Faculty Assembly Meeting
Minutes
February 3, 2012
Present – Carolyne Ali-Khan, Annabel Brooks, Betty Bennett, Jin-Suk Byun, Candice Carter,
Terry Cavanaugh, Richard Chant, Jeffrey Cornett, Luke Cornelius, Dianne Dawood, Daniel
Dinsmore, Nick Eastham, Cassandra Etgeton, Elizabeth Fullerton, Carolyn Guardino, Wanda
Hedrick, Ken Hill, Jennifer Kane, Stacy Keller, Marcia Lamkin, Jason Lee, Shari Little, Marsha
Lupi, Katie Monnin, Don Moores, Cathy O’Farrell, John Ouyang, Karen Patterson, Lynne Raiser,
Debbie Reed, Elinor Scheirer, Janice Seabrooks-Blackmore, Lena Shaqareq, Nile Stanley, Susan
Syverud, Madalina Tanase, Claribel Torres, Christine Weber, John White, Lunetta Williams, and
Brian Zoellner
Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 12:25pm.
Minutes – The minutes of the January 6, 2012, meeting were approved as submitted.
Announcements/Opportunities for Faculty- The College of Education and Human Services
addition dedication will take place Friday, March 2, 2012 at 11 a.m. in Building 57, conference
rooms 1100a and 1100b.
Sue Syverud announced that Faculty Association is looking for representatives to serve on their
standing committees as well as university committees. Faculty agreed to serve as follows:
Faculty Association Committees
Adjunct Affairs Committee – Daniel Dinsmore
Budget Advisory Committee- Jeff Cornett & Phil Riner- at-large members
Campus Technology Committee-Nick Eastham
Faculty Affairs Committee-Madalina Tanase
Faculty Enhancement Committee- Jin-Suk Byun
Research Committee-Wanda Hedrick-at large
Strategic Planning Advisory Committee-Debbie Reed
University Committees
Calendar Committee- Shari Little
Student Conduct-Luke Cornelius
Undergraduate Studies Council-Elizabeth Fullerton
University Appeals Committee- Caroline Guardino
The American Democracy Project Steering Committee is looking for members. The ADP seeks to
raise student awareness about public and international affairs, promote and facilitate student
political participation, and encourage civic engagement. If interested, contact Nick Eastham.
Lynne Raiser asked the faculty to consider nominating teachers for the Gladys Prior Awards for
Career Teaching Excellence. They especially need nomination letters from urban, turnaround
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and/or intervene schools. There are excellent teachers in all schools, but they get very few
nomination letters from core city schools. The Gladys Prior Award nominations are due March
2, 2012. Four Jacksonville public or private school teachers will each be awarded $15,000 in
May.
Standing Committee Reports –
Under Graduate Standards and Curriculum Committee – Cassandra Etgeton said that they met
last month and moved an APC forward. They meet next week to discuss several items of
business.
Graduate Standards and Curriculum Committee – Wanda Hedrick said that they meet next
Wednesday, 3-4pm, to discuss how program area leaders are handling GRE score changes for
admission. Marsha Lupi said that there has been a larger discussion with the Graduate School
about this issue. The new numbers are low. Ken Hill will send the chart to Dr. Hedrick which
converts the previous scores to the new scoring rubric. The numbers do not have to be the
same for each graduate program. We need to decide what is acceptable for our unit.
Personnel Committee – John White reported that the committee talked about the IDEA survey
for chairs. The committee is checking if it is viable for them to see the results of the survey.
Long Range Planning Committee – Marcia Lamkin said that they will meet February 11 to talk
about strategic planning.
Student Issues – no report
Technology Committee – no report
Executive Committee – Sue Syverud said that the committee met and talked about Core
Council. They set the agenda for today’s meeting.
ESOL Advisory Committee – Shari Little said that the committee met January 18 to talk about
ESOL infusion.
Educator Preparation Institute (EPI) – Betty Bennett reported that over the past 4 years of the
EPI program 11 teachers of the year have been from that program. She along with Lynne Raiser
presented at the FATE Conference.
Accreditation Update – Claribel Torres has been meeting with chairs and faculty about FEAPS
and ESOL. Any questions, contact Dr. Torres.
Dean’s Report – Marsha Lupi presented the Dean’s Report.
Budgetary Update
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Governor Scott has indicated he will not pass a budget for higher education that includes a
tuition increase. UNF is anticipating a cut in its budget based on current legislative
conversations. As we know more information as to how this will affect our unit, we will keep
everyone informed.
Over the past five years, state support for higher education has declined 17.5 percent
Universities in the state have relied more on tuition, now nearly 50 percent of their operating
budgets. Overall state funding appropriations in Florida are about the same as they were 10
years ago, after having risen leading up to 2007-2008. In the same period, enrollment has
increased by more than 24 percent.
FACTE Day on the Hill
Marsha Lupi, Claribel Torres, the Dean, and two of our graduate students participated in
FACTE’s Day on the Hill. Most of the legislative conversations focused on establishing (and
balancing) the state budget. Much conversation in the Senate and House education committees
was focused on ways to cut money out of the higher education budget, including study of how
other states had cut their higher education budgets.
Pending Legislation
House Joint Resolution 7 (and Senate Joint Resolution 422)—Proposes amending State
Constitution to provide for recall of Governor, Lt. Governor, member of Cabinet, or legislator;
provides how process is initiated; provides for simultaneous election of successor to remainder
of term. Bills have been introduced in both chambers.
House Bill 1191 (and Senate Bill 1718)—“Parent Trigger Bill”—Parents would have the power to
fire school staff. A majority of parents could also petition to have the principal replaced or have
a charter school operator take over the school. Bills are in subcommittees.
HB 543 (and Senate Bill 994)—Parental Involvement and Accountability Bill—would require
elementary school teachers to grade parents on various aspects of involvement and support.
Bills are in subcommittees.
Summer School
We have received our summer school budget figures. Budget is roughly the same as it was last
summer. Union contract states that tenured/tenure track/multiyear faculty will receive one
summer course. We predict that this will be the maximum we can provide based on the
anticipated budget. We typically need a fair number of faculty willing to teach in Summer B or C
based on how the funds are divided across budget years.
Ask the Expert – Fel Lee, Vice-Chairman of the Duval County School Board, thanked everyone
for inviting him to the meeting. He has been on the school board over a year. He thanked
faculty for their collaboration over the years – the PDS schools are wonderful! He talked about
the ways UNF can have more of an impact on DCPS. He suggested putting together a group to
meet quarterly to work on the following:
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figure out a mechanism to get highly effective teachers in math and science
succession planning
supervisor evaluation system
morale and workload of teachers
grant-funding collaboration – scale it up – look for initiatives UNF and Duval County is
interested in
create a strand of turnaround schools (from PDS)
find ways to collaborate with legislatures and create bills
The American Legislative Exchange Council is working on drafting legislature nationally. This is a
nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common
belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty. Their vision and
initiative resulted in the creation of a voluntary membership association for people who
believed that government closest to the people was fundamentally more effective.
Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 1:30pm.
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