University System of Georgia Faculty Council

url:  http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/univ_senate/USGFC/index.htm

FINAL Minutes for the 19 November 2010, meeting of the USGFC Advocates

Rooms 102 and 104 of the Pettigrew Center

Fort Valley State University

1005 State University Drive, Fort Valley, Georgia 31030

10:05 Call to Order  Dr. Craig Turner of Georgia College & State University, co-chair of the USGFC, called the meeting to order and asked each of those present to introduce themselves.  Guests and USGFC voting members or designees in attendance (or voting members or designees extending regrets) were:

10:09  Agenda  A motion to approve the tentative agenda of the 19 November 2010 as circulated was made, seconded, and discussed.  As two presenters would be participating remotely via teleconference, specifically Dr. Beth Jensen (about 10:20) on the Two-Year Merger and Dr. Susan Herbst (about 10:45) on Chancellor Search, a motion was made, seconded and approved to amend the agenda to be flexible to accommodate these two presenters when their calls were received.  The tentative agenda was approved as amended.  (tentative agenda prior to its amendment)

10:11 Welcome  Following the introductions, site lead Juone Brown-Johnson of Fort Valley State University (FVSU) welcomed everyone and introduced Dr. Julius Scipio, VPAA at FVSU ,who formally welcomed the USGFC advocates to FVSU and he encouraged advocates to become acquainted with the campus and the new facilities recently completed.

10:15 USGFC History  Dr. Turner expressed gratitude to Fort Valley State University for hosting this meeting and to site lead Juone Brown-Johnson for all of her work in meeting preparations and registration details.  Dr. Turner gave a brief report on the history of the USGFC to date in three parts interrupted twice by the call-in guest presenters as was anticipated.  (USGFC History document and USGFC Language in Board of Regents Policy)

RECOGNITION RESOLUTION  Dr. Elizabeth Combier of North Georgia College & State University, co-chair of the USGFC, added that the roles of Dr. Susan Herbst, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer of the University System of Georgia, and Dr. Linda Noble, Vice Chancellor of Faculty Affairs in the Academic Affairs Division of the University System of Georgia, were key in the establishment of the USGFC .  She resolved that “the USGFC recognize Dr. Susan Herbst and Dr. Linda Noble for their moral support, invaluable assistance and consistent guidance in its development and official recognition by the Board of Regents.”  The motion was seconded and endorsed unanimously.

10:20  Two-Year Merger  Dr. Beth Jensen of Georgia Perimeter College, participating remotely by teleconference, updated those present on the two-year school merger proposal with that of the technical school system.  She discussed the history and issues relating to that possibility. She noted that the revisions to the mini-core expanding it from 15 hours to 30 hours are currently under debate as they have not yet been formally voted on by the Board of Regents. Technical schools are moving from the quarter to the semester system in August, 2011. She cited an AJC article in which Ron Jackson, Commissioner of the Technical College System of Georgia, indicated that three campuses (Augusta Tech., Columbus Tech, and Savannah Tech) will offer an Associate of Applied Science degree since there are no dedicated two-year USG schools nearby, only four-year schools; hence these technical schools will offer the same courses as  two-year USG colleges.  She noted that she was not sure if these Associate of Applied Science degrees were accredited by SACS.  One way to increase “synergies and efficiencies” would be to merge the technical schools into the USG to create one educational system in the state. This recommendation, however, has not received much political support.  Dr. Turner indicated that the USGFC had endorsed a resolution on the Two-Year Merger at its November 2009 meeting that was among the supporting documents in the participant packet.  (Two-Year Merger document)

Discussion produced additional information:  Waycross Technical School has accreditation and is moving toward academic programs, but there is still an issue with quality assurance of academic rigor.

Suggestions included having faculty from two-year schools teach at the technical schools with a contract of understanding, and for the USGFC to remain vigilant on this matter.

