UNF Board of Trustees
University of North Florida
Board of Trustees
Conference Call
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Trustees in Attendance: Mr. Coggin, Ms. Crawford,
Mr. Douglas, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Halverson, Ms. Hicks, Ms. Kendrick, Dr.
Solano, Dr. Taylor, Ms. Thompson, Mr. Twomey, Mr. Watterson. Ms. Kathy
Klein also participated in the conference call.
Trustees Absent: Dr. Abdullah notified the board that
she would be unable to participate in the conference call due to a schedule
conflict.
Call to Order/Approval of Minutes
Chair Thompson called the meeting to order, stating that she appreciated
everyone’s participation. She referred trustees to the minutes
of the previous meeting and requested a motion to accept. It was so
moved; the motion was seconded and carried unanimously.
Chair’s Report
Chair Thompson reminded trustees of the workshop on Thursday, the reason
the regularly scheduled board meeting had been rescheduled as today’s
conference call. Discussion from the last workshop would be continued
on Thursday, particularly regarding issues that affected the University’s
mission.
President Delaney added that there had been a number of presentations
at the last workshop. The format for Thursday’s workshop would
include more time for discussion. He announced that the Board would
meet every four to six weeks for a couple of hours using Thursday’s
discussion to frame the agendas for those meetings. Dr. Serwatka would
have some topics to prompt discussion if needed. These future workshops
would begin early next year.
Chair Thompson thanked those involved for their efforts in planning
the workshop. She said this session would revolve around the Board’s
future focus and framing the Board’s course of work. She said
Dr. Solano would help trustees to determine how best to garner faculty
input in the discussion.
President’s Report
President Delaney announced two significant gifts to the University.
One gift from the Stein family would be matched to $750,000 and used
to establish endowed professorships. President Delaney also thanked
Toni and Andy Crawford for their gift of $1.5 million, stating that
there weren’t enough words to express his gratitude for their
generosity to UNF. Chair Thompson added that a number of people had
been present for the announcement. She said the gift was a tremendous
example of collaboration with the community. Chair Thompson noted that
Ms. Crawford was extensively involved with early literacy and had been
working on the gift for some time. Chair Thompson remarked upon how
great the gift was for both UNF and the community. The Board applauded
Ms. Crawford and thanked her for her generosity.
President Delaney provided updates on the union contract negotiations
and the institution’s financial status. He stated that contract
negotiations were proceeding and that Dr. Kline and Dr. Hopkins had
left the University in good shape financially, which had eased the effects
of the budget cuts. However, the amount was larger than last year’s
budget. President Delaney said UNF had asked the Legislature to advance
the PECO list for next year to accelerate this year’s request
in an attempt to obtain more “one-time” monies should they
become available. He added that the Governor seemed amenable to the
request.
The University had been asked by the Legislature to provide information
on enrollment growth and the fiscal impact of enrollment growth. The
Legislature was particularly interested in Bright Futures. Also, foundation
chairs and vice presidents had been asked by Representative Byrd to
look at matching gift funds. One hundred thirty million dollars had
been appropriated for matching gifts in the last special session. Though
the usual procedure for these funds was to match gifts in the order
they were received, the Legislature had decided to grant a percentage
to each university based on the total number of dollars they had waiting
to be matched. Based on this, UNF would get six percent of the available
funding for a total of $1.6 million. This decision was to UNF’s
benefit.
Finance and Audit Committee Report
Trustee Twomey stated that the FAC had recently reviewed the audits
of two direct service organizations: the UNF Foundation and the Training
and Service Institute. He said both audits had been good news and asked
Vice President Shuman to discuss them.
Vice President Shuman reported that full reviews had been conducted
of the two organizations; both received unqualified opinions and were
clean audits. TSI had also given $3 million toward the new library addition.
The organization had received no management letter comments. The UNF
Foundation was growing, all coverages were doing well for bonds; the
organization was above the minimum requirement. The Foundation did receive
one comment on management. The comment provided a heads-up to the Board
to make sure trustees were aware of the situation disclosed in the University’s
operational audit, which the Board had already discussed.
