Approved Minutes of the Faculty Senate Meeting
October 8, 2008
http://www.scsu.ctstateu.edu/organizations/facultysenate
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The third meeting of the 2008-2009 year was called to order at 12:10 PM.
Members Present: Emenyonu (Accounting); Rogers (Anthropology); Vu (Art); Lavin (Art); Maloney (Athletics); Feng (Biology); Pang (Chemistry); Madlock (Communication); Jirsa (Com Disorders/MFT); DaPonte (Computer Science); Lawler (Counseling); Fopiano (Couns/Sch Psych); Mills (Econ/Finance); Diamantis (Education); Madonia (Ed Leadership); Larocco (English); Shea (English); Johnson (English); Petrie (English); Swartz (Exercise Science); Calahan (Exercise Science); Pelayo (Foreign Language); Olson (Foreign Language); Paddock (History); Metaxas (History); Dunklee (Journalism); Bielefield (Info & Library Science); Hedreen (Library Services); Toce (Library Services); Page (Management); Prince (Marketing); Scheuermann (Mathematics); Gubitose (Mathematics); O’Brien (Media Studies); Nelson (Nursing); Rebeschi (Nursing); Pettigrew (Philosophy); Horch (Physics); Buterbaugh (Political Science); Sherman (Psychology); Colwell (Psychology); Faraclas (Public Health); Cusato (Science Ed/Env Stud); Cameron (Social Work); Bloch (Sociology); Nye (Theatre).
Members Absent: Fleming (Earth Science); Goldberg (Education); Heidkamp (Geography); _______ (Music); Carrano (Part-Time Faculty); ________ ; Goldblatt (Part-Time Faculty); (Part-Time Faculty); ________ (Part-Time Faculty); Smith (Recreation/Leisure); _________ (Social Work); Brucker (Special Ed/Reading); Tamura (Special Ed/Reading); Deb Weiss (UCF).
The minutes of September 24, 2008, were approved.
Announcements:
ü Senator Shea announced that on Friday October 17th at 1:15 – 3:30 pm there will be a discussion meeting on the General education proposal ~ all faculty is invited in MO 108.
ü 10/17 to 10/18 Southern will be hosting the 18th Annual Women’s Studies conference.
ü The Southern Read program is scheduled for October 27th, November 3rd, with more free books available for students.
President Johnson solicited a volunteer to serve on the Library Committee ~ Senators Madlock and Bielefield volunteered.
President’s Report ~~ President Johnson distributed the report and addressed the following:
¨ Discussions on “fill rates” on courses and their implications to each course. Some courses have higher enrollment caps, thus caution should be exercised on those.
¨ The course cancellation policy and its implementation at a time when students can’t register due to economics, yet the enrollment can increase as late as the week before classes start.
¨ Concerns on enrollment decreases at the junior level.
¨ The pilot FYE program had good feedback and UCF has voted for the program to run for four years as a pilot.
At this time Provost Williams arrived and addressed the following items:
· Provost Williams read a letter from President Norton with updates on the budget as she attended the meeting at the Governor’s mansion along with the presidents of all universities and colleges in the state.
· Areas of further budget cuts effective immediately as imposed by President Norton:
· The president will not provide refreshments at future meetings
· There will be further cuts on travel funds other than AAUP
· The president will request that all department are vigilant on turning off computers, lights, etc
· Discussions will continue with AAUP and Faculty Senate to find alternative resolutions on the budget cut.
· In response to where else can the university search for further budget cuts, the Provost responded that all programs will be examined carefully to try and find solutions that least impact the students’ education.
· In response to what is the status of the 26-27 new faculty searches, the Provost said that there are departments that need those positions, therefore we will proceed the searches as scheduled.
· Provost Williams also highlighted that he is still committed to lowering the Part Time to Full Time Faculty ratio
· The senators raised concern on the course cancellation policy and the time of its implementation. The Provost responded that the Deans do have the authority and flexibility to decide which courses might run with low enrollment, but those courses will need to have justification on the program/student needs.
· Senators expressed concerns on the Shared Governance Statement and how will the budget issues be handled. Provost Williams replied that all budget cut considerations will be disseminated in forms, such as town hall meetings, and other ways of communication to all faculty and staff.
· The P and T standards/guidelines was discussed at the Dean’s council and the deans are trying to draft only a framework that allows transparency on all areas.
After the Provost’s departure, President Johnson requested for the formation of an ad-hoc committee that will work on creating P & T guidelines and present them at the next month’s colloquium. The senators that volunteered are Susan Cusato, Susan Calahan, Peter Madonia, Mike Shea, Joy Fopiano, and Rebecca Hedreen.
Standing Committee Updates:
Due to time constraints there were no committee reports at this time.
UCF ~ no report
Graduate Council ~ no report
Old Business:
ü None
New Business: Not addressed at this meeting
The Senate adjourned at 2:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Maria Diamantis
Secretary of the Senate