Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Attendance: Robert Aiken (President), Karen Turner (Vice-President), Jane Evans (Past- President), Bonnie Averbach (FSBM), Ann Barr (CHP), Joan Delalic (ENGR), Terry Dolan (TYLER), Judith Goode (CLA), Luke Kahlich (BCMD), Diane Maleson (LAW), Ira Shapiro (STHM), Joan Shapiro (EDUC), Joel Sheffield (CST), Roberta Sloan (SCT), Roy Stevens (Dentistry), Cheryl Mack (Coord.)
1. Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 1:05 PM
2. Approval of Minutes:
The minutes from October 23, 2007 were approved as distributed.
3. Guests:
Dr. Theresa Powell, Vice President of Student Affairs
Dr. Powell began by explaining that Student Affairs now reports directly to the Provost. It is organized into several functions affecting students:
- Assessment & Evaluation Communication
- Professional Development
- Program & Service Development
- Student Learning & Development
- Technology Development
It oversees a number of activities including:
- Welcome Week for students
- Diamond Awards
- Temple University Student Leadership Challenge
- Fall Fest & Spring Fling Homecoming
She then discussed the importance of several of its key undertakings:
- CARE team
- Crisis Planning
- Alcohol Task Force
- Program review
and gave a number of impressive examples of the recent accomplishments of these activities. Finally she made a request that faculty become increasingly involved with her office.
Kahlich asked if they kept track of comments from graduates of TU that could be used for recruiting.
Averbach told about a St. Joseph's student who is planning on transferring to Temple because of his friend's positive experiences with Student Affairs.
Turner asked if alcohol is coming under control and whether there seems to be an increase in abuse. Powell said that alcohol remains a problem and that abuse seems to be increasing.
Terry Halbert and David Watt, GenEd Program:
There was substantial discussion of the various budgetary issues that were brought to us last week. Sheffield pointed out that for some colleges, lab fees are a significant issue and that it would be difficult to run some Gen Ed courses without them. J. Shapiro pointed out that it remains important to work out the details necessary to be able to run courses that are team taught and courses of varying sizes. There was discussion about the possibility and benefits of using paid peer undergraduate helpers. The issue of what the right balance between full time, adjunct, tenure track and non-tenure track faculty was also considered. There was general agreement that once again one size does not fit all and it was necessary to work out individual solutions for individual schools.
4. President's Report:
Aiken reported that he had forwarded the nomination of Sloan to the honors committee.
Provost Lisa likes the plan we discussed for the appeals committee for study leaves. We should send proposed potential committee members' names to Cheryl Mack.
The list of names proposed for President Hart's informal receptions is now complete.
Aiken gave a brief report of the activities of the Planning Round Table. The infrastructure is slowly developing.
At this point Vice President Turner took over the chairing of the meeting.
5. Old Business:
Goode reported on the meeting of the CLA executive committee about the possibility of admitting NTT faculty to the Senate. After much discussion, Sloan moved that we present a motion to the Senate to allow NTT faculty to join the Senate after three continuous years of full time appointment here.
The motion was seconded and passed. LaFollette will distribute proposed wording.
6. New Business:
LaFollette reported on the recent meeting of the Bargaining Units Liaison Committee. The committee asked that the FSSC through its President and Vice-president communicate to the President and Provost that
- It would be helpful to see an explicit statement from the administration reminding us that all schools and colleges are expected to prepare guidelines for hiring and re-hiring NTT faculty.
- It would be helpful to see an explicit statement from the administration reminding us that all schools and colleges are expected to prepare discipline specific guidelines for promotion and tenure.
- It would be helpful for the administration to explicitly clarify whether the faculty of a school or college may propose amendments to their collegial bylaws without getting the approval of the dean.
Hochner passed on to us a request from Debbie Hartnett to find 12 to 16 faculty from bargaining unit schools to participate as focus groups to identify gaps in communications and provide suggestions for improvement that can be used as the basis for discussion points at a larger meeting. The FSSC felt that the FSSC representatives from the bargaining unit schools would be the best such group of faculty and proposed that we could meet with whomever following the FSSC meeting on Nov. 20. Should that be unworkable, we will try to propose some names. LaFollette will convey that information to Hochner.
7. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 PM
Paul S. LaFollette, Jr.
Secretary
