Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The November 15, 2006 Representative Faculty Senate meeting was changed to a University Faculty Senate meeting.
1. Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 1:50 PM.
2. Approval of Minutes:
The minutes of the October 17 Representative Faculty Senate meeting were approved as distributed.
3. Committee Reports:
Sanjoy Chakravorty, reporting from the International Programs Committee reminded faculty to please respond to the information requested for the International Faculty Expertise Database. Faculty and students are encouraged to attend the Global Temple International Conference on November 16, 2006 at 7:30 PM.
Karen Turner asked people to submit proposals to the Lectures and Forums Committee. So far, $1,500.00 has been awarded for a total of five proposals. Awards are generally $300.00 to $500.00. Contact Jan Krzywicki if you are interested in serving on this committee.
4. President’s Report:
Jane Evans reported on April 11th there will be a symposium on education in America today. This will be a part of the investiture of Dr. Hart that will occur on April 12th. Save these dates.
Ron Brown brought the steering committee up to date on the Provost’s search.
Bonnie Brennan met with the steering committee yesterday and responded to questions about new policy guidelines. The merit guidelines for this year will be essentially unchanged, except that the time period will be only the single previous year. Further changed will be worked in the Spring semester.
She noted the headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer saying that “The Academic Bill of Rights Flunked.”
Betsy Lebron from SCAT is responsible for planning the investiture, and should be contacted with any questions.
5. Vice-President’s Report:
Karen Turner reported significant progress in committee appointments. Lewis Gordon has been appointed Editor-In-Chief of the Faculty Herald. Faculty interested in serving on the following committees should contact Karen Turner – Community Based Learning, Outreach Committee, Lectures and Forums, Student Affairs, Student Award Selection, Editorial Board of the Herald, Inventions & Patents. All committees are listed online at the Senate website.
The Senate will obtain and post written reports from all committees online at the end of the semester.
6. Old Business:
There was no old business.
7. New Business:
Faculty Senate Constitution/Bylaws Membership:
The language of Article III has been updated to reflect tenure and non-tenure track designations and remove a contradiction. Three alternatives were presented to the current qualifications for membership. A graph was also presented showing the changes in the composition of the senate under these.
A discussion ensued.
Bonnie Averbach, FSBM, read a statement by Lynne Andersson in favor of non-tenure track faculty being included in membership. Averbach also favored this.
Art Hochner, FSBM, favored alternative 2. There are approximately 100 NTT faculty in TAUP schools for 5 or more years, 20 for 10 or more years. NTT faculty are increasing in percentage and are now 34% of TAUP schools. He added that professional librarians should be included, since they are the equivalent of faculty and many universities consider them faculty and give them tenure. They are enthusiastic about being members of the Senate. He suggested that colleges should all follow the same rules with respect to who can vote, and that we should put all administrators in the same category as deans.
Michael Sachs, CHP, moved that we strike alternatives 3 and 4. The motion was seconded.
Bill Nathan, CLA, agreed with Hochner except for the question of administrators. He feels that only people with faculty appointments should be Senate members whether they are also administrators or not.
Someone from Nursing said that they are hiring increasingly in Clinical Educators track. They need a part in faculty governance, and she favors alternative 2.
Scott Gratson, SCT, suggested that NTT faculty generally teach many students. They bring not only their own voices to the Senate but also the voices of their students.
Billy Stevens, CST, argued that open committee seats will more likely be filled if all full time faculty are admitted to the Senate. She also asked about the status of people who are half-time faculty and half-time associate deans.
James Korsch, CST, asked whether there had been any consideration of doing away with the Representative Senate and only having the University Senate.
Evans responded that this has not yet come up for discussion.
Acting Provost Englert asked the rationale for removing administrators.
Diane Maleson, Beasley School of Law, said that over a 34 year span she has served both as a faculty member and as an administrator. Administrators see things from a different perspective than faculty. She is in favor of administrators not voting.
Bill Nathan, CST, believes we need to bring administration and faculty closer, and one way to do this is to include them in the Senate.
Mark Haller, CLA, suggests that extending membership to those who do not have academic freedom secured by tenure may be manipulable. He also suggested that it is important not to include large numbers of members who may attend for voting but not for previous discussion.
Art Hochner, FSBM, said that many past presidents thought the administrators were not voting members. Faculty should be able to have an independent voice, not mixed in with administrators, who already have their own voice. Eliminating distrust does not require the blurring of lines and including them as voting members. Block voting among administrators is as possible as within any other constituency. The structure of the Senate is not a remedy to building dialog and trust. Not having administrators vote in the Senate is analogous to not having administrators serve on P&T committees. He suggested that we need to resolve the ambiguity of who is and who is not an administrator. Perhaps anybody on a faculty line should be considered faculty.
Scott Gratson, SCT, is against alternatives 3 and 4.
Elaine Mackowiak, School of Pharmacy, concurred. She respects the opinion of NTT faculty as much as other faculty. NTT are faculty in the same situation as pre-tenured TT faculty with respect to being manipulated. She supports Hochner’s comments on professional librarians.
Manak Gupta, FSBM, is against NTT or administrators as members.
At this point, a vote on the motion previously on the floor to strike membership alternatives 3 and 4 pass unanimously.
Consensus was asked for and obtained to go back to the FSSC and have them prepare a series of motions on membership for the December meeting of the University Faculty Senate.
Bill Nathan, SCT, repeated that we need to define carefully the distinctions among administrators.
8. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
James F. Korsh
Acting Secretary
