Executive Committee Report given at the April 21, 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 April 21 University Senate meeting)

• Since the March 31, 2008 meeting of the 2007-08 University Senate, ECUS met as part of the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) (Apr 3), held a joint meeting with the Standing Committee Chairs (Apr 10), and held one elected faculty workshop (Apr 17).
• 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 as well as links to the actual reports.
    • Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC) (a) will give a report at today’s meeting (b) reminds you  the retreat date is Thursday May 8, 2008 (c) membership is Bill Richards (chair), Craig Turner, Todd Shiver, Carol Ormond, and Karen Higgs.
• In the Books (work which is complete)
  • finalized the agenda for April 21, 2008, the final meeting of the 2007-08 University Senate.
  • finalized the agenda for April 25, 2008, the 2008-09 University Senate organizational meeting.
  • met jointly with the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) to prepare a slate of Officers and Committees of the 2008-2009 University Senate.  This slate will be presented for consideration by the 2008-2009 University Senate at its organizational meeting scheduled for Friday April 25, 2008 from 12:30 -1:45.
  • met with Standing Committee Chairs on April 10 to share information, draft tentative agendas, and name facilitators for April 30, 2008 organizational meetings of the 2008-2009 standing committees at which committee officers will be elected.

• met on April 17, to share information and finalize the comprehensive annual report of the 2007-2008 Executive Committee
• Executive Committee is charged by the University Senate Bylaws to name facilitators and voting proxies for officer elections at organizational meetings of the 2008-2009 University Senate committees scheduled for April 30, 2008.

                                                         i.      The following individuals volunteered to facilitate these organizational meetings

§         Jan Clark                         Academic Policy Committee (APC)

§         Doug Goings                   Curriculum and Assessment Planning (CAPC)

§         Chris Greer                     Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC)

§         Kendra Russell                Resources, Planning, and Institutional Policy (RPIPC)

§         Bill Richards                    Student Affairs Policy Committee (SAPC)

• Matters for the 2008-09 Executive Committee (items for which further consideration is recommended)
  • 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
• Steering: (No steering items were considered during April 2008)
• The 2007-2008 Executive Committee held its final meeting (an elected faculty workshop to finalize the committee annual report) on April 17, 2008 and will not meet on April 24, 2008.
• At this time, Motion 0708.EC.004.R, a resolution seeking endorsement of the University System of Georgia Faculty Council (USGFC) is presented for your consideration.  As of April 16, 15 of the 35 University System of Georgia institutions have reported that their faculty governance unit has endorsed the University System of Georgia Faculty Council (USGFC).
• It is now my pleasure to introduce Bill Richards, Chair of the Governance Retreat Planning Committee, to provide an informational update on the Governance Retreat.

• Recognitions:

Students

Staff

Presidential Appointees

Elected Faculty Senators (EFS) 2006-2008 Outgoing

Elected Faculty Senators (EFS) 2006-2008 Continuing

Archivist

Parliamentarian (2002-2003 ECUS Chair, 2003-2004 ECUS Vice-Chair)

Graduate Assistant of the University Senate for the 2007-2008 academic year

Standing Committee Officers

Executive Committee

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

2. Since the March 31, 2008 meeting of the 2007-08 University Senate, ECUS met as part of the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) (Apr 3), held a joint meeting with the Standing Committee Chairs (Apr 10), and held one elected faculty workshops (Apr 17).
3. 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)
4. On April 3, 2008, the Executive Committee (ECUS) met jointly with the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) and produced a partial slate of nominees (71 of the 74 positions) for Officers and Committees of the 2008-2009 University Senate.  The SCoN is chaired by Doug Goings with membership: ECUS (see header above), Standing Committee Chairs (Jan Clark (APC), Deborah Vess (CAPC), Todd Shiver (FAPC), Doug Oetter (RPIPC), and Jennifer Hammack (SAPC)), SGA President Ryan Greene, and Staff Council Chair Gina Peavy.
5. On April 10, 2008, the Executive Committee (ECUS) met jointly with the Standing Committee Chairs and
   • received updates from Craig Turner on

                                                         i.      The University Holiday Selection Process was raised at the 02-26-07 University Senate meeting, at which time consideration of a floating holiday was requested.  At present, the status of the consideration of this request is not known to me and requires additional inquiry.

                                                       ii.      A reminder that comprehensive annual reports of committees are due May 1, 2008.

