Faculty Senate Minutes
3 PM Friday, March 28, 2008
Board Room, David Student Union

Senators present:  Whiting, Niazur, Duskin, Guajardo, Filetti,  Brunke, Lambert, French, Redick, Zhang, Jordan, Hasbrouck, Marshall (arrives 3:52), Carlson (leaves at 6:42), Wheeler (leaves at 7:05).
Senators absent: none

  1. Meeting called to order at 3:06.
  2. Introduction of guests: Elizabeth Bredenkamp, from LDSP220 class
  3. Approval of minutes of Faculty Senate meetings
    1. acknowledge electronic approval of minutes for February 22 meeting
  4. President's report
    1. Faculty Office non-use in DSU.  Time to release.
      3. Provost office has an extra $600 available for spring FDG.  A faculty member could not use a previous F07 grant, so the $$ became available.
    3. Searches: currently, out of approximately 19 full-time positions being searched, 50% have failed to result in a probationary hire.  Some of these positions were converted to restricted positions and a person hired.  Cause of about half of the failed positions were the depth of the pool; the remaining was the inability to attract top candidates.   We are on track to reach our faculty target in the fall of ca. 240 -241.
    4. Student Success Coordinating Committee met in March and received a number of reports from active committees working on Student Success issues.   Nine different reports (groups) were made on the different aspects of student academic activities on campus.  Please see Agenda of Student Success Coordinating Committee for list of reports.
    5. Faculty Development Grant Final Report: The Faculty Senate recognizes submission of a final report from Kara Keeling.
  5. Committee reports
    1. Faculty Mentorship Committee (Jordan): The mentorship committee recommends that each probationary faculty member have a mentor outside the department and a sponsor within the department. Details of the committees recommendations are in their letter to the senate, recommendations, and notes. The senate and Senator Jordan recommended that the sponsor is appointed by the department chair. The mentor should be tenured. Mentors should be chosen in April, and should get credit on their eval-6 for mentoring as professional service. Senators also recommended that all mentors be volunteers.

      Action: Wheeler/Guajardo move to establish a committee to implement a formal mentoring program. Vote: In favor: unanimous The current committee will give recommendations for how to implement this program with Senator French and with consultation of both deans. They will report back at the April meeting.
    2. Board of Visitor Reports
      1. Entire Board (Whiting) Other Board of Visitor Reports were considered first. Tracey Schwarze and Bob Colvin, co-chairs of the Development Committee, on Service and Community Engagement briefed the board on CNU's service initiative. They informed the board that it will cost $70,000-100,000 to implement the program. The president also spoke about building projects and where CNU falls in Virginia's public institutions (3rd in selectivity and 5th in average SAT scores).
      2. Finance (Lambert): The major topic of discussion was the external audit which will be done this Spring.
      3. Academic Affairs (Wheeler). The provost spoke about service learning initiatives and progress towards the 4-3 load.
      4. Development (Hasbrouck) CNU is on track in terms of pledges and gifts compared to last year. CNU has received $3 million in donations this year. The development office will establish an annual fund to become part of president's circle for $2000. There was discussion about how to make CNC alumni feel welcome.
      5. Student Life (Guajardo): Vice President O’Connell spoke about student services. Bill Ritchie was introduced as the new Director of Counseling and Kevin Hughes as the new Dean of Students. Security people who were hired on an hourly rate for football games, etc. will now be full time employees. Patty Patten gave an admissions report. Applications are up 11%. Vice President O’Connell discussed the honor code. Andrew Lundsten, president of SGA, reported on CNU government. a new calendar called CNU Buzz will include happenings online.

        After BOV Student Life discussion, the order went to the Entire Board BOV report.  Then, the agenda was continued (with the Faculty Development Grants committee report).

    3. Faculty Development Grants (Hasbrouck)
      4. Redick/Filetti move to go into closed session at 3:55. Vote in favor: unanimous. Senate comes out of closed session at 4:12.  Vote to approve the report: unanimous. The following awards were recommended:

      Applicant

      Title (Abridged)

      CARPENTER

      “Women’s Leadership in Politics and Professions”

      FRASER

       “Hispanic Sleuths and the State: Detective Fiction in Spain…”

      GAILEY

      “Teaching Mathematics in the Elementary School”

      GRAU

      “Negotiating & Redefining the Politics of Identity

      HYLAND

      “Tisssaphernes’ Empire: Kings, Satraps & Policy…”

      MORAN

      “The Artistic Process”, J-Term course development for FNAR 204

      PASHTENKO

      “Strategic Implications … of a Post Castro Cuba”

      RIEDL

      “A Data Collection System for Wetland Monitoring…”

      SNOW

      “International Tourism and Language… in a Panamanian Creole Village”

      VELKEY

      “Quantification of Bubble Nest Location, Density and Size...”

