Academic Senate: MINUTES 3/21/2006

Present: Ms. Rebekah Babiarz, Dr. Susan Baillet, Sr. Maria Ciriello, Dr. Michael Connolly, Dr. Carol Dempsey, Dr. Bruce Drake, Dr. Karen Eifler, Dr. Jeff Gauthier, Ms. Ashley Hartmeier, Sr. Angela Hoffman, Dr. Jack Kondrasuk, Dr. Lora Looney, Dr. Gary Malecha, Dr. Louis Masson, Dr. Marlene Moore, Dr. Katie O’Reilly, Dr. John Orr, Dr. Peter Osterberg, Dr. Bart Rylander, Ms. Diane Sotak, Br. Donald Stabrowski, Dr. Peter Thacker, Dr. Anita Wynne, Dr. Zia Yamayee

Absent: Fr. William Beauchamp, Dr. Chris Hallstrom, Dr. Dann Pierce

Invocation: The invocation was given by Sr. Angela Hoffman.

Minutes of the February senate meeting were accepted.

The Senate voted to move Roy Heynderickx’s presentation to the beginning of the meeting.

Roy Heynderickx, VP for Financial Affairs:Roy provided handouts summarizing the financial report. The full audited reports are on reserve at the library’s main desk. Tuition is going up 5.8% from $24,580 to $26,000. Room and board is going up from $7,400 to $7,850. There is also an increase in the number of students. There is $3.7 million of new revenue for next year. Officers determined that it would be used for upgrades to salary (merit and COLA) and will be allocated differently among schools. Total expenditures on mid-year hires are $346,000. Work-study minimum wage increased.

Fringe benefits – retirement will hold at 11% for another year, but is pausing, not stopping. Compared to other colleges/universities we are looking good. There is a modest Kaiser increase, but no benefits change.

Fixed costs – Bills went up for natural gas (>20%) and electricity.

They had over $4 million in departmental requests and funded $1 million. All tied back to tactical plans. College of Arts and Sciences received four new faculty, there were salary upgrades, an investment in university relations, technology maintenance/upgrades, and an increase for library acquisitions.

There will be a $50 increase in the student technology fee.

Investment return was a healthy 14% for the endowment.

A senator asked if the university’s tuition and room/board is staying within inflation increases. Roy answered that they currently have elasticity to work with, but need to plan for future pricing because increases can’t be sustained year after year and family incomes aren’t keeping pace.

The Senate voted to hear Jenny Walsh’s presentation before committee reports.

Jenny Walsh, Web Services: Jenny presented on the upcoming Lewis migration. More information is available at: http://www.up.edu/ws/ under Projects & Applications. She can also be contacted at walshj@up.edu with questions.

 The Lewis web server was originally set up to serve a few power users and then it grew and also started to be used to transfer files (most of the use is geared towards academic work). Now it is unstable and unmanageable. Moving off of Lewis will increase resources. Web Services’ goal is to promote the use of the web in all aspects, not to restrict use. An assessment of the way Lewis was being utilized determined how it is being replaced. Three new purpose-based domains will replace Lewis (faculty.up.edu; teaching.up.edu; orgs.up.edu), plus existing Learning@UP. The file transfer activity will be replaced by Web Foldering (remote access to network files). Departmental information can be moved onto www.up.edu (Sherpa). There is a “What Solution Should I Use” pdf guide on the website. There will be a Sherpa super user training at the end of Spring semester and presentations at Faculty Development Day.

 The current timeline is that on September 1^st, Lewis will be closed (no longer interactive), but not turned off. Redirects will be in place to send visitors/users/collaborators to your URL on the new domain (i.e., faculty, teaching, orgs). Jenny and the Help Desk staff will assist faculty with the migration process.

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee: Sr. Hoffman gave the report. The committee met with Jenny Walsh about Lewis migration. There was a follow-up discussion on Butine questions raised at February Senate meeting. Angela and Carol Dempsey subsequently met with Br. Donald for clarification.

Committee on Committees: Dr. Gauthier gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Rank & Tenure: Dr. Masson gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Teaching & Scholarship: Dr. Dempsey gave the report. Carol provided Butine financial report. 41 requests were received and 24 were awarded. Of the 17 not funded, 9 were from faculty in CAS and 8 were from faculty in professional schools. The committee is meeting this week to decide on teaching and faculty awards. A subcommittee met with Marlene Moore to discuss student evaluations of faculty and she is satisfied with current evaluation process. The committee is pulling together Faculty Development Day which will have two general sessions and an array of presentations.

