GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
MINUTES OF THE FACULTY SENATE
APRIL 2, 2008
Senators
Present: David Anderson, Ernest Barreto, Sheryl Beach, Jim Bennett, Alok Berry,
Lorraine Brown, Phil Buchanan, Frieda Butler, Elizabeth Chong, Rick
Coffinberger, Jose Cortina, Lloyd Griffiths, Karen Hallows, Allison Hayward,
Mark Houck, Jim Kozlowski, David Kuebrich, Alan Merten, Linda Monson, Jean
Moore, Patricia Moyer-Packenham, Janette Muir, Paula Petrik, Larry Rockwood,
Jim Sanford, Joe Scimecca, Suzanne Slayden, Ray Sommer, June Tangney, Shirley
Travis, Susan Trencher, Phil Wiest, James Willett, Mary Williams, Michael
Wolf-Branigin, John Zenelis, Stanley Zoltek.
Senators Absent: Kristine Bell, Rei Berroa, Deborah Boehm-Davis, Jack Censer, Vikas Chandhoke, Sandra Cheldelin, Julie Christensen, Sara Cobb, Lloyd Cohen, Sharon deMonsabert, Rutledge Dennis, Penelope Earley, Allison Frendak, Jeffrey Gorrell, Kingsley Haynes, Dimitrios Ioannou, Matthew Karush, Richard Klimoski, Howard Kurtz, Daniel Polsby, Jane Razeghi, William Reeder, Peter Stearns, Ellen Todd, Iosif Vaisman, Peter Winant.
Visitors Present: Eileen Chandhoke, Librarians’ Council, University Libraries; Rick Davis, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education; Pat Donini, Deputy Director, HR/Payroll and Employee Relations Director; Robert Ehrlich, Chair, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Kathy Gillette, Director, Classroom Technologies, DoIT; Linda Harber, Associate Vice President for Human Resources and Payroll; Robin Herron, Editor, Daily Gazette, Media Relations; Susan Jones, University Registrar; Jennifer Korjus, Director, Learning Support Services; Della Patrick, Vice Chair, Staff Senate; Linda Schwartzstein, Vice President for Academic Affairs & Vice President for Enrollment Services.
I. Call to Order: The
meeting was called to order at 3:04 p.m.
A quorum was present.
Chair Suzanne
Slayden welcomed President Merten.
President Merten’s
Remarks:
Budget
The General Assembly
has not finished the 2008 session.
There are two main issues at stake:
(1) the Capital Bond Bill (projects included are the renovation of
Science and Tech II, the Finley Building, Fine Arts Building, and the Krasnow
Institute, among other projects.) There
are questions about how will the Commonwealth of Virginia fund higher education
buildings in the next several years if there is going to be a general
obligation bond in 2008? GMU is
fighting for its piece of capital projects. (2) Tuition – There is an economic
downturn in Virginia as well as across the U.S. We want to raise tuition to support salary increases. Most Virginia universities want to raise
tuition 10%, around 6% is needed to cover unfunded federal and state
mandates. The legislature has proposed
a lower cap of 3-4% .GMU and other schools are fighting to allow the BOV to do
what they are supposed to do, which is set tuition. The legislature says if you don't raise tuition, we'll give you
money. The President wrote a letter to
Governor Kaine explaining why we had to raise tuition and then followed this up
when he bumped into the Governor at a Capitals Hockey game. (For more
information about the budget, see Budget Forum (March 31, 2008)
presented by Provost Stearns and Senior Vice President Maurice Scherrens).
GMU Academic and
Administrative Plan 2010 (see posting on the Provost Office website)
The President
described this as a “a botttom-up process.
Each school, college, and administrative unit has been asked “what would
you like to see changed?” Assessment
should be sent forward by April 30th: so that they get an evaluation
of how close they are to the goals in 2010 Plan (set forth in 2005). The Capital Campaign, BOV initiatives, and
SACS accreditation form part of the next phase of plan. (School/college plans listed in
appendices).
The Faculty Senate
should consider its role in the Plan 2010; e.g. are there issues not
addressed? In August, the BOV will
begin discussion for the 2014/2016 Plan. The role of the Faculty Senate is to
put issues in front of the administration.
