University Senate

Memorandum

Date:    September 21, 2009

To:  The Academic Community

From:  Sharon Pitcher, Secretary

Subject: September 14, 2009—Meeting of the University Senate

The first regular meeting of the University Senate was held on Monday, September 14, 2009, at 4:00 p.m. in Rooms 314-315 of the University Union.

REMARKS OF PRESIDENT CARET

• President Caret introduced the new provost and expressed pleasure over how quickly the process was carried out and the excellent candidates that applied.  He thanked Kate Dennsion for her service as acting provost. 
• On the budget side, he shared that we lost 5% of our budget from last year.  This did not include the fund balance, which are our reserves. We can use this fund balance as collateral and for small projects.  We have been able to use some of this to cover deficits. Higher education has seen less cuts than other state agencies since the governor considers education a priority.  Since we have had increased budgets in the past, we are in better place than other institutions.
• Unfortunately, furloughs are the next step.  We don’t know what the furloughs will be and we hope we will be able to be flexible in doing this.  This is political, though, so everyone will have to take furloughs. We will try to make the furloughs fair. The most furloughs will be ten and everyone must take one.
• In terms of shared governance, Vice President Shehan has met with representatives from all of the leadership of groups of faculty and staff on campus to discuss furloughs.
• Enrollment this year was targeted at zero growth. We will come in either flat or with only 100 more students than last year.  Out of state students and graduate students has been less than the past.
• Future budgets information is still soft.  Nobody really knows what is going on. We are healthy but we need to re-group a bit.
• Baltimore Hebrew Institute was a very expensive enterprise funded by the Associate in Baltimore. President Caret met with their board last year, they liked our philosophy and approached us about coming to Towson. Baltimore County has one of the fastest growing Jewish populations in the country and we have a large Jewish group on campus. Towson has a minor in Jewish Studies that they valued.  Baltimore Hebrew brings with them an endowment and a large, historic library collection.
• The Harford Community College cooperative is proceeding.  We will be bringing popular programs from our campus, programs they want, and those influenced by BRAC.  The concept of the building is complete and designs drawing will be submitted in February or March, 2010. There is also room on the land for more buildings.  We are looking at other universities that have Satellite campuses for how to set up the campus. Harford is also exploring a resident facility.
• President Caret explained that the system is breaking up UMBI. UMBI is not degree granting institute but just focuses on research. This has been under fire. The system is now looking at how to divide up UMBI. The only part that we are interested in is the K-12 outreach.  We will get the faculty and space at the Inner Harbor.  This will be combined with Hackerman Academy to create a large, STEM outreach with a presence in the inner harbor.
• The trimester has gone very well.  The system has not funded it yet but we are working on this.  We had 10% of the Fall in the summer. If we get funding, we could do much more.  We would like to get it up to 25% or 30% of the courses that we have in a regular semester. The trimester helps students to get through the university quicker and we have students with this goal.
• Our cap for students on campus is 25,000 and this year we are at approximately 21,000.In the next decade we may grow to 30,000 with satellite campuses and on-line. The larger campus gives us more political ability.
• ·     President Caret than explained that right now with since we have the opportunity to stop the growth for this year that we have the time to look at a maturation theme – how we mature the campus.  We have the opportunity to compare ourselves with our peer groups.  As we grow, President Caret has been showing the system that with as large a faculty as we have, we have to give faculty time to do research and quality teaching.  With the numbers, we have been able to get our peer group changed and we are looking at new aspirational peers.  This is a big step.  Since President Caret has been here, we have not really been able to make our 7.0 workload, that the system has requested.  He has been able to make the argument that for a campus of our size, we need time for faculty to do research.  Therefore, we have been able to use lecturers to meet our workload goal. He will be continuing this quest to have our workload goal changed and he believes that the system has been listening.
• Compared to peer groups, we have to improve grants and contracts. We have doubled these since President Caret has been here but we have improved this by applied research instead of PhD research. DECCO provides 100 researchers that helps with this. DECCO is working harder to combine this with research on campus through grants and fellowships.
• ·President Caret shared news about a new program that Dean Lorion, Provost Welsh and DECCO Vice President Brasington have been working on to launch a totally on-line program for a Masters in Education. One faculty member leads a course and then we have coaches that work with students.  The course is under our control but a private partner provides the IT and pays coaches.  We are calling it Towson Learning Network On-line and are marketing it to school systems in Maryland but if successful, we will take it outside of the state.
• What should we be known for?  President Caret has been working with the vice presidents and Board of Visitors on this. We are looking at our history and tradition so all of the characteristics from the past are tied to our future.  Teacher education, health professions (60% of future jobs are in the health field), strong teaching and we are the nucleus for the arts in the area. These are all areas that we want to hold on to. We want to be known so something jumps out.  We want to be a university that is in peoples faces all of the time.  What we have been able to accomplish as group is outstanding.
• President Caret then asked the senators if they had any questions.

