Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Present: Karen M. Turner (Pres.), Paul S. LaFollette (V. Pres.), Joan P. Shapiro (Secy.), Robert M. Aiken (Past-Pres.), Joan Delalic (Engr.), Margaret Devinney (CLA), Michael W. Jackson (STHM), Charles Jungreis (Med.), Luke Kahlich (BCMD), Stephanie Knopp (Tyl.), James Korsh (CST), Laurie MacPhail (Dent.), Mark C. Rahdert (Law), Jay Sinha (FSBM), Roberta Sloan (SCT), David Waldstreicher (Fac. Herald), Cheryl Mack (Coord.)
Absent: Adam Davey (CHPSW), Tricia S. Jones, (Educ.), Charles Ruchalski (Pharm.)
Call to Order:
The meeting began at 1:02 p.m.
Approval of the Minutes:
The Minutes from October 27, 2009, were unanimously approved with no amendments.
Old Business:
The language to amend the Senate Bylaws, ARTICLE V – MEETINGS Section 6, was discussed. A few more changes to the language were suggested. In particular, the words, “read” and “reading,” were changed to “presented” and “present.” The default to Roberts Rules of Order was mentioned. It was decided that it might be necessary to explain briefly the default concept in the Explanation passage that will accompany the proposed language changes. It unanimously passed that the changes in the Senate Bylaw would be brought forward to the Representative Faculty Senate Meeting, next Wednesday, November 18, 2009.
Vice President’s Report: Paul S. LaFollette
Paul LaFollete reported that 105 faculty voted in the Faculty Senate Fall 2009 Elections. All 3 uncontested candidates won. Jane Evans (Tyl) and Stephen Willier (BCMD) will join the Personnel Committee. Joseph Picone (ENGR) will become a member of the University Sabbatical Committee.
After some discussion, it was decided to vote on a number of candidates for different Faculty Senate Committees at the same time. All of the candidates were unanimously approved. Those faculty who were recommended included: Carol Harris-Shapiro (CLA) and Ryan Tierney (CHPSW) for the Committee on Community-Based Learning and Collaboration; David Waldstreicher (Fac. Herald) and Roberta Sloan (SCT) for the Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color; and Paul LaFollette (CST) for the Handbook Committee.
Although one slot was available on the President’s Advisory Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics (PACIA), it was decided since there were a number of faculty members interested in serving, three names would be recommended. They were: Thomas Marino (Med.), John Masker (CLA) and Dale Haines (Med.).
President’s Report: Karen M. Turner
Karen Turner gave a brief update on the Dysfunctional Rules Taskforce meeting which she had just attended. There were 968 responses; 764 came from students and 204 came from employees. There will be a website developed for the Temple community to see what changes are happening.
Turner went over the agenda for the Representative Faculty Senate next week. President Hart will arrive at 2:00 p.m. to speak about health care issues and Provost Lisa will follow on the agenda. The bylaw changes will be dealt with in the first 15 minutes and then, if necessary, after Provost Lisa is finished speaking.
There was a brief summary provided by Turner, LaFollette and Shapiro about the meeting that they had with Provost Lisa on November 4, 2009. Some issues that were discussed included:
- Provost searches and the need to have not only a check list to make certain faculty are on the search committees, but also the importance of contacting the Vice President of the Faculty Senate to determine which Senate committees should have representatives for a particular search;
- The need to “beef up” advising for students;
- Importance of having grades due earlier so that students will know if they need to take summer school courses;
Turner mentioned that the Provost said that she liked meeting with the officers of the Steering Committee.
Guest: Diane Maleson, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Faculty Affairs
Diane Maleson indicated that she was at this meeting to answer questions from the steering committee. Some issues that were discussed included:
- There will be a Meet and Discuss to talk about the current merit system;
- Chairs of departments can vote once for tenure and promotion candidates. They can decide at what level they wish their vote to count. In this new contract, it is clear that they are faculty members as well as chairs;
- The hope of management is that merit points will be spread more evenly among productive faculty members and that service will count;
- From the faculty’s perspective, there is a need for deans to follow the proper procedures for merit so that there is an opportunity for a faculty appeal process;
- Maleson’s office is working on an annual activities form, with computer services, which will be used across the colleges and schools. The intent is to make the form user friendly and to provide a way for the university to be able to coordinate information for merit and for US News & World Report. The Steering Committee asked that they review this new computerized form and Maleson agreed;
- There was a discussion of the workload inventory that is currently taking place and the complications of this untidy system. It was stressed that faculty spend time on important pursuits which are not counted in the current workload system;
- While faculty development is listed as part of Maleson’s charge, the majority of these activities fall under the Teaching and Learning Center;
- It was suggested that there be brown bag lunches focusing on ways for associate professors to move towards the rank of full professor;
- A concern was raised about faculty who do not get tenure and how they are treated during their terminal year. Maleson said that faculty in this situation should come to see her and she will do her best to help;
- The new contract has made a significant change in promotion and tenure decisions. Cases where voting is “uniform” will go to the Council of Deans. Only the challenging cases will go to the Promotion and Tenure Committee;
- Maleson indicated that faculty can postpone their sabbaticals;
- The disciplinary system for faculty has changed somewhat in the new contract from a suspension of no more than 45 days instead of 60 days. There are also now steps moving from informal discussion to mediation as ways to deal with faculty. Maleson believes that this progressive discipline should be helpful.
New Business:
David Waldstreicher had a good meeting with Provost Lisa. She wants a budget line for the Faculty Herald to help make it more stable. She would like the Herald to highlight some of the initiatives that came directly from the senate committees and the strategic planning committees. She also would like there to be panel discussions similar to Chat in the Stacks, and she is willing to fund these events. Additionally, she suggested that the Herald do something with the 2020 Framework.
A discussion followed about the 2020 Framework and the need to have more information about it. Steering committee members would like to see a power point presentation about the plan as there seemed to be more questions concerning it than answers.
A suggestion was made that, when the officers of the steering committee next meet with the provost, they ask that the budget line for the Herald be put in writing so that the process can move forward.
Adjournment:
The meeting ended at 2:50 p.m.
Joan P. Shapiro
Secretary
