ACADEMIC SENATE MINUTES

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Volume XXXVI, No. 8

(Approved)

 

                                                                                                           

 

Call to Order

Chairperson Crothers called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

 

Roll Call

Senator Crothers called the roll and declared a quorum.

Attendance and Motions

 

Approval of Minutes of December 8, 2004

Motion XXXVI-34: By Senator Rinker, seconded by Senator Mahoney, to approve the minutes of December 8, 2004. The minutes were unanimously approved.

 

Presentation: Underrepresented Groups Report

Josie Evola, Diversity and Affirmative Action Acting Director: The Underrepresented Groups Report is an annual compliance report. Public institutions of higher education are required to develop plans and implement strategies to increase the participation and achievement of minorities, women and individuals with disabilities, those who have traditionally been underrepresented in higher education. This year’s topic focused specifically on the area of academic achievement and initiatives which directly or indirectly impact academic achievement. In addition, we were asked to spotlight an institutional effective practice. This year’s institutional effective practice was the MASAI Program, Minority Academic Scholar Achievement Initiative Program. It was piloted this year by the Office of Intercultural Programs and Services (OIPS). OIPS partnered with the University College and Minority Student Academic Center to develop a highly structured peer-mentoring network for first year students of color. Faculty mentors volunteer their time and the program hires more than 20 upper class students. Faculty and students were paired with 57 first year students to assist them in the transition from high school to college. One faculty mentor works with a total of three students, one to two of the upper class students (peer mentors) and one to two of the minority scholars (mentees).

 

The objectives of the program include educating students and giving them assistance in their academic, professional and cultural development to improve GPA averages and to increase the program participants’ knowledge of programs and resources available.  This program was piloted this year, so we have only one semester of outcome information. Forty-five mentees are in good academic standing with a GPA of 2.5 or higher and 12 mentees have a GPA of 1.9 or lower.

 

The other programmatic initiatives that fall under the topic of academic achievement are Minority Student Academic Center (MSAC) initiatives, which provide academic support. The Mary F. English Technology Award Program provides technological training and support for selected minority Teacher Education undergrads. Another program under MSAC is the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. This program is funded by the National Science Foundation to increase the number of undergraduate and graduate students of minority ancestry in the fields of mathematics, science, engineering, technology and teacher education. Student Support Services Office provides opportunities for first-generation and low income students since 1980. Some of the services they provide include academic advising, assistance in finding financial aid resources and filling out applications, as well as academic performance monitoring. They also assist in investigating opportunities for graduate and professional school. The Office of Disability Concerns provides physical and programmatic access to students with disabilities. The Katie Insurance School, in conjunction with the College of Arts and Sciences’ actuarial science program, offers a Minority High School Scholars Academy. It is a one-week program that is designed especially for above-average African American, Hispanic and Native American high school students. The Women’s Studies Program provided information about the Women’s Mentoring Network, which provides support to students beginning or returning to college after an interruption in their formal education. 

 

This is a broad overview of the many programs and services offered, but there are many other programs available. The entire Underrepresented Groups Report can be found at: http://www.diversity.ilstu.edu/reports.

 

Chairperson's Remarks

Senator Crothers: We are not getting an enormous amount of communications from the committees to the Executive Committee for scheduling as Senate Information and Action Items. At this rate, it is all going to pile up and we will have to have very long meetings in March. Therefore, I encourage committees to expedite the clearing of our backlog.

 

We welcome back Senator DeSantis to the Senate; he was on sabbatical during the fall. We also welcome back Senator Deutsch. We have a new senator joining us, Vic Devinatz from Management and Quantitative Methods; he is taking the position of Senator Fazel, who is on sabbatical this semester. 

 

Student Government Association President's Remarks

Senator Rinker: Student Government has recently formed a commission entitled Redbird Support Relief. We realized that though various organizations were conducting relief efforts across campus for the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, there was no unity in or coordination of those efforts. The purpose of the commission is to form a coalition uniting organizations and students in their relief efforts. I have named Student Trustee Zach Koutsky as the director of the commission. I will keep you updated and hope that you are supportive.

 

Eighty-four students volunteered for Closing the Gaps, totaling 1,012 hours volunteered. The hours volunteered at Milner Library has saved the library over $11,691 and allowed them to keep the library open longer for students. That is something that we want to continue. Many of the volunteers are coming back for another semester, some of them even for their third semester. The BRC, Budget Review Committee, has finished its student fee recommendations and those recommendations will be forwarded to Student Government next Wednesday. 

