Monday, September 13, 2010
Call to Order:
President LaFollette asked that a few minutes of silence be observed in memory of Kevin Coffey, an Honors Student, who was killed in the Megabus accident over the weekend.
Approval of Minutes:
The minutes from April 15, 2010, were accepted unanimously with no changes.
Guest: Interim Senior Vice President and Provost, Richard Englert:
Dr. Englert began his comments by welcoming everyone back, mentioning that many faculty and administrators worked over the summer. He shared how positively he feels about this new school year, saying that Temple is “…off to a great year. “
He shared the following items with the Senators and visitors to the Representative Senate Meeting:
- Professor Jennifer Cromley, of Psychological Studies in the College of Education received the very prestigious “Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.”
Dr. Englert extended congratulations to Professor Cromley and mentioned that this award is only given to 100 professors nationwide.
- Dr. Englert expressed his opinion that Temple has a “great” entering class this year. In his estimation, both the freshmen and transfer classes are the best in the history of Temple University. There are 4300 new freshmen and 2800 new transfer students. The yield rate is higher than last year and previous years. For fall, 2010, the yield rate is 39.3%, which is an increase of 2% as compared with last year. The average SAT score for new freshmen is 1114, which is higher than the previous year. He added that he felt that the New Student Convocation was “terrifically successful,” and congratulated the whole Temple Team for the success of this endeavor.
- Dr. Englert announced that over 80 new faculty tenure-track searches would be conducted this school year, which is a significant increase over last year.
- Senior VP and Acting Provost, Englert, announced that there are three dean searches underway. These searches are taking place in the College of Health Professions and Social Work, the Tyler School of Art, and the School of Communications and Theater. The search committees are currently being formed and Executive Recruiting Firms are being selected. He fully expects the Search Committees to be in place by early October and anticipates that the searches will be completed by the end of the academic year. He also shared that he met with the Executive Committee of the Department of Theater, and sent a letter to the faculty members of Boyer College of Music and Dance and the School of Communications and Theater, raising the question as to whether or not the Department of Theater should become part of a new College of Performing Arts.
- Dr. Englert was pleased to announce the accreditation of Temple University was officially reaffirmed by the report of the by Middle States Visiting Team. In five years, the university will have to submit an official written report for accreditation. In ten years, there will be another site visit.
- The most recent US News and World Report ranked Temple University as #132, which is up two places from its previous rank of #134. Temple is now considered in Tier I because the three tiers have been eliminated in favor of two tiers. The first tier now consists of what US News and World Report considers to be the top 199 universities and colleges. Dr. Englert added that when High School Counselors are asked to rank universities and colleges, Temple University was ranked more highly. The university ranked particularly high on graduation rates. Currently, Temple University’s six-year graduation rate is 67%, which is 10% higher than the average. He stated that one of the goals of the university is to shorten the time to graduation with the goal of having the majority of students graduate within four years.
- The office of the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Development is reviewing Tenure and Promotion Forms in an attempt to simplify the forms. Rather than assigning an “S.” “O.” or “U,” on transmittal letters, the new forms will ask for a narrative that informs about what the faculty member has accomplished. These forms will provide a “global outlook” rather than simple rankings. An initiative from the President’s Office will be to review the Tenure and Promotion Guidelines, since this has not been done since 2006. There will be possible upcoming revisions to the guidelines and hopefully a new set of guidelines will be in place for the upcoming year.
- Dr. Englert plans to continue with the tradition that Provost Lisa began of coming to each Faculty Senate Meeting, opening the meeting with his remarks, and then opening the floor to a Q & A session. “Lisa Listens” has now become “Dialogue with Dick.”
After Dr. Englert concluded his remarks, Professor Art Hochner, from the Fox School of Business & Management, and the president of TAUP, announced that TAUP had recently sent out an email clarification regarding the role of the department chairs in the Tenure and Promotion process. The purpose of the clarification agreement between TAUP and the university is to make certain that there is independence at every level of decision-making, but that there is communication between the chairs and the department committees. Professor Hochner also asked that the union be involved in the committee that develops new Tenure and Promotion Guidelines. He further asked how many NTT’s there are this year as compared to last year. Since Temple has changed its policy on graduate students being adjuncts, Professor Hochner wondered about the number of Graduate Teaching Assistants there are this year and if that had impacted the hiring of Non-Tenure Track Professors. Dr. Englert did not know the answer to this question, but said he would check.
Professor Nora Alter of the School of Communications and Theater asked about whether there were other programs in SCT that were under consideration for being moved and whether or not a College of Performing Arts was the only configuration being considered. Dr. Englert answered that he does not have preconceived ideas and that he is expecting an open conversation on the subject.
President’s Report: Paul LaFollette:
President LaFollette stated what he expects will be accomplished in the next few months. These include the expectation that Senior Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and Development, Diane Maleson and Legal Counsel Virginia Lederman, will complete their work on two templates for revising the bylaws of colleges and schools at the university. They have been working on a standard set of bylaws that include various choices within two frameworks. This does not preclude a college or school from developing their own set of bylaws, but in that case, the school or college would have to have their proposed bylaws approved by legal counsel.
The purpose of developing new college and school bylaws is to bring them into compliance with the TAUP contract and to clear up existing ambiguities. The timetable that President LaFollette envisions is that the new templates will be presented to the Faculty Senate Steering Committee in October, and then to the Faculty Senate in November. His expectation is that the Faculty Senate will be able to vote on the new bylaws at the December meeting.
