Faculty Association Minutes Oct 2005

CALL TO ORDER

Judy Solano called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.

II.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

The minutes of the September, 2005, meeting were approved as published on the web.

III.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1.		Pierre Allaire introduced Dr. William Richardson, an American Council of Education Fellow from New College. Dr. Richardson will be visiting all state universities.
2.		Andrea Baran, a community representative of the American Cancer Society solicited faculty involvement in the Relay for Life. Brochures were distributed.
3.		The Faculty-Staff picnic is scheduled for October 7, either on the Green or in Building 14, as determined by the weather.
4.		Nominations for Outstanding Teaching Award are due October 19. Nominations do not require rationale.

Dr. Mark Workman (Acting Provost) was introduced, and invited to make a few comments. Dr. Workman addressed the assembly; there will be much attention this year on assessment and strategic planning; we will also start working on SACS accreditation. Multiple searches are going on including Director of the Library (Pam Chally, Chair); Assistant VP for Research (Larry Daniel, Chair); Dean for Continuing Education (Earl Traynham, Chair), the search for the Graduate Dean has been placed on hold. During the next year, we need to think about what does the concept of a transformational learning experience mean? Dr. Workman acknowledged that for faculty to promote transformational learning experiences, time and resources are required. Mr. Delaney has committed to support transformational learning.

IV.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Academic Programs Committee – Janet Bosnick

Janet Bosnick reported that the committee met this morning and reviewed 52 APCs; she reminded the faculty that APCs that are to be included in the new catalog, must be submitted to the Faculty Association Office by October 19.
One item on the legislative agenda

Academic Standards Committee – John Cummings

John Cummings reported the committee met on 9/21/2005; Kim Luther was a guest. The committee discussed two issues presented by Luther: a) allowing students on an exception basis to have more than 2 majors (a student had requested three majors) the committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Executive Committee; b) the committee is also exploring having at least two different “F” grades, to differentiate between students who attended class; did not attend class; withdrew late, etc. and students who failed academically. The issue is important re: financial aid accountability. This item will also be forwarded to the Executive Committee. The continuing problem of plagiarism was also discussed by the committee. A forum on plagiarism will be held tomorrow following the faculty picnic in bldg 14. The forum is intended to be an open free-flowing discussion of faculty re: the issue of plagiarism. Please review talking points attached to the announcement. It is not the intent of the Academic Standards Committee to limit Academic Freedom.

Adjunct Affairs Committee –Lee Richardson

Lee Richardson reported the committee met 9/13/05; will continue working on having a faculty fellow assigned to support adjuncts. Next meeting: 10/11/2005; 12:10 p.m.

Budget Advisory Committee –Jeffrey Harrison

No Report

Campus Technology Committee – Diane Tanner

Diane Tanner reported that the committee met 9/12/2005. Lance Taylor presented information on the Florida Lambda Rail (CIRT will set up an information session on Florida Lambda Rail for all faculty); the committee is recommending additional changes to online documentation for classrooms. Next meeting: 10/10/2005; Dan Dundon will attend to discuss the new UNF web page—share concerns with Dianne, or come to the meeting. Campus Technology Committee will participate in Technology Action Team being established by University Technology Committee.

Faculty Affairs Committee – Patrick Plumlee

Patrick Plumlee reported the committee met 9/15/05; a chairperson was selected. The committee affirmed the nomination of Bishop Desmond Tutu for an honorary doctorate. The degree will be awarded in a special ceremony in November. Discussed UNF ethics statement (applies to ALL UNF employees). An open hearing will be held on the ethics statement. Discussed the continuing issue of faculty scheduling final exams before the final exam week. Information re: the existing policy needs to be shared with faculty (particularly new faculty); it should be melded into new faculty orientation. Next meeting agenda: a) Should there be any further policies or guidance re: faculty requiring students to purchase materials that the faculty has prepared, published, or self-published, b) Confidentiality vs. anonymity re: Online Administrator Evaluations. Next meeting, 10/13/2005.

