University Senate

Memorandum

Date:                   November 10, 2008

To:                       The Academic Community

From:                   Senate Executive Committee

Subject:             November 3, 2008—Minutes of the Meeting of the University Senate

The third regular meeting of the University Senate will be held on Monday, November 3, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. in Rooms 314-315 of the University Union.

• CALL TO ORDER

• ROLL CALL

• AGENDA Approved

• APPROVAL OF MINUTES for October Meetings – After some suggested changes, the minutes were approved unanimously.

• REPORTS OF EX OFFICIO SENATORS

              Provost Clements - 

• We are in the top 100 of Kiiplinger100 – We are 90.  See the attached list for the 100.
• Tomorrow is a big day.  For the first time ever in the United States a new technology developed by Towson University, National Public Radio and Harris Corporation will enable the nation’s deaf and hard of hearing citizens to experience live radio coverage during the presidential election. The technology was developed by Dr. Ellyn Sheffield , Assistant Professor of Psychology at TU.
• Hiring Freeze – We did get 65 replacement pins (filling vacancies) plus 27 new faculty lines and 11 staff positions.
• Optional Retirement Plan – Employees get a 71/2% now.  The System is suggesting an additional 2% making it 9½%.but the employee would also be required to contribute 2%. This will not happen this year because of the budget.

              Vice President Moriarty-

• Civic Engagement Advisory Board – Working to increase service learning opportunities in the classroom, more engagement on campus, buses to polling places, election night event.
• Concept of Greek Housing – Private/public partnership, much interest and support across the Greek student community so we are going to next step of looking into this.
• Before the end of Fall, launching discussions about the draft policy to become a tobacco free campus by Dec. 31, 2010.
• Creation of new Towson fight song
• Piloted and fully launched “Involved at TU” – an on-line opportunity for students to register co-curricular involvement – unofficial transcript at the end that students can use to support their resume building at the end of their time here.

              Vice President Shehan –

• State budget constant a concern, anticipating another cut of equal size or two – may only be 1/3 now. 
• Selected a developer for the next phase of West Village – public/private partnership.  Moving forward with commons building. Moving forward with Towson Center.
• Professor Vatz – As we increase the amount of students, we are increasing on-line courses and responsibility of faculty.  Who is watching this?  Provost Clements answered that online courses have increased because of students’ demands as well as growth.  The president is very sensitive to growth and the budget.  Professor Vatz than flowed up stating that there is a concern about the quality and not just the demand.  Professor Sullivan asked if the architecture of the buildings will be the same.  Vice President Sheehan answered that they will be mirror images.  Professor Pitcher shared problems searching the TU website.  She gave the example of problems finding current information about the Reading Clinic on the website.  Vice President Shehan stated that he will look into it.  Professor Bergman asked about the funding for the next phase of West Village and Shehan answered that it will be available in July.

• REPORTS OF OFFICERS OF THE UNIVERSITY SENATE

Professor Ballengee, AAUP

• Family leave committee set up
• Second Friday series will continue on November 14, Professor Vatz will present.  The Provost will present in December.  Both of these are at the Burkshire with a happy hour afterwards.  Membership in AAUP is higher than last year but stressed the importance of being members for $15. Mail checks to the AAUP treasurer, Isabel Castro-Vazquez in the Foreign Languages Dept. 

Professor Sigel, CUSEF

• The system is going ahead for increased contribution to ORP (Optional Retirement Plan).  The plan is to scale up but it is important to see if faculty will support it. It may not happen in the near future because of lack of money but it is good sign that they are preparing a plan.
• AAUP and others may be putting forward to CUSEF for unionization of faculty. 
• Professor Sullivan shared that the meeting of Senate presidents with CUSEF was very productive.  He thanked Martha for her work that makes Towson very involved.  Budget was presented explaining the possibility of bigger budget cuts in the future.  Senate Bill 448 – Cultural Diversity: Campuses should be aware of this.  We have to develop a plan for the campus.  Optional Retirement Plan was mentioned there, too.  Different terms of vesture was discussed.  Stem cell issues still on the table.  There was a question of programs being done in our state by out-of-state institutions.  Provost Clements explained that in-state institutions have a whole process on how our programs are approved but out-of-state programs can just come in and we have a requirement about how much fulltime faculty are teaching but they do not.
• In looking at achievement over all of the USM campuses, we do not have an achievement gap. Coverage for domestic partners was also discussed.  Professor Siegel shared that some issues really need support from faculty when we go to Annapolis especially faculty benefits. 

