage of the total budget.
Sen. Gould asked how many of the cuts affected athletics, and the provost guessed that they would fall under the Chief Financial Office’s cuts of $1.4 million. Partial support for coaches from the College of Health was cut.
Sen. Rehner said that the College of Science and Technology was a large college but took half the cuts of the College of Health. Prov. Lyman said Science and Technology did have fewer programs at risk through ratings by APG. Sen. Young suggested a look at representation on APG
--Pres. Evans said there had been three chemistry faculty. Sen. Oshrin was on the committee from Health. Prov. Lyman said that many cuts—totalling $450,000—came from activity courses like scuba diving and CPR.
Prov. Lyman said that commencement this year would be a gala event, but prayers for good weather are needed. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will speak, but the university will not pay him anything—friends of the university are organizing transportation costs and donations to his charity. Costs involved for the single commencement should not be much more than for the usual three.
A recurring dilemma has been the cost item of out-of-state tuition waivers given by the graduate school. For years, they were considered “funny money” and no one paid any attention to them. In this time of budget cuts, they became a noted item on the Graduate School’s budget, in terms of the cost. No one, however, had figures for the revenues they produce, as in teaching and other services to the university. Their costs showed up in the budget, but revenues produced by their awarding were not accounted for (an overall budget problem that the Responsibility-Centered-Management model of budgeting seeks to solve). Prov. Lyman said that after much argument, the costs of out-of-state tuition waivers will continue to be shown, but we understand that the total dollars spent is a flexible figure that is offset by other revenues. We should be able to meet department need for such waivers without having to artificially restrict that number. (A recent figure showed that 70% of graduate assistants received the out-of-state tuition waiver, though that number has been falling.) Prov. Lyman said he hoped this solution would prevent problems with this issue in the future.
Sen. Beckett asked why the understanding of such waivers had suddenly changed two or three years ago. We used to get told “go for it” when needing to award tuition waivers, but now chairs are begging Dean Siltanen for them. Are we sending the dollars off somewhere? If we actually charged these dollars, we would not get them because the students would not attend.
Prov. Lyman said that it was a change in accounting procedures about three years ago that cause them to be treated as a true cost item. But we can view them as costs that are balanced by revenues from those students attending and performing services for the university. Clarification of the issue is not complete, he said, but we have some relief on the accounting issue. Assoc. Provost Bill Powell said that such waivers have always been in the budget, but no one paid any attention to them when they went over budget. Prov. Lyman said he hopes to return to the era of benign neglect of that cost item. But in times of budget cuts out-of-state tuition waivers show up as a major item in the Graduate School budget, so we may never resolve why they suddenly became so important.
Prov. Lyman said the university would change to a fee model for services from iTech. Fundamental change is necessary because of changes in technology purchases—most notably, students are not getting phones in residence halls in this cell phone era. A fee lets us avoid designating an all-student tuition increase to this purpose. The new fees will replace the nonresident fee for wireless access, and most importantly for faculty will replace the $30 “Blackboard fee” for using technology in courses. That will not be charged starting in the fall. These costs will total $90 a semester or so, and will not dramatically change what students have been paying before. A four- or five-year computer replacement program will be part of this for USM computers. iTech cannot maintain 10-year-old computers, so the plan is no longer to try.
