Faculty Policy Council

Minutes of the November 5, 2012 Regular Meeting

Location: Norman 158

Attending:

Linda Eldridge (HDOSE), Joe Gagnon (SESPECS), Tim Jacobbe (STL), Ester de Jong (STL), Holly Lane (SESPECS), Walter Leite (HDOSE), Erica McCray (SESPECS), James McLeskey (SESPECS), Dorene Ross (STL), David Therriault (HDOSE), Edil Torres-Rivera (HDOSE), Shelly Warm (STL)

Glenn Good (College Administration)

Absent: Danling Fu (STL)

Approval of Agenda

Approved by acclimation

Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes from October 1 meeting by Shelley Warm.  Seconded by Walter Leite.  Minutes were approved.

Dean’s Report

Dean Glenn Good presented various developments that are affecting the college. He discussed the continued threat of sequestration (the federal funding “fiscal cliff”) and expressed his hope that this would not happen.  He commented on Governor Scott’s initiatives related to K-12 education, which may result in significant amounts of money being returned to school districts. He stated that the Governor has not yet released his policies related to higher education. However, productive conversations are reported to be taking place about effective practices between the governor, UF, and FSU, including the ProTeach program.

Dean Good was positive about how well the college has managed to extend its constituencies and expand its support bases.  College leadership was invited to give a keynote at the Florida Sterling Council, a public/private collaborative that brings together businesses, government, and education. He noted that donors are also approaching the College in response to their having heard good things about the college.  He also noted that President Bernie Machen and Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs Thomas Mitchell frequently refer to the College of Education as a premier unit and a place of innovation.  Our efforts to be more self-sufficient through online education, off-book courses, certificate offerings, and increases in funded research have contributed to this strengthened reputation.

A campus-wide effort is under way to improve post-award grant management.  To date, the process has been insufficiently well managed, and this reflects poorly on UF as an institution.  There are concerns that this could diminish chances for UF investigators to secure external grant funding.  This probably means that some of the post-award processes related to personnel and line items will become more centralized in the College’s Business Office.  An additional grant-related issue is how to handle the RCM tax for grants and contracts.  Many education-related grants do not allow for sufficient overhead to pay the required UF Division of Sponsored Research (DSR) 8.5% tax on all grant expenditures.  This DSR tax is in addition to general RCM taxes that the college pays for all its activities that funded projects also incur.  The Dean reports that he and other deans are discussing these matters with David Norton to determine if any accommodations can be made for low or no IDC grants and contracts.

This year’s Homecoming Reception will take place in Norman’s courtyard this weekend and a record number of alumni are expected.  Alumni around the nation are very positive about their experiences in the College.

Three searches for tenure-track faculty are under way.

The Dean shared this year’s Annual Report which will become available this week. The primary purpose of this report is to communicate with alumni and for US News & World Report rankings.  The size of the report was reduced to curtail expenses.  He also noted that Gainesville was highlighted in the US Airways brochure as one of the best places to live.

The Dean concluded by reflecting on the feedback on his first year performance obtained through faculty evaluation.  He received the quantitative data and a summary of the comments faculty had written. He noted that external relations, open communication, improved transparency, and interpersonal skills were noted as most favorable.  As an area for improvement, people had noted stronger stage presence and public speaking. Dean Good stated that he is committed to trying to improve his performance. He also noted that some faculty had expressed they wanted to see his vision more clearly articulated.  Dean Good stressed that he saw his role as seeking to enable faculty to contribute in meaningful and responsive ways to the community, to their students, and their scholarship.  He felt that the survey was helpful as a feedback tool and indicated that he planned to share it with Provost Glover.

A question regarding the sharing of the evaluation results was raised. Historically, the quantitative data had been shared at the department level, but not the comments. Dorene noted that the constitution only stated that the Dean shall be evaluated by the faculty but that the process of what to do with the data was not outlined. Dorene also noted that the question that has come up in other councils is what happens with faculty’s Dean’s evaluations beyond the college level. She will inquire further and collaborate with the Agenda Committee and Dean so that a process can be established that creates communication, not tensions. It was pointed out that this process should also be followed for the evaluations of the Associate Deans.

University Senate Report

Reporter: Candace Harper (COE Senator)

Four main agenda items

• Overview of the Presidential search process and status.  Faculty will be involved through submitting questions and attending faculty forum with candidates once they are scheduled.
• Expectations for the co-listing of courses at undergraduate/graduate level:  In co-listing courses it is important to ensure that graduate and undergraduate students have appropriate experiences in the co-listed course. Faculty need to differentiate goals, assignments, and assessments.
• Impact of passage of Housebill 7175: This bill aims to identify core set of general education courses to be taken by all undergraduate students (30 credits hours). Statewide steering committees have been established to identify courses in five disciplines.
• Results of a graduate student survey were shared which compared UF graduate students with students at other AAUW universities. The report can be found at  http://fora.aa.ufl.edu/docs/78//2012-2013//Data%20about%20University%20of%20Florida%20Students.pdf

Please see Senate Minutes at http://fora.aa.ufl.edu/FacultySenate/Pages/Faculty-Senate/AgendasMinutes2012-2013 for more details.

Announcements

COE Faculty Meeting, Friday November 16, 9:30-11:30am

The purpose of the meeting is to share how we are moving forward with the core values of the college that were identified last Spring (transparency, multicultural competence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and respect). At the last FPC meeting, a one-page form was created to assist FPC committees in documenting the goals and objectives that support these core values. This process will be shared at the meeting.