 

Senator Boser: What external organization is going to filter the relief money?

 

Senator Koutsky: One organization will be UNICEF, which deals primarily with the children affected by the disaster. The other organization chosen was Save the Children. We are still contemplating a third disbursement. We may choose to use donations to purchase phone cards for students and faculty here so they would be able to contact family or friends in the affected areas. The other choice would be a third charitable organization. We are basically working off information on the Freedom.Org website.

 

President’s Remarks

President Bowman: There was a fair amount of activity taking place around campus with the moves into part of Schroeder and the College of Business building. We will hold an open house/dedication ceremony on April 1st. We also announced some large campaign gifts, $1 million from Enterprise Car Rental headquartered in St. Louis. The owner of the company has developed relationships in the College of Business. We also announced a gift of $400,000 from Trustee Bergman. We learned that the Omnibus Bill signed by President Bush in late December included some projects that will provide federal funding for ISU initiatives. It looks like we will have the best year ever for the funding of our federal initiatives. One of the larger projects will be announced next Monday in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center; representatives from Washington, as well as Jerry Weller, will make that announcement. I would like to compliment Gary McGinnis and staff in his office for the good work that they have done in Washington on these federal projects. The Illinois Board of Higher Education announced its budget recommendations for the next fiscal year. Vice President Bragg will fill you in on the details. Most gratifying was the recommendation that public higher ed not be cut, but from there, the news really is not all that good. We have lost an awful lot of money and there is certainly nothing in that budget that suggests that we are going to begin to rebuild our base. The Athletic Director Search Committee is moving along. The committee finalized the ad next week. The plan is to bring final candidates to campus in April and make a selection by May.

 

Provost’s Remarks

Provost Presley: As I have mentioned before, we have formed an ad hoc task force to work toward the smooth transition out of and back into the institution for students who are involuntarily called to active military duty. The task force has produced its first product, which is a web site that is essentially a very thorough withdrawal checklist. The next product will be a checklist for the students transitioning back into the institution.

 

Statistical work demonstrates that there are approximately 1,024 undergraduate students at ISU who would be considered nontraditional students by virtue of veteran’s status or age, 25 years of age or older. Enrollment Management and Academic Services is working to improve services for this group, as is Extended University. These units have designated resource persons to assist nontraditional students; their work models some of the work done by the Women’s Mentoring Network. Though we have not yet reached the final census date for the semester, I can report that the current spring semester enrollment is 19,207. That is 403 students below the number at the census date last year. Enrollment confirmation and deposit mailing has gone out to the 7,000 plus new freshmen who have been admitted to date. I will keep you posted as that process goes along.

 

Senator Crothers: I appreciate the work that this committee has been doing in developing checklists. Are any of the students who were deployed and who have returned on that committee to talk transition issues?

 

Provost Presley: I don’t believe that they are as regular members, but the committee is certainly aware of them and is using them as resources.

 

Vice President of Student Affairs

Dr. Helen Mamarchev:  I want to commend our student chapter of the NAACP for a really outstanding Martin Luther King, Jr. dinner, which was held on January 24th. Over 400 people attended; Nikki Giovanni was the speaker. On February 1st at 6:00 p.m. in the Old Main Room, we will kick off our Black History Month. We have many activities planned for that celebration, including our first cultural dinner of the semester on February 8th in the Shawnee Room at Tri Towers. Our guest speaker will talk about the “hip hop” culture, which is the theme for Black History Month this year. On February 2nd, we will sponsor Winterfest, a series of activities and special events in the Bone Student Center from about 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. This includes a special performance by a comedian in Braden Auditorium; admission is free.

 

Senator Crothers: Is there an ETA on MacAllister?

 

Dr. Mamarchev: The ETA on MacAllister is hopefully after spring break.

 

Vice President of Finance and Planning

Dr. Stephen Bragg: The President mentioned the move into the College of Business and Schroeder Hall. I would like to extend my thanks to the faculty and staff that moved into those two buildings. Your cooperation and help in the coordination made this one of the most efficient moves that we have done on this campus. We have moved on to the renovation of the west annex of Schroeder and we are already ahead of schedule. Construction work continues on Wilkins Hall as part of the first stage of the long-range housing and dining plan. We are halfway through the design of Haney Hall and hope to go to bid with that this spring. We are also halfway through the design of the Stevenson-Turner life, health and safety project; we hope to go to bid on that project this spring as well.