Sen. Beckett asked if dollars stay with a position when a faculty member retires or leaves, or do the dollars count toward budget cuts. Prov. Lyman said that if a position is not part of the APG cuts, hiring could be justified. In most cases, visiting or instructor positions are used for this, but a few tenure track lines have been filled. There is some cost savings from the position vacated either way. Sen. Beckett said he thought a big part of savings would be retirements, but we’re hiring to replace many of them. Sen. Rehner said he had last read that USM was under a hiring freeze unless there was some essential justification—the last letter had said no hiring unless there was an absolute crisis. Prov. Lyman said if APG cuts had been met, hiring was in ways business as usual, except for more visiting and instructor lines pending UPC decisions. The hiring freeze was meant for this year, not next year. Human Resources Director Russ Willis pointed out that the staff was under a more solid hiring freeze. Sen. Rehner pointed out the difficulty of the UPC talking about cutting 100 faculty lines while administrators and some faculty members are still being hired. Sen. Beckett said we are talking about getting rid of 100 people who may have served the university long and well who we know and are here, while hiring new people we do not know. Prov. Lyman said that if a department had teaching needs, what were they supposed to do? To preserve an English instructor, we do without a Vice President for the coast? Sen. Beckett suggested we need to hold on to as many people as we can. Prov. Lyman said in no case have we said “let’s hire” instead of keeping a position. When we have a vacancy, we have to ask do we have instructional or other needs that need to be met? We then fill them with flexibility understanding that UPC will be making decisions. There is also some betting on the impacts of UPC cuts, Prov. Lyman said, holding that core instructional areas will still be here. If we stopped hiring now, we would go into the fall severely crippled. We need to offer a full curriculum while deciding priorities for the future.
Sen. Rehner said the College of Business had just hired a development officer, which was a new position. Prov. Lyman said they found those funds after APG cuts, and have also raised $10 million for a new building. How, for instance, could we function without a new Vice President for Research? That is one of the crucial functions of the university. Sen. Lux said she thought the dollars from vacant positions were going to be saved—last year her department made do for a year without someone because they were told they could not hire until the person was actually gone. Prov. Lyman said “a bundle” had been hired in the College of Health, and the College of Arts and Letters had 17 lines cut, but still hired in Dance, Theater, and English. Most, though, are instructors and not tenure track people.
Sen. Hauer asked if the provost could comment on Chief Financial Officer Joe Morgan’s resignation. Prov. Lyman said it came as a surprise to him. He is absolutely confident that it has nothing to do with troubles with the research foundation, though the timing does not look good. It probably reflects other factors. We all serve at the pleasure of the president.
Sen. Goggin asked if the deadline for turning in grades could be set back a few days, due to all of the UPC reports being filled out. Prov. Lyman said he was not sure about compromising a deadline so central to the university’s function, but if the senate passed a resolution he would talk to the registrar about the difficulties of moving that deadline.
5.0 Faculty Senate Forum: University Priorities Committee Update
Bill Powell
Assoc. Prov. Powell echoed the provost’s thanks for all the work going to the UPC process. There is lots of activity on campus that shows the commitment by departments to this process. The Academic Initiatives reports are due Monday, to go to three entities with a common evaluation scoring system. Each dean, a committee in each college, and the Academic subgroup of UPC will read and rate for committee recommendations. It has been a great committee, with lots of frank discussion. The academic administration subcommittee, that oversees programs like the libraries and LEC, put out their request for reports May 5, with reports due in about a month.
http://www.usm.edu/upc/
Russ Willis
Mr. Willis said reports from the Administrative services departments were due April 19, and five groups of three are reviewing each of those, with recommendations planned by the end of June.
Sen. Lipscomb complimented the leadership of each UPC committee and subcommittee for their dedication to a thankless task. Sen. Redalje said compiling all that could be said about initiatives onto one or two pages was nearly impossible to do—in the future more attention should be paid to what information is most critical, and how to give it to the committee in the most effective way. This is the most painful experience I have had in my academic career, going through this, he said. Sen. Lipscomb noted that the committee has been making it up as it goes along, doing the best that it can to promote a reflective process. Assoc. Prov. Powell said he knows that 14-page reports per initiative plus the department report are all going to the committees, but he saw a similar report of 146 pages by a Curriculum and Education department at another university. The data have been painstakingly collected, and made available. Some we do not want to show to competitors, but most of it is public. Sen. Haley asked if reports already being read are useful, and Mr. Willis said yes, he has learned a lot through reading some of them. Assoc. Prov. Powell said they would be monumental task to read, with 25-tabbed worksheets for the data as well as the initiative and department reports. Sen. Daves noted that the assembling of reports had helped his department talk, focus, and redefine who they are and what they do.