In addition to a brief ‘State of the College’ presentation by Dean Good, the main focus of the meeting will be developing action plans related to the key goals of the strategic plan.  Jodi Gentry has been invited to facilitate the meeting.

Dorene will re-send the form to the FPC committee chairs.

Action Items

There were no action items.

Discussion Items

1.      Report from Council of Faculty Chairs (Dorene Ross)

The Council of Faculty Chairs met on October 26^th, 2012. The presidential search was the main topic of discussion. Cheri Brodeur (Chair, UF Faculty Senate) is advocating for faculty input — all faculty members have been asked to submit questions to pose to the candidates.  Faculty presence during the interview process is important to show candidates that faculty are invested in the process. On November 6, the council will go through a process of prioritizing questions from all the questions submitted.  Candidates’ campus visits will be announced soon. It is anticipated that there will be a short timeframe because of the Sunshine laws.

Each council also presented their main issues and goal for the year. The College of Education has already put in place many of the processes and structures that other councils are only beginning to implement.

2.      Possible constitutional revision related to Committee Membership

HDOSE (and other Schools) have expressed concerns regarding the number of committee members needed for FPC and FPC committees, especially when there are a limited number of faculty members to fill such positions. Currently, each School submits four candidates for FPC (three members, one alternate) and two candidates for each FPC committee. The FPC liaison for a FPC standing committee is the 7^th member of that committee.

Two possibilities for reducing the number of FPC slots to be filled while maintaining fair representation from each School were proposed. First, it was proposed that each standing committee have two representatives from each School but that the FPC liaison be considered one of the departmental representatives from the relevant school.  In other words, the FPC liaison would serve as both the FPC and the School representative.  Second, it was suggested that the Lectures, Seminars, and Awards committee might be well represented and still have sufficient members to do their work with one rather than two representatives from each school on this committee. FPC members agreed to ask the Long Range Planning Committee to consider these possibilities and make a recommendation to the FPC. It was proposed that they consider similar issues related to other FPC committee membership.

Committee Reports

Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Affairs

Reporter: James McLeskey

Meeting dates: October 4, 2012; November 8, 2012, and December 13, 2012. Appendix 4 from the Report on Doctoral Program Improvement Plans will be considered first.  This Appendix outlines effective practices of strong doctoral programs at UF and the committee will consider how the findings will affect the College of Education.  Another agenda item that the committee has received is to review the policy on research requirements for doctoral students and the process by which these can be selected by doctoral committees.

Agenda Committee

Reporter: Holly Lane

Agenda was prepared by committee.  No further issues arose at the meeting.

Budgetary Affairs Committee

No report

College Curriculum Committee

Reporter: Ester de Jong

Five courses were reviewed by the committee and recycled for further revision by faculty.  In an effort to meet the expectations of the University Curriculum Committee, the CCC members will share a more detailed checklist for syllabi, e.g., various boiler plate policies, criteria for assessment.

Diversity Committee

Reporter: Edil Torres-Rivera

The diversity committee has met and identified the assessment of the impact of the work of the committee as an initial agenda item.

Faculty Affairs Committee

Reporter: Walter Leite

Chair: Kristen Kemple. Next meeting will be December 3, 2013 from 11:00am – noon.

The first task of the committee will be to evaluate sabbatical applications.  They have also been given the materials related to the development of a marshal policy. In addition, a new FPC representative needs to be chosen since Walter Leite will be on parental leave.  Tim Jacobbe volunteered to take on this role for Spring 2013.

Lectures, Seminars, & Awards Committee

Reporter: Candace Harper for Danling Fu

The committee has met twice and has reviewed applications for the distinguished alumnus award.  The committee has identified finding ways to address the inadequate representation of candidates and how it relates to the strategic plan core value of diversity as a goal this year.

Second, the committee aims to find ways to use existing on-campus resources to invite speakers and create more awareness of issues of diversity.

Long Range Planning Committee

Reporter: Shelley Warm

The Long Range Planning Committee has not meet. They are waiting for the other committees’ summaries that will outline which college climate goals they will address this year (and how) and do a gap analysis to establish their own agenda.

Research Advisory Committee

Reporter: Joe Gagnon

Committee met to discuss how to use CRIF criteria to focus more on collaboration within and across departments/schools.  They also discussed using a tiered system whereby junior faculty could compete against junior faculty and senior faculty against senior faculty.

Proportioning grant “responsibility” was raised as additional issue that RAC might consider. Faculty who have grants are asked to identify for which proportion of the grant they are responsible.  While this may make sense when labs are awarded specific funds from a grant to carry out projects, this kind of clear demarcation is rarely the case with education faculty.  Concerns related to Tenure and Promotion packets (and how to fairly represent grant funding) and the implementation of this new policy were raised.  Additionally, it was pointed out that this policy undermines collaboration across departments within the College of Education as well as across colleges.

It was suggested that RAC explore concerns and complications that arise in this area and initiate a conversation with those making decisions about grants and grant reporting.

Technology and Distance Education Committee

Reporter: Linda Eldridge

The committee met on Oct 25^th, 2012.  The next meeting will be November 29^th, 2012.

They discussed the problems that have arisen as part of the upgrade of Moodle.  They also are in the process of obtaining the report that was referenced in US News Reports. The committee decided to extend the deadline of the technology survey to November 10^th, to increase response rates.

Additional Issues

In an effort to communicate more efficiently with faculty, we will post the main topics of conversation to College Faculty and on the FPC website.  Additionally, Dean Good will share his report with faculty as well.

Adjournment

Motion to Adjourn Walter Leite (moved), Linda Eldridge (second). Approved.

Meeting adjourned at 4:05pm