 

Our ridership on the campus transit system increases daily. We are now up to over 1,200 riders on our most popular route. This is, by all estimates, a very successful pilot project. I would like to remind faculty and staff that this service is available at no charge to them as well. You need only to present your ID card. We are currently working on expansion plans with the Bloomington-Normal Transportation District to extend those routes.

 

I have just distributed a handout to you concerning the Illinois Public Higher Education Consortium. This is a group that represents all public universities in Illinois in the negotiation of many of our business dealings, insurance packages, etc. Through these negotiations, public universities are able to receive advantages of economies of scale. Most recently, we have negotiated a travel package through them. The benefit of using this service is that it carries an Illinois State University discount with it. If you travel on business or for personal reasons, you should consider this service. You can access more information on the internet at http://www.campustravel.com/university/ilstu/. The greater the number of faculty and staff who use this service, the greater the leverage we will have to negotiate even better deals in the future.

 

Another major project we hope to bring to the Senate early in the fall is the social security number transformation project, the project to substitute university ID numbers for social security numbers.

 

The Board of Higher Education has recommended a 1.2% budget increase for Illinois State University. That translates into $971,000. It is all earmarked for faculty and staff salary increases. That would be enough to accommodate a 1.5% salary increase. The only other component of the higher education budget that was increased was a 3 to 4% increase for community colleges. Most of those monies would go to the city colleges of Chicago. There is an $18 million dollar increase in the budget for the Monetary Award Program; that is enough money to allow the MAP awards to reach parity with fiscal year 2003 university tuition increases. The IBHE has recommended $268 million to fund the State University Retirement System. This is part of the funding pattern to fund 90% of the SURS unfunded liability by the year 2045.

 

Senator Borg: Are the travel benefits only for University business or this available for private travel?

 

Dr. Bragg: You can use this for personal travel as well.

 

Senator Borg: So, the University gets an accounting indicating that someone from the group made use of the service. That is a clarification that I suggest we need share throughout the campus. What is the chance of the proposed budget being increased by the legislature?

 

Dr. Bragg: The Economic and Fiscal Commission has estimated that the State’s budget deficit is some between $2 and $2.2 billion; therefore, I think the likelihood of significant increases is pretty close to nil.

 

Senator Thompson: Are we required to book our business travel through this site?

 

Dr. Bragg: No, you have the option of using other sites, but we believe that, on average, this is the best constellation of deals that we can get.

 

Senator Deutsch: Are these discount cards just a perk for senators?

 

Dr. Bragg: No, we will be mailing these out to all the departments for faculty and staff this week.

 

Senator Wang: As an occupant of Schroeder Hall, I would like compliment Dr. Bragg and his staff on the smooth transition into Schroeder. 

 

Senator Crothers: I also want to express my appreciation. The early move-in and the move in to two buildings at the same time was quite an accomplishment. Media reports concerning the budget, specifically the Pantagraph’s headline, read something to the effect that ‘ISU recommended for 1.2% budget increase’; it was as if that recommendation was coming from the State. I want to clarify that this is the IBHE’s recommendation to the State, not the State’s approval of the recommendation.

 

Dr. Bragg: That is correct; these recommendations are sent directly to the Governor’s office and to the General Assembly. Each of those bodies will consider the Board of Higher Education’s recommendations and the final action is in the General Assembly appropriations process.

 

Senator O’Donnell: Did I understand you to say that the Wellness Activity Center is ready to go to bid?

 

Dr. Bragg: No, you are probably thinking of the life, health and safety improvements in Stevenson-Turner. The Wellness Activity Center is number two on our capital development priority list.

 

Committee Reports

Academic Affairs Committee

Senator Reid: The committee continued its discussions on the Distance Education Report. We hope to finish that next week and present it to the Senate by the following meeting.

 

Administrative Affairs and Budget Committee

Senator Brockschmidt: The committee continued its discussion on the Amplification Policy and Academic Calendar, as well as the annual commentary on the President.

 

Faculty Affairs Committee

Senator Wylie: The committee is still discussing the recruitment and retention report. FRC and URC each have a committee that will look at the ambiguities that they are having difficulty working with. They are not really able to do a detailed flow chart of their procedures because those procedures are basically the entire ASPT book. However, URC and FRC are going to work together and FRC will report back to me.

 

Senator Crothers: I am not entirely sure that we mean procedures the same way because there are certain very general guidelines in the ASPT document; procedures are generally more specific within that context.

