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)

• 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).
• Our standing weekly meeting time is Thursday from 9:30-10:50 for Spring 2008.
• Informational
  • Please note the upcoming items on the University Senate calendar at the bottom of the agenda
    • Comprehensive Annual Reports of Committees are due on May 1, 2008.  The 2007-2008 committee annual report webpage offers information and documents (the template) that support the preparation of these reports. A brief synopsis of this meeting.
    • Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC) (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.
  • USG Faculty Governance Coordination
    • 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.  Informational updates from Craig Turner have been forwarded to the faculty alert list by Vice President Gormly regarding
      • a USG core curriculum initiative update addressed to all USG faculty from President Leland
      • 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.
• In the Books (work which is complete)
  • finalized the agenda for the March 31, 2008 University Senate meeting
  • met with Standing Committee Chairs on March 20 to share information and coordinate agendas for April 4, 2008 committee meetings.  These April 4 meetings are the final scheduled meetings of the standing committees for the 2007-2008 academic year.
  • received election results from the Staff Council for Staff University Senators with a 2008-2009 term of service   The results were the election of Karen Higgs, Stacey Milner, Lori Strawder, and Joe Windish.  These results were posted to the elections webpage of the University Senate as well as announced  via email to the official listserv on March 1.
  • implemented the election for the at-large elected faculty senator position currently held by Dr. Lee Gillis, whose term ends in April 2008.  On March 1, an email announcement was sent by email to official@list.gcsu.edu announcing that Dr. Karynne Kleine has been elected for a three year term from April 25, 2008 - April 2011.  This was also posted to the elections webpage of the University Senate.
  • Preparation of a separate resolution that the University President identify an appropriate university official to maintain a university-wide committee registry or master committee list that provides appropriate information such as membership rosters, committee charge, and committee meeting minutes and is accessible to the university community.  The primary goal is to continue to support the ideals of transparency in decision-making as well as access to the information relevant to the deliberations within the decision-making process. This will be presented as a resolution for your consideration at the conclusion of this report.
  • Preparation of drafts of operational definitions of the terms concern, practice, guideline, exhibit, procedure, resolution, and information item.  These draft operational definitions were shared with the Standing Committee Chairs at the March 20, 2008 joint meeting with the Executive Committee.  The suggestion was to provide these definitions as a handout at the Governance Retreat to assist with the steering activities within the sessions at the retreat and to provide these draft definitions to the 2008-2009 Executive Committee requesting them to facilitate continued conversations and development during the 2008-2009 academic year.
• In Progress (work which is ongoing)
  • confidentiality in evaluation discussion (the recommendation was to review existing GCSU policy on evaluation and consider the creation of an overarching university evaluation policy that (a) values evaluation in the spirit of continuous quality improvement and (b) values confidentiality within the evaluation process) continues, begun at the Jan 17 joint meeting, continued at the Feb 14 joint meeting, and was postponed at the Mar 20 joint meeting of Standing Committee Chairs and Executive Committee.  There is general agreement that the issue involves both policy and procedure which makes it difficult to quickly resolve.
  • for the electronic suggestion box accessible from the myCATS University Senate tab
    • how best to implement an electronic archive of the suggestions and responses that (1) is accessible to the same set of individuals that have access to make suggestions to promote transparency and the sharing of information and (2) supports possible closure of information loops to authors of anonymous suggestions
    • language displayed to the user at the time of submission could indicate more clearly the purpose of the suggestion box
    • language displayed to the user immediately following the submission of a suggestion could provide relevant information about the process by which suggestions will receive a response
  • exercising our oversight responsibility for
    • selected student senators (received feedback from Student Government Association leaders proposing University Senate Bylaws revisions to the timeline for the naming of student representatives to the University Senate to align better with the election calendar of SGA officers.  The proposed change allows SGA officers to determine and implement the selection process for the individual students holding student positions on the University Senate and SAPC and RPIPC that would serve the same academic year that these SGA officers hold their positions.)  Results and procedures are anticipated no later than April 1.
• Steering:
  • On Feb 28, 2008, routed the Institutional Property Policy and Procedure documents received from Dr. Roy Moore to the Resources, Planning and Institutional Policy Committee (RPIPC) for review and consideration
• 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.
• At this time, Motion 0708.EC.002.B, a set of proposed university senate bylaws revisions and Motion 0708.EC.003.R, University-Wide Committee Registry (Master Committee List) are presented for your consideration.