Assoc. Prov. Powell noted that the UPC will also have to look at what he calls “lateral efficiencies”—cuts that can be made across departments, like multiple copiers on one floor, 6 admissions functions done by 4 offices, and even furloughs. All that will need to be discussed also.
Sen. Beckett asked about the legal ramifications of cutting a program and releasing tenured faculty members while saving instructors in other departments. Mr. Willis said as long as a deliberate process was involved, including discussions and appeals, to avoid arbitrary and capricious dismissals, legal requirements would be met. A program or even interest area could be cut. Assoc. Prov. Powell said that the “easy” dollars to cut (though not to the people who lost positions) have already been cut . . . those things are gone, so to the effect that APG cuts have been felt, the UPG cuts will be much more substantial. UPG is not focusing on who is being hired now, where, but on programs and initiatives. Eventually, UPG may recommend a total hiring freeze, but we are not there yet. Working more with less is inevitable and is not only a local event
--universities across the country are doing the same thing.
6.0 Officers' reports
6.1 President (Evans)
This meeting will recess to be completed in June for the purpose of officer elections. Those who cannot attend in June should send proxies for the election. Each time we think we may have a calm year, that turns out not to be the case. Pres. Evans thanked the UPC members who are senators, for lots of work yet to be done into the summer. The UPC subcommittee needed a 15th member for three 5-member teams, so he will rate programs. Since he helped start this process, he could not say no, but will have to stop June 1 for retirement. He thanked Senators Meyer, D. Davis, Gould, Klinedinst, McGuire, S. Howell and Spencer who are moving off the senate for their service.
6.2 President-Elect (Davis) – No report.
6.3 Secretary (Meyer)
Sec. Meyer reported as University Textbook Coordinator. The IHL board had formed a task force charged with evaluating ways to reduce the cost of textbooks and recommended policy changes. Trustee Christine Pickering’s Student Affairs Committee recommended Board Policy 616, adopted in March, 2010. A university bookstore advisory committee was expanded to be a textbook and course material advisory committee to devise a policy for USM. The policy will focus on four key areas: textbook adoption deadlines, minimum textbook adoption periods, dissemination of textbook information, and assessment and reporting of progress. Sen. Meyer said that three key constituencies were involving in talks on the committee: faculty, students, and the Barnes and Noble university-affiliated bookstore. Sen. Haley noted that some aspects of the policy seemed harsher than IHL guidelines. Sen. Meyer said those aspects came from negotiations with the other constituencies. Book order deadlines need to be early, for instance, to obtain used books and save students money. Sen. Meyer stressed that feedback is desired by the committee, especially before a Thursday meeting, and faculty concerns were especially desired.
9.0 New Business
9.1 Election nominees for Senate President-elect
Sen. Lux nominated Ann Branton, University Libraries.
Sen. Hauer nominated Tim Rehner, College of Health.
Sen. Rehner nominated Don Redalje, College of Science and Technology, who graciously declined the nomination, citing his schedule and inability to ably serve from the coast.
Nominations will still be taken before the election at the extended meeting in June.
9.2 Election nominees for Senate Secretary-elect
Sen. Hauer nominated Andrew Haley, College of Arts and Letters.
Nominations will still be taken before the election at the extended meeting in June.
Each nominee will also be given a chance to speak before each election.
7.0 Committee reports
7.10.4 Campus Master Planning Committee (Applin)
Two items from Master Planning need attention:
1) Master Planning is recommending to the president approval of proposal to build a Veterans' Memorial to be erected on the Centennial Green (Weathersby Lawn) at or near the existing intersection of the sidewalks.
2) The College of Business is requesting approval to move the proposed site of the new Business building from the corner of 31st and Pearl to the north side of the Trent Lott Center. The Master Planning committee heard the proposal and asked for more information and will reconvene in June to discuss the matter further.
Senators may send Mary Beth Applin (Mary.Applin@usm.edu) or Dick Conville (Richard.Conville@usm.edu) any feedback on the proposal.