      ZESTOS

      US and Canadian Economic Policy on Business Cycles…”
      The total amount awarded was $15,600.
    4. Administrative Order of Faculty Evaluation Committee (Whiting): This report and "Faculty Evaluation Order Change Trial" under Other were both discussed during this committee report. Discussion is reported there.
  6. Old business
    1. Senate and Committee Elections: Here is the entire 2008-2009 list of senators.
      1. Arts and Humanities (Guajardo/Lambert): Jean Filetti (English) and Lori Underwood (Philosophy and Religious Studies) were elected to the senate.
      2. Social Science (Hasbrouck/Wheeler): Eric Duskin and Xiaoqun Xu were elected to the senate.
      3. Luter (Marshall/Redick) : Joan McMahon and Veronique Frucot were elected to the senate.
      4. Science and Technology (Carlson/Duskin) Ed Brash and Ron Mollick were elected to the senate.
      5. Nominating Committee for Senate Executive Committee (Marshall, Hasbrouck Zhang, Redick) will provide an SEC slate in April.
      6. Committee elections were complete, but not reported. Science and Technology results are here; Luter results,  here; Social Science, here; and Arts and Humanities, here.
    2. Emeritus Status for Professor Jordan. Marshall/Zhang move to approve. Vote in Favor: Whiting, Niazur, Duskin, Guajardo, Filetti, Brunke, Lambert, French, Redick, Zhang, Hasbrouck, Marshall, Carlson, Wheeler. Abstain: Jordan.
    3. Subcommittee Reports on new course proposals:
      1. Busn314 (IIS), BUSN 315(IIS) (Filetti and Guajardo) : Recommendation is to approve Vote in Favor: Niazur, Duskin, Guajardo, Filetti, Brunke, Lambert, French, Redick, Zhang, Jordan, Marshall, Carlson, Wheeler. Abstain: Hasbrouck. 
      2. SPAN 311 (WST), SPAN 353 (WST), SPAN 354 (WST) (Carlson and Redick) : Recommendation is to approve. Vote in Favor: unanimous
      3. SOWK 330 (GMP), FNAR380 (CXP), FNAR381 (CXP) (Rahim and Marshall) : These courses were recommended as courses, but it was not clear how they fit into the area of inquiry. Vote in Favor:  Niazur, Duskin, Guajardo, Filetti, Brunke, French, Redick, Hasbrouck, Zhang, Jordan, Marshall, Carlson, Wheeler. Vote Against: .Lambert
  7. New business
    1. University Faculty Load Plans: President Whiting gave this summary of  implementing the transition from 4-4 to 3-3:
      Why go to a 3-3?
      1.  Faculty recruiting success should increase.  
      2.  3-3 was previous goal prior to 4-3 planning.  4-3 was intermediate step. 
      3.  3-3 is maximum load characteristic of premier liberal arts institutions.
        Positive impacts:
      1. Teaching workload would become appropriate for faculty performance expectations.
      2. Faculty performance expectations have been set as a pre-eminent LA school.
      3. Provide quality time for faculty to mentor students outside the classroom.
                   - student research projects
                   - advising
                   - service projects
      4.  Provide time for faculty to do their scholarship.
      5.  Provide time for faculty to do service projects.
       

      Challenges:

      1.  Concerns of a fair evaluation system for faculty at different loads (4-3 &  3-3)

      Major effort of Provost office and Faculty Senate to develop two tracks for evaluation.
           - Scholarly program will expect to be more ambitious for 3-3
           - 4-3 faculty efforts will be centered on teaching & student research/service
      2.  Potential feelings of degrading worth of current faculty
      3.  To temporarily balance 3-3 hires in covering classes, 4-4 restricted positions will be used where appropriate.  These 4-4 hires will be short term as the number of faculty increase over the coming years (& class size shrinks); they will be converted into tenured positions. 
       