10:45  Chancellor Search  Dr. Susan Herbst, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer of the University System of Georgia, reported, participating remotely by teleconference, on the Chancellor’s search.  The Chancellor Search Committee has twenty members and includes three USG faculty:  Dr. Craig Turner, Professor of Mathematics at Georgia College & State University and representing the USG Faculty Council; Dr. Hugh Hudson, Professor of History at Georgia State University and Executive Secretary of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP); and Dr. Lin Mei, Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Georgia.

The ideal timeline for the search is as follows.  Regent Kessel Stelling, Chair of the Search Committee, will hold a meeting in early December to get organized.  In January/February, the search firm (R. William Funk & Associates) will assist in the nomination and identification of candidates (quiet phase).  In March the pool will be honed to 8-10 for confidential interviews by the search committee at the airport hotel.  In April, the search committee will culminate its work with a recommendation of 3-5 unranked candidates to the BoR.  The BoR begins interviews in April with those candidates and is expected to select the next Chancellor by mid-May.  During the BoR interviewing, there will be an opportunity for feedback to inform their deliberation.  She emphasized the importance of the confidentiality of the process as candidacy may present risk by candidates in maintaining their current positions.

Dr. Herbst solicited comments and suggestions from the USGFC members for desirable qualities and characteristics of the next Chancellor. These included:

• significant experience in higher education, as tenured professor possibly
• significant experience in leading a faculty body (academic governance) at some point in her/his career
• possesses an educational vision and understands the academic culture
• understands what it means to have a liberal arts education
• consults and listens prior to making decisions or implementing new initiatives (such as centralization)
• sells rather than tells
• understands, appreciates, and celebrates the uniqueness and differences of the USG institutions
• interested in addressing the attrition of graduate degrees and lowering student/faculty ratios
• interested in reversing the proliferation of contingent (part-time, adjunct, temporary) faculty
• sensitive to faculty morale as it affects students

Dr. Herbst asked all to note the webpage http://www.usg.edu/chancellor_search and to send ideas/suggestions and nominations there or directly to her (susan.herbst@usg.edu) via email.

11:15  Chancellor Search  Dr. Turner indicated that he will need each of the attendees help in representing the 30,000 USG faculty on the Chancellor Search Committee.  He specifically invited each attendee to consult with their colleagues at their home institution to seek suggestions for desirable qualities and characteristics of the next Chancellor.  Such input can be entered at the web presence http://www.usg.edu/chancellor_search or emailed directly to Dr. Turner (craig.turner@gcsu.edu).  He went on to say that he will try to provide updates on the activity of the search committee but will be bound by a confidentiality agreement on the sharing of certain information deemed sensitive.  Finally, he indicated that the participant packet had a summary of the information presently available at the chancellor search website (chancellor search document) and that updates will be posted to the aforementioned web presence as the search progresses.

11:25 AAUP Report  Dr. Turner summarized the report from Dr. Hugh Hudson, Executive Secretary of the Georgia Conference of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).  (AAUP Report and supporting documents)

11:30 USG Academic Affairs Report  Dr. Linda Noble, Vice Chancellor of Faculty Affairs in the Academic Affairs Division of the University System of Georgia, gave her report including information on

A.      Notice of non-renewal for lecturers, the use of lecturers, faculty benefits, and offered to help any USG faculty member with clarifying, identifying and locating BoR Policies.  She indicated that faculty workload is appropriately a function of the individual mission of the institution and that the USG resists the introduction of system level policy on faculty workload, but she offered to assist institutions as she was able.  She emphasized the difference between teaching load and faculty workload.

B.      Learning Management System (LMS) will change and VISTA is on its way out.  There is an LMS task force at work and finalists of 3-5 vendors for a new LMS for the USG are anticipated in December, 2010.  While the survey for input ends tonight (19 Nov 2010), about 3500 faculty have responded with 2300 of those from the comprehensives and not as many from the research one and two-year schools.

C.      Regional Town Hall meeting hosted by the Learning Management System Task Force will be held on December 9^th, 2010, at Macon State University or via WIMBA to get faculty participation.  Pleas from the floor were made to consider a more math-friendly and foreign language-friendly system.  A variety of systems makes transferring difficult for technical school students and high school students.

