Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Present:
Paul S. LaFollette (Pres.), Joan Shapiro (V. Pres.), Roberta Sloan (Secy.), Karen Turner (Past President), Adam Davey (CHPSW), Joan Delalic (Engr.), Margaret Devinney (CLA), Deborah Howe (SED) by phone, Michael Jackson (STHM), Charles Jungreis (Med.), Jim Korsh (CST), Laurie MacPhail (Dent.), Mark C. Rahdert (Law), Jeffrey Solow (BCMD), David Waldstreicher (Fac. Herald)
Absent:
Luke Kahlich (BCMD – on leave for Fall, 2010), Nora Alter (SCT – on leave for 2010-2011), Tricia S. Jones (Educ.), Charles Ruchalski (Pharm.), Jay Sinha (FSBM), Douglas C. Wager (SCT), Cheryl Mack (Coord.)
Call to Order:
The meeting began at 1:05 pm.
Approval of Minutes from 10-19-10:
The minutes were accepted with two corrections. It was suggested that FSSC members need not be formally referred to in the minutes. It was discussed briefly and it was decided that the secretary could decide how she wished to refer to her colleagues in the minutes.
President’s Report - Paul S. LaFollette:
President Paul LaFollette mentioned that the Executive Committee met with Vice President and Acting Provost Richard Englert and asked about the status of the bylaws template for Collegial Assemblies.
President LaFollette discussed the dean searches. He reported that VP and Acting Provost Englert said that an Interim Dean of Education will be named soon. It was mentioned that the Education dean search is underway and that the faculty from the College of Education have been selected. CATA is currently accepting applications from faculty members from other colleges or schools who wish to be on the search committee.
At the meeting with Provost Englert, the new recently hired Vice Presidential position for branding was discussed. It was mentioned that the FSSC was disappointed that once again, CATA had not been included in the selection of an administrative appointment. When Provost Lisa was at Temple and the topic of when CATA should be consulted was discussed, she came up with a checklist that defines those times at which CATA should nominate faculty members for searches. Provost Englert said that he would try to locate that checklist. A senator mentioned that faculty involvement should not mean administrators who happen to hold a faculty appointment.
Provost Englert reported that no decision on whether or not SFF’s should be administered online has been decided. Online SFF’s are being piloted this semester. Englert mentioned that he thought it was a good idea for an outside consultant/expert to analyze this issue. One of the main problems is that there is less of a response online than when the SFF’s are administered within the classes. Members suggested ways to increase online participation. It was mentioned that the idea of withholding grades was rejected by Provost Englert, who does not want to seem as if there is a relationship between grades and feedback forms. One member suggested priority registration as an incentive. President LaFollette suggested it might be a good idea to have the Head of SFF Committee speak to the FSSC. A member asked if a piece regarding distortion in Sffs could be written for the Faculty Herald. Another member mentioned that although Temple Faculty had been promised that the former CATEs, when they were introduced, were “supposedly” intended to be used to help faculty members to improve their instruction, contrary to their original intention, they are now often used to evaluate faculty performance.
Provost Englert also reported that the LGBTQ questionnaire is being developed and that the project is underway. President LaFollette listed the Temple University personnel who have been designated on the committee to develop the questionnaire. A member pointed out that of all the people listed, only one was a faculty member, and suggested that having more than one faculty member on this committee would be a very good idea.
TU Japan was discussed.
A member Senator asked if there are annual evaluations coming from Temple campuses outside of Philadelphia. He pointed out that if the university is promoting 3-2 programs and there are problems at foreign campuses, then this might very well filter down and result in problems on Philadelphia campuses.
Various members shared their knowledge of how foreign Temple campuses operate, as well as their relationships and reporting systems to the main campus in Philadelphia. It was mentioned that there is quite a bit of oversight at Law School campuses overseas.
President LaFollette mentioned that he had met with the College of Engineering Collegial Meeting and felt that it was a positive and thoughtful interchange.
President LaFollette said that it had been suggested that the Faculty Herald sponsor one or more colloquia a year. One particular topic that might be the subject of the first colloquium might be how to promote shared governance on campus. It was felt that these colloquia might promote more discussion on campus. This idea met with great enthusiasm. It was suggested that Mary Burgan, author of the book, What Ever Happened to the Faculty?, would be a good person to invite as a keynote speaker. It was mentioned that there seems to be much attention in the media to the “crisis in higher education” and one of the major aspects of the discussion is “what is the role of faculty?” A senator mentioned that this is coming up a lot. President LaFollette said that he would try to find some funding for these proposed colloquia.