Faculty Enhancement Committee – JoAnn Nolin

JoAnn Nolin reported the committee met 9/27/05; discussed and identified objectives for the committee this year. Will work with OFE to assure relevant and appropriate offerings for faculty. The committee also discussed expanding committee by one additional Arts and Science member. The procedure for reviewing summer teaching grants finalized.

Nominations and Elections Committee – Lee Richardson

Judy Solano commented that there had been no selection of a Sabbatical Selection Committee. Nominations for Sabbatical Selection Committee were solicited from the floor: We need only 2 members from each college except CCEC which requires only 1 (due to small size of College); nominees must be in-unit, tenured faculty members. Nominees are as follows: COAS: Mary Borg; COEHS: no nominations; CCB: Reza Vaghefi; COH: Joan Farrell; CCEC: Yap Chua; will continue to seek nominations until November, 2005. Election will be conducted at November Faculty Association meeting. Lee Richardson reported that the special election for Promotion and Tenure Committee will be conducted today, after this meeting, and at the Faculty Association office until 4:00 pm; Additional nominees for P and T committee were: COAS: none; CCB: Reyny Lamb; COEHS: none; At Large: Jason Mauro. Please add to ballot. Nominations for Nomination and Elections committee will be accepted through 10/28/2005, and at the November Faculty Association Meeting. One vacancy exists for each of the following: COEHS, Library, and At-Large.

Promotion and Tenure Committee – Scott Cynthia

No report; no meeting until dossiers have been submitted to committee in December. P and T elections will be conducted after this meeting and until 4:00 today in the Faculty Association Office.

Research Committee – Mina Lutz-Baliamoune

Adam Shapiro reported for Mina Baliamoune: Will meet on 10/14/05; Distribution of summer research awards applications will occur; the committee continues to need reviewers.

Strategic Planning Committee –Yemisi Bolumole

Steve Shapiro reported for Yemisi Bolumole, Strategic Planning met last week; will meet next week. Minutes are posted on the web site.

Support Services Committee – Rama Rao

Rama Rao reported that on 9/29 Shari Shuman and Joann Campbell were guests; discussions re: Banner payroll problems continue. Faculty are reminded to check every pay stub, and confirm their direct deposits and deductions. Next meeting: 10/28/05.

Executive Committee - Steve Shapiro

Steve Shapiro reported that the committee met to establish the agenda for today’s Faculty Association meeting; the annual meeting with incoming and outgoing chairs and university guests was held September 15, 2005. The next meeting is scheduled for 10/18/05 at 12:15 PM.

SPECIAL REPORTS

President - John Delaney

Not present

Legislative Liaison Report - Janet Owen

Janet Owen provided the Faculty Association with an update of legislative and governance issues. In her update she discussed the work of OPPAGA. She also presented a list of major issues for the year: enrollment growth, salary increases, technology needs, health insurance for graduate assistants, support for the major gifts program, and PECO funding; as well as a list of other SUS priorities: tuition flexibility, a technology fee, bonding and financing authority for DSOs, and a governance bill. She also presented a listing of relevant legislation proposed for the 2006 session.

United Faculty of Florida - Cheryl Frohlich

Cheryl Frohlich reported: It [bargaining] is a hard situation, where the union has been requested by the chief negotiator of the other side, Leonard Carson, to be as low key as possible, to promote smooth movement of the negotiation process, and any conflict at the table would be minimized. UFF has abided by that request. We have advised President Delaney and Mr. Leonard if the lack of progress continues, it would be extremely unfair to the union and faculty not to give you our views. Our views since impasse was declared are: There are three Cs for an effective process to occur in negotiations: Both teams must have a Common purpose, a philosophy, the Union believes that “we work together.” The second C is Communication: there should be an open flow of communication between the groups. The third C is Compromise: both teams must be ready to compromise.