Senator Guy, SGA

• Gave out SGA Action Plan, which is their mini 2010 plan.  This Tuesday resolution #8 is on how policies are revised will be up for vote which is advocating for student voices. 
• We are receiving student regent positions in the system.  Refer any strong students that would interested. 
• Textbooks affordability Summit (handout given out), Nov 24, at University of MD College Park. Expert panelists will share what different options are out there. We want to try to avoid legislation.  Professor Maronic asked about legislation.  Senator Issac answered that hopefully they can come up with better solutions so it doesn’t come up to legislature. Professor Sigel shared that we can show the legislature that we can police ourselves.  Professor Sullivan also reinforced that we don’t want legislation to do this because they will dictate how we can choose.  Professor Bergman suggests that we also stress students have responsibility in downloading resources, too. 

Professor Sullivan- We need a new liaison to Trimester Task Force.  If you are interested, contact him.  He also encouraged the Deans and Senators to put forward Reagent award nominations.

• OLD BUSINES

• Discussion Item: Revised Proposal for non-tenure Clinical Faculty Appointments   (attached)

           (Senate Executive Committee)

Senators asked about the status. Some of the Senators will review it.  Dean Lorion explained that the Deans did not know who would look at it for the Senate.  The deans contacted some senators to clarify some of the changes suggested.  Professor Sullivan will put together a group to look at it.  Professor Vatz asked if they had suggestions, who did they send it to.  Professor Zimmerman suggested that the AAUP President, Professor Zimmerman, and Professor Manasse will review it and make suggestions for improvement.

• NEW BUSINESS       

• Motion 08/09-09:  Approving the Process for Developing a New School or College

Professor Stors made the motion to accept and Professor Siegel seconded.  Professor Bergman asked who is going to write the proposal since this seems to be left out of the proposal and shouldn’t the concept be also presented to the Senate.  The college councils should also be part of the process.  Professor Siegel suggested for a college that the constitution would have to come to the Senate.  She asked if a school also has to have constitution and representation on the Senate.  Professor Sullivan agreed this was confusing.  Is a school the same as a college or how about if a proposal comes forward to form a new college out of something that we are currently doing? It is easier to understand if it something new but he was not sure what happens if something comes out of an existing college.  Provost clarified that we have grown and the question is if the structure we have will support this growth.  We are talking about a new School of Nursing and School of Technology.  Therefore, we needed to decide how we were going to do this. This proposal comes out of the system’s policy.  Professor Manasse suggests that we have to look at where the recommendation for the new college or school is coming from.  Professor Siegel suggests that we do need a policy so that we don’t get an end product before we have approved a policy.  She suggested that the Provost and President should also be able to put this forward. Professor Lawson suggests that it comes from the Provost through the Deans Council.  Professor Ballengee suggested that shared governance is set forward in the faculty Handbook and that we should be careful to allow participation rather than approval at the end.  Provost Clements suggested that this makes sense.  The College of Health Professionals has a School of Nursing proposal for awhile but were not sure how to put this forward. Professor Zimmerman suggests that this needs to be amended so the Senate makes recommendations to the concept. Professor Manasse suggested that how new colleges and schools are proposed is also confusing.  Professor Bergman recommended that there are many points in this proposal that need to be worked through by a group of faculty and this should be tabled until we can do that. Professor Zimmerman asks how this needs to be approved.  Professor Manasse pointed out what the system document says about schools and colleges.

Professor Bergman proposed that we table the document until it can be looked at more carefully.  Professor Pitcher seconded that.   Motion passes unanimously to table it. 

Professor Webster suggests that we need to propose what needs to be done. Professor Zimmerman proposed that we talk about the issues and then appointed a committee.  Provost Clements suggests that we need to look at the USM document and decide what we want so we can go forward with this.  Professor Siegel suggested that we still have an amendment on the floor and we need to vote on it.

Amendment to the Motion: The University Senate will discuss the concept overview and summit a report at this place in the process. Motion carries 20-0-0.

