University Affairs Committee Meeting
March 25th, 2013
John Sapp Conference Room 5:30 PM
Chairwoman: Monica Bowman
I.
Call to Order
Meeting is called to order at 5:32 pm.
II.
Roll Call
Quorum is established with 6 voting members.
III.
Approval of Minutes
Motion from Sen. Grego to approve the minutes from March 4. Second. No objections.
IV.
Approval of Agenda
Motion from Sen. to approve tonight’s agenda. Second. No objections.
V.
Chairwoman Report and Remarks- sgauac@unf.edu
Hope you all had a great spring break. Would like to thank you all because this is my last meeting.
VI.
Director of Governmental Affair’s Report
Have a few things to go over. First, Rally in Tally will be Wednesday, April 3. Will be taking buses and
will be gone roughly from 7 am to 7 pm. Will pass around a sign up sheet. This is usually mandatory
but this year it is just strongly encouraged. You will meet with other university’s senators and will be
going over aim higher. Carlo and I went to Tallahassee at the end of last month. This was very
successful; we met with people in the house and the senate. We spoke about aim higher and what it is
and what we want for UNF. Carlo will be going back up to Tallahassee this Wednesday to do some
follow up and continue to lobby for UNF for more funding. Other schools have been taking on aim
higher more aggressively than in the past. Several other schools have brought in postcard to the
Florida legislation- this is great to see. Not too much happening nationally as far as higher ed goes.
The budget for state legislation will be debated this month therefore our presence in Tallahassee is
very important. The funding is looking very optimistic.
Sen. Bowman- Rally in Tally really is good to go on. Other schools SGs are a little different so it’s
really good to learn about that and discuss with other students.
VII.
Student Advocate’s Report
Not present.
VIII.
Guest Speakers

Dr. Gordon Rakita- I am mindful that it is the first day back from spring break and I know
you all wish to rest, so I will keep this short. The Faculty Association is one of the shared
organizations. The faculty union and faculty association are combined. Sometimes there is
some confusion between them. But the union deals with contracts. The Association deals
with the university’s academia and works with the academic office. They collaborate with
faculty and new major propositions and new program processes. We are unique in the state
system. All other state schools have senates and we have a democracy. We have committees
that work. We decided on faculty support for grants for research and support. We also have
miscellaneous other things. Also, we represent the part time faculty. We hold monthly
meetings. I am president of the faculty association. We vote on issues like you all do. We have
special reports from the president and the union president. Like Carlo, I serve on board of
trustees. There are a number of committees that we elect faculty too. These are committees
that are relevant to both students and faculty. There are a number of issues that we share in

common. Some current issues: aim higher initiative, which has been largely successful. UNF
has led the way, it seems. The Faculty is on the same page as you all. You should be proud of
your success. The Grade distribution is now available online. I would be lying if I said the
faculty unanimously believed this is a positive change. Between us, those faculties that have
a problem with this, that is their problem. But I would suggest for you all to encourage your
peers to not select courses to receive the “easy A.” Take courses from the faculty you know
are the good faculty therefore you can look at their resumes and see what they are
publishing and if they are in their office during their office hours. Finally, general education.
Somewhat still up in the air until the state decides. We have been working on the UNF 15. I
suspect for students there will be an improvement however they will still be required
courses to take. However, I hope the education outcomes are positive. We are moving
towards learning based classes. Again UNF is ahead of the curb on this. These changes will be
through the faculty association committees.
Questions?
Sen. Bowman- with ad junks will they be more incorporated in the future?
We have an ad junk committee that been fairly inactive. The chair member is very active and
that is our hope for that committee to be more active. It is somewhat concerning. Half the
time you walk into a classroom, there will be part time professor. They are paid less and may
have less resources, time and job security. They are dependant on student evaluations. My
hope is to increase support for those faculties. Hope to get them more information of
resources. Ad junks can use these resources but they may not know about them. Their pay is
low in comparison to the rest in the state system. May need money for raises. Now the
question is full time or part time faculty? Will not be across the board until higher ed
receives more money. Those with PhDs are also being higher for lower pay.
Advisor Delaney- Is that part of the reason for faculty interest in aim higher, for their pay?
There are a variety of reasons. When money is up, it is better for everyone. Yes, faculty
salaries. Tuition will not go down once they are up; it will either go up or stay as it is. May
also be personal option, we have excellent staff that is conservative with money and have
been able to escape budget cuts that other universities are dealing with. I believe our faculty
is invested in this because their passion is for academia. I personally have dept from student
loans. I will not be able to pay this off until retirement. This is upsetting. Current students
may come out with their undergrad in dept. This also may cause students to not be able to
finish their degree or not be able to attend college at all. This is all due to the economy. Most
students work. This hurts your best performance as well. Many faculties tend to be
progressive and hope to see tuition be low because this is a state school. Many of these
reasons make faculty interested in the aim higher initiative.
