Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Present: Paul S. LaFollette (V. Pres., CST), Bonnie Averbach (Secy., FSBM), Robert M. Aiken (Past-Pres., CST), Z. Joan Delalic (Engr.), Marge Devinney (CLA), Michael Jackson (STHM), Luke Kahlich (BCMD), Stephanie Knopp (Tyl), Lois Millner (SSA), Mark C. Rahdert (Law), Joan P. Shapiro (Educ.), Joel B. Sheffield (CST), Roberta Sloan (SCT), Roy Stevens (Dent.), David Waldstreicher (Fac. Herald), Cheryl Mack (Coord)
Absent: Karen M. Turner (Pres., SCT), David Baron (Med), Pauline Hurley-Kurtz (Ambl), Charles Ruchalski (Pharm), Jay Sinha (FSBM)
1. Call to Order:
The meeting was called to order at 1:10 PM
2. Approval of the Minutes:
The minutes of March 3, 2009 were approved with corrections.
3. President’s Report (as submitted):
I have jury duty so I won’t be at today’s meeting.
- I sent you an update before the break about the grad review.
- I’ve asked Paul to discuss RPPC. He spoke with Larry Lemanski before the break.
- Please encourage your school/college faculty to attend the monthly senate meetings. It’s clear that the provost and president see these meetings as key forums for faculty to be updated and heard.
Vice President LaFollette discussed the following:
Re: The RPPC problem:
The history: Turner and LaFollette have been trying to contact Larry Lemanski for about a month about Marina Angel’s email to them concerning RPPC’s not getting support from his office relative to seed grants (see minutes of 2-10-09). The issue is that, historically, his office has provided secretarial and administrative help with collecting and filing the applications, keeping up the website, etc. Angel claims that he had agreed to continue this service when she met with him in the beginning of the fall semester. However, when she went to his office, the help was not forthcoming. Angel has a personal assistant who was able to do some of the work, however this is not appropriate. When she spoke to Lemanski again, he told Angel that she should use Cheryl Mack or someone from Diane Maleson’s office. Angel replied that this was not appropriate, and the work should be done by the Office of Research. Marina asked Turner and LaFollette to intervene.
The progress so far: LaFollette spoke to Lemanski, who still does not want his office to be involved. However, he finally agreed to have a meeting with Turner, LaFollette, Heidi Grunwald and Marina Angel to discuss this issue. Turner will arrange the call.
We want to encourage our colleagues, both Senators and non Senators, to attend the monthly meetings. Waldstreicher (Faculty Herald) remarked that until he attended the meetings he had not realized that “the Administration sees the meetings as a way of disseminating information as well as the faculty sees them as a forum to discuss issues. We have to make it clear that attending the meetings is important. (It was noted that all faculty are invited to attend, but only Representative Senators can vote at the Representative Senate Meetings.) It was suggested that the announcements of the Senate meetings be in Temple Today as well as on TUPortal. It was also suggested that Waldstreicher write something up in the Faculty Herald on this topic.
The guests at the March 18, Representative Senate meeting are Heidi Grunwald, Assistant Vice Provost, Office for Research, and Dennis Lynch, Director of Government Relations. They will be discussing the government stimulus package the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), and how it will affect Temple.
4. Vice President’s Report: Paul LaFollette
The emails have gone out regarding the process for nominating candidates for Committees on the Senate floor at the March 18 Senate meeting. He mentioned that there is an urgent need for candidates for elected committees such as RPPC, EPPC and others. There are two vacancies on Tenure and Promotion and the Personnel committee. This information was sent out by email recently. The slate must be handed to Computer Services to set up the election.
There was a discussion on how to get faculty interested in serving on committees. It was suggested that if more faculty knew what was happening on these committees, there would be more interest. LaFollette replied that there could be one or two updates from committees each month at the Senate meetings. It was also suggested that the Faculty Herald might include information about the Committees.
After several suggestions, and more discussion on the importance of reports from the committees, and the importance of presenting the highlights of what these committees are about and what they accomplish, the following motion was made and seconded:
“The Faculty Senate will take steps to establish a system for regular presentations at the Faculty Senate meetings, from the Faculty Senate Committees.”
The motion passed unanimously.
5. Unfinished Business:
LaFollette asked that we please look at the resumes of the faculty who have volunteered to be on the Student/Faculty Liaison Committee and the Faculty Quality of Life Committee. We will discuss this at the next meeting.
6. New Business:
Issues that were brought up:
The Philly Bar Guide in the Temple News: It may not be our business; however LaFollette does not think that it is appropriate.
There is a new grid for classes for the fall semester. LaFollette feels this should have been brought to our attention. He mentioned that the reason for the change was to make the time schedule more flexible for students. Tyler faculty have known about this and feel that it is doable.
Aiken would like to have representatives from key committees come to our meetings so that we know what is going on and possibly we can give suggestions and work with the members, since we do have oversight of the committees. As examples, he mentioned the Community Based Learning Committee, the Committee of Faculty of Color, and Gen Ed. He feels that these three committees are important and that we should know what they are doing and see if we can help them in any way. We should also hear from other committees. Sheffield mentioned that we were supposed to have a person speak to us about transfer students. The person has not come. He would like to have this person be invited again.
Rahdert asked about the tension between the Faculty Handbook and the procedures coming out of the bargaining unit. The response was that there is a Standing Committee on Continuous Revision of the Faculty Handbook. However, there are representatives of the administration on it. The Provost has asked that the committee not meet until the contract is settled. Turner will be asked to look into the matter.
LaFollette suggested that we should invite the Student Feedback Forms Oversight Committee to discuss the SFF forms.
7. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 2:12 PM.
Bonnie Averbach, Secretary