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.
   • Academic Policy Committee (APC)
   • Curriculum and Assessment Policy Committee (CAPC)
   • Executive Committee of the University Senate (ECUS)
   • Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC)
   • Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC)
   • Resources, Planning, and Institutional Policy Committee (RPIPC)
   • Standing Committee Chairs (SCC)
   • Student Affairs Policy Committee (SAPC)
   • SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN)
   • University Senate (US)
3. On February 28, 2008, the elected faculty members of the Executive Committee (ECUS) met and
   • reviewed a draft of responses to a USG Faculty Governance Questionnaire for the March 14, 2008 governance coordination meeting sponsored by Clayton State University.  The questionnaire was a request to provide a profile of the GCSU Faculty Governance Unit (the University Senate).  Craig agreed to incorporate the feedback into the draft which is due no later than March 5, 2008.
   • agreed to steer 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
   • agreed to modify the draft of the companion motion regarding a committee registry to include a sunset clause, calling for periodic review of the activity status of these committees.  Craig agreed to update this draft for review at the March 20, 2008 joint meeting of Executive Committee and Standing Committee Chairs.
   • reviewed the latest items received from the electronic suggestion box and agreed to a disposition of each suggestion
   • received an update from the Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC) from Bill Richards providing an indication that the committee continues to firm up the tentative agenda for the retreat and also requests suggestions for a culminating session that would have a unifying effect on the attendees.
   • agreed that Donna Fuller, 2007-2008 University Senate Graduate Assistant, would prepare a draft for the Mar 6 meeting of an archive for the electronic suggestion box

                                                         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. 

• reviewed the first page of a job description and a set of questions that could provide guidance for future graduate assistants of the University Senate.  This document was prepared by Donna Fuller, the current graduate assistant, and all present were enthusiastic about the portion of the draft presented.  Suggestions were to separate the job description from the questions.  Donna agreed to email the draft in its entirety to the committee prior to the March 6 meeting, at which it will be again reviewed
• reviewed drafts of the committee preference survey for elected faculty senators and committee interest survey for non-Senators from the 2006-2007 academic year.  Agreed that both could be used with some updates for dates and current versions of supporting documents.  Chris agreed to explore whether Zoomerang might be a good option to host the elected faculty senator committee preference survey.  Also agreed to discuss this again at the Mar 6 meeting.
• agreed to a assign as point persons for drafting the ECUS comprehensive annual committee report

                                                         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)

• Deferred the remaining agenda item to the March 6 meeting -- specifically

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

• Finalized the tentative agenda for the next ECUS meeting, an elected faculty workshop Th Mar 6.
3. On March 6, 2008, the elected faculty of the Executive Committee met and
   • reviewed the latest items received from the electronic suggestion box and agreed to a disposition of each suggestion
   • received updates from Donna Fuller, 2007-2008 Graduate Assistant of the University Senate, regarding the progress on the archive for the electronic suggestion box and the graduate assistant guidance document.  In both cases, suggestions were offered and Donna agreed to incorporate the suggestions for committee review at a future elected faculty workshop meeting.
   • reviewed drafts of operational definitions of the terms concern, practice, guideline, exhibit, procedure, resolution, and information item that were prepared on February 21 and some revisions to the drafts were proposed.  Craig agreed to incorporate the revisions from the discussion into a draft for review at the next joint meeting of Standing Committee Chairs and Executive Committee (Mar 20).
   • reviewed drafts of the committee preference survey for elected faculty senators and committee interest survey for non-Senators from the 2006-2007 academic year.  Agreed that the non-Senator survey of committee interest hosted by the online motion database is updated and ready to implement.  Doug Goings agreed to contact Mazhar Malik to determine whether the Elected Faculty Senator preference survey could be hosted there as well.  Kendra agreed to check with Julie Collis to determine whether the TestPilot survey from 2006-2007 could be updated to meet our needs in case the aforementioned preferred option was not feasible.  Both agreed to share information regarding progress either by email prior to or at the next elected faculty workshop (March 13).
   • agreed to propose Th April 3, 2008 as a date for the SubCommittee on Nominations to meet to prepare the slate of nominees for committees and officers of the 2008-2009 University Senate.  As committee chair, Doug will explore the feasibility of April 3 as a date for a meeting with Standing Committee Chairs at or prior to the March 20, 2008 joint meeting of Standing Committee Chairs.
   • agreed that ideally the committee preference and interest surveys would be implemented prior to Spring Break, i.e. prior to Friday March 21.
   • discussed a plan for the organizational meetings of the 2008-2009 University Senate Committees scheduled for Wed April 30, 2008 from 12:30 - 1:45.  ECUS is charged to arrange for facilitators of these meetings to at least implement an election of committee chair.  Historically, each facilitator has also provided contextual orientation information to the committee regarding the University Senate as well as offered to turn the facilitation of the meeting over to the newly elected chair at the conclusion of that election.  Agreed to discuss this planning with the current Standing Committee Chairs at the Mar 20 joint meeting as these committee chairs could serve as facilitators of these organizational meetings assuming they would not be put in a position to facilitate an election in which they might be a nominee.
   • reviewed the committee parking lot agreeing to the following

                                                         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.