                                                      iii.      Presentation of a Certificate of Appreciation to Donna Fuller for serving as the Graduate Assistant of the 2007-2008 University Senate.

• received an informational update on the Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC) from Bill Richards, noting that the committee (a) has fleshed out a tentative 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 (b) notes the retreat date is Thursday May 8, 2008 (c) membership is Bill Richards (chair), Craig Turner, Todd Shiver, Carol Ormond, and Karen Higgs. 

                                                         i.      The synopsis of the tentative retreat agenda was warmly received by those present and the GRPC was complimented on its work to this point.

• received updates from Donna Fuller, 2007-2008 Graduate Assistant of the University Senate, regarding the progress on the

                                                         i.      archive for the electronic suggestion box   Donna has prepared a draft in Excel format of the proposed archive listing the suggestions.  Continued consideration is required for formatting and the specific responses and actions resulting from each suggestion, and this item will require continued consideration by the 2008-2009 Executive Committee.

                                                       ii.      graduate assistant guidance document.  Donna circulated a draft of the first page of this document at the meeting and will circulate the document in its entirety by email to the Standing Committee Chairs and members of the Executive Committee requesting suggestions and feedback.  Donna will incorporate the suggestions and prepare a final draft.  This final draft will be helpful in continuing to develop the responsibilities of the graduate assistant position..

• reviewed the slate of nominees for the 2008-2009 committees.  Two of the three unfilled positions were filled, and one additional edition was made to the proposed slate.  This left one unfilled position for a corps of instruction faculty member from the School of Education.  Chris Greer will secure a volunteer and forward the name to Craig Turner for inclusion in the final draft that will be presented as a motion to the 2008-2009 University Senate for its consideration at its organizational meeting April 25, 2008.
• 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.

                                                         i.      The following individuals volunteered to facilitate these organizational meetings

§         Jan Clark                         Academic Policy Committee (APC)

§         Doug Goings                   Curriculum and Assessment Planning (CAPC)

§         Chris Greer                     Faculty Affairs Policy Committee (FAPC)

§         Kendra Russell                Resources, Planning, and Institutional Policy (RPIPC)

§         Bill Richards                    Student Affairs Policy Committee (SAPC)

                                                       ii.      Only one voting proxy was needed for the Presidential Appointee position on CAPC.  Susan Bello who will hold this position in 2008-2009 will not begin to work at GCSU in May 2008.  Charlie Martin, the individual currently serving as CAPC Presidential Appointee, will be contacted to determine his availability to serve as a voting proxy for Susan Bello.

• reviewed a draft of an informational document to be supplied for the August 2008 New Faculty Orientation.  Suggestions to include a brief description of the committee structure and how a faculty member could participate on the University Senate or its committees will be incorporated into the draft.
• finalized the agenda for the University Senate meeting scheduled for April 21, 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, RPIPC, SAPC ECUS, APC, FAPC,.  In addition, there was agreement to add as a an informational report from the Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GEIPC) to be given by Bill Richards.

                                                         i.      A draft of the text of MOTION 0708.EC.004.R, seeking endorsement of the proposed University System of Georgia Faculty Council (USGFC), was reviewed.  Craig agreed to incorporate the suggestions which were to streamline the resolution statement and provide the contextual information orally to the University Senate rather than include this contextual information in the resolution statement.

• finalized the agenda for the organizational meeting of the 2008-2009 University Senate scheduled for April 25, 2008.  At this meeting there will be reports from the University President, the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) proposing a slate of nominees for Committees and Officers of the 2008-2009 University Senate, the Executive Committee (ECUS) providing a brief (3-5 minute) orientation to the University Senate, and the Governance Retreat Planning Committee (GRPC) to share information about the May 8, 2008 governance retreat.
• 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 April 21, 2008 University Senate meeting.
• reviewed and endorsed as presented the draft of the tiebreaker process for the election of at-large positions to the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs search committee.  In summary, this process recommends all candidates involved in a tie be forwarded as nominees for the at-large positions to the University President paralleling the process that is being used to appoint faculty from each academic unit (the four schools and library).  Craig Turner agreed to distribute this process by email to the faculty as an informational item.
• out of time, deferred the confidentiality in evaluation issue to the 2008-2009 Executive Committee
• finalized the tentative agenda for the final meeting of the 2007-2008 Executive Committee, an elected faculty workshop scheduled for April 17 at the Blackbird Café, at which the ECUS committee annual report will be finalized.
5. On April 17, 2008, the elected faculty of the Executive Committee met and
   • Received informational updates from Craig Turner and Discussed the following

                                                   i.      As of April 16, 15 of the 35 University System of Georgia institutions have reported that their faculty governance unit has endorsed the University System of Georgia Faculty Council (USGFC).  A resolution requesting endorsement of the USGFC is on the agenda of the April 21, 2008 meeting of the GCSU University Senate.

