Announcements

Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda

Tuesday October 27, 2009

Library Browsing Area 3:30-5pm

 

I.                 Call to Order (3:30pm)

II.                Approval of Minutes from 9/28/2009-see below (3:35-3:40)

III.      Reports from the Steering Committee

Report from President (3:40-3:50)

•          Update on Provost Garro’s Evaluation Committee
•          Update about our recommendations for SMAST COAST/PSM review process
•          BOT  Updates (Paige Gibbs)

Report from Chancellor & Provosts  (3:50-4:20)

•    Law School Concept Presentation & Discussion (see below)

V. Old Business/ Committee Reports (4:20-:30)

• Report from Honorary Degree Committee (M. Baum)
• Gen-Ed Task Force (Doug Roscoe)  (see below)

VI. New Business (4:30-5pm)

• Goals & Definition of Service Learning at UMD (Matt Roy)
• Textbook Ordering issue follow-up from Bookstore

 

Documents referenced in the agenda

Faculty Senate Minutes 9/28/09

Call to Order 3:30

• Motion to approve minutes from May meeting, Minutes approved unanimously

Department of Public Safety Update – Chief Emil Fioravanti

PPT.  Presentation

19 reported break in and thefts.  Total Replacement cost is about 80K.  Mostly computer equipment, especially MAC.  6 cases no sign of forced entry, 13 cases of forced entry.  Most break ins from the roof.

Response Goals:  Unified response from all segments.  A survey of all the windows, all the operating hardware.  Looking into a software purchase which helps to locate any stolen machines this will be installed on all new university machines.

Long Term Planning Specifics:  re-keying and limiting access for roofs.  Assess the status of window hardware; looking to supplement current locks, etc.  Safety and crime prevention assessment, pass card access or other entry control systems especially for the research buildings.

The University is moving toward active direct server.  The faculty do have access to this server.  It is recommended that this service be broadcast more effectively to the faculty.  This would mitigate the theft if the material on the computer were backed up to the server.  This server can be accessed from home via a VPN.   

Report from the President

Defer the BOT Update until the October Meeting

Staffing of Senate Committees has been done and are now posted to the faculty senate website. 

Update on Chancellor BOT review, the President’s office has completed its internal review and the BOT will be coming to campus to meet with various parties.

Provost Garro’s review will be commencing shortly.  We need to have two names from each of the Councils and one librarian.  We pulled the two names and had an issue with the SMAST draw and will need to draw one more name.  We need to draw two names from SCEPPE.  The Chancellor will nominate the Chair for the committee.  The Chancellor would like to convene this committee within the next two weeks.  Remember this is a formative and not a summative review of the Provost to give the Provost feedback to assist in the next 5 years of the Provost service to campus.  The report is also due this Spring.

The Chancellor discussed the Chancellor’s review.  The University President has asked the BOT to conduct the review and her sense is that it will begin in the Spring

The Budget Review Board – Star Store and ATMC have received some restored funding from the State.  80% of allocations were loaded back to the Dean’s in the Fall.

Introduce Kristen Kalbrener, Director of International Programs Office

Update from NEASC 3 “Organization and Governance” Self-evaluation.  Draft language has been worked on and is awaiting final approval from the committee. 

Report from the Provost

NEASC - This is the self-study year for NEASC 10 year review 4/14/2010.  Eleven committee have been appointed and have been working.  The chairs and co-chairs have been meeting as a steering committee.  Karen Dixon, Asst Dean in LARTS, is the main writer of the report.  The reports are fairly complete.  By October the draft of the document will be submitted to the Steering Committee and the various sub-committees, as well as the Chancellor.  The document will be made public to the campus early November.   

The document will be posted to a password protected website for all to read.  There will be several forums that occur after that time to get feedback and comments.  The draft will also be submitted to NEASC by November.  Dr. John Miller, President Central CT State Univ has been appointed as the Chair of the site visit team.  Dr. Miller will be invited to campus.  The final document will need to be submitted on 2/22.  This document will also be made public to the local community and informed of the site visit.  A summary of this schedule will be distributed and certain groups 4/11- 4/14 will be asked to hold those dates available for meeting with the NEASC team.

Strategic Plan update -  The updated plan will be informed by the self-study and thus an update will be done in the Spring.

Federal Requirement re:  Textbook orders – Going into effect in July 2010.  Disclosure information related to textbook.  The textbook information should be available as soon as the schedule is posted.  This applies to all institutions that receive Federal funding.  These guidelines will be put in place this Spring.

New Business

Online Learning Ad-Hoc Committee – Jen Riley new Director for Online Learning.  There is a draft charge and a suggested staffing for that committee. 

• Motion to approve, motion seconded.

Discussion:

The listed items are not in hierarchical order it will be up to the committee to set their priorities and timeframes. 

How is this committee related to the Computer Users Committee?  There maybe overlaps between the committees and the two committees may be able to work together.

Examining the percentage of our courses that will be routinely offered, online and on load in regular programs.  Will the committee examine such issue?  Also will the committee be examining what we should do and why it is or is not a good thing to do?  There will be some curriculum issues.   

The Chancellor stated that by June she will need to report to the President how UMD will be using online in the future.  We need to get an understanding of how this technology will be used and whether or not we will continue to participate with the other UMass campuses in the current system.  Is there an access need among our students who cannot come to campus?  At this point we have not really seen this need.  But we need to study to see what the market actually is.   

