UNF Faculty Association

Faculty Association	June 6, 2002

FACULTY ASSOCIATION MEETING MINUTES
May 2, 2002

I.	Call to Order
	President Kathleen Cohen called the meeting to order at 12:45.

II.	Approval of Minutes - April 4, 2002
	The minutes of the April 4, 2002 meeting were approved as distributed on the Web.

III.	Announcements

	President Cohen extended congratulations to faculty award winners. She noted that it was very difficult to select from such distinguished candidates. She wished that the trustees could be at the selection committee meetings to see the quality of the candidates. Convocation will be Friday, May 3 at 10:00 a.m. in the Robinson Theater. Student awards will be presented. Graduation is Friday, May 3. There are two ceremonies, the first at 3:00 p.m., the second at 7:00 p.m. in the Arena. Receptions for faculty will be held at 1:45 p.m and 5:45 p.m. before each graduation ceremony. President Cohen reminded faculty that the June and July Faculty Association meetings will be held in building 2. The time and location will on the cover of the printed agenda and on the Web site hotline.

IV.	Standing Committee Reports

	Academic Programs Committee - Len Roberson
	The Committee has five agenda items. Members will meet May 30 from 10:00 to 12:00 in FAMA.

	Academic Standards Committee - Pali Sen
	The Committee met April 11. Kim Luther attended the meeting. Members discussed the placement of the instructor's signature line on the Request for Withdrawal After Established Deadline form. No action was taken. The next meeting is May 14 at 12:30 in FAMA.

	Academic Technology and Support Services Committee -Katherine Brown reported for Bruce Kavan
	No report.

	Adjunct Affairs Committee - Sheila Mangum reported for Ted Stumm
	The Committee did not meet due to a lack of a quorum. No more meetings are scheduled before the fall.

	Budget Advisory Committee - Homer Bates
	Absent. No report.

	Faculty Affairs Committee - Judy Solano
	The Committee has several items on the agenda. The next meeting is scheduled for May 9 at 12:15 in FAMA.

	Faculty Enhancement Committee - Verna Urbanski reported for Cynthia Scott
	The Committee met May 1. Members discussed the applications for the Office of Faculty Enhancement Faculty Fellows program and made recommendations to the Director, David Jaffee.

	Governmental Relations Committee - Sheila Mangum reported for Dan Whitehead
	The Committee met last month. Meetings are suspended for the summer unless something comes up.

	Nominations and Elections Committee - Oscar Patterson
	No report.

	Promotion and Tenure Committee - Faiz Al-Rubaee
	No report.

	Research Committee - Cheryl Van Deusen
	Absent. No report.

	Strategic Planning Committee - Judy Solano reported for Gary Fane
	Committee members met with President Hopkins. They presented the document the Committee prepared concerning the strategic mission and future of the University. All written responses from faculty members were attached to the document as was the report submitted by the Governmental Affairs Committee. Dr. Solano commented that she felt it was a good meeting, that everyone seemed to agree on the major parts of the mission and future of the University.

	Executive Committee - Cheryl Frohlich
	The Committee has one item on today's agenda – the first reading of a bylaws amendment concerning the clarification of duties of the Executive Committee. The next meeting is May 21 at 12:15. Agenda items must be submitted by May 15.

V.	Special Reports

	UNF President Anne Hopkins
	Dr. Hopkins noted that the Legislature passed the school code rewrite this morning. She said in-depth information will be available on Janet Owen's Web site. She noted that Janet Owen was the engineer of the code for the whole state. She said it is really nice when UNF is the leader and she stressed that we all owe Janet a debt of gratitude. The House and Senate have not reached an agreement on the budget. She has no idea how it will turn out. Dr. Hopkins talked about her meeting yesterday with the Strategic Planning Committee. She said it was fun and felt good because the committee document showed that they had a vision that was very close to hers. She said it was gratifying to have a consensus that she could share with the local Board of Trustees. She said the central administration will draft a strategic plan to be presented to the Board at the May 17 retreat. She noted that the whole process of working with the committee was good, that she couldn't fully define the process herself. She thought this was good faculty governance.

	Legislative Liaison Report - Janet Owen
	Absent. No report.

	United Faculty of Florida - Bruce Fortado
	Dr. Fortado said the state union newsletter is in faculty mailboxes. He noted that it contained valuable information. In early April FCCJ voted to unionize. The vote was 201 to 132. Dr. Fortado thanked last year's officers. He noted they signed up many new union members.

VI.	Question and Answer Period
	Kathleen Cohen read three anonymous questions. The College of Business Administration recently required all its graduate faculty members to "mentor" (advise) graduate students. Is this required in any other college on campus? Is this viewed as a change of assignment and therefore covered by the UFF contract? Does UNF have a dress code? If so, what is it? Do any colleges, departments or divisions on campus have dress codes? If so, what is it? [sic]. Are instructors at UNF eligible for tenure? If not, how can instructors remain at UNF after their seventh year? Some instructors have been at UNF for over 15 years. If they are not eligible for tenure, why can they remain at UNF but better-qualified tenure-earning faculty must leave after 7 years if tenure is not granted. All the questions will be forwarded to Academic Affairs.