It will be President LaFollette’s goal to reenergize the shared governance at Temple. Part of his approach to doing this is to reenergize at the department and school/college level. He suggests that serious and sustained discussions take place and that choosing or developing a new set of bylaws will encourage faculty to become involved in university business.
President LaFollette proposes that Senate Meetings be more interesting and productive. Towards that end, he intends to present topics that are of importance and perhaps, even controversial in order for them to be discussed at Faculty Senate Meetings. He feels that this will make meetings very worthwhile to attend.
A number of years ago, a list of every senator who attended senate meetings was regularly published. President LaFollette intends to publish percentages per school or college of attendance at meetings during the fall semester, and the names of senators who attend meetings during the spring semester.
Dr. LaFollette mentioned that the concept of Dean’s Appointments came into being at Temple University about ten years ago. At that time, those who had Dean’s Appointments (non-tenure track faculty) could only stay at Temple for a limited number of years. Now, this is not the case. He proposes a real discussion of what it actually means to have tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure track faculty at the same institution, with the possibility of the latter continuing indefinitely.He feels it is important to have these discussions at this time.
President LaFollette’s other ideas and goals for the year will appear in a letter in the Faculty Herald. After President LaFollette concluded his prepared remarks, discussion ensued.
Professor Gregory Urwin of the College of Liberal Arts raised a question concerning the representative function of the Faculty Senate. In his experience over the past three years, Faculty Senate meetings have consisted mainly of administrators giving presentations with little time left over for questions and substantive discussion with the senate. He suggested a new procedure that would make the Faculty Senate more representative. Henceforth, administrators wishing to appear on the senate agenda should submit the notes and PowerPoint slide shows that would accompany their presentations two weeks before the senate meeting in question. These materials could be made available to the entire Temple faculty via Blackboard or some other Internet medium, along with the names and e-mail addresses of senate representatives. This way, Temple faculty can share their questions and concerns with the senators from their respective colleges ahead of the meeting in question. Senators, in turn, can seek clarification or raise concerns with the administration confident that they are expressing more than their personal opinions. This change will make the Faculty Senate more representative and also engage more Temple faculty in its proceedings. It will also provide administrators with a better sense of how faculty members feel about the initiatives and policy changes under discussion.
Professor Joyce Lindorff of the Boyer College of Music and Dance mentioned that in her college, alternate senators are elected so that if an elected senator cannot make a senate meeting, one of the elected alternates could attend. This system has seemed to work out very well. President LaFollette said that he felt that this is an excellent idea and that he would send out a note about this to the collegial assemblies making the suggestion that they do the same.
Professor Joseph Schwartz of the College of Liberal Arts mentioned that there is very little data about the profile of the person who teaches at Temple University. He is particularly interested in knowing who the primary instructors in General Education happen to be. He feels that there should be more transparency about how much and what the Graduate Assistants are teaching. He would also like to know if NTT’s are the faculty primarily responsible for General Education courses. He suggested increasing the number of primary tenure-track and tenured faculty members teaching these courses.
Faculty Senate Secretary and Professor in the School of Communications and Theater, Roberta Sloan, mentioned that the NTT’s in SCT are excellent and many are consummate professionals in their field, so the question might not be how many NTT’s are teaching in General Education, but how many GA’s. Professor Schwartz responded that he is concerned about the heavy 4-4 teaching load of most NTT’s and how that might affect their teaching, particularly of the General Education courses, and that is part of why he has raised the question.
Vice-President’s Report: Joan Shapiro:
Professor Shapiro spoke about the need for faculty members to volunteer to serve on university committees. She feels that this is very important in reaching our goal of shared governance, and that we should not take this for granted. Her feeling is that the faculty voice is absolutely critical and is needed for an institution to thrive. Working together, faculty and administration can help the university to function smoothly and effectively.
An example offered by Vice President Shapiro was that over the summer, Vice Provost of the Graduate School and Research, Kenneth Blank, requested that the Faculty Senate Steering Committee quickly recommend candidates for the University Invention and Patent Committee, which he wanted to begin its work as soon as possible. The Faculty Senate Steering Committee was able to contact a number of colleagues who expressed their interest by submitting Statements of Interest and their CV’s. Ten nominees applied and seven were recommended to President Hart, who was very pleased with the expertise of the candidates, and the swiftness with which the FSSC was about to present the candidates to her.
There are over twenty committees to fill and populate. A list of the committees and the vacancies was included in the handouts to the Senators. She requested that each senator review the vacancies and examine the stipulations regarding tenured and non-tenured appointees. She asks that they then contact colleagues whom they feel will be well qualified and invite them to apply. If a senator needs in-depth information, he or she can check the Faculty Senate Website.
Vice President Shapiro mentioned that in the recent past, Assistant Professors were consistently told not to serve. However, some of the committees do not require a lot of time commitment, and that for those committees, it would be good for an Assistant Professor to serve, so she suggested that they be encouraged to do so.
A faculty member who is interested in serving on a committee should send a Statement of Interest and a CV to Senate2@temple.edu. She ended her presentation with a plea to each senator to assess which colleagues might have the expertise for a particular committee, and to encourage them to apply to be considered.
Professor Scott Gratson of the School of Communications and Theater added that NTT’s, after three years, are allowed to serve on committees unless there are stipulations otherwise.
Old Business:
No old business was presented for consideration.
New Business:
No new business was presented for consideration.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 2:39 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Roberta Sloan
Secretary
