Faculty Senate Steering Committee Minutes

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Present:  Paul S. LaFollette (V. Pres.), Joan P. Shapiro (Secy.), Robert M. Aiken (Past-Pres.), Joan Delalic (Engr.), Adam Davey (CHPSW), Margaret Devinney (CLA), Tricia S. Jones, (Educ.), Charles Jungreis (Med.), Luke Kahlich (BCMD), Laurie MacPhail (Dent.), Mark C. Rahdert (Law), David Waldstreicher (Fac. Herald), Cheryl Mack (Coord.)

Absent: Karen M. Turner (Pres.), Michael W. Jackson (STHM), Stephanie Knopp (Tyl.), Charles Ruchalski (Pharm.), Jay Sinha (FSBM), Roberta Sloan (SCT)

Call to Order: 

The meeting began at 1:05 p.m.

Approval of the Minutes:

The Minutes from October 6, 2009, were approved with no amendments.

President’s Report: Paul S. LaFollette substituted for Karen M. Turner

Paul LaFollette, with assistance from Joan Shapiro, provided an overview of the meeting that he, Karen Turner and Joan Shapiro had with the Provost on October 14, 2009, at 11:00 a.m.  The following issues were mentioned:

• New Vision of Service – We talked about a proper definition of service that took this area seriously. In particular, we spoke of the need for guidelines regarding service for merit;
• Committee on Administrative and Trustee Appointments (CATA) – We indicated the need for CATA to be involved in providing faculty nominees for administrative and trustee search committees.  The provost agreed that CATA should be involved in a timely fashion with establishing search committees.  It was decided that there should be a checklist provided for searches that would place the selection of a faculty member at the beginning of the process and not as an after-thought;
• Vice Provost of Research and Graduate Education – The Provost wants to select someone who respects faculty and respects scholarship, creative achievement as well as research.  She is not planning to use a search firm.  She wants someone who will initially focus on Temple and she would like to find someone who is curious and asks probing questions.  A job description for this individual is almost ready and soon there will be a solicitation of names.  She hopes that the Faculty Senate Steering Committee will contribute names of appropriate candidates.
• International Programs – A person will be appointed to head these programs soon. This will be an internal appointment because there is no budget for an external appointment at the present time;
• Community Outreach and Temple – There was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week rank-ordering universities that worked closely with the community.  Penn and Drexel were at the top of the list, and Temple received an honorable mention.  We all know how much Temple is involved with the community so something appears to be wrong.  It seems that someone dropped the ball.  Hence, there was a discussion that an Op Ed piece might be a good idea coming from Senior Vice President Kenneth Lawrence’s office with some collaboration with Eli Goldblatt (CLA) and the Community Network.

Some comments and concerns related to the Provost meeting were stated by Steering Committee members.  They included:

Luke Kahlich noted a faculty concern about the portfolio of the Vice Provost of Research Administration and Graduate Education; in particular, he did not want Graduate Education to be diminished in reference to research and administration.

Charles Jungreis, from the Medical School, wanted to know how productivity was measured for merit in other colleges in the university. LaFollette discussed briefly the various ways it was handled in different schools and colleges.  There seemed not to be any one best model.  Jungeis spoke of the benchmarks used in his college. Other faculty representatives talked of some controversies that have occurred in the past with merit.  The different cultures in schools or colleges at Temple were also considered.

Vice President’s Report:  Paul S. LaFollette

There is now a second volunteer for the Personnel Committee.

The election form is being prepared by Computer Services.

There is still a need for a volunteer for the Sabbatical Committee, which also needs its name to be changed from Study Leave to Sabbatical.  Adam Davey indicated that the name has been changed on Blackboard.  LaFollette believes this name change should be formalized at the next Representative Faculty Senate Meeting.

LaFollette also said that the College of Science and Technology (CST) now has a Steering Committee Representative, James F. Korsh, as well as an alternate, Frank L. Friedman.  Both are from Computer and Information Sciences.

Guest:  David Waldstreicher

Waldstreicher said that the first issue of the Faculty Herald will be out soon. Highlights from it consist of:

• A report from Karen Turner about the Faculty Senate;
• Contributions regarding negotiations and the process of the recent faculty contract that include five faculty responses plus one letter from George Moore, Office of University Counsel, and another from Art Hochner (FSBM), President of TAUP.  For the most part, these reflections seem to be worthwhile indicating what has been learned from the long process.  Bob Aiken suggested that there be a preface to the letters explaining that they are being presented in the order received and that no one is responding to another’s letter;
• In this current issue, there will also be a profile of Michael Sirover (Med.) who is working on Cancer Therapy at the Medical School.

