UNIVERSITY SENATE MINUTES
University Senate Minutes-February 28, 2011
The meeting was called to order.
IN ATTENDANCE
John Abbruzzese, Alfredo Ahumada, Abdalla Aldras, Mary Beth Allen, Margaret Ball, Nurun
Begun, Todd Behr, Kelly Boyd, Christine Brett, Robert D’Aversa, Esther Daganzo-Cantens, Robert
Dillman, Susan Dilmuth-Miller, Kathleen Duguay, Johan Eliasson, Cass Emanuelli, Darlene Farris-
LaBar, John Freeman, Otis French, Henry Gardner, Diane Gasiewski, Melissa Geiger, Beveryln
Grace-Odeleye, Paul Graham, Michael Gray, Sheila Handy, Peter Hawkes, Rich Hennessy, Storm
Heter, Shawn Hu, Yi-Hui Huang, Billy Jenkins, Jonathan Keiter, John Kercsmar, Mark Kilker,
Pamela Kramer-Ertle, Norma Krasne-Levine, Rebecca Landucci, Gerard LaSalle, Richard Madigan,
Ken Mash, Cynth McCann, Joseph Miele, Robert Moses, Shawn Munford, Mary Frances
Postupack, Van Reidhead, Elaine Rogers, Paul Schembari, Jerry Sheska, Matthew Simmons,
Patricia Smeaton, Michael Southwell, Richard Staneski, Mark Stewart, Nick Tetro, Doreen Tobin,
Nancy VanArsdale, Emily Ward, Chad Whitmer, Daria Wielebinski, Alla Wilson, Wenjie Yan,
Jennifer Young
ABSENT
Patrick Ashcroft, Elzar Camper, Richard Connell, Scott Dietrich, Kevin Dolce, Corrina Dotter,
Beveryln Grace-Odeleye, Kelly Harrison, Barbara Haug, Shawn Hu, Ellen Miller, Patricia Newhart,
John Paolini, Lanae Patton, Mark Ruf, Danielle Simcic, Jeff Wilson
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the January 29 th meeting with changes.
The motion carried unanimously.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Dr. Dillman led a moment of silence in honor of the passing of Jerri Jewett-Smith.
Dr. Dillman responded to the following recommendation passed by the University Senate at the January 31, 2011 meeting: The ESU University Senate requests that the ESU administration postpone implementation of any changes to class enrollment caps until such time as adequate data is developed that explains the need for increase and until the University-Wide Curriculum
Committee and the Academic Departments have time to discuss and formulate policies that adequately protect the academic integrity of courses and preserve the academic mission of the University.
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Dr. Dillman’s response: I received a request to postpone changes to enrollment caps. In most cases, I’d philosophically agree with that request, but at this time I have to have a balanced budget by July 1 and the budget needs to reflect how we are going to make ends meet. I indicated that we had a 2.6 million dollar short fall. I also indicated that there could be a 5, 10,
20, 25% cut for all government agencies, but in talking with the Chancellor’s staff in
Harrisburg, it doesn’t look like it is going to happen. We won’t know that for another week, but when we know, we will run numbers very quickly to figure out where we stand. It doesn’t look like it is going to be positive. Even though the spirit of having a long conversation about this is good, we need to make decisions. So, from the result of that, a conversation to deliberate on this issue is not possible. When we look at the state as a whole, we are basically being privatized. Fees and tuition continue to go up. What is good is that we have a number of out of state students paying a much higher tuition.
President Dillman also suggested the following ways that ESU can improve in this economic climate:
Ways to Improve Economic Climate:
1.
Increase tuition: We’ve had moderate increases over the years, an average of 3-4% per year.
2.
Increase Funding from the state: This is also out of our hands.
3.
Entrepreneurship: We have been pushing this for some time, but this is going to take some legislative changes and changes at the BOG level.
4.
Fundraising: We are embarking on a major campaign, but we have to continue to look at this as an opportunity as our state appropriations decline.
5.
Increase our Productivity: I have checked with many of my colleagues in the system.
We have been fortunate to keep our class sizes low in comparison to other universities.
I do believe that the class sizes in introductory classes could be increased. What I expect to see is an increase in class size so we do not have to let faculty go. We have already started to make some cuts in administrative and staff positions to start the process for when we do not have any other stimulus money. Increased class sizes will make it unnecessary to hire part-timers.
6.
Faculty and Staff Reduction: I don’t want to go here. I would like to have the time to debate how we are going to get there, but I don’t have the time.
Dr. Dillman presented a graph on class size and stated: We have done some economical studies on GE courses if class sizes are increased. The grid only shows economic results for one semester. We don’t know what our Governor is going to do. We need to increase class size in order to limit the part-timers that we need to bring in.
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Ken Mash: I agree that this is a chart, but the real devil is how are those calculations made? We need to consider whether we have the facilities to do what is on the chart. How did you come up with these numbers?
President Dillman: Dr. Yun Kim came up with chart. We worked on these numbers for quite a while. We just need to raise up the intro courses up to a reasonable level. Many of the intro courses are not large. When we could afford it, small classes are OK, but we need to change because of the circumstances that we now face. This is old data: FTE 504, the system average is 541. Our numbers are actually going down. I don’t want to be like
California because they have 2000 distant education students who are never on campus.
