Meeting, March 8, 2012
Gallagher Business Building, Room 123
Members
Present:
L. Ametsbichler, L. Barnes, D. Beck, S. Bradford, J. Carter, W. Chung,
J. Crepeau, W. Davies, J. DeBoer, A. Delaney, P. Dietrich, J.
Edwards, J. Eglin, D. Erickson, R. Fanning, L. Gillison, A. Glaspey, S.
Gordon, K. Griggs, K. Harris, J. Hirstein, D. Hollist, R. Judd, B. Layton,
N. Levtow, N. McCrady, H. Naughton, N. Moisey, J. Montauban, C.
Palmer, E. Plant, R. Premuroso, E. Putnam, M. Raymond, B. Reider,
J. Renz, M. Rosulek, D. Shively, P. Silverman, A. Sondag, G. Smith,
M. Stark, G. Swaney, A. Szalda-Petree, L. Tangedahl, E. Uchimoto, N.
Vonessen
Members
Excused
M. Bowman, J. Cavenaugh, E. Hines, C. Galipeau, L. Gray, D.
Jackson, S. Lodmell, M. McHugh, P. Muench, J. Munro, E.
Rosenberg, P. Sharma, S. Stan
Members
Absent
B. Allen, W. Davies, C. Leonard, D. MacDonald, S. Mills, M. Shogren,
D. Stolle, A. Ware
Ex-Officio
Present:
Associate Provost Walker-Andrews, Registrar Johnson
Guests:
Commissioner Clay Christian
Chair Beck called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m.
The minutes from 2/9/12 were approved.
Chair Beck changed the order of the agenda to consider unfinished business prior to the
arrival of Commissioner Christian.
Unfinished Business
General Education Framework Procedure revision
The revision was amended to update the ENEX rubric to WRT in accordance with
common course numbering. There was some discussion regarding changing the
approval committee from ASCRC to the General Education Committee. The General
Education Committee is a subcommittee of ASCRC, therefore, items approved by the
General Education Committee also go to ASCRC as a seconded motion and then on to
the Faculty Senate.
There has been some confusion regarding the English Writing Skills requirement.
Students must take an approved writing course (which may be lower or upper-division
listed in the catalog) and an upper-division requirement by the major (courses approved
to meet this requirement are also listed in the catalog). The catalog explicitly states that
“Students cannot use the same writing course to meet both the approved writing course
requirement and the upper-division writing requirement.” The revised procedure was
approved unanimously.
Communications:
Chair’s Report:
Guest
Commissioner Christian will be joining the meeting at 4 p.m. His primary purpose of
addressing the Senate is to answer your questions. Chair Beck asked him to provide his
vision for his role and how things may change in the Office of the Commissioner with his
leadership.
Elections
The Senate ballot will be sent on March 19th. Faculty members currently are able to optin or out. Please encourage your colleagues to participate.
Policy Issues
A couple of issues have come to the attention of ECOS. The Senate Leadership also
discussed them with the Provost. The issues (1) Online Course Policy and (2)
Relationship between the College of Technology and the main campus require further
consideration by faculty. The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate met with
Roger Maclean, Dean, School of Extended and Life Long Learning and Professor
Hughes. They were very positive about online learning and incorporating online features
into courses to provide the best experience for students. ECOS is concerned about
intellectual property issues not the delivery. It is apparent that the University needs a
policy. The Provost recommends that the Senate provide the names of faculty
interested in working on a committee to create a white paper on the issue. This will be
used by the administration to create a policy for the 21st century. Senators who are
interested or who have colleagues interested should inform Chair Beck, Chair- Elect
Renz, or the Senate Office.
Senator Gillison referenced the difficulty this year in offering Spanish online. It takes an
incredible amount of time to teach online course. Many faculty are not interested in
teaching online.
Nationally, approximately 30% of course work is offered online. In Montana, only 20% of
course work is online.
Senator Moisey recommended that faculty members be engaged early in this process,
not only with intellectual property rights, but in general with how the institution decides
which courses to offer online, or what direction to take.
Currently, departments decide what to offer and faculty are responsible for learning the
available software. The courses are offered through the School of Lifelong Learning, so
there is also the issue of how the faculty member is paid, and whether online courses
are included in regular teaching loads.
Senator Glaspy from Communicative Science and Disorders volunteered to help with the
committee. All course work in the new program has an online component, whether live
streaming, archiving, or etc.