Karen Reidenbach reported from iTech that a new contract signed with Comcast at a bulk rate will give students on campus media services and will give the university one external channel and four internal channels. A committee will determine the use of these channels. A Faculty Senate Channel was suggested to rebroadcast these dramatic meetings.
7.1 Academic and Governance (Redalje)
Sen. Redalje noted that when he started, he wanted to address how collegiality is used in tenure and promotion decisions. This interest was waylaid by budget concerns. He wondered if it was still a good idea, and several said yes, the concept should be reviewed because some involved with such decisions have no idea what collegiality really means.
7.2 Administration and Faculty Evaluations (Oshrin) – No report.
7.3 Awards (Brannock)
Nominations for the faculty senate awards were received earlier this week, and the committee will review them and should be able to hand them out at the June meeting.
7.4 Constitution and Bylaws (Rehner) – No report.
7.5 Elections (Burgess)
There is not a third round of ballots in the College of Education and Psychology, but a corrected second round. That election should close on May 16. The percentage of faculty who voted was much higher than in the past. Pres. Evans thanked Sen. Burgess and that committee for the hard work getting the online election procedure established.
The Election Committee is pleased to announce the names of the newly elected Senators, taking office on June 11:
College of Science and Technology |
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Jiu Ding |
Mathematics |
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Douglas Masterson |
Chemistry/Biochemistry |
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College of Business |
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Amy Sevier |
Management and International Business |
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Stanley Clark |
School of Accountancy |
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College of Arts and Letters |
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Jae-Hwa Shin |
Mass Communication and Journalism |
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Richard Conville |
Speech Communication |
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Gulf Coast |
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Cynthia Chatham |
GC School of Nursing |
(term ends 2011) |
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College of Health |
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Laura Downey |
Community Health Science |
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Kathleen Masters |
School of Nursing |
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College of Education and Psychology |
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3rd Round Ballot Necessary |
Three seats pending |
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University Libraries |
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Dorothy Ann Branton |
University Libraries |
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7.6 Faculty Welfare (Davis) – No report.
7.7 Research and Grants (McCormick)
Pres. Evans noted that committee had been working on the graduate tuition waiver issue, which as the provost discussed earlier appeared to have been worked out.
7.8 Technology (Bass) – No report.
7.9 University Direction (Davis) – No report.
7.10 Other committee and liaison reports
7.10.0 E-Platform Committee (Young)
Sen. Young reported on an E-platform committee newly established. There have been problems with university employees using social media in the classroom, and university officials are concerned primarily with information, sexual harassment, stalking, and other student-to-student issues. If a professor uses a social medium like Facebook to send information to students, for instance, the university could not obtain the information under a Freedom of Information Act request and could therefore have legal difficulties. University employees may be abusing social media as well, so that it affects work activities. Something an employee said on Facebook that was demeaning to an entire class (“this was the stupidest group I’ve ever had”) was found and read by a student.
The committee is looking at educational outreach on the dangers of Facebook, to share with both students and staff, on how to use it professionally. Email should be used for all official communication rather than social media, and those should be used cautiously. Becky Woodrick is chairing the committee.
7.10.1 Faculty Handbook Committee (Beckett)
Sen. Beckett said an impasse had been reached between the committee and the president regarding whether assistant and associate deans or provosts should vote with their departments on tenure and promotion issues. The Council of Chairs and Faculty Senates have voted that they should not vote, but the president does not want to disenfranchise people. Sen. Beckett wondered if a third compromise position might be supported by all, for now. The three options include:
QUESTION – SHOULD ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE DEANS & PROVOSTS SIT AS
MEMBERS OF TENURE & PROMOTION COMMITTEES
At present faculty holding appointments with an academic department and serving as President, Provost, vice president, dean, or director of the school or division in which a department is organized may not sit as members of departmental 3rd year review, tenure, and promotion committees.
What about Assistant/Associate Deans and Assistant/Associate Provosts?
