FACULTY ASSOCIATION
No. 2 North Office Center - St. Cloud State
University - (320) 255-3979
MEET & CONFER NOTES
January 30, 2003
Faculty Association: Andrew Larkin, Theresia Fisher, Judith Kilborn, Annette
Schoenberger, Sandra Williams, Tracy Ore, Chris Inkster, Robert Johnson,
Administration: Roy
Saigo, Michael
Spitzer, Rex Veeder, Diana Burlison, Larry Chambers, Dennis Nunes, Lin Holder,
Steve Ludwig, Nathan Church, Roland Specht-Jarvis, John Burgeson
1.
Meet
and Confer notes of January 16, 2003 were approved.
2.
Draft
Calendar for 04-05 was distributed.
[FA] stated that they would take it to the Senate for discussion. [ADM There had been talk of changing the
Fall commencement to Sunday and Spring to Saturday in 2004-05, alternating
yearly. When commencement is on a
Sunday both the graduate and undergraduate will be that day. When commencement is on Saturday the
graduate hooding will take place the Friday evening before.
FA:
The Faculty Senate adopted the following motion: “It is the sense of the faculty that these meetings remain open
to all faculty members.” So the FA preference would be to have these meetings
open to all.
ADM: Okay.
FA: We are
concerned about and are interested in knowing what the process for the budget
cuts will be. We are looking forward to
an open process and we would like to be involved and know what our role is.
ADM: We are taking $1.2 million from the
reserves, which leaves us with another million to make up for, and we are
looking in the budget to see where that money might exist. If anyone here has a place where they would
like us to look further, please let us know.
There are some vacant positions and so there are some salaries budgeted
that aren’t filled. We will be able to
take money from there. Some places
where I thought there might be money don’t exist.
FA: What types of positions have been frozen?
ADM: The difference would be that we had already
authorized a number of searches for faculty positions and the staff searches
had not been authorized. We are looking
very carefully at every position. With
faculty we are developing a set of criteria to determine which positions we
should fill first and decide how far down the list we can go. We are doing the same with the staff.
FA: When will we be going through this process?
ADM: I can talk about this at Senate and bring
some preliminary criteria and seek faculty input.
FA: Do you have a timetable?
ADM: Until we know a couple of other factors we
are in the dark. We don’t know how much
money we will have so we don’t know how many positions we can fill. The revenue forecast will come out in mid
February and the Governor’s budget on the 17th or 18th. Once that information is out we should have
a pretty good sense of what to do.
MnSCU will take the numbers and run them through the allocation model
and give us a number. Then we can have
some very serious discussions about action.
I don’t want to put everyone in a panic right now by giving a number.
FA: Shouldn’t we be working together to talk
about lobbying for increased taxes?
ADM: There is a student lobby day on February 12th
and an IFO lobby day that is being coordinated. One of the student government leaders wanted to know if faculty
would excuse students from class to participate. My position is that it is up to each faculty member.
FA: I have sent an email recommending that they
be creative.
FA: One of the things that students will lobby
for is a cut in tuition increases. I
want to talk to students to make sure that they understand what they are
doing. If we are going to be excusing
students we should be educating them on what is going to happen.
ADM: I think you will see a pretty comprehensive
view about what the students think.
They understand that tuition increase cuts will cause loss of financial
aid and work-study. I think they are
sophisticated enough and that having them talk to the legislators will benefit
all of us.
ADM:
As student government advisor this is not a sluff day. They really work while they are down there.
FA:
We will encourage that.
FA:
Can you tell us what the role of the Strategic Plan is?
ADM:
I think it and the President’s Work Plan both have a role in trying to set some
priorities. There are some basic
principles that we need to follow. We
have to see to it that the students that are on campus have classes to attend. That is the primary goal; trying to figure
what are the things we absolutely have to have and what can be postponed.
FA:
As co-chair of this committee I will say that the recent college forums that we
have had have been very successful.
They have given a lot of useful feedback and comments on the goals and
it was very productive.
FA:
What instructions have been given to the deans?
ADM:
I have asked
them to look at the reassigned time to see what we are allocating. In some cases where there are requirements
for scholarship and accreditation. We
are also looking at increasing class capacities in some courses and increasing
the number of auditorium classes.
FA:
Will there be faculty involvement?
ADM:
I am assuming that yes there will be faculty input.
FA:
I think there is concern about making sure faculty are involved at the beginning
of the conversation. Education is not
just number of seats. We know some of
the deans have asked for class size increases of 10 percent.
ADM:
If we don’t have enough seats we can’t admit them and if we don’t do that we
won’t get the tuition. We are not
looking at large classes in all instances.