According to Registrar Johnson, Montana State University Billings was on the leading
edge of online education, and may already have a policy that could be used as a starting
point.
Board of Regents’ Structure
Chair Beck summarized the structure of the system and there was a link to the
organization chart. The Board of Regents (7 members) are appointed by the Governor
of the State. The Regents create policy. The Office of the Commissioner of Higher
Education has several departments. The Academic, Research and Student Affairs
Department has a direct impact on campus. One of the major state focuses is two-year
Education. The Commissioner of Higher Education oversees the Office of the
Commissioner and supervises the two Presidents. The Montana system is unique in that
it is divided into two sides (MSU and UM). The smaller campuses have Chancellors that
report to the Presidents.
Commissioner Christian
The Board of Regents recently accepted Sheila Stearns’s retirement and appointed Clay
Christian as the new Commissioner of Higher Education. Commissioner Christian was
thanked for addressing the Faculty Senate.
Commissioner Christian would like to hear ways that he can help. He overheard the
conversation about online learning so briefly addressed this issue and noted that the
Board of Regents’ policy 406 (Ownership of Electronic Course Material) deals with
intellectual property rights. Faculty at Montana State University – Billings asked that
policy be reviewed at a similar meeting. The policy was put in place in 2001 so a lot has
changed. He has asked Deputy Commissioner Sylvia Moore to lead the review efforts.
He expects faculty will want to have input regarding revisions to the policy.
He believes the Board of Regents hoped to provide consistency by moving him into the
Commissioner’s position. He has been very involved with the development,
implementation, and revision of the Board’s strategic plan. The three guiding principles
are (1) Access and Affordability, (2) Economic Development, and (3) Effectiveness and
Efficiency. He and the Board are committed to the guiding principle of maintaining quality
in the system.
There has been significant change within the Montana University System. There is now
a new Commissioner and six out of seven board members are new. Over the last two
years there have been two new Presidents, all but one of the Chancellors is new, and all
but two of the College of Technology Deans are new.
Following the January Board meeting, there was a one-day retreat that included the two
Presidents, the Commissioner, the Deputy Commissioners and the Regents. The group
discussed what has been on the minds of board members and future directions. Seven
initiatives were identified: (1) Faculty and Staff Support, (2) Workforce Development and
Two-Year Education, (3) Graduate Education and Research, (4) Need Based Financial
Aid / Financial Literacy, (5) Integrated Information Systems, (6) Strategic Resource
Alignment, and (7) Performance-based Funding.
http://mus.edu/board/meetings/2012/Mar2012/MUS%20System%20Initiatives%20(t1).pdf
(1) Salaries, including compression and inversion, are included in the first initiative.
He created the Recruitment and Retention Taskforce four years ago. Currently
there is a Compensation Focus Group with faculty, administrative, and union
representatives discussing legislative strategy. A system-wide pay plan is
needed in HB 13. The Commissioner’s Office is working hard to assure the
system has a voice in what the pay plan will look like.
(2) The two-year programs are underutilized. The emphasis on two-year education
does not mean that four-year education has been abandoned. He recognizes
that 75% of students are in the four-year system. He believes there will be a
legislative initiative surrounding the two-year mission because it seems to be
very popular with legislators. More funding for the two-year sector would benefit
the system. A building for the Missoula College of Technology will be included
(again) in legislative efforts.
(3) The system got some funding last session for research (matching funds for
EPSCoR). Montana is at 7% for graduate student support compared to the
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s (WICHE) 12%.
Questions
Senator Moisey, Society and Conservation: The economic development role that
graduate programs play in the state has not translated well to the Legislature. How do
we get the message across to Legislators?
Commissioner Christian: Messaging is a huge issue at the legislative level. Largely it
relates to how Legislators’ feel about themselves. The research and compression and
inversion issues haven’t registered very well. The system values the issues. The
difficulty with the message is a larger matter. It is linked to how we as a society value
education. Montana has followed a national trend in terms of devaluing the emphasis on
higher education. The US has lost momentum and it shows in its’ declining status. In
his book, “That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and
How We Can Come Back,” Thomas L. Friedman talks about the devaluing of education.
We have to work hard as educators to bring the message back to Main Street and
neighborhoods in Montana. He honestly doesn’t know whether we can convince
Legislators in a 90-day period in Helena that research and reasonable pay for faculty is
good for the State. Communities need to send the message to value education.
