Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
April 5, 2005
Attendance: (Those present indicated by an underline)
Officers: President Schoenberger, President-Elect Kilborn, Past President Fisher, Secretary: Gasparino, IFO Board Members: Hill, Kilborn
Unit Representatives: COB SubbaNarasimha, COE Hornstein, FAH Condon COSE Akubue, COSS Ore, SPEC Vacant
Negotiator: Langen
1. Call to order at 3:20 PM.
2. Approval of Minutes – There were no minutes to approve.
3. Treasurer’s Report – No report was given.
4. Announcements
5. Call for new agenda items – None.
a. UCC will send a document for the March 22 EC meeting.
The topic of reassigned time for this committee (and other committees requiring extensive time commitment) will be put on the Meet and Confer agenda.
b. PDP/PDR calendar for next year. (EC 032205 5.c)
Steve Hornstein reviewed this calendar and made a suggestion with regard to dates and tenure dates. FA President Schoenberger took this suggestion to her meeting with Kristi Tornquist and Mark Nook; and they agreed to a calendar indicating these will occur at particular times. FA President Schoenberger brought up the issue of departments not having enough time; therefore, a sentence will be added to the PDP and PDR materials to “consult with your department early.” Since this topic has been met and conferred upon, the dates should get published soon.
The Provost shared the document containing revisions to Article 22 with the Presidents of the other universities, and they were positive of these revisions. The delay may be if the IFO Board is uncomfortable with the revisions, in which case it will be taken to Delegate Assembly.
c. Affirmative Action Search (one from each college?)
Motion we have Faculty Association representatives from the six different units -- five from the colleges and one from Special Services -- for the Affirmative Action search (Motin/Subba).
Motion withdrawn
Motion to have a Preferential ballot at large and to choose the top vote getters from each college. The replacement scheme to ensure diversity will be used to replace a person from their own college. If any positions remain open, they will be filled with the top vote getters (Motin/Seconded).
d. FYE Mark Nook will visit us at 4:45.
The following are notes taken from Mark Nook’s presentation to the Executive Committee:
I want to address a couple of things. I know there have been questions raised about ARMs (Academic Resource Mentors). ARM’s are sophomore, junior, and senior students who are going to work in residence halls but will be overseen by Undergraduate Studies. They understand academics. The real focus is academic resources on the campus. The problem is we don’t have an orientation program on campus. We never let students know what academic resources are here and how to access them….
I have said numerous times I expect ARMS to be of great help during the third or the fourth week of school when we give students their first exam and/or their first big paper due, since these assignments don’t always go well with some freshmen students. If they’ve been meeting with an Upper Division student at least once a week, however, they’ll probably turn to this person (their ARM). If the student is having difficulty, Mark will ask the ARM to make a phone call to the student’s faculty member or advisor with the student present (in the same room) and accompany the student to the meeting; however, the ARM would not attend the meeting (the ARM has no place at those meetings), unless the faculty member/advisor and the student request they be present. This program is about developing academic maturity. I really want ARMs to convey to the student if they want to talk with any two people, they should talk with their faculty member and their advisor. The average student will need some help with regard to approaching their faculty member. We need more students to make more contact with faculty and advisors. ARMs will go through five days of training; however, it will not be RA training. ARMs will not take the place of tutors, since you lose the function of the ARM if they become a tutor.
All signatures were ultimately put in place. I’ve dealt with interim circumstances -- where a group told me four courses were involved (from two different departments), and I found out that they were still trying to get another department to join in after approval was given. They were talking about adding to a cohort – courses in the Gen Ed core. We don’t need this going on -- so, I’ve talked to the Chairs involved and said not to do this again; and I have a proposed timeline for the approval of courses. The advisory committee has seen this, and it should move out of their committee and come to Faculty Senate. This needs to come to the faculty so they know the deadlines. I’ll forward a copy to Annette so she has it; but it really isn’t anything that needs to be voted on. I’d appreciate it, though, if you would let me know if anything doesn’t look right. The First Year Experience Advisory Committee has it; and I guess it will be sent to Faculty Senate as part of their minutes. I will check with Balsy Kasi and ask him to send it.
Mentors will understand how to present academic resources, and they will have people representing those resources come into the Living community. It’s not a curriculum piece. Our current First Year Experience model here on campus is a learning, living community model – students take a couple of classes together, and they live together. There are variations of this; i.e., where they don’t take classes together and don’t live together. We have a unique situation this year, since we have 420 students who want to get into the First Year Experience Program but only have 380 beds in Residence Hall, and there are 230 seats available. I’ve announced this to students. There are 120 open seats yet, and 270 beds open in Residence Hall. This gives us a unique opportunity for assessment. For example, First Year Experience programs are voluntary, so you may take a group of students and put them into the program and then do a comparison. I’d like to create a pure living community. For the last couple of years, we’ve taken entering freshmen and enrolled them in the summer and then filled out their Gen Eds. I’d like to continue to do this throughout the year and get a group of 20 to 25 students into two similar courses in the fall and two similar courses in the spring -- by courses, I mean the same courses but not in the same class. Then we’d give them an ARM to meet with once a week.
Mark wants to share this information with the faculty as a courtesy. Steve Hornstein stated if we had more of this kind of courtesy, people would be a lot happier. Mark will be on the Faculty Senate agenda for Tuesday, April 26, at 4:45 PM.
FA President Schoenberger stated it would be useful if the First Year Experience Committee would make a motion in their minutes to support this program (and Faculty Senate would have the opportunity to approve their minutes).
6. Unfinished Business
a. The letter to the St. Cloud Times and others concerning anonymous postings to the chat room. (EC 021505 2.1, 2.2, EC 121404 5.d, FS 012505 7.a Student Government Resolution, and The two sets of minutes from EC) –
FA President Schoenberger has not yet heard the status of this letter..
b. President Saigo’s request for Meet and Confer to discuss topics. – Discussed.
It was confirmed the topics President Saigo would like to discuss in Meet and Confer are global in nature. The Executive Committee agreed to selecting two topics, gathering background information on these topics, and determining the dates for discussion at Meet and Confer. After Faculty Senate is informed of this process, this topic will go on the Meet and Confer agenda.
c. Draft Policy on Naming Facilities (EC 032205 7.e) – This is on the Senate agenda.
Motion the Executive Committee agrees with instituting the draft policy on naming facilities and would like to revisit this policy in five years (Motin/Kilborn). Passed
It was noted this initiative came from University Communications (Jill Rudnitski) who distributed the document at University Council as a means of fundraising ($3.5 million came from James W. Miller for the Miller Center).
d. Affirmative Action Hiring Manual
FA President Schoenberger asked if a member from the Executive Committee could look at Moorhead’s Affirmative Action Hiring Manual and determine whether we want to use this as a guide. Steve Hornstein said he would be happy to review this manual. FA President-Elect Kilborn asked if we had permission to use Moorhead’s manual; and FA President Schoenberger stated she sent Cindy Phillips (Moorhead’s FA President) a note asking if we had permission; however, she has not received a reply.
Motion to set up a task force to include the Affirmative Action Officer who will be paid to work on this (Motin/Kilborn). Passed
7. New Business
a. Chair Workshop (EC 040505 7.a)
FA President Schoenberger received this document from the President. She asked the Executive Committee whether they agreed to having a consultant come on campus to give Chair Workshops. The Executive Committee agreed to the workshops and suggested having these sessions include release time and non release time Chairs as well as sessions for people who are considering becoming Chairs. FA President Schoenberger also stated if the consultant wishes to speak with Chairs, they must be Chairs recommended by the Faculty Association.
8. Adjournment at 5:20 PM.