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2000-2001
FACULTY COUNCIL
MINUTES
University
of Idaho
FACULTY
COUNCIL MINUTES
2000-2001
Meeting #25, Tuesday, April 10, 2001
Present:
McKeever (chair), Smelser (vice-chair), Brunsfeld,
Chun, Foltz, Fritz, Goble, Haggart (w/o vote), Hong, McCaffrey, Meier,
Nelson, Nielsen, Olson, Norby, Pitcher (w/o vote) Absent: Bitterwolf,
Finnie, Glen, Goodwin, Guilfoyle, Kraut, McClure, Thompson, Trivedi Observers:
0
Call
to Order. A quorum being present, Faculty Council
Chair, Professor Kerry McKeever, called the meeting to order at 3:33 p.m. in
the Brink Hall Faculty Lounge.
Minutes.
The council, by voice vote, accepted the minutes of the April 3, 2001,
meeting as distributed.
Chair’s
Report. Chair McKeever reminded the council that next
week’s meeting would begin with their attendance at the faculty,
staff, retiree campaign kick-off for Campaign Idaho at 3:00 p.m. at the
Idaho Commons. At 4:00 p.m. the council will assemble for their regular
meeting in the Brink Hall Faculty Lounge. She urged all of the council
members to attend the Campaign for Idaho presentation and encouraged them to
bring a colleague to the program. McKeever also distributed invitations to
the meeting with Governor Kempthorne that will be held on April 30th.
She asked council members to distribute these invitations to colleagues and
to encourage all faculty members to attend the meeting. Invitations
have already been sent to department administrators.
FC-01-024.
The council received a seconded motion from the University Curriculum
Committee (UCC) asking for approval of a University of Idaho Leadership
Certificate Program. This 18-credit program, open to all undergraduates,
consists of courses and structured practica that provide academic knowledge
mixed with practical, hands-on experience. To earn a certificate, students
must complete a minimum of 12 credits in General Leadership and
Communications courses and 6 credits in Leadership Development, all chosen
from a prescribed list of courses. Completion of the program will earn the
student a university "Leadership Certificate" and have that
distinction placed on their official transcript. Departmental certificate
programs can be offered without the approval of the UCC. This proposal
represents the first request for a university-wide certificate program. The
administrative responsibility for oversight of the leadership program
resides with the college of the student seeking the certificate. The
original request came to the UCC from Registrar Reta Pikowsky and Professor
Alton Campbell. After a brief discussion the motion was adopted by
majority vote (11 yea, 0 nay, 3 abstentions).
U
of Idaho Outreach Initiative. Provost Brian
Pitcher reported to the council about plans to reorganize the U of Idaho’s
extension and outreach services. A major goal of this
reorganization is to focus more university resources on rural economic
development in Idaho. Pitcher emphasized that the university wanted to offer
a comprehensive and coordinated outreach program of instruction, research,
and service addressing key local needs. He said that the U of Idaho was
going to focus resources to bolster the rural areas of the state
economically and educationally.
Under
the reorganization plan several university administrators would take
on new responsibilities. Larry Branen, the current Dean of the
College of Agriculture, would become the Vice President for Extension/Dean
of the College of Agriculture. This change would mean that the U of Idaho’s
outreach program would have its own vice president and the Cooperative
Extension Program would also be placed under Branen’s office and renamed
"University Extension." Vice President Branen would then be
charged with the responsibility to expand University Extension to be a truly
university-wide resource. University Extension would incorporate all U of
Idaho colleges, not just the College of Agriculture, to meet its new
mission. Glen Wilde, Vice Provost for Outreach and Technology, will
become the Vice Provost for Educational Outreach and the chief information
officer for the U of Idaho. Barry Willis, Associate Dean of the
College of Engineering, who directs the Engineering Outreach Program, will
become the Associate Provost for Distributed and Distance Education and will
report to Wilde. Provost Pitcher noted that none of these position changes
call for an increase in salary – only an increase in responsibility.