As a system, we have to identify what is important to us and identify what we can sell in
Helena. The Commissioner’s Office believes a system-wide pay plan as well as a twoyear system initiative can be sold to the Legislature. If the College of Technology
building can be packaged with other two-year initiatives then that is money that doesn’t
come out of the budget or is bonded.
(4) Montanans borrow slightly more than the national average and the state has
slightly more students borrowing. This is inconsistent given that the cost of higher
education is slightly lower in Montana. Hopefully, financial literacy efforts will help
address this.
(5) The Integrated Information System initiative might be proposed for one-time only
funding. This will depend on the State budget surplus. This is geared toward
creating a system-wide platform. It is not meant to standardize the institutions,
but rather to standardize the software. The intent is to try to create an integrated
system where a student could take courses across the MUS system without readmission or re-registering.
(6) He is not sure where the discussion regarding program prioritization is going.
This and (7) performance based funding will require putting ideas on paper to
determine whether any actions will be taken. A lot of experts have been brought
to the State for input. These issues as well as accelerated time-to-degree / life
experiential type learning have been talked about for several years.
He would like to get clarity on these initiatives. There will be forums to get feedback
from faculty and students. Students have identified salaries, graduate education, and
need-based aid as their priorities. At some point, the Board will prioritize the initiatives.
He believes the priorities will be similar to those of the students.
Senator Judd, Division of Biological Sciences: What would a state-wide compensation
plan look like given the multiple unions?
Commissioner Christian: The University system salaries have long been a part of House
Bill 13 which contains salary increases for all state government. This inclusion does not
fit the University System very well, partially because of resident and non-resident
students. The System will participate in this process and argue for resources. Once the
legislature appropriates funds (lump funded) the Board is free to allocate the money
anyway it wishes. This is how all funding from the Legislature works within the system.
HB 5 funds long-range building projects and HB 2 funds present law adjustments. But in
the end, that lump of money is all transferred in one lump to the authority of the Montana
Board of Regents. It is up to the Board to disperse. This generally goes to the two
presidents to distribute the budget for the two sides of the system. The system bargains
with 28 unions. Kevin McRae, Associate Commissioner for Communications and
Human Resources, bargains for MUS.
Senator Harris, Public and Community Health: Can you talk about some of the initiatives
to increase enrollment in graduate education?
Commissioner Christian: There is not a lot of activity at this time. The initiative basically
was a pool of money to help with graduate student stipends, start-up funds for labs, tech
transfer, and matching funds for grants. Ultimately, the ability to increase funds will fall
to faculty. There has not been much discussion beyond this.
Senator Bradford, Applied Arts and Science: What is the scope of performance based
funding--institutions, programs, faculty, centers, or everything; and then there is the
issue of developing a matrix; where would the decisions be made?
Commissioner Christian: He shares some of the same questions. The conversation has
been broad. He would be willing to see something that shows how the institution is doing
compared to itself and does not pit the institutions against each other. This would
depend on what areas (possibly retention or completion) that the Board wishes to
incentivize. He is not in favor of carving out funds from the current budget and creating
a mechanism for institutions to earn their budget. If the conversation moves forward it
should be with a small percentage of new funding. Ultimately, the matrix would need to
be decided with input from the faculty. The Board recognizes that they do not have the
expertise to create the matrix, but may be in favor of providing direction in terms of
national comparisons. He recently visited City University in New York. The University is
doing some performance based funding with a small pool of money. They have had
success in some areas. It is common in the private sector to have powerful incentives.
Publically funded higher education is not ready to put that kind of money on the line.
One incentive area may be increased enrollment in graduate research. Performance
based funding won’t address all the problems.
Senator Layton, Energy Technology: He found the Missoulian quote referenced at the
last meeting-- “Gov. Brian Schweitzer wants to set aside several billion dollars in
anticipated coal tax money for free or greatly discounted college tuition for Montana
science and math students and to create a world-class energy research institute.
Schweitzer also wants to reserve $1 billion to create a new Montana Institute of
Technology and Energy, or MITE, to research all forms of energy – from clean coal to
wind, solar and biomass, to oil and gas, to batteries and fusion.”
Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/schweitzer-wants-otter-creek-coal-to-help-fundenergy-research/article_a1246e50-be2c-11df-bb6f-001cc4c03286.html#ixzz1pbqV0ByN
The article was about Otter Creek Coal lease before the Land Board a couple years ago.
A proposed lease could eventually turn into a multi-million dollar mining situation in
Eastern Montana. The proposal was a bit controversial and did not pass unanimously.
