Faculty Assembly
Minutes
March 2, 2012
Present – Carolyn Ali-Khan, Jon Antal, Betty Bennett, Jin-Suk Byun, Candice Carter, Terry
Cavanaugh, Richard Chant, Jeffrey Cornett, Luke Cornelius, Larry Daniel, Daniel Dinsmore, Nick
Eastham, Cassandra Etgeton, Elizabeth Fullerton, Caroline Guardino, Katrina Hall, Wanda
Hedrick, Chris Janson, Jennifer Kane, Stacy Keller, John Kemppainen, Wanda Lastrapes, Shari
Little, Marsha Lupi, Sophie Maxis, Danielle Mincey-White, Katie Monnin, Don Moores, Cathy
O’Farrell, John Ouyang, Karen Patterson, Debbie Reed, Elinor Scheirer, Rebecca Schumacher,
Janice Seabrooks-Blackmore, Sherry Shaw, Lena Shaqareq, Robert Smith, Carolyn Stone,
Michael Stultz, Kristi Sweeney, Susan Syverud, Madalina Tanase, Christine Weber, Kenneth
Wilburn, and Lunetta Williams
Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 12:21pm.
Minutes – The minutes of the February 3, 2012, meeting were approved as submitted.
Dean’s Report – Dean Daniel said that we do not know a lot about the budget for next year. We
do know what the current state of affairs is. The Dean said that he forwarded Janet Owen’s
Tallahassee update to faculty. We currently have about a 3 million dollar short fall in the higher
education budget. UNF has tried to translate down what this means to our campus. It is usually
reduction of approximately 5-11 million dollars. President Delaney will take about 7 million
from university reserves. The remainder will come from other ways. We have not put a formal
plan on paper to date. We have 2 active searches that are in a holding pattern. The assessment
search committee in FSE has brought candidates in for interviews. They have recommended
one for hire but we do not have permission to extend an offer. The 2 positions in LSCSM
(educational leadership and sport management) have been hired. Elementary education has
gotten down to 2 promising candidates to bring in but we cannot move forward with the
search. Deans have shared their sentiments with President Delaney. We do not have clarity on
visiting positions yet. Next Friday is the last day of the legislative session. The Dean said that the
time he spent with the Long Range Planning was very productive. They talked about ways to
make the cuts. The Dean shared some things from the elementary education faculty – they
would like some opportunity for input in the process – as much as is possible. It is a serious time
and we need to make good judgments moving forward. The President has maintained no
layoffs of current employees. The Dean asked for questions.
The Dean reviewed the college budgets. About 8 million is allocated to the college- salaries are
the largest part of our budget. The Dean said that he is willing to talk with anyone about our
budgets.
Jeff Cornett asked if the deans have had the opportunity to review the university budgets and
have they been advised of how many positions have been given back across campus? The Dean
responded that they have not been advised of how many positions have been given back.
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The Dean said that he will call for an emergency meeting to make decisions if deemed
necessary. A motion was made to call for an emergency faculty meeting prior to spring break to
consider budget issues. All agreed. The Dean will bring the group together as appropriate and
will get data out to faculty.
Provost Workman joined the group and began by talking about the budget and the timing of
the information we will get. The House and Senate will recommend the budget to the Governor
by March 9. Higher education will take a big cut. The President, Provost and other VPs will look
at the budget entirely and look to protect the education core of the budget. 70% of the
university budget goes to AA. The Board of Governors meets at UNF next month. He
encouraged faculty to stop by and listen to the meeting.
Provost Workman responded to the questions sent to him from the Executive Committee.
Question: What are the Provost’s thoughts/ideas on those applying in year 4 or 5 as opposed to
year 6 for P&T? There is talk around campus that committees look poorly at those applying
early.
Provost’s Response: The Provost said that he explicitly tells the P&T committee to examine
accomplishments and not on time. Standards should be set by faculty on faculty’s prowess. He
feels that those candidates may achieve more if they do wait. This is his opinion only not
determinative. That provision of the contract will be revisited this year by bargaining chiefs and
union. It is part of the contract and he is scrupulous about the committee penalizing based on
time. The same goes for promotion to professor – decision should be based on record.
Question: Where is the discussion headed about replacing the University level P&T with college
level committees? What is the timeframe if the University Committee were to move to the
college level? If this were to happen, when could we expect the change to go into effect?
Provost’s Response: Moving to the college level is on the agenda but it is moving slow. There is
some shard inclination of moving to college level committees and he can appreciate the
wisdom of moving in that direction. It will provide more informed reviews, on the other hand,
he believes we are all professors of the University of North Florida and there should be some
commonality and we should be proud of other’s accomplishments. If we move entirely to
college-based it shifts the responsibility of commonality.