 

Senator Wylie: We discussed that you really can’t have any hard and fast procedures because of the variety of questions that come to the FRC. We do, however, want to make sure that everybody has defined the terms in the same way.

 

Planning and Finance Committee

Senator Waterstraat: The committee continues its process of meeting with Vice Presidents. We had a very sobering presentation this evening by Dr. Bragg of Finance and Planning. Dr. Bragg’s division covers a wide range of units, extending from administrative information systems to campus police. In the cuts during the last four years, his division has experienced a $5.5 million budget cut, totaling about 12.8% of their total allocations. Dr. Bragg stated that the University has kept its promise to protect instruction in the budget cut process. With each recession, every budget across the University is cut, but the infrastructure always gets cut a little bit more. When the money comes back, everyone gets some of it back, but the infrastructure always gets a little bit less. We must begin refunding this infrastructure component. Dr. Bragg will provide us with a list of priorities, which we will share with the Senate soon.

 

Senator Crothers: This is all part of the committee’s charge to write a document regarding University priorities, so we have been asking all of the Vice Presidents for their priorities. We will also be hearing from Student Affairs and Academic Affairs in the near future.

 

Rules Committee

Senator Hammel: The committee welcomed several new members this evening. Primarily, we continued our discussion of the potential revisions to the Faculty Code of Ethics. We will not bring a revised Faculty Code of Ethics to the Senate this year. This is quite an important task and is clearly going to take us some time. We will have recommendations for future revisions. We also began discussion of the representation of Non-Tenure Track Faculty on Administrator Five-Year Reviews, particularly those for deans, chairpersons and school directors. We will continue discussion on that with a representative from the NTT faculty and will forward our recommendation to Administrative Affairs, as that committee will conduct a comprehensive review of the entire administrator review process.

 

Action Item:

Election of Senate Executive Committee Faculty Representative

The Senate unanimously elected Roslyn Wylie, Milner Library, as a Senate faculty representative on the Executive Committee.

 

Information Item:

01.18.05.03     Recommendation for Establishment of Faculty Ombudsman Position (Faculty Affairs Committee)

Senator Crothers: We have before us from Faculty Affairs the recommendation for the establishment of a faculty ombudsman position.

 

Senator Wylie: Dr. Schoenwald is here to answer any questions. One of the important things within our recommendation is that this would be a pilot project for one year, the Faculty Affairs Committee would retain oversight, monitor the program and then reevaluate it at the end of a year. It would then come back to the Senate for a vote to continue it and make it a permanent position.

 

Senator Wang: Will this person primarily serve as a consultant to provide information?

 

Dr. Ira Schoenwald, Vice President for Human Resources: Yes, the clear notion is to not usurp any of the authority or other committees on campus, but rather help faculty move through some of the elaborate mechanisms. I think that many problems can be handled on an informal basis quite easily, which is certainly what I will attempt to do. It is important that we recognize that this office is not part of the grievance process.

 

Senator Wang: Based upon the title, the person that holds this position is a faculty member. How is the University prepared to compensate this individual?

 

Dr. Schoenwald: One of the advantages of this being a one-year pilot is to see how this works.  It is a role that I have played at other universities and I feel ought to be a part of the kind of role that I play here. If it becomes a major aspect, then after the period of a year, working closely with the committee, we will have an opportunity to look at what changes need to be made. 

 

Senator Thompson: In the last line of the recommendation, it reads, “formal reports will rarely be issued”. Can give me an example of when a formal report would be issued?

 

Dr. Schoenwald: I will be in consultation with the Faculty Affairs Committee and that will be something that we will want to determine. The kind of thing I can think of is if we would have a lot of cases in a certain area and we are increasingly seeing that as a major issue. That would be something that we would want to work with and make known.

 

Senator Thompson: So, a formal report that you possibly envisioning would be about a policy that would affect many, but not a particular complaint a faculty member might have?

 

Dr. Schoenwald: Quite the contrary—I think confidentiality is crucial in this matter.

 

Senator Borg: Does the title, Faculty Ombudsperson, necessitate that the individual who holds the position be a faculty member?

 

Senator Crothers: Dr. Schoenwald does hold university rank.

 

Senator Borg: But do we need to specify that for those who hold the position in the future?

 

Senator Crothers: The pilot would give us the data on which to base that decision.

