Faculty Senate

Information for the Faculty of the University of Louisville.

MIN1014

 

 

UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE

FACULTY SENATE MEETING MINUTES

OCTOBER 1, 2014

 

The regular meeting of the Faculty Senate was held on October 1, 2014 at 3:00 P.M. in the Dental School, Room 125, HSC Campus, Pamela Feldhoff presiding.

 

Senators Registering Attendance:

Arts&Sciences: David Brown, Jennie Burnet, Jasmine Farrier, Karen Hadley, Greg Hutcheson, Ron Sahoo, David Simpson, Joe Steffen, Beth Willey Business: Bruce Kemelgor, Robert Myers Dentistry: Don Demuth, Robert Staat, Dave Willis Education: Monica Delano, Patrick Hardesty, Tom Simmons Law: Kurt Metzmeier, Enid Trucios-Haynes Libraries: Carrie Daniels, Margo Smith Medicine: Yousef Abu-Kwaik, Forest Arnold, Eric Burton, Guomin Jiang, Jeff King, Kenneth Palmer, David Stirling, Michael Tseng Music: Randi Boling Nursing: Valerie McCarthy, Karen Singleton Part-time Faculty: Joseph Gutmann, Susan Peacock Public Health: Ray Austin Speed: Kyung Kang

Also Attending:

Ex Officio:            Shirley Willihnganz, Angela Lewis-Klein, Ricardo Ullrich (SGA),

Others:                 Tracy Eells, Gretchen Henry, recording secretary

Press:                    Janet Cappiello, UofL Today

 

Senators Not Registering Attendance:

Arts&Sciences: Carrie Donald, Elaine Wise Business: Robert Barker, Ben Foster Dentistry: Ricardo Caicedo Education: Caroline Sheffield Kent: Seana Golder, Martin Hall, Wanda Lott Collins Law: Luke Milligan Libraries: Terri Holtze Medicine: Luz Fernandez, Arun Gadre, Saeed Jortani, Sham Kakar, Brad Keller, Rainer Lenhardt, Chin Ng Music: Dror Biran, Krista Wallace-Boaz Nursing: Heather Owens Part-time Faculty: Donna Gaus, John Ritz, Michael Wade Public Health: Scott LaJoie Speed: Roger Bradshaw, J.P. Mohsen, Kevin Walsh

 

CALL TO ORDER: – Feldhoff

 

ACTION ITEM: Consideration of the Minutes - Feldhoff

The minutes of the September 3, 2014 meeting were unanimously approved as distributed.

REPORT: Student Government Association – Ricardo Ullrich

Ricardo Ullrich, the SGA representative for SGA-AVP Allie Funk, reported that the SGA is looking for feedback to encourage students to participate in course evaluations.  In reviewing its budget, the SGA has funds to purchase furniture for study areas in the Library; dedicate to the L Trails; and, add sexual violence counseling available on the SGA web site and other resources.  Along with Bob Goldstein of Institutional Effectiveness, the SGA is developing a survey to measure student interest in study abroad.

 

REPORT: Staff Senate – Angela Lewis-Klein

The Staff Senate met in September and held its annual retreat on ShelbyHurst Campus. The theme this year was Diversity & Inclusion.  Personal safety alarms were given as this year’s gift. Provost Willihnganz has since purchased alarms for distribution.  Connie Kidd has retired from the University and the position has been posted. Staff Senator, Sandy Russell, is the interim SGO. The Staff Senate meets again in October.

 

INFORMATION ITEM: Vision & Strategic Plan for Arts & Sciences – Kempf-Leonard

Dean Kimberly Kempf-Leonard was invited today to meet the Faculty Senate and to give her vision for A&S. She said that her vision is not completely developed, as she is reluctant to create one this early in her new position.  She promised to return when she has developed one.  She gave a brief rundown of her background: raised in Nebraska; married a man from St. Louis; has 2 sons; was a professor of criminology; research was on leveling the playing field in the criminal justice system; loves teaching; and, was the PI on grants and understands the bureaucracy of funding. She likes the entrepreneurial spirit of UofL’s administration and is excited to be here.  She hopes to raise the A&S research profile. She didn’t come to UofL with a list of things to change.  She plans to take time to assess the strengths and challenges and how best to move forward.  She believes there are many rising stars in A&S and opportunities to collaborate.  She is overwhelmed by the community’s love for UofL and thinks higher education needs what UofL wants to do. Some challenges she has noticed: faculty seem only involved with their units and oblivious of the accomplishments of other departments. This creates a challenge in decision-making.  She feels the role of a dean is one of a facilitator and to implement ideas from the bottom up. She hopes to streamline some processes and looks forward to what can be accomplished when we all work together.

