17 March, 2008 FPC Meeting Minutes

Faculty Policy Council
Abbreviated Draft Minutes: March 17, 2008

Members present: Jean Crockett, Rick Ferdig, David Miller, Elizabeth Yeager, Sondra Smith, Diane Ryndak, David Quinn, John Kranzler, Edil Torres-Rivera, Ester de Jong (alternate).
Members absent: Ruth Lowery, Bernie Oliver
Non-Members present: Dean Catherine Emihovich, Fran Vandiver, Dale Campbell, Jade Coutts

Meeting began at 2:06pm.

1. Approval of the agenda: Yeager asked for a motion to approve the agenda. The motion was approved and seconded. The agenda was unanimously approved.

2. Approval of February minutes: The motion was approved with minor adjustments and seconded. The minutes from February were approved.

Information Item: FPC elections update

• Elections committee has been established (Dixon, Dawson, Sadler) and names have been submitted for the election. We needed 6 nominations, but we currently have 3 to run that have been forwarded to the senate. The committee is working to get departments to get people for the FPC slots. In April, more specific information will be available about voting.

Information Item: COE Spring Faculty Meeting update

• The Spring Faculty Meeting will take place on April 14, 2-4pm in the Terrace room. Ferdig will chair this meeting in Yeager’s absence. The Deans and department chairs will give presentations on main issues and events from the past year and we are also asking FPC liaisons to be prepared to talk at the meeting about their committee accomplishments.

Discussion Item: Role of PK Yonge in COE shared governance (Fran Vandiver)

• Currently there is one person from PKY who sits on the senate. PKY does not feel they need to be involved in how the departments are making decisions. PKY has separate governance through UFF and COE. The current relationship is collaborative and they are happy with that type of relationship. The two seats at faculty senate designated for PKY will not always be filled but it was discussed that PKY keep one seat and the other be allocated to COE.

Dean’s Report/Discussion and Action Items: (Dean Emihovich)

• Last Friday an announcement was made that Janie Fouke, the Provost was resigning on June 30th of this year.
• The Dean proposed that the COE add more faculty members (those with better understanding of money flow) to the budget discussions with the BAC for now and possibly for next year. All of the 5 members are members of FPC (Oliver, Crockett, de Jong, Torres, and Kranzler). Each of the members (excluding Oliver who was not present at the meeting) accepted this temporary membership. The meeting will take place this Friday from 11:30-1pm and lunch will be served.
• >>Action requested: Ask FPC to approve additional members on ad hoc basis: there was a motion to approve the additional of ad hoc members to the discussions with the BAC regarding budget issues. The motion was approved and seconded. It was discussed whether these members will not be voting members and will be asked only for guidance during the discussions or if the five elected members are considered voting members and will continue their roles and the ad hoc members role beyond this year will be reconsidered. It was decided that the ad hoc members will attend the May meeting and then some people will be carried forward on the committee beyond that meeting. Guidelines for next year need to be established and there are at least two current members who are willing to serve again next year. There was a motion to approve the addition of five ad hoc members for BAC until 2008. The motion was approved, seconded, and unanimously approved.
• At this time, the Dean cannot discuss any plans for reductions in writing or verbally. The College of Education 2008/2009 Allocation/Proposed Budget sheet was distributed. This Friday there will be a meeting and more information will be given regarding the budget. Potential ways to work with the current budget deficit were discussed. The President said SCH (student credit hours) cannot drop because we are a formula funded university and if SCH drops, they will cut us even more. Consolidating departments could save money. There are not a lot of good options but these discussions do not have to lead to decision-making right now. Next year there will be more discussions and different recommendations will be made.
• The Dean proposed a new task force focused on departmental review (as specified by UF and FPC Constitutions): Once every five years, the departments must be reviewed. The task force should include some elected members and some appointed after the elections by the Dean. The FPC should decide the processes to occur and discussions that should take place among the task force. This does not have to be decided by this Friday’s meeting with BAC. The Shared Governance Committee suggested that all the departments should come back with plans to address money issues. The Shared Governance Committee also recommended “Each Department be charged with forming a faculty committee to explore strategies to address the projected budget shortages including exploring departmental mergers, eliminating programs and other options and present their recommendations to FPC by October 1st.” This was shared in a handout from Campbell. Sometime next year an FPC task force will look at this issue and the information will be presented to the Dean. There was a motion to approve what the Shared Governance Committee proposed. The motion was approved and seconded. The motion was unanimously approved with minor changes including that the departmental information be decided by the October FPC meeting (not
• October 1st) and that there will be an additional open discussion college wide either at the October FPC meeting or in a special meeting. It will be determined in August which format will work best.
• >>Action requested: Ask FPC to approve creation of task force: This will be presented to Faculty Affairs to get a better plan for how to progress. No voting will take place.

FPC Constitution, Article 4, Section 1(C): The work of the departments shall be reviewed and evaluated at least once every five years, in accord with Article VI, Section 3(D) of the University Constitution, which states: “Because the department is the fundamental unit of academic and administrative organization within the University, periodic evaluations of each department shall be conducted.”

Committee Reports

• CCC (Ferdig)- Educational Administration and Policy petitioned to remove the seven-year recency policy on transferring credits for Ed.D. students. CCC reps have been asked to seek feedback. Departmental feedback will be discussed at the next CCC meeting in a couple weeks and then presented to FPC in April.”
• The other committee reports and the faculty senate report were postponed and will be discussed in April.

Motion to adjourn. Motion was approved and seconded. Meeting adjourned at 3:58pm.

Next Meeting: Monday, April 14, 2pm in the Terrace Room (Spring COE Meeting)