Faculty Senate Executive Council Meeting
Thursday, October 25, 2007  (3:30-5 pm)
Garrett Hall Conference Room

Present: Ricardo Padron, Pam Norris, Jennifer Harvey, Lawrence Phillips, Kenneth Schwartz, Ann Hamric, Dan Willingham, Amy Bouton, Janet Herman, Ed Kitch, Elizabeth Powell, Teresa Culver, Tim Garson, Janet Herman

I. Welcome from Ricardo Padron, Faculty Senate Chair
Two more Executive Council meetings between now and our late November Faculty Senate meeting:
Likely November 8 & 20 – both late afternoon --- to be confirmed later by Frances

II. Tim Garson reported on three issues:

  1. Reported on 7 new searches (potentially 8)

Deans of Law, Nursing, Medicine, Arts & Sciences, Continuing & Professional Studies; Vice President for Research; Vice Provost for International Programs; and if the Batten School is approved, then Dean of the Batten School (hasn’t started yet)..  Moving forward, a conscious effort will be made to ensure faculty senate representation on all high-level administrative searches.

 

  1. New Schools – any new initiatives should involve deans who have overlapping interests and programs with any new possibilities going forward.  Have them review it with whatever groups they want to put together to do so.  Transparency and broad-based dialogue are important.

III. Committee Reports

  1. Academic Affairs –Ann Hamric, Chair

Batten School  - Motion is on the table from the committee.  There will be a “Summary of Discussion” document circulated as a vehicle for senators to vote.  It looks like we have a quorum, and calls will be made to reinforce the important of attendance for this brief meeting and vote.
Dissertation Year Fellowship Committee Chair – want a senator to chair this committee, send Ann Hamric suggestions.
The committee will be working on a new degree program at Curry and also the Produced in Virginia program from SEAS.

  1. Planning & Development – Elizabeth Powell, Chair

P&D ran the working session on the faculty response to the commission report.  P&D presented their take on the various commission documents (PowerPoint).  Breakout sessions with notes.  All of this has been received by the Commission on the Future of the University.  Most of their work is done now.  Executive Summary is under development (20 pages. Another one is 4 pages).  Small group of P&D worked for 2 weeks on a re-write of the 20 page draft.  Strong interest in the science subgroup to continue discussions and also interest in a discussion of “International” as well.

  1. Faculty Recruitment Retention and Welfare – Jennifer Harvey, Chair

The faculty survey responses are still being evaluated.  Various sections have been assigned to individual committee members, and there will be a meeting next week to formulate the comments from the survey, adding the text to the numbers.  This will lead to the generation of the committee’s report.  Should be ready before Thanksgiving.  Plan to send results by school and department to deans and chairs, with copy to the senators in those schools.  Keep General Faculty Council in the loop on this.

  1. Faculty Senate/General Faculty Council Joint Committee – Ricardo Padron & Ed Kitch

Titling issue discussed. People with GF titles are a large and diverse group with important responsibilities.  How are they engaged with a sense of value and involvement? Report back to the full senate in the November FS meeting on the status of this issue and our continued conversations and collaboration with the General Faculty Council and the Provost.

Three key issues seem to be:

Perhaps this should be a joint statement between FS and GFC developed together and presented for discussion and support at the November Faculty Senate meeting and the comparable late semester meeting of the General Faculty Council.
Perhaps such a JOINT STATEMENT could be presented in the Cavalier Daily once it’s ready.

  1. P&T Equity Issues - Gertrude Fraser and Milton Adams

Considering changes in P&T to address equity issues.  This is of particular importance to assist people during major life events (birth of a child, major medical condition, etc.) during the tenure track process.  They would like the Faculty Senate to give formal feedback from the committee report that they received on this issue.  They want a group of Faculty Senators to come up with a FS statement.  Ricardo to send an email to all senators to seek volunteers who might be interested in serving.  He will review to make sure that there is school and diversity representation before appointing an Ad Hoc Faculty Senate P&T Review Group.

  1. Engaging Graduate Study

Getting faculty involved with development
Graduate Student Council & Roseanne Ford have approached Ricardo about what we can do to enhance graduate studies, and in particular how we might engage the Senate in this discussion.   Alumni and undergraduates do not automatically understand why graduate students are so important.  Faculty and graduate students need to make that case.  The Senate’s Planning and Development Committee will explore this further and will report back to us.

  1. Faculty Season Tickets – Ricardo Padron

Discussed the issue and concern of the athletic association requiring substantial donations in return for continued seating assignments for faculty season ticket holders.  This problem is not just for faculty, as it involves a blanket approach by Athletics to raise more money.  It impacts all season ticket holders equally.  The EC agreed that there is probably nothing we can do about this development as it ties into a much larger problem of Athletics needing to raise more and more money to support itself.

Faculty Senate Website – Ricardo Padron
Noted that Nancy Tramontin of the University’s media office has offered to update and refine the Faculty Senate Website in response to the critical editorial from the Cavalier Daily.  Everyone agreed that this is a very positive development.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Submitted by Pamela Norris, Secretary of the Faculty Senate