Executive Committee Report given at the March 31, 2008 University Senate Meeting

Steering Committee of the University Senate and Faculty Advisory Committee to the University President

Members:  President Leland, Vice President Gormly, Doug Goings (SoB),  Bill Richards (Library)

Officers:  Secretary: Chris Greer (SoE), Vice-Chair: Kendra Russell (SoHS), Chair: Craig Turner (SoLAS)

 

SUMMARY (an approximation to what was shared orally at the March 31 University Senate meeting)

 

DETAILS  (providing more comprehensive information for each of the individual committee meetings)

  1. Since the February 25, 2008 meeting of the 2007-08 University Senate, ECUS held three elected faculty workshops (Feb 28, Mar 6, Mar 13), and one joint meeting with the Standing Committee Chairs (Mar 20).
  2. Throughout this report, the following acronyms may be used.
  3. On February 28, 2008, the elected faculty members of the Executive Committee (ECUS) met and

                                                         i.      provided as an html document in a table format

                                                       ii.      with a row for each suggestion and

                                                      iii.      columns for the date, topic, suggestion, and actions and responses. 

                                                         i.      Kendra (Executive Summary)

                                                        ii.      Chris (Committee Reflections)

                                                      iii.      Bill (Committee Recommendations)

                                                      iv.      Craig (Committee Name, Academic Year, Charge, Membership and Attendance, Motions, Ad hoc Committees)

                                                       v.      Unclaimed sections (Other significant deliberations, Recommend items for consideration at retreat)

                                                         i.      operational definitions procedure, practice, resolution, information, concern, guideline, exhibit

  1. On March 6, 2008, the elected faculty of the Executive Committee met and

                                                         i.      Doug Goings would draft a checklist for SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) work

                                                       ii.      Donna Fuller (graduate assistant) would draft a University Senate brochure for review at a future committee meeting

                                                      iii.      Craig Turner would incorporate the deadlines for the process of selecting University Senators for Students and Staff into the ECUS calendar.

                                                     iv.      Doug Goings agreed to assume point on the unclaimed sections (other significant deliberations and recommend items for consideration at retreat) of the ECUS annual report for 2007-2008.

                                                         i.      the meeting location would be the Blackbird Café and meeting time is 9:30-10:45

                                                       ii.      the primary agenda item would be gathering information for the preparation of the comprehensive annual report of the 2007-2008 Executive Committee

                                                      iii.      other agenda items include receiving an update on committee surveys and finalizing the tentative agenda of the March 20 joint meeting with Standing Committee Chairs

                                                     iv.      other business including review of committee parking lots as time permits

  1. On March 13, 2008, the elected faculty of the Executive Committee met and

                                                         i.      Kendra (Executive Summary)

                                                        ii.      Chris (Committee Reflections)

                                                      iii.      Bill (Committee Recommendations)

                                                      iv.      Craig (Committee Name, Academic Year, Charge, Membership and Attendance, Motions, Ad hoc Committees)

                                                       v.      Doug (Other significant deliberations, Recommend items for consideration at retreat)

o        discussed briefly the parking lots where only one item received substantive discussion:

o       Intentional Backup of “precious” University Senate Records

a.             Bill Richards agreed to speak with University Archivist (and University Senate Archivist) Nancy Davis Bray to seek guidance on best practices for archiving records of the University Senate as well as clarify the current archive practice for University Senate.

  1. On March 20, 2008, the Executive Committee met jointly with Standing Committee Chairs and

                                                         i.      Faculty governance leaders at Clayton State University hosted a shared governance coordination meeting for faculty governance leaders at all university system schools on Friday March 14, 2008.  A presentation at the meeting considered comparing the University System of Georgia to the ten most populous states and projecting forward in time to 2025 indicating the number of anticipated new USG faculty lines needed by that time.  The conclusion was that the key to recruiting and retaining faculty would be to continuously improve faculty benefits (salary, health and retirement benefits, merit increase, workload, etc) and faculty governance.  This perspective merits further discussion.

                                                       ii.      Informational updates from Craig Turner have been forwarded to the faculty alert list by Vice President Gormly regarding

a.        a USG core curriculum initiative update addressed to all USG faculty from President Leland.

b.       a proposal for the formation of a University System of Georgia Faculty Council (USGFC) which those in attendance were asked to circulate among their faculty, faculty governance unit, Chief Academic Officer, and President of their respective university.  Accompanying the proposal was a draft set of bylaws to clarify the intent of the proposed organization with working identity USG Faculty Council.  This complements existing advisory groups for USG students (Student Advisory Council) and USG Staff (USG Staff Council), the latter serving as a model for the proposed USGFC.

o       received an informational update on the Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC) from Bill Richards, noting that the committee (a) had a productive meeting on March 19 at the proposed retreat site, the Macon Center (Jefferson Building) (b) continue to develop the agenda for the retreat using the backdrop of taking a trip where the University Senate committees may take different routes but have a shared destination (c) notes the retreat date is Thursday May 8, 2008 (d) membership is Bill Richards (chair), Craig Turner, Todd Shiver, Carol Ormond, and Karen Higgs.

                                                         i.      this committee will meet on Th Apr 3 from 9:30 to 10:50 in the President’s Conference Room to prepare a slate of nominees for the 2008-2009 University Senate committees

                                                       ii.      this slate will be informed by two surveys, a committee preference survey for elected faculty senators and a committee interest survey for faculty that will not be on the 2008-2009 university senate but desire to participate on one of its committees.

                                                         i.      noted that on February 28, 2008 the elected faculty of ECUS steered the Intellectual Property Policy and Procedure documents received from Dr. Roy Moore to the Resources, Planning, and Institutional Policy Committee (RPIPC) for review and consideration

                                                       ii.      Deborah Vess sought guidance from those present regarding the Internationalizing the Curriculum initiative, indicating she would share the feedback provided with Dwight Call.

                                                      iii.      out of time, deferred the confidentiality in evaluation issue to the April 10 joint meeting.

  1. The next meeting of the Executive Committee is a joint meeting with Standing Committee Chairs scheduled for Thursday, April 10, 2008 from 9:30-10:45 in the President’s Conference Room.  The standing time for the April 3, 2008 meeting will be used as a meeting of the SubCommittee on Nominations at which a slate of nominees for committees of the 2008-2009 University Senate will be drafted.