We are just looking to see if there are areas that can be increased and
still be okay.
FA:
Is the 10 percent increase a recommendation for core classes?
ADM:
We have not talked specifically about core.
ADM: This is not something that is sustainable
but it is something that can be done in an emergency situation for two years –
raising class sizes 10-12 percent and adding auditorium classes. While it is not ideal we need to think about
it.
FA:
I am going to bring two motions to Senate next time. If we have the same drop date as the add date we lose
students. I will also ask that Senate
approve discontinuing giving students back tuition when they haven’t attended
the class. We are losing enrollment
that way.
ADM:
I think there are some federal requirements for that.
FA: If they don’t come to class they are allowed
to have their money back?
ADM:
We are required to record last day of attendance. If we cannot show attendance, then we have to give the money
back.
FA: Will you send the policy to us?
ADM:
I think it is in the schedule book.
FA:
We saw at the IFO board meeting that the other Universities have produced a
document of what areas they are looking at to make the cuts. Perhaps something like that would be helpful
here.
ADM: I did speak with another AVP who indicated
that at that university they had developed a plan several years ago to say what
they would do in the case of a budget shortfall.
FA:
I was referring to the communication to that.
ADM:
It is very difficult to commit to a new faculty today when we don’t know the
budget. You can’t hire them for a year
or two outside the contract.
FA: As a junior faculty member if we increase
class sizes are we going to allow for a certain reduction in other work?
ADM:
Deans will make adjustments in requirements for Article 22 during this
time. I think this is something we can
agree that we need to do.
FA: It may be helpful even if there hasn’t been
a decision made to catalog a list of ideas that can be presented. We are hearing different things each week
and if we had a set of ideas on the table for us to look at all at once it
could give people a sense of what we are looking at. I think that would help the university as a whole to see what the
possibilities are.
ADM:
As long as we understand that as the financial situation becomes more and more
bleak we have to do more things.
FA:
At least if you have some things out there we could be prepared for some of the
possibilities.
ADM:
The catalog is a very good idea and would be helpful.
FA: If faculty knew that all of us have been
asked to do these things, at least we would have a large picture.
ADM: Would the Senate consider inviting the
deans?
FA: The rooms that we have to teach our classes
in won’t all hold more than 32 people; we’ve been doing it for 5 years. Faculty
have had the impression that nobody has asked their opinion. There is a morale problem that will get
worse if we don’t face it and figure out a way to deal with it.
FA:
I think that might get people thinking outside the box. Faculty don’t feel that they are part of the
process, only that we will be informed.
ADM:
We had a faculty forum with maybe 30-35 people. It’s very hard to find an hour where people are free. I have to trust that people are relaying
their ideas to the ones able to attend.
FA: Our dean has not had a forum. He may have
talked to the chairs but our chairs have not talked to us. What I am hearing is that faculty are not
being involved and are not being asked for input.
FA:
For the record at the DAC meeting there has been discussion for scenarios
regarding the budget cuts and feedback was asked for. It would help a lot to say there is a range of possibilities that
may or may not be put into place depending on what the actual numbers are.
ADM:
There is a website where people can list their suggestions. It is a separate
website to submit your comments to us anonymously.
FA:
I can go on anonymously and suggest that you wipe off any dept that I don’t
like. Perhaps we would like some other ways that would involve faculty.
FA:
When the President signed the letter for the internal audit he went in to
Senate and talked about making the process transparent; Senate applauded
him. The idea that faculty have is that
there be an open discussion involving faculty.
ADM:
The website is so we can collate the ideas and bring them to discussion.
FA:
But it shouldn’t be in absence of other ideas.
ADM:
Do faculty have a budget committee?
FA:
Yes.
ADM:
I think we are making certain efforts but it’s difficult to make these efforts
and then have no one show up to the meetings.
FA:
When the Budget Review Committee met last semester we
had a full crew. Because we were asked not to share the information and
everything blew up, the BRC is not going to work at this point. That mechanism
is pretty much not functional right now.
We have to look at another form of what can get this going.
ADM:
Once we have some numbers if necessary we will have open forums, we will have
the Valhalla forums. There are a lot of
tools that we have. We just don’t have
the specific numbers. What would you propose
as a mechanism for relaying input to the administration?
FA:
We will do it here and in the Senate.
FA:
I think part of what we need to remember is that people need plenty of time to
process it. I think we need multiple
opportunities given the scheduling conflicts so that everyone can think of some
creative ways to get around this.
ADM:
We got some ideas and decided to come back as soon as we get some hard numbers
back. There is urgency in putting this
together before it goes to the press.