The Governor pledged that if the mining came to fruition some of the lease funds would
be dedicated to higher education. The lease allows Otter Creek to do exploration and
develop plans. If mining is deemed feasible then they will renegotiate a long-term lease
agreement with the State. The questions are if and when the plan moves forward, and
whether the next Governor will honor Governor Schweitzer’s pledge.
Senator Levtow, Liberal Studies: Is there any way in which the two-year college initiative
might divert potential resources away from four-year college initiatives? And if so is
there any sense of how to prevent this?
Commissioner Christian: There is always that potential. He is aware that 76% of
Montana students are educated in the four-year system. So, the Regents cannot allow
this to happen to a great extent. The practical answer is that the colleges work together
as one system. The two-year campuses are not funded on a separate track. There is
already a mixing of the resources to some extent. The two-year initiative is sellable to
the Legislature so bringing in additional money could have the opposite effect in terms of
not draining resources away from the four-year colleges. There has not been large
transfer of funds. However, the two-year colleges have had 0 tuition increases for the
last six years with the largest percentage of enrollment increases.
Senator Gillison, Modern and Classical Languages: One of the underlining elements of
the strategic plan is quality. She is concerned about how quality is defined in terms of
what performance measures are used for funding incentives. Where would the Regents
look for definitions? It seems that faculty should be involved in the discussions.
Commissioner Christian: It is likely that the Regents would use performance measures
such as increased retention or enrollment rates. How you maintain quality is a great
question. Some time ago the Regents compiled a list (20 pgs.) to define quality. He will
try to find the document to review. It is not easy to define. The Regents have received a
wide array of answers from students during budget discussions. He agrees that faculty
need a voice in these discussions. We have to make sure financial and other decisions
don’t start to erode the overall quality. Even if you can’t measure it, you can’t push it too
far. Inversion and compression is a dilemma – the more you move up in the system and
the longer you stay the further you get away from your peers. We have not done a lot to
address this. He agrees that Montana has had a wonderful ability to attract some high
quality people even though it pays less than comparative institutions. We need to do
some work on this. We continue to see declines in how we compare on a national level.
Maintaining overall quality is going to be important. We are on the low-end of national
salaries and tuition increases compared to western states; but we are slightly above
average when you compare the cost of tuition in Montana to median household income.
So the University is still priced fairly high for a family in Montana. This has long been the
balancing concern for the Board.
Senator Shively, Geography: A recent Research Institution survey indicated Montana
had a high level of research, mentoring, and service (specifically service to the
community) in comparison to peer institutions. This is impressive given the level of
compensation.
Commissioner Christian: It’s truly impressive. This has long been the case in Montana
and is acknowledged by everyone. The only discussion is how far you can push the
good fortune. The fact is our salaries are last in the nation, but we rank extremely high
in overall comparators (whether its scholarships, Carnegie status, or Truman Scholars).
Montana has done an outstanding job attracting incredible faculty given its pay structure.
The overall compensation discussion just has to keep going back to how far can we
push that luck.
Senator Harris, Public Health: Do you have any recommendations regarding how faculty
can interact with the community regarding the importance of graduate education?
Commissioner Christian: He has a Commissioner’s Office group working on this issue.
There are always degrees of success. But one of the things he really hopes to do is to
shape the Legislative message. It’s not going to happen with the 150 people elected to
the legislature. It must happen with the people who elect the Legislators. People have to
be convinced to value education and to understand that research plays a part in how
society proves itself, as well as having an economic impact on the state. It’s crazy that
more states have not tried to replicate what has occurred in the research triangle of
North Carolina. North Carolina was a low-wage-earning state that made incredible
investments in education with tax dollars. It has now turned into a high-wage-earning
state with tremendous tech transfer and tremendous opportunities. This is part of the
message we need to get out. How we shape this is a work in progress. It has to start in
restaurants and grocery stores with those who elect the officials. We must interact with
Montana communities about why education is valued. The country as a whole has done
the same thing. The US outpaced the rest of the world after the great depression in
terms of educational investment and obtainment. This propelled the US as a world
leader. The 80s and 90s still saw states funding 70 to 80 percent of the cost of higher
education. Currently, the state funds 38% of tuition in Montana. And we are ahead of
the curve. Other states’ funding has declined further and continues to do so. The
message has to change in the whole country.