 

Senator Wylie: Sometimes an ombudsperson takes care of faculty and staff and we are just thinking in terms of someone who deals with faculty issues only.

 

Senator Borg: But could that person then be hired and not be a faculty member?

 

Senator Wylie: We have not discussed that.

 

Senator Borg: I think we need to.

 

Dr. Schoenwald: In my own experience, having someone who is a faculty member, who has gone through the ranks and understands the culture of the institution, is really important in terms of helping faculty.

 

Senator Hammel: Given our sharp ASPT deadlines, my concern is that you are going to be overwhelmed. I would suggest that we are going to really have to commit some resources to this and there is going to have to more than one person doing it.

Dr. Schoenwald: I would think that that is what we want to find out. We would hope to be the kind of the office that encourages people to come. We will know at the end of a year.

 

Senator Crothers: I got the sense that this would go into effect starting next fall because we need advertising and marketing time. We need to define what the first year is.

 

Senator DeSantis: The Faculty Affairs Committee did talk about the issues that Senator Borg raised. One idea was the possibility, at least during the pilot program, of having a faculty liaison to the ombudsperson. That person could come from the Senate and would, obviously, need to be trained in dispute resolution.

 

Senator Tolchin: Was a concern discussed in Faculty Affairs about a possible conflict of interest if the ombudsperson is a faculty member? 

 

Dr. Schoenwald: Conflict of interest is a crucial issue. In any case where there is even the slightest hint of a conflict of interest, the consultation would have to move to someone else.

 

Senator Mahoney: Our committee discussed conflict of interest. We observed that there are several faculty who are trained to mediate; potentially, one of those faculty could be the mediator instead of Dr. Schoenwald.

 

Senator Crothers: There are at least three questions that can be resolved before this comes to us for action. The language in the proposal should refer to the “Academic Senate” and not the “Faculty Senate”. It would help if the second paragraph were slightly reformulated because that is the specific proposal that we are voting on. Finally, in the last paragraph on the second page, we should define the start date for the pilot project.

 

Senator Deutsch: Do you want to suggest that they also resolve the issue about whether the ombudsperson should be a faculty member?

 

Senator Crothers: If the Senate wants them to. I am less worried about that as a practical matter because this is a pilot program. I would certainly recommend that the Faculty Affairs Committee talk about it.

 

Dr. Mamarchev: As a point of information, Student Dispute Resolution Services is now called Community Rights and Responsibilities, which is referred to in the first paragraph of the recommendations.

 

Senator O’Donnell: There are two roles being defined here, a sort of traffic cop directing people to the right source of information and a mediator. During the pilot year, some effort should go into the study of what the available resources are. That should be included in the faculty handbook or a website as indisputably the best source of information. That leaves the ombudsman’s resources available for mediation.

 

Senator Wylie: We had hoped that there would be a website in connection with this that would contain a lot of FAQs.

 

Provost Presley: I would just ask the committee to consider a couple of things. Who appoints the ombudsperson? If you want the Provost’s Office to appoint that person, that’s fine. I am very much in favor of this position. I think that that would also answer the assessment at the end of the year question. It would answer the compensation part as well.

 

Senator Pereira: We did talk with Dr. Schoenwald about the “traffic cop” role and felt that Human Resources could provide a flow chart or design on its website.

 

Communications:

12.13.04.04                                  University Service Award Selections

Senator Crothers: In your packet, you received the list of the University Service Award winners. The University Outstanding Service Award went to Chris Horvath in Philosophy. Service Initiative Awards went to Karla Doepke in Psychology and Rocio Rivadeneyra in Psychology.

 

NCA Reaccreditation 

Senator Borg: I want to remind the Senate that the North Central Association Accreditation site visit will take place February 14-16 on our campus, but we have no definitive schedule yet. We will want Senate participation at some level, so please be as flexible with your schedules. The Self-Study Report, completed in December, is available in the Senate Office. The entire document is also available online on the Provost’s website. We are hoping to get our link placed back on ISU’s home page. Please be absolutely candid and honest whenever you talk to anyone of the site team visitors about both good things and bad things. You should not feel constrained by the administration, by those of us on the steering team or by anyone. The site team visitors are now designated as consultant evaluators; they are here to help us find solutions. This process will be complete in three weeks.

 

Senator Wang: What category of questions usually arise?

 

Senator Borg: We have no idea. They can ask us anything. Their assessment of the University will be based our Self-Study Report. Evaluators also have access to virtually all other public documents at the University.

 

Adjournment