Past President Karen Turner reminded everyone that President Hart promised last year that faculty would be engaged in the conversation about how possible cutbacks at Temple University would be handled. There was general agreement that faculty have not been involved in these conversations. President LaFollette said that he will send President Hart a note about her promise that there would be conversations about cutbacks, and that faculty would be involved.
It was mentioned that Malcolm Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point, wrote an article that appeared in the October 11th issue of “The New Yorker,” magazine that touched upon interesting issues such as “why does talent get paid what it does?” among other interesting issues.
A member mentioned that former Provost Lisa had agreed to write an editorial for the Faculty Herald, and some members wondered if Provost Englert would write an editorial. Another suggestion was that a number of faculty members might be asked to write letters to the Faculty Herald on a variety of subjects. A member said that she thought this would be a good idea, especially if the subject matter included targeted questions. A member suggested that the editor of the Faculty Herald might ask faculty members to write about informative issues and ask their viewpoint on certain topics.
Vice President’s Report - Joan P. Shapiro:
Vice President Shapiro mentioned that one more faculty member is needed as a candidate for the Univerity Tenure and Promotion Advisory Committee (UTPAC). This faculty member will need to be from the Fox School of Business and Management, the College of Engineering, School of Environmental Design, or the College of Health Professions and Social Work.
Two more faculty members are needed for Educational Programs and Policies Committee (EPPC). The FSSC members were informed that Professor Eli Goldblatt wishes to serve on this committee. This announcement met with great enthusiasm. The Personnel Committee needs one more faculty member. The Honors Advisory Committee seems to be a very popular one with four faculty members having applied for the committee, and only two positions available.
Professor Dieter Forster was unanimously approved to serve on the Library Committee.
Guest – Senior Vice Provost of Strategic Initiatives and Communication - Betsy Leebron Tutelman:
President LaFollette welcomed Senior VP Tutelman. VP Tutelman said that she is trying to advance the goals of the academic compass. She reported that she is redesigning and articulating the website of the academic strategic compass. She shared that she has been traveling with Vice Provost of Graduate Studies and Research, Kenneth Blank to see how much each department, school, and college knows about what the others are doing. She said she is systematically trying to cultivate and create relationships between departments and colleges/schools.
VP Tutelman plans to create four forums this year and that the first is already planned as a research forum. She passed around a copy of the program that will be printed for this forum, which is sponsored by VP Blank and the Provost’s Office. The Forum will be held on the Health Sciences campus. She said that she felt that many of Temple’s faculty members do not realize many of the excellent things that are happening on our campus: for example. CSAR – the Center for Substance Abuse Research. She reported that she has created a video that will go on the Provost’s website. She mentioned that she will feature outstanding faculty members.
VP Tutelman shared that last year, while Dean of Students, she created “The Tapestry of Temple” for which she interviewed 120 persons connected to Temple University. The video has been edited into two 58-minute programs that feature 88 people videotaped. These programs will be aired on TUTV. This project began two years ago while she was Special Assistant to the Provost. VP Tutelman mentioned how long it takes to build a website. FSSC Secretary and Chair of the Commission on the Arts, Roberta Sloan underlined how long a website takes to create when she mentioned that the Arts website, which was approved in Summer, 2009 by former Provost Lisa, is still hardly even underway.
VP Tutelman reported that the Academic Strategic Compass is “moving forward.” She said that she will ask each college/school to put forth five things that they would like highlighted on the compass website.
A discussion of the issues with websites on campus ensued. President LaFollette suggested that no one seems to know whom to contact on campus for what. He asked VP Tutelman what she should be contacted about. President LaFollette mentioned that although we now have a person who has been hired to be in charge of “branding,” there still does not seem to be anyone in charge of the updating of content on Temple Websites. VP Tutelman said that she has been asked to maintain all websites in the Provost’s portfolio and has started by beginning to redesign the Research and Graduate Education website. She mentioned that she finds inconsistency among the websites across campus, and that they do not seem to all belong to the same university.
A member said that she believes that individual areas might need to have websites that are different. She mentioned that there needs to be somebody in charge of the content of the websites across campus and that this is an immediate issue. She mentioned that designing and maintaining websites are enormously time-consuming. A member asked if there is someone on campus who oversees the websites. It was mentioned that Stephanie Kollm is in charge of websites on campus, but she is on leave. It was mentioned that she is in charge of the “form” of the websites, but it was felt by many members that the real issue is the content of the websites.
President LaFollette said that the Temple website has serious issues that need to be examined. The website needs to be updated, corrected and needs to have ease of navigation. He feels that, at the present time that is not the case. He feels that this needs to happen, with faculty involvement, as soon as possible. A member said that the website has always been cobbled together and she feels that a consulting firm needs to be hired to do a study about what should be done about the Temple websites. VP Tutelman said that, at Temple, there are only six people who work with the websites, but at other campuses, there are many more.