Senator Bradford, Applied Arts and Sciences: How is the interface outside the
educational sector? Clearly there are advisors from the business community. But what
is the mechanism for outreach to other communities? Last year locally, we tried to invite
community comments in terms of what is wanted from the institution, how to define
quality education, what is expected from graduates, and what we mean. Soliciting more
input. You can’t make people give comments, but what are we doing to invite the
conversation? Are we having those conversations?
Commissioner Christian: We are having those conversations. Again, this is an area
where more resources and time are needed. The Board has some outreach, but does
not meet often enough to help with ongoing conversations. He has recently talked with
the two presidents about how to get this message out and how to shape it. It starts in the
community and comes back to us and the Legislature. Legislators need to hear from
constituents about what they need and expect from higher education. The system
needs to work on selling the message. The Commissioner’s Office is going to move
someone into a public relations role. It will likely be Kevin McCrea.
Senator Bradford, Applied Arts and Sciences: A recent example involves a survey sent
to the community that was limited to what name do you want to give the two-year
college. There was nothing about the substance of how the institution to serves the
community. She felt like it was a missed opportunity. There are little things we could
think about adding value to.
Senator Swaney, Psychology: Does the Office of the Commissioner have diversity
initiatives in future plans?
Commissioner Christian: Diversity at all levels is embedded in the Board of Regents
Strategic Initiatives document. It is certainly a part of his mind set. He grew up in
Polson on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Diversity is a big part of Montana, including
student and faculty. He is very committed to diversity and is proud that he chaired the
search committee that brought President Cruzado to Bozeman. She is the first female
as well as the first non-US citizen to lead the institution. [Note: President Cruzado is
Puerto Rican. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.]
Chair’s Report Continued
Policy Issues continued
The College of Technology has been working individually with departments to offer
sections of courses and establish a relationship with the department. They are now
looking to expand offerings. The Senate leadership spoke to Provost Brown regarding
the need for a University Policy for how this process should occur. Historically, there
was a separation of COT courses from main campus courses denoted with the “T” suffix.
The College of Technology is a College within the University of Montana and therefore
does not function as a separate school such as the Helena College of Technology.
There will likely be a committee established to bring clarity to the issue and work on the
policy.
Chair-elect Renz: We discussed the University of Montana College of Technology’s
direction in terms of its relationship to the University – more autonomous or more fully
integrated. The Provost’s response was more fully integrated. The College of
Technology is another College within the University.
Regents update
Two new Regents have been appointed by the Governor – Pat Williams, a former
congressman, and Jeffrey Krauss, former Mayor of Bozeman. Regent Krauss’s first
comment was: “Don’t bother trying to ask the Legislature for any money”.
The cost of attending school and how students pay for it was discussed at the meeting.
Loan default rates are rising among our students. If they get to a certain level we lose
federal funding. These have gone up significantly, likely because students are
borrowing more money, students are leaving without graduating, and students are not
getting advise from the system on how to manage the loans. The reason they are not
getting the advice is because the federal government cut its funding. In the past there
were 15 system employees who counseled students and now there are only 2
employees. Students are not taking proper precautions with their paperwork. Make sure
your students go to the Financial Aid Office to deal with complications. Federal funding
is being cut for other student support as well. The limit for Pell Grant Money is six years
(180 credit limit) of funding. Plus, the State of Montana does not provide opportunity for
many non-loan funding sources. Family incomes in the state are considerably lower
than other states, so tuition costs can be hardships. These issues are having an impact
on students and could have an impact in the classroom.
During the comment period at the meeting, Chair Beck requested that when the Regents
think about efficiency that they think of it in different terms than faculty do. When faculty
hear the word efficiency it means they are going to try to make us do even more with
even fewer resources. Even when you are saving money it is not the most effective way
to provide quality education. He asked the Board to think about the balance between
quality and efficiency. The declining federal support link to loan defaults is a good
example of this. It’s certainly more efficient for the federal government, but it puts all the
pressure on the state. Just like when the Regents make policy decisions that are
efficient for the system, it puts more pressure on us to try to make up for those issues. If
you visit with the Regents or OCHE please ask them to think about the balance between
quality and efficiency.
Good and Welfare:
Senator Gillison: Are we still waiting for a statement of what faculty responsibilities are in
connection with reporting sexual assault? The UFA protested the statement that Faculty
must report to the Dean of Students in accordance with Title 9.
Both Presidents asked the Board of Regents and the Commissioner’s Office to get the
legal staff together to find out what we are required to do. Chair Beck will follow-up.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm.