EMS, Faculty Advisory Committee, 22 Jan. 2014
See Full agenda (AgendaFAC_Mtg20140122)
Minutes.
Meeting started 1:32pm
Present:
Richard Alley, Geosc. (2013-2016)
Kate Freeman, Ombudsperson (2012-2015)
Jerry Harrington, Meteo (2012-2015)
Lee Kump, Admin. Rep. (2013-2016)
Chris Marone, Chair (2013-2016)
Erica Smithwick, Geogr. (2013-2016)
Randy Vander Wal, EME (2011-2014)
1.
EMS elections will begin this week. We will elect 2 for Fac. Senate and 1 for Grad
Council. Please encourage your colleagues to vote.
 Faculty Senate, four-year term
 Graduate Council, two-year term
 Chair of Faculty Advisory Comm. (Marone’s term runs through 2016)
 Administrative Member of FAC (Kump’s term runs through 2016)
Question about whether it’s ok to elect multiple people from the same dept. Ans.
is yes.
2.
Penn State Reporting Child Abuse training.
Problems and feedback about skillport.
Everyone had problems with the skillport system. What is being done to resolve
this? A quick look indicates that the system still has the same problem. Why isn’t
this being fixed? Who is the person to reach to ask for this to be improved?
General problem with on-line testing and authorization.
Erosion of confidence in the university, how they will respond/support us if a
professional problem arises?
Why only child abuse training, what about sexual harassment and violence
against women (and minorities)?
3.
Report on space for breastfeeding across campus and in EMS buildings.
Erica met with Larry A. College is very supportive. It’s just a question of space.
College could deal with this. Other possibility is to go through the university and
Lactation centers, which already exist on campus. EMS may be able to go
through University. Erica is in touch with Lauren Lowe. Approximate space is
10x10ft room. Ideally we would have one per building.
4.
Report from recent EMS Exec. Council meetings.
a. Strategic planning is underway in all units. Water and Energy continue
to be prominent in the plans for many units.
b. PSU Budget planning task force is wrapping up work of the past 1.5
years. PSU moving toward Responsibility Centered Management
(RCM) structure, RCM addresses problem of disconnect between
financial management and authority for planning and strategic
directions. Backbone of RCM is a budget model that prescribes how
revenues are shared among units, with revenues directed toward
revenue-creating activities (e.g., student credit hours, degrees awarded,
overhead.) This provides a connection between financial decisions and
decision makers. This model would encourage unit heads to focus on
revenue creating activities.
c. Executive Council retreat rescheduled to 14 Feb.
RCM seems like it will be hard to implement. The system only focuses on
quantity? What about quality? Will this create too much internal competition?
Are there other universities that use this approach?
Any update on the president’s search?
Contingency planning at the department level. Where does this stand?
5.
Grad Admissions process underway. EMS and University Awards are listed here:
http://www.ems.psu.edu/prospective_grad_students/awards and
http://www.gradschool.psu.edu/index.cfm/graduate-funding/fellowships/programs/
Also, keep in mind the STEM Scholars Initiative (for underrepresented, minority
students with UGF-caliber applications). Applications due to Ron Redwing’s
office Jan 27 and to Grad. School Jan 31.
Mentoring reps. from each dept. Who are they? Mentoring plan from each dept.
Each dept. plan should include a schedule for mentoring meetings. Plan should
include checks to make sure that mentors are being proactive; x meetings per
year. Lee will provide draft list of best practices.
; Geog: Cindy Brewer, Deryck Holdsworth, Brian King, Melissa Wright From Sep.
20 2013 FAC meeting, Lorraine Dowler, Erica Smithwick
Geos.: Demian Saffer, Hiroshi Ohmoto, Rudy Slingerland, Chris House
Matsci: Mike Chung, Ralph Colby, Joan Redwing
Meteo: New faculty will pick a mentor.
EME: No info.
6.
Agenda items for upcoming meetings? Feb 19, Mar 19, & Apr 9.
EMS Faculty meeting schedule TBA.
AD77. Can we get written clarification from the college?
7.
Other business
Meeting adjourned at 2:25pm