VII.	Legislative Items
	Item #1 -- FA 02-10: Submitted by the Executive Committee. Bylaws Amendment – First Reading No action today. Item #2 -- FA 02-11: Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee College of Arts and Sciences Biology Department The item was moved by Len Roberson. The item passed. Item #3 – FA 02–12: Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee College of Education and Human Services Curriculum & Instruction The item was moved by Len Roberson. The item passed. Item #4 – FA 02–13: Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee College of Health Nursing Department The item was moved by Len Roberson. The item passed. Item #5 – FA 02–14: Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee Honors Program The item was moved by Len Roberson. Dale Clifford offered a friendly amendment to correct a spelling error. The Committee accepted the amendment. The item passed. Item #6 – FA 02–15: Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee College of Arts and Sciences New Degree The item was moved by Len Roberson. The item passed. Item #7 – FA 02-16: Submitted by the Faculty Affairs Committee Revision of Rule #4 for Use of the Faculty Commons Judy Solano moved the item. The item passed. Item #8 – FA 02-17: Submitted by the Faculty Affairs Committee Revision of the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award Procedures Selection by the University Selection Committee Judy Solano moved the item. Scott Hochwald asked for clarification of the revision. It is proposed that the University Selection Committee no longer select the person to represent the University in the Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year Award Competition. Judy Solano explained that the criteria for the Carnegie Award is totally different from the Outstanding Teaching Awards and therefore UNF's representatives are not competitive and have not been successful. The Committee wanted to do something for the faculty like Mary Borg does for students. She and David Jaffee would be assigned the task of finding awards and publicizing them to the faculty who could self-nominate. They would then help applicants prepare submission packets. Dr. Kline suggested that David Jaffee and Mary Borg could do that. The award process could be put in their hands and removed from the Outstanding Teacher process. There would be a process so that people could submit packets and receive help with their submission packets. Faiz Al-Rubaee asked who would decide what faculty packet will go forward? Judy Solano responded that the Committee planned to work with David Jafee and Mary Borg to make sure there is some kind of selection process. Len Lipkin said there are two very different issues here. One is the question of removing this process from the committee. The other one, though, he finds very strange – that a university would forward faculty for national awards with no structure, no committee. It would be in the hands of two people who could possibly resign the next year. He feels there should be a committee structure. Faiz Al Rubaee said it is an excellent idea to involve other offices but there is no proposed procedure. He wants to know the role of the faculty. How will the selection be made? Dr. Hopkins noted that if UNF ever wants to win any national faculty awards, there must be a campaign to do that. The problem is that each award has a different criteria and set procedures will not work with every one. The University will not want to submit a candidate for every award every year. She reiterated that she wanted UNF to win some of these big awards. Chris Rasche said the current structure is not working. She feels we must change the procedure and it should be changed before the next cycle to take it out of the current teaching awards. That is the first step. The next step will be figuring out how to replace the process for each of the other kinds of awards. She noted that this particular item only speaks to taking out the part that is not working. Royal Van Horn said he was confused about what the Faculty Affairs Committee was trying to do. Judy Solano said there is an entire document on guidelines for the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Awards. Each college is allowed to send nominees. A College sends nominees, the University committee selects. One of the roles of the University Selection Committee was that after the seven winners were selected, one of the seven was selected to be submitted as the Carnegie Award nominee. Chris Rasche said that duty was sort of tacked on. It was a way to pick someone to send to the Carnegie competition. Now people realize that is not working. Bill Wilson said he could accept the change if it was added that the Faculty Affairs Committee would come up with a proposed procedure. Judy Solano said that was their intent all along. Judy Solano said she kept referring to what Mary Borg is doing because she has the model. We can work with that model and plan how to structure this. Scott Hochwald asked people to vote against the change until the new guidelines are proposed. Dr. Kline commented that the University needs to come up with a procedure that is pretty generic so it can work with all awards. Judy Solano said we need to be able to identify awards and then find a mechanism to select candidates to submit packets. The item passed. Item #9 – FA 02-18: Submitted by the Faculty Affairs Committee Administration of Student Instructional Report (SIR) Assessment Questionnaire Judy Solano moved the item. Royal Van Horn spoke against the measure. He feels it makes it particularly difficult for small departments who have smaller budgets to be in the process. He said there should be some test of national norms and we should be striving to do more of this, not cancel support for it. Al Tilley said that in support of the non-tenured faculty in his department he wanted to keep SIR evaluations. Dale Clifford wondered if results of a test of national norms could play any role at all in advancing in some kind of national award. Chris Rasche asked how many departments are now using the instrument. Kathy Hughes said there were three departments – 30 courses. Judy Solano said that the campus cannot legally use the SIR I anymore. Duplicating the test is illegal, and we cannot continue that practice. If we want to use the test we will have to purchase the SIR II. Pat Plumlee wondered who would pay the cost? A voice vote was unsatisfactory. A vote count was necessary. The item failed. Item #10 – FA 02-19: Submitted by the Faculty Affairs Committee Bylaws Revision – First Reading No action is taken on a first reading. Kathleen Cohen said she wanted to direct faculty attention to the proposed revision as it will affect how we do promotion and tenure in the future. Scott Hochwald asked if this would be voted on in the summer? Judy Solano said the bylaws say that we can vote on an item in the summer but if there is no quorum, in the fall a member can ask to bring it back. The next meeting will be the time to discuss the item. Dennis Gay said he cannot be here. He questions why this cannot be discussed today. Royal Van Horn asked if the rules can be suspended? There was a motion to suspend the rules. It was noted that it takes a 2/3 vote to suspend the rules. The motion to suspend the rules passed. Scott Hochwand moved that the first reading be deferred until September. The motion passed. The item will be deferred. Item #11 – FA 02-20: Submitted by the Faculty Association President 2002-2003 Faculty Association Budget Judy Solano moved the item. Cheryl Frohlich offered a friendly amendment. She asked for a 10% reduction which would be consistent with budget reductions throughout the campus. That would be a reduction of $2,200 instead of $1,000. Kathleen Cohen accepted the friendly amendment. The item passed.

VIII.	Adjournment
	The meeting adjourned at 1:31 p.m. Respectfully submitted, _______________________ Barbara Tuck Secretary