Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Council of University System Faculty

CUSF Meeting of January 20, 2006

DRAFT MINUTES

CUSF Meeting

January 20, 2006

USM

Present: Martha Siegel (Chair, TU); Lee Richardson (Past Chair, UB); E. William Chapin (Vice Chair, UMES); John Collins (Secretary, UMBI); Vincent Brannigan (At-Large, UMCP); John McMullen (At-Large, FSU); Denny Gulick (UMCP); Paul Thut (UMB); Patricia Alt (TU); John Gustafson (UMUC); H. Rodger Harvey (UMCES); Paul Flexner (SU); Zane Berge (UMBC); R. Michael Garner (SU); David Parker (SU); Frank Alt (UMCP); Douglas Pryor (TU); Stephen Jacobs (UMB); William Stuart (UMCP); Alcott Arthur (CSU); Frank Robb (UMBI, alternate); Joan Langdon (BSU); Dennis Coates (UMBC); Joyce Shirazi (UMUC); Jay Zimmerman (TU, alternate); A. Deloris James (UMUC).

Not Present: Marymal Holmes (BSU); Kim Rotruck (FSU); Robert Scott (FSU, alternate); Memo Diriker (SU, on leave); Raymond Morgan (UMCES, alternate); Emmanuel Onyeozili (UMES); Adelaide Lagnese (UMUC); Rahim Ashkeboussi (FSU); Harry Womack (SU, alternate); Joyce Currie Little (TU); Stephanie Gibson (UB); Elizabeth Mulroy (UMB); Joyce Tenney (UMBC); Patricia Young (UMBC, alternate); Rosemary Jagus (UMBI); J. Court Stevenson (UMCES).

Honored Guests: Irwin Goldstein (VCAA, USM); John Wolfe (new Associate VCAA, USM).

Dr. Siegel called the meeting to order shortly after 10:00am. The minutes of the December 16, 2005 CUSF meeting were approved unanimously with no changes except to correct a minor typographical error.

Dr. Siegel interrupted her report at 10:15am to welcome Vice Chancellor Goldstein and Dr. John Wolfe, the new Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.

System Report: Dr. Goldstein introduced Dr. Wolfe, who was warmly welcomed by the group. Dr. Wolfe will work on legal issues, tenure flexibility, and with CUSF. Dr. Goldstein will continue coming to most of the CUSF meetings. USM’s budget prospects for this year are good. There is money for enrollment growth. Several campuses (e.g., BSU, SU, TU) have been designated as growth campuses. USM campuses will work with the community colleges. There is also money for fund raising, workforce development, and enhancements such as aging research and nanobiotechnology. USM’s legislative agenda this year is to protect the Governor’s proposed budget. Dr. Goldstein noted that USM teaching colleges are the only ones in the country to require that its students spend time at a professional development school as a requirement for graduation. This leads to better qualified teachers. While all parties have made their OCR reports, the OCR situation is uncertain. A meeting to discuss a final draft report is scheduled for January 23. The mission statements of all USM campuses are on track for approval by the full board of MHEC. Efficiency and Effectiveness is still on the table. Dr. Goldstein is scheduled to report what the campus academic initiatives are: the intent is to learn what the campuses are actually doing and report their successes as part of E & E. One of these initiatives, dual admission with Community Colleges, was discussed. There was considerable concern about how this will fit in with articulation agreements, about whether it will attract stronger or remedial students, and who will be doing the teaching (particularly for courses taught in the high schools, since these credits would appear to transfer directly rather than going through some mechanism such as the Advanced Placement tests). Another area of concern is admission by some campuses that is granted in the fall but does not allow the student onto campus until the spring (usually given because a campus has no more space in fall, but will almost surely have classroom and dormitory space for the spring semester). Dr. Goldstein reminded the group that military base closings would result in 10,000-12,000 family units moving to MD, and there is no plan on how to offer them education. They will start moving here in a year. There was a general discussion of who needs to go to college - not everybody needs it. The BOR Ed Policy Committee will meet on January 25; no difficult issues are on the agenda.

Dr. Siegel noted that there is no AAAC or Chancellor’s Council meeting this month. She announced that Joann Goedert, Chief of the Educational Affairs Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, plans to come to the February 23 CUSF meeting to discuss the lack of health benefits for USM’s full-time non-tenure track contractual faculty.

The report of the CUSF Faculty Affairs Committee on the number of non-tenure track USM faculty with no benefits was discussed. There are many full-time faculty who have been offered benefits (at cost), but declined them. Often there is no money in the campus budget for benefits. Having these "no-benefits" faculty is often figured into campus budgets. There are too many full-time, contractual faculty, some with long service, who are underpaid and have no benefits. There was a spirited discussion on this issue.

Dr. Brannigan asked if there are any developments in the issue of retirement benefits. The answer is no. A brief discussion followed. All agreed that something needs to be done, perhaps by the CUSF Legislative Affairs Committee.

There was a general discussion of salary increases, with emphasis on how merit money should be distributed. There is hope of 2% COLA for the upcoming year and 2.5% for merit, but USM salaries are lagging behind those of other institutions. Salary compression is a big problem. Private institutions are doing much better than USM. The question of what position CUSF should take on COLA vs. non-COLA salary increases was raised. Dr. Chapin said that we need to gather data from VCFA Vivona and elsewhere to see where we stand in percentile rank relative to our peers.

Dr. Siegel called for a lunch recess at noon, encouraging everybody to mingle with attendees at the Chair’s Workshop being held downstairs.

After lunch, in addition to further discussion of earlier topics, discussion centered on the methods of accreditation and determining credit transfer from distance learning institutions, particularly in view of the recent criticism of such institutions set up in Wyoming to provide courses for international students.

Although we had earlier thought that the proposal on the status of emeritus faculty would not be controversial, it seems to have generated some concerns from the Provosts and will need reconsideration.

Those interested in afternoon presentations at the Department Chairs meeting adjourned to that meeting.