Committee on Faculty Welfare: Dr. Baillet gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Curriculum & Academic Regulations: Dr. Eifler gave the report. The committee has not met.

Presidential Advisory Committee Reports

Committee on Student Media: Dr. Gauthier gave the report. The committee’s picks for manager of KDUP and editors for Beacon and Log have been forwarded to Fr. Beauchamp.

Committee on Athletics: Dr. Thacker gave the report. The committee has not met.

Committee on Health & Safety: No report.

Committee on Information Technology: Ms. Sotak gave the report. The committee met in early March. The Communication Subcommittee is trying to identify what communication policies exist around the university. The Web Subcommittee is looking at the Lewis migration, finding out more about e-portfolios, and are in the beginning stages of defining what would be included in a State of the Web report. The Infrastructure Subcommittee is continuing to look at how they can facilitate the network upgrade, particularly the communication to faculty in buildings that are going to have the major rewiring this summer (Bryon mentioned that each computer on campus will need to be touched to get connected to the new network – about 1400 computers). Another aspect of the network upgrade is that starting Fall semester, students will be required to have current operating systems and anti-virus software on their computers. Lastly, they are looking at a way to determine new locations for wireless access points and technology enabled classrooms.

Bryon discussed a draft information security policy, which the Deans and Department heads have already commented on. When it is finalized, there will be an audit of the roles and permissions in Banner. Department heads will be asked to verify the accuracy of who has what access and will be responsible to for ensuring that their personnel are aware of the policy. It is on the IS website (http://www.up.edu/is/), under “policies,” which is a link on the lefthand side of the screen. 

A senator asked if there has been any conversation about the current spam blockers in the Committee. Other senators chimed in about their spam blocker experiences. This issue will be brought to the next CIT meeting.

Student & Faculty Court: No report.

Other Reports

Fr. William Beauchamp: No Report.

Dean’s Report: Bro. Donald Stabrowski gave the report.Fr. Beauchamp is visiting faculty and students in Salzburg. The faculty awards will be given at the Gala on Faculty Development Day, rather than at graduation. Bill Reed is working on Founder’s Day schedule. There will be an awards breakfast for faculty and seniors. That day is also the last meeting of the PACs. The Deans had a presentation by an alumnus on intellectual property. The valedictorian is Lauren Elizabeth Hickok, a Math/Music major. ASUP presented a request about faculty requiring large amounts of printing (27 faculty on their hit list). Deans suggested ASUP put a panel together to discuss the issue. Deans had presentation from Roy about budget, as well as a presentation from Jeromy Koffler/Lisa Reed about orientation. They are planning to have a session at orientation about personal security related to Facebook and MySpace websites.

ASUP: Ashley Hartmeier gave the report. ASUPhad its elections in February. The officers are Sarah Carroll (President), Megan Olmstead (Vice-president), Tara Boyle (Secretary), Nick Thom (Treasurer), and Blair Tyler (CPB Director). Some student senators raised concern about elections, so the senate passed a resolution to start an investigatory committee. Also during those elections, there were three resolutions to amend the constitution. All three passed overwhelmingly and now they are awaiting Fr. Beauchamp’s approval. Ashley and Bekah Babiarz thanked the Faculty Senate, as this is their last meeting.  

New Business

Proposal to accept new Butine guidelines. Carol Dempsey presented the proposal. After much discussion, Br. Donald agreed to change the title of the “Arthur Butine Fund for Faculty Development - Guidelines” to “Arthur Butine Fund for Faculty Development - Original Principles of Distribution.”

Two amendments were proposed for the “Procedures for the Management of the Arthur Butine Development Fund” document.

Amendment #1 - Change document title to “Procedures for the Administration and Management of the Arthur Butine Development Fund.”

Amendment #2 - In Section V, Final Evaluation of Proposals, change the word “guidelines” to “principles of distribution” so it reads: “If sufficient funds are not available for all quality proposals, then the committee will be guided by the priorities of the principles of distribution.”

A motion to accept the amendments was voted on and accepted.

The amended proposal was voted on and accepted.

Proposal for changes in the faculty awards document. Carol Dempsey presented the proposal. A motion was made to amend the existing “Faculty Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship” document to include a third paragraph in the Eligibility Requirements section stating: “The names of those faculty members who have been nominated for either the teaching or scholarship awards will remain active for three years.” The amendment was voted on and accepted.

An additional change to this document may be considered at the April meeting.

Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 5:54 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,Diane Sotak, Secretary to the Senate