D.      Each institution should send in their selection process for their USGFC representative as soon as possible.  Many have already done this and the draft was circulated to allow individuals to check their entry for accuracy or enter their entry if not already included in the draft.

E.       Dr. Noble clarified reporting structure for University Presidents of each of the tiers of institutions.  In short there are three groups:  Four Research University Presidents to Chancellor Davis, Fifteen Comprehensive University Presidents (plus SklO Director) to Executive Vice Chancellor Herbst, and Sixteen Two Year and State College President to Chief Operating Officer Watts (BoR Organization Chart).  After some discussion, there was general consensus that another desirable quality of the new Chancellor would be one open to a reconsideration of this reporting structure.  Dr. Linda Noble agreed to share this position with the appropriate contacts at the USG offices.

USGFC WEB PRESENCE MOTION.  In consultation and discussion with those present, Dr. Combier moved that “the USGFC have a web presence on the Board of Regents’ website as a Regent’s Advisory Committee and that this web presence include the list of schools and their USGFC representatives as well as a link to the existing USGFC website for other information.”  The motion was seconded and carried.  Dr. Linda Noble agreed to share this request with the appropriate USGFC staff.

11:55 Lunch.

12:50 Break-out Topics Identified  Dr. Turner facilitated a conversation to identify topics of interest for small group discussion.  Participants self-selected a topic and the topics identified included:

1. Bylaws:  tier voting, leadership, and quorum (7 participants)  (Bylaws supporting document)

2. Faculty retention and TAP (2 participants)

3. Workload and faculty compensation (16 participants)  (Nov 2009 DRAFT resolutions document)

4. Constituency Communication [Education of USG Institutions about USGFC and Methods of Representing] (No takers)

1:20 Break-out Groups Work Time  Each participant self-selected a topic and participated in the conversation salient to that topic.

2:45  Afternoon Break  Participants availed themselves of the refreshments available and continued break-out group discussions.

3:00 Small group Reports.

1.        Bylaws.  Dr. Turner provided a summary of the proposed revisions to the bylaws from the work group and facilitated a conversation on the draft.  A couple modifications were offered after discussion.  Dr. Turner promised to post the draft revisions (as amended) to the USGFC web presence.  Anticipate a vote on these proposed revisions at Spring 2011 meeting.  (proposed bylaws revisions [which can be found at the USGFC web presence])

2.       Faculty compensation:

a.       Continue to Monitor TRS/ORP and elicit support from AAUP for legislation.  John O’Sullivan to keep in touch with AAUP and will contact USGFC with updates.

b.      Salary comparison needed of USG schools and others in the south east. Suggestion to have research on salaries; use USG statistics professor or sociologist rather than pay consultant.

c.       Full domestic partnership should be pursued and endorsed. Bring issue to USGFC constituency on list serve. West Georgia has draft of an appropriate letter for our use.

d.      Need a whip to track this work. Bob Marsh volunteered.

e.      Recommendation for analysis of USG budget allocated to administration versus teaching.

f.        Use of data on faculty salaries can be used to strengthen our stance.

g.       Continue to support the DRAFT resolutions/motions from November 2009 meeting.  (DRAFT USGFC Resolutions from the Nov 2009 meeting)

3.       TAP (Tuition Assistant Privilege).  Recommendation was made that TAP be allowed for all on-line graduate courses as a benefit for faculty development.  Dr. Linda Noble agreed to advocate for this position with the appropriate contacts at the USG offices.

3:55  Next Meeting  Dr. Doug Moodie of Kennesaw State University (KSU) volunteered for KSU to host the  next meeting of the USGFC.  Tentative date is last Friday in February (25 February 2011) to avoid Spring Break conflicts.

4:00  Adjourn  Dr. Turner thanked all attendees for their attendance and participation and thanked Juone Brown-Johnson for her site coordination of this meeting.  The next session was an informal hour for tiers (research, four-year, and two-year institutions) to meet individually as desired.  There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was made, seconded and approved.  The meeting adjourned at 4:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Elizabeth Combier