FA:
There is a concern that the process is really open in some areas and not in
others.
ADM:
I think we hear what you are saying and we are trying to address these
concerns. We just need a couple more weeks to get the actual numbers. Every institution is moving at a different
pace. We don’t want to overreact but at
the same time we don’t want to under react. I hear what you are saying; we want
the process to be as open as possible.
FA:
Senate approved the draft policies for web pages. The draft policy changes for
campus listservs has been referred to the FA committee on Technology and
Pedagogical Resources. When we have a recommendation we will bring it to you.
FA: There was going to be a meeting of the
Affirmative Action Committee; I asked to be involved.
ADM:
We haven’t had it yet.
ADM:
I will volunteer to set that up ASAP.
FA:
The second item is regarding the hiring of the interim person. We thought it was going to be more of a
clerical person. I guess there was some
confusion when the announcement was sent out.
We are concerned about that.
ADM: There was some continuing discussion about
this and that discussion got supplemented to other issues on the committee and
I think perhaps there wasn’t a full enough discussion.
FA:
We are talking about the role of the hired person, not the committee.
ADM:
We said we would be consulting with MnSCU in terms of what they would be
supporting. When the job description
was posted all the responsibilities were listed.
FA:
Why were faculty not on the search committee?
ADM:
[Administrator] was asked to find out if members were willing to serve on this
committee and they declined.
FA:
Only the Senate can appoint members to a search.
ADM:
I understand that now and it was a mistake.
This was an abbreviated search for an interim position and when the
permanent position search comes you will certainly be able to submit names for
the committee.
FA: I guess I was a little confused and I
thought this was a clerical position.
ADM:
I think that we didn’t know how long this was going to play out. I don’t think the word clerical was
used. The job description covers a wide
range of issues. I think it is
fortunate that we were sharing with you that at that time those were the real
pressing issues on our minds. We
certainly didn’t mean to mislead you. I
apologize if that is what happened.
FA:
Apparently there was miscommunication and a broader communication line was
needed. More importantly is what has
changed now and what will change in the future as far as the nature of the
permanent position. What would be the
description of that position?
ADM:
The settlement calls for a consultant to come in and evaluate and come up with
a set of recommendations and we then have an opportunity to respond and appear
in front of the judge. We have
identified some consultants but I don’t think we have any responses.
FA:
My question is what is the relationship between this job description and a new
job description that may come from the consultant?
ADM:
It would be predicated on meeting the recommendations of the consultant that
satisfy the judge. I do apologize for
the miscommunication. It was not
intentional. We will be getting the
consultant and proceed from there with faculty involvement. There was a lot of
uncertainty in trying to provide a job description. Initially we were looking
for a classified person for the interim but we ended up with an
unclassified.
FA:
My recommendation is that we can learn from this. Just as we learn that there is a process for getting faculty
involved perhaps, we can learn to use meet and confer as an opportunity to
present issues that occur.
ADM:
Good suggestion.
FA:
I want to recognize and appreciate the apologies that come from the
administration. Thank you.
First year experiences.
FA:
We are creating a committee and they are going to make recommendations and work
with the administration. We should have the committee next week.
ADM:
We are really up against the wall as far as the room assignment side of
this. The quality of this is linked to
the residential area and they are telling us it’s too late to get that
information. We don’t want to lose a
whole year of getting a pilot program going. We really want to look at and
explore some different options.
FA:
In Senate members were very supportive of this idea. I do understand the complexities. The concern that came out of Senate is establishing an experience
without consulting faculty and going through the curriculum process.
ADM:
There are two issues. One is not curriculum but a scheduling issue. Part of
this is wanting to have faculty involved in the pilot program. We are not talking about this being the “be
all end all.” If we were trying to
create First Year Experiences (FYE) and roll it out for all undecided majors, I
would see some room for concern but we are looking at a very limited scope of
this experience.
ADM:
This started out as a project to improve retention. At the same time offering faculty who feel that they have
outgrown their own department the opportunity to teach in a different format. At some point you need to start getting it
going and once that has happened you can open it up for discussion.
FA:
Even if the program seems like it doesn’t have curriculum issues it might. I think there may be somewhere, but we don’t
know where they are yet. I think
everyone supports this and it’s a matter of how we proceed now.
FA: I think that this is an excellent idea. We need to make sure that the idea came from
faculty working with administration to get the idea going.
ADM:
Absolutely. I take no ownership for this.
When do you think we could expect to get a pilot program in place?
FA:
We agree with the idea and we will have the names for the committee next week
and they can work out how we should proceed.