Question: How heavily weighed is book writing vs. journal writing?
Provost’s Response: The University P&T has no trouble determining the relevance and value
form of book writing vs. journal writing.
Question: It is our understanding that the University administration and union are moving
away from the approval of department-specific bylaws regarding promotion and tenure, and
none of the COEHS departments had bylaws approved over the last several years that they were
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under review. Clarity is important in the P&T process, and faculty need to be clear on the proper
procedures to follow. To what extent do department level expectations enter into the
process now that it is clear that the UFF bylaws should govern P&T?
Provost’s Response: The UFF bylaws govern the P&T process except in a handful of
departments that have bylaws. The Chair, Dean and College P&T Committees are influential in
the decision.
Sherry Shaw asked if the current state of the budget effects P&T decisions. The Provost
responded that immediately, each fiscal year, the budget for promotion raises is allocated. We
hire in good faith and promote in good faith.
Wanda Hedrick said that her department is not following even the operational part of their
bylaws. The Provost responded that department bylaws need to be approved by the Dean and
forwarded to Academic Affairs.
The Provost ended the discussion and added that President Delaney will extract our fair share
from Tallahassee.
Marsha thanked everyone for sending her the names of the award winners for convocation.
She asked the group to send her the names of who is presenting which award and to whom.
Dean Daniel will send a formal announcement out regarding a new initiative in the college. This
is a completely donor funded initiative. There will be more to come on this.
A motion was made to send Linda Sciarratta the Standing Committee reports to put in the
minutes.
Standing Committee Reports Undergraduate Standards and Curriculum Committee - Cassandra Etgeton submitted the
following report for the committee: The committee met on February 8 and dealt with several
APC packages: a name change for a course and the elimination of a program which was
discontinued in 1999, but for which an APC had never been completed. Both packages were
approved and have now been approved by the University APC.
The balance of the meeting was spent in reviewing standards and policies which are up for
review in this academic year. We will continue that work in the next meeting. Due to Spring
Break being on our usual meeting date, the committee will meet the following week, on March
21 at 2:00 in the FSE Conference room.
Graduate Standards and Curriculum Committee - Wanda Hedrick submitted the following
report for the committee: The committee met and reviewed APCs. One item did not pass and
the committee asked the department to resubmit once other affected departments had a
chance to give feedback. Two items passed: 1) terminate Med in mathematics education, 2)
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terminate Med in science education. The committee discussed the new GRE scales. The
Graduate Council has left it up to the colleges to determine whether they will require a GRE
score in addition to a grade point average or use some other criteria. The discussion included
conversation about whether departments could require something different or whether the
COEHS departments should have the identical requirements. More information is needed to
determine how to draft this new standard.
Personnel Committee - Katrina Hall submitted the report for the committee: The Personnel
Committee met on February 22. They examined the role the committee was tasked with
performing per the college bylaws, and what the committee has been doing in practice. They
found several areas in which they have not been performing in recent years. They are in the
process of reviewing the personnel committee tasks and additionally have asked the executive
committee to look into whether this may need to be done in other standing committees.
They are following up on a previous discussion with Dean Daniel about access to
assessments/evaluations of administrators’ performance. They are exploring the processes that
other colleges use, examining who can legally have access to evaluative measures and their
feedback (and to what degree) and how faculty can become part of the system of checks and
balances for administrators’ job performances.
The next meeting has not been scheduled.
Long Range Planning Committee - Marcia Lamkin submitted the report for the committee:
The Long Range Planning Committee met on February 22 with Dean Daniel to address the issue
of possibilities for emergency budget reduction. At the March meeting, still to be scheduled,
the committee will return to work on content and format for the new strategic plan.
Student Issues Committee - no report
Technology Committee - Chris Janson submitted the report for the committee:
The COEHS Technology Committee is developing a college-wide technology use and needs
assessment to be administered electronically this year. They have begun a process of
gathering, cataloguing, and developing an online data-base for student forms commonly used
within our units (field documentation, independent study forms, etc.) They constructed a Black
Board group that will be found under the “Community” heading in which all COEHS faculty will
be able to find documents affiliated with the committee (minutes, agendas, supporting
documentation, etc.)
Executive Committee - The committee met and set the agenda for today’s meeting. They
continue their work on the college bylaws.
ESOL Advisory Committee - Shari Little submitted the report for the committee: She would like
to thank all departments for their work on the ESOL matrices. Most of them are complete or
nearly complete.
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Educator Preparation Institute (EPI) - no report
Accreditation Update - no report
Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 1:32pm.
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