Executive Committee Minutes

The Executive Committee meeting was called to order at 12:20 p.m. by FA Vice-President, Jeffrey Harrison.

Members Present:	Patrick Plumlee, Jeffrey Harrison, Melissa Bush, Cassandra Etgeton, Diane Tanner, Peter Magyari, Zornitza Prodanoff, Lauren Newton, Elinor Scheirer, Adel Boules, Guy Yehuda, Caroline Guardino, Chris Brown, Kathy Robinson

Members Absent:	Candice Carter, Alan Harris

Ex-Officio Staff:	Cindy Chin


I.	Approval of Minutes
	A motion to approve the March 20, 2012 minutes (as posted on the web) was made by Kathy Robinson. The minutes were approved.

II.	New Business

	STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS:
	Academic Programs Committee – Cassandra Etgeton for Candice Carter
	The Committee met April 5 and has two agenda items today. Cassandra reviewed the items which consist of several course title changes to reflect the current terminology in the field. The first agenda item from COEHS (Graduate) includes (1) packet of existing course changes in the Childhood Education Department. The second agenda item from BCH (Graduate) includes (1) packet of an existing course change in the Public Health Department. Both of these agenda items will appear on the consent agenda.

	Academic Standards Committee – Diane Tanner
	The Committee last met March 9 and will meet again April 20, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. in 42/2004.

	Adjunct Affairs- Peter Magyari
	The committee met March 30 and discussed with Dan Richard an online workshop for best practices for adjunct faculty. They plan to continue this discussion at the next meeting on April 20 as well as to try and schedule the live version of this workshop for the fall semester.

	Budget Advisory Committee – Zornitza Prodanoff
	The Committee last met March 12 and will meet again on May 14. The Committee presented a large budgetary information item at the last Faculty Association meeting and is still awaiting faculty responses to further investigate.

	Campus Technology Committee – Lauren Newton
	The Committee met March 28 and discussed the Blackboard user account course retention policy. There will be no changes made to the policy; however, an email was sent to the chairs and deans to remind faculty that all user records (i.e. assignments, grades, etc.) are permanently removed once the student leaves the University or graduates and to appropriately archive their Blackboard courses in order to retain these records. The next meeting is April 18.
	Peter Magyari brought up a recent issue within the Exercise Science Program where four students are showing up on the Graduating Senior Survey but already completed all of the program requirements over a year ago. Peter was concerned that this will make it appear as if the program is not graduating their students and was curious as to whether graduation could be forced. Diane will take this information to Megan Kuehner who sits on the Academic Standards Committee.

	Faculty Affairs Committee – Elinor Scheirer
	The Committee met April 12 where they discussed the perceptions of the Campus Climate Survey and the conversations taking place across various committees about The Chronicle of Higher Education survey. To avoid duplication of discussions and effort, this committee plans to coordinate with the Strategic Planning Committee to research the validity and cost of The Chronicle survey instrument. There will be no meeting in May. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for June 23 which is one day after the Board of Governors meeting where there should be an anticipated ruling on the tuition increase.

	Faculty Enhancement Committee –Adel Boules
	The Committee met March 27 where they discussed the initiatives of the director of Faculty Enhancement and finalized a report for Academic Affairs on how the teaching grant evaluations were conducted. The details of this report may be submitted as future information item. The next meeting is April 24 and anticipates the final meeting of the academic year to be held sometime in June.

	Nominations & Elections Committee –Guy Yehuda
	The Committee has one information item which is a summary of the Faculty Association Standing & University Committee and Distinguished Professor Election Results. Guy was pleased with how the election proceeded.

	Research Committee – Caroline Guardino
	The Committee met April 10 and finalized the preliminary edits of the RFP. Provost Workman requested to meet with the committee again to review these edits based on his input. The committee members will have a second glance at the edits before forwarding to the Provost for his review. If approved, implementation will start in the fall semester.

	Strategic Planning Advisory Committee – Chris Brown
	The Committee met April 13 and investigated the survey instruments our peer aspirants are using for faculty satisfaction. Several use the survey from The Chronicle while five aspirants use a new COACHE Faculty Survey instrument (which has a very high cost).

	Support Services Committee – Alan Harris
	No report.

	Executive Committee – Jeffrey Harrison
	The Executive Committee has no item.

III.	Association President---Patrick Plumlee
	Patrick pointed out that there were some glitches with the online election, primarily in ballot design and its implementation through Institutional Research. Additionally, many faculty members did not receive the initial ballot due to database changes by ITC that were not communicated to Institutional Research. ITC eventually corrected the issue and any faculty who did not get the ballot received it on Monday.

	We are closing in on the final configuration stage for the new Faculty Association space. OFE will share a similar space, as they do now, with the Faculty Association. The 4^th floor Commons area will have a full bar area reserved for faculty and a larger area for more general use. The President wants us to have a nice reception space outside of using the University Center.

	In the next week or so, there will be an online lottery for TPC tickets for faculty and members of the other university personnel associations. Fourteen pairs of tickets (28 tickets) and 14 parking passes will be available. These will be distributed on a proportional basis to the various associations.

	It appears more and more that tuition differential is our only means for budget increases. The amount that Universities choose to implement is capped at 15%; however, universities can propose to implement less than that. There is no guarantee on this figure until the BOG approves it and there is a lot of political pressure this year not to approve it. Clearly, much uncertainty still remains.

	Chris Brown had a concern that the recent drop in freshman enrollment as a result of the mandatory requirement for freshman to live on campus would impact our budget. Jeff indicated that the immediate drop would be made up with transfer students. Patrick mentioned that it is anticipated that normal freshman enrollment numbers would return in approximately three to four years once parents are able to plan for the on campus living expenses in the total education costs.

IV.	Adjournment & Next Meeting
	A motion for adjournment was made. Meeting adjourned at 12:57 p.m.

	Next Association Meeting:
	Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 12:45 p.m., Schultz Hall 9/1421

	Next Executive Committee Meeting:
	Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 12:45 p.m., Faculty Commons 10/1102



Respectfully Submitted:

Melissa Bush, FA Secretary