Mr. John Timpe
I am an advisor and director for student media and on the student media advisory board. I
am involved with it all. Center for student media’s mission is for hopes for students to get
involved to learn different parts of the student media set up; promotions, radio, music,
entertainment. The other part is to serve the audience. That is mostly the students. One of
the goals out of my four years is to do it well and to make sure we are serving the audience.
The “red and black” up in Georgia- we had someone visit they said the faculty at the
University of Georgia will check the red and black website before they go to campus
everyday. This is my hope for the future with UNF and the spinnaker and its website. They
are currently scrabbling to be on top of the stories. This is a very hands-on job. Student
media is an important part of the university because we have a lot of communication and
English majors. We have 5 voting members and 5 exto members. 3 members are of
professional media in Jacksonville. We also have two student government reps that the
student body president selects. We have monthly meetings so that they are informed and
can get ideas and look at the budget and requests. For Osprey TV, radio, and spinnaker- for
them SG plays a huge part of the funding. Most student media on university campuses are
helped funded by SG. Must have a positive relationship with each other because they help
each other out. Good to have good SG and good college media, there have been very few
bumps in the road. How many of you are following March madness? Amazing what FGCU is
doing. Reason I bring this up is because college athletics is a large part of university media. I
am an advisor, not an editor. I meet with different departments to give different tricks and
techniques. Critique is what they did. Going back to FGCU, because they are the reason they
are doing well. Did a big piece on coaches and I had nothing to do with it, the students do
that. For a college media program to receive the attention that they have is in comparison to
the success as FGCU’s. The newspaper won national recognition twice in its history and was
nominated again last year. Their website has been nominated too. The Radio been
recognized by CMJ. For them to be doing that within the 35 years of their history is very
impressive. Have become a daily news because of the website increase. Before it was once a
week because of the newspaper, and now daily with the website. I want to thank you all
because everyone has been so understanding and cooperative with all the attention you get.
Hope you all ask tough questions.
Questions?
Sen. Anderson- for the radio, are we still looking at broadcasting low fm?
Good question. Everyone still uses radio. Everyone asks how to get the radio in the car. Low
power fm has to do with tower and weather. You could get out to intercostals and Southside
with low power fm. In 2001, was the first time it was offered and UNF was interested. In big
market of Jacksonville, it is hard. No one in Duval was able to get it that year. October 15 of
this year is the second go round. It is a quarter of million to buy a fm from another. There
will not be any more after this and we would have to buy from another. So directly, October
15 will be the date. Frequency search comes first which we will know in about a week or
two, which we will know if this is all possible. FCC has to put a name on the application, this
name controls all parts of this radio. So this has to be decided as well.
Sen. Anderson- will this be funded from SG as well?
Every time this comes up we discuss it but yes it would come in as a special request.
Sen. Anderson- mid summer you would be requesting?
Well have to apply and then you are contacted if you are a winner. If we apply October 15, I
would guess 6 months later so therefore March. A year from now would be a special request.
Sen.- Have you ever consider an AM?
We would love AM. However many do not get listeners and have to get an am provider. I
know of a university who is on am but got it through a person’s will because without a will it
will probably be 6 figures which we will not spend.
IX.
Student Remarks
None.
X.
Old Business
None.
XI.
New Business
1.
2.
3.
Space Committee; Tyler Stovall, Aaron Anderson, & John Morrison
Programming for buildings 53 and 4 have been completed. Renovations are done. Religious
center program is on hold. Osprey Commons are complete and students are moved in. For
the housing clubhouse, the construction company has been selected, now in the design and
development stage. The Greek housing project was presented. Interest should be
communicated by April 1. The Chick-fil-a design is 75% done. Papa Johns is now open.
Graduate studies are requesting more space. Building 4 and 3 dedication is on March 11.
Advisor Delaney- more information on the ocean garden dedication?
Sen. Anderson- I was informed that it is closed because there are many apart of this. It is a
catered event and I will be wearing a suit. I believe others are not invited. Either Shelly or
Carmen would be the ones to talk to if you want to get on that list.
Auxiliary Oversight; Anthony Grego & Nathaniel Mercado
Carlo was going to talk about but will just leave for you all to look over.
Undergraduate Studies Council; Robin Brown & Jenny Morris
“Early warning” covered ACE and Blackboard to get to catch disengaged students and to
intervene through students and professors. Looking at swipe cards and other technology.
Sen. Morris- I don’t understand how this will detect disengaged students?
Sen. Bowman- for instance, if a student doesn’t sign up for classes, if they withdraw from
classes, if they withdraw completely- they can track all that.
Graduate senior surveys went out to find out why it may have taken longer to graduate. For
those who work full time, it is difficult and also it is difficult signing up for classes – that was
a top response.
XII.
Announcements
1.
2.
The next regularly scheduled Senate Meeting will be April 1st, 2013
The next regularly scheduled UAC Meeting will be April 8th, 2013
XIII.
Final Roll Call
Quorum is reestablished with 6 voting members.
XIIII.
Adjournment
Meeting is adjourned at 6:19 pm.