University of Louisville
Faculty Senate Meeting
July 6, 2011
The regular meeting of the Faculty Senate was held on July 6, 2011 at 3:00 P.M. in the Chao Auditorium in the Ekstrom Library, on Belknap Campus, Robert Staat presiding.
Senators Registering Attendance
A&S – Elizabeth Bradley, Jasmine Farrier, Dennis Hall, Joseph Steffen, Elaine Wise, Tamara Yohannes CoB – Carrie Donald, Robert Myers DENTISTRY – Ricardo Caicedo, Donald DeMuth, Robert Staat, Dave Willis LAW – David Ensign, Kurt Metzmeier, Enid Trucios-Haynes LIBRARIES – Gail Gilbert, Terri Holtze, Margo Smith MEDICINE – Forest Arnold, Richard Downs, Moataz El-Ghamry, Pamela Feldhoff, Lawrence Hunt, Sham Kakar, Jeannie Roberts MUSIC – Krista Wallace-Boaz NURSING – Sandra Holmes PART-TIME – Charlie Baker, Rose Mills, Dana Seay PUBLIC HEALTH – Ray Austin SPEED – Roger Bradshaw
Also Attending -
Ex Officio: James Ramsey, Shirley Willihnganz, Bob Fox, Jody Heil
Others: Beth Boehm, Paul DeMarco, Mike Curtin, Melissa Laning, Gretchen Henry, recording secretary
Press: Janene Zaccone (Inside U of L)
Senators Not Registering Attendance -
A&S – Annette Allen, Elizabeth Grossi CoB – Rob Barker, Bruce Kemelgor EDUCATION – Peter Alter, Kathleen Rudasil, TomSimmons KENT – Sharon Bowland, Seana Golder, Wanda Lott Collins MEDICINE –Saeed Jortani, Brad Keller, Nobuyuki Kuwabara, Steven Myers, Steven Nakajima MUSIC – Daniel Weeks NURSING – Diane Chlebowy PUBLIC HEALTH – Ruth Carrico SPEED – Suraj Alexander, Nageshwar Bhaskar
ACTION: Consideration of the Minutes
The minutes of the June meeting were approved as distributed.
REPORT: Student Government Association – Jody Heil
Mr. Heil reported that the newly elected student government administration will officially take office in September. A retreat for the new leadership team will be held at the end of August.
REPORT: Staff Senate – Virginia Brown
No report was made.
ACTION ITEM: Approval of the Bioinformatics Ph.D. Track - DeMuth
Academic Programs Committee Chair, Senator Don DeMuth, presented the proposal for the Ph.D. in Bioinformatics. He explained that the need for the program has arisen due to the advances in high technology fields. This program will train students to do this type of work. Half of our benchmarks have this Ph.D. program and the others have a certificate program. Without the program, UofL falls behind its benchmarks in this area. The program is interdisciplinary and offers three areas of concentration: Mathematics/Statistics, Biomedical/natural Science or Computational Sciences. After explaining how this will be more than just a data management program and how students will be able to generate hypotheses and create algorithms, a vote was taken. The proposal for the program passed unanimously.
ACTION ITEM: Second reading of the Law School Personnel & Bylaws Documents – Willis
The REDBOOK Committee endorsed the changes to the documents and they are now in line with the REDBOOK requirements. The changes clarified faculty rights and made the unit documents’ language the same as the REDBOOK. The motion came from the committee, which requires no second. A vote was taken and the revised documents were unanimously approved.
A change to the agenda:
INFORMATION ITEM: A&S personnel documents – Staat
The A&S documents that were to be considered for approval had, in fact, been approved by the Faculty Senate in 2009. At that time, the Board of Trustees sent the documents back to A&S to make a few changes. The documents are now in A&S for revision. If those changes are significant, the documents will come before the Senate for another vote.
REPORT: Current Year Budget Presentation – Curtin
Vice President for Finance Curtin gave a Power Point presentation on the current budget situation. The presentation is available online. He gave an overview of the subjects he would cover: Budget principles and values, the major forces affecting the budget, operating budget changes, declining state support, tuition and fees and expenditures. The general message was that with state funding on the decline, the University will have to generate income itself. The administration is working with various entities within the university to develop income-producing ideas. Mr. Curtin was open to suggestions and ideas from senators.
REPORT: University Provost – Dr. Shirley Willihnganz
Provost Willihnganz thanked Mr. Curtin for his hard work on the budget. She announced that a 3% salary increase was made possible from healthcare savings and contributions from the units. The application for Phi Beta Kappa designation was denied, but the visiting team acknowledged that we were getting closer. The main reason given for the denial was that they felt too many classes were taught by term faculty. They are strongly pro tenure track faculty. Regarding construction on the west side of campus: the Cardinal Town Center (the old Masterson’s restaurant) is 100% booked with tenants the students will appreciate; and, the new student recreation center will be gorgeous and have a lot of green space. The State of the University will be held on September 13th.
REPORT: University President – Dr. James Ramsey
Dr. Ramsey reported that he will be traveling to key areas around the country to engage with UofL Alumni. The Board of trustees retreat will be held on July 13th this year. Several new board members are not familiar with the recent changes to the UofL campus so the retreat will take place on Belknap and HSC campuses. The board will take a tour that will end at UPS and Metropolitan College. President Ramsey then went through his Power Point presentation. This presentation is available online. He stated that none of the figures were final and that they would be reviewed for accuracy before the board approves the budget. The presentation charted the goals of the 2020 plan through 2012 and how much of each has been attained so far.
Committee Reports
Academic Programs Committee (APC) - This report was available online.
Committee on Committees and Credentials (CCC) - No report was made.
Libraries Committee (FSCOL) - No report was made.
Part-time Faculty Committee (PTFC) - No report was made.
Planning & Budget Committee (P&B) - No report was made.
Redbook & Bylaws Committee (RB) - This report was available online.
Executive Committee (XC) - This report was available online.
Other Reports
Academic Technology Committee (ATC) – No report was made.
Bookstore Advisory Committee – This committee did not meet.
Commission on the Status of Women (COSW) – This report was available online.
Coalition of Staff & Faculty Leadership (COSFL) – No report was made.
Dining Services Committee – This committee did not meet.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – This committee will meet the end of this month.
Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) – This report was available online.
Human Resources Advisory Committee (HRAC) – This report was available online.
Parking Advisory Committee (PAC) – This report was available online.
Student Care Team – No report was made.
University Librarian Report – No report was made.
Chair’s Report – Robert Staat
This report was available online.
Old Business
None
New Business
The Planning & Budget Committee will survey the Senate in the fall to determine priorities for Senate action.
Announcements
The Faculty Senate does not meet in August. The next meeting is September 7, 2011 in the Chao Auditorium in the Ekstrom Library.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 P.M.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gretchen Stein Henry
Faculty Senate Secretary