This isn’t a pleasant presentation, but it has to be done. The gauntlet has been thrown down and we don’t know the size yet. We also don’t know what the students are going to have to pay next year. Entrepreneurship opportunities will also have to be done in order to compete with the private, community, and other for-profit institutions.
Ken Mash: First, given the Middle States report that has come back regarding our problems on shared governance and collaboration. . . the Deans have been discussing this issue for weeks and yet it was never brought to the senate and department chairs. The issue was never brought up for discussion. These conversations have been going on at the administrative level, why were we not told? Also, since we are in such an emergency situation, perhaps Dr. Kim can now explain to us what the numbers on the chart mean?
President Dillman: I stated earlier that we need to get more people in classes. The topic has been around. I’m not suggesting that people weren’t listening, but it is easy to bypass this kind of conversation. There were conversations at the university meetings. We have to make up the numbers.
Rich Staneski: All of the represented people on campus contract’s are being renegotiated as we speak and these new numbers will need to be factored into the numbers that are presented.
Dr. Kim: For the chart we looked at enrollment through the last 3-4 semesters and utilized the faculty pay scales that were used last year. 40 became 45, 20 became 25, 18 became
13. We only factored the savings for one semester. We haven’t considered summer enrollment. We can give you a detailed Excel sheet that shows how we reached the numbers.
Senator Comment: Chemistry jumps considerably while Communications doesn’t. Is there something else happening with this chart?
Dr. Kim: We are only looking at GE courses to get our numbers.
Paul Schembari: Summer caps are going to be at 15 and a class of 14 will be cancelled. How will cancelling a class of 14 help our budget if a summer class of 6 pays its way?
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Dr. Kim: We haven’t discussed summer.
Peter Hawkes: What salary did you use for the adjuncts? Did you count saving salary and health care?
Dr. Kim: Yes. It is very detailed information that we used. We used actual salaries and benefits of the faculty who taught the courses in the past.
Van Reidhead: Nearly all of our summer courses are being taught by full-professors so you need many more students in the course to pay for them.
Storm Heter: I wonder what the pedagogical effect is on increasing class size. We want to maintain the quality of education at ESU. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on the pedagogical effect.
President Dillman: I’m interested in pedagogical effects, but we aren’t talking about moving a course of 40 students to 75 students. But, the larger intro courses that we have, the more opportunity faculty will have to teach upper-level courses. We aren’t going to go crazy with the numbers, but we need to work this out. Everyone has to help out. Pedagogy will have to be altered to get students in the class. What we do in the summer (low numbers) works against us. All of the classes that we had in the summer with low class enrollments work against us. I have to look at it. I have no choice. Performance indicators are there and this year will be measured with the old performance indicators. Next year, we will look at new ones. We are setting up a committee to look at this seriously.
Ken Mash: Does this chart take into account the reduction of adjuncts? Isn’t that the end game? It seems like we should start off with the number that we want and then figure out how to get there.
President Dillman: We don’t know what that number is.
Ken Mash: Yes, we do have some numbers to look at. Have you considered classes that have caps that can’t be raised like Chemistry labs and English. Are these taken into account?
Dr. Kim: English, Science, and Math are not being considered in the chart. We are looking at salaries and benefits of faculty who have taught the class in the past. This does not consider the loss of adjuncts.
Ken Mash: How do we meet your numbers without retrenching faculty?
Rich Staneski: More students equal more revenue.
Ken Mash: So, we are trying to add total students to the student body and increase class sizes?
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President Dillman: No, it means that we don’t want to cut faculty. We don’t want to eliminate faculty and staff. We are asking for the increases so that we don’t have to cut faculty.
Ken Mash: But, by not factoring adjuncts, the numbers on the chart aren’t accurate.
Student Senator: Why is it so difficult to meet this goal when our other institutions have already?
President Dillman: We need to increase our numbers. It would be nice to stay where we are. I don’t have a problem with small classes if we have the money to pay for it.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
The agenda was approved unanimously.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Senate Facilities Committee:
Abdalla Aldras reported on the recent activities of the Senate Facilities Committee. The committee initially included only 7 senators. In 2009, we expanded the committee. We assist in the development of capital budget needs and prioritization of projects for funding. We review deferred maintenance needs. We review campus signage, beautification, id cards. We review facilities operations and offer suggestions for improvement and provide a forum to exchange ideas. The committee was continuously updated of the progress of this effort and the work of the Steering Committee, which resulted in the adoption of a new Master Plan by the Council of Trustees in April 2010. The committee helped in the development of the submission to PASSHE, which has resulted in the approval and funding of the Keystone Center, followed by the renovation of Kemp Library. We have also been working on the Deferred
Maintenance Plan. We have also reviewed the annual report prepared by FM for the Council of Trustees. Initiatives such as sustainability, use of ID badges, campus signage, university parking were discussed at meetings. Regular meetings demystify the decisions surrounding capital projects. The committee has provided the campus community with a forum where ideas may be shared, and decisions related to physical assets may be made in a more collaborative and transparent environment.
