Minutes of the Salisbury University Faculty Senate
at Holloway Hall 119
--February 9, 2016
Senators Present: Charles Boster, Thomas Calo, Randy Cone, Sean Cooper, Mark de Socio
(Secretary), Jerome DeRidder, Doug DeWitt, Kurt Ludwick (Webmaster), Darrell Mullins
(President), John Nieves, David Parker, James Parrigan, David Rieck, Kathleen Shannon, Bart
Talbert, Leslie Yarmo
Call to Order (Faculty Senate President): 3:32PM, quorum present
Reading of the Minutes
 Faculty Senate Meeting of December 8, 2015
 Minutes approved as distributed
Opening Remarks from the Faculty Senate President
Congratulations to Senate VP Stephen Ford and his wife Carla on the arrival of their new daughter,
Alyssa Rebecca Ford, on February 3
Welcome to Spring ’16 Sabbatical Replacement Senators
 On Sabbatical this Spring semester are Senators Chrys Egan, representing the Seidel School,
and Kurt Ludwick, an At-Large Senator
 Charles Boster is the Sabbatical replacement for Chrys Egan
 Randy Cone is the Sabbatical replacement for Kurt Ludwick
Update on Faculty Senate General Education Meetings for Spring Semester
 Here are the dates for our Faculty Senate General Education Meetings this semester
 Tuesday, March 1, 2016
 Tuesday, April 12, 2016
 Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Update on Snow Day Policy
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 Two snow days were built into our Spring schedule; we’ve just used them on the first two
days of the semester
 Academic Policies Committee has submitted a revised version of Inclement Weather
Policy—it will be on the agenda for the next Senate meeting.
‘Great Colleges to Work For’ Survey Results
 This will be on the next meeting’s agenda to give you time to review
 If you have any questions about the Survey, we’ll go over them at our next meeting
 The Survey is available under the ‘Relevant Documents’ section in the Minutes link for our
November 17, 2015 meeting
SU selected to participate in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
three-year “Re-Imagining the First Year of College” (RFY) program
 The program includes some kind of curriculum selection for RFY
 Curriculum is the purview of the Faculty; we therefore anticipate that the Senate and the
Faculty will be kept appraised of any proposals regarding the RFY program
 See news release on SU website: http://www.salisbury.edu/news/article.html?id=6661
Remarks from the Interim Associate Provost
RFY Program
 The Provost and Dr. James King, Co-Chair of the General Education Steering Committee,
are currently at an AASCU meeting about the RFY program
Diversity at SU
 The Provost had three lunches with minority faculty for input as part of an on-going effort
to increase diversity among the Faculty at SU
‘Pub Night’ at the Library
 ‘Pub Night’ to celebrate peer-reviewed publications and other scholastic and creative works
by Faculty will be on Friday, March 4
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Middle States Review
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Middle States Review will take place Feb 22 through March 2
Comprised of an 8-person team visiting our campus
The Faculty Senate can meet with the review team on Monday, Feb 29
No formal schedule has been yet for the Middle States Review team
An all-campus meeting will be held in the Great Hall in Holloway at 11:30AM on
Wednesday, March 2; all are welcome to attend
Remarks from the University President
Middle States Review
 Review team typically studies our self-assessment documents
 Members of the team are usually individually specialized, with expertise from finance to
academics
 Meetings will be all day on Monday, Feb 29, with follow-up meetings on Tuesday, Mar 1;
then the team will be writing their report late into the night
Preview of Tomorrow’s State of the University Town Hall Meeting
 SU President will be going to Cuba as part of team of U.S. institutions of higher education to
establish academic relations with Cuba; Dr. Dudley-Eshbach (SU President) is representing
the University System of Maryland
 Customer Service
 Administration is working hard to perform good customer service, primarily among
our staff personnel, for students and their families
 Administrator Evaluations
 Administration is taking administrator evaluations very seriously; we want
transparency and a strong university community
 Operating and Capital Budgets
 Operating and Capital Budgets are separate and not fungible; money earmarked for
capital projects cannot be diverted to address needs in the operating area (e.g., faculty
salaries, scholarships, etc.)
 Governor’s Budget Proposal
 Governor’s budget is looking good for higher education
 2.5% merit pay increase is being earmarked; Across-the-board cost of living adjustment
(COLA) may also be included
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 Possible increases for merit and COLA were discussed
 Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES) Down in Fall ‘15
 Our FTES were down in the Fall by 100
 This is not good; we need modest enrollment growth in order to be able to fight
for money in the USM
 Nearly every USM institution saw a dip in freshman enrollments
 This one time dip is not currently a problem; however, it becomes a trend, then it
would be problematic
 Diversity on Campus
 I invited minority student organizations to meet with me; still waiting to hear
back from them
 One point they brought up during our initial brief meeting was that a discussion
of diversity on campus should be campus and community wide
 Other topics
 General Education Review, the success of our Honors Program, campus space
issues, changing our school budget processes to make them more transparent
Closing Remarks from the Faculty Senate President
Mount St. Mary’s University (Maryland) controversy
 Mount St. Mary’s University – a private institution in Emmitsburg, Maryland, not affiliated
with USM – recently fired tenured faculty and others for ‘disloyalty’ after personnel voiced
opposition to the university president’s remarks during a campus meeting
 More information is available at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/09/mountst-marys-president-fires-two-faculty-members-one-tenure
 Faculty Senate may want to draft a letter of support for the fired personnel; but let’s read up
on it first (see link above)
Adjourned 4:25PM
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