The charge to the committee is not currently divided with graduate and undergraduate.  It is anticipated that the committee may divide and address graduate and undergrad separately.

• Motion carries unanimously to approve this committee.

Staffing of the Committee –

• Motion to approve the slate of candidates.  Motion seconded
• Motion carries unanimously. 

Academic Advising and Retention 

Over the last year the issue of Academic Advising has been discussed in numerous forums.  

Academic Advising reports have been distributed to all Chairs and should have been given to the faculty. 

The committee convened last year included a series of Fundamental Principles for Advising Practice.  It was decided that a forum should be used to discuss academic advising.  Should the task force on academic advising continue?  

It was suggested that someone representing non-traditional students can be appointed to the committee. 

There is currently no standards for academic advising.  This forum will be focused on generalities.  We can blog about the issue of academic advising.

New award to honor Joseph C. Deck – The award might be designed to be given to an administrator that supports the faculty.  The family would like to sponsor a scholarship as well. 

• Motion that the senate support the creation of the Joseph C. Deck award.  Motion seconded.  

The Chancellor suggests the award recognizes extraordinary service.  The service is 10/16 Noon, more information will be forthcoming. 

• Motion carries unanimously.

Funding for the Yvonne Sandstrom award.  The steering committee will examine the issue of the monetary award.

Names for Provost review

Marie Blanton Brekka

Steven Hegedus 

SMAST

Jim Bisagni 

Motion to adjourn, seconded.

• Adjourned at 5pm

 

UMass Dartmouth Law School Concept:

On October 5, 2009, Southern New England School of Law offered to donate real estate, facility, technology and library assets to UMass Dartmouth for the purpose of creating a public law program in Massachusetts. These assets have an estimated value of $22 million-plus.

•  $7.7 million in building and real estate,
• $11.5 million in library resources
•  $2.5 million in technology, furnishings, etc.
•   $1 million in cash 

This would be the second largest donation in the 146-year history of UMass and the largest donation in the 114-year history of UMass Dartmouth. 

The school, like other UMass graduate programs, will not require any additional taxpayer support. It will be funded through law student charges, private donations, and grant funding. 

The program will return between $500,000 and $1 million per year to the Massachusetts general fund through standard tuition remittance.

There are currently nine law schools in Massachusetts – all private. If this proposal succeeds there will be nine law schools in Massachusetts – eight private and one public.

There are about 6,500 law school seats in Massachusetts, with about 5,500 of those situated in Boston, making legal education the most geographically condensed graduate offering in the state. This proposal will add about 200 seats outside of Boston by 2015.

Massachusetts is one of only six states without a public law school. One of those states, New Hampshire, is in the process of creating a public law school through the acquisition of Franklin Pierce Law School.  

The UMass Dartmouth School of Law will be the only law school south of Boston.

The school will enhance socio-economic diversity in the legal profession.

 The goal is to enroll the first law school class in the fall of 2010.

When a similar proposal was approved by the UMass Board of Trustees in 2004 the Board of Higher Education rejected the plan, primarily because the school was to be administered through continuing education. This current proposal removes continuing education from the equation.

The Department of Higher Education has pledged an “expedited” and “focused” review process as part of a legal settlement with SNESL’s Student Bar Association, which sued the BHE claiming an improper process was used in rejecting the plan in 2005.

The university must identify entrepreneurial strategies to increase revenue during this period of sharply declining state revenues. The law program will enhance UMass Dartmouth’s graduate offerings and attract talented undergraduates, especially in fields such as crime and justice, public policy, political science, and business; and will strengthen the campus’ case for philanthropic support.

The program has the overwhelming support of the southeastern Massachusetts business, educational, academic and civic community.

Tuition and fees will be less than $24,000 per year, which will be between $10,000 and $20,000 less than private schools in Massachusetts, a public-private price difference that is similar to other graduate programs.

General Education Task Force

Proposed Charge:

• Review all aspects of the existing Gen Ed program.
• Examine and evaluate the various models of general education; study the gen ed programs at other institutions of higher education.
• If deemed appropriate, propose a revised set of learning outcomes for the Gen Ed program.
• If deemed appropriate, propose new structures and assessment processes for the Gen Ed curriculum.
• The following members are recommended by the Director of General Education, in consultation with the Gen Ed Committee:

Business

Susanne Scott

Shouhong Wang

Engineering

Peter Friedman*

Phil Viall* 

Humanities

Cristina Mehrtens*

TBD

Nursing

Carol Mailloux*

Sonja Peterson* 

Science

Bal Ram Singh*

Frank Scarano* 

Social Science

Rob Darst*

Tom Boone

 

VPA

Alma Davenport*

Yoon Soo Lee

 

SEPPCE

Matt Roy

TBD

 

Library

Kari Mofford

 

Administration

Magali Carrera

Tesfay Meresi

Charlotte Hamlin

Sharon Souza

TBD

 

First Year English

Jen Riley

 

Office of Faculty Development

Cathy Gardner

 

Institutional Research/Assessment

Dick Panofsky

 

Gen Ed Director

Doug Roscoe

 

* = member of Gen Ed Comm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meetings for Fall semester 2009 

All meetings will be in the Carney Library Browsing Area 3:30-5:00 pm

Monday, September 28

Tuesday, October 27

Wednesday, November 18

Thursday, December 10

 Last Updated On: 10/27/09