      Proposed timing:
      1. First 3-3 cohort will be hired to start F2010 (same time all faculty become 4-3).
      2. A mechanism will be developed where existing 4-3 faculty will be given an opportunity to become 3-3. 

      Discussion: There was a great deal of discussion about the 3-3 initiative. Senators were concerned that class size will increase and that increasing the number of restricted faculty will create a less impressive and committed faculty, not a better faculty. This in turn will decrease the student applicant quality. Senators also felt that it will become even more critical to pay adjuncts a salary competitive with nearby schools (e.g., William and Mary) because there may be a heavier reliance on adjuncts. Some worried that we will lose good faculty who came here to be outstanding teacher-scholars, not researchers. There was also concern about whether it would be possible to pursue research with undergraduates, and how faculty who came in under a 4-4 load will be evaluated compared to those teaching a 3-3 load. Others responded by saying that the restricted positions would not be permanent; eventually, all or almost all faculty will be on a 3-3 load. There will be separate evaluation criteria for faculty hired under a 3-3 load. Some felt that specifying how this will be done is critical, and that the senate should not proceed until details have been specified. Others thought that it is difficult to get an administration to agree to switching to a 3-3 load, that the senate and faculty have a year to work out the details, and that we should take advantage of this opportunity. These senators felt that the 3-3 load will help CNU's transition to a premier  liberal arts school, not a research 1 atmosphere.

    2. Request for nomination for Budget Advisory Committee. Please send email to secretary, Lynn Lambert (lambert@pcs.cnu.edu) before the April meeting so the senate can put forward names to the president to choose from.
  8. Other
    1. Notification of Other Handbook Changes. The following handbook changes are not subject to a vote. They are provided for information only. Change 16, Change 17, Change 18, Change 19, Change 20, Change 21, Change 22 and Change 23
    2. Faculty Evaluation Order Change Trial: This discussion occurred during the committee report Administrative Order of Faculty Evaluation.

      President Whiting gave a report for his committee (from "Administrative Order of Faculty Evaluation Committee" in Committee Reports) and an analysis of the current evaluation order. He reintroduced Plan B presented to the Senate in January, one of the 5 plans presented in January (Plan A is CNU's current plan; the others are used by other colleges and universities). A proposal was developed by the Provost and SEC to consider the parallel review order (Plan B) for a one (1) year trial.

      Discussion: There was a great deal of discussion. Some senators felt that the FRC would be stronger under "Plan B". Some felt that the FRC would be weaker because the provost would ignore the FRC and listen only to the dean. Thus, some senators felt that the dean should write a letter evaluating the candidate, but not make a recommendation. Some senators preferred a modified "Plan B" that would involve the dean sitting on the FRC with one recommendation coming from this committee. Other senators worried that this would restrict FRC discussion with the dean (who also evaluates FRC members) listening. Some felt that the dean and provost should be combined ("Plan C") as the provost had suggested originally. Straw votes indicated that a minority of senators supported these modified plans over the ones already on the plan.

      Action: Senator Whiting asked senators who would agree to discuss the plans with their departments and vote next month on these.Vote in Favor: Whiting, Lambert, Guajardo, Filetti, Redick, Jordan, Wheeler, French. Vote Against: Duskin, Marshall, Carlson, Zhang, Brunke, Rahim. Abstain: Hasbrouck

      After this, the order moved to Old Business.

    3. Tuition Increase. President Whiting discussed the possibility that the administration may need to recommend a tuition increase for Fall 2008 to help buffer the state's 5% reduction in the University's budget this past year and minimal promise of any budget increase for next year. Senators discussed their support of an increase in tuition. Most senators agreed that cost increases may require a tuition increase.
    4. Senators brought up other issues to investigate:
      1. Does LDSP210 or any other course count for ULLC100? Senators were concerned that proper oversight by the committees overseeing the curriculum be followed.
      2. The CLAS department chairs received a memo about what to do in case of medical emergency. The memo says to call campus police before calling 911. Senators felt that delaying a call to 911 could endanger the life of a student; they would like clarification.
      3. Senators were concerned that faculty moving to 4-3 next year continue to receive release time for funded or other responsibilities. The Senate Executive Committee has discussed with the provost using 4-3 (not 4-4) as a base from which course releases should be taken.

    The meeting was adjourned at 7:16.
    Submitted by Lynn Lambert
    Faculty Senate Secretary