Professor Vatz acknowledged that the university has become an exquisite place.  He then asked about if any effort were in place to address the inequities in salaries on campus.  President Caret answered that we will keep looking at inequities over the years. and continue to evaluate the data. Professor Vatz emphasized that there are department inequities that over the years have become permanent and he asked whether it can be looked at.  President Caret answered that often this is controlled by the market. Every couple of years we have to continue to evaluate this.  Professor Zimmerman asked about hiring during this breathing space. Provost Welsh responded that we do have gaps we have to look at but it will depend on how much money we will have to do this.  President Caret added that we want to replace adjuncts with full time faculty and we are doing what we can on this. Provost Welsh remarked that we have to look at maybe re-alignment of positions. Professor Zimmerman also asked about the furloughs and urged that the faculty and staff should be consulted separately on how this is done.  President Caret responded that in the pure furloughs that you don’t work on that day.  This, though, is determined many other factors.  We are trying to spread it out over a larger period of time and giving more flexibility so that it doesn’t affect pay.  Professor Ballengee asked about having the furlough days on instructional days.  A number of systems have argued for the positive effect of doing this so it shows what the cost of students this will be.  In the version of the document that we have now, this document has more of latitude in how these are scheduled. The public understands the teaching role and service roles of faculty but they don’t understand the scholarship role. The second model that is being suggested will allow faculty to make the decision according to their moral choice.  Professor Ballengee suggested that at Berkley they felt it was moral imperative to close the university so the public realize the impact.  Professor Burks asked about cutting other budget items.  President Caret answered that they are trying to do that with travel and other cuts but they will still be forced to do furloughs. They are not being given the flexibility to use other funds instead of furloughs, which is more political than logical.

Professor Siegel shared that in the Math Department they have 65 part time faculty that they have to supervise and are traveling all over the state to teach classes. Many of these are service classes and students are coming in less prepared.  President Caret answered we have been hiring like crazy but he is not sure where the positions go. Professor Siegel asked about the textbook policy.  President Caret answered that the Book Store is working with the provost’s office.  Professor Siegel asked if faculty is involved since faculty will be responsible for carrying this out.  Provost Welsh answered that faculty will be involved because faculty will be asked to justify why they choose a book. Professor Siegel asked if the policy will come to the Senate and Senator Graf, the SAG president, requested a student be part of the process, too.  Provost Welsh responded positively to both to requests.  Professor Bergman asked about whether the Gen Ed policy was coming to the Senate. President Caret answered that it will.  Professor Ewell asked about the short fall of our support structure especially staff for the growth that we have experienced.  President Caret answered that the money did go to hiring faculty but with the staff, we were going to focus on that this year. What he is able to put into this he gave to the vice presidents and they choose what staff needed to be hired. This is not easy to do.  If the vice presidents are able to shrink what they do, then they may be able to re-align the dollars. Professor Bergman asked where do the regents stand on our workload and are they considering making us a research intensive classification.  President Caret answered that we will not be able to get this classification because our research is applied.  We are using the ammunition of our increased contracts and grants to ask for a change in the workload without a change in classification. The system has a retreat in the Fall and he will bring this up again there.  Often faculty will choose to teach more than they should but this is by their own choice. Professor Manasse asked if there is any idea about decisions when replacement searches can be done.  Provost Welsh shared that we have to look at inequities across the campus and replace where we need it the most. We lost 17 faculty lines from where we wanted to be because of the budget crunch. After we have a chance to stabilize, there could be dollars we could use for faculty slots. Professor Zimmerman acknowledged the work Caret is doing with the workload and that the faculty values his effort.  Professor Pitcher requested that President Caret consider how all of the construction has affected handicapped and disabled on the campus especially those in Hawkins Hall, Psychology and Linthicum. The College of Education has been very fortunate to have many faculty that are older and bring such a wealth of experience to our students.  Many of these faculty, too, are having problems getting around the campus.  President Caret shared that he has heard about the problems and went over to that side of the campus to see what could be done.  Vice President Sheehan also shared that he just heard about the problems.  Professor Pitcher acknowledged that Pamela Mooney, Director of Parking, and Jack Nye, Facilities, have been very helpful but the conditions are still very challenging.  President Caret assured that they will be looking into this. Professor Burks asked about the discussion last year that we may be compensated for the furlough days.  Caret answered that he doesn’t see us being able to do this.

• NEW BUSINESS

1.  Election of New Officers.

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The Senate was adjourned at 5:30.