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Minutes for January 17, 2007
A meeting of the University Senate was held at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 January 2007, in Maxwell Auditorium.
Present were: Chancellor Cantor; Senators: Alcoff, Alston, Anderson,
Artuso, Bazemore, Biklen, Breese, Burak, Carter, Cihon, Covil, Crowston, de Berly, Donovan, Doyle, Elin, Evans, Fiese, Gartenberg, Gates, Hamner, Himes, Himley, Hogan, Horlings, Hurd, Isik, Kamell, Karpoff, Kornfilt, Lantier, Lasch-Quinn, Letterman, Lipson, MacInnes, Marcoccia, McKay, McNeal, Mugo, Murphy, O'Rourke, Palfai, Pellow, Phelps, Potter, Rosa, Rosenzweig, Quinn, Russell, Salatino, Saleh, Sherman, Smith (C.J.), Smith (C.R.), Smith (D.), Sokoloff, Spina, Srinivas, Thompson, Thorin, Trento, Turner, Turnipseed, Tussing, Van Gulick, Vitharana, Ware (B.), Ware (E.), Warren, Webber, Wells, Willett, Wolf.
Presiding Officer: Chancellor Nancy Cantor
On motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to approve the minutes of the University Senate meeting of 6 December 2006, as distributed.
The Chancellor called Prof. Bruce Carter to make the Agenda Committee report. Prof. Carter reported that several ad hoc committees were currently at work, including a committee to review sexual harassment at SU, which would report in spring 2007; a committee on staff in transition; a subcommittee on reapportionment, which would report in February 2007. Carter concluded his report by drawing attention to the notice in the packet of an open forum scheduled for 4:15 on February 7th.
The Chancellor called Prof. Amos Kiewe to report for the Curriculum committee in the absence of its chairman. Prof. Kiewe made a motion to approve new courses and changes in Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Education, Engineering and Computer Science, Human Services and Health Professions, Management, Public Communications, and Visual and Performing Arts. In the discussion, a senator pointed out the oddity of a 0-credit course offered pass/fail. A member of the committee said that the college used that method to make sure that students took the course. Another Senate member pointed out the omission, on p. 5, of the credit hours for LPP/INB 759 [which should be 3]. The motion carried.
The Chancellor called Prof. Christine Himes, who presented the Budget committee report, which included these recommendations for fiscal 2007-8:
- 5.7% undergraduate tuitions increase (7.7% graduate)
- 5% increase in room and board charges
- 35.5% discount rate for incoming first-year students
- maintenance of new-student enrollment at roughly what it currently is;
- 3% increase in faculty and staff salaries, with additional $200,000 allocated for Category 3 staff members
- 1.5% increase in operating expense budgets
In the discussion, comments and questions included:
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- -question whether the increases were sustainable [Himes said that the committee had discussed this at length, and concluded that they were, so far.];
- -comment that it was the committee's intention to lower the increases;
- -question how the committee arrived at the 1.5% for operating budgets [Himes said the figure was merely a guideline, that colleges could move it up or down as they saw fit.];
- -request that the committee add to their agenda consideration of the small percentage allocated for operating budgets;
- -question what the Budget committee's role was vis-a-vis the RCM cme. [Himes said that the RCM cme. focused on the RCM formula and new initiatives the units asked for; Budget cme. focused on recommendations, with communication back and forth; she said the RCM cme. considered the Budget cme. the voice of the University.];
- -question whether the 3% salary increase was based on any comparison schools [Himes said that the 3% salary increase had become 'historical' in a way, that the committee had compared with other schools, and that there was information on the salary comparison on the web, but that it was organized by disciplines, which made it hard to see.];
- -Senate member drew the body's attention to the AAUP Committee Z report which had just been made available;
- -Senate member referred to Committee Z report, and said that it showed SU at the low end, that he could not remember an increase other than 3% in the 15 years he had been at SU, that this made recruiting very difficult, and that there was a huge turnover coming up. He said that in his experience salaries had tended to hove in the same position;
- -Senate member raised the question of how we could make sure that financial aid was used to attract members of underrepresented groups to increase diversity at SU;
- -Director of Enrollment Mgmt. rose to say that he felt SU had made progress in that area in the last few years, that 28% of SU students were from underrepresented groups; he cited the Admissions area for its efforts in this initiative;
- -question about who made the decision to use reserve funds if projections were substantially off [Himes said there were procedures under RCM to address such situations in particular units.];
- -comment that the RCM model was new; that the RCM cme. would be watching very carefully to see what happened at the end of the year;
- -that room and board charges were relatively high compared to other institutions (p.2); had the committee discussed the reasons behind this? [Himes said that it was a historical situation, and that it was being addressed.];
- -Chancellor commented that there was no question that we needed to lower tuition increases;
- -comment on the logic behind paying low salaries to category 3 staff members, most of whom were women, because the tuition benefit supposedly offset the low salary; that by doing so SU as an institution was contributing to the mentality that it was normal for women to make sacrifices in the work force so that their children could go to college [Himes said that the committee continued to look at this issue.].
Prof. Carter rose to make a motion that the University Senate endorsed the recommendations in the Budget committee report, and requested that the Chancellor include this vote in her report to the Board of Trustees. The motion was seconded. A Senate member rose to move an amendment, as follows:
Insert after "report" in line 2 of the motion: " ..., while expressing its concern about the need to reduce the longterm rate of increase in tuition,...."
The motion on the amendment was seconded, and approved. The Chancellor called for the vote on the amended motion, which now read:
That the University Senate endorses the recommendations in the Budget committee report, while expressing its concern about the need to reduce the longterm rate of increase in tuition, and requests that the Chancellor include this vote in her report to the Board of Trustees.
The motion carried.
Under new business, Chancellor Cantor announced that she had appointed Dean Eric Spina Vice Chancellor and Provost, and the body applauded. Vice Chancellor Search Committee Chairman Ian MacInnes rose to say that Dean Spina had received great support from all the constituencies that they had solicited and that the committee was confident that Spina would do a good job.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Teresa Gilman
University Senate Recorder
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