 

INFORMATION ITEM: Safety on UofL Campuses – Brown

Major Brown was in attendance to day to speak about the increased safety precautions across the campuses. DPS has hired 4 new police officers and 4 security officers. They are hiring as quickly as possible. They are hiring retired Metro police officers, as the training time is greatly shortened. The nation is facing a heroin epidemic, and Louisville is not immune to it. There have been no arrests for heroin on campus, but the addicts are out there and trying to get money to buy the drug. Because of this, UofL officers meet with Metro to discuss the issues.  The crime statistics were higher in 2012. The current crimes are more violent in nature. The L Trail is a walking path that will have more lighting and officers patrolling. There will be L trails on both campuses. There is also an escort service that can take people to their vehicles.  He also reported that UofL has a lower crime than other urban colleges.

 

REPORT: University Provost – Dr. Shirley Willihnganz

Provost Willihnganz reported that the faculty salary study that was done 2 years ago said the imbalances were not based on race and gender but on the market values at the time.  The basis of comparison that we used in our study is the Oklahoma Study. What would it take to get to 90% of market value?  From the results, it looks like about $7 million. Many new faculty members are coming in at salaries that are higher than some of us already working here. This salary compression is becoming an issue that we will look at that this year.  The committee reports for the 21st Century Initiative are in and will be shared soon.  As an example, the Global committee report will take tons of money to get foreign faculty and students. The same for the Research Committee report. How much money do we want to allocate for these areas? Distance education is growing, and will generate a lot of tuition income, but not equally. She has discussed how to spend the available money with the deans.  Salary is part of her agenda for this year.  Addressing the question about a state distance ed initiative, the Provost replied that state legislators are interested in the idea, but the CPE is not.  The idea is for adult learners with some existing credit hours that could be applied to a degree.   For instance, Kindred Healthcare has asked for a Healthcare Management degree.  They want competency and we work on credit hours.  Competency is based on units of learning, but cannot be done in a semester timeframe.  We are not trying to do this across the board, but only in this one area.

 

REPORT: Standing Committee Reports

Academic Programs Committee (APC) – This committee met yesterday and received its charge from Chair Feldhoff.  Don Demuth was elected chair and Sham Kakar will be the liaison to the Executive Committee. The report was online.

Committee on Committees and Credentials (CCC) – This committee met and elected Ron Sahoo as chair and Martin Hall as the liaison to the executive Committee.

Part-time Faculty Committee (PTFC) - This committee met in September and will get its charge this month. Senator Peacock was reelected as committee chair and Executive Committee liaison. The Part-time Faculty Salary Survey will be redone using different information. The committee is considering these issues for the new academic year: salary study; parking; distance ed and part-time faculty; sporting event tickets.

Planning & Budget Committee (P&B) - This committee has not met. A meeting is scheduled for next week to elect a chair, a liaison to the Executive Committee, and to work on the annual report.

Redbook & Bylaws Committee (RB) –This committee reelected Krista Wallace-Boaz as its chair and liaison to the Executive Committee.

Executive Committee (XC) - This committee met and discussed policies on the use of social media in the hiring process and their formalization; heard a report from Sam Connally and insurance information.

OTHER REPORTS

Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) – This report was available online.

Parking Advisory Committee (PAC) – This report was available online.

Human Resources Advisory Committee (HRAC) – Open enrollment is October 17 – 31st. the Get Healthy Now assessment is October 17 – November 17th. There is a small increase in the dental plan, but no other premium increases. Cardinal Care will be phased out by January 2017. A new pharmacy contract will produce savings and better pricing.

New Business

None

Old Business

None

Announcements

  • Provost Willihnganz announced that UofL’s healthcare costs have risen 8%, but the University has absorbed that cost for employees. The national increase is closer to 10%.
  • Sustainability Week is the week of October 20th.
  • Patrick Hardesty (CEHD) has agreed to be the senate’s parliamentarian.

 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 P.M.

 

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Gretchen Stein Henry

Faculty Senate Secretary