Option 1. add: Assistant/Associate Deans and Assistant/Associate Provosts are also excluded from sitting as members of departmental 3rd year review, tenure, and promotion committees.
Option 2. add: Assistant/Associate Deans and Assistant/Associate Provosts may sit as members of departmental 3rd year review, tenure, and promotion committees.
Option 3. add: Generally Assistant/Associate Deans and Assistant/Associate Provosts are also excluded from sitting as members of departmental 3rd year review, tenure, and promotion committees. Exceptions are allowed for Assistant/Associate Deans or Assistant/Associate Provosts who fulfill all of the following qualifications: 1) they have tenure; 2) they have served a minimum of five years as a “regular” faculty member (non-Assistant/Associate Dean or non-Assistant/Associate Provost) within the department in which they will be participating in the 3rd year review and/or tenure and promotion considerations; 3) they are within a three-year span of serving as a “regular” faculty member (see above) within that department (e.g. an individual appointed as an Assistant/Associate Dean or Assistant/Associate Provost on August 31, 2010 (and continuing to serve in that capacity) becomes ineligible to serve on departmental 3rd year
review, tenure, and promotion committees on September 1, 2013).
Sen. Beckett suggested that this needs to be settled one way or another, as every year there are questions and uncertainty about this issue. He thought the president could support Option 3. Sen. Redalje asked if such administrators participate in those decisions with input at the dean or provost level. If they do, they should not vote with the department. Sen. Oshrin suggested letting the assistants vote at the department level if they were prohibited from advising the dean or the provost on the issue. If Option 2 could be amended so that associates and assistants will not participate in tenure and promotion decisions at the dean or provost level, more may support it.
A “straw poll” of the senate was suggested with Option 2 amended as suggested. Observing hands raised, 18 senators voted for Option 1, 15 voted for Option 2 as amended, and one voted for Option 3. Sen. Beckett said he would take this “help” back to the committee.
7.10.2 Gulf Coast Faculty Council (Annulis)
A Vice President for the Gulf Coast campuses has been named—Dr. Frances Lucas, currently President of Millsaps College.
7.10.3 Academic/Graduate Council (Daves) – No report.
7.10.5 Committee on Committees (Haley)
A new committee has been formed to assess university standing committees, to ascertain what committees exist and who they report to. Basic rules for committee membership are being discussed. Some key potential rules under discussion now include:
A standardized three-year term with no consecutive terms,
No member on more than three committees simultaneously,
No member chairing more than one committee simultaneously,
In most cases, open meetings with minutes or votes made public.
Variations to these could be approved by the Committee on Committees. Sen. Haley said the committee is welcoming feedback.
Term limits were discussed the most. They would be staggered, Sen. Haley said, so not all would leave at once. Sen. Young noted that experience could really help the committees, and no one could stay with experience under that system. Assistant professors could have to serve on committees and might not feel comfortable opposing administrators. Sen. Redalje suggested that such a push toward uniformity on all committees is counterproductive to the academic enterprise. Sen. Beckett said that administrators appoint some members of committees. Sen. Tingstrom said that low institutional memory could be a problem with members always rotating off of committees. Sen. Oshrin said it would truly be a problem for minority representation on committees. Sen. Haley welcomed further comments and feedback to him.
7.10.6 Space Utilization and Allocation Committee (Gould)
Sen. Gould said SUAC has a site on CampusHub with the policy, forms needed for requesting space, and recent events. Eleven requests have already been made, mostly dealing with Southern Hall, College Hall, McLemore Hall. The old printing center and the international studies building also have some space due to moves.
7.10.7 AAUP (Klinedinst)
Sen. Young reported that Mary Beth Applin is the new President of the local chapter. A tenure statement is being created, and some members may attend a shared governance seminar planned for this fall.
8.0 Old Business
10.0 Recess
Faculty Senate was recessed at 5:08 pm.
_____________________ ________________________
Respectfully Submitted, Approved by
John Meyer Jeff Evans
Secretary for Faculty Senate President of Faculty Senate