Waldstreicher is very interested in what faculty want to read and he said he had some idea of their interests by measuring the number of hits on each article online;

The second issue of the Herald will focus on Eli Goldblatt (CLA) and Ruth Ost, Director of Honors, and the development of the Honors Program;

The provost wants to meet with Waldstreicher to discuss the Herald.  She may want the Herald to celebrate Temple.  While Waldstreicher feels that is important, he also believes that the paper should provide an open forum for the faculty and be a place where they can be critical.  Additionally, he indicated that sometimes the Herald is “scooped” by other media at Temple.

Laurie MacPhail hoped that the Herald would produce at least one happy article or short story in each issue.

Joan Shapiro asked about what the faculty actually read. She questioned if Waldstreicher was really “scooped” as some faculty may only turn to the Herald and not read other Temple media.

Mark Rahdert stressed that the Herald should make the faculty voice central.  He felt there was room in the paper for a deeper look at news related to Temple, even if other media “scooped” the Herald.

Bob Aiken suggested that there should be an in-depth piece on the new Academic Center on Research in Diversity (ACCORD). 

Luke Kahlich felt that the Herald should focus on faculty initiatives and not on the latest initiatives of the administration.

Joan Delalic mentioned that she was receiving an award of Outstanding Educator and perhaps the Herald might want to include this information.

Waldstreicher expressed the hope that faculty would volunteer to write for the Herald and he turned to the Steering Committee get the word out.  He asked the Steering Committee to bring story ideas to the Herald.

Paul LaFollette suggested that Waldstreicher make a plea for writers in the Herald, and he intends to do this.

Guest: Tony Ranere

Tony Ranere (CLA), who is serving as chair of the Committee on Administrative and Trustee Appointments (although his term is over), spoke to us about the problems related to his committee.

He stated that the charge of this committee is to recommend faculty to serve on search committees for administrators and for trustees. 

He said that, in 2007-2008, the committee was called upon often and put forth a number of nominees for search committees.

Last year, the committee was not asked for any nominations except for the Vice President of Institutional Advancement. 

This year, the committee members had been asked to find a faculty member for the Vice Provost of Research and Graduate Education; however, they were only given three days to find someone.  Over twenty faculty volunteered, so an extra week was needed to determine the one faculty representative.  The time allotted was just too short for such a task.

Tony Ranere pointed out that his term had expired two years ago.  Despite this, he has reactivated the committee when asked to find candidates for search committees.

The committee has never been asked to search for a trustee.

Bob Aiken raised the issue of whether CATA has been approached appropriately.

Ranere’s concern was not only that they did not receive sufficient warning about a search, but he was especially disturbed about the limit placed on faculty for certain committees.  Why just a name -- why only one person?

Since Tony Ranere did not hear the early part of the meeting in which the visit to the Provost by Karen Turner, Paul LaFollette and Joan Shapiro was discussed, LaFollette spoke about the checklist being developed by the Provost’s office which will make certain that faculty are not an after-thought on searches in the future. 

Tony Ranere plans to put out a request for faculty to serve on CATA.  Bob Aiken thanked Ranere for keeping CATA active.  LaFollette will talk to Karen Turner and set up a meeting for Ranere to meet with the Provost.

Following Tony Ranere’s visit, there was a discussion about the problem of some Faculty Senate committees that did not meet or had few members.  However, Waldstreicher stated that he was impressed by the committee reports published in the Faculty Herald and that there are four more reports to come.  He said that a lot of the committees are working hard.

Cheryl Mack said that the Library Committee has requested more members.

Waldstreicher stated that he only had five members on his Editorial Board and he should have nine.  Mark Rahdert suggested that the board members be asked to suggest other members. 

Unfinished Business:

Luke Kahlich inquired if there was a committee forming to review the Handbook.  Paul LaFollette intends to speak with Diane Maleson, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs, about this.  LaFollette has volunteered to serve and Joan Shapiro is expected to serve as an ex officio member on such a committee.

Bob Aiken has asked that Peter Jones, Vice Provost of Undergraduate Studies, be reminded about his promise to provide a one page briefing regarding how the subcommittees’ recommendations from last year were used. (This promise was made at the October 6th meeting of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee.)

Mark Rahdert asked about the number of faculty who attended Representative Faculty Senate Meetings in regards to the quorum issue.  Cheryl Mack said that she will look into this.  Karen Turner, Paul LaFollette and Scott Gratson (SCT) will discuss the quorum issue as well tomorrow.

Joan Delalic raised the issue of college bylaws. Apparently, a number of them are on Diane Maleson’s website.  It was suggested that there should be a link to them from the Faculty Senate home page.

New Business:

There was none.

Adjournment:

The meeting ended at 2:11 p.m.

Joan P. Shapiro
Secretary