Date: September 26, 2005
To: The Academic Community
From: Jennifer Ballengee, Vice-Chair
Subject: September 19, 2005-Meeting of the University Senate
The second regular meeting of the University Senate was held on September 19, 2005, in the University Union, Rooms 314-316.
Professor Sullivan called the meeting to order at 4 p.m. Present at the meeting were Senators Ballengee, Cox, Debye, Hartzler-Miller, Leshnoff, Little, McLucas, Nixon, Roberge, Rosecky, Siegel, Stein, Sullivan, Tabak, Vatz, Wengert, Accardi, Butler, Castillo, and Torres. Absent were Senators Pitcher, Storrs, Webster, and Grande. All Ex Officio members were present.
Prof. Sullivan announced that the October Senate meeting will take place on October 10th, because of Rosh Hashanah.
Prof. Hartzler-Miller moved that the Old Business be moved on the agenda to follow New Business. Prof. Roberge seconded the motion. The Senate approved the Agenda with this revision.
The Senate then approved the Minutes from the May 2, 2005 meeting, with the provision that an attendance list will be added.
REPORTS OF EX OFFICIO SENATORS
Vice President Rubin reported a level of 20% participation in the Towson Fund.
Vice President Moriarty reported a successful Student Orientation and shared plans for the September Celebration. She also provided information on student organization of Hurricane Katrina Relief.
Vice President Clemens reported on the feasibility study for incubators. He also noted a $250,000 expenditure for campus computer labs.
SGA President Accardi reported on increased student participation on committees. SGA is now training its student committee representatives.
Prof. Siegel reported on major issues being addressed by CUSF: health benefits for state workers and retirement equity in different university systems. She also informed the Senate of a new substance abuse policy. CUSF will vote on new internal procedures for handling faculty grievances. Prof. Siegel noted the upcoming student research day, and added that CUSF is also developing a proposal regarding the price of textbooks. Finally, CUSF is considering a week-long Thanksgiving Break.
Professor Sullivan asked if universities in the USM system are exempt from being required to offer benefits to contingent faculty. The Provost responded that benefits are attached only to PINS.
Prof. McLucas reported on AAUP activities. The AAUP is currently in the midst of a strong Membership Drive. As part of it more active profile, the Towson AAUP is hosting the Maryland AAUP Regional Conference, Saturday, October 1st, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Burkeshire Hotel. Prof. Cary Nelson, Jubilee Professor of Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana, is the Keynote Speaker for the Event. The Conference topic is "The Corporate University."
ADDRESS BY THE PROVOST
The Provost addressed three Main Topics: Enrollment, the Faculty, and the Curriculum.
Enrollment: There are currently 18,011 students officially enrolled in Towson University-3,516 (19.5%) Graduate and 2,327 New Freshmen. The average SAT mean combined score has increased 9 points, from 1078 to 1087. The average GPA of entering students remains the same, at 3.47.
Towson has had a growth of 600 students over the last 2 years. As the President indicated in his Senate address, Towson is now waiting for the system to give us the necessary resources, before increasing enrollment more. If the state delivers the needed support, Towson's projected growth is 21,000 by 2010 and 25,000 by 2014.
At a retreat on September 9, the Provost's Council developed a program of enrollment growth planning. The Council has been studying programmatic enhancement and development, considering what are the areas that capitalize or leverage: (1) existing strengths, (2) our projections of growth areas, (3) Maryland's identification of workforce needs. The Provost's Council is now developing links between these programmatic possibilities and budget/resource needs. The Council is now determining what mix of students is needed in order to meet the growth targets of the next 10 years.
Presently, the mix of students represents a 40-40-20 ratio: 20% graduate students, 40% transfer students, and 40% Freshmen. As Towson moves toward its growth goal over the next 10 years, there are two other possible mixes that might occur: 60% Freshmen, 20% Transfer, and 20% graduate or 20% Freshmen, 60% Transfer, and 20% graduate students. With these projections in mind, the Provost suggested that Towson's growth will proceed as follows: The University will need to be successful in securing the resources for growth. Secondly, 20% of the overall student population will be at the graduate level. Focus will be on how to attract the number of transfer students with AA degrees so that we can obtain our desired enrollment mix of 20% Freshmen, 60% Transfer, and 20% Graduate students by the end of our 10 year growth cycle. Freshmen growth at Towson is constrained by limited capacity to increase housing. Towson is therefore making proposals for dual admissions with community colleges (CC) and will include formal agreements for consistency in curriculum through articulation agreements with CCs. This will happen through 1) dual advising; 2) faculty development for both TU and CC faculty; 3) clearly articulated liberal education and learning outcomes with community college partners; 4) selective use of CC faculty as adjuncts teaching TU curriculum on CC campuses; 5) the development of joint learning communities and faculty circles. In addition, Towson will target transfer admissions, satellites on CC campuses, Distance Education opportunities.