                                                 ii.      Donna Fuller, Graduate Assistant of the University Senate will continue to work on the following three tasks through May 2008

a)       University Senate Brochure in consultation with Marketing Professor Cynthia Cano

b)       University Senate Graduate Assistant Handbook (Job Description, Summary of tasks completed by Donna during 2007-2008)

c)       Electronic Suggestion Box Archive (web-based summary of suggestions and actions resulting from the suggestions)

                                                iii.      Minutes Updates:  The following are updates on minutes of meetings

a)       University Senate March 31: In preparation by Chris Greer

b)       ECUS, April 10: In preparation by Bill Richards

c)       SubCommittee on Nominations Apr 3: Will be posted by Chris Greer 04/17 afternoon

d)       University Senate April 21: Last meeting 2007-2008, to be taken by Chris Greer

e)       University Senate April 25: First meeting 2008-2009, to be taken by Chris Greer

                                               iv.      ECUS Checklist Updates -- All elected faculty agreed to making updates (if any are necessary) to the checklists of projects for which they serve as point by the end of May 2008

                                                 v.      Doug Goings will draft a checklist for the SubCommittee on Nominations (SCoN) work including committee preference/interest surveys and slate of nominee preparation)

                                               vi.      The University Holiday Selection Process is the only matter on the 2006-2007 ECUS parking lot that requires further attention.  No update on the status of this has been secured yet.

                                              vii.      The 2007-2008 ECUS Parking Lot is now empty (all bylaws revisions were included in the bylaws revisions motion 0708.EC.002.B that was approved on 03/31/08 and the operational definitions of terms concern, practice, guideline, exhibit, procedure, resolution, and information item were drafted, endorsed at the joint meeting with Standing Committee Chairs Mar 10, are likely to be included as a supporting document for the May 8, 2008 Governance Retreat, and are recommended for continued consideration by the 2008-2009 Executive Committee)

                                            viii.      Intentional Backup of “Precious Documents” of the University Senate has been confirmed

a)       The University Archivist (Nancy Davis Bray) routinely archives hard copies of the official minutes of University Senate and committees (APC, CAPC, ECUS, FAPC, RPIPC, and SAPC)

b)       The University Senate Webpage (including Bylaws, Governing Concepts, Vision, Mission, etc) is routinely backed up by the University Senate Webmaster (Barbara Monnett) who recommends the good practice that the webmaster maintain an independent backup.

c)       The University Senate Databases (online motion and online senator) are routinely backed up by Bryan Marshall, the system administrator of the server hosting these databases.  Conversations regarding the possibility of migrating these databases to servers maintained by Web Enabled Resources are continuing.

                                               ix.      The drafts of ECUS Reports for April 21, 2008 and April 25, 2008 University Senate meetings were reviewed.  The April 25, 3008 report was endorsed with the possibility that a summary of University Senate motions for 2007-2008 might be added.  The April 21, 2008 report will be updated to include information from the April 17, 2008 ECUS elected faculty workshop.

                                                 x.      The Checklist for Organization Meeting of Standing Committees (at which officers are elected) presently is implemented as a webpage providing guidance to facilitators of these meetings.  These guidance webpages are linked the 2006-2007 ECUS and 2007-2008 ECUS webpages

                                               xi.      Doug Goings agreed to facilitate the CAPC organizational meeting on April 30, 2008 and the facilitators (locations pending R25 approval) for these meetings are now identified as

a)       APC - Jan Clark

b)       CAPC - Doug Goings

c)       FAPC - Chris Greer

d)       RPIPC - Kendra Russell

e)       SAPC - Bill Richards

• Bill Richards presented and discussed the final draft of the agenda of the May 8 Governance Retreat
• Discussed the April 16, 2008 draft of the ECUS annual report.  Suggestions were made for editions to the draft and Craig agreed to incorporate these suggestions and distribute a revised version.
6. The 2007-2008 Executive Committee met for the last time on April 17, 2008 and will not meet on April 24, 2008.