Pitcher
said that the initiative and administrative changes reaffirms
"outreach" as one of the three principal role and mission goals of
the U of Idaho – specifically to "expand the capacity and the
delivery of outreach programs and services in keeping with the University of
Idaho’s land-grant mission." All of the changes and goals are
being communicated to the affected personnel via a position paper being
developed from the presentation made at the annual conference of Cooperative
Extension educators held last week in Sun Valley. That information will be
available to the entire university community on the U of Idaho web site at a
later date.
In
response to the presentation by the provost, Councilor McCaffrey noted that success
in extension programs often depended on meeting already well
defined needs regarding both the program design and having a proper
funding base. He also noted that the university needed to be careful in
addressing these needs so that funding and people (at the county level)
would not be directed away from current programs to a broader
university-wide program. Provost Pitcher responded by indicating that
the existing extension structure and budget would not be changed. He noted
that within that broad framework of extension there is more that the
university can be doing. The goal is to do more – especially on the rural
development level – and to strengthen successful programs that were
already in place in the College of Agriculture. Pitcher emphasized that
"outreach and extension" will eventually become identified with
several colleges, not just the College of Agriculture. Councilor Chun
brought up the question of funding these new initiatives under the
Responsibility Center Management (RCM) system. Pitcher replied that there
are a lot of new sources for funding new programs that have not been tapped
yet. In the end, the university will be required to make choices. Councilor
Meier told the provost that working closely with local groups is the
driving force behind the success of many extension and outreach programs. He
suggested that a very important part of that acceptance would be to get the
legislator from the locality of the extension program involved with the
program – creating a partnership with that legislator. That, in turn, will
eventually help the entire Idaho Legislature see the value of funding these
kinds of programs.
Core
Curriculum Report. Professor William Voxman,
Coordinator of the University Core Curriculum, provided the council with an update
on the core curriculum. The university sent two faculty members to a
meeting of the American Association of Colleges and Universities on general
education. They learned from that meeting that what the U of Idaho is
attempting to do with its core curriculum fits in well with what is
happening at other institutions of higher education – particularly in the
practice of becoming more interdisciplinary. There was also considerable
interest on the part of the participants in what the U of Idaho was doing
and planning for its core curriculum. The plans to involve such a wide
variety of our colleges in the core was of particular interest and seemed to
be unique among land-grant universities. In fact, many experts in this field
felt that the U of Idaho should go further, and take full advantage of its
extension service in the design and teaching of these courses. The extension
concept would also involve the delivery of the courses to outreaching areas
as well as getting the distance sites to provide instructional resources for
the core courses. The task force is looking into grant sources to experiment
with that type of course structure and delivery method.
Professor
Voxman said the core curriculum is going to offer seven core discovery
courses (total of 23 sections) for incoming freshmen this fall. Advising
guides, which contain descriptions of these courses, have been widely
distributed on the campus. He said that it was gratifying that the faculty
has responded so well to the call for core discovery courses. Workshops are
being held in the coming weeks for instructors of these new courses. By this
time next year we should have a good idea of the success of this venture.
Early enrollment figures for these new courses has not been encouraging (350
enrolled out of 900 places available) so he urged the council members to
strongly encourage departmental advisors to consider placing more freshman
students in these courses.
Eight
integrated science courses have been taught this year and more will be
offered in the future. In response to a question from councilor Chun, Voxman
said that a dedicated integrated science meeting room is certainly
desirable, but current and future classroom shortages caused by campus
construction precludes the possibility of dedicating any space. The second
tier of the core – the clustering of courses around a broad theme or topic
– is currently under development. A call for proposals has resulted in 11
proposals under such topics as: "American Ethnic Studies,"
"Classical Origins," "Medieval World," and "South
America and the Caribbean: Culture, Literature, Music, and History."
Cluster courses will be available next academic year on a limited basis for
students who have already completed a year-long Core Discovery course. When
fully developed these cluster courses will add depth and breadth to academic
areas outside of the student’s major field of study.
Voxman
said that next year the task force would have concrete recommendations for
the Faculty Council concerning general education programs that they would
like to see fully implemented at the U of Idaho.
Councilor
Smelser expressed some concern over the time line for implementing the new
core curriculum. He noted that his department, and perhaps many others as
well, must consider some serious curriculum changes to be able to comply
with the structure and offerings of a new core curriculum. Voxman said that
he could not predict when the new core would be implemented. The task force
is aware of the adjustments that must be made in some departments and,
working with those departments, will try to accommodate those needs in its
final recommendations.
Employee
Friendly Task Force Report. This task force was
created by last year’s council in response to the morale report done by
the Faculty Affairs Committee. The task force was charged to ". . . identify
changes which would make the institution ‘friendlier’ to those who are
employed here and their families." Councilor Foltz (chair of the
task force) provided the council with the minutes of the task force
meetings. He noted that U of Idaho President Hoover had appointed Roxanne
Schreiber (Ombudsman’s Office) to head up a new university initiative
called the "University Work and Life Program." She told the task
force that their work and proposals would fit within this new presidential
initiative.
The
task force focused its efforts this year on one initiative – a fee waiver
proposal for dependents of U of Idaho employees. The basic idea was to
provide the same fee waiver now available to spouses to all the dependents
in that same family. Administrative response to this idea indicated that if
the U of Idaho made such a plan available to its employees, then the
SBOE/Regents would be required to make it available to the dependents of any
state of Idaho employee. That would mean that the dependent of a Boise State
University professor could attend the U of Idaho with a fee waiver, which
was not what the task force originally had in mind. A suggested alternative
was to come up with a scholarship program funded by the U of Idaho that
would be made available only to dependents of U of Idaho employees. Such a
program could be created without SBOE/Regents’ approval and with the
limiting provisions.
The
task force looked at other possible benefits, including a
"cafeteria" approach of choosing benefits appropriate to the
employee and family use of university facilities. Foltz said that most of
the ideas were looked at using a cost/benefit analysis, because that is the
question that the administration will always ask about any suggested plan.
Another concern is the impact any plan would have on facilities and
constituencies. He said that the task force would be pursuing the fee waiver
idea during the next year. There are a number of questions that need to be
discussed including: tax implications, the establishment of criteria of
eligibility (length of service to qualify), and limitations on the number of
fee waivers available to a family. Professor Foltz volunteered to remain
chair of the committee even though this was his last year on the council.
Faculty
Affairs Committee Report. Professor Jeff Harkins
reported that the Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC) will be presenting its
recommendations on two proposals at the next council meeting and holding two
other proposals for further discussion next semester.
He
said the issues that the FAC are dealing with affect all of the faculty
members and administrators at the U of Idaho. The proposals involve
benefits to everyone, but everyone will also incur some costs.
Harkins
identified four areas that the Faculty Affairs
Committee was asked to consider. He called them "cornerstones"
of the project assigned to the FAC. The first cornerstone is to revisit
the annual evaluation of faculty members, with a special provision for what
is identified as "diminished performance" issues associated with
the annual evaluation. The second cornerstone is the allocation of resources
resulting from the evaluation results. This has so many significant
implications that the FAC can only recommend creating a special task force
or returning it to the FAC to work on next year. The third cornerstone was
to look at the concept of the 5-year review. The FAC will only have minor
recommendations for changes in the review. The fourth cornerstone deals with
the compression or inversion of salaries, particularly for those that have
been at the U of Idaho for some time. That issue is tied back to the
allocation of resources mentioned earlier and will need further study by the
Faculty Affairs Committee.
Harkins
said that the instructions from the Faculty Council were clear. However, the
Faculty Affairs Committee added the following premises to the charges
that they were given: 1) the primary focus had to be that the faculty be
evaluated as the professionals that they are, and 2) whatever the committee
did to change the evaluation process needed to be both equitable and fair.
The
Faculty Affairs Committee will bring forward recommendations in the
following areas:
position
description form changes and opportunity for faculty to clearly
express broad and encompassing goals and objectives for the next year
– allowing the faculty member to be "creative" in their
approach to future challenges
performance
evaluation
common
portfolio – using the curriculum vitae as the centerpiece of
information
requirement
of a statement by the evaluating administrator of the basis for
conclusions
requirement
of comparative information of evaluation scores in each academic unit –
summary of scores
improve
the process of the evaluation conference – should always be available as
a choice made by the faculty member
opportunity
for a written dissent report by the faculty member
mediation
in the case of dissent – ombudsman office
any
year where merit funds are not provided – that merit report is carried
over to the next year when merit funds are available and is averaged into
the year when resources are available