Nancy VanArsdale: Is it true that Governor Rendell moved construction budgets into the general funds so in that move we are essentially taking away the money funded for that project?
Rich Staneski: He authorized the project. Where did you hear that? The Governor signed a memorandum putting money down for that project.
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Nancy VanArsdale: I know that we went through our classrooms and we have talked with our
Dean and more students and faculty want more computer based classrooms. If class sizes increase, some of the furniture on 3 rd floor is hideous. We need adequate desks. The university is good at getting smart carts for classrooms, but we need more computer class rooms. Do we want to move to a policy where all ESU students must have a lap top?
Senate Facilities Committee: We were given the task at looking at class capacities from fire codes and what type of furniture is in the room. We have selected a type of seat that has a chair and desk on wheels so that can be moved. It can hold a laptop on top. We have a cyclical process where we will renovate two classrooms every year so that we will have a new set-up in all of them in the next 6 years. We have those things under consideration.
Ken Mash: When it comes to capital projects and we take out bonds are we taking those bonds out against our E&G budget?
Rich Staneski: The Keystone project will be supported by hard and fast money. Phase 2 is from the student activity fee.
Ken Mash: But, capital repairs are different from the capital budget, does it come out of our E
& G budget (Education and General Budget)?
Rich Staneski: We used to get a portion of the budget, $700,000 a year, but the state has abandoned this program.
Ken Mash: While we are building new buildings, we are taking money out of our E&G budgets.
Rich Staneski: That is assuming that you can raise money to do deferred maintenance.
Nancy VanArsdale: We could name the classrooms.
Pat Smeaton: Could you clarify the furniture. I don’t remember a conversation on how as a campus community each discipline would like to teach. For me, it is not a single desk.
Senate Facilities Committee Two classrooms will be refurnished. We will not arbitrarily change classrooms. We will only change the ones that are needed.
Technology Committee:
Bob D’Aversa updated the Senate on the Technology Committee. Banner Report: Things are moving extremely fast. 2 weeks ago we went live with financial aid. This is a real milestone.
We have all hands on deck and are putting in a tremendous amount of hours. We need to train faculty after spring break. There will also be online training. I’ve asked for help from the
Provost. We will have round three of fall schedule from department chairs. We need the schedules back by Friday or we will not meet deadline. We want to start registering students
March 28 th .
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Nancy VanArsdale: One of the critical things for planning faculty schedules is knowing fall and spring schedules. Chairs have not been asked for the spring schedules. It will be difficult for students to plan their schedules without knowing spring schedules. It will be very difficult for advising students.
Bob D’Aversa: Spring 2012 schedule is not in Banner.
Nancy VanArsdale: There has to be a way to solve the problem because they need to know if they are going to need to take a class in the fall. Students are coming to see me now to plan schedules.
Van Reidhead: I hear you loud and clear. We had the same problem with Banner and the fall schedules. We will discuss this at Provost Council on Thursday. Your point is so well taken.
Bob D’Aversa: I’ve never been through an implementation like this. This is not business as usual. If we had more people it would be different. We will see what we can do.
Student Senate Report:
Emily Ward reported for the Student Senate. Last week we had an ESU Summit that was successful. The Student Senate Finance Committee finished budget allocations for student groups. Crash the Campus is an annual event that will happen after spring break. Keystone
Cares will also take place after Spring Break. This is where we go out into the community and help with a variety of service organizations. We fill an entire day with projects. Student Club
Awards will also take place.
Selection Process for New Performance Funding Measures:
Dr. Yun Kim reported and provided two handouts to the senate on the topic. We need to select our performance funding measures by July 1, 2011. We need to have meaningful discussions about this because we need to live with this decision for five years. She requested that people volunteer by emailing her. We will be holding 3 town hall meetings on campus so that everyone can participate. We want to submit our decision by the second week of May to the President.
Smoking Policy—Raising Awareness:
There are many smokers still within red zones of buildings. The Senate Executive Committee was wondering if there could be suggestions for raising awareness.
Rich Staneski: We discussed it a week ago in President’s Council. My own view is that I’m not going to have police officers do this, so we need to ask students to mind the red zones. We need to have a campaign to remind people what are university policies are.
Senator: Smoking receptacles are close to buildings, so students gather by them.
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Rich Staneski: Receptacles should not be placed in red zone. Please let me know of ones that are.
Nancy VanArsdale: The Idea of campaign is great. We could also encourage student submissions of posters/flyers encouraging students not to smoke and reminding everyone of
ESU’s policies.
Pat Smeaton: We could include in the campaign that cigarettes are not biodegradable—maybe that could be part of the education.
Nancy VanArsdale: Maybe one way is through a student intern in University Affairs who could spearhead the effort to get students the message. I would like to move that we recommend that University Affairs consider the possibility of an internship to give awareness to the ESU campus community. The motion unanimously passed.
New Business:
Announcement: Doreen Tobin Haiti Fundraiser raised over $700,000. After the next Senate meeting we will be hosting an event to recognize the people who are a part of Project HOPE.
The meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Melissa Geiger
Secretary/Treasurer
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