Professor Siegel proposes that the Provost should also be able to put forward a college or school. Professor Zimmerman suggests that if anyone else sees a point that should be made that we should just talk generally and not specifically word smith it.  Professor Bergman suggested that college councils should be in the process and that faculty have at least four weeks.  Also, this should come to the Senate at the end of the process.  Professor Anthony suggests that school and college are used differently in the document. Provost Clements suggested that we should follow the USM policy using them interchangeably.  Professor Cox suggested that maybe we do not want to differentiate them.  Professor Manasse suggests that we need to set forth a policy to establish schools or colleges.  Professor Siegel proposed that we have to show the difference between a college, a school, and a department.  We have described how these are going to happen.  We need to look at models for this.  Professor Maronic suggests that this may exist in the College of Health Professionals.  Dean Extner shared that throughout the country and within the system there are different models and this document allows for a school or college to be developed with different options and not be restrictive.  Professor Worgs felt he was comfortable with how this was explained but there needs to be some definition of what the differences are. There should be some kind of statement that requires that policies that already existed are included.

Professor Zimmerman put forward a motion that a committee be formed to incorporated these suggestions.  Motion carried 19-1-0.  Committee will consist of Professor Siegel, Professor Bergman, Professor Lawson.

• Discussion Item:  School of Nursing Proposal

              A proposal was given out.  Professor Jordon from the Nursing Department gave an update. They have been working on this for three years.  They have put forward a proposal and budget to the provost.  She suggested we need a school because in the nursing landscape that nursing programs are only recognized when a school or college exits.  In the last couple of years the program has increased too much to be just a department.  She introduced some of the leaders of the different parts of the program and thanked the Dean of CHF and the provost.  They want to go with the School version so they can share resources within CHF.  They are asking that their budget be separated from the college so that they have autonomy over it.  They have met with all of the stakeholders and have strong letters of support from them.  There is a major nursing shortage of nurses and need for teachers of nurses. They have completed all of the documents and submitted them to the Provost. They are the second largest program in the state but are being overlooked by potential faculty because we are not a school. They want to make sure they can do their research and this will give them more opportunities to do that. It is important for students to be able to say they graduated from a School of Nursing.  Professor Maronic asked why a school and not a college.  Professor Jordan explained that it largely has to do with programs. Senator Poltorak reinforced that she has had feedback from students who are very excited about this.  Professor Siegel asked about faculty.  Professor Jordon answered that they have 30 faculty members and had to grow their own faculty because doctoral faculty were not available.  Their mastered prepared faculty have increased research and publishing.  Professor Zimmerman asked whether we have a motion for this and when will we see the full proposal.  Professor Bergman asked whether we would have departments, a dean, a department chair.  Professor Jordon answered that they do foresee having a dean, a chair, and she shared other programs that they are developing in response to the community.  Professor Bergman asked about whether the Dean of Nursing would have a vote in the Deans’ Council.  Professor Jordan answered that they want a direct link to the Provost.  Professor Tabak asked about a School with only nine Ph.D.s.  Professor Jordan answered that this is a problem nationally but they would like to put forward their own doctoral program to grow more PhDs.

• Motion 08/09-10: Approval of a Post Baccalaureate Certificate on Autism Motion carries 13-0-3.

• Discussion Item:  Parking Concerns (See attached) (Senate Executive Committee) Professor Pitcher voiced the concerns if faculty and especially of COE.  Pam Mooney expressed that they deal with 23,000 people and try to find a balance to adjust best they can. 
• How are policies made? -  She responded that she is asked to pull together options and plans.  She then meets with the president and the president council.  She sent a list to the president council and had forums on the campus.  In the past they managed by exceptions so this was a change.  They are now trying to be consistent.  There is no parking committee.  They put forward policies to the President’s Council. 

• Fees – They are self-supporting.  They try to only increase cost when they have to.  They have tried to keep the fees down and have been less than they need.   The garages need significant renovations.  The transponders were put in with money that they had put aside.  They are working on this.  The Board of Regents determined student fees but not the faculty.  Fees according to salaries were established by our university. 

• Part time permits – There is no accommodation for this. Professor Pitcher shared concerns about faculty working in PDS schools off-site and only coming to campus once a week.  She answered that they can buy one-day parking permits for $12.