ADM: Success to some students will be leaving the
institution going to a place that they found is better for them through our
help with these kinds of programs.
FA: I think it won’t be a problem informing
students of what they are getting out of it.
FA:
What kind of progress is being made on the audit?
ADM:
After the last meet and confer we asked what the status was and were told there
was an emergency audit that consumed five weeks and as soon as it was done she
would get back to this.
FA:
What about progress on the student applications?
ADM:
Three students out of 29 or 30 finished their assessment last week; two have
sent me transcripts so it’s proceeding.
FA:
Is there a unit in place of MHSC? Why is it in COE if it’s assigned to Academic
Affairs?
ADM:
First of all there’s only one reporting process for NTT’s and it’s an
abbreviated sort of process this year.
The status of this is that I have talked to people asking that everyone
get together again and select a representative and made it very clear that they
are an individual unit and they need to meet as one group. If you have any suggestions maybe someone
from the Faculty Association could chat with them and encourage them to have
this meeting.
FA:
If they are an individual entity why are they attending the COE DAC?
ADM:
That is a very good question and I will get an answer on that.
FA:
If it continues, something is wrong.
ADM:
Let us look into it a little further and come back with some more information.
FA:
That leads to a larger concern about what the future is for this unit. How will they be configured, housed,
structured?
ADM:
That is some of the information we would hope to come back with and we do
realize there is a March 1st deadline.
FA:
We wondered where the Independent Review Committee is in their work and if
they’re prepared to solicit information from the campus community.
ADM:
I believe that there was some confusion about scheduling. We had our 2nd
meeting today and there will be another meeting on Monday. People will solicit
information and bring it back the committee and we will also hold a couple open
forums. The Rankin Report is due next
week, and we will have two months to complete our work after that. It looks like we will be having weekly
meetings. The meeting today was very
fruitful and we got a lot done. I would
like to commend everyone.
FA:
Do you have a chair?
ADM:
I think you can contact any of the representatives and there will be a set of
action items coming out every week. The chair changes with each meeting, as
does the note taker.
FA: Does this committee have minutes?
ADM:
People are keeping notes in the form of a journal.
FA: Perhaps we could have the action items
posted in a way similar way to Strategic Planning.
ADM:
Let me bring it up at the meeting on Monday.
FA: It is very important that this committee be
completely open in its deliberations.
FA:
Faculty have concerns with holds on curriculum proposals, overlapping credits
in majors and minors, overturning grades, etc.
The requirement of majors and minors matching for either a BA or BS --
we are not aware that a requirement like that exists.
ADM:
I don’t know what you don’t know. Its
always a surprise to me when these things come up that you aren’t aware of that
are part of my everyday job. There has
always been a separation that says if you have a BA major you have a BA minor,
and if you have a BS major you don’t need a minor. As
far as I know we’ve always had to grant an exemption if a student wants to mix
majors and minors.
FA:
This has never come up so we are questioning if there is such a requirement.
ADM:
This is nothing new; it’s always been this way.
FA:
From our perspective this has never been this way. We have to recognize that there is a pretty big gap between what
we are saying and what you are saying.
ADM: I don’t think UCC works with that sort of
thing. There is no change in policy.
Nothing is different; you just noticed it for the first time. There are probably a hundred other policies
that could come up that you haven’t heard of before.
FA:
It is a concern for faculty if they are advising students and they don’t know
the requirements.
ADM:
Let’s get [Faculty] to look through it to see what the requirements are.
FA:
Is it written down anywhere?
ADM:
It’s not but we do it and there are so many everyday things we do that aren’t
written in a particular place. The general assumption across higher education
is that the minor matches the major.
ADM:
When I saw this issue I looked in this catalog, it lists the majors and minors. The catalog specifies which degree the minor
applies to.
FA:
We need to know what’s doable and not doable.
FA:
We have a major that’s BA or BS; they have to decide which one they are
doing.
ADM:
These are all policies that have been through faculty hands.
FA: If a student gets a BS degree that student
cannot get a minor in a department that only has a BA minor? We are having a
problem understanding where students can get a degree with certain minors. It doesn’t make sense that a student can’t
get a minor.
FA:
I think a part of it is just a gap in understanding. There needs to be some clarification.
FA:
How frequently does this problem occur?
ADM:
Not very often.
FA:
I think faculty can make proposals. Maybe we ought to make suggestions or
proposals.
FA: A student with a major in English was sent
back to the department.
ADM:
If you can locate that I will review it again.
FA:
The members for the Schedule 25 Task Force were sent to Debbie Tamte-Horan.
Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.