Since Impasse; which was declared unexpectedly May 23; the UFF was assured that they would be involved with the UA in working on the evaluation of proposals. That has never occurred. UFF did not see evaluation spreadsheets until August 2, despite prior requests. There has been a consistent refusal of the UA team to put meaningful money towards bringing existing faculty salaries up to market, despite assertions by Mr. Delaney that bringing faculty salaries up to market is a high priority for him.

A recent email from Mr. Carson (chief negotiator, UA): “While UA understands and is sympathetic to the objective, UA is unwilling to agree to a level of market equity which has the effect of compensating those who have been compressed or inverted due to their own lack of performance at the expense of those who have performed meritoriously.” According to the benchmark data (110% of CUPA), in 2003-2004, 95% of our faculty are below the market salary. 82% are below 90% of the benchmark. 51% are below 80% of the benchmark. 21% are below 70% of the benchmark.

The UA team “tried to gauge the fairness of various UFF proposals by line-by-line review of its impact upon each individual.” That proved unsatisfactory when dealing with more than 400 individual pay determinations. We then decided to use some touchstones, since this began before we had actual performance evaluations in hand, we reviewed the impact of each UFF proposal upon three separate groups of individuals. A handful of those who both sides could agree were meritorious performers, a handful of those who both sides should agree were low performers, and those in union leadership positions or with close ties to union leadership. Let it be noted that it is totally not true that these groups were decided by both sides. The Union didn’t know who were the low performers until August 2. It was decided prior to any kind of objective criteria of merit performance. An objective of the UA team is that their high performers receive larger raises relative to low performers, and in our last proposals to them, in three years the high performers would have received an average of 12 [%], the low performers an average of 11 [%]. The average compression of high performers is 84% of benchmark, designated low performers: 71%. Since August 4, we have met once, and there have been five cancellations.

VI.

QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES

Michelle DeDeo: Where is President Delaney?
Answer: the President had another engagement.

Reza Vaghefi: Why doesn’t Cheryl go to the President and tell him that there is a lack of cooperation;
Frohlich: this information, from our perspective, has been relayed to him. We have to be careful not to appear to circumvent the Chief Negotiator of the UA team. He has been told what our perception is, and I am confident that he has been told the UA team’s perspective as well.
Joanne Campbell: we get our direction from the President; it is not as if we are out there without focus from the President.

Tayeb Giuma to Provost Workman: Can Provost do something to have the faculty get at least the 3.6% mandated from the state for everyone? Mathematically, it should not make a difference if we receive the 3.6% mandated for the third year, and then whatever raises are agreed upon. Would you please verify with your math department if my proposal is mathematically correct?
Workman: It is my understanding that it is inappropriate for me to lobby for one side or the other.
Giuma: Administrators have been getting their raises every year; faculty makes 30-40% of what administrators make. If administration is gone for one week; the University will continue to function. If faculty gone for one week…[laughter and applause.] Enough is enough. [applause].

Adele Boules: Why is the administration not meeting?:
Answer: We are at impasse; we have cancelled two meetings; one for a hurricane and one because we had not received data from UFF. It has not been possible to schedule before October, because of scheduling conflicts. We are trying to prepare for the presentation to the special master.

Anonymous: When is the next “Coffee with Delaney”;
Answer: October 13; 9-11:00; faculty Commons.

Time for the Question Period expired.

VII.

LEGISLATIVE ITEMS

Item #1- FA 05-22 Submitted by the Academic Programs Committee

College of Health

School of Nursing - New Courses & Program of Study (22 items).
Item moved by committee.
Item passed.

VIII.

INFORMATION ITEMS

Item #1 –Submitted by the Campus Technology Committee
Update to ‘Email Class’ in my Wings.

Item #2 –Submitted by the Campus Technology Committee
Increasing the Size of Email Boxes or Server Space.

Item #3 –Submitted by the Nominations and Elections Committee
Special Election for the Promotion and Tenure Committee.

Item #4 –Submitted by the Nominations and Elections Committee
Election of Nominations and Elections Committee.

IX.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 1: 14 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

_______________________
Katherine M. Robinson, Secretary