The member continued by saying that someone on the web team should be able to get rid of broken links and improve the search engine because it just doesn’t work. She mentioned that this is not high-level work, but something that “a few techies” could easily fix. VP Tutelman responded that the six people who are responsible for the Temple websites (actually now five because one is on leave) also are working on other initiatives. President LaFollette said that the design should be secondary to content and technical issues. He said that he feels that someone should be in charge of content and technical issues.
A member suggested that it would be a great improvement to have real people answering the phone when someone calls Temple rather than a recorded voice mechanism. He illustrated his idea with the suggestion that when someone calls and asks to speak with someone, they should be given a phone number. Another member mentioned that they probably would get a wrong number since the Cherry and White Pages are so out of date. Another member mentioned that fixing the Cherry and White pages is not “rocket science,” but could easily be done. One member remarked that the Cherry and White pages are illustrative of how when the university puts something in place, they most often do not have plans in place as to the upkeep and a replacement date.
VP Tutelman mentioned that Creative Services is now charging for websites. The cost is $10,000 for new website, $5,000 for redo of an old website, and $1,000 for a flash page. A lively discussion ensued.
Vice President Tutelman mentioned that she found out, by chance, that the former Baptist Temple is now referred to as the Baptist Performing Arts Center. Secretary Sloan mentioned what a misnomer this name actually is because the Baptist Center was not designed for many of the performing arts on campus: i.e. many types of theater, opera and dance productions. She mentioned that she served on the Working Committee of the Baptist Temple, and it was very clear to everyone, and repeatedly reported that the newly designed building would not accommodate many types of Theater, Opera and most Dance productions. Another member complained that Boyer College of Music and Dance can use the Baptist “Performing Arts Center,” but have to pay to use it. A senator asked who were the faculty involved in the redesign of The Baptist Temple. Secretary Sloan mentioned that the faculty involved were from Music and that she was asked to participate at a very late date, when the design had already been completed.
VP Tutelman mentioned that a new VP in charge of Marketing and Branding has been hired and that a Communication Council is being formed. She named some of the members. This brought up the familiar question of “who are the faculty involved?” It was concluded that faculty are not being involved in most decision making at the university, and often that the “faculty” who are involved are administrators who happen to also have a faculty appointment. It was mentioned that faculty and staff donate a considerable amount of money to the university. This may change if there is a continued perception that faculty don’t feel that they have a role in decision-making.
VP Tutelman mentioned that she plans for the second forum to be about “Destination Temple” or “Opportunities for Success.” VP Tutelman mentioned that she feels that faculty should be involved in her forums, and also mentioned that she felt that staff should also be involved. She mentioned that she feels “Destination Temple” should extend to national and international themes. VP Tutelman said that she doesn’t feel as if we are getting enough information from the faculty in that a lot of wonderful things are happening of which people are unaware. President LaFollette thanked VP Tutelman for her presentation to the FSSC.
Old Business:
The presentation from the previous FSSC meeting was discussed and it was mentioned that there are just some things for which the Banner System will not work. It was suggested that it would be a good idea to identify these things ahead of time rather than wait for things not to work and then have to fix them. It was mentioned that the Law School will have its own scheduling system and will do their scheduling outside of Banner, because Banner’s scheduling grid will not work for the Law School.
President LaFollette pointed out to the members that questions and answers that came up regarding Banner were printed on the back for the FSSC Minutes located in the member’s red folders.
New Business:
A number of members said that they felt that there were a number of issues that came up during VP Tutelman’s presentation that are good topics for further discussion by the FSSC. President LaFollette mentioned that the next FSSC meeting might be a good time to have these discussions since no guests were slated. He mentioned that VP Kenneth Blank will visit the FSSC on November 9th, and that in the spring semester, Senior Vice-Provost Peter Jones and the new Executive Director of General Education would be guests. It was suggested and agreed upon that VP Diane Maleson should also be invited to come to speak to the FSSC. It was suggested that the newly hired VP of Branding and Marketing should be invited to an FSSC meeting and that prior to that time, it should be reiterated that faculty ought to serve on the Communications Committee.
It was suggested that it might be a good idea to have a Dysfunctional Policies Committee as well as a Dysfunctional Rules Committee.
There was a complaint about the whole concept of “branding.” It was suggested that a university should not be reduced to a “sentence.” It was further mentioned that it is frightening to take a big, complex university and reduce it to a single sentence.
Adjournment:
The meeting ended at 3:05 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Roberta R. Sloan, Ph.D.
Faculty Senate Secretary