The Provost's Council is also studying three pilot projects that emphasize online education: the Master's programs in Homeland Security, Information Technology, and Allied Health.
Faculty: Twenty-nine faculty members were considered for Tenure in 2004-2005 and 26 were awarded tenure. Twenty-seven faculty members were promoted to Associate Professor. Fifteen faculty members were promoted to Full Professor. One faculty member was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor. Sixteen faculty members received post-tenure reviews. The tenure process ran smoothly, but the Provost is going to work with the Deans to work on taking post-tenure reviews more seriously, as a constructive process with planning outcomes, if needed. The Provost urged Senate to complete its work on the P&T revisions of the Faculty Handbook.
The Provost then reported on New Faculty. Seventy-four new faculty were hired on PINS: 50 were tenure track; 2 were tenured. Two of these new hires were designated Senior Lecturers. Eight were appointed Clinical Faculty and twelve were appointed Visiting Faculty. Within the 74, 23 PINS were newly added to faculty cohort - 17 as TT, 5 as Visiting and 1 remains vacant. The full time cohort now consists of a total of 667 faculty members, 544 on PINS (counted as core faculty for the most part) and 123 lecturers. The latter represents 18.4%; if however, one takes only the TT or T faculty as the core faculty, and we count Visiting and Clinical Faculty, who are on term contracts, the percent of contingent faculty last year amounted to 28% of the fulltime cohort and this year represents 34% of the full-time faculty. The Provost commented that he finds this trend somewhat disturbing. Coupled with the number of part-time sections, which his office is still tabulating, these figures indicate that Towson needs to be careful about exactly what is the "Towson Experience" and who is teaching it.
This August, the Provost organized the Orientation for new faculty. The Orientation lasted 2 days, but will be followed by six follow-up sessions over the next 9 months. Fifty-seven new faculty attended. The Provost noted that it is important, in this process, to clarify P&T, such that the process never yields a surprise. To this end, he has also organized a meeting for chairs of search committees (9/22/05). In addition, there will be a workshop for new department chairs and chairs of P&T committees. These meetings are held with the intention of producing a consistent message about P&T at Towson, from recruitment through to the tenure decision.
The Provost then turned to Faculty Development. The Faculty Development and Research Committee has been moved to the College of Graduate Studies and Research. The Provost has allocated a total of $193,300 for their use in their small grants program, now up to $5,000 in maximum award. Of the $193,300, $15,000 is earmarked for Teaching Innovation awards. The Provost expects the committee to announce three review cycles during this academic year. The total amount represents an increase in almost 50% over last year.
The Provost has also distributed a total of $153,000 in travel support to the college budgets, where for a second year these funds will be added to the resources already resident in the colleges, and managed by the college, to support faculty travel.
This year, there will be three major searches at Towson. The Search Committee for the new Dean of CLA will be chaired by Dean Lorion. The Provost met with CLA chairs May and June of 2005. He met with faculty on 14 September. The Search Committee will then meet with the CLA faculty in a series of fora. The search for the new Dean of CBE will follow a similar process. The chair of this committee is not named as yet. The Provost met with chairs last spring, and with faculty on 23 September.
The search for Director of Libraries is shaped by the Consultants' report from Drs. James Neal,VP for Information Services and University Librarian of Columbia University, and David Lewis, Dean of the University Library, Indiana U Purdue U Indianapolis. The Provost met with librarians on 15 August; nominations for the committee have been received. The Provost will name a committee with next few weeks - incorporating some of the standards suggested in consultants report.
Curriculum: Regarding the status of the C- grade, the Provost began by recounting the history of the debate. Students raised the issue of the C- grade in terms of its ambiguity, since the grade counts toward the degree outside of the major but not within the major. Yet, the perception of a "C" grade as an index of satisfactory performance is not reflected in the point value of 1.67 assigned to the C- grade. After lengthy debates, a resolution was passed by the Senate in April 2005 and forwarded as a recommendation to him and to the President. The resolution called for the C- to count toward degree both in general and within the major, where accreditation agencies do not prohibit grades accruing quality points below 2.0 from counting. In a letter of 21 June, the Provost told the Executive Committee of the Senate that the President and he could not accept this recommendation because it would result in a deliberate and detectable diminishing of academic standards. Moreover, the recommendation would produce more ambiguity, not less in that the C- would count toward some majors, but not others.
Therefore, the Provost continued, we are back to where we started. In his view, he argued, this issue needs to be resolved, and he has therefore reluctantly come to the conclusion that the Senate cannot resolve this issue at this time. He added that, from witnessing the discussion over last year, the issue seems to elicit very passionate, but differing responses, and these responses often change from meeting to meeting, from person to person, and sometimes within the same person.