Senator Question: The Faculty Handbook is (over) ten years old and the Handbook Committee has been actively working for the past two years – all this is coming to fruition stage by the end of the summer. The Senator proposed a resolution from the Faculty Senate to the BOV to thank the Handbook Committee for work done and to plan some compensation for their work (carried out) over the summer.
President Merten: I didn't know where we were in the process until recently. President or Provost should meet with the Faculty Senate to see what's involved, what efforts have been made and to look at compensation.
Senator Follow-up comment: These people have put in an immense amount of time.
President Merten: The President said he was interested to know what the initiative is and asked Senate Chair Suzanne Slayden to contact Sharon Cullen to schedule a time. Some sections needed little change, some medium, some a total change. The President noted that the Faculty Handbook is an important contractual document.
Senator Follow-up comment: In principle, you're sympathetic.
President Merten: Yes, I'm a sympathetic person.
Senator Question: There are still questions about the state of finances. There are different pots of money available/not available. There are external funds. We do not know what happens to millions of dollars that come in for research – indirect payments. We know how it is distributed; the question is “How is it spent?”
President Merten: Hopefully it becomes more of an issue as more funding becomes available. Sometimes we get agency money only supporting direct costs. We have to cover costs for those with no indirect (funding).
Senator Follow-up: To submit a new proposal for $600 million direct funding takes two weeks of deliberation. There is no clear way for allocating indirect funding.
President Merten: Other activities such as student fees -historically to support functions directly of benefit to students. We apply 85 cents of each dollar to this function and 15 cents applied to other university improvements. There has been some discussion on leveraging land and other assets. Where should money go? The President thought that Linda Schwartzstein (Vice Provost for Academic Affairs) had been asked for a report on continuing education. The same questions arise about executive education. We are charging fees for one-day short course, we have some direct costs to cover including how much does the faculty member earn?
Senator Follow-up: I am talking about funding now available, not future funding.
Chair of the Faculty Senate Suzanne Slayden: The Chair said that she had received an advance copy of a report on indirect costs that had been prepared by the Budget Office for the special meeting of the Faculty Senate on February 6. It had not been distributed because questions about it had not been raised at the meeting. She agreed to make her copy available.
II. Approval of the Minutes of March 5, 2008: The
minutes were approved as distributed.
Executive Committee – Suzanne
Slayden, Chair
Request to the
Faculty Senate for exceptions to the current requirements for conferral of
Emeritus/Emerita rank
The existing requirements in the Faculty Handbook for conferral of honorary Emeritus rank are: tenured Associate Professors and Professors with ten or more years of service. The recommendation from the peer faculty is accompanied by recommendations from the Dean, Provost and President.
The Faculty Handbook Revision Committee will propose changes to the requirements as part of the revision process. The key change proposed is to eliminate the requirement for tenure so that full-time Term Associate Professors and Professors with ten or more years of continuous academic service also qualify. All recommendations are “in recognition of outstanding dedication to the university”.
This year there has been a cluster of Term faculty retiring from the university with 20 or more years of service who would qualify for the honor were the new Faculty Handbook in effect. The opinion of the Faculty Handbook Revision Committee is that long and loyal service with demonstrated dedication should be recognized with this conferral of honorary status. That these individuals all were part of Mason’s institution-building and that they did so as untenured faculty is notable. In addition, there are three Assistant Professors (one tenured) who retired from GMU this year after many years of service for whom the same honor is requested.
Motion:
The Faculty Senate
recommends conferral of the honorary rank of Emeritus/Emerita to the Term
Assistant Professors, the tenured Assistant Professor, the Term Associate
Professor and the Term Professor who have been recommended by their respective
Deans.
Recommendations for emeritus designation were distributed at the meeting for Professors Jennifer Isbister (Molecular and Microbiology), Christena Langley (College of Health and Human Services), Beverly Boyd (College of Health and Human Services), Rose Brenkus (College of Health and Human Services), Robert Hawkes (History and Art History). In response to a question raised, Professor Slayden confirmed that requests do not include change of rank, just address the title emeritus.
Senator from the School of Nursing, Professor Jean Moore: Spoke on behalf of Professors Langley, Boyd and Brenkus from the College of Health and Human Services
Senator from the College of Science, Professor Jim Willett: Spoke on behalf of Professor Isbister.