• Professor Siegel shared that there was a Senate committee for this at one time.  Professor Vatz asked when we need more parking, why doesn’t the state pay for more parking.  VP Shehan answered that the state views parking as pay for service.  We also don’t have a lot of surface to put more parking. Professor Vatz asked why don’t we challenge this.  Why don’t we say to the state that expansion has to include parking.  VP Shehan said that we know the state would not agree with this.  Professor Vatz answered that if we perpetuate this, it will not change.  Professor Webster asked if tuition isn’t a payment for services.  VP Shehan suggested that we would have to put this forward to the Board of Regents and then the State.  Professor Brown suggests that parking gets a response because it affects us every single day. He feels that parking services is very unresponsive to problems. Professor Manasse recommended that if Parking Services cannot make changes, then we need to know who does make changes and work through them.

• Professor Pitcher asked about the elevator in the Towsontowne Garage.  Ms. Mooney answered that the elevator was not opened because of security cameras. Senator Guy shared that students are also concerned about this.

• Professor Worgs asked that we find out what the process is to suggest changes. Professor Sullivan suggested that since we have specific problems that we will bring it back in December. Professor Vatz noted that the people parking has hired are more responsive to concerns.

The Senate was adjourned at 6:15.

Kiplinger’s Top 100 At a Glance

1 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ?2 - University of Florida ?3 - University of Virginia ?4 - University of Georgia ?5 - College of William and Mary?6 - SUNY Geneseo ?7 - SUNY Binghamton ?8 - New College of Florida ?9 - University of Maryland, College Park ?10 - University of California, San Diego ?11 - University of Washington ?12 - University of California, Berkeley ?13 - University of California, Los Angeles ?14 - University of Wisconsin - Madison?15 - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ. ?16 - Georgia Institute of Technology ?17 - Florida State University ?18 - North Carolina State University ?19 - University of Texas at Austin ?20 - Truman State University?21 - University of California, Irvine ?22 - University of Delaware ?23 - University of Mary Washington?24 - College of New Jersey ?25 - University of North Carolina at Wilmington ?26 - University of Michigan ?27 - Ohio State University ?28 - James Madison University?29 - Appalachian State University?30 - University of Pittsburgh ?31 - University of California, Santa Barbara ?32 - St. Mary's College of Maryland ?33 - University of Connecticut ?34 - Clemson University?35 - Pennsylvania State Univ. at University Park?36 - Texas A&M University ?37 - New Mexico Inst. of Mining and Tech. ?38 - University of Wisconsin - La Crosse?39 - Stony Brook University (SUNY) ?40 - Indiana University, Bloomington ?41 - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign?42 - University of Central Florida ?43 - University of North Carolina at Asheville ?44 - University of Alabama ?45 - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities?46 - George Mason University?47 - Louisiana State University?48 - Miami University?49 - Rutgers, State Univ. of N.J., New Brunswick ?50 - University of California, Davis ?51 - University of Vermont ?52 - University of Iowa ?53 - West Chester University of Pennsylvania ?54 - SUNY Oneonta ?55 - University of Arkansas ?56 - Western Washington University ?57 - Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology ?58 - Cal. Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo ?59 - University at Buffalo (SUNY)?60 - University of South Carolina ?61 - Michigan State University ?62 - Missouri University of Science and Technology?63 - Purdue University?64 - University of Tennessee ?65 - University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire?66 - Ramapo College of New Jersey ?67 - University at Albany (SUNY)?68 - Salisbury University?69 - University of Nebraska - Lincoln?70 - College of Charleston?71 - Oklahoma State University ?72 - University of Massachusetts - Amherst ?73 - University of Missouri - Columbia?74 - University of Oklahoma ?75 - University of South Florida ?76 - University of Texas at Dallas ?77 - SUNY Fredonia ?78 - SUNY New Paltz ?79 - SUNY Plattsburgh ?80 - University of New Hampshire ?81 - Auburn University?82 - SUNY Brockport ?83 - Mississippi State University ?84 - University of Utah ?85 - University of California, Santa Cruz ?86 - University of Michigan - Dearborn?87 - University of Colorado at Boulder ?88 - University of Oregon ?89 - Washington State University ?90 - Towson University?91 - Colorado State University ?92 - Georgia Southern University ?93 - Louisiana Tech University ?94 - Illinois State University ?95 - SUNY Cortland ?96 - University of Arizona ?97 - Northern Arizona University ?98 - University of North Carolina at Greensboro ?99 - Murray State University?100 - University of Minnesota, Morris