College Leadership Team
Minutes
February 29, 2012
Present – Larry Daniel, Marsha Lupi, Claire Torres, John Kemppainen, Jennifer Kane, Sue
Syverud, Jeffrey Cornett, Karen Patterson, and Cathy O’Farrell
Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 9:30am.
Minutes – The minutes of the February 15, 2012, meeting were approved with a minor
correction.
Announcements – Sue Syverud updated the group on the Executive Committee’s work (led by
John White) to bring the bylaws and constitution up to date. The EC will ask the faculty to
eliminate the constitution and have only the bylaws to govern. The Dean said it is a long
overdue step. The department bylaws need to be rewritten and anything in the union contract
removed. You cannot have anything related to P&T or compensation. The department bylaws
need to be in place for the basic functions of the department and only need approval by the
department. Only items not in the bargaining unit should be in this document.
All chairs have been asked to input faculty evaluations electronically. None of the chairs had
any say about the formula used to evaluate faculty. Dean Daniel said that we will communicate
to faculty when merit money is available. Merit is calculated on the percentages we are given
and did not create. We are still in flux on this. The chairs want to do their job fairly and
thoughtfully for faculty.
Claribel Torres said that today is the official due date for the FEAPS matrices. Childhood
Education is finished and she and Maira Martelo are in the process of merging the field and
giving feedback on class descriptors. We need to be very specific. If there are questions, contact
Claire. There needs to be a stand-alone practicum for the reading endorsement. Indicators need
to be addressed in the practicum. The state has provided a technical workshop in Gainesville on
March 22, 1-5pm. We would like to send a team. We only have to pay for transportation. Claire
will send an announcement out about the workshop. The latest FCAT scores will be disclosed at
the workshop.
John Kemppainen reported on the initiative of establishing a dual enrollment agreement with
the St. John’s County Teacher’s Academy at St. Augustine High School. He has an Ed Leadership
student who is in her practicum and is collecting the information and putting together a draft of
what the agreement would look like. They have met with John Yancey and Katie MacInnis in
Enrollment Services, the Foundations and Secondary Education Department and the contact
individuals at St. Augustine High School. He will keep everyone informed as to the progress.
Marsha Lupi said that we have revised the part-time faculty handbook and are working to get it
on line.
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There have been some advising issues with graduate students which can affect their Financial
Aid. These are things our professors do not know about. John Kemppainen agreed to talk about
these issues at a Faculty Assembly meeting or attend individual faculty meetings.
The names of students who will receive awards at spring convocation are due to Dr. Lupi by
March 1. The award letters need to be sent out to the students sometime in mid-March.
Signage will be changed in our building to reflect the department name changes.
We will have a small retirement celebration this year. Last year’s event was on a bigger scale
due to the three faculty members retiring having been here for years.
Dean Daniel said that we are moving along with the search for the Director of Urban Initiatives.
He had a planning meeting with those who will be appointed to the search committee. This
position is being funded totally through foundation funds. It is an important position and a good
step for the college. We will be initiating a community forum to make a large announcement
about creating the Center for Urban Initiatives. More will be shared with faculty. We want to
have a single point of contact regarding our urban initiatives – an overarching umbrella about
applications for grants and the work we do. The Center will be self-sustaining.
The Dean sent a note to Ed Pratt-Dannals thanking him for the work he has done as
superintendent of Duval County Schools. He will send a note to the school board offering our
services with the search for his replacement.
Graduate Admissions Criteria Submission – Len Roberson, Graduate Dean, has given each
graduate program the authority to come up with program admission requirements. Jennifer
Kane said that we need to be consistent across the college. Board rule not statutes state that
any program that is a state-approved program leading to certification requires the General
Knowledge test or score of 1000 on the GRE. Unless we get some clarity from BOE we will
assume that some test of general knowledge is needed for admission. There has not been a
general announcement sent out from the FDOE. Dean Daniel said we can propose that the GRE
is required for any GPA that is below the 3.0, requiring recommendation letters that include the
ability of the student towards graduate study, writing sample, and transcript. The completed
Graduate Program Admission Criteria Form is due to the Dean by March 21. The due date to the
Graduate School is March 23.
Budget/Planning – The legislature session ends on March 9. We are looking at about a 300
million dollar cut across the SUS. UNF’s portion is 9-11 million. Academic Affairs sent us a task
of cutting 5% from our budget. This task has been put on hold right now. The Dean talked with
the candidate for the educational assessment position to inform her on the status of the
searches at UNF. Elementary education would like to bring in candidates for interviews but they
cannot proceed right now. Dean Daniel said that the deans have spent time recently on a
number of broad areas where the university has efforts in serving the region. They did a voting
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activity on 3 areas as possibilities for focusing on: 1) commerce – one of the main factors of
business relocation to the area is the quality of schools, 2) STEM, and 3) health care and
biomedical related (sport and PE).
Department Telephones – In order to save money, we can give faculty the option of having an
office phone. Some of the money saved can be given as an incentive to those faculty from the
department to use towards travel. The official policy at the university is that the email address
is the primary way to communicate with students.
Work with College/University Partners – Dean Daniel said that he was invited to a meeting
with FSCJ’s Early Childhood Education Advisory Committee. A large portion of the conversation
was focused on their bachelor degree program. Several things talked about were a concern to
him and he has spoken with Dr. Serwatka and will talk with Provost Workman. The bachelor’s
program accepts a completed A.S. in early childhood management and now they accept a
completed A.A. with 3 prerequisite courses. John Kemppainen has evidence that enough
students who originally were coming into our elementary education program decided to stay at
FSCJ. They have come up with a way to increase their student numbers. Kathlene Holmes,
Interim Dean, did not think it was consistent with the way the program was discussed with UNF
3 years ago. Two campus presidents and the associate dean are no longer at FSCJ. Dean Daniel
is concerned about the things they are doing. They are also talking about a non-certification
track where they have people do their complete portfolio and internship but their degree
would not be approved by FDOE. They said the students cannot afford the certification test.
This is their own issue but they are not doing what they need to do. Are they disclosing this to
the students? The Dean and Cheryl Fountain asked all the questions. Tom Serwatka agreed that
we along with Provost Workman and Newton Jackson need to meet with the campus president
and provost.
Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 11:32am.
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