Chair Thompson asked if there were any questions or comments. Ms. Stone
said the report was only a matter of review and oversight by the Board.
The Board accepted the reports on the recommendation of the Finance
and Audit Committee.
Title IX Gender Equity Study
President Delaney asked Ms. Kathy Klein to go over the report. Ms.
Klein stated that the Federal Government required two reports: a financial
analysis of courses, and participation numbers for student athletes
and coaches. UNF was measuring progress against goals established during
the base year of 1999/2000. Title IX insisted that institutions receiving
federal funding not discriminate based on gender in sports. There were
several ways to meet the federal requirement. The first was to ensure
that participation opportunities for the underrepresented gender matched
undergraduate full-time student enrollment figures. She said that very
few universities were able to accomplish this every year. UNF was a
predominately female undergraduate university. The second route was
to demonstrate a history of continued expansion of opportunities for
female participation in athletic programs. A third method was to provide
evidence that the institution had fully met the interest level of the
student body. Ms. Klein said the University was attempting to meet the
requirement through the second option mentioned: demonstration of continued
expansion of opportunities for female participation in athletic programs.
Ms. Klein stated that the comparison of intercollegiate athletics with
current student enrollment was 58% female undergraduates to 54% female
athletes. The percentage of athletes had risen from 44% to 54%. She
said that coaches’ salaries were another area of interest. Largely
due to the conscious effort of the University and the administration,
underfunded coaches salaries had increased from 44% to 49%. There had
also been a significant increase in support for women’s athletic
programs. Scholarship numbers were almost proportional with men’s
programs receiving 43.8% and women’s receiving 56.2%. Additionally,
she said, there was a list of program functions and activities to make
sure there were no gender differences in the way programs were provided,
including equipment, practice space, scheduling of games, van policy,
et cetera. One issue, not quite resolved, had to do with the provision
of locker room space. This issue was in favor of the women’s teams.
Ms. Klein said the issue should be resolved by the completion of the
soccer and track stadium.
Moving on to the goals for gender equity established in 2000, Ms. Klein
said there were a number of goals. One goal was to make sure the institution
remained current on student interest. This goal was examined annually.
Another goal was to increase opportunities for women by 1% each year,
which the University had been able to meet. The third dealt with number
and compensation of coaches. A fourth goal had to do with increasing
scholarship support to match undergraduate enrollment; this goal had
also been met.
Trustee Solano asked if the University received money to help support
Title IX efforts and, if UNF did receive money, did it go to Athletics
and was it used for support of Title IX. Dr. Serwatka answered in the
affirmative to all of the questions. Trustee Gonzalez commented that
this subject had been a big issue during the early 1990s. He asked if
any UNF students had taken an interest in the topic and written on it.
Dr. Serwatka replied that he’d read all dissertations and theses
written over the last four years. He had not read anything related to
the subject over that time period.
Chair Thompson expressed her appreciation for Ms. Klein’s report
on gender equity and asked for a motion to approve the report. Trustee
Hicks made the motion; it was seconded by Vice Chair Halverson and approved
unanimously.
Adjournment
Trustee Coggin announced that his nephew had recently moved to Jacksonville
from Africa. The first president of the Republic of Zambia would be
visiting Jacksonville, presenting UNF with a wonderful opportunity to
hear the former president speak of his current work fighting HIV and
AIDS. Mr. Coggin said he’d sent information to the President’s
office regarding the visit. Dr. Serwatka thanked Trustee Coggin for
the information and said he had an appointment to speak with Mr. Coggin’s
nephew later in the day. An invitation would be extended to the former
president to attend the holiday party for the Board of Trustees and
the Foundation Board, as well as a request to speak at other events
on campus. Chair Thompson thanked Trustee Coggin for making them aware
of the opportunity.
President Delaney said that Ms. Owen was unable to participate in the
conference call thus he had relayed much of her report earlier in the
meeting. President Delaney said he would like to add two items to his
report. The deadline for application to Division I would be in December,
however, he said he did not yet have enough information to make a recommendation.
President Delaney had also asked the Technology Park to suspend sales
of land east of Kernan.
Chair Thompson asked if there were any further comments then adjourned
the meeting.
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