• finalized the tentative agenda of the March 13 elected faculty workshop agreeing that

                                                         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

5. On March 13, 2008, the elected faculty of the Executive Committee met and
   • reviewed the latest items received from the electronic suggestion box and agreed to a disposition of each suggestion
   • received a report from Doug Goings indicating that Jay Lancaster would be able to incorporate a survey for University Senators to express preferences for service on a committee or as an officer of the University Senate.  This survey is anticipated to be ready for distribution by Friday March 14.
   • finalized the tentative agenda of the March 20 joint meeting of the Executive Committee with Standing Committee Chairs.
   • discussed the drafts of the sections of the comprehensive annual report for the 2007-2008 Executive Committee.  Each of the point persons provided a draft or description of his/her part and took notes on the suggestions of the committee coming from the conversation.  The process to incorporate the revisions identified was to distribute updated versions via email seeking further committee review and input.  If there was a need to further discussion of the report in a face to face meeting, we will consider using time (if any) at the conclusion of the ECUS meetings on March 20 (joint meeting), April 3 (Subcommittee on Nominations), or April 10 (joint meeting).  Finally there was agreement to review the draft of this committee report at the April 17 meeting.  The point persons for parts of this report are

                                                         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.

6. On March 20, 2008, the Executive Committee met jointly with Standing Committee Chairs and
   • Received informational updates from President Leland on three matters (a) State of Georgia Budget which she is carefully monitoring on a daily basis (b) sought feedback on her initial thoughts on the search for a Chief Academic Officer indicating she would be sending a message to all university faculty to seek feedback and counsel before finalizing her plan (c) an update on the USG core curriculum initiative mainly pointing out that she had sent a memo to all USG faculty providing an informational update on the current status of this initiative.
   • Received informational updates from Craig Turner on the following

                                                         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.

• There was general endorsement of the concept of the USGFC by those present at this (Mar 20) joint meeting of Standing Committee Committees with the Executive Committee.

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.

• received an informational update on the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) from committee chair, Doug Goings, noting that

                                                         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.

• received an informational update on organizational meetings of the 2008-2009 University Senate committees scheduled for April 30, 2008 noting that the role of the Executive Committee is to name facilitators for officer elections of this meeting.  Standing Committee Chairs were invited to serve as facilitators only if they did not intend to consider an officer position during 2008-2009. 
• shared the drafts of operational definitions of the terms concern, practice, guideline, exhibit, procedure, resolution, and information.  The suggestion was to provide these definitions as a handout at the Governance Retreat to assist with the steering activities within the sessions at the retreat and to provide these draft definitions to the 2008-2009 Executive Committee requesting them to facilitate continued conversations and development during the 2008-2009 academic year.
• finalized the agenda for the University Senate meeting scheduled for March 31, 2008. There was consensus that the University Senate should attend to the disposition of business in favor of receiving informational reports.  To support this agreement, reports of committees that have submitted motions for consideration will be delivered to the University Senate prior to reports of the committees that have not submitted motions.  The agreement was to arrange the committee reports in the following order: CAPC, ECUS, APC, FAPC, RPIPC and SAPC.  In addition, there was agreement to add as a new business item an informational report from the General Education Implementation Plan Committee (GEIPC) to be given by Deborah Vess.
• reviewed the language for the resolution regarding a registry for university-wide committees.  This resolution is a companion to the proposed revision to the university senate bylaws that the section on administrative committees be removed, and is intended to promote transparency and access to the decision making process.  The current version was endorsed as amended noting two typos, which Craig was charged to correct as he adds the motion to the March 31 University Senate agenda
• Each of the committee chairs present shared information about his/her respective committee; the details of which are provided in the other committee reports given at the March 31, 2008 University Senate meeting.  Craig shared on update on behalf of FAPC for Todd Shiver who had extended regrets for this meeting.
• Steering Items

                                                         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.

• finalized the tentative agenda for the next meeting of the Executive Committee.  This meeting will be a joint meeting with Standing Committee Chairs on April 10, 2008.
6. 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.