CAS All-Senate Faculty Meeting
October 9, 2015
VCAA report:
Many faculty members have proposed a reorganization of the College, and strong opinions have been
advanced on both sides. If there is such a reorganization, it should also involve CoBE and CAFNRM.
Dean Randy Hirokawa will remain Dean through the TPRC process for CAS and rejoin the faculty on
January 1st.
Question: Will the faculty be made aware of which candidates have been recommended? No, the VCAA
will submit recommendations to the Chancellor, who will make the final decision, unless the salary
demands exceed $150,000.
CAS Dean’s Report:
Despite rumors that he is stepping down to advance various administrative goals such as
reorganizing the college, Dean Hirokawa insisted he is stepping down because he can better serve the
College and University as a faculty member.
In his tenure as Dean, the College went from being on the way up in 2005 to being relatively
flush in 2010 to being somewhat poorer and smaller in 2015. Full time faculty went from 166 members
in 2005 to 191 in 2010 to 152 in 2015. Active courses have increased somewhat even as the number of
faculty members has declined, which implies that faculty members are teaching more preps. The
number of degrees awarded has increased significantly in spite of roughly flat numbers of courses and
Student Semester Hours taught.
While the number of assistant professors has decreased significantly in recent years, the
number of associate professors has increased significantly, which implies that many hires have stuck
around and gotten tenure. We’ve been able to hire more women at the assistant professor level, but
we haven’t been able to keep them through promotion. That’s a problem the college and the new dean
will need to continue working on. Other major accomplishments from his tenure include STB, the
renovations to Wentworth Hall, and the new Marine Sciences boat.
The visioning exercise run by Krishna Dhir revealed fairly broad consensus on the respective
places of our stakeholders. The Natural Sciences and Social Sciences were closer in their rankings than
the Humanities were. Here are the respective rankings, from highest to lowest priority for each of the
divisions:
Humanities: Students, Prospective Employers, Faculty, Alumni
Natural Sciences: Students, Faculty, Community/Employers
Social Sciences: Students, Faculty, Employers
Question: Has there been work to determine the distance between our vision and the current reality?
Answer: A vision is useful in determining funding priorities. An effective vision must come from the
faculty and be shared by the dean.
Senate Executive Committee Chair Report:
The executive committee: Jean Ippolito (Chair), Tracy Wiegner (Vice-Chair), Chris Lauer (Secretary), Linc
Gotshalk, Jiren Feng, Mike Peterson, Mazen Hamad, Jan Ray, Yucheng Qin, Kathleen Commendador,
Ryan Stacks
The SEC’s work so far this year has consisted of motions for faculty congress to pursue the previously
passed smoking ban and take up the Senate APC’s proposals for Division Chair selection.
APC Chair Report:
Members: Jene Michaud (chair), Kathryn Besio, Kirsten Mollegaard, Jeanie Flood
CRC Chair Report:
Members: Chris Lauer (chair), Avis Masuda, Shuguang Li, and Jon Goebel. The new curriculum
coordinator, Shelby Wong , has done an excellent job so far. So far this semester we’ve approved 32
proposals for new and modified courses and programs. We’ve got about 60 to go, which should be done
by the end of the month.
New Business: University reorganization
Ken Hon: In or around 2013 there were two votes in the Division of Natural Sciences. In an initial vote,
90-95% of Natural Science faculty approved the general notion of a separate College of Natural Sciences.
After a more specific document was drawn up, 60-70% of Natural Sciences faculty approved.
Motion: To request that faculty congress form a task force to address the issue of University
Reorganization. (Seconded)
Motion (Doug Mikkelson): Send the preceding motion to the CAS APC instead of Faculty Congress to
investigate faculty attitudes toward reorganization. (Not seconded)
Question: Why isn’t this issue being addressed only by CAS? And wouldn’t it be more expensive to
create a new college?
Answer: A reorganization plan might involve combining Natural Sciences with another college, which
would mean maintaining the same total number of deans or even having one fewer.
Answer: A reorganization could also save money by changing the leadership structure of various
colleges. E.g., KHUOK has a director instead of a dean.
Comment: There is not enough consensus or even awareness in CAS about the implications of a
potential reorganization for us to propose that Faculty Congress create a task force to review the issue.
New motion (Doug Mikkelson): Direct the CAS Senate Executive Committee to poll the faculty on their
interests in University reorganization (seconded). Moved to a vote, which ended 7-2-1 (No quorum)
Motion to adjourn