Council of University System Faculty
CUSF Meeting of October 20, 2005
MINUTES
CUSF meeting of October 20, 2005
FSU - Hagerstown Center
Present: M. Siegel (Chair); L. Richardson (Past Chair); J. Langdon (BSU);
M. Holmes (BSU) A. Arthur (CSU); J. McMullen (FSU, At-Large); K. Rotruck (FSU);
R. Ashkeboussi (FSU); D. Parker (SU); H. Womack (SU); P. Alt (TU); J.C. Little (TU);
S. Gibson (UB); S. Jacobs (UMB); P. Thut (UMB); J. Tenney (UMBC); J.H. Collins (UMBI,
Secretary); R. Morgan (UMCES); F. Alt (UMCP); W. Stuart (UMCP); E.W. Chapin (UMES,
Vice Chair); J. Gustafson (UMUC).
Not Present: L. Harris (CSU); R.M. Garner (SU); L. Madden (SU); D. Pryor
(TU); E. Mulroy (UMB); D. Coates (UMBC); R. Jagus (UMBI); D. Gulick (UMCP); V.
Brannigan (UMCP, At-Large); J.C. Stevenson (UMCES); H.R. Harvey (UMCES); E.
Onyeozili (UMES); J. Shirazi (UMUC); A. Lagnese (UMUC).
Guest: Teri Hollander (USM).
Dr. Siegel called the meeting to order at 10:00am.
Kim Rotruck welcomed the group and introduced JoEllen Barnhart, Associate
Director of USM Hagerstown, to welcome us. She gave a brief history of the
Center and its current status.
After a round of introductions by all those present, the minutes of the
September 21, 2005 CUSF meeting were approved unanimously without further
revisions.
The system report was given by Teri Hollander, starting at 10:10am. She gave
a brief update of the E&E committee, a description of the latest and
upcoming BOR activities, and the OCR agreement.
At 10:16am, Dr. Siegel departed from the planned agenda to start a discussion
of the draft substance abuse policy. She reminded the group that CUSS had
already submitted a substance abuse policy for staff which was approved by the
BOR. The BOR is now asking for a faculty policy. Dr. Siegel wants to finish
revising the policy and submit it for review by the senates, etc. She is not in
a hurry, but wants to complete work on it by the end of the year. Dr. P. Alt led
the discussion of the revised policy for faculty. She gave credit to Dr.
Brannigan for helping with the revisions and said the policy had been deemed by
the CUSF Executive Committee as ready to be considered by all of CUSF. A
discussion of specific items in the draft took place, with comments and
questions by nearly all those present. It was agreed that Drs. P. Alt and
Brannigan, with input from Dr. Siegel, would make further revisions based on
today’s discussion, and the policy would be further considered at the November
CUSF meeting. The goal is to have a discussion of the near-final draft at the
January meeting when the Senate Chairs will be present. The discussion ended at
11:20am.
Dr. Siegel asked for volunteers to serve on the Regents Faculty Awards
Committee. Dr. Holmes (BSU) volunteered. Dr. Collins volunteered to serve if
needed.
Chair’s Report:
Dr. Siegel reported that she had talked to CUSS Chair Joe Hill about
retirement benefits at the last Chancellor’s Council meeting. CUSS is pushing
for an increase in the ORP co-pay from its current very low 7.25% to a more
equitable 9.5%. Larry Lauer is chairing a CUSS committee that is working on
this. Dr. Siegel asked if anyone on CUSF wants to help with this effort. Dr.
Chapin suggested that we cooperate with CUSS, but not commit ourselves until we
get a feel for how it is likely to be received by the legislature. Dr. F. Alt
noted that CUSS is also making a major effort on improving prescription drug
benefits. Dr. Siegel agreed that we should cooperate with CUSS on this.
Dr. Siegel gave an update on E&E. She noted that USM staff has been cut
and everybody there is working very hard. On the other hand, USM is about to
hire a new associate VCAA, who will work closely with CUSF. This is expected to
be a very good person who knows the System well. An announcement is expected
soon. Dr. Siegel said that we are doing better on E&E, but more needs to be
done. Dr. Siegel called on Teri Hollander to tell us about work groups, to
include faculty, that will be formed soon. Among the proposals to be considered
by these workgroups will be a four-year graduation contract with students,
accelerated three-year programs and a trimester system. There will also be a
Community College workgroup. Students may be encouraged to get Associate degrees
before starting at USM. Dual enrollment of high school seniors with university
or community colleges may also be encouraged. Dr. Siegel said that one problem
is that Community College teachers are not well supervised. Many of them are
high school teachers. On the other hand, most students in the dual enrollment
program are among the best students. High school students can’t get financial
aid. Some classes are conducted using IVN connections from a USM classroom to
one or more high schools. It was noted that lower-income students have lower
retention rates in college, even if they were good in high school. A brief
discussion followed.
Dr. Siegel said another issue from yesterday’s AAAC meeting is tenure
flexibility on the campuses. She called on Teri Hollander, who said that various
states have different policies on tenure flexibility. Sometimes faculty are
penalized for taking extra time on the tenure clock. Another issue is tuition
surcharges for students who take extra courses. Most provosts agree it’s not
worth doing because there are few students who do this, and it would be bad
public relations for USM. Dr. Siegel noted that there is a pending request is
for a 7% budget increase, and an extra ~2% allocated for the costs of having
additional students.
Dr. Siegel called on Joyce Tenney to announce the student research day,
sponsored by Senate president Miller. Ms. Tenney asked for assistance looking at
applications and volunteers to help out in Annapolis.
At 12:03pm, Dr. Chapin began a report on the October 14 meeting of campus
Senate Chairs with the Chancellor and Executive Committee. We learned that the
state of shared governance varies on the campuses. Mission statements were
distributed. Some Senate Chairs had not seen them previously. Sometimes there
was no faculty input at all. Dr. Siegel noted that FSU, UMUC and BSU are looking
for new presidents. CUSF could encourage a more open process, with faculty from
different campuses helping each other, and not letting the regents control
everything. Dr. Chapin said we need nominations for a committee to review policy
violations. We don’t want the CUSF Chair to be solely responsible for this.
Dr. Siegel noted that at yesterday’s AAAC meeting the provosts approved of the
process but were nervous about having it on paper since it would then be seen as
a policy. She noted that most cases are resolved on campus. In any case,
recommendations from CUSF are purely advisory and non-binding. It was agreed to
ask Joel Cohen, Dave Parker, Jay Zimmerman and an alternate to be named later to
form the committee.
The meeting broke for lunch at 12:20pm and was called back to order at
12:45pm.
Dr. Siegel led a discussion on the high cost of textbooks. There was a
discussion of various book-buying practices used by students.
At 1:00pm, Dr. Siegel called on Dr. Richardson to talk about the
"Student Bill of Rights" bill which has the support of a few
legislators. Drs. Richardson and Brannigan testified against the bill, which
subsequently died in committee. It was agreed that we don’t need a formal
appeals mechanism to protect student from abuse.
At 1:10pm, Dr. Siegel announced that Marci McLive will coordinate the
department chairs meeting on January 20, and that CUSF will also be meeting with
the Senate Chairs on that day. She said that CUSF needs to communicate more with
department chairs, who make a lot of important decisions, e.g. on extending the
tenure clock.
At 1:18pm, Dr. Siegel distributed a list of CUSF committees. She asked that
the committee members interact with each other and that their chairs report to
CUSF at each meeting. There was a brief discussion of the issues to be worked on
by each committee. This was followed by a discussion of how contingent faculty
are often not well treated. Their pay is often very low, with no benefits.
Dr. F. Alt gave a brief report on MHEC activities. He reported that MHEC will
be issuing a statement on shared governance in MHEC-supervised institutions.
Dr. Siegel said that the faculty workload report was finished and will soon
be distributed. The report now lists contingent faculty as well as ladder rank
faculty, and shows that some faculty have a very heavy teaching load. This may
put pressure on everybody to do more teaching.
At 1:37pm, Dr. Siegel called on committees to meet and report at the next
meeting.
The meeting was then adjourned.