On 8 September, the Provost met with the Executive Committee of the Senate, including both President Caret and Ms. Accardi, as well as others invited, and these included the Chair of Academic Standards Committee, Prof. Johnson, and the President of the AAUP, Prof. McLucas. He shared with them his intention to announce that he is suspending the use of C- from the undergraduate grading structure of Towson University beginning with the minim ester of 2006 until the end of the spring semester 2008. During this period, the office of institutional research will gather data on the impact of this suspension on the overall grade distribution of the intervening semesters. The Provost will also ask Institutional Research to gather any additional data that the Senate may find useful when the Provost brings to this body the issue of the C- grade in the fall 2007 semester.
The Provost repeated that this step is one that he is taking reluctantly, because of his respect for the principles of shared governance. He added that both the President and he agree that the issue of grading is one within the province of faculty deliberations. However, he concluded, deliberation without resolution has left us in an untenable situation, one that he believes would result in a continuing stalemate to the detriment of other important business of the university.
The Provost then turned to Latin honors, noting that in one of the colleges, over the last year, over 90% of the degrees bestowed were Latin honors. The Provost therefore intends to write to Academic Standards to request that Latin Honors be limited to the top 10% in each college.
The Provost reported that there is no update on the status of the MBA at Towson.
Mission statements for schools in the USM system must be submitted to MHEC by 1 December. The Provost submitted his Mission Statement to the Senate and asked that the Senate consider the statement prior to mid-November, so that he will be advised of the Senate's views prior to the hearings on December 1st. The Mission Statement will be added to the agenda of the next Senate meeting.
The Provost then described new directions for Assessment. Dr. Kathryn Doherty is the new Director of Assessment. Among her duties, she will be working with upcoming accreditation issues regarding Middle States, NCATE, AACSB, and today's Computer Science Accreditation Committee.
The Provost has asked the Registrar to study the registration and scheduling process. He noted that Towson needs to work its enrollment growth into the scheduling process. A pilot study is working with transfer students on early registration.
The January Conference, which will be held on January 17th this year, will address the issue of reputation as assessed by various groups, but particularly related to student satisfaction with the academic experience, and a consideration of Towson from the lens of our students.
The Provost concluded by thanking the unsung heroes of Towson.
Prof. Sullivan responded by indicating that the Senate intends to formalize its actions by creating a paper trail that the President will notarize. He then asked the Provost to specify the roles of administrators, deans, and chairs.
The Provost responded that these roles are evolving. When he arrived in March 2004, he found an institution with rather immature administrative structures. He has tried to develop accountability at all levels by means of some restructuring.
Prof. Vatz said that this was the first he'd heard of the C- resolution being rejected. He then turned to P and T, saying that rumors indicate that either 7, 3, or 1 faculty who were supported by their colleges were nevertheless denied tenure.
The Provost replied that the figure of 7 is not true. He added that if something comes through unanimously at the Departmental level, he generally respects that decision. He noted that people are expected to produce publications or other evidence of peer-review and approval of research.
Prof. Vatz said he'd heard that New Faculty had been told there was "little value in presenting at regional conferences."
The Provost disagreed. He reiterated that he looks for affirmation of peer review, which may be demonstrated in a variety of ways.
Prof. Siegel noted that in many disciplines, it's increasingly important to do inter-disciplinary work, which can require doing teamwork and which may therefore prohibit individual papers.
The Provost responded that Towson encourages collaboration.
Prof. Roberge asked the Provost to elaborate on his claim that the Senate couldn't come to a conclusion on the C-grade. He suggested that perhaps a better course of action would be to bring it back to the Senate.
The Provost stated that he is acting in his position as Provost in enacting the new policy. He encouraged everyone to think about it for two years.
Prof. Hartzler-Miller moved that the Senate move to the items under New Business. Prof. Ballengee seconded this motion. The motion was unanimously approved.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Conferring Professor Emeritus Status.
Prof. Sullivan read aloud the list of Professors and Librarians awarded Emeritus status. Prof. Vatz moved to accept the list; Prof. McLucas seconded. The Senate unanimously approved that Emeriti status be appointed by acclamation.
2. Receive the Annual Report of the University Curriculum Committee.
Prof. Siegel moved to accept the report; Prof. Little seconded. The Senate unanimously approved accepting the report.
3. Receive the Annual Report of the Resource Planning and Advisory Committee.
Prof. Stein moved to accept the report; Prof. Hartzler-Miller seconded. The Senate unanimously approved accepting the report.
4. Receive the Annual Report of the Faculty Development and Research Committee.
Prof. Siegel moved to accept the report; Prof. Little seconded. The Senate unanimously approved accepting the report.
Old Business was deferred until the October 10th meeting.
Prof. Siegel noted that the Senate needs clean copies of the P and T document, plus the list of goals that was compiled last Spring.
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