Senator Question: All of these cases sound meritorious but the Senator wondered if other colleagues who left in the last ten years were equally deserving of status and asked if there would be a process to identify/limit those?
Chair of the Senate: The Provost has encouraged the Deans and Directors to identify people for window and to do this once a semester until approval of the revised Faculty Handbook.
Senator Comment: It was very good to hear the recommendations and noted other names that already come to mind.
Senator Question: Is there a ten-year limit? Must these people have been faculty or could they have worked in other capacities?
Chair of the Senate: The wording in the revised Faculty Handbook will say “continuous academic service”.
The motion was approved.
Academic Policies – no
report.
Budget & Resources – Phil
Buchanan, Chair
The salary data will be posted to the Senate website as quickly as possible. There has been an effort to put more information into document. Color coding has been used to indicate changes in status (e.g. from 9 month instructional to 12 month instructional). A new column indicates whether a stipend has been included, although it does not define the amount of stipend. Next year the data will be tagged with G#s so that Human Resources will generate the data, unable to merge this year.
Faculty Matters – Jim Sanford
(Professor Sanford spoke on behalf of Chair Larry Rockwood). Faculty are reminded to respond to the Faculty Evaluation of Administrators survey if you have not yet done so, and please remind faculty in your units as well. A little less than 30% response rate received so far. Another reminder will go out next week.
Nominations – Jim Bennett,
Chair
Carrie Meyer is nominated to serve on the 2009 Celebration Committee. Karen Hallows is nominated to serve on the Student Tuition and Fees Task Force. James Bennett, Esther Elstun, and James Harvey are nominated as candidates for faculty appointee to the GMU Foundation Board of Trustees. Peter Pober is nominated to serve on the Fenwick Fellow Selection Committee.
Professor John Zenelis, University Librarian announced that in consultation with University Life, the Fenwick Fellow program for 2008-09 has been restructured. One $5000 fellowship will be awarded in place of previous practice in which two fellowships of $2000 each had been awarded. A committee of three faculty members and three librarians will review the applications. Applications are due April 30th. The competition is open to all tenured and tenure-track faculty and the winner will be announced at the end of this academic year.
No further nominations were made from the floor, nominations were thus
closed and a unanimous ballot cast to elect the candidates.
Organization & Operations –
Lorraine Brown, Chair
Professor Brown noted that letters to the Deans and Directors have been sent informing them of the allocation, and referred questions to Professor Ernie Barreto, who prepared the allocation document below.
Senator Question: A Senator from the College of Health and Human Services questioned the data presented and that the website said there was more re FTE equivalent.
Professor Barreto: Allocation was based on data received the data from the Office of Institutional Research and Reporting and promised to follow up.
Allocation of senate seats for 2008-2009
1The Senate Charter states in section I.B. that “By March 1st of each academic year, the Senate Committee on Organization and Operations shall establish the representation from each unit….”
2The results are as follows (see next page). Comments follow.
¬Most notable change: The College of Health and Human Services loses one Senator, and the School of Management gains one.
¬As in the previous year, ICAR and Krasnow individually do not meet the threshold requirement as defined in Section I.B.1. of the Charter. Thus, they are pooled into a single collegiate unit for the purposes of allocating senate seats. The result is that ICAR and Krasnow together get one senator to represent them.
3As in the previous year, these results are based on instructional FTE numbers provided to me by Jang Wan Ko (Ph.D.) of Institutional Research and Reporting.
4The data used in the calculation are the official census data as of Fall 2007. These are the latest official instructional FTE data that are available.
The
Senate Charter reads “The number of senators representing each collegiate unit…
shall be determined… based on the [FTE size] on February 1st of each year….”
As in previous years, Dr. Ko advised
against using data as of February 1st because
they are not official, are not complete, and in fact are incorrect. Official
census data are released in November and March (“around the 15th”). Therefore, as in previous years, I interpret the Charter to
mean “the official data available as of February 1”.
5. The Senate Charter also states in Section I.B. that “The directors of the independent institutes shall designate one of their number annually to serve on the Senate.” This is consistent with the description of the ex-officio members listed in Section I.A. Thus, the directors of ICAR and Krasnow can decide between the two of them which one will be the ex-officio member representing both of them.
Apportionment
of Elected Senators for 2008/2009
|
Unit |
Allocation |
Change |
|
College of Humanities and Social Sciences |
17 |
0 |
|
College of Education & Human Development |
6 |
0 |
|
College of Health and Human Services |
3 |
-1 |
|
College of Science |
7 |
0 |
|
College of Visual and Performing Arts |
3 |
0 |
|
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution/ Krasnow Institute * |
1 |
0 |
|
School of Management |
4 |
+1 |
|
School of Law |
2 |
0 |
|
School of Public Policy |
2 |
0 |
|
Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering |
5 |
0 |
|
|
Total: 50 |
0 |
* Neither ICAR nor Krasnow meet the threshold FTE
requirement, so they are pooled for the purpose of allocating senators. The
threshold is [total Univ Instr FTE]/50 rounded up.
Faculty Headcount and FTE, Fall 2007
|
Academic Division/Unit |
Status |
Instructional Faculty |
Research Faculty |
||||
|
2007 HC |
2007 FTE |
2007 HC |
2007 FTE |
|
|||
|
College Humanities and Social Sciences |
FullTime PartTime |
379 259 |
376.1 101.4 |
32 0 |
32.5 0.0 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
638 |
477.5 |
32 |
32.5 |
|
|
|
College of Education and Human Development |
FullTime PartTime |
104 194 |
104.0 57.8 |
1 2 |
1.0 1.7 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
298 |
161.8 |
3 |
2.7 |
|
|
|
College of Health and Human Services |
FullTime PartTime |
74 67 |
73.5 22.1 |
8 1 |
8.0 0.5 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
141 |
95.6 |
9 |
8.5 |
|
|
|
College of Science |
FullTime PartTime |
183 63 |
177.2 23.8 |
86 14 |
83.8 6.7 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
246 |
201.0 |
100 |
90.5 |
|
|
|
College of Visual and Performing Arts |
FullTime PartTime |
55 69 |
55.0 29.7 |
0 0 |
0.0 0.0 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
124 |
84.7 |
0 |
0.0 |
|
|
|
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution |
FullTime PartTime |
18 14 |
18.0 3.3 |
1 0 |
1.0 0.0 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
32 |
21.3 |
1 |
1.0 |
|
|
|
Krasnow Institute |
FullTime PartTime |
6 3 |
6.0 0.8 |
10 0 |
10 0.0 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
9 |
6.8 |
10 |
10.0 |
|
|
|
School of Management |
FullTime PartTime |
79 53 |
77.8 18.0 |
0 0 |
0.0 0.0 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
132 |
95.8 |
0 |
0.0 |
|
|
|
School of Law |
FullTime PartTime |
32 63 |
32.0 17.3 |
11 3 |
11.0 0.6 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
95 |
49.3 |
14 |
11.6 |
|
|
|
School of Public Policy |
FullTime PartTime |
40 22 |
40.0 5.8 |
29 3 |
29.3 0.6 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
62 |
45.8 |
32 |
29.9 |
|
|
|
Volgenau School of Information Technology and
Engineering |
FullTime PartTime |
111 101 |
111.0 31.8 |
20 5 |
20.0 2.8 |
|
|
|
|
Total |
212 |
142.8 |
25 |
22.8 |
|
|
|
Academic Unit Total |
Full-Time Part-Time |
1,081 908 |
1,070.6 311.8 |
198 28 |
196.6 12.9 |
|
|
|
Total |
1,989 |
1,382.4 |
226 |
209.5 |
|
||
|
Division/unit |
Instructional** %
of total FTE |
X50 |
07-08 Allocation |
08-09 Allocation |
Change |
|
College of Humanities and Social Sciences |
0.35 |
17.27 |
17 |
17 |
0 |
|
College of Education and Human Development |
0.12 |
5.85 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
|
College of Health and Human Services* |
0.07 |
3.458 |
4 |
3 |
-1 |
|
College of Science |
0.15 |
7.27 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
|
College of Visual and Performing Arts |
0.06 |
3.06 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
|
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution** |
0.02 |
0.77 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
Krasnow Institute** |
0.00 |
0.25